12mo.

4 $. in

The effay itself admitting of no extracts, we have only to add, that whatever is the Reader's opinion on the particular point in question, he will, without doubt, approve of the ingenuous, pious, and charitable disposition of the learned and benevolent Writer. Art. 51. A practical Treatise on Afflictions. To which is added, a short Discourse on visiting the Sick. By Stephen Addington.

2 s. fewed. Marker-Harborough printed : London, sold by Buckland, &c. 1779.

The Author tells us, that having found the consolations and in-
structions contained in this book seasonable and valuable to himself
in affliction, he wished to put them into the hands of others in the
same circumstances. The work treats on afflictions in general, their
defign, the duties they call for, and then proceeds to address a va-
riety of suitable considerations to afflicted persons, according to their
different stations and circumstances : to which are added, inftruc
tions and exhortations for those who are recovered from affliction.
It is a plain, serious performance, and as we are all liable to diftress,
many may receive benefit from these benevolent instructions.
Art. 52. The Principles of the Christian Religion compared with

thuse of all the other Religions and Systems of Philofophy, which have
appeared in the World. By J. Stephens, Esq. 8vo.
Boards. Dodsley. 1777.

This work, by accident, escaped our notice at the time of its publication ; we shall now, therefore, only observe, in brief, that the Christian world is sometimes not less obliged to the laitg than to the clergy, for a RATIONAL defence. Mr. Stephens has clearly shewa, the superiority of the Christian scheme, above all the other religious systems that have hitherto obtained any establihment, in any part of this globe.

HUSBANDRY, &c.
Art. 53. Georgical Esays: In which the Food of Plants is par-

ticularly considered, several new Composts are recommended, and
other important Articles of Husbandry explained, on the Princi-
ples of Vegetation. Vol. V. 8vo.

2 s. 6 d. sewed. Dodney. 1777.

This very useful publication has been frequently recommended to our Readers : see Review, vols. xl. xliii. xliv. and xlvii. We mould have sooner inserted this fifth volume in our Journal, had we noc been prevented by the accident mentioned in the preceding Article.

SCHOOL-BOOK S.
Art. 54. Lessons for Children of Three Years old. Part II +,

6 d. Johnson, 1778.
Art. 55. Lessons for Children from Three to four years old.

Small 4to. 6 d. Johnson. 1779. More pretty instructive stories for young children, agreeably in, terspersed with some of the first principles of natural knowledge

* The accident here alladed to, was the loss of a parcel of books fent, in the autumn of 1777; to a Reviewer in the country, which never came to hand. Two or three other publications have, by this means, passed hitherto unnoticed. + See Review for July, 1778, p. 25. 4

But

Small 4to.

C E.
But why will this good Lady go contrary to Nature, and perlit ir
making dumb creatures speaki-However innocently and usefully
fabulous, allegorical, and poetic language may be applied to ani.
mate ratural descriptions, and to enforce the lessons of wisdom when
addressed to perfons of riper years ; we humbly conceive that as the
bodies of children (hould be nourished with the food of nature, lo
their tender minds should be fed and replenished with simplicity and
truth.

É A'S -DA Y SERMON.
Xl. The light in which public Calamities eugbt to be viewed, and the

Uje we should make of them--Preached in the English Chapel at:
Dunkeld, Feb. 9, 1979, the Day appointed for a General Fall.
By the Rev. James Pacerfon, M.D. Chaplain to her Grace the
Duchess of Athole. 8vo. 6d. Edinburgh printed, and fold by
Longman in London.

Very well written ; and very loyal. The Preacher expresses his abhorrence of the American rebellion in the warmelt terms. Hor. rid treason! Ingrateful disloyalty," &c. &c. What a contrast to the sermon preached on the same occasion by Dr. Price, in the Southern part of our Island !

CORRESPONDENCE. "HE letter from Wadsley, figned 11:Qešu, and dated June 14, refers !!

to former letters from the fame Correspondent; who seems displeased that they have not been duly acknowledged.- We have searched our files, and turned over our memorandums, but can find no letters from this Gentleman, of a date prior to that of his present favour: so that we suppose they are lost in the wreck of books and papers, occafioned by the lamented death of an ingenious and worthy affociate, which happened a few months ago.

With respect to this Correspondent's present Inquiries, &c. we fall briefly reply to them, as follows:

1. All that we have heard concerning the learned Editor of Longinus, whose publication was the subject of an Article in our lat month's Review, is, that he is a clergyman, residing somewhere in the country,

2. Mason's Engliflo Garden, B. III. will, probably, appear in our

3. The second volume of Mr. Carr's Lucian is under considera tion. Our Correspondent inquires concerning the profession of this translator: a circumstance of which we are as ignorant as the inquirer. An account of the first volume of Mr. C 's translation may be found in the 49th volume of our Review, p. 161, Number for Sept. 1773

N. B. Our Wadsley Correspondent's frank was not allowed at the post office. When Gentlemen make inquiries, for their private fa

. tisfaction, it is usual to transmit them without expence to the

next.

publisher.

An account of Moral and Hiftorical Memoirs will be given ia

ART.

I.
Lettres sur l'Atlantide de Platon & sur l'Ancienne Histoire de l'Afie,

& C.-Letters concerning the Atlantides of Plato and the Ancient
History of Asia, by way of Supplement to the Letters * concerning
the Origin of the Sciences, addressed to M. de Voltaire. By M.
BAILLY. Paris. 8vo. 1779.
HOSE of our Readers who have a taste for discussions

of this kind may recollect, that Voltaire confidered the Brahmins as the primitive fages and inventors of the sciences, whereas M. BAILLY considers them only as the depositaries of learning and philosophy, which they derived from the Northern parts of our globe. A fourth letter from the deceased Poet to our learned Author, containing new doubts and objections to the system of the latter, is placed at the head of the present publication. The silence of Messrs. Holwell and Dow, with respect to the hypothesis of M. BAILLY, the total want of any documents or vestiges of instruction communicated to the Indians by any foreign nation, are the two principal objections contained in Voltaire's last letter; and, indeed, these objectio seem to leave nothing to support our Author's opinion, but mere possibility, which is but a poor foundation for any hypothefis.

M. Bailly is not discouraged at the view of these objections; and his answers to them are composed with still more spirit and warmth than the preceding letters. But do they prove the Author's hypothesis ?-That's a crabbed question. We think not: though we think at the same time, that the agreeable and extenfive erudition of the Author will, together with his inge

See an account of these Letters in the Appendix to the gou volume of our Review, 1777 APP, Rey. Vol. lx.

Kk

1

ter

1

nious conjectures, almost make amends for the want of fatis.
factory evidence with respect to the main point. In the fire the
letter, which, being considered as a continuation, is called the
eleventh, M. B. observes, that the Hanferit, a language which
still exists, but is, now, little understood in India, is a fo
proof of the derivation of that language from some other na- pre
tion, who transplanted it thither with their science and philole
fophy.--He, moreover, quotes Plato, as telling the Greeks, but
that they were only a feeble remnant of an ancient race of men, kn
the Atlantes, who formerly invaded Europe and Asia

, the cona fae quest of which produced multiplied scenes of desolation, and ha placed an immense desert between the vanquished nations and those that had subdued them. In the two following letters we of have the whole relation which Plato gives of the Atlantis

, ad tu of the Atlantides, before they had facrificed their primitire cu fimplicity and virtue to that luxury which increased their wants, by and inspired that thirst of depredation and conquest that rendered them the scourge of mankind, and drew down upon themselves by the judgments of Heaven in the submersion of their island. Nor is Plato the only witness alleged by our Author to ascertain the th former existence of this people and this island; Homer, Sancho-N niathon, and Diodorus Siculus, exhibit fragments of the genealo

. gies, exploits, manners and character of the Atlantides, and our Author is very dexterous in fewing together these broken scraps ; he has a knack at making handsome patch-work, la beyond what we have observed in almost any menders of the old fu and tattered garments of mythology and history. By his ingepi nious combinations of the reports of these Authors, it would ta appear that the Atlantides were an ancient and powerful people, of that they inhabited a fruitful and maritime country, that the tic history of this country is the history of the Egyptian and Grecian let mythology, and that it is with an account of this people that tás Egyptians begin their own history.

thi This now, being the primitive people from whom all science Ca and philosophy were derived; the next point to be fettled is, thi where were they situated ? Plato fays, in an island (long fince swallowed by the deep) near the continent, and opposite to the pillars of Hercules. But where was that? was it Cadiz ?--was ha it a land of which the Canaries are the fattered remains? was it what we now call America ? It was none of all these, as our Author proves in his fourteenth letter, nor yet any place in the ไ th ocean,

which has been called Atlantic for above two thousand years, nor in the Red Sea which Herodotus called the Atlantic, and in the neighbourhood of which a learned man discovered the do pillars of. Hercules, in the temple of that hero-god at Tyre

. lo The learned arguments, embellished with all the

graces
of wit

th and eloquence, that M. BAILLY has employed to prove,

of

10

W

th

ea

CO

2r

that
che

the Platonic Atlantis was fituated in none of these places, are very entertaining.--The only question is, whether he is not chargeable with a high degree of literary prodigality in spending so much precious labour on a geographical description, which probably had no object but in the imagination of the Athenian sage; for his Atlantis may be no more than a moral romance borrowed from the Egyptians, whose allegorical genius is well known, or perhaps a poetical representation of some astronomical fact. - But let us not judge definitively on this head before we have feen the farther arguments alleged by M. BAILLY to determine the situation of this famous island. These are the result, of the histories, traditions, fables, monuments, religious inftitutions, festivals, languages, etymologies, that he has examined, compared, and combined, in order to establish his favourite hypothesis.

The statue of Hercules is always accompanied with two co: lumns or pillars, one of which was consecrated to fire, and the

other to the clouds and winds. They were, also, says our Author, fometimes called limits and boundaries as well as pillars. Now from these pillars of Hercules found in his temple at Tyre, which M. BAILLY ingeniously considers as a monument of gratitude (a mark of the joy that is natural when one comes to the end of a long journey)," he boldly concludes that the Atlantides had failed from the North to Tyre, in queft of a fruitful country and a warm sun, and had thus erected the votive pillars to the fire they had 'found in a funny climate, and to the favourable winds that had conducted them thither. The magic of style, the extensive erudition, and the fecundity of imagination, which diftinguish our Author, are employed in the fifteenth letter to render this conjecture palatable, :: He sees the Atlantides coming down from their mountains in the North with the Scythians, or under the denomination of that people, passing the Caucasus, and falling on the kingdom of Pontus :and it is to them he attributes the worship of the sun and moon,

hat was established in Phrygia, Tyre, and other eastern countries. This worship is alleged as a proof of his hypothefis; 'for it must have been, according to him, imported from the North, where the, beams lof the fun, that burn and destroy in the hot and eastern climates, are inestimably precious to quicken and revive the chilly inhabitants of those cold and barren regions. Accordingly, says he, the Greeks speak of the Hyperborean Apollo, i. e. of a foreign god, whom they had adopted into their lift of deities; and the testivals of Adonis and Ofiris (i, e. of the sun loft and found again), could never have been invented but in those countries, which are for a long time deprived of the light and heat of that great luminary. This notion is, however, more ingenious than folid: it is well known, that the alter