CORRESPONDENCE. • To the EDITOR of the MONTHLY REVIEW. • SIR, IT will not, I truft, be imputed to any defire of preventing H. S. from pursuing his defign, when I affure you, that I have nearly completed the first volume of a tranflation of St. Pierre's "Etudes de la Nature"-This work, with another of a fimilar tendency, I have been long anxious to tranflate, for the purpose of counteracting, in fome degree, the pernicious effects of thofe profligate productions which are imported with interested eagerness, and perufed with dangerous avidity; and, at the fame time, of convincing fuch of my countrymen as are unacquainted with the language and literature of the French, that they have writers endued with ability and inclination to enforce the precepts of morality, and to plead the cause of religion and virtue. I am, Sir, with great respect, Your humble fervant, • Dec. 3, 1789. 'S. G.' We have been favoured with a letter from Captain Dixon, from which it appears that he is hurt at our having charged him † (as he thinks) with ingratitude to the memory of Captain Cook, in our review of Captain Portlock's narrative of the voyage, in which they were jointly concerned. He ftates alfo, in a fuller manner than he had done in the introduction to his printed narrative, the reasons which induced him to make fome deviations from Captain Cook's chart of the coaft; and informs us, that we have been mistaken in fome of the particulars related of his life at p. 510. of our Review for laft June. The moderation and candour with which Captain Dixon's letter is written, demand an anfwer equally liberal and candid. After reading over the article in queftion with the utmost attention, we cannot difcover one expreflion which will admit of being construed into a charge of ingratitude on the part of Captain Dixon; and we are very certain that we never intended, by any expression, to convey fuch a meaning: we must therefore conclude, that the acuteness of his own feelings has led him to confider what we faid, in a light which, we affure him, was not intended. That we charged both him and Captain Portlock with making unneceffary and unmerited complaints of Captain Cook's inaccuracies, we admit; but we made, or intended to make, a very material diftinction between the manner in which thofe complaints are exhibited in his narrative, and that in which they are brought forward in Captain Portlock's: the former being fufficiently respectful;-the latter, other wife. Had all the circumstances appeared, in either of the narratives, which are flated in Captain Dixon's letter, fome of our remarks would have been fuppreffed: particularly thofe which refpect the land of Cape Hinchingbroke and Comptroller's Bay. But we yet fee no reafon for altering our opinion refpecting the land which forms Point Banks and Cape Whitfunday; and we rather fufpect, that Captain Mears made his way into Cook's River between that land and the Barren lflands. We must alfo fill be permitted to de. clare our firm belief in the existence of Crofs-found, either as Port See our latt, p. 480. Correspondence. + See Rev. for October lait. ock's lock's Harbour, or fome other very extenfive inlet, very little to the northward of it, as well as in that of the Bay of Islands; for though Captain Cook's caution and experience induced him to neglect fome appearances of inlets, in themselves doubtful, but which have fince been found real, we have no grounds for fuppofing that he ever af ferted, in pofitive terms, that there appeared to be fhelter for a ship where none was found; and for this reafon: no harm can happen from the former, but much might arife from the latter. We have admitted, and are still ready to grant, that the Spaniards have been very pompous in their accounts of what they did; bat we yet wish they had not been charged, in fuch harsh terms as they have been, with fo great a crime as putting down iflands and harbours which they did not fee,-unlefs the fact had been more fully proved. The principal points in which we have erred refpecting Captain Dixon's life, are, in saying that he was born in Weftmoreland, isftead of Cumberland; in his being employed in the Tower; and in his having gone out with Captain Cook instead of Captain Clarke. * An unceremonious Correfpondent, who figns HINT, informs us, that we have overlooked a volume of ingenious fermons, printed at Warrington, about ten years ago; that it came out ander the name of FARRINGTON; but that the real author was, by fome, faid to be the learned Dr. Owen. Had fuch a work been published according to the ufual mode of advertisement in the newspapers, it would not, we suppose, have efcaped the vigilance of our Collector. Be that as it may, we should be glad to obtain farther intelligence relating to the above-mentioned fermons, through the favour of any of our readers. We are likewife obliged to this blunt Correfpondent for his ether HINTS, notwithstanding that they come to us in rather a querulous and questionable fhape.-But we must not fuffer ourselves to be drawn into unavailing difputes; efpecially with we know not whom. ++ We are Comewhat furprised that T. C. fhould fuppofe it p fible for us to answer fuch questions as that which he propofes. It is not the province of Reviewers, to inform Gentlemen where scarce books and pamphlets can be procured. 14 A corrected Copy of Gallic Liberty, a Poem, has been received. An account of that performance will be found in the Review for September, p. 275. In our account of Mr. Brook's Electrometer (fee Review for October last, p. 314. 1. 14.), for which number is pointed out by an index on a dial plate, read, which number of grains is afcertained by divifions, and a fliding weight on the arm, at the end of which is the ball raised by a repulfive force. This correction, or, rather, expla nation, is interted at the defire of the author. +++ In our laft Review, p. 408. 1. 7 from bottom, in the extract from Capt. Monro's book, for barometer,' read, thermometer. Capt. M. hould correct this in another edition. Other Letters remain for qur next number. Voyage du Jeune Anacharfis en Gréce, i. e. Travels of the younger Anacharfis into Greece. Three Volumes 4to, on Vellum Paper, 192 Livres; on common Paper 60 Livres; or feven Volumes 8vo, and one Volume 4to of Maps and Plates, 45 Livres. 1788. Paris. MONG the numerous books that are extant, concerning the history and antiquities of Greece, this, which is written by the Abbé BARTHÉLEMY, has a peculiar claim to the attention of the public; on account of the care and accuracy with which the learned author has felected his materials, and the elegant form of compofition, in which he has favoured the world with a work that has employed above thirty years of his life. To render thefe volumes more interefting, M. BARTHÉLEMY reprefents them as the obfervations of Anacharfis, a Scythian, defcended from the philofopher of this name, whom he fuppoles to travel into Greece in the year 363 before the Chriftian era, and to fix his refidence in Athens; whence he makes excurfions, not only to the other cities and ftates of Greece, but allo to Egypt, Perfia, Afia Minor, and the islands of the Ægean fea. The advantages of this ingenions, fiction are obvious: inftead of the labour of perufing a mere detail of well-known facts, we are entertained with the animated deferiptions of a traveller, who tranfports us into the fcenes and focieties in which he is converfant; and, as the date of his obfervations is fo fixed as to include the most important period of Grecian hiftory, both po litical and literary, we become, as it were, fpectators of the greatest revolution which that country ever experienced; and are introduced into the company of Epaminondas, Phocion, Xenophon, Plato, Ariftotle, Demofthenes, and other great characAPP. Rev. VOL, LXXXI, Pp ters ters of thofe times; from whofe accounts we are made ac quainted with the most eminent perfons of the preceding age. In order to give the reader every neceffary information, Anacharfis prefixes an introduction, in which he takes a rapid, but very judicious, view of the hiftory of Greece, antecedent to the date of his travels. This view is divided into two parts. In the former, which goes down to the firft Olympiad, we have an account of the establishment of Cecrops in Attica, and of the fabulous and heroic times. This leaft interesting part of the Grecian history is certainly useful on account of the frequent references to it in the customs and manners of later periods; and it is here rendered inftructive by the author's judicious reflections; in which he endeavours rather to appreciate the spirit and manners of the age, than to inveftigate the evidence of events; in the relation of which, he profeffes to follow the fictions commonly received by the Greeks, and, by their earlieft writers, tranfmitted to pofterity. The fecond part of this introductory view contains the hiftory of Athens, which, it is obferved, does not properly commence till about 150 years after the first Olympiad, 300 years before the fuppofed arrival of Anacharfis. This interval of time is here divided into three periods, each of which is diftinguished by its prevailing character; the first is called the age of Solon, or the period of legiflation; the fecond is the age of Themiftocles and Ariftides, or the period of military glory; and the third, the age of Pericles, or the period of luxury and the arts. The hiftory of each of thefe periods is related with precifion and elegance, and accompanied with obvious but judicious reflections; in which, Anacharfis animadverts on the tendency of the feveral occurrences, either to promote the grandeur, or, by corrupting the public manners, to accelerate the decline of the republic. Among thefe events, the battle of Salamis is one of the most important: but here, we think, he rather too feverely cenfures the advice of Themistocles, to hazard the fate of the republic by engaging the Perfians at fea, as an inftance of temerity, crowned with a fuccefs which this great man could, according to M. BARTHÉLEMY, have no reason to expect. The Athenians, he obferves, not having been exercised in naval combats, were, at that time, unfkilled in the management of their fhips; that Xerxes would attack them in the ftrait, w an event which could not be foreseen; nor had Themiftocles any great profpect of fuccefs in breaking through the enemy's Aleet, and convoying the Athenians to a diftant retreat. From this event, however, Anacharfis dates the decline of Athens; and confiders the establishment of a navy, which was at first the means of their deliverance, as, in its confequences, the fource of their ruin; becaufe it ferved both to gratify and infpire rapacity and ambition; the public manners were rapidly corrupted by the influx of wealth unjustly acquired, and even the mode of acquiring it degraded their military character: that manly valour, which triumphed on the plains of Marathon, degenerated into the cautious ferocity of the pirate, and was dishonourably exerted in a kind of war, which teaches the foldier to calculate the forces of his enemy,, to approach them with apprehenfion, and to confider flight as no difgrace. To exemplify the rapid degeneracy of the Athenians, he relates the ftory, told by Plutarch, concerning their different decifions on the propofal of Themistocles, and that of the Samians a few years after, both which were pronounced by Ariftides, to be unjuft, but advantageous. Toward the clofe of the introduction, Anacharfis turns from the painful furvey of public difcord, corruption, and diftress, to the more pleafing contemplation of the rife and progress of fcience and the arts. After judicioufly pointing out the circumftances favourable to them, he gives the following obfervation: Though earlier cultivated, and with greater fuccefs, literature, if we except poetry, was lefs encouraged by the Greeks, than the arts. Eloquence and hiftory were held in high estimation, becaufe the former became neceffary to, the difcuffion of their interefts, the latter to the gratification of their vanity: but the other branches of literature owe their growth, rather to the vigour of the foil, than to any protection of government. Schools for the athlete are maintained in feveral cities at the public expence; but not in any place are there permanent eftablishments for the exercifes of the mind. It is but lately that the ftudy of arithmetic and geometry has formed a part of their education, and that natural philofophy has been confidered without averfion. Under Pericles, philofophical researches were feverely profcribed by the Athenians; and, while divines were often fplendidly entertained in the Prytanæum,. philofophers could fcarcely venture to entrust their doctrines to their most faithful difciples; nor did they meet with better treatment among other nations. Every where alike the objects of hatred or of contempt, they efcape the rage of fanaticifm, only by confining truth as a captive, and that of envy, by an affectation of poverty either voluntary or constrained. Though now more tolerated, they are still fo clofely watched, that the leaft indifcretion would involve philofophy in the difgrace and infults which it formerly experienced. Hence it may be concluded, ift, that the Greeks have always given greater encouragement to the talents which are fubfervient to their pleasures, than to thofe which promote their inftruction: 2dly, that the progrefs of literature has been owing principally to natural, that of arts, chiefly to moral caufes; and 3dly, that the Athenians have no right to afcribe to them felves the origin, or, at least, the perfection of the arts and sciences. In vain do they compliment themfelves with having opened to other nations the fplendid paths to immortal fame; nature does not appear to have been more partial to a Plut. in Per. Ifocr, Paneg. Schol. Ariftoph. in Nub. v. 338. Pp 2 them, |