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vantage of being able with thefe light creatures to traverse the tracklefs mountains and proceed along the furface of deep ridges of fnow, they are alfo excellent guides on the dreary way, as in the moft pitchy darkness and in the most tremendous ftorms of fnow they find out the place for which their mafter is bound. If the ftorm be fo violent that, unable to proceed, they must remain on the fpot, as not unfrequently happens, the dogs lie by the fide of their mafter, and preferve his life by their natural warmth. They likewife give infallible notice of approaching ftorms, by fcratching holes in the fnow and endeavouring to fhelter themselves in them. By thefe and many other good qualities, the Kamtfhadale dogs by far overbalance the mifchiefs they do by their perverfity; and to what other cause but the tyrannical treatment they receive from hard-hearted man, is the blame of this perverfity to be afcribed? Great as their rogueries may be, they fcorn comparifon with the cold and selfish ingratitude which thefe degraded animals, chained to perpetual bondage and ftripes, endure from mankind. Scarcely has the Kamtfhadale dog, worn out by the weight of his bodily fufferings, arrived at a premature old age, in which he is unfit any longer to draw, than his inexorable mafter exacts of him the laft furrender he is able to make-his fkin; and the fame cruelly treated flave, who during his fhort and painful life has fo often imparted his animal warmth to his mercilefs tyrant, affords him the fame fervice and in the fame manner even after his death."

Other extracts, equally entertaining, fhall be brought forward by us in our future numbers; and they will fhew that our praises of this work were juftly bestowed. Ruffia is in every refpect a rifing empire, and may hereafter become what Greece and Rome were in the ages of antiquity! Its hiftory, therefore, is particularly interefting to inquifitive minds; nor can it be contemplated with indifference by perfons who feel for the future welfare of mankind. The melioration of fo large a portion of Europe is an object of delightful confideration, and the means by which this wonderful reformation was effected are here amply detailed.

A Compen

A Compendious Syftem of Aftronomy, in a Courfe of Familiar Lectures, in which the Principles of that Science are clearly elucidated, fo as to be intelligible to thofe who have not fludied the Mathematics; alfo Trigonometrical and Celestial Problems, with a Key to the Ephemeris, and a Vocabulary of the Terms of Science ufed in the Lectures, which latter are explained agreeably to their Application in them. By Margaret Bryan. Second Edition. Wallis. 12s. in Boards.

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THE interefting fcience of aftronomy is here explained with fingular felicity; and from an attentire perufal of this volume, we have it in our power to pronounce it a valuable acquifition to the rifing generation. The diffufion of fcience is connected with the welfare of the human fpecies; and to this industrious lady we feel high obligations.

The work is recommended by the celebrated Charles Hutton, author of the Mathematical Dictionary, a performance of immenfe erudition, and by which the fame of its author is fully established.

Mrs. Bryan has diftributed her fubject into ten lectures, many of which are of confiderable length; and they are interfperfed with several ingenious diagrams, by which the ftatements are well illuftrated. It would have been an improvement could the engraving be unfolded beyond the margin of the pages; but it is a defect common to fuch kind of publications.

The ftyle is perfpicuous and animated, especially where topics are explained; but fometimes too metaphorical in the addrefs to the pupils. The whole, however, difplays fo much ingenuity, and fo much good intention in the moral reflections, that we give the production our heartieft approbation.

The Second Lecture, which embraces the History of Aftronomy, is full of entertainment; we fhall tranf

"Our times and feafons now correfpond with thofe fettled by the first Christian council, in the time of Conftantine the Great, when the feftivals of the church were fixed by his order, in the year of our Lord 325.

"Having explained the calendar fufficiently for my purpofe, those who with for a farther elucidation of the subject, or mathematical definition of it, I beg leave to refer to that ufeful oracle, the Mathematical and Philofophical Dictionary of Dr. Charles Hutton.

"The first feven letters of the alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) are fet to the days of every week, and repeated over and over again from the beginning to the end of the year, viz. A to the 1st day of the year, B to the 2d, C to the 3d, and so on till G on the 7th; then, over again, A to the 8th day, B to the 9th, &c. So that the fame letter falls upon the fame day of every week in the year; and the letter which falls on the first Sunday, and every other Sunday after, in the fame year, is called the Dominical or the Sunday letter for that year. But as the 365 days of an ordinary year contain one day over the exact 52 weeks, the Sunday letters will fall back one place every year; fo that if the Sunday-letter be G for some year, it will be F the year after that, and E the fecond year after,

&c.

"As the intercalary day introduced into the calendar by Julius Cæfar, and which fill continues in ufe, being allowed for in February of the leap-year, might otherwife have caused fome confufion, thefe first feven letters of the alphabet are used in the following manner: the 28th and 29th of February in the Biffextile have but one letter affigned them, fo that the following Sunday goes back a letter, and fo on for the rest of the year. As thus

"Suppofe the dominical letter in leap-year to be C: then, after the 29th of February, the Sunday letter will be B; and, if in leap-year the 1st of January be on a Friday, the first Sunday will be on the 3d of January, therefore the dominical letter will be C; and the first Sunday, the year after, falling on the 1st of January, the Sunday-letter will be A. In a common year, all the Sundays in it have the fame letter; but, in leap-year, the additional day difplaces the letters; therefore, if the first day in a common year fall on a Sunday, the next year it will happen on a Monday, and the next on a

Tuesday,

Tuesday, and so on; and, to prevent all the letters deing difplaced in a leap-year, the Sunday-letter alone is altered.

"Having mentioned the circumstance which occafioned one of the months to be named after Julius Cæfar; in justice to the abilities of Auguftus, I cannot refrain from mentioning the circumstance which procured for him the like diftinction, which was, his having afcertained the several elevations of the fun above the horizon at different times of the year.This he effected by means of the fhadow of an obelisk 111 feet high, which he caused to be erected in the Field of Mars, for the purpose of this obfervation.

Ptolemy's aftronomy, though founded on an erroneous fyftem, ferved to give the obfervers of that age an idea of the apparent courfe of the heavenly bodies, as alfo to foretel natural events, and to bring geography to certain rules.

"After the death of Ptolemy, fpeculative aftronomy again began to decline, and at laft was totally laid afide.

"Hiftorians inform us, that, in the firft ages of Christianity, the most learned Chriftians were wholly occupied in the important miffion of inftructing nations in the revealed religion, and in repelling innovators; which, added to the frequent changes of rulers, laws, and language, kept nations in a tumult unfavourable to fcience: that, about the middle ages, the knowledge of our globe, hiftory and eloquence were neglected; and that part alone of philofophy, which belonged to logic and metaphyfics, was in vogue: that, negligent of the graces of elocution, they became rude in their manners and fpeech, and that their arguments were calculated rather to difguft and perplex than to convince. The latter of these affertions we may eafily conceive must have been the confequence of the former, as, by experience, we know, that to confute without politeness and gentleness is not the way to make our tenets refpected or adopted.

"It is faid that thefe fupercilious Arabian philofophers were thunned by all the world, and were confidered as a public nuifance; as the doctrines they taught tended not to the fervice of either God or man, being fubverfive of all harmony and civilization.

"Philofophy thus transformed, and stripped of all her fine embellishments, was rescued from total degradation in 1214, by fome very few learned men, particularly by Roger Bacon, VOL. VIII.

our

our countryman, who, about that time, reftored it to its na tive importance, clothing it with all that could render it lovely and refpectable; so that it became an object of public esteem and fuffrage.

"In this century the Emperor Frederic the Second caused Ptolemy's conftruction of the universe to be tranflated from the Arabian into Latin.

“In the year 1270, Alphonso, king of Caftile, employed feveral learned men in the bufinefs of reforming aftronomy; and became himself an able aftronomer. Charles, furnamed the Wife, gave great encouragement to this science. Copernicus, in the 15th century, re-established the ancient Pythagorean fyftem, which admitted that the earth might move round the fun, by which the conftitution of the heavens was again brought to natural and certain principles.

"It was Gallileo who chiefly introduced telescopes into the use of aftronomy, in the year 1610, and by that means discovered the fatellites of Jupiter, the phafes of Saturn, the mountains of the moon, the fpots on the fun, and the revolution of the latter on his axis; difcoveries which opened a wide field of inquiry and fpeculation.

"The immortal Newton was the first who demonftrated, from phyfical confiderations, the laws that regulate all the motions of the heavenly bodies, as well as of our earth, which fet bounds to the planets' orbits, and determine their greatest excursions from, and nearest approach to the fun, their grand vivifying principle.

"He taught the cause of that conftant and regular proportion obferved by both primary and fecondary planets, in their circulation round their central bodies, and their distances compared with their periods: he alfo introduced a new theory of the moon, which accurately answers to all her irregularities, and accounts for them.

"Doctor Halley favoured us with the aftronomy of comets, and, as I before mentioned, with a catalogue of the stars, together with aftronomical tables.

"Mr. Flamstead, after observing the motions of all the flars for upwards of forty years, gave fome curious information on that fubject, with a large catalogue of them.

"Laftly, Dr. Herfchel, whofe opinion of the conftruction of the univerfe I shall give in the course of these lectures, has

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