Here we have our Author's hypothefis. Having lived for ten years in the midst of thefe mountains, and ftudied their majestic beauties, which are as much adapted to suggest systems to the Naturalift, as numbers to the Poet, he comes after the Burnets, theWhiftons, the Woodwards, the Mallets, the Scheuchzers, and the Buffons, and fays,-Gentlemen,-with your leave,→ I also am a fyftem-maker. Suppofing then, fays he, that the high granitic primordial mountains formed, from the origin of things, ifles at the furface of the ocean, and that the decompofition of the granite produced the firft accumulations of quartzeous and fparic fand, and of a micacious mud, of which the grains and fchiftes of the ancient chains or ridges were compofed,-what then? why then the sea must have carried along with it, to the fides of the land, the light, ferrugineous, and phlogisticated matters, produced by the diffolution of thofe multitudes of vegetables and animals, which it contained, and by filtrating there principles into the ftrata, which it had depofited on the granite, muft have formed thofe heaps of pyrites, the furnaces of the firft volcanos, whofe fucceffive eruptions were afterwards obferved in different parts of the globe. Thefe ancient volcanos, whose marks and veftiges have been loft in the lapfe of ages, demolished the frata, which had become folid through time, and under which their explosions had been made: they changed and modified, in different manners, by fufing or calcinating them by the activity of fire, the fubftances of thefe ftrata, and thus they produced the firft mountains of the fchiftous band, which correfponds in part with the beds of clay, and of the fand of the plains, and also formed those calcareous mountains, whofe vault is folid and without any appearances or veftiges of petrifications. It was then, that, in the caverns and chinks, accumulations were made, and veins were formed of quartz, fpars, minerals, phlogisticated fubftances, &c.: the fea, wafhing the lower parts of the mountains, depofited there marine productions, which imperceptibly formed banks of corals and fhells: and new volcanos forcing the fea to retire, raifed thefe banks and produced the huge calcareous Alps of Europe. But there muft have happened a prodigious convulfion in our globe, and an inundation of a moft violent and dreadful kind.. Our Author could no longer doubt (fays he) of the certainty of a general deluge, when he found in Siberia the remains of the huge animals of India, the bones of elephants, rhinoceroses, and monstrous buffaloes, fometimes difperfed here and there, fometimes accumulated in heaps, and in fuch quantities that they are become an important object of commerce for that province. What furprised him the most, was his finding in thofe frozen regions, that lie on the borders of the Vilozzi, the carcass of a rhinoceros, with its whole fkin, and the remains of tendons, ligaments, and cartilages. He has depofited the parts that were beft preserved, in the cabinet of the academy of Petersburg, and he wishes that fome zealous and accurate obferver of Nature could arrive at those mountains, which lie between the rivers Indigiska and Kolyma, where the huntfmen affirm, that they have feen feveral carcaffes of elephants and other gigantic animals. Thefe obfervations, and thofe made by Mr. Julieu, upon the ferns and Indian plants, whole forms are visibly imprinted on the ftegania or flates in the European quarries, prove evidently, according to M. PALLAS, that the inundation which brought them into our northern regions, came from the South or the Indian Ocean. M. PALLAS attributes this terrible deluge to the violent eruptions of a quantity of volcanos, which he places in the Indian Archipelago. The firft eruption, which raised the bottom of a very deep fea, and which, perhaps, at one fhock, or several which followed each other clofely, formed the ifles of Sunda, the Moluccas, the Phillipines, and the Auftral Sands, muft have driven away, on all fides, fuch an enormous mafs of water as furpaffes imagination. This mafs, impelled with violence against the ftrong barrier which the continued ridge of Afiatic and European mountains opposed to it on the North, and preffed ftill forward by new inundations, must have produced the moft dreadful havoc and confufion, and the most enormous breaches in the lands of these continents: it must have carried along with it the banks of fand, fhells, &c. that were formed before their coafts, as alfo the higher ftrata of the first lands; and, rifing above the lefs elevated parts of the chain, which forms the middle, the continent must have transported to, and depofited on, the oppofite declivities all thefe wrecks and frag ments, mixed with the fubftances which the eruption had already blended with the waters of the occan; it must likewife have buried without order, the fhattered remains of the trees and animals that were enveloped in this general ruin, and formed, by thefe fucceffive transportations (depôts), the tertiary mountains, as our Author calls them, and the terrene acceffions, or alluvions (atteriflemens), of Siberia. Finally, this enormous nrafs of water, fet in motion by volcanic erruptions, directed its courfe towards the Pole, with the whole body of water that as yet covered the plains, and thus formed the inequalities, the valleys, the veftiges of rivers, the lakes, and great gulphs of the Northern ocean, overturning, in its courfe, the most ancient trata, and itill carrying along with it a fufficient quantity of heterogeneous fubftances to fill up a part of deeps of that ocean, and to occafion the fhelves, fhallows, and fand-banks, that are found near its coafts. Such Such is the hypothefis of M. PALLAS: and it may have its day-and why thould it not? for it does not hang in the air, upon the tail of a comet, like the Epochas of Nature; and though it lies open to difficulties and objections, yet the theory it contains, with refpect to the formation of the mountains, draws many lines of probability from Natural History, and an obfervation of the prefent ftate of the globe. Natural History is the indulgent parent of all the fyftem-makers :- they all appeal to her; and the appears to bear teftimony to them all: at leaft, they all fay fo. ART. XV. Legislation Orientale.-Ouvrage dans lequel, &c.-Oriental Legiflation.-A Work, in which, by a Difplay of the Fundamental Principles of Government in the Turkish, Peyian, and Indian Dominions, it is proved,-First, That the Manner in which most Writers have hitherto reprefented Defpotifm, as if it were abfolute in these three Empires, is entirely illufory, and groundless.-Secondly, That in Turkey, Perfia, and Indoftan, there are Codes of written Law, which affect the Prince, as well as the Subje&t.-Thirdly, That in these three Empires, the Inhabitants are poffeffed of Property, both in moveable and immoveable Goods, which they enjoy with an entire Liberty. By M. ANQUETIL DU PERRON, of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres, and King's Interpreter for the Oriental Languages. 4to. Paris and Amfterdam. 1779. THIS HIS title exhibits the plan of our Author's work, and this plan is executed in fuch a manner, as might be expected from the extenfive erudition and capacity of the Writer. We found a certain propenfity to adopt his opinion, even before we faw the arguments by which it is fupported; for furely it is a great relief to humanity to find, that fo confiderable a part of our fpecies are not fuch wretched flaves, as hath been so often faid. The authorities on which he builds his fyttem, are thofe very travellers who have mifled the Public, by confounding arbitrary acts, and periods of violence and diforder, with the ufual and permanent ftate of things. To the teftimony of travellers he adds his collection of original papers and records, fuch as a Daily Gazette of the Mogul court, in which an account is published of the affairs of the empire.-A circumftantial enumeration of the functions and departments of the different minifters, taken from a book called Akbar-namah, compofed by Aboulfazel, fecretary to Schah-Akbar,-and from the copy of a deed or contract of fale, in which the forms obferved in tranfactions of that kind are accurately mentioned. We leave the reader to judge, by perufing this inftructive work, how far the Author has fucceeded in proving his hypothefis. As for our part, we have been more entertained and inftructed by his learning and dexte rity, than we have been fatisfied with his proofs. His attempts to refute Montefquieu are not always fuccefsful: his obfervations on the arts, fciences, agriculture, religion, and political peconomy of the Eastern nations, are curious, but do not juftify the conclufions he draws from them; and after all his attempts to set the Orientals free from the imputation of fervitude, we fear their bonds are more ignominious and severe than he would have us to think. The ample notes that terminate this work, are replete with inftruction, in refpect to feveral points of oriental legiflation, agriculture, &c. They contain among other things, a particular account of what the Mogul government drew from the riches and induftry of the fubjects of that empire under the reign of Akbar, who abolished a multitude of particular taxes, and fupplied their place by a general one on lands and labour, with reftrictions that rendered it mild and humane.- We find alfo, in these notes, an explication of fome paffages of the Koran, a discourse of Minother, an ancient king of Perfia, and the differtation of Mr. Daw on the defpotism of Indoftan, with the obfervations of our Author on the fame fubject. Mr. ANQUETIL defigns to publifh another work, ftill more confiderable, which, in all appearance, will contribute greatly to improve our knowledge of Indoftan; this is a tranflation of the Oupnekat, which is a treatife of Indian theology, containing extracts from the four Vedams. It was tranflated at Dehli, in the year 1655, from the Samfcretan, or Hanferit, into Perfian, by the order of Darah-Schako, eldeft fon of the Mogul Schah Djehan. Mr. ANQUETIL propofes enriching his tranf lation with notes, relative to the antiquities and geography of Indoftan. He alfo promifes the public, Dictionaries of the Malabar, Telongou, and Samfcretan languages. ART. XVI. Traité de l'Education des Femmes, c.-A Treatife concerning the Education of the Female Sex. Vol. I. 400 pages, Paris. 1779. F books of this kind were ever feafonable, they feem to be peculiarly fo (be it faid without offence!) at the present period of time, in the British ifles: and notwithstanding the number of treatifes on education, with which our literature may be already enriched, we fhould be glad to fee the excellent work now before us in an English dress, with fuch alterations as may be judged, expedient. But we fhould be forry if it were to fall into the hands of a hackney, or even an ordinary Tranflaton; because it requires, judgment and skill to lop off what is exuberant, fupply what is deficient, and illuftrate what is obfcure. This volume is divided into three parts.-The first relates relates to the care of the child from its birth to the age of feven. The fecond takes in the period from feven to fourteen; and the third is employed in forming the amiable woman, the mother of a family, and the ufeful member of civil fociety. The detail, into which the Author enters in thefe, three stages of education, are ftrongly marked with the characters of fagacity and fentiment; and the whole, we think, breathes a fpirit not only of elegance but of virtue: though we could wish, that the tyle and mode of expreffion were not fometimes chargeable with quaintnefs and obfcurity.-We muft obferve, that this work is the production of a lady; and that it was undertaken at the request of her husband, who was defirous of communicating to others, the happinefs with which a wife and virtuous confort. has crowned his conjugal ftate. The volume before us is to be followed by two more. In the fecond, the Author propofes to treat of the fenfes; of health; of the ufe of the bodily organs; of metaphyfical notions, and experimental philofophy;-and in the third, of thofe branches of hiftorical knowledge that are mo effentially required in female education. ART. XVII. CALL PLINII SECUNDI Hiftoria Naturalis XXXVII. Libri, quos recenfuit et Notis illuftravit GABRIEL BROTIER.-Pliny's Natural Hiftory, with Emendations and explanatory Notes, By M. BROTIER, formerly a Member of the Company of Jefus (fo called). 6 Vols. 12mo. Paris. Price bound 36 Livres (or 11. 14 s. Sterling). Tafpecimen of his tate and critical merits in the publicaHIS truly learned and claffical editor gave, fome time ago, tion of an excellent edition of Tacitus. The edition of Pliny, now before us, contains above 2000 corrections, which had efcaped the learned refearches and fagacity of Father Hardouin it is printed in the fame letter and fize with the claffic Authors published by Barbou, and it has obtained the applaufe of all. the connoiffeurs. De la Religion, par un Homme du Monde, où l'on examine les differens Syftemes des Sages de notre Siecle, St.-A Treatise concerning Religion, by a Man of the World, in which the Syftems of the Sages of our Times (the irreligious Philofophers in France) are examined, and the Connection of the Principles of Christianity, with, the fundamental Maxims on which the public Tranquillity depends, is fully demonftrated. 8vo. 5 Vols. Paris. 1779. THIS HIS excellent work, deferves to be diftinguifhed: from the multitude of publications in defence of Christianity, that iffue daily from the French preffes. We find in it fimpli city of ftyle and manner, perfpicuity of reafoning, an intimate acquaintance |