this enlightened and zealous inquirer, and no corner has escaped his penetrating glance. Equal to Buffon in enlarged views and comprehensive grasp, and much superior to him in patient research, minute observation, and learned inquiry, he presents a rare union of all the great requisites for promoting natural knowledge. He has not been less fortunate in his situation than in his qualifications. Devoting his whole time to science, and surrounded by numerous able assistants, he could avail himself, to the full extent, of those liberal institutions for the advancement of natural knowledge, and that uniform encouragement of talent, for which science will ever be indebted to the French Government. Accordingly, his progress has been everywhere

marked by improvement and discovery.

Engaged, says he, in antiquarian researches of a new kind, I have been obliged to learn the art of decyphering and restoring these monuments, of recognising and replacing their primitive arrangement the scattered and mutilated fragments of which they consist, of reconstructing those ancient beings to which they be longed, of exhibiting their proportions, and lastly, of comparing them to those which are found at this moment on the surface of the globe; an art almost unknown, and presupposing the existence of a science hitherto almost untouched-I mean the laws of co-existence, which regulate the forms of the various parts of organised beings. The subject is one of the most curious that can engage our attention. If we feel an interest in following through the infancy of our species the almost effaced traces of so many extinct nations, we shall be at least equally gratified in exploring, amid the darkness that involves the early ages of the earth, the remains of revolutions anterior to the existence of of all nations.

BLUMENBACH. A Manual of the Elements of Natural History, translated from the German of Blumenbach by Gore, octavo, 14s.

It

This is decidedly the most scientific work on the subject. is by far the best introduction to natural history in any language, and is particularly valuable for the anatomical and physiological information with which it abounds.

Application of Physical Sciences to the Arts.

BIRKBECK. A Comprehensive and Systematic Display, Theoretical and Practical, of the Steam Engine, by George Birkbeck, M. D. F.G. S. M.A.S. President of the London Mechanics' Institution; and Henry Adcock and James Adcock, Civil Engineers; illustrated by plates by the best artists, engraved from the most accurate drawings, made, in every case, expressly for this work only. Handsomely printed in quarto. FAREY. A Treatise on the Steam Engine, Historical, Practical, and Descriptive, by J. Farey, quarto, plates.

YOUNG.

A Course of Lectures on Natural Philophy and the Mechanical Arts, by Thomas Young, M.D. 2 vols. quarto, plates, 1807.

In this valuable and interesting work there is a most complete catalogue of works relating to Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts, with references to particular passages, and occasional abstracts and remarks. To give an idea of this arrangement, I will subjoin a brief outline, which would serve as a model for the arrangement of other departments of literature,

Catalogues.

Collections relating to the Sciences.

Collections of the works of single authors.

Mathematics in general.

Of Quantity and Numbers, or Algebra.

Natural History in general.
Mineralogy in general.
Systems.

Philosophy of Mineralogy:

Botany in general.

Systems.

Vegetable Anatomy.

Zoology.

Systems.

Physiology.

Cultivation of Natural Productions,

including Agriculture.

This affords but a faint outline of the Catalogue.

Mental Science.

This department comprehends,

1st, Philosophy of the Human Mind.
2nd, Logic.

To proceed far in the study of Method, it will be proper to recommend-Crousaz, Watts, Le Clerc, Wolfius, and Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding; and if there be any necessity of adding the Peripatetic Logic, which has been perhaps condemned without a candid trial, it will be convenient to proceed to Sanderson, Wallis, Crackenthorpe, and Aristotle.

For a plain and practical Manual, nothing can be better than a small work in French, taken from Du Marsais.

LOGIC.

The logic which for so many ages kept possession of the schools, has at last been condemned as a mere art of wrangling, of very little use in the pursuit of truth; and late writers have contented themselves with giving an account of the operations of the mind, marking the various stages of her progress, and giving some general rules for the regulation of her

conduct.

This work, however laborious, has yet been fruitless, if there be truth in an observation very frequently made, that logicians out of the school do not reason better than men unassisted by those lights which their science is supposed to bestow. It is not to be doubted but that logicians may be sometimes overborne by their passions, or blinded by their prejudices; and that a man may reason ill, as he may act ill, not because he does not know what is right, but because he does not regard it; yet it is no more the fault of his art that it does not direct him when his attention is withdrawn from it, than it is the defect of his sight that he misses his way when he shuts his eyes. Against this cause of error there is no provision to be made, otherwise than by inculcating the value of truth and the necessity of conquering the passions.

But logic may likewise fail to produce its effects upon common occasions, for want of being frequently