of Argantyr, between Hirvor and Argantur; the fourth is intituled, the Battle; the fifth, Tudor; and the fixth and last, an Incantation; all written in the fame ftrain. If any of our readers chufe fuch kind of Lenten entertainment,' let them fit down to it

'with what appetite they may.'

For our own parts, with all due deference to Norfe and Welch dainties, we must own a little plain folid English food is more fuitable to our palates.

FOREIGN ARTICLES.

Mémoire hiftorique fur la Maladie fingulière de la Veuve Mélin, dite la Femme aux Ongles. Lú à la Faculté. Par M. Saillant. 8.00. Paris.

THE disease here defcribed, is by the author of this Memoir fup.

posed to have been a plica Polonica non explicata; it took its firft rife from the fecond lying-in of the patient. A patient, indeed, fhe was in every poffible fenfe of the word; for it may justly be queftioned whether all the records of human life and human miferies, could produce one inftance of fufferings of any human creature, more multifarious and complicated, more acute, longer, and yet fupported by a perfon of a delicate conftitution, and uncommon fenfibility, with fuch a degree of fortitude, conftancy, patience, and even ferenity of mind, and refignation to the will of her Creator.

The whole account of this complication of fufferings cannot poffibly be read without a mixture of the deepest compaffion, of horror, disgust, and amazement. Phyficians, however, philofophers, and divines ought to read the whole of it: though we must confine ourselves to a mere tranfient glance on this fpectacle of human woes. On a whole human body miferably distorted in all its parts from its natural frame, and entirely helpless: inftead of nails on hands and feet, a fpecies of loathfome claws, continually fuppurating, and inhabited by nefts of excruciating and indestructive infects; fingers contracted, monftrously thick, and inflamed: a mouth without teeth, full of ulcers, and inceffantly falivating, &c. From the firft beginning of the disease the patient became totally blind, and her hearing too feemed frequently endangered. For twenty-two years together, fhe could hardly change the excruciating posture of her body, for an inftant. Add to this, frequent itchings, and anxieties, a quick fenfibility of temper, a delicate frame; once a total want of fleep for three years together! during the courfe of this disease several attacks by other acute difeafes; this fcene of misery protracted through twenty-four years fucceffively, amidit the preffure of poverty, fupported by alms, and at laft concluded, not by the natural re. fult of the disease itself, but by fome fpoonfuls of strong liquors given to the patient.

In all this immenfe and unutterable mifery, fays the author, the patient preferved fuch a patience, tranquillity, refignation, and even a chearfulness, as could not poffibly fpring from any other source than a beneficent and enlightened religion: it is allo remarkable

that

that her face has continued rather handfome, and preferved the figns of virtuous ferenity. She died in the forty feventh year of her age; her corpfe was diffected: the skeleton, with an arm, preserved in fpirits, were by Mr. Saillant prefented to the College of Phyficians at Paris, who preferve the whole, with her portrait, and a fuitable inftruction and have ordered this Memoir to be printed and published.

Précis d'une Hiftoire générale de la Vie privée des François dans tous les tems et dans toutes les Provinces de la Monarchie. 1 vol. 8vo. Paris.

THIS volume is intended only for a fhort abftract of the contents

of a much larger work, which the authors propose to publish in four volumes in quarto, illuftrated with a great number of copper plates and of which the first will treat of viands and food; the fecond of dwellings; the third of dreffes and fashions; and the fourth of entertainments, amufements, games, &c. The prefent fummary abtract of the subjects of each refpective fection of the future work, is well calculated to infpire its readers with a favourable opinion of the work, and with an eager defire of seeing the whole published, and supported throughout with the neceffary proofs; which are here promifed. The authors have the ufe of a large library, and of a number of scarce MSS. they often appeal to old pictures, and to other monuments.

They will begin with an history of the culture of the various fpecies of corn, of culinary plants, &c. in France. The invention of the art of refining fugar is here placed in the year 1420. Chocolate was introduced by the queen of Lewis XIV. A fection will treat of the various kinds of furniture. Table cloths have for a long time been of woollen; table linen is faid to have been first fabricated at Rheims. The ufe of forks was not yet known under the Merovingian kings. Stoves were already used in 1338 in the king's palace; the various revolutions of the head-dresses will be described from ancient paintings. Perfumed gloves were introduced in France by an Italian, count Frangipani, in the times of Catherine de Medicis. The firft lace was imported from Venice and Genoa; as it drained the kingdom of confiderable fums, a prohibition was issued in 1629, to wear any lace of a higher price than three livres per French ell: and as none of fo low a price were to be got, this prohibition gave rife to the lace-manufactories in Picardy. Many fafhions have been obtruded on the French by foreigners: who, however, have the comfort of boafting their improvements on foreign inventions: Nous adoptons, fay they, quelquefois les modes de nos voisins: mais bientôt après nous les leur renvoyons perfectionnés, et après leur avoir donné le bon tour et le bon air qu'on ne trouve qu'en France.'

The origin of card-playing is here placed, as ufual, in the reign of Charles VI. and piquet is faid to be one of the most ancient games. Whift is thought to be an English invention, ill calculated for the vivacity of French men; and, on that account, already supplanted by the sprightlier game of trifette.

Be

De prima Expeditione Attila, Regis Hunnorum, in Gallias, ac de Rebus geftis Waltharii Aquitanorum Principis, Carmen Epicum Seculi VI. ex Cod. MS. Membranaceo optimæ notæ, fummâ Fide defcriptum, nunc primum in Lucem produ&tum, et omni Antiquitatum genere, imprimis vero Monumentis coævis, illuftratum et adau&tum a Frid. Chriftoph. Jonath. Fifcher, J. C. Halenfi. 10 Sheets large Quarto. Leipzig.

THIS poem was discovered by M. de Mofheim, in a MS. of the thirteenth century, which had been fent him from a certain convent in Bavaria. He copied it, and gave his copy with the ori ginal to the editor, who has published it with a learned commentary. His notes were then examined by Dr. Biefter, who fubjoined his corrections of the readings of fome paffages. Dr. Fischer concludes from the first line,

• Tertia pars orbis fratres, Europa vocatur,'

that the author of this poem was a monk. The age of the poem he appears to determine by the analogy of its style to that of fome other poems of the fixth century, and by the manners delineated in it. Some paffages of it are borrowed from Virgil; others feem to bear fome relation to paffages from Homer. The language is often mixed with.Celtic and German words: and the contents, especially those relating to Attila, coincide with the accounts given of him. by Prifcus, Jornandes, and other contemporary writers.

The editor has been at great pains in his preface to prove the use of this fragment, for hiftory, politics, and jurifprudence for it is but a fragment, broke off with the 1333d verfe in the midst of a fight between three of its perfonages.

FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. Om gamle Danske Gilder og deres Undergang; or, on the ancient Danish Guilds, and their Extinction. 800. Copenhagen. (Danish.)

THE

HIS treatife confiders the conftitution of the ancient Danish guilds, only with regard to its influence on the adminiftration of juftice: though the author has, in his preface, gratified those who are defirous of more ample and more complete information, with an enumeration of many German and all the Danish works on this fubject; and given fome curious accounts of the origin and constitution of all guilds and fraternities.

Statifica Ecclefiæ Germanicæ. Edidit in Ufum Auditorum fuorum Franc. Xaver. Holl. SS. Th. et J.V. D. Juris Eccl. in Univ. Heidelbergenfi Pr. P. O. Tom. I. 8vo. Heidelberg..

A learned and useful performance, though not entirely free from partiality.

Ifaac et Rebecca, ou les Néces Patriarchales, Poëme en Profe en cinq Chants. 12mo. Paris.

A new edition of a poem in which M. le Suire has attempted, with fome fuccess, to imitate Mr. Gefner's poem, the Death of Abel.

VOL. LII. July, 1781.

F

Hif

Hiftoire générale et particulière de la Gréce; contenant l'Origine, le Progres, et la Décadence des Loix, des Sciences, des Arts, des Lettres, de la Philofophie, &c. Précédée d'une Description Géographique, &c. et terminée par le Parallele des Grecs anciens avec les Grecs modernes. Par M. Cousin Defpréaux, &c. 4 vols. 12mo. Paris. These four first volumes bring the hiftory of the Greeks down to the times of the Trojan war. They are therefore only the beginning of a voluminous, but, at the same time, a valuable work.

Théorie de l'Intérét de l'Argent, tirées des Principes du Droit naturel, de la Théologie, et de la Politique, contre l'Abus de l'Imputation de l' Ufure. 12mo. Paris.

A judicious performance, in which the author appears to have fteered the middle courfe between two extremes.

Poëme fur la Mort de l'impératrice-Reine Marie-Thérée d'Autriche. Par M. de Rochefort, &c. 4to. Paris.

The best and only valuable panegyric on virtuous fovereigns is an impartial history of their lives and reigns. To feel all the merit of the late emprefs-queen, we need only recollect in what a fituation the found her dominions at her acceffion, and contraft it with the ftate of profperity in which the left them, when the breathed her laft vows and fighs for their happiness, and that of mankind.

Abfint inani funere Næniæ,
Luctufque turpes et querimonie!
Compefce clamorem, ac fepulchri.
Mitte fupervacuos honores!'

Analyfe des Infiniment petits pour l'Intelligence des Lignes Courbes. Par
M. le Marquis de l'Hopital. 4to. Paris.

The merit of this claffical work is well known. It has run through feveral editions. The prefent one is illuftrated and improved with many excellent notes by M. le Fevre.

Analyfe fur l'Ame des Bétes. Lettres Philofophiques. 8vo. Paris. This writer propofes a new fyftem on the fouls of brutes. He allows them a fpiritual and intelligent foul; but limits their knowlege to phyfical good and evil only; and endeavours to make his theory agree with the Bible,

Lettere Odeporiche d'Angelo Gualandris. 8vo. in Venezia.

The refult of travels undertaken by the command of the republic of Venice, and at the expence of the univerfity of Padua, through Italy, Swifferland, France, and England. They relate to natural history, mineralogy, botany, &c. and though the greater part of the objects are merely enumerated, they may yet prove useful to future travelling naturalifts.

72

Monitum ad Obfervatores, Societatis Meteorologice Palatine a Sere nimo Electore Carolo Theodoro recens inflituta. 4to. Manheim. Containing a plan of the meteorological obfervations undertaken by the fociety lately established for that purpose by the elector Palatine. This fociety withes for correfpondents willing to contribute obfervations, made with fimilar inftruments, which he offers, on the part of his electoral highnefs, to furnish to thofe who would affiduQully employ themfelves on fuch enquiries.

Aemblée publique de la Société Royale des Sciences, tenue en Prefence des Etats de la Province de Languedoc. 4to.

A collection containing the eulogies of the late chevalier Linnæus, and of the cardinal de la Roche-Aymon; with some useful memoirs and obfervations on various fubjects.

La Découverte auftrale par un Homme volant; ou, le Dédale François : Nouvelle très-philofophique: fuivie de la Lettre d'un Singe, &c. Avec une Eftampe à chaque fait principal. 4 vols. izmo.

Paris.

A very ftrange, fanciful, and grotefque performance, by that fertile writer, M. Rétif de la Bretonne.

MONTHLY CATALOGUE.

POLITICA L.

Principles of Law and Government, with an Inquiry into the Juftice and Policy of the prefent War, and most effectual Means of obtaining an honourable, permanent, and advantageous Peace. 4to. 75. 6d. Murray.

INCE the commencement of the prefent difpute with Ame

rica, the partizans for the colonies have frequently reforted to abstract principles, in juftification of the revolt. For the fame purpose have been invented fyftems of government, equally ideal and inconformable to the most established rules of political administration. The treatife now before us appears to have been written with a fimilar view. It is divided into two parts: in the former of which the author treats of the origin of law and government; of different forms of government; and of the diffolution of law and government. The latter part confifts of an inquiry into the juftice and policy of the prefent war, and the moft effectual means of obtaining an honourable, permanent, and advantageous peace. It were fuperfluous to profecute an inquiry which has fo often undergone examination, both in literary controversy and public debate. We fhall, therefore, only obferve, that this writer, however fyftematic his theory, deviates in nothing effentially from the commonly received notions of law and government; but endeavours to adapt them to an extenfion of American privileges, which, in the prefent ftage of the difpute, cannot admit, on the fide of Great Britain, to become the fubje&t of deliberation.-The author has fubjoined an Appendix, containing fome extracts relative to criminal juftice, and the laws of imprisonment, from Mr. De Lolme's account of the English go

vernment.

Two additional Letters to Count Welderen on the present Situation of Affairs between Great Britain and the United Provinces. By John Andrews, LL.D. 8vo. 25. White.

In our Review for February, we gave an account of Dr. Andrews' two former Letters; where he placed in the strongest

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