We prefer our author's pointing on the whole, as it gives the most confiftent meaning; and the intention of the fpeaker is ob vious from the context, but the paffage is yet far from being clear, or probably correct. The following note contains a juít criticism on a peculiar ufe of the infinitive mood.

* Πῶς οὐκ αἰσχρόν, κατὰ μὲν τὴν ἀγορὰν ἀψευδεῖν νόμον γεγράφθαι Nauci non facio un vé, etfi ita plurimi et fcripti et editi, laudoque Wolfium, quod e Felic. noftrum reduxit. Impofuit librariis infinitivus fic ante por pofitus. Tali autem modo fere utuntur Græci, vel accufativis adaito vel etiam folo, quum legis aut pfephifmatis fententia breviter afferenda eft, quo ufu nihil in hoc genere folennius. Ita νόμος αψευδεῖν eft νόμος περὶ τοῦ audi, nec fubaudiri debet dr. Sed propter Reiki notam mire ingeniofam apponenda haec videntur latine verfa : Nonne inhoneftum eft, quum lege fit a Vobis cautum, ne quis in foro et in mercibus emendis vendendifque fraude ageret, quibus tamen in rebus fi qua fraus committitur. Refp. nibil detrimenti accipit, Populum eundem ipfum qui illud fingulis civibus iniunxerit, in publicis negotiis cam legem non fervare, idque etiam cum magno detrimento fuo. Iam fimul videas, quam locum enervet Marklandi emendatio, τὴν πόλιν, τὴν αὐτὸν ἐπιτάξασαν, fcil. τὸν νόμον, etiam fi te minus offenderit iráTT réuor, legem iniungere, præfcrivere, dare, quod græce bene dici, ego nemini credam, ne Marklando quidem. Porro ipfam legem, quam Noiter attingit, et cuius contodes. Athenis erant maxime dyogarua, ex Hyperide laudat Harpo. crario in voc. κατὰ τὴν ἀγορὰν ἀψευδεῖν. Et ut haec generalis erat lex, ita aliae fubinde latae, quae ad eandem partem publici ordi nis, h. e. ad forum rerumpromercalium, fpectarent. Sed harum tenues funt in fcriptoribus, quos habemus, reliquiæ. Conf. S. Petiti LL. AA. p. 495.' Vide Taylor, p. 10. 1. 3,

Dr. Taylor's note on this paffage relates to the different readings only; fome MSS. of credit having ah. We can find room but for one note more, and it fall be of a different kind.

• Τὸν τόπον τοῦτον σίτον ἔχειν πλεῖστον. Ex pluribus veterum apparet, maximum in itta regione iam tum frumenti proventum fuiffe. Nam ita hodieque reperimus. Vid. Peyffonelii Traité fur le commerce de la mer noire, librum etiain germanice verfum. Onnino in hiftoria mercaturac antiquae memorabilis eft Pontus, h. c. tota ora maritima Ponti Euxini, maxime occafum verfus Græcorum et Milefiorum coloniis fequentata, multifque emporiis celebris, imprimis Cherfonefus, quae vocabatur Taurica, nobis die Krim. E ea loca prae ceteris frequentabant mercatores Athenienfes, permulta inde exportantes, in his Tágos, quod ipfum erat varii generis, tum ceras, mella, lanas, coria, pelles caprinas et alias, ligna navibus fabricandis, mancipia etc. quas res permutabant illi vinis, in Co, Thafo, Mendae et alibi coeuntis, aut rebus et utenfilibus ex fabricis et officinis Athenarum Huius enim urbis merces, utpote praecipua ele

gantia confpicuae, non minus olim in deliciis erant, quam hodie Parifienfes aut Londinenfes. Athenienfibus quantum ea mercatura adtulerit commodorum, facile intelligitur. Vel una frumentaria plurimis civibus debuit lucrofa effe, ut ex ea fola fibi victum et opes quaerere potuerint. Iam univerfe vide Herodot. VII. 147. Lyfiae Or. XXXII. p. 902. Andocid. Or. II. p. 86. Xenoph. Heilen. V. 4. extr. Anab. VI. 4. VII.

Ifocrat. Trapez. p. 529. feqq. Demofth. de.Cor. p. 487. A. adv. Lacrit. p. 954. A. et 956. E. adv, Phorm. p. 941. et 945. adv. Polycl. p. 1086. Polyb. IV. 38. Strab. VII. p. 478. ubi et Leucon's mentio fit. Ad hæc conf. Guil. Clarkii Connexion of the Roman, Saxon, and English coins, p. 55. et Pauwii Recherches philofophiques fur les Grecs p. 331. feq. Ceterum notatu non indignum puto, quod potiores res, quas Cherfonefus hodie quoque vicinis praebet, maximam partem. caedem funt, quas olim nationes inde exportarunt.'-A reference to Dr. Taylor is here unneceffary, as the fubject is more generally philological,

We must now leave this volume, in which we have found more philological information and judicious criticism than we remember to have met with in an equal space. It may appear that we have extended our article too far: we think we have concluded it too foon, as it has prevented us from felecting manyvaluable obfervations. We have added lefs from ourselves, that we might make room for cur author's remarks. The numer ous foreign articles which are in arrear will prevent us alfe from returning to this work.

FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

WE have often had occafion to mention Romè de l'ifle, and

to praise him, not only for his very extenfive mineralogical acquifitions, but as the chief fupporter, if not the father, of crystallography. While we have always allotted, therefore, fome part of this fketch to a fhort account of perfons particularly eminent in fcience, it would be improper to pafs him unregarded. Agricola, we believe, firft claffed minerals in an imperfect manner from their forms; but mineralogy was long an appendage to chemistry, till Linnæus pointed out the propriety of a natural claffification from the more obvious properties, and in fome degree from the form of their cryftals. The northern naturalift was not, however, fond of this icience; and though he added it to the Syftema Naturæ, to render the work complete, he tacitly refigned it to Cronstedt, to Bergman, and the chemifts. In this interval, the fcience of cryftallography, for we fhall give it this name to avoid circumlocution, was cultivated in part by Catheufer in France, by Jufti in Italy, and by Lehman in Germany; but it only attained a state approaching to perfection in the laft edition of M. de l'lfle's work. This naturalift, who died in March laft, was born in 1736, and had - fcarcely left his Latin tutor, before he was fent to India to

quality

quality of fecretary to a corps of engineers. It is not certain at what period he returned, but he went ag in to India in 1757, was taken prifoner at Pondicherry, and came to Europe in 1764 after five years of captivity. At this period, in his twenty-ninth year, he directed his attention to natural history in company with M. Sage, who appears, from the account before us, to be the first Frenchman who directed his chemical knowledge to the explanation of mineralogy. His first publication, however, was on the polypus, which he considered as a hive, a receptacle for an infinity of fmail ifolated animals, directed to the fame purpofe, that of repairing any lo's in the parent. But this opinion was fupported only by its ingenuity, without the aid of experiments.

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His first flep in mineralogy was the publication of an explanatory catalogue (catalogue raifonné) of M. Davila's collection, which he wished to difpofe of. It was in three octavo vo lumes, and from thence arofe his eager with to examine the forms of crystals, and to conftruct a fystem on this plan. His first clay on cryftal ography was published in 1771, and contains 110 fpecies of crystals, of which Linnæus only knew about 40, though the number has fince been extended to above, 400. From this work M. de l'ifle's fame arofe; his correspondence was cultivated, and the Pliny of the North added his warmeft praises to the appl ufe of philofophers. Our author's fame from this time rapidly increafed, and he was judged worthy of a feat in almost every academy but that of his own country. By the academicians of Paris he was flyied contemptuously a maker of catalogues, and in reality, from a fcanty fortune, as well as a wish to extend his knowledge of 'pecimens, he was much employed in this butines; and from 1767 to 1782, he published eight explanatory catalogues of different collections. In 1778, he published, with M. Demette, an explanation of M. Sage's theory of chemistry, and in the following year a memoir against the central fire. But in this interval, his great work was conftantly kept in view, and his new edition appeared in 1783. Thofe only who have examined it frequently, can judge of the great labour which it must have coll; the extent of the author's erudition, and the information to be collected from it, independent of the fcience of cryftallization. He obtained penfions at different times of 1000 livres, not much above forty pounds fterling a year.

As executor to M. d'Ennery, who poffeffed a very rich collection of medals, he was induced to examine the relation of the Roman pound to the French mare, and the value of the money of different nations of European and Afiatic Greece. Thele ob jects he investigated with great attention and fuccefs. From a number of approximations and combinations, M. de l'Ifle showed that the money of the Grecian people, cities, and kings, muit be arranged in fourteen very diftinct claffes; and he formed as many ables, in which the drachm, its divilions and multiples,

fo far as the talent, are reduced to their proper weights and numerical values. He next undertook to form a new metrology, compofed of tables, which rendered its ufe extremely eafy. It was published in 1789, and addreffed to the national aflembly, to guide it in the reform of weights and measures. He there fhews the relation of ancient to modern measures, collects the linear meature of fuperficies and of capacity, compares them with thofe of Paris, and gives the different proportions of each with every other. From the immense labours of these and his other works, his eyes foon failed, and his later enjoyments arole from the enchufiafm which he felt on account of the revolution, from heating of the tranfactions of the national affembly, and fondly calculating the great phyfical, moral, and political advantages, which France, and probably the whole world, would derive from the declaration of the rights of man and the conflitution. His laft effort was in favour of the emancipation of the negroes: it was the evening before his death, and he died of a dropfy. His collection is, we believe, now on fale. M. Ferber, a mineralogift well known in this kingdom, and counsellor of the mines in Pruffia, died in April laft.

We shall add a more full account of our author's work on metrology, as it has not yet occurred in any English Journal, and it is the only one of M. de l'Itle's later publications that we can with propriety examine. The relation of the ancient meafures to our own, fays the author, is an acquifition fo neceffary to the knowledge of ancient history, that we are not furprised at feeing it fo often the object of attention fince the æra of Bu dæus. The different feet employed by the ancients may be referred to the geometrical and the Pythian foot. The former was fixed at the four hundred millionth part of a degree of the meridian: it was, therefore, 10 inches 3.11nes. The cubit of the nilometer equalled two geometrical feet, and confequently was equal to 20 inches 6.62 lines. The Alexandrian ftadium contained 800 geometrical fees, equal to 400 cubits, and confequently equal to part of a degree, fomething less than (about feven-eighths of) an English furlong. Each fide of the grand pyramid was an Alex ndrian furlong in length.

The Pythian or Delphic foot was calculated from the length of a pendulum. M. Bouguer has fhown that the length of a pendulum vibrating feconds at the equator, is 36 inches 7.21 lines, and at Paris 36 inches 8.67 lines. The quarter of the fe. cond pendulum at Paris will be then 110.17 lines, or 9 inches 2.17 lines, and the Pythian foot is 9 inches 1.48 hines. This little variation is owing to the difference of latitude between Paris and Egypt.

Weight is derived from the cube of the measures. The Roman foot (10 inches 10.60 lines) cubed, gives 129241, and these are the contents of the amphora, weighing 80 pounds. The culeus contained 20 amphora, or 1600 pounds; the urna was half an amphora, or 40; the congius, which contained 6 fextiers

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12 hemine, 24 quarts, 48 acetabula, 72 cyathi, 144 femicyathi, and 288 fpoonfuls.

The Roman pound weighed ten ounces four drachms (poids de marc): it was divided into eight ounces, or twenty four fcruples, and each fcruple confifted of twenty-one grains. This weight was afcertained, by carefully weighing the best preferved medals in the collection of M. d'Ennery, with the greatest care. If then an uniformity of weights and meatures deferves the notice of parliament, it would be right to follow the ancient plan, either by a divifion of a degree of the meridian, or by the length of a pendulum vibrating feconds in a mean latitude.

This fubject reminds us of a late memoir read to the Royal Academy of Inferiptions, containing an analysis of the copper employed in the medals, and the cutting inftruments of antiquity. The ancients ufed copper for those inftruments which are now made of iron, and they gave this metal a confiderabie degree of hardness. M. Geoffroy fuppofed that it was done by a mixture of iron; but, on mixing different proportions of iron, from one-fixth to one-eighty-first part, the refult was very different from the ancient copper. Even one-feventy-sixth of iron affords a metal which the magnet will draw, and the copper remains malleable without having lot its colour. M. Monnet thought the hardness of the copper was derived from the arfenic, of which the ancient metallurgifts were not able to deprive it. We need only obferve, in oppofition to this opinion, that no arfenic is difcoverable in heating the copper medals with acid of nitre, and, with fulphur, no orpiment is produced. Our author, M. Dizé, found, that it arofe in an ancient copper dagger from a mixture of tin; and on analyzing various medals, he found the copper hard and brittle in proportion to the quantity of tin combined with it. The most brittle of the ancient medals contained one-fifteenth of metallic tin; and a harfher metal of a Gallic medal contained nearly one-fourth.

We have followed the leading ideas fuggefted by the works of M. de l'lfle, and it has led us into fo mifcellaneous a collec tion of facts, that we might go on, without the appearance of, abruptnefs, in any path of fcientific investigation. We shall connect these fcattered fragments, however, as well as we canby proceeding to fome new difcoveries, in the line which M. de l'Ile chiefly cultivated we mean in mineralogy, and mineralogic chemistry.

A new mineral, lately difcovered in Switzerland, has been ftyled a coaly and exaedral plumbago. The Ruffian naturalis, who first found it, thinks, on examination, that it contains a new metal: M. Struve fuppofes it a fpecies of plumbago. It is very common in a rock, which forms a link between the granites and the breccia, and which has been hitherto found only in rounded maffes in the Pays de Vaud. It is of an iron-grey colour, which is deeper when it has been expofed to the air. Sometimes it is a little cat's-eyed, of a yellowish tint: internally it has a VOL. LXX. 08. 1790. degree

Hh