It is the natural duty of every man to endeavour to preferve himself in such a state as may best enable him to fulfil the will of God; or, in other words, to answer thofe purposes for which his Maker called him into being. And, fince almighty wifdom beftows no gift but for an end adequate to the value of that gift, there is in every cafe a prefumption, antecedent to reafonings on either fide of the queftion, that each right, of which an individual finds himself poffeffed by the bounty of Providence, is neceffary to enable him fully to accomplish the purposes of his existence; and confequently that God wills him to retain it. He therefore fins against God if he flights this prefumption, and forbears from refifting to the utmost of his power, by all requifite force, every invafion of his rights; unless he is convinced, by a full and impartial confideration of the benefits likely to refult from his forbearance as well as from his refiftance, that the former measure will, upon the whole, conduce at least as much as the latter to the ends for which he was created. If his conclufions should be, that the whole or the more important of these ends will be most effectually promoted by forbearance, it is then no less his duty to forbear, than it would have been, on the contrary fuppofition, to refift. • Similar confiderations will also teach him whether he ought or ought not voluntarily to abridge or to relinquish the exercise of any of his uninvaded rights. It follows, from the obfervations which have been made, that he who refifts in a cafe wherein he conceives that his duty to God requires him to abftain from felf-defence, though not answerable to the aggreffor for the detriment which the latter brings upon himself by his attack, is answerable for it to his Maker; and also for the injury which he himself receives in the contest. To a more fevere account may he expect to be called, for the injury fuftained both by himself and by the affailant, who refifts when felf-defence conftitutes him an aggreffor; as the robber, who by force withholds from its owner the property which he has stolen. With refpect to the fecond branch of the propofition, it is to be obferved that he who accepts from another a power of restraining any of his rights, when he has reafon to believe that, by fuch acceptance, he in any degree difqualifies the other from fulfilling on the whole the purposes of his being, though he is not answerable to the latter for the lofs which he incurs by the furrender, commits a fin in the fight of God; for it is the will of God that every one of his creatures fhould accomplish the ends for which he was made: he therefore is guilty of refifting that will, who knowingly contributes to difable his incautious neighbour from fulfilling it. • Since it highly concerns every individual to form, in each cafe, a rational judgment, whether his duty to God requires him voluntarily to furrender any of his rights, to defend them when invaded, or to accept or refufe a power over the rights of another; he ought previously to imprefs upon his mind adequate ideas of the various purposes for which he was created, and to appreciate, as far as may be, their relative importance.' In all this our readers will discover at once the neceffity of every agent's judging for himfelf, under certain circumstances, what may be the will of God; and can he doubt, as far as relates to the moral government of the world, that it is the happinefs of the whole, or, in other words, general expediency, Nor can we eafily conceive how the individual who accepts. from another fuch a power of reftraining his rights, as renders the latter unfit for the purposes of his creation, is not answerable to him as well as God for retaining an unjuft furrender, that must have been made through ignorance, or under circumtances of diftrefs. But of this more hereafter. [ To be continued. ] FOREIGN LITERATURE. ART. IX. SUMMARY of FOREIGN SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS. Memoire fur les couleurs des bulles de favon. A Paris chez Bluet, librarie, rue Dauphin. A Treatife on the Colours of Soap Bubbles. By M. Gregoire. Paris. SIR IR Ifaac Newton began his inquiries on colours by examining foap bubbles. He afcribed the diverfity of colours which they difplay to the difference in thickness of the fides of the bubble, which perform the offices of a prism. M. Gregoire, on the contrary, thinks that the colours of the foap bubbles are contained in the liquor itfelf; and that they belong to a fubftance of which each particle, conftantly prefenting one of the three primitive colours, yellow, red, and blue, is of a different weight, accordingly as each of these colours is produced. The refearches into objects like thefe cannot be fufficiently multiplied. Efame della Theoria della calore, &c. Examination of Crawford's Theory of Heat, with new Conjectures on this Subject. By M. Leopold Vacca Berlinghieri. Pifa. The theory of heat is a fubject which particularly interefts our modern naturalifts. M. Vacca's differtation, which is dedicated to his royal highness Peter Leopold, Grand Duke of Tufany, throws upon it a very confiderable light. Entomologia Entomologie, ou Hiftoire Naturelle des Infectes, &c. Entomology, or Natural Hiftory of Infects, with coloured Engravings of all the Infects known. By M. Olivier. The Fourth Number of the Plates. The author has spent some time in England to enrich his work with a defcription of the infects not found at Paris. This retards the publication of the difcourfes which are to explain. the cuts. However, the perfection of the work will make ample amends to the fubfcribers for this little delay, which will not influence the undertaking, fince the engraving of the plates is invariably the moft tedious part in a work of fcience like this; and fince, as appears by the publication of the prefent number, these have not been delayed. Gedanken über die Bildung, &c. Reflections on the Formation of Bafaltes, and on the ancient Form of the Mountains of Germany. By M. A. F. de Veltheim. Brunswick, 1789. M. de Veltheim's Reflections are extremely curious, and are a great acquifition to natural philosophy. Planta Lichenofa, delineate et defcriptæ à G. F. Hoffman, M.D. Vol. I. fafc. 1 et 2. Lipfice, 1789. Plants of the Genus of Lichens, defcribed, drawn, and coloured, by G. F. Hoffman, M. D. at Leipfick, and at the Author's, at Erlang in Franconia. This beautiful work poffeffes a merit ftill fuperior to that of the other learned productions the author has given the publick. It is published in folio numbers, on handfome Dutch paper. The plants are exactly reprefented in their proper fize and natural colours. The parts which escape the eye are enlarged by the lens. Nouvelles Expériences et Obfervations fur divers Objets de Phyfique. A Paris, chez Barrois le jeune. New Experiments and Observations on different Objects of Philofophy. By M. IngenHoufz. Volume the Second in 8vo. This volume contains obfervations on feveral fubjects of chemistry, on electricity, on chimnies, on a new method of fufpending fea-compaffes, on the manganefe, on the detonation of gunpowder, &c. It is unneceflary to fay how much this celebrated author advances the knowledge of every subject on which he treats. Obfervations, Experiences, et Memoires, fur l'Agriculture, et fur les Caufes de la Mortalité du Poiffon dans les etangs, pendant l'hiver de 1789. Par M. Varenne de Fenille. Lyon. I vol. 8ve. Obfervations, Experiments, and Treatifes, on Agriculture, and on the Caufes of the Mortality of Fifhes enclosed in: Ponds during the year 1789. This work is extremely interefting to agriculturers, and in general to those who refide in the country. Drey Briefe, &c. Three Letters on Mineralogy. By M. Ferber. Berlin, 1789. 8vo. Thefe letters contain a variety of observations made by this celebrated mineralogist during his travels. ART. X. Hiftoire fecrete de la Cour de Berlin, ou Correspondence d'un Voyageur François depuis le 5 Juillet 1786 jufqu3 au 19 Fanvier 1787. Ouvrage pofthume. ART. X. Secret Hiftory of the Court of Berlin; or, Correfpondence of a French Traveller from the 5th July 1786 to the 19th January 1787. A pofthumous Work. 8vo. 2 vols. 1789. THIS HIS work is universally attributed to the Count de M-r-b-u, but, in fpite of evidence approaching conviction, we cannot believe it. Would a French nobleman, a man of diftinguished family, condefcend to be the unavowed emiffary of an intriguing minifter? Or, if he did, would he afterwards expofe the views of his employer by publishing his correspondence? Would he endeavour to gain confidence by artful flattery and infinuations, for the purpofe of betraying it? Would he, without fcruple or referve, disclose the fecrets of private conversation, held facred wherever the most languid fpark of honour exists? Would he be the collector of fcandalous and indecent anecdotes, many of them evidently exaggerated, and many founded on furmife? Would he lay open to all the world the failings of those to whom he was obliged for countenance and support? • Des chevaliers François est tel le caractere ?? No: the Count de M-r-b-u would never have rewarded the favours and confidence of Prince Henry of Pruffia by libelling him in fuch terms as these : You will fee, by my last dispatches, that the fate of Prince Henry is already decided; that his little character has split upon the rock of his great vanity in this momentous circumstance, as in fo many others; that he has fhewn, at one and the fame time, prodigious avidity of power, forbidding pride, infupportable pedantry, and contempt for all intrigue; while his whole life is no more than one little, mean, dirty intrigue; and he himself defpicable in the eyes of men in power; with not one man about his person, except Baron Knyphausen, that is not a fool, a bafe fellow, or a fcoundrel.' Who would suppose the person described here to be the hero of Freyburg, the only general abfolved from blame by the great great Frederick in the feven years war, and the known protector and cultivator of the arts and sciences? As a farther fpecimen of the author's knack at caricaturing, we will present our readers with the following portraits. A picture that may give an idea of the new fovereign is that of the perfons of diftinction at his court. An old count (Lendorf) gentle as a thepherd fwain, complaifant as a Bonnean, a moft fhameless fycophant, an unfaithful tale-bearer, and occafionally a calumniator. A fcoolboy prince (H-lft-n-b-k) smoking his pipe, drinking brandy, never knowing what he is about, nor what he is faying, always uttering more than he knows, and ready at all times to run to the parade, to the sports of the field, to the church, to a brothel, or to fup with a lieutenant, a lacquey, or la Bietz. Another prince (F-d-k of B-nf-k) known by the care he took to dishonour his fifter, and still more his brother-in-law, the prefent king; a libertine in the reign of him who was deemed an atheist; and infpired in the reign of him who is thought a bigot; a hireling of the lodge of freemasons, from which he receives fix thousand crowns annually; talking nonfenfe fyftematically, and relating as fecrets mutilated tales, one half invented, and the other half of no use. A kind of crazy braggadocio (Grothaus), who has feen every thing, had every thing, done every thing, and known every thing; an intimate friend of the prince of Wales, a favourite of the King of England, fent for by congrefs to be their prefident, on condition of conquering Canada; mafter at will of the Cape of Good Hope; the only man capable of arranging matters in Holland; author, dancer, tumbler, farmer, botanist, phyfician, chymift, and by profeffion a Pruffian lieutenant-colonel, with feven hundred crowns a year. A minifter (the Count of Arnin) who dreams instead of thinking, fmiles instead of anfwering, and difputes inftead of deciding; who regrets in the evening his liberty facrificed in the morning, and who would wish to be at the fame time idle on his eftate, and reputed minifter. A fovereign prince (the Duke of W-m-r)`who fancies himself a wit because he finds out rebuffes; a genius, because he seems as if he ftified the fallies of his imagination; a philofopher, because he has three poets at his court; and a fort of a hero, because he rides full gallop after wolves and wild bears. By fuch favourites judge of the man. Would you wish to form a judgment of his tafte by his diverfions? Tuesday laft was the great day on which he went to feast his mind at the German theatre. He there received in * The minifter of Charles VII. pleasure in Voltaire's Pucelle. great |