fenfe of Hearing in Fifh; wherein he endeavours to prove, against the opinion of fome naturalifts, that most fish can hear very well. Ray, Willis, Nollet, and others, pretend that fish, particularly carp, have no auditory nerves, and must, of courfe, be totally deaf. Professor Camper is of a different opinion, having diffected the heads of several fifh, and particularly codfish; when by carefully anatomizing them he hath difcovered the auditory nerves, and the feveral parts of the organs of hearing. Of thefe he gives a defcription, illuftrated with proper figures of the natural fize.

We have, in this volume alfo, a curious memoir on the propagation of the Kingu or Gold fish from China, by Mr. Bafter; who defcribes it, as growing much larger and coming to greater perfection in Holland and England than in the Eaft-Indies. He obferves, after Linnæus, that this fish is of the carp-kind; but that it is much better for the table than the common carp; recommending the propagation of them in our fish-ponds in genera', with a view of profit, as they have hitherto been bred in fome few particular ones, by way of ornament.

Art. 21. Differtation fur la Nature, les Efpeces, et le Degres de PEvidence, &c. 4to. Berlin. 1764.

A Differtation on the Nature, Modes, and Degrees of Evidence; with other Pieces on the Subject.

The Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin having propofed, as one of their Prize questions, "Whether Metaphyfical and Moral Truths were fufceptible of the fame degree of certitude as Mathematical Truths; and in cafe they were not, what kind and degree of evidence might be affigned them?" The differtation before us was honoured with the prize: the pieces fubjoined are thofe of other competitors. This very interefting question, however, will admit of a farther folution.

Art. 22. Nouvelle Organe, ou Penfées fur le maniere de rechercher la Verité, de la Characterifer, &c. Leipzig. 1764.

A New Key to the Sciences; or Reflections on the Manner of inveftigating the Truth, and diftinguishing it from Errour and fimple Probability,

The opy of Ariftotle, being grown fomewhat rufty by age and difufe, the celebrated Lord Verulam took the trouble to adopt it for his own, and furbish it up anew. The Author of this little tract, whofe name is Lambert, feems to think Bacon's organum, at prefent, in much the fame fituation as he found that of Ariftotle. He therefore has endeavoured to oblige the world with a new one. His tract is divided into four parts. The fir treating of the rules that constitute the art of thinking the fecond, of the truth confidered in itself: the third of the method of difcovering the characters of truth: the fourth of the means of diftinguishing the appearances of things from their reality. It is on the whole an ingenious and fenfible performance.

Art. 23. Des Corps Politiques, et de leurs Gouvernemens, 2 Tom. 12mo. Lyons. 1764.

An

An Effay on the Conftitution and Administration of Bodies Politick.

It is furprising, that among fuch vaft numbers of foreign productions on every fubject and fcience, we almost always find fomething juftly deferving of commendation. If there is nothing new in the matter, there is generally fome improvement in the manner. But it is notorious, that men of letters on the continent are greatly fuperior to most of the English in the art of compofition; which is fhamefully neglected at prefent, in this country.

Art. 24. Confiderations fur le Gouvernment ancien et prefent de la France. Par Mr. le Marquis d'Argenfon.

8vo. 1764.

Amfterdam.

Reflections on the ancient and modern Government of France. Imported by Becket and de Hondt.

This is the work, of which Mr. Rouffeau makes fuch frequent mention in the notes to his treatife on the Social Compact; and of which manuscript copies have been long in the hands of fome few particulars. We have not room, if the work were capable of an abstract, to oblige our readers fo far; we cannot difmifs it, however, without taking notice of one reflection, which interests our own country. Lycurgus, fays the Marquis d'Argenfon, by his legislative wifdom, laid the foundation of the Lacedemonian government, which was compounded of Royalty, Ariftocracy and Democracy. Philofophical politicians have reprefented this compound as the most perfect of all governments; and the English nation make their boaft that it fubfifts at prefent amongst them in its highest perfection. But it is morally impoffible to prevent one of these three fpecies of administration, from gaining the advantage fooner or later of the other two.

Art. 25. Lettres de Cecile a Julie, ou les Combats de la Nature. Letters from Cecilia to Julia, or the Trials of Nature.

1764. Imported by Becket and de Hondt.

12mo.

The Editor of thefe letters acquaints us they are written by a lady; that the hiftory contained in them is not a romance, but a Collection of Facts and Episodes ;-which have nothing remarkable in them but their want of probability. This circumftance, however, may not render them the leaft pleafing to the moft numerous clafs of readers; for, being extremely paffionate and exceffively improbable, they are the better calculated, as Mr. Bayes fays, to elevare and furprize! Art. 26. Hiftoire Angloife de Milord Feld, arrivé a Fontainebleau. The Hiftory of My Lord Feld, an English Nobleman, arrived 1764.

at Fontainebleau. 12mo.

The Author of this history tells us, he hath compiled it from original memoirs; that he is an Englishman, and that he and my Lord Duke de But'er were fellow collegians together at Okford. For our parts, we find nothing like English in the book but the terms, my Lord and

my Lady; and they are gallicifed into the barbarisms Milord and Miledi. Out upon these new tuners of accents!" Art. 27. Differtations fur Elie et Enoch, &c. Par M. Boulanger. Diflertations upon Enoch and Elias, upon Efop the Fabulift, and a Mathematical Treatife on Happiness.

Mr. Boulanger, author of the Enquiry into the origin of Oriental Defpotifm, and of a Manufcript of which he has talked much, entitled, The Eternity of the World, hath here obliged the world with three curious differtations more de fa fucon. Thofe readers, who are fond of the extraordinary, the problematical and the wonderful, will find fome entertainment in the perufal of these little tracts.

Art. 28. Memoires de Mathematique et de Phyfique, &c. Phyfical and Mathematical Memoirs, occafionally prefented, by the Learned and Ingenious, to the Royal Academy of Sciences. Paris. 1764.

This is the fourth volume of this mifcellaneous collection, and contains thirty-four papers on different fubjects of Natural Philofophy, Anatomy, Chemistry, Geometry, &c. Among thofe of the first class, is a curious and useful memoir, by M. Romas, on the manner of making electrical experiments on thunder clouds. It is now fome years fince this gentleman published the very fingular experiments he himself made, by means of a paper kite: from all which it fufficiently appeared, that the more a body was detached from, and elevated above the earth, the more powerfully it attracted the electric fire from the clouds. He obferves, however, that experiments of this kind fhould be made with extreme caution, left the Experimentalist should have reason to repent of his curiofity.

Among the papers on Anatomy, we have a very remarkable account of a child, who was brought to Paris in 1756, fo terribly afflicted with the dropfy in the brain, that its head was tranfparent. Mr. Marcorelle, the correfpondent who furnishes this article, was at the opening of this head after the death of the child, and gives a particular and circumftantial relation of the diffection and state of the parts.

In the class of Botany, Mr. Bonnet hath a paper containing fome new experiments on the generation of grain; in which he contraverts, and feems effectually to difprove, the notion, fometime fince received in Sweden and in Holland, concerning the converfion of wheat into Rye.

The multiplicity of Foreign Publications which have lately come to our hands, obliges us to poftpone several articles intended for this Appendix, particularly the laft Volumes of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres at Paris. Thefe articles, therefore, will be speedily inferted in the ordinary Courfe of the Review.

INDEX.

INDE X.

N. B. To find any particular Book, or Pamphlet, see the Table of Contents, prefixed to the Volume.

ACTION, principle of, not ef- BARECES, baths there, virtues of,

BABEL, Angular etymology of BORLASE's account of the weather

prefentation of, by a diffenting D'A

minifter, 86. Neceffity of reforming her liturgy, 87. Encomium on, 301.