and his genius might have destroyed itself, had he not applied it to the most laborious toils of war, the administration of government, and the fciences. His firmnefs would fometimes degenerate into obftinacy. Incapable of difguife, he looked upon compliance as too low a means to effect what he defired. If he liberally praised the great actions and fervices of others, he alfo condemned their faults with bitterness, and without referve. Thus his franknefs, the nobleft of all virtues, drew upon him as much enmity, as his power and reputation had excited envy. The pride of his foul, which rendered him incapable of fubmiffion, or of being governed by others, deprived him more than once of the advantage of receiving falutary counfel. Had a little more equality, gentleness and moderation, fewer extravagances and lefs impetuofity, had thefe come to his fhare, neither ancient nor modern hiftory, could have produced an heroe to be compared with Condé. He only wanted the virtues of a common man, to be fuperior to all mankind.

We fhall close this account of the prince of Condé with a fhort but fingular relation, which the hiftorian has given us of a love affair, in which Condé was engaged, while he was only duke D'Enguien. The love of glory, fays Mr. Deformeaux, feemed to have the fole dominion of his ambitious foul. Other paffions feldom found their way to him, except in the inactivity of the winter, and during the ceflation of arms, He affected to triumph over that fofter paffion, to which other warriors give themselves up fo freely. His infenfibility, however, did not laft always: foon after his marriage, he was fmitten with the charms of Mademoiselle du Vigean, who had great beauty, a graceful manner, and a cultivated mind. His paffion carried him fo far, that he formed a defign of annulling his marriage with Mademoiselle du Breré, alleging that it had only been contracted by compulfion. In this, however, he was overborne by the prince his father. Yet his paffion seemed to increase in proportion to the obftacles it met with, till a violent fickness, with which he was feized, after the battle of NortLingue. Then it was, that his love totally left him, with a prodigious quantity of blood, that was taken from him. The change was fo entire, that, after his recovery, he fcarce retained the flightest remembrance of an object, whom, before, he had loved to exce's.

This method of our hiftorian's accounting for the annihilation of love, is perfectly curious and philofophical. The French ladies, if Mr. Deformeaux's obfervation be true, ought to be very careful how they fuffer their lovers to bleed; and the phyficians of that nation, fo remarkable for evacuating the human body of its vital fluid, fhould confider, that, when they are opening a vein, they may be piercing a lady's heart.

But

But let us enquire how Mr. Deformeaux difpofes of poor Mademoifelle de Vigean, after this catastrophe, wherein love lics a-bleeding.' One may eafily fuppofe, fays he, that her grief muft be very great. Indeed, fhe was ready to fink under it: but being foon after undeceived, with regard to the pomp of grandeur, and the indulgence of the paffions, fhe concluded that God only could fill the heart which had been fo long occupied by the Duke D'Enguien. She immediately buried herself in a convent of Carmelites; where the made atonement, by the rigours of the law and the fevereft pennance, for the high hopes fhe had conceived.

The fecond volume of this hiftory (whereof there are two more, that will conclude the work, in the prefs) contains a long account of the troubles in France, during the minority of Lewis XIV. the caufes of the civil wars, the imprisonment of Condé, and his enlargement.

Bibliotheque des Artifles et des Amateurs: ou Tablettes Analytiques et Methodiques fur les Sciences et le Beaux Arts, &c. Par l'Abbé de Petity, Predicateur de la Reine.

The Library of Artists and Lovers of Arts: or Analytical and - Methodical Tables of the Sciences and Polite Arts, &c. 3 Vols. 4to. Paris, 1766. Imported by T. Davies.

TH

HE great number of expenfive books on Arts and Sciences, which, in the kingdom of France, are daily iffuing from the prefs, would naturally lead one to imagine, either that the French are a very rich and ftudious people, or that their authors and bookfellers muft infallibly be ruined; if we did not recollect that the present univerfality of their language infures them a fale for their books, far more extenfive than can be expected by writers of any other nation. The three volumes now before us comprehend but a fmall part of the Author's plan, fo that in all probability they will extend to a very confiderable number. With regard to their contents, as the Author is confeffedly no farther acquainted with the arts than as a man of universal reading, nothing is to be expected which is not to be found in the works of those who have expreffedly written on the various fubjects of which he treats. The work is in fhort a mere compilation; there is however fomething fo whimsical and new in his method, that poffibly a farther account of this Bibliotheque des Arts may afford fome amufement.

On opening the firft volume we are prefented with an allegorical frontispiece, in which we behold a buft of Lewis XV. over which a chaplet of laurel is fupported by Apollo and Wisdom.

The king (fays our Author in his explication of this allegory)

in an especial manner protects the fciences and the polite arts, and causes them to flourish in his kingdom: the divinities render him the homage he deferves.' O rare Lewis the Fifteenth! N. B. The Abbé is preacher to the queen.

In order to give our Readers a perfect idea of this new fyfte matical method of teaching the arts and feiences, we shall tranflate, from the preface, that part in which it is explained. By the fimple explication, fays our Author, and natural divifion of the terms unity, binary, ternary, quaternary, feptenary, and duodenary, the fciences and polite arts are developed, analized and demonftrated, if I may fo exprefs myfelf. Each science is uniformly divided into 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 12, like a genealogical chart, fo as to comprehend every thing that is most known and moft abftracted,

Unity fignifies one. The fimplicity of its expreffion, and that of the term by which it is fignified, is the true character by which we conceive unity. Every fcience hath its unity; firít chapter. This unity is the primitive, primordial knowledge: for example, in arithmetic it is the number; in chronology, it is the time; in aftronomy, the heavens, and fo of the reft.

Binary fignifies two; that is a twofold knowledge, the parts of which are fo perfectly united, that the first difcovers and explains the fecond. Every fcience hath its binary, which is always the fecond chapter for example, in arithmetic it is tity and quality; in chronology, it is afronomical year and civil year; in aftronomy, ftar, planet, and fo on.

quan

Ternary fignifies three; that is, a divifion into three parts, fo methodically diftinct, fo univerfally acknowledged, so specifi cally drawn, that it cannot poffibly be altered. Every fcience hath its ternary, which will always make the third chapter: for example, in arithmetic it is pounds, fhillings and pence; in chronology it is paft, prefent, and future; in aftronomy, it is the three fyftems, viz. Ptolemaic, Tichobraic, and Copernican; or ftars diurnal, nocturnal, participant; or fixed, moveable, and common, &c.

Quaternary fignifies four, that is to fay, the root and the commencement of every number; for, adding together 1, 2, 3, 4, the product is 10, from which number the Hebrews, the Greeks, the Latins, and every other people, recommence with the unit thus, 11, 12, &c. 100, 200, &c. 1000, 2000, &c. There are also four elements which compofe the vaft universe. The fciences are naturally refolved into four first principles, and thence are methodically divided into four parts for inftance, we compare the four parts of mufic to the four elements. The bafe reprefents the earth; the tenor, the water, which, with the earth, makes one globe, in like manner as the tenor is nearly the fame with the bafe, for when that refts the other per

forms its office. The counter-tenor is analogous to the air, becaufe it cafily infinuates itself into every part, having the fame relation to the treble as the tenor to the bafe. Laftly, the treble is compared to fire, because it moves with greater rapidity than the reft. Every fcience hath its quaternary, which will always be the fourth chapter. Example: the four first rules in arithmetic, viz. addition, fubtraction, multiplication, and divifion; in chronology, the four feafons of the year; in aftronomy, the four cardinal points, &c.

Septenary fignifies feven, which is the product of the fimple and natural addition of the ternary and quaternary three and four make feven. But it hath been the opinion of the greatest philofophers and divines, that feven is a number rendered facred in holy writ and the religion of the Jews, by a number of myfterious circumftances and events. I fhall not dive to the bottom of this matter; but content myfelf with telling you, that the fciences and polite arts have parts which are effentially compofed and divided into feven, (fo the Author chufes to express himfelf) a divifion in which all authors have agreed. Example: the 7 notes in mufic; feven chords, feven modulations of the common gamut; the feven principal ftars in aftronomy, viz. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon * in chronology, the feven days of the week; the feven ages of the world; the feven liberal arts; seven mechanical arts, &c.

;

Duodenary fignifies twelve, which number takes its origin from the multiplication of the quaternary by the ternary; thus, 3 times 4 is 12. The arts and sciences alfo enjoy this number, of which indeed they are effentially compofed. Example: the 12 figns of the zodiac in aftronomy; the 12 months of the year in chronology; the Pythagorean table in arithmetic and algebra; the 12 algebraical figns; in mufic, the 12 movements varied in every tune, the 12 divifions of the parts to count the time, the 12 marks of the time of all mufic, the 12 minor and 12 major modulations,' &c.

This will be fufficient, we prefume, to give the Reader an idea of our Author's plan; which we fhall now proceed to illuftrate by an example..

FABLE.

The ancient people, born in a climate under the dominion of imagination, and guided by the poets, entrusted the precepts of religion, the difcoveries of philofophy, and the truths of hiftory, to fictions frequently deftitute of probability. Meanwhile this fpecies of inftruction perpetually confounds phyfics with

*If fuch be our Author's fyftem, his article of aftronomy will probably be a droll one.

theology,

theology, fable with hiftory, and poetical deities with the true God.

Unity: Chaos,

Binary: Nature, Cybile.

2d Binary: the Lares, the Penates.

Ternary: the three empires of the world, viz. Jupiter, or heaven and earth; Neptune, or the fea; Pluto, or hell.

Quaternary: Ofiris, or Vulcan, or fire; Iris, or Juno, or air; Orus, or Thetis, or water; Serapis, or Ceres, or earth. Septenary: the feven grand deities, viz. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, Venus, Mercury, Diana.

Duodenary: the twelve little deities, viz. Genius, Vefta, Pallas, Proferpine, Bacchus, Pan, Cupid, Efculapius, Janus, Vertumnus, Sylvanus, Priapus.

2d Duodenary: the twelve inferiors, viz. Bellona, Eolus, Plutus, Momus, Iris, Flora, Pomona, Themis, Hebe, Ganemede, Helen, Caftor, Pollux.

In this method our Author first exhibits a general plan of his fubject, and then proceeds to the particular hiftory of the feveral perfonages above specified, in the order in which we here behold them. This article is borrowed from Moreri, Banier, and other French writers.

The arts and sciences contained in these three volumes are grammar, fable, rhetoric, agriculture, philofophy or wisdom, infernal mythology, arithmetic, writing or penmanship, architecture, and printing. With regard to the article of penmanship, we cannot help declaring it to be a very indifferent one, the feveral fpecimens on copper-plates, in which the excellence of fuch an article ought principally to confift, being extremely bad; infomuch that they hardly contain a fingle letter, which a judge of writing would deem a good one. Poffibly indeed this may not be the fault of the Author, if it be true, as we believe it to be, that there is not, at this time, a good penman, in any part of Europe, except in this kingdom. There was a time. when the Dutch might boaft a few excellent penmen; but they seem at present to have loft the art.

The article of printing is a very copious one, and no wonder, fince it comprehends an infinity of matter on all the various languages in the known world. Speaking of the English: This language, fays he, is become extremely polifhed and expreffive fince it hath been enriched with the beauties of other modern languages. The many excellent writings, of all kinds, which have been produced by the English, have rendered their language interefting and neceffary to the learned: fo that, we now find as many Frenchmen who understand English, as Englishmen that are acquainted with the French. The taciturn and reserved character of the English nation, naturally leads them