But the people, fecure in their numbers and obfcurity, gave a free vent to their paffions. The streets and public places of Rome refounded with clamours and imprecations. The enraged multitude affronted the perfon of Julian, rejected his liberality, and, confcious of the impotence of their own refentment, they called aloud on the legions of the frontiers to affert the violated majesty of the Roman empire.' In the remaining part of this chapter, we have an account of the civil wars and victory of Severus over his rivals. Mr. Gibbon does not enter into a minute narrative of the military operations of this Emperor, but collects into one point of view the moft ftriking circumftances, tending to develope his character, and the ftate of the empire. We cannot, within the limits which must be affigned to this Article, give our Readers a diftinct view of what he has faid on this interefting part of his fubject, but muft, though with reluctance, refer them to the work itself, where they will find the character and conduc of Severus delineated with great ability, and with claffical elegance. He, properly, obferves that the arts employed by Severus cannot be justified by the most ample privileges of state-reafon -He promised only to betray, he flattered only to ruin, and however he might occafionally bind himself by oaths and treaties, his confcience, obfequious to his intereft, always releafed him from the inconvenient obligation. He concludes this chapter with faying, that the contemporaries of Severus, in the enjoyment of the peace and glory of his reign, forgave the cruelties by which it had been introduced, but that pofterity, who experienced the fatal effects of his maxims and example, juftly confidered him as the principal author of the decline of the Roman empire. The tyranny of Caracalla, the follies of Elagabalus, and the. virtues of Alexander Severus, are prefented to our view in the fixth chapter. But the perfonal characters of the Emperors, their victories, laws, follies, and fortunes, can intereft us no farther, as Mr. Gibbon obferves, than as they are connected with the general hiftory of the decline and fall of the monarchy. His conftant attention to this great object makes him take particular notice, in the chapter now before us, of a most important edict of Antoninus Caracalla, which communicated to all the free inhabitants of the empire the name and privileges of Roman citizens. The confequences of this univerfal freedom are briefly pointed out, but with great diftin&tnefs and perfpicuity; and the Author takes occafion, from this part of his fubject, to make fome very pertinent and inftructive obfervations on the finances of the Roman flate, from the victorious ages of the commonwealth to the reign of Alexander Severus. The The feventh chapter is introduced with fome general reflec tions on the apparent ridicule, but real and folid advantages of hereditary fucceffion. Our Hiftorian then proceeds to obferve, that after the murder of Alexander Severus, and the elevation of Maximin, no Emperor could think himself safe upon the throne, and that every barbarian peafant of the frontier might afpire to that auguft, but dangerous ftation. He goes on to relate the birth and fortunes of Maximus and Balbinus, and the three Gordians-the ufurpation and fecular games of Philip, &c. and concludes the chapter in the following manner : • Since Romulus, with a small band of fhepherds and outlaws, fortified himself on the hills near the Tyber, ten centuries had already elapfed. During the four firft ages, the Romans, in the laborious fchool of poverty, had acquired the virtues of war and government. By the vigorous exertion of thofe virtues, and by the affiftance of fortune, they had obtained, in the courfe of the three fucceeding centuries, an abfolute empire over many countries of Europe, Afia, and Africa. The last three handred years had been confumed in apparent profperity and internal decline. The nation of foldiers, magiftrates, and legislators, who compofed the thirty five tribes of the Roman people, was diffolved into the common mass of mankind, and confounded with the millions of fervile provincials, who had received the name, without adopting the fpirit of Romans. A mercenary army, levied among the fubjects and barbarians of the frontier, was the only order of men who preferved and abused their independence. By their tumultuary election, a Syrian, a Goth, or an Arab, was exalted to the throne of Rome, and invested with defpotic power over the conquefts and over the country of the Scipios. The limits of the Roman empire ftill extended from the Western Ocean to the Tigris, and from Mount Atlas to the Rhine and the Danube. To the undifcerning eye of the vulgar, Philip appeared a monarch no lefs powerful than Hadrian or Auguftus had formerly been. The form was ftill the fame, but the animating health and vigour were fled. The induftry of the people was difcouraged and exhausted by a long feries of oppreffion. The difcipline of the legions, which alone, after the extinction of every other virrue, had propped the greatnefs of the ftate, was corrupted by the ambition, or relaxed by the weakness of the Emperors. The ftrength of the frontiers, which had always confifted in arms rather than in fortifications, was infenfibly undermined; and the fairest provinces were left exposed to the rapaciousness or ambition of the barbarians, who foon discovered the decline of the Roman empire.' As the government and religion of Perfia are connected with the decline and fall of the Roman empire, our Author, in his eighth chapter, confiders the ftate of Perfia after the restoration of the monarchy by Artaxerxes, and in his ninth, the state of Germany till the invafion of the barbarians, in the time of the Emperor Decius. Both thefe chapters are no less entertaining than inftructive, and contain very evident and striking proofs of the Author's judgment, and enlarged and liberal views. The The tenth chapter is introduced in the following manner : From the great fecular games celebrated by Philip, to the death of the Emperor Gallienas, there elapfed twenty years of fhame and misfortune. During that calamitous period, every instant of time was marked, every province of the Roman world was afflicted, by barbarous invaders and military tyrants, and the ruined empire feemed to approach the laft and fatal moment of its diffolution. The confufion of the times, and the fcarcity of authentic memorials, oppose equal difficulties to the hiftorian, who attempts to preserve a clear and unbroken thread of narration. Surrounded with imperfect fragments, always concife, often obfcure, and fometimes contradictory, he is reduced to collect, to compare, and to conjecture: and though he ought never to place his conjectures in the rank of facts, yet the knowledge of human nature, and of the fure operation of its fierce and unrestrained paffions, might, on fome occafions, fupply the want of hiftorical materials.' In this chapter we have an account of the GoтHS, that great people, who acted fo memorable a part in the fubverfion of the Western Empire, who broke the Roman power, facked the capital, and reigned in Gaul, in Spain, and in Italy. Mr. Gibbon inquires into their origin, their religion, &c. relates the various events of the Gothic war, their naval expeditions, &c. together with the character and violent deaths of the thirty tyrants. In this chapter too, we have an account of the origin and confederacy of the Franks, and of the origin and renown of the Suevi; but for all these particulars we must refer to the work itself. (To be concluded in another Article.) FOREIGN LITERATURE. FRANC E. S the Natural Hiftory of St. Domingo and the adjacent islands has not been unfolded to the view of the Public by any remarkable adepts in that fcience, and has only been accidentally treated by miffionaries, mariners, or merchants, the following production will undoubtedly meet with a favourable reception, Effai fur l'Hiftoire Naturelle de St. Domingue: i. e. An Effay concerning the Natural History of the Ifland of St. Domingo, with Plates. 1776. It is not a complete Natural Hiftory of the ifland in question that the Reader is to expect in this performance, which is rather a collection of obfervations, made without any fixed plan, but made upon the spot, as occafion offered, with great attention, judgment, and accuracy, and with a fpirit of inquiry entirely unbiaffed by the accounts or defcriptions of preceding writers. All the objects of natural hiftory, here exhibited, are arranged in alphabetical order, and REV. May, 1776. Dd fome fome of them prefent interefting discoveries. Our Author's account of the natives and the negroes is curious and inftructive; and his defcription of that part of the island, that is occupied by the French colony, its productions, population, commerce, manufactures, civil and ecclefiaftical government, is accurate and interefting. Father Nicholfon, a learned Dominican, who refided fome years in St. Domingo, is the Author of this essay. II. Difcours fur les Monumens Publics de tous les Ages & de tous les Peuples connus, fuivi d'une Defcription du Monument projetté à la Glorie de Louis XVI. de la France, &c. i. e. A Difcourfe concerning the Public Monuments of all the Ages and Nations known in Hiftory, followed by a Defcription of the Monument that was projected in Honour of Lewis XVI. and of the Kingdom of France, and concluded by fome Obfervations on the modern Monuments of the city of Paris, and the Methods that may be used for adorning and improving that City. By the Abbé DE LUBERSAC, Vicar-general of Narbonne. 1776. In this vaft and laborious undertaking the account of ancient monuments, and the Author's obfervations upon them, are fo arranged as to form a kind of compendious hiftory of the Arts and their progrefs, drawn from a multitude of materials, which are at prefent difperfed in a great variety of Greek and Latin authors, ancient remains, engravings, and defigns. III. Father MAILLA, a French Jefuit, employed forty years of his refidence at Pekin in the compofition of an Hiftory of China, tranflated or extracted from the Grand Annals, (as they are called) the most authentic literary fource of Chinese story, which has been handed down as facred through different dynafties. This great enterprife, which the famous Mr. Freret undertook but did not execute, was happily finished by Father Mailla; and, fince his death, the Abbé Grofier has been appointed (by the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres) to prepare the work for the prefs, and to publish it in 12 volumes, 4to. The Profpectus is already published by that Abbé, and is adapted to convey a favourable opinion of the work and of the Editor. In this Profpectus Mr. Pauw's researches concerning the Chinese are examined, refuted, and cenfured, with judgment and fpirit, mingled with more than a fufficient portion of warmth and acrimony. IV. Mr. ROUSSEL, an eminent physician of the faculty of Montpellier, has published a curious and interesting_work, intitled, Syfteme phyfique & morale de la Femme ou Tableau Philofothique de la Conflitution, &c. i. e. Woman phyfically and morally confidered, or a Philofophical Expofition of the Conflitution, Organi cal Structure, Manners, and Functions that are peculiar to the Ftmale Sex. This work is divided into two parts. In the firft the the Author treats of thofe qualities and characters that are common to both fexes, but are nevertheless fufceptible of modifications and of a certain degree of diverfity: and in the fecond he points out and examines the diftinctive characters of the two fexes, or rather the qualities that are peculiar to the female fex. There is a variety of ingenious and pleafing difquifitions in this philofophical production. V. The gentleman farmer will find ufeful views, though not always happily nor concifely expreffed, in the following work, which has been lately published at Paris in 4to, and in 8vo, by the bookfeller Pancoucke. Traite de la Connoiffance Générale des Grains & de la Mouture par Economie, &c. i. e. A Treatife concerning the univerfal Knowledge of Grain, with an Account of the Manner of Grinding that produces the greatest Quantity of good Flour; containing aljo Defcriptions of the Mechanism and Construction of feveral Kinds of Mills, with Inftructions relative to the Purchase and Prefervation of Grain, and to public and private Granaries, &c. &c. by Mr. BEGUILLER, Advocate to the States of Burgundy. Among other curious things contained in this work, (which is accompanied with cuts well coloured) there is a memoir, tranfmitted from Pekin, relative to the Chinese method of preferving corn, and the laws of their police with respect to that article. The first volume in 4to, (which makes two in 8vo,) of this work, is already published, VI. Effai fur l'Impot: i. e. An Essay upon Taxes and the Method of raising them. VII. Reflexions Philofophiques fur l'Impot: i. e. Philofophical Reflexions on Taxation. By Mr. JEROM TIFAUT DE LA NOUE. There are excellent obfervations in this piece, which breathes the fpirit of a judicious, zealous, and virtuous patriot. VIII. The ingenious Baron DE ST. CROIX has published, with confiderable additions and corrections (in a 4to volume of 356 pages) his Critical Examination of the ancient Historians of Alexander the Great. The French title is, Examen Critique des anciens Hiftoriens d'Alexandre le Grand. This fubject was propofed, with a prize annexed, by the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres; and the piece before us obtained the prize, and that defervedly. The principal hiftorians, who have related the events that happened in the reign of Alexander, and the exploits of that hot-headed conqueror, are Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, Arrian, Quintus Curtius, and Juftin. In the first section of this work, our Author appreciates the refpective merit and demerit of thefe hiftorians, and examines the opinion of the ancients concerning other writers, who have related the exploits of the Macedonian Hero, fuch as Clitarchus, Callisthenes, Oneficritus, Hegefias, Ptolemy, and Ariftobulus, whofe works are loft. In the fecond fection he follows Alexander in his military expeditions, Dd 2 |