curacy might have been expected. The fatal word ftill retained, under its new form, a part of its old meaning, and often came forth in the writings of feeptics and fophifts to perplex the unBut after all, what is this moral neceffity? if it is fynonymous with what we mutually efteem to be liberty, why call it Neceffity and if it be incompatible with liberty, why call it moral? We are told that moral neceffity is founded upon the efficacy of motives: this efficacy Dr. MACLAINE examines amply, and it is to this point that he feems to direct his principal force. We cannot follow him in this difcuffion, but we fhall give the fubftance of fome of his remarks on this important part of the prefent queftion.

He fhews, on the one hand, that the use of motives is not incompatible with liberty, and he grants that liberty is not founded on a state of indifference. Though the principle of action be in man, and is derived from no foreign object or impreffion, yet it exerts itself in confequence of reafons and motives; otherwife man would not act like a rational being. Man has a propenfity towards good and well-being in general, and this propenfity is invariable, and even inftin&tive: here indifference can have no place; for if he were wholly indifferent to good, he would not act at all, but would be acted upon like a machine, and indifference, instead of being a fource of liberty, would become, on the contrary (for extremes often meet), the ftrongest fatality. But befides this general propenfity of the will towards good, man exerts variable and reflex volitions, which have for their objects particular and various appearances of good; and it is here that liberty is properly displayed, because these volitions are accompanied with reflexion, attention, comparisons of good, preference and choice, or, to fpeak more properly, all these acts of the mind are fo many volitions; and here we may fee the true place that is to be affigned to motives in free actions, or in moral conduct. From the manner in which fome philofophers have exaggerated their influence, they have been confidered as efficient caufes of moral actions. But this is palpaby erroneous ; for furely motives are not endowed either with perfonality or direct agency. They are, in their nature, no more than perceptions, defires and fears, that is, paffive modifications or ftates of the mind. Now to give paffive modifications an active force, is ftrange philofophy. It is the perfon, exerting volition, that acts, and not the motive. Motives are examined and compared, one is preferred as a reafon for acting, but it does not act directly, for if it did, neither examination, nor comparifon, nor choice could take place. The motive is the condition, without which the man will not act, (for can not act would not be the proper expreffion) but it is not the efficient caufe of his action, and they, who confound conditions with caufes, attend little to

what

what paffes within them. One would be apt to conclude, from the reafonings of fome of our neceffarians, that motives were little invifible agents, fent by fome Fairy Queen to ftimulate Man, and to excite, at pleafure, volition in the mind, and motion in the body. It is thus that the Afs reasons in the fable of LA FONTAINE, to excufe himself, before the Lion's Bench, for having taken a mouthful of forbidden grass:

La faim (Jays he} l'occafion, l'herbe tendre, et je pense quelque
Diable m'y pouffant,

J'ai tondu de ce Préz la largeur de ma langue.

Dr. MACLAINE expofes to the ridicule it deferves, the illuftration that has been given of the influence of motives, by comparing them with the weights, which deftroy the equilibrium of the balance, when they are unequal. The weights are foreign to the balance, but motives belong to the mind itfelf. Befides, nothing is more unlike to mind, than a balance, and as little do motives resemble pieces of lead or copper: fuch fimilitudes may be pretty fancies, but they are miferable arguments. All the pretended influence of motives is included in the domain of the understanding and the will: all ideas, perceptions and defires, i. e. all motives are notices, upon which mind exerts its energy for the attainment of good.

But it has been said, that if motives do not determine the will neceffarily, willing or volition is an effect without a caufe. Dr. MACLAINE anfwers, that volition (by which he understands the mind WILLING in a particular cafe) is not, properly fpeaking, an effect; it is the perfonal exertion of intelligent activity. The principle of willing and acting which is in me, faid an excellent philofopher, is me, or myself, who am formed capable of alling or not acting, upon a view of the confequences of thefe different determinations, that is to fay, of motives. If then men will infift upon calling fuch willing, or volition, an effect, it must be the effect of the only caufe capable of producing it, and that cause is the me, or the mind that wills. If this volition or act of willing be an effect, not depending on the me, and therefore paffive, it must be linked to a chain of motives or previous states of the mind, which have no first principle or caufe, until we arife to the Supreme Being, the only agent, upon this hypothe fis, in the universe. But even here, as our Author justly obferves, the analyfis does not end: for it will appear that volition, or the act of willing, in the Deity, has no other principle, but the I am, which, though infinitely more perfect is yet analogous to the me in man, as God made man, in refpect of agency as well as intelligence, after his own image. If then volition in man be an effect without a caufe, it must be fuch in God; and we are led, by this hypothefis, to a fucceffion of effects, forming a great chain that hangs upon nothing. You cannot get

rid of this abfurdity, otherwife than by feeking a caufe of the Divine volition out of himself; but this muft lead you to another abfurdity of equal magnitude; for this would put you directly in the cafe of Homer, who, firft linked the fcale of beings to the throne of Jupiter, and afterwards bound Jupiter himself to the decrees of fate.-All this is darkness vifible; and therefore our Author fubftitutes in the place of this cloud-capt hypothefis the following clear, and, we think, true propofitions. The first and Supreme caufe is effentially intelligent and active, otherwife nothing would have ever exifted.-Being intelligent and active, he is effentially free. It was poffible for him to create, and he has, in effect, created beings, who are active and free.-Thele beings have, in themselves, by the intellectual and moral conftitution he has given them, the principle of their moral actions, and this principle is the will, whofe volitions or exertions produce actions, on the reprefentations of reafons and motives. To afk therefore if the will, uncontrolled by all external and phyfical power, be free, is really almost to afk, if liberty be

liberty?

The consciousness of internal activity and liberty that is in every man, the intimate and invariable perfuafion (infeparable from his being) that, among different enjoyments or different plans of conduct propofed, he is master of his election, is a confideration in favour of liberty, which our Author fets in its true light, as a moft conclufive argument, and fhews the miferable and low fubterfuges by which its force has been evaded. It is ftrange to fee men liftening with fuch ardour to the ambiguous language of a metaphylical hypothefis, against the immediate, distinct, and invariable feelings of their own mind.—The objections against liberty, drawn from the Divine Prefcience, are eafily removed by the Doctor, who acknowledges the actions foreseen by the Deity to be certain, which is a fufficient foundation for prescience, and is not incompatible with liberty. We fhall not follow our Author in this difcuffion, as we have car ried the prefent article already to an undue length.

The IId and IVth differtations of this volume fhall be taken notice of on another occafion.

ART. III.

Nouveaux Memoires de l'Academie de Dijon, &c. i. e. New Memoirs of the Academy of Dijon. Part. II. 238. p. 8vo. with Cuts and

Tables.

Memoir I. CONCERNING the Means of faturating the Motherwaters of Nitre, without any Lofs of the Alkali; and of preventing the Mixture of the Muria [Lye] of Potash, or Salt of Silvius with the Salt-petre. By M. DE MORVEAU. It is now well known that the mother-water of nitre, or the portion of APP. Rev. Vol. LX.

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liquor which, in the fabrication of falt-petre, was formerly thrown away as ufelefs, and not fufceptible of crystallization, is found to contain a confiderable quantity of the nitrous acid, which only requires an alkaline bafis to furnish new cryftals of falt-petie. It is accordingly now preferved carefully, and decompofed, in order to obtain from it the quantity of falt which it is capable of yielding. To improve this operation, which has hitherto been imperfect, M. MORVEAU has made feveral experiments, of which and of their refults he gives a circumftantial account in this Memoir. He has fucceeded fo far as to leave no part of the nitrous acid in the mother-water unsaturated with alkali, to prevent the formation of any improper mixture in the potash, which is employed in this operation, and to afcertain the precife quantity of the potath that is neceffary to obtain all the faltpetre, which the mother-water is capable of furnishing.

II. Continuation of the Memoir concerning Biliary Stones. By M. DURANDE. It has been objected to the diffolvent, which this eminent phyfician and chymift found out for biliary ftones, that the mixture of æther and fpirit of turpentine, is too hot for certain conftitutions. This objection is here answered in a fatisfactory manner, and the advantages of the diffolvent are farther difplayed.

Mem. III. Concerning a Lead Mine discovered at St. Prix fous Beauvroy, alfo, Mineralogical Obfervations on that Part of the Province of Burgundy. By Mefirs. DE MORVEAU and CHAMPY.

Mem. IV. Containing the Explication and Ufe of the Table of femidiurnal Arches, given, in the it part of this Volume. By M. ROGER. The femidiurnal arches of this Academician are no more than portions of the equator converted into time. The utility of his table confifts in its determining the time, that, any ftar, whofe declination does not exceed 31 degrees, continues every day above our horizon.

Mem. V. Concerning the Glow-worm. By M. GUENEAU DE MONTBRILLARD. This eloquent and ingenious affociate of M. de Buffon, has here communicated fome curious facts, and new obfervations, relative to this brilliant infect. The refults of thefe facts and obfervations are as follows:-Firft. The common glow-worm, male and female, glows or fhines, without interruption, in every period of its exiftence, and, fometimes even after its death. If by any accidental circumftance its light is extinguifhed, it may be reftored by a foft and gentle friction; this it has in common with many other natural phosphori, and particularly with thofe that contribute to render the waves of the fea luminous. Secondly. The eggs, even thofe that have not been fecundated, have allo a luminous quality, and those only lofe their luftre, which come from a difeafed female.-Thirdly. It appears that the female larvæ of this fpecies (i. e. thofe who undergo

undergo an alteration in their form) change their skin several times, and live, at leaft, a year before their metamorphofis commences; that the adult females begin to lay their eggs foon after the laft ftage of their transformation, and that they die almost as foon as this operation is finifhed. And, fourthly, It is proved, by our Author's obfervations, that the male nymphs, which have been hitherto unknown, differ more from the female than the larva of different fexes do from each other, and that they are found in the fame places, where the female adults, their nymphs and larve, are obferved to refide.

Mem. VI. Analysis of the Waters of Premeaux (in Burgundy). By M. MARET. From their conftituent principles they are fuppofed to be not only diluting, but an efficacious diffolvent, a mild aperient, and peculiarly adapted to abforb acids.

Mem. VII. Contains Obfervations relative to the Natural Hiftory of that Part of Burgundy, that extends from the Yonne to the Saônne, i. e. from Auxerre to Chalons. By M. PAZUMOT.

Mem. VIII. Obfervations on a Colick, occafioned by biliary Stones, and cured by a diffolvent of thefe Stones. By M. MARET. This Memoir is the very ingenious and inftructive production of an eminent phyfician and chemift, whofe laborious researches are always directed towards publick utility; and it confirms the refults of the interefting experiments of M. DURANDE, already

mentioned in this article.

Mem. IX. Concerning Sluices. Part II. By M. GAUTHEY. This memoir treats of the forms that ought to be given to fluices, and of the refpective dimenfions of all their parts.

Mem. X. Extracts from the Meteorological Registers of M MARET.-Mem. XI. Relative to the Natural and Botanical Hif tory of the Gevadilla (or fmall Indian barley) By M. WILLEMET. This plant, though now grown pretty common, has no place in the fexual fyflem of Linnæus. It is accurately defcribed by Retzius, a German botanit, in a treatife published at Leipfic, in 1779. Its properties are enumerated by our academician, who finds that it has a confiderable affinity to aconite, and the plants of that clafs.

Mem. XII The Meteoro-nafological History of the Year 1782, continued, by M. MARET.

ART. IV. Memoires de l'Academie Imperiale et Royale des Sciences, &c. i. e. Memoirs of the Imperial and Royal Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres of Bruffels. Vol. IV. 4to. Bruffels. 1783.

THI HIS volume begins, as the preceding ones, with a journal of different fittings of the academy. The moit interefting contents of this journal, will be taken into confideration in our account of the memoirs; excepting an article re

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