view or recapitulation of all the principles that have been laid down and illuftrated in the courfe of the work.-The performance feems every way worthy of the diftinction with which it has been crowned by the Academy of Dijon, which is known to bear a confiderable rank among thofe that contribute to the improvement of chemical and medical science.

ART. XVIII.

Eloge de Louis XII. Pere du Peuple.- The Eulogy of Lewis XII. the Father of the People. By the Abbé CORDIER de St. Firmin. 8vo. Paris. 1778.

IT

Tis remarkable, that notwithstanding the propenfity of the French to exceffive adulation, Lewis the Twelfth is the only monarch whom they have honoured with this moft glorious of all titles, the Father of the People. Does this arife from the want of other monarchs, who deferved the title more of lefs?-or does it proceed from this, that in their tinfel notions of glory, the title under confideration is not brilliant enough for the Grand Monarque? Which of these may be the cafe we shall not decide,—and however that may be, the Eulogy before us is a good performance, deftitute of bombaft and exaggeration, and fuitable to the amiable fimplicity of the character it is defigned to exhibit. We are to expect from the fame pen the Eulogies of Fenelon, Racine, La Fontaine and Helvetius. But eulogies rain fo prodigioufly in that nation, and the perfume Shop of the French Academy is ever fending forth fuch exhalations of incenfe towards all forts of characters, that truth runs the hazard of being either drowned or fuffocated, and the reader difgufted when he fees thefe panegyrifts perpetually mixing facra profanis.

ART. XIX.

Anecdotes de l'Empire Romain, &c.-Anecdotes of the Roman Empire, from its Foundation to the Downfall of the Republic. 8vo. A Volume of to Pages. Paris. 1778.

UNDER what form has not the Roman hiftory been dreffed

and prefented to the French nation? Hiftories, annals, memoirs, revolutions, obfervations, remarks, abridgments, views, parallels, thoughts, cream, effence, quinteffence, refreshments, &c. &c. All thefe denominations have been employed year after year to convey to the ears of the beaux and belles of Paris, the feats and deftinies of the defcendants of Romulus. Be that as it may, the anecdotes now before us make no contemptible publication. The facts are well chofen, well digefted, and well related: Minute details are thrown out of the narration, and we think this work may contribute to the entertainment and inftruction of more than the younger clafs of readers.

CORRESPONDENCE.

A Letter from Mr. A. VOSMAER, Director of the Collection of Natural Hiftory, and Curiofities of his Serene Highness the Prince of Orange, at the HAGUE, to the Authors of THE MONTHLY REVIEW.

I

• Gentlemen,

Read with an agreeable furprise, a few days ago, the account given of Martin's Dictionary of Natural Hiftory, in your foreign correfpondence for the month of December, 1778*. The generous manner in which the author of that article has defended my character and reputation, against the illiberal note 1, inferted in the fecond volume of Mr. FORSTER'S Voyage round the World, deferves my moft grateful acknowledgments. But while, thus publickly, I exprefs my fenfibility of your goodness, I cannot help taking this opportunity of teflifying my entire fatisfaction, with refpect to the candid manner in which Mr. Forfter repaired this injury, when he paffed through the Hague, in his way to Berlin. The note had been fent to him by fome perfons at the Hague, whofe motives and conduct, for their honour, I fhall not appreciate. Mr. Forfter acknowledged, with great candour and concern, his levity and imprudence, in complying with the unjuft and illiberal demands of his correfpondents in Holland; and to leave no doubt about the fincerity of his declaration, he wrote me the following letter, which he gave me permiflion to publish where and when I should think proper. As you have animadverted, Gentlemen, upon the calumniatory note, of which the malignity and falfehood will appear in my defeription of the ourangeutang, I hope you will give a place, in your journal, to Mr. Forster's letter, which I fend you here enclosed; and am with great respect,

* P. 461.

Gentlemen,

Your most humble and obedient fervant,
A. VOSMAER.

Speaking of the orang-outang, which was fent from the Cape of Good Hope, to the menagerie of his Serene Highness the Prince of Orange, Mr. Forfter, in a note, vol. ii. p. 553. expreffes himfelf thus. This creature died at the Hague, January 1777; but through the grofs ignorance and canine malice of the keeper, the ableit anatomifts in Holland were difappointed in the hope of diffecting it. He cut off the head, in order to prevent their examining the organs of fpeech, and its hands and feet, to preclude the poffibility of comparing the phalanges with the human skeleton. When we confider, through whofe intereft the infpector of that princely collection at the Hague was appointed, we cannot wonder, that he was a ftranger to liberalit fentiment."

Сорз

Copy of a Letter from Mr. GEORGE FORSTER to Mr. VOSMAER.

• Sir,

AS the circumftance, you mention in your letter, deprives me of the fatisfaction of waiting upon you this evening (a lofs, that I feel fo much the more, in that my approaching departure from hence will prevent my repairing it), permit me at leaft, to enjoy the pleafure of expreffing my deep fenfibility to the marks of goodness you have fhewn me. The particular attention, with which you diftinguished me, in fhewing me the Prince Stadtholder's collection of Natural Curiofities, in fuch an inftructive and entertaining manner, will always remain prefent to my mind, and maintain the title you have acquired to my gratitude. But your generous behaviour, with refpect to the note in the fecond volume of my Voyage round the World, which ought to have excited your indignation, deferves higher and more lively fentiments. My errors have always given me pain; and as foon as I difcover them, I am not at reft until I have rectified and owned them. Therefore, it is with the greatest pleafure, that I repeat here, the avowal of my fault, which I have already made. I acknowledge, not only I was led into error with refpect to the Ourang-outang, by accounts in which I ought to have difcerned partiality (as you have fully proved by the pieces which you were pleased to communicate to me) but I willingly confefs moreover, that to the injuftice of accufing you without hearing your defence, I added the folly of meddling myfelf with a contest which did not concern me. My zeal for the fciences betrayed me into the extravagance of fetting myfelf up as a public cenfor;-thus the best intentions of men may be mifapplied. The only real fhame is, that which refults from perfifting in an error. I was deceived, and you have been candid and generous enough to accept of the acknowledgments I made you on this occafion.

For the reft, Sir, there are, I affure you, perfons who have done me much injury,-falfe friends, fuch as you have alfo met with. From them has proceeded the report, that I was not the Author of the work published under my name. It is certain, nevertheless, that this work was my firft effay; and I know not of what advantage they meant to deprive me, fince the world found in it a multitude of real or imaginary faults, which diminished its merit to fuch a degree as to render it almost imperceptible. The work, fuch as it is, is my own performance. My father, to whom it was attributed in England, has juft now published his own work.

Accept, Sir, the fentiments of perfect refpect and efteem, with which, I am

INDEX

To the REMARKABLE PASSAGES in this

Volume.

N. B. To find any particular Book, or Pamphlet, fee the
Table of Contents, prefixed to the Volume.