as natural Supplements to Sir William Hamilton's valuable ac counts of the Vefuvian eruptions, and hopes they will be received as improvements of useful science. There is the lefs occafion to enlarge upon the advantages: of geographical, phyfical, mineralogical, and chemical obfervations, as it is obvious that, by rectifying the different ro mantic hypothefes of the earth, they afford philofophers an opportunity not only to improve the fyftem and claffification of fofils, but what is above any fcientifical nomenclator, to lay down fure principles for the too-much neglected and expenfive art of miners. Many curious obfervations to that purpose have been made of late in Italy, Hungary, Dalmatia, and Germany, by Mr. Ferber, Baron Born, and Alb. Fortis, in their Mineralogical and Botanical Travels: all which the Author has am intention of publishing in the English language.' Speaking, in the general remarks prefixed to part III. of the utility of thofe inquiries which are the fubject of his present publication, Mr. Rafpe obferves, that people, to whom the very name and idea of a volcano is frightful, and to whom neigh bouring volcanic ruins caufe dreadful dreams of the earth-fhaking contests of Pluto and Neptune, of the furnaces of Vulcan, or what is worse, of the eternal combuftion of hell, objects and fancies by fools and poets feen in volcanos, will certainly blefs thefe countries for being deftitute of fuch troublesome objects. They will affure us perhaps, "that fleep and life is furer where neither the marks of ancient deftructions are to be feen, nor their returning rage to be apprehended. Why will you force upon us old volcanos, unnoticed by hiftory, and good for nothing?" But there is much to be faid to footh fuch apprehenfions. We live here on and near the ruins of our extinct volcanos, as quietly and as fecurely as we should reft on the most bloody fields of ancient battles, or on the tombs of raging tyrants. Times immemorial their forces have been exhausted or quiet, and their prefent diftance from the fea gives fome hopes. that they will be fo for ever. They are befides good for fomething, as fhall be proved presently; and this will justify the pains and care I have taken, and which other people may take, in their future examination and description. I will not dwell much on the pleasure which inquiries of that kind afford to the mind and the imagination; they are naturally bent to pry into the remoteft antiquity, and into the firft caufes of things. But this pleasure, being personal, might perhaps be enjoyed, though the object of its inquiries be without any utility and advantage to human fociety. However, it may be a means of ufeful knowledge; and fuch is the conjecture and the conviction, that feveral of our mountains are of a volcanic origin.' Mr. Mr. Rafpe likewife remarks, and very juftly, that inquiries of this kind improve the knowledge of the phyfical geography, and the expenfive art of the miners.' This knowledge, adds he, in explanation of the above remark, improves and corrects our ideas concerning the origin and the natural viciffitudes of the furface of the earth; points out feveral dangerous errors, and teaches us to find at home feveral forts of useful foffils, which either were not noticed at all, or were even at great expence imported from abroad-objeas that certainly cannot be indifferent to a friend of truth, nor feem fuperfluous to a lover of his country, or to a man that once has felt the confequences of error! Every error is attended with its own natural punishment, and especially blunders committed in the expenfive working of mines, whofe punishment never fails to be immediate and extremely fenfible. Such errors might be committed, and I am apprehenfive have been committed very often, if in hope of metallic veins one should venture to fink fhafts and to drive galleries through the vitreous rocks of volcanic mountains. They yield nothing but clear lofs of money, pains, and time. Being accumulated by ashes, lavas, and fraggling vomited ftones, they may now and then contain in their melted maffes and cinders fome marks of metals; but their very nature forbids to hope or to look in them for metallic veins, which, by the fubterraneous fermentation, heat, and fire, are deftroyed and melted into one mafs, with the unweildy barren rocks that skirt them on every fide. There has been, under the late Landgrave Charles of Heffe, funk a pit and a gallery through a bafalt and lava-rock, under the smaller Winterkaften at the Habichwald. The gallery is still open, and it is called the filver-well (filver-brunn). If thefe amazing fubterraneous works have been undertaken on account of the cafcades or the coal-pits, which are on the other fide of the hill, they may perhaps be excufable; but if there has been any intention to fish for filver in the filver-well, as feems to appear by its name, the enormous expences have certainly been thrown away, and would have been faved by a better acquaintance with the nature of the whole mountain.' Thefe fhort fpecimens will ferve to evince how far this learned. Foreigner has made himself mafter of the English language; and will enable our Readers to form an adequate judgment of the advantage which we may expect from his defign of introducing to our better acquaintance, the works of fome ingenious Writers of the Continent, whofe valuable performances might, otherwise, never have been naturalized among us. The volcanos which have been the fubjects of Mr. Rafpe's refearches and obfervations, are thofe of Heffe-Caffell, his na tive country (if we are not mistaken), viz. of the Habichwald, 1i 3. and and other mountains, of the fame nature, which encircle the valley of Caffell;-the original formation of which he afcribes to the action of fubterraneous fire: and his hypothefis appears, to us, to be established on irrefragable arguments. To the defcriptive part of his work, the Writer has a detail of the ufes of volcanic productions (lava, vitrifications, afnes, &c.) from which, if duly attended to, confiderable advantages may be derived to the arts and manufactures of this country. THE FOREIGN LITERATURE, FRANC E. HE Abbé LÉPEE, justly celebrated for his excellent method of inftructing the deaf and dumb, and for the difinterefted zeal and labour he has employed for that purpofe, has publifhed his course of inftructions under the following title: Inflitutions des Sourds et Muets par la voie des Signs Methodiques, &c. i. e. A Series of Inftruations, delivered to deaf and dumb Perfons, by the Means of methodical Signs: "A work which contains the plan of an univerfal language by the intervention of natural figns, reduced to a certain method." 8vo. We find in this curious little book a fummary of the ingenious Abbé's method, and a comparison between it and the method of the famous Portuguese, Pereyra, who made ufe of an alphabet, compofed of figns of the hand and fingers, and carried this ingenious and humane art to a high degree of perfection. 11. Analyfe des Traités des Bienfaits & de la Clemence de Senêque, &c. i. e. An Analysis of the Treatifes of Seneca concerning Beneficence and Clemency. To which is prefixed, a Life of that Philsfopher, more ample than those that have been hitherto published. 12mo. 1776. We mention this publication particularly on account of the excellent life of Seneca, prefixed to it, in which that philofopher is defended, in a mafterly manner, against all the afperfions of envy or calumny that have been cast upon his character. III. L'Ami Philofophe & Politique, &c. i. e. The Philofophical and Political Friend: a Work which unfolds the Effence, the various Kinds, the Principles, the characteristical Marks, Advantages, and Duties of Friendship, and the Art of acquiring, preferving, and recovering the Friendship and Esteem of our Fellow Creatures. 12mo. 1776. There is a great deal of fenfe, fimplicity, and fentiment in this treatife, in which the fubject is confidered in all its afpects. IV. La Recherche du Bonheur, en quatre Divifions, tendantes au même But. i. c. An Inquiry concerning Happiness, in four Parts, as refulting from four Things that tend to the fame End. By Mr. M. M.T.D. M. There are as many books published upon himan nature and human Happiness as would make a large library, and yet few feem to have made much progrefs in the knowledge of the one, or to have discovered a true difcernment of the other. The treatife before us is built on four of the most trite and thread-bare principles imaginable; but the manner of unfolding these principles, of following them in their confequences, of difplaying the nature and characters of the paffions, and of pointing out the conftituents of felicity, is judicious, fpirited, and interesting, and discovers a writer, well furnished with wit, eloquence, and a philofophical turn of mind. V. M. DE BURY, a writer of note, has, at the age of go, published a History of St. Lewis, King of France, with an Abridg ment of the History of the Crufades. 2 vols. 12mo. A king, who, in the midst of feudal anarchy, knew how to render his authority refpected, who enacted wife laws at a time when li centioufnefs reigned uncontrouled, who ruled intractable vaffals accustomed to rapine and violence, by the rules of equity and the influence of good morals, who was wife and frugal in his private life, but liberal and magnificent on public occafions, intrepid in the field, prudent in the council, who loved and was beloved by his people, to whofe felicity he facrificed every private advantage, every perfonal confideration and intereft, is the fubject of this judicious hiftory. VI. Mr. Debure, bookfeller, has just published a learned work, intitled, Hiftoire de l'Aftronomie ancienne, depuis fon Origine jufqu' a' l'Etabliffement de l'Ecole d' Alexandrie, &c. i. e. The Hiftory of ancient Aftronomy, from its Origin to the Establishment of the Alexandrian School, by Mr. BAILLY, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, &c. 4to. 1776. There is fo much merit in this ingenious and interefting publication, that we pro pose to give, in our next Supplement, a more ample account of it than the space, to which we are confined in our Monthly Catalogue, will admit of. VII. It is to the prefs of Paris, and not to that of London, (as the title fpeaks) that we owe the publication of the following effay: Effai fur le Retabliffement de l'ancienne Forme du Gouvernement de Pologne, fuivant la Conftitution primitive de la Republique: i. e. An Efay concerning the Refloration of the ancient Form of Government in Poland, according to the primitive Conflitution of that Republic. By Count WIELHORSKI, High Steward of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. 8vo. The Author of this fenfible and fpirited effay is one of those steady patriots who hope and perfevere in the darkeft fcenes of public diftrefs, and never lofe their courage while any thing remains to be done for the recovery or falvation of a tottering empire. The obfervations of this judicious Writer are folid and interefting. He confiders the Ii4 ancient ancient form of the Polish republic, the manner in which the laws were enacted in those early times, the jurifdiction of the fe nate, minifters, and officers, intrufted with the executive power, and the abuíes that have been introduced, in modern times, into all the departments of that unfortunate state. VIII. The name of GANGANELLI, who filled the papal chair with fuch dignity and virtue, will, no doubt, excite the impatience of the Public to perufe a Collection of his letters, which have appeared at Paris, Lyons, and Rouer, under the following title: Lettres Intereffantes du Pape Clement XIV. Tom. 1. 1776. Thefe Letters, indeed, will answer the expectations of those who expect much from the sweet fimplicity, the found judgment, the eafy wit, the candid and charitable heart, and the excellent head of that wife and virtuous citizen, Pope Ganganelli. We hope the Letters are all genuine, as we are perfuaded that the greateft part of them are excellent, IX. An anonymous Author has published a treatise in defence of Luxury, a term which conveys fuch vague, ambiguous, and relative ideas, as muft open a field for perpetual controversy. The work is intitled, Theorie du Luxe ou Traité dans lequel on entreprend d'etablir que le Luxe eft un reffort le Luxe eft un reffort non feulement utile, mais méme indifpenfablement neceffaire à la Profperité d'un Etat : i. e. The Theory of Luxury, or a Treatife defigned to prove that Luxury is not only useful, but indifpenfably neceffary to the Profperity of a State. The Author of this treatise feems to have confidered, on all its fides, and in its various connexions, the nice and complicated fubject he has undertaken to illuftrate; but though his obfervations are fometimes juft, and often ingenious, they are not always folid. X. The learned Mr. RONDET, Editor of the Bible of Avignon (which we have formerly mentioned) has published a treatife, intitled, Differtation fur la Apocalypfe, où l'on examine, c. i.e. A Differtation on the Apocalypfe or Book of Revelations, in which the following Questions are difcuffed: 1ft, When that Beak was compofen? 2dly, What is its true Intention and Object? 3dly, Whether it was originally compofed in Greek, Hebrew, or Syriac? 4to. 1776. in the edition of the Bible (with large com. mentaries) publifhed at Paris and Avignon by Mr. RONDET, this laborious Author had confiderably enlarged Dan Calmet's Preface to the Book of Revelations, and fubjoined to it two differtations entirely new, in which he attempted to prove that the downfall of idolatry throughout the Roman empire, the various fates of the Chriftian Church until the end of time, the last judgment, and its awful confequences, were the great objects of all the vifions and revelations recorded in this facred book. It is to confirm this hypothefis, to throw new light on the argument, and to refute the notion of Mr. Defhauterayes (who has |