The third Book of this learned and entertaining Work contains the abridgment of a Treatife on Musical Compofition, to which the Author has fubjoined, 1ft, A general table of unifons, together with a notice of the extent and powers of all the different inftruments, and alfo of the different kinds of voices. 2dly, A comparative table, in which he endeavours to prove, that the term mode, as employed by the ancients, is equivalent to what we call tone; with this difference only, that in each mode they went only through the degrees of the octave, whereas our tones extend much farther. 3dly, Several pieces of mufic of the fixteenth and seventeenth centuries.—In this book M. Dɛ LABORDE is fometimes an opponent of the celebrated J. J. ROUSSEAU, whofe incomparable Dictionary of Mufic has been lately affaffinated in English, and fome of whofe doctrines are, in our opinion, refuted here with the utmost evidence. As these refutations are interesting, we intend to communicate fome fpecimens of them to our Readers in a subsequent Article.

The fourth Book may very well be intitled, A Book of Songs; and however light this title may be, its contents are far from being frivolous. Songs are among the characteristical marks, from which an obferver will learn much of the genius, fpirit, and character of people; and it will appear from the Historico-Poetico-Mufical details, into which our Author here enters, that the French excel other nations in their amorous*, fatirical, and Bacchanalian fongs. This Book is divided into twelve Chapters, of which the titles are as follows: Reflections on Songs: Of Grecian Songs-Of Roman Songs-Of the changes that have taken place in the French language-Of French Songs, and the Poetical Songfters (or the ballad-making Bards) of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries-Songs of Coucy-A Table of the Songs of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, contained in the manufcripts of the Vatican, of the King of France, of the Marquis of Palmy, of Meff. de St. Palaye, de Clairambaut, et de Noailles-Concerning fome French Lyric Poets of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries -Songs of Denmark, Norway, and Iceland-Erfe Songs and Poems -Songs of Perigord, Strafburg, and Auvergne-Select French Songs, fet to Mufic, in four Parts-Songs of Gascogne, Bearne, Languedoc, and Provence-Grecian Dances-Dances of the Savages, Ruffians, Grecians, Chinese, and of feveral provinces in France.

[To be continued.]

*By the word amorous, we do not mean love, nor any thing out of the fphere of gallantry. It is almoft only among the Italian and British bards that love is fung with genuine fenfibility.

ART.

ART. XXII.

Sammlung Antiquarischer Auffoetze, &c.-A Collection of Difcourfes on feveral Points of Antiquity. By M. HEYNE, Counsellor, &c, at Hanover. Vol. II. Leipfic. 1779.

T

HIS fecond Part of M. Heyne's interefting Collection contains a variety of inftructive and entertaining matter relative to ancient literature and the arts. The first Difcourfe in this fecond Part treats of the famous Lagcoon. Notwithftanding all the accounts we have of that fublime groupe in the writings of the Abbé Winkelman and other virtuofos, the Reader will here find perhaps new inftruction with respect to its difcovery, together with ingenious remarks on what has been faid concerning it by Pliny, Virgil, and other writers, and a critical hiftory of the art that is difplayed in it. The fecond Difcourfe contains an inquiry into the real or fuppofed diftinctions between the Fauns, Satyrs, Silenufes, and Pans. The third contains a curious account of the authors which Pliny followed in his Natural History. The fourth is a Difcourfe on the Toreuticum, or carving, efpecially that kind mentioned by Pliny, which was the art of moulding or cafting figures in relievo. The fifth exhibits farther illuftrations of the fculpture of the ancients in ivory; as alfo a Memoir concerning the manner of working in ivory, communicated to our Author by M. Spengler of Copenhagen, in which he fhews, that the turning lathe was not neceflary to the formation of ivory ftatues, and mentions feveral ancient remains of fculpture in that fubftance, that are ftill to be met with in the cabinets of the curious, particularly the head of a woman in the Royal collection at Copenhagen.

AR T. XXIII.

Kurzgefafste Gefchichte der Hungern, &c.-A Compendious Hiftory of the Hungarians, from the earliest to the prefent Time, collected from the most faithful Hiftorians and the most authentic Manufcripts. By M. CHARLES GOTTLIEB VON WINDISH. Prefburg and Leipfic. 1779.

W

7E formerly mentioned a General Hiftory of Hungary by M. de Sacy, Royal Cenfor at Paris. That which is here announced has been compofed under the protection of the government, and of confequence the Author must be fuppofed to have had the ampleft fources of information, though not that unbounded liberty and independence to which alone we muft look for impartiality. In the ancient parts of this hiftory, he

* See Review, vol. Iviii. p. 384.

has

has not made fuch a liberal and judicious chote of facts as might have been expected from a writer of the eighteenth century: for his narration is difguifed with a multitude of legendary ftories of miracles and faints, which no respect due to the public records fhould engage an hiftorian to admit without diftinction. The Author faithfully follows the Annals of the Abbé Pray*, and begins his hiftory with the Sinais Huns of M. de GUIGNES. He divides his materials into four Sections. The first comprehends the history of Hungary under its Dukes; the fecond, that of the native Kings; the third, that of the foreign Kings; and the fourth, the hiftory of the Kings of the House of Auftria, fo far down as the year 1775.A great variety of writers have lately employed their pens on the hiftory of this country, whofe natural riches and fertility, whofe vigorous and fpirited inhabitants, whofe government, princes, and revolutions, give it a title to the attention of the Hiftoric Mufe. Among thefe writers, we must not pafs over in filence the work of M. KASANA, Profeffor of History in the University of Buda, and Prefbyter of the Diocese of Strigonia, which relates to the ancient hiftory of Hungary under its first Dukes. The title of this Work is as follows: Hiftoria Critica primorum Hungaria Ducum, ex Fide domefticorum et exterorum Scriptorum concinnata. A STEPHANO KASANA, &c. The Annals of Pray are here abridged, but in a very judicious manner. Our Author begins his hiftory with the year 884, and places the arrival of the Madfchares in 889.

ART. XXIV.

Effai fur l'Ile de Otahiti, &c.-Effay concerning the Iland of Otahiti, and the Character and Manners of its Inhabitants. Paris. 1779.

WE

8vo.

E have here a collection of all the accounts that have been given of the island of Otahiti (as it is here writ ten), and its inhabitants, by Meff. Banks and Solander, Cook, and Bougainville. It is however to be obferved, that the Author has not availed himfelf of the laft (printed) voyage of the unfortunate Captain Cook, to improve his compilation, though he would have found in it new facts, and fome corrections of former miftakes.

* For an account of M. Pray's Effay concerning Ecclefiaftical Power in Hungary, fee App. to Rev. vol. ix. p. 562.

ART.

ART. XXV.

Memoires de l'Academie Royale de Pruffe, concernant l'Anatomie, la Phyfiologie, la Phyfique, &c.-Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Pruffia, relative to Anatomy, Phyfiology, Natural History, Botany, Mineralogy, &c. together with a felect Number of Chemical and Metaphyfical Memoirs, Preliminary Difcourfes, and Appendixes, in which new Difcoveries are announced. By M. PAUL, Correfpondent of the Royal Society of Sciences of Montpellier, &c. Paris and Avignon. 8vo. 1779.

HIS title is fufficient to fhew the nature and usefulness

TH

of the collection of M. PAUL. It is well known, that the plan of the Academy of Berlin is moft extenfive, and comprehends almost all the various branches of human knowledge, The Memoirs, therefore, here felected must prove acceptable to a multitude of Readers, to whom the original work is inacceffible, on account of its high price, and the number of volumes of which it is already compofed.-The Memoirs contained in this collection are curious and mafterly, and fome of them open views of utility that deferve attention. Of the former kind is the Memoir of M. Heinius concerning animated beings; and of the latter, the Memoir of M. Margraff, containing chymical experiments, made with a defign to draw real fugar from feveral plants which grow in Europe. All the others have likewife their merit; and therefore the continuation of this collection will no doubt be deemed a useful prefent to the public.

ART. XXVI.

Annales Poetiques depuis l'Origine de la Poefie Francoife.-Poetical Annals carried down from the Commencement of French Poetry. 8vo. Paris. 1779.

TH

HIS is the twelfth Volume of a Work which is highly entertaining, and is an elegant, animated, and judicious hiftory of French poetry, illuftrated by extracts from the bards of that nation. This Volume ends with Malherbe, who forms an epocha in poetic hiftory. It was this amiable, and often fublime poet, in whofe compofitions the French Lyric Mufe first appeared with dignity and grace. Sublimity of ideas, perfpicuity and richness of expreffion, a happy mixture of images and fentiments, and a perpetual harmony of verfification, diftinguished this excellent bard.

ART.

ART. XXVII.

Principes de Morale, de Politique, et de Droit Public, &c. ou, Dif cours fur l'Hiftoire de France, &c.-Moral and Political Difcourfes on the Hiftory of France. By M. MOREAU, Hiftoriographer of France. Vol. VIII. and IX. * 8vo. Paris. 1779.

HIS eloquent, judicious, and indefatigable Author, after having difcuffed, towards the conclufion of his feventh Volume, the legiflation of Charlemagne, in its relation to and influence on religion and manners, confiders it, in the commencement of the eighth, in its conformity with the rights of man. This leads him to exhibit, in different points of view, the Capitularies, or Royal edicts of the three firft Kings of France of the fecond race, and to compare the legiflation of the Franks, whofe government he propofes to illuftrate, with the law of Nature, and the primitive principles of focial order. Thefe inftructive difcuffions terminate the ninth Difcourfe. The tenth exhibits the means that were employed, at the commencement of the fecond race, to fecure the unity and perpetuity of the monarchy, and the influence which the reftoration of the imperial dignity had upon the French government. Our Author, in treating this part of his fubject, explains the nature and characters of thofe Royal magiftracies, conferred by Charlemagne as a kind of fettlement on his children, in whofe favour he never refigned his fupremacy, and who were no more in their respective governments, than the reprefentatives and depofitaries of his authority. After having examined the extent of the power and jurifdiction which, during their own lives, Charlemagne and Louis le Debonnaire conferred upon their children, M. MOREAU explains, in a very curious difcuffion, founded upon authentic records, the nature of the authority and prerogatives which the Popes exercifed at that time at Rome, and in a part of Italy. He fhews, that the Roman Pontiff was only one of the first magiftrates of the empire, who, like the others, ufurped, by degrees, both the civil power and the territory, that were intrufted to his adminiftration. He endeavours alfo here to refute the arguments by which fome writers have pretended to prove, that the throne was elective under the first French Kings of the fecond race. In the eleventh Discourse, going backwards to the period when the Carlovingians affumed the fcepter of royalty, he points out, in their origin, the fecret defects that could not but weaken and enervate their dominion in process of time. The fabric of their government carried within itfelf the principles of its deftruc

* See our account of the three preceding volumes in our Review for September 1779, p. 214.