The Society have on hand, a sufficient number of the last volumes of their works to enable them, by the republication of some of the earliest, to furnish one hundred entire sets. It is, therefore, their intention to republish the deficient volumes, if subscribers enough shall appear for that number of sets. For this purpose they propose the following conditions:

1. Each subscriber shall receive one complete set, consisting of ten volumes, in boards, payable as the several volumes shall be delivered, at one dollar and fifty cents the volume, or fifteen dollars the set.

2. Any subscriber, who has detached volumes may have his set completed by subscribing for the particular numbers wanting, at the same price.

From the London Monthly Magazine.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE.

REPORT on the Progress of the Sciences from the Epoch of the French Revolution (1789) to the Year 1808, made by a Commission of the Institute of France, by order of the Emperour Napoleon.

His Majesty being in his Council of State,* a deputation from the class of History and Ancient Literature of the Institute, composed of Messrs. Levesque, President; Boissy-d'Anglas, Vice-President; Dacier, Perpetual Secretary; Sylvestre de Sacy, Visconti, Pastoret, Gosselin, Degerando, Brial, SainteCroix, Dutheil, Ameilhon, being presented by the Minister of the Home Department, and admitted to the bar of the Council, the President spoke as follows:

SIRE,

All the sciences with which the class of history and ancient literature of the Institute is occupied, and of which it has the bonour of presenting to your Imperial Majesty the actual state, have one common centre: all concur in preparing their materials and their modes of proceeding; all have made a gradual progress, and criticism which throws a light upon them all, is in some measure, a science of our time.

Modern history, which originated in France nearly at the same time with the monarchy, cultivated in France during ages in which it was silent in every other country, either bore

* Sitting of Saturday, the 20th of February, 1808.

away the palm, or gloriously contended for it, in the ages of learning. Reduced to a temporary silence, while publick confusion stifled its voice, it appeared at one time likely to be buried under the ruins of all social institutions. It is to your Majesty that it owes its regeneration.

M. Dacier then read the following report.

It is not with literature, sire, as with the accurate and the natural sciences, the real state of which may at every instant be known, and their progress calculated; the state of literature can only be estimated by the works it produces. If they be good, literature supports itself; if but middling or bad, literature either declines or retrogrades: if they excel, it advances. Thus the report which the class presents to your Majesty, is and can be only the result of the examination which it has made of the works published in Europe since the year 1789, with a statement of the most effectual means of maintaining or encouraging each of the branches composing what is denominated ancient literature; a literature which is the primitive and everlasting model of taste, if the grand and beautiful in letters, as the monuments of ancient sculpture and architecture will ever be models in all the arts of design.

This labour, which would have required a longer space of time to be prepared and executed in a manner worthy of the subject, and, if it were possible, of the hero who has ordered it, includes, under the general titles of philology, antiquities, history, oriental languages and literature, ancient geography, almost the whole circle of letters, with an indication of the efforts made within the last twenty years by French and foreign literati, to make some additions to the immense and magnificent edifice of human knowledge. The class has thought fit to join to their report, a view relative to legislation and philosophy, in order to discharge a portion of the debt of the class of moral and political sciences, to which it has in part succeeded.

Your majesty will see, that notwithstanding the political troubles which have agitated France, it has not hitherto remained behind-hand in any branch of literature; but it is with pain that we are obliged to state to you that several of its parts are threatened with a speedy and nearly total annihilation. Philology, which is the basis of all sound literature, and that on which rests the certainty of history, and the knowledge of what is past, which has shed so much lustre on the academy

of belles lettres, scarcely finds any cultivators. The learned men, whose labours still fertilize its domain, for the most part the remains of a generation about to disappear, see rising about them but a small number of persons capable of replacing them. By pointing out the evil to your majesty, we are assured that your powerful hand will apply the proper remedy.

Nevertheless, sire, these learned men, the faithful guardians of the precious deposit of acquired knowledge, and of the temple consecrated by the present time, to the times past and to come, appear to redouble their zeal and energy in proportion as their number diminishes, and as they approach nearer the end of their career. Of this an unquestionable testimony is given by four volumes of the posthumous memoirs of the academy of belles lettres, which will shortly appear, and to which they have greatly contributed, as well as by the two volumes of the memoirs of our class, which have already begun to be printed at the imperial presses, agreeably to a decree of your majesty; and these we do not deem unworthy of forming a continuation of the valuable collection of the works of that illustrious academy. This testimony, may, if necessary, be confirmed by the important translation of Herodotus, the father of history, become in our language a treasure of knowledge as various as it is profound and uncommon ; by the critical examination of the historians of Alexander the Great ; by the translation of Eschylus, the most difficult of the Greek tragick poets; works eminently philological and critical: and by a multitude of others, all extremely commendable, and which we refer to in our report.

The language of monuments and inscriptions, that department of Latin literature which is to transmit to posterity, in a manner at once simple, noble, and concise, the events of the present time, has lately been reduced to more certain rules, and recalled to the imitation of the most excellent models.

The science of antiquities has made very considerable progress, which is in a great measure due to France. The study of monuments has shed unexpected light on that of philology and history, and has in return drawn from them that solid and enlightened criticism, by means of which the science of medals has, within our time, been reduced to a regular system. The Greek and Latin paleographies have attained a degree of perfection unknown to our predecessors. Archaeology, which elucidates monuments, has renounced its chimeras, and is be

come the depositary, or the faithful interpreter of the manners, customs, rites, events, and arts of antiquity. The admirable remains of ancient sculpture which your majesty has already caused to be removed, and is still about to have removed, from the banks of the Tiber to your new Rome, will enhance the importance of the science of antiquities, and more and more facilitate its progress. Ancient iconography revived by one of your looks, will place before our eyes the images too long neglected, of the great men of antiquity, your ancestors in glory, and whose sublime and immortal inheritance you have been able to conquer and extend.

Oriental literature, which was before so much indebted to France, far from being neglected, has been enriched by some discoveries, and a considerable number of useful works. A new school established for teaching the principal living languages of the east, the possession of a multitude of different oriental types, which places the imperial presses at the head of the first typographical establishments in Europe; a new professorship of Persian, created by your majesty at the college of France; are distinguished favours conferred on this branch of literature, and certain pledges of its future progress but what chiefly ensures its advancement, is that your Majesty has resolved that it should be admitted to contend for the great decenorial prizes instituted by your munificence. It were to be wished that literature might also be indebted to you for editions of the best oriental writers, in order to render accessible to the studious youth, the sources of that literature which could hitherto have been approached but by very few. Among the essential characters of true philosophy, as taught by Socrates, and the wise men of all ages, we have sought the rule necessary to appreciate the merit of the labours of which this science is the object, and we have had the good fortune to find, in different countries, writers who preserved it in all its purity, and rendered it productive; who have pointed out some improvements in doctrines conducive to sound morality, improvements which console us for the deviations imputed to philosophy, but which philosophy disavows. We have attempted to exhibit a view of the revolutions which it has experienced in Germany, and to present an abstract of the services rendered to it by the Scottish school.

France has furnished us with two principal results: the light thrown on the analysis of the ideas and faculties of man,

and the history of philosophy, a history of which our literature was hitherto in want.

If the progress made in the different sciences within the last twenty years, be in a great measure due to the many distinguished men in the science of legislation whom France possesses; it is nearly all to be ascribed to the knowledge, to the active foresight, the wisdom, and the unshaken resolution of government.

The Napoleon code, so worthy of its great name, has been given to France, and offered as a model to Europe; schools have been formed, where great numbers of pupils receive useful lessons; a code of civil proceedings, and a commercial code have been published; a new criminal code is now preparing, and promises to France new benefits. Nevertheless, our civilians have never ceased labouring for the improvement of legislation, and some have very usefully seconded the profound views of the supreme head of the empire. Even at the time when the disorder of our laws was at once the cause and the effect of our publick misfortunes, foreigners sought amongst the works previously published by Frenchmen, principles capable of improving legislation; and Germany, so abundant in learned civilians, was not afraid to set the example, and to translate our books, for the purpose of enriching the legislative works ordered by its princes. Our codes have suddenly given rise to an infinite number of commentaries, some of which may not be unworthy of the approbation of well-informed men. The rights of nature, and the laws of nations, have likewise been cultivated, and some elementary works have been added, in order to facilitate the study of them. The grand principles of legislation and publick morals have been discussed in their necessary relations to social order, as well as to the closest bonds of the family and community.

In Germany, as well as in England, and in Italy, several treatises have been published on different branches of legislation; some, though few in number, have embraced the whole of it. The civil and political laws of the Romans have been the especial object of various works published in the same countries, and particularly in France, where, a short time before the revolution, appeared some publications on the laws given by Moses, Zoroaster, Confucius, to the Hebrews, Persians, Chinese; and on those which Mahomet afterwards