lication, to give an account of experiments on femi-metals, and of those which have been proposed to him by other electricians, whom he here invites to communicate any hints, that may tend to further discoveries in this important branch of phyfics.

For the unusual length of this article, perhaps fome apology may be neceffary; but we hope our readers will excufe it, when they are informed, that on account of the plates, and the comparatively small number of copies, this interefting work will probably foon become very scarce.

ART. XIII.

M

Vicar.

The Forms of Herkern: corrected from a Variety of Manufcripts, fupplied with the diftinguishing Marks of Conftruction, and tranflated into English, with an Index of Arabic Words, explained and arranged by their proper Roots. By Francis Balfour, M. D. 11. 1 s. Printed at Calcutta; and fold by Richardson,

4to. London.

A

PERFECT knowledge of the Eaftern languages is a matter of great importance to the merchant as well as the linguift. The encouragement which Mr. Haftings gives to every attempt toward illuftrating the antiquity and cuftoms of the Eaftern nations, and to the ftudy of their languages, has, in a great measure, been the means of producing the learned performance before us. It is an edition of a work held in much eftimation among the teachers of the Perfian language, and which is put into the hands of every beginner, being more immediately useful to ftrangers, as it relates to the common forms of bufinefs and correspondence. Dr. Balfour has collated feveral manufcripts, in order to render the copy as perfect as poffible; and this will appear to have been a work of no fmall labour and difficulty, when it is confidered that the Perfian manuscripts are extremely inaccurate, the diftinguishing points of letters being often fuperfluous or misplaced, and the letters themselves contracted and deformed, not to mention the great obfcurity that is occafioned by words being wrongly divided, or written without any diftinction or spaces between them, and even whole books without the divifion of fentences. Dr. B. having given a correct edition, where the words are properly marked and divided, has certainly prefented the learners of this language, and the curious in Eaftern literature, with a moft valuable performance: in order to make this work more generally useful, the Doctor has given an English tranflation of the original on the oppofite page, and annexed a copious vocabulary, or dictionary, of Arabic words, with the derivatives under their proper roots.

As the Infha-i herkern contains forms of oriental correfpondence and bufineis, we fhall present our Readers with the following short fpecimen of an Eaftern love-letter:

⚫ O moon

O moon of the heaven of good nefs! O cyprefs of the garden of affection; O light of the eye of lovers ; O joy of the affectionate heart! out of your benignity and kindness you promifed to enlighten the cell of my melancholy with the ray of your exhilarating prefence. Verily, fince that time, the eye of hope is upon the high road of expectation. Since the days you faid, I will come, mine eye is upon the road: why do you burn me with the cauftic of expectation? why don't you come? If agreeable to your promife, you should give, by a joyful fight of you, illuminating brightnefs to the longing eye of your friends; no wonder at the excess of your kindness.

"Comè, come, for I love you with an hundred fouls.

"Come, for I am torn from myfelf and united with thee." The Anfwer to the above.

O afflicted lover and forfaken expectant! I have understood that you long to fee me, and ftill preserve your attachment to me. But you ought not to depend on the promife of beauties; you ought not to fet your heart on their affurances.

66

Amongst beauties nobody ever met with fidelity; "Nor with any thing but fchemes to torment."

Nevertheless, if the lover be fincere, and content with beholding, what objection is there?

"When lovers are fincere in their affection,

"What harm though beauties attach themselves to them ?" Want of firmness will not do; patience is requifite. The moon of my beauty may foon fhine from the window, and the tree of my stature may caft its fhadow on the terrace.

"Patience is bitter, but it bears fweet fruits."

Among the forms of bufinefs is the following certificate of the fale of a flave girl.

Khojeh Abdulla, fon of Khojeh Mahommed, being of age, and in full poffeffion of all his faculties, affirms and declares to this effect: "I have fold to Meer Darvaish Mahommed, fon of Mahommed Morad, a flave girl named Gulbehar, of a copper complexion, and middle fize, with grey eyes, high nofe, joined eye-brows, and both ears pierced, fuppofed about twenty years of age, for the fum of twenty current rupees, the half of which is ten, which fum I have received." Thefe few lines were drawn out in court, by way of certificate, on the eleventh of the month Zeekkadeh.'

This work is a curiofity, on account of its being the first printed book in the Taleek character. Confiderable merit is due to Mr. Wilkins, without whofe affiftance the Infha-i berkern could never have appeared in its prefent form; as is evident from the following palage in the Preface:

The only printed Perfian character that has hitherto been in ufe, except in exhibiting fair copies of dictionaries and grammars, has been fubfervient to no public purpofe; and is but ill calculated for becoming the channel of authority, or the medium of business, over an extentive empire, where it is almost unknown, and scarcely underfood; whereas the types which Mr. Wilkins has invented, being a perfect imitation of the Taleek, the character in which all Perfian books are written, and confequently familiar and univerfally read, are not only well calculated for promulgating the edicts of govern

ment,

ment, but for every transaction in bufinefs where the Perfian character is required.

By this invention (which is perfectly new and peculiar to Mr. Wilkins, and at the fame time the labour of his own hand, from the metal in its crudeft ftate, through all the different ftages of engraving and founding) the Perfian language may now receive all the affiftance of the Prefs. The most valuable books may be brought into print; the language may be more eafily and perfectly acquired; and the improvements of the learned and induftrious conveniently communicated to the Public, and preferved to pofterity.'

We congratulate the cultivators of Eaftern literature on the acquifition of fo great an affiftance in facilitating the study of it; and we hope that by this means not only the languages, but the learning and philofophy of the Eaft, will be more generally known among Europeans. Am.

ART. XIV.

De la France et des Etats-Unis, &c. i. e. On France and the United States; or, on the Importance of the American Revolution to the Kingdom of France, and the reciprocal Advantages which will accrue from a commercial Intercourse between the two Nations. By Stephen Claviere and J. P. Briflot de Warville. 8vo. 6s. Boards. Phillips, London. 1787.

EV

VERY nation is benefited by commerce, and the advantages of a commercial intercourte between two nations, will always be proportional to the neceffities of the one, and the productions of the other. The Authors of the prefent publication, by comparing the wants of the Americans with the productions of France, and the contrary; and by confidering the relative fituations and circumftances of the two countries, prove, that a well-regulated commerce muft be highly beneficial to each.

The firft Chapter is employed in defining feveral terms, and in explaining the general principles of a foreign trade [commerce exterieur]. The Authors fhew that a direct trade (i. e. a trade carried on between two nations immediately) is preferable to that which is carried on by the intervention of a third; it enables the merchant to afford his goods at a cheaper rate; and the cheapnefs of goods is the very bafis of a foreign trade. They point out the circumftances which enable a nation to fell its productions cheap, and alfo the circumftances which oblige two nations to enter into a commercial intercourfe. They confider the mutual intereft of the two nations, and the nature of things, to be the only means of eftablishing a fure trade. Treaties, regulations, laws, and force, are of no effect; all of them muft give way to the nature of things.

The authors next enter into an examination of what is meant

by a balance of commerce. Here we are prefented with fome cuAPP. Rev. Vol. LXXVI.

Sf

rious

rious conclufions. It is proved that the balance of commerce is an infignificant word; that the balance pad in gold is not a proof that the trade is difadvantageous to the nation paying, nor advantageous to the nation receiving fuch balance; that the ta bles or calculations of the balance of commerce are not to be depended on;-that the only method of eftimating the increase of trade is by the increafe of population;-that it is impoffible to determine the quantity of money in a country;-and that the calculations made for this purpofe are faulty, as being built on uncertain data;—that the precious metals are not true riches ;that, confidered as the means of change, it would be better to fubftitute, in home trade, paper-money inftead of coin, and to employ coin for thofe purpofes in which paper is ufelefs, namely in foreign trade.

The Authors then apply the general principles, before laid down, to the prefent ftate of France and the United States; they defcribe the fituation and the productions of the country, and the difpofitions and employment of its inhabitants. It may be objected, that it would be better for France to improve her home trade and cultivation, than to extend her foreign trade; the extenfion of a foreign trade is esteemed the fitted, if not the only effectual means, of improving her cultivation, her manufactories, &c. Some very juft reflections are added, on the inferiority of the French manufactures to thofe of England; the caufes of this inferiority are pointed out, and a foreign trade is fhewn to be the only means for rendering them more flourishing.

In the next Chapter, a view is taken of the United States; from which it plainly appears, that they are under an abfolute neceffity of carrying on a foreign trade. The Authors confider, feparately the wants of the Americans, viz. the wants of neceffaries, of conveniences, and of luxury; thefe are only to be fupplied by a foreign trade; manufactories are as yet almost unknown to the Americans; they are a new people, and have no time to exact or establish any manufactories until their country is well cultivated; their greatest prefent intereft is, to apply themfelves to agriculture, and by no means to establifh manufactories. After enumerating the advantages of fuch a practice, the Authors fhew that France alone is, of all other countries in Europe, the belt adapted to fupply the wants of America. This is demonftrated by taking a view of the reciprocal importatioss and exportations carried on between France and the United States. The Authors prove, that it would be difadvantageous to the Americans to cultivate the vine in order to make wines; and that the French wines are preferable to all others. In a fimilar manner, brandy, oil, olives, &c. &c. are feparately confidered; together with the produce of industry, fuch as cloth, linen, filk, hats, leather, glafs, hardware, paper, &c. &c.

The

The articles which America can fend to France, are, tobacco, fish oil, fpermaceti, corn, mafts, and other timber for fhip-building, furs, rice, indigo, lintfeed, pitch, turpentine, &c. &c. These are feparately treated, and reafons are given why America can furnith fuch commodities better than any other country.

The work concludes with a collection of original papers relative to France and the United States; among which is a procla mation for the establishment of regular packet boats between Havre and New-York; one of these fails every fix weeks from Havre, or oftener, if the complement of paffengers is full in a fhorter time.

Meffrs. Claviere and De Warville are fpirited writers; but they are fometimes too violent. The ardor of liberty is able to break out into the flame of licentioufness, unless reftrained by the fuperior judgment of a calm and unbiaffed

reafoner.

The Authors are juftly entitled to the united thanks of the French and the Americans; for they have plainly fhewn the mutual advantages that may accrue from a commercial intercourfe between the two nations; and they have, at the fame time, given a juft view of a foreign trade in general, and the benefits thence arifing.

ART. XV.

R

m,

Animadverfiones Philologica in nonnulla Corani loca, cum Illuftrationibus in V. T. ex Arabijmo ac Perfifmo depromptis ; quibus recognitis atque auctis in hac nova Editione accedunt Specimina quinque, ofiendentia LL. Lat. Ital. Hifp. Gall. Lufit. ac Angl. cum Arabica aut Perfica Affinitatem. In Ufum Arabizantium Tyronum compofuit, ediditque R. Antonius Vieyra, LL. B. ac LL. Hifp. et Ital. P. Reg. in Coll. Ste et Inde Trin. Dublin. Dublinii apud L. White, Sumptibus Univerfitatis. 1785.

R. Vieyra, we understand, is a native of Portugal, and the Author of a Portuguese and English Dictionary, in two volumes 4to, publifhed in London, in the year 1773. His prefent defign is to facilitate the ftudy of the Arabic language, by fuch a comparison of Oriental and European words, as may develope the elements and fignifications of both; and, by illuftrating their mutual agreement, fupply the ftudent in Eastern literature with the moit effectual affiftance and encouragement. Mr. Vieyra infifts particularly on the great utility of this plan to every one who wishes to collect an ample ftore of words in the Oriental languages; as the neceffary exercife of the judgment in fuch etymological refearches will not only afford intervals of relief to the memory, but render the impreffions which are made on it

* See Rev. vol. L. p. 319.

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