events; it is that which difplays the general spirit of the times, or the circumftances which firft, established thofe cuftoms and brought about fuch events. There must have been a motive for every established cuftom; which motive must be fimply deduced from mere opinions or from facts; nay even popular opinions themselves must be founded originally on facts. Every custom therefore must have its particular hiftory, or at least its particular fable; as it must relate to fome particular fact; and perhaps may have at the fame time a fecret connection with the general chain, that unites together all customs and all facts. The hiftory of manners, therefore, joined to that of their motives, would only difplay a new method of writing the hiftory of mankind. The difficulty of writing history in this method, Mr. Boulanger owns indeed to be extremely great; but thinks it might be undertaken with fuccefs, if we recur no farther back than to a certain fact, whofe verity is univerfally allowed. This fact he conceives to be the univerfal deluge; from the epoch of which he would fet out, in tracing the natural and political hiftory of mankind to the prefent times. It is at the æra of the deluge, fays he, that we must begin the history of fociety, and of all the nations now exifting. If there be falfe and deftructive religions in the world, we must recur to the deluge for their origin: if there be erroneous fyftems of government, we must trace their fource in the flood. In a word, it is to the deluge I impute all those numerous abfurdities and incongruities in the manners, cuftoms, and ceremonies, (moral, political, and religious) which prevail over the face of the earth : hinc prima mali labes.' As our author's plan is partly new, it will no doubt appear a little fingular; but he fays, it will feem exceptionable and paradoxical only to fuch as know not how to confider the globe we inhabit; or to those who cannot get rid of the prejudices acquired from the popular methods of writing and reading hiftory. With regard to the present work, Mr. Boulanger feems to have intended it as a kind of introduction to a general history of man in a ftate of fociety; in which he hath attempted to withdraw that veil of time, which, he fays, at prefent obfcures and hides the face of true hiftory. He hath divided his tract into four books; in the firft of which he treats of the feveral inftitutions fubfifting among different people, in commemoration of the general deluge. In the fecond, he treats of the funereal folemnity that prevailed in the ancient feftivals; of the fects of antiquity; and of the favage and erratic state of the primitive focieties, fucceeding the deluge. Nothing can be more mournful and deplorable, than the ftate in which mankind existed, according to our author, for many ages; their religious religious fervices and ceremonies, thuogh very numerous, being full of fighs, tears, and mortifications: all which, Mr. Boulanger imputes to the forrowful remembrance that the deluge had left behind it. In this event, alfo, the ancient Pagans feem to have thought even the gods themselves to have been interested, and to have fuffered by' it as well as man. Hence, fays he, the reprehenfion of Zenophanes, recorded by Plutarch: when that philofopher obferving the priests and the people in tears, he faid to them, Wherefore do you weep, if thofe whom you adore are really Gods? or, if you thus bewail, them, why do you worship them as deities?' He obferves, however, that the Gods of the ancient pagans were fo little removed in their ideas, above the condition of humanity, that it is no wonder they imagined even their deities affected by any confiderable revolution in the courfe of nature. It was for the fame reason, doubtlefs, that they entertained the notion of the frequent intercourse of fuch deities with mankind, in the way of incarnation and perfonal appearance among them. A notion that encouraged numerous impoftors, altho' the tenets they inculcated were not always immoral, or detrimental to fociety *. The doctrine of the great Fo, in particular, he observes to have been very fublime; as it teaches the annihilation of the man, in order to his being united to the deity. Thou shalt abandon (faid this pretended divinity) thy father and thy mother, to follow me: thou fhalt forget thyfelf, and the gratification of thy own appetites, to purfue holiness in purity and perfection, and to arrive at eternal felicity.' But, notwithstanding the fublimity of the doctrines that were preached up by the fectaries of antiquity, it is confeffed that their religious orders were over-run with vices and abufes, introduced, doubtless, by the ridiculous fuperftitions and fables, which were intermingled among the moral truths of their doctrines. This is the conftant effect of mysteries, and an affectation of talking in a strain fuperior to humanity. When man is defirous of fathoming unknown depths, or to raise himself above his natural sphere, he is foon obliged to defcend again, and is often precipitated into the oppofite extreme. Human nature is a middle ftate, to which men of the greatest genius and abilities, ought to confine both their wishes and expectations. It will admit of a doubt, however, whether doctrines that teach mankind to neglect themselves, to entertain a contempt for the things of this life, and to look upon it as a state of mifery, be not among those whofe natural tendency is detrimental to fociety. Perhaps human nature never displays fo many virtues, as among thofe people who are taught to have a proper idea of their own dignity and importance in the creation, and who esteem their exiflence here as no mean object in the fyftem of an all-wife and over-ruling Providence, Among Among various abfurd notions, which our author imputes to the mournful state of primitive fociety, was their averfion to the propagation of their species: hence, he conceives, arose the feveral inftitutions in civilized countries, in favour of celibacy; and the laws enacted to punifh the breach of it. To the fame deftructive principles it is, that he attributes feveral' cuftoms, which have heretofore prevailed, and ftill prevail, in many of the favage nations. We are told by Strabo, that there were feveral focieties of men in Thrace, who lived an auftere life, without having any converfe with women. The fame historian tells us, that it was the custom among the Celteberians, for the hufband to take to his bed, when his wife was delivered of a child; a cuftom which Diodorus Siculus fays, prevailed in the island of Corfica; and, as we are told by modern travellers, ftill prevails among fome favage nations in Tartary and in America. Mr. Boulanger endeavours to account for this whimfical custom on the foregoing principle. It feems, fays he, that' we ought to look upon this behaviour in the husband, as a kind of penance, founded on his penitence and forrow, for having occafioned the birth of a being of his own fpecies. This conjecture, fays he, feems to be not ill-founded, if we may credit what is advanced on this fubject, in the 24th volume of the Lettres edifiantes, where it is faid, that the hufband obferves, in this cafe, a very fevere faft, abftaining both from meat and drink, till he be very confiderably emaciated. Hiftory affords us, he obferves, still more cruel and extraordinary proofs of this averfion, in the primitive ages, to the propagation of our fpecies*; which he conceives owes its prefervation to an involuntary defire implanted in our nature; a propenfity that hath proved fufficiently powerful to counteract the melancholy ideas entertained by men terrified at the paft misfortunes of the world. Mr.Boulanger conceives farther, that the cuftom of circumcifion, practifed by fo many various countries, and that of mutilation in ufe among the Hottentots, at firft arofe from the fame principle; but it is needlefs, fays he, to hazard conjectures, when In the island of Formofa, fays he, no woman is permitted to be delivered of a live chi'd, till fhe be feven and thirty years of age; a priestefs procuring abortions to those who are pregnant before they arrive at that age. To this example, he adds that of the women inhabiting the banks of the river Oronooko; of whom father Gumilla relates, that all the exhortations of the miffionaries could not eradicate the barbarous custom of murdering their female children as foon as they were born; a custom which they attempted to justify by faying it was to prevent their future fufferings in life.-We are apprehenfive the above authorities will be thought too fufpicious, to ferve as proper foundation for the arguments which our author attempts to build on them. we we have fo many undoubted teftimonies of the disgust at life, which prevailed, or was openly affected at least, by the ancient nations. In our author's third book, he treats of the Eleufinian, and other ancient myfteries, with the motives of their inftitution ; of the Sybilline oracles, and of the aftrological theology, or natural religion of antiquity. In the fourth and laft book, he treats of what he calls the Efprit Cyclique of antiquity, or the notions of the ancients regarding aftronomical revolutions, and the approaching period of the world: of the moral and religious tenets to which those notions gave rife, and the customs which prevailed accordingly. His obfervations on all thefe fubjects are for the most part novel and ingenious: but how far they are justified by authentic history, we pretend not to determine. K. Hiftoire de l'Academie Royale des Sciences et Belles Lettres de Berlin. The Hiftory of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres at Berlin, for the Year 1758. 4to. Berlin 1765. HE publication of the hiftory of the academy of fciences at Berlin, having been interrupted by the late war; the materials, arifing from the conftant application of its members, have accumulated to fuch a degree that the academy now propose to publifh two volumes yearly till they make up the deficiency to the current year. In confequence of this refolution, we are promifed, in the prefent publication, the speedy appearance also of the volume for the year 1764. Our Readers will doublefs recollect the order in which the memoirs of this academy are publifhed, agreeably to the four claffes, into which it is itfelf divided; viz. Phyfics or experimental Philofophy, geometry or the mathematics, metaphyfics or fpeculative philofophy, and literature or the Belles Lettres. Under the first head, we have in the prefent volume, eight papers, the first, containing a chemical enquiry into the effects of the alkali of common falt on the regulus of antimony, by the celebrated Mr. Marggraff. It is well known that antimony is compounded of a metalline fubftance that forms the regulus, and of fulphur: the feparation of thefe two fubftances is effected by various methods, as by means of other metals, falt and alkaline earths. In the firft cafe the metallic part of the antimony always retains fome impurity, proceeding from the metal made use of in the feparation; in the others it comes out more more pure, and therefore better adapted to the purposes for which the metallic part of antimony is intended. But, as a very fmall quantity only is to be obtained by the means of falt, another method hath been discovered to separate this metal from its fulphur: this is by burning the antimony, and reducing it to its metalline state by combuftible fubftances. It was thought 'neceffary to premife, that Mr. Marggraf made use of the latter 'means, to obtain the regulus, on which he made the feveral experiments here recorded; the particulars, however, we cannot here enumerate. The fecond paper is written by the fame academician, and contains fome experiments on the ftone denominated Lapis Lazuli. In thefe experiments it is obfervable that the fine blue colour of this stone, is not to be changed even by calcination. Mr. Marggraf determines, in contradiction to fome other writers, that no copper enters into the compofition of the Lapis Lazuli; but rather a small mixture of iron. Memoir the third contains a chemical examen into the ore of a filver mine; confifting of mineral leaves, or thin flakes of that metal; and is defcribed as a combuftible, dark-brown, flexible and light fubftance. This defcription and examen are written by Mr. Lehmann; the Author likewife of the fourth memoir, containing hiftorical and chemical researches into the nature of gum copal; which this ingenious chemift ranks, on the authority of a number of experiments, among those dry bitumens which approach the nearest to the nature of amber; and therefore, a fubject of the mineral kingdom. The fifth paper contains anatomico-pathological obfervations on fome extraordinary inflations of the abdomen; proceeding from various caufes, and is attributed to M. Mechel. The fixth is a defence of the practice of inoculation, by Count Hedern, in answer to Count Roncalli, prefident of the medicinal College at Brefcia. It were fuperfluous in us to quote any of the arguments here made use of, but we cannot pass over a little anecdote which the Count relates to his antagonist; but for whofe authenticity we will not be accountable. "It is not thirty years ago, fays he, fince a fermon was preached against inoculation in the very church, in which the Bifhop of Worcester hath in our times delivered a noble and convincing difcourfe in favour of it:-notwithstanding the learned and pious orator, his predeceffor in the fame pulpit, declared inoculation to have been first practifed by Satan on the person of Job." What authority this good parfon had for afferting the distemper of Job to be the fmall-pox, or where he learned that he received it by inoculation of the Devil, we cannot fay; but if thefe ftrange circumftances be true, the afflictions of Job must have been |
