made them divert themselves before him, at the plays and games accommodated to their age; while he, indolently funk in his easy chair, was attentive to their little sports, iftened to their innocent prattle, and traced the dawnings of reafon and the workings of nature in their young minds; and when he had fufficiently enjoyed this amusing spectacle, he would give them a few sweetmeats and fend them away. more than Leibnitz, could have given offence to the illustrious house of Brunswick, had the account of them been published. We know, on the contrary, that Duke Ulrich (the fame who endeavoured at the peace of Ryfwick, to preserve a protestant canonry in the Cathedral of Strafburg, and who turned Catholic in 1710,) engaged Molanus and Leibnitz to open an epiftolary correspondence with fome of the most celebrated theologians of the Roman Catholic We shall finish these anecdotes, Church, in order to bring about, if by a passage from the Otium Hannopossible, a union with the Proteftants. The materials of this grand negociation, which unfortunately did not fucceed, are in the possession of Mr Dutens. To fupply the defect of those anecdotes, which the excessive difcretion of M. Nemeitz has deprived us of, we shall here relate one that he has preferved in the fixth part of his mifcellanies, as it delineates a characteristic feature in the portrait of Leibnitz. This philofopher took great delight to fee young children at particular times; he ufed frequently to fend for a number of them of both sexes, and veranum, of Feller, a man who was well acquainted with Leibnitz, in order to justify the portrait drawn of him above by d' Uffenbach. "This great man," says he," was too much in love with fame, and too much engaged in other occupations, to perform the duty of a historian. He did not willingly allow any one to enter the room in which he kept his books, left the fources whence he drew his materials should be difcovered; for he himself once faid to me, that the studies of learned men might be judged of by a fight of their books." T On feveral Natural Phenomena explained in a new Manner *. HE chemifts have found all the influence of the modern discoveries in the explanation of meteors: but, more occupied to further the progress of chemistry, than to apply them to philosophy, they have hazarded conjectures, only, and left to phulosophers the care of applying them. No philofopher has hitherto been known to attempt converting these erFors into proofs fupported by facts and experiments. We even fee, in our own days, a number of philofophiers who are attached to their old errors, who confidently support doctrines which their authors would blush to acknowledge, if they could be witneffes of the progress of chemistry. This paper is intended to apply the lights of modern chemistry to the phenomena of nature; and particularly to those the atmosphere presents during a storm.. 1. The compofition and decompo sition of 'water is no longer a problem. The fine experiments of Mefsieurs Cavendish and Lavoifier have fatisfied the greater part of chemifts 02 By the Abbe Libes, Profeffor of Philosophy in the Royal College of Thoulouse. on that article; and if any one has doubts on that important truth, the experime its of Meffrs. Van Troitwig and Deiman, published in November 1786, are well calculated to dispel them; we may, therefore, establish it as an incontestible fact, that water is compofed of gaz oxiginé, or vital air, and of gaz hydrogens, or inflammable air; that by a mixture of these two airs, in the proportion of fix to one, there refults water whenever this mixture is inflamed by electric matter, and that confequent'y we may look on vital air, inflammable air, and elecwic matter, as three elements which concur in the formation of wa ter. celebrated Prieftley afferts that the central heat will alone, in fome cafes, produce that effect. 3. The fummer season is the most subject to storms. They are always preceded by excessive heat; from whence it follows that those days which are incommoded by storms are marked by the compofition of a considerable quantity of vital air and inflammable air, arising from the decompofition of water. 4. It is well known that vital air forms one fourth of the atmosphere, that that alone is proper for refpiration, and that confequently the atmosphere would foon lofe all its falubrity if it was not furnished with fome means to repair its losses. The most fertile of these means, probably, during the heats of the fimmer, is, 2. That folar heat, united with central heat, will, in certain circumstances, operate to the decomposition of water, and the quantity of water the decompofition of water. In this décomposed must always augment in decomposition the atmosphere finds direct proportion to the intenfity of wherewithal to indemnify itfelf for the folar neat. No chemist regards the facrifices it makes in favour of this affertion as problematical. The animals. IT Anecdote. T is surprising that the French hiftorians have taken fo little notice of Queen E'ifabeth of Austria, wife of Charles IX. one of the most virtuous. Princeffes that ever reigned in France, one of the handsomest women of her time, whose virtues surpassed her beauty, and the more to be admired, as these qualities rarely met in one perfon at the court in which the lived. Speaking but little, and that little in the Spanish tongue, she was at no pains to improve herself in the French, as if she had foreseen that the had but a short while to live in that kingdom. Devout from principle and without oftentation the often spent whole nights in prayer. The fatal night of St Bartholomew having exceedingly distressed her, it was her firit care to ask if the king knew what was doing, And when the was told that the horrid Tragedy was acted by his orders, the immediately threw herself at the foot of a crucifix to implore the mercy of God upon the cruel king and his guilty subjects. After the death of Charles IX. she. retired to Vienna, where she died in 1592 at the age of 38. During her reiga she was the love and the admiration of the Faisians, and the king her husband, who had all the consideration for her of which she was worthy, used to call her his Saint. One day as fome people were relating to Henry IV. the high opinion that Charles entertained of his wife: "Ventre Saint Gris! cried the king, " if I were Pope I would never require better evidence for the canoni"sation of a woman, than the opinion " of her husband." 66 Account of the Journal Historique Du Voyage de M. de Leffeps, &c. lately Published in France. ८ tions of gravitation in severel parts of the globe; on the difference it may have in the two hemispheres, and on IN N 1785, the French Ministry fit. ted out two frigates, well equipped, under the command of the Count de la Peyroufe and M. de Langle, both the exact figure of the earth. For able officers, in order to make re- this purpose Mr Dagelet carried with searches respecting geography, aftro nomy, natural history, and other branches of knowledge. Two aftronomers, M. de Dagelet, of the Academy of Sciences, and M. Mcnge, junior, profeffor at the Military School, embarked in these vessels; but as the latter could not endure the naufea of a fea voyage, he was obliged to return some time after. Count de la Peyroufe was attended also by the Chevalier de Lamanon and M. Monge, junior, canon of Sainte Genevieve, two gentlemen welll acquainted with experimental philofophy; by three naturalifts, M. Martiuiere, Father Recours, a cordelier, and M. du Fresue; by M. Moneron, an engineer, and by several painters and draughtsmen. These learned were presented to the king on the 18th of June, ample instructions were given them, and no expence was spared to provide them with fuch inftruments as they might huve occafion for. A medal was ftruck to preserve the remembrance of this enterprise, undertaken in the tenth year of the reign of Louis XVI. These vessels, one of which was called La Bouoffole and the other L'Aftrolabe, failed from Brest on the 1st of August, 1785. The former had on board one hundred and thirteen men, and the officers were selected from the most resolute and skilful in the French Navy. Very sanguine hopes were formed of the information that would be procured by this voyage; and Mr. Dagelet was particularly ordered to make observations on the tides, and on the pendulum, in order to afcertain the varia3 B VOL. XII. No. 72. him the invariable pendulum of M. de la Condamine, which had been before used in America, Africa, and Lapland. After making some observations at Teneriffe, M- de la Peyrouse pursued his voyage, about the end of August, and proceeded thence to Brazil, the coaft of Chili, the Eafter and Sandwich isles, California, &c. and arrived at China in the beginning of the year 1787. After this he proceeded to the Manillas, and the harbour of St Peter and St Paul in Kamtschatka, whereM. de Lesseps quitted the vessels in order to return to Europe. : J In the month of June last year let ters were received from these navigaors, dated March 1788, at which time they were at Botany Bay, on he coast of New Holland; and it appears that M. de Langle, who commanded the Aftrolabe, and who was one of the ableft officers in the French ( service, was killed at the ifle of Mohona, with thirteen of the crew, among whom were the Chevalier de Lamanon and Father Recours, a cordelier, both well versed in natural history. This island lies in the Archipelago, called by BougainvilleNavigator's Isles, in long. 208° and, lat 14o fouth. After the death of M. de Langle, M. de Clonard took the command of the Aftrolabe, and the two vessels failed from Botany Bay about the middle of May 1788. Though above a year has now elapsed fince that period, no accounts have been yet received of the future progress of the Count de la Peyrouse; and there is too much reason to apprehend that fome misfortune has befallen 2 7 fallen the vessfels, or that they are equal distances, and of the height of Jost. If this be the cafe, science will twelve or thirteen feet. This ruftic undoubtedly fuffer by the miscarriage colonnade supports a platform, comof an enterprise undertaken by muni- posed of beams covered with clay, and the platform serves as a floor to the whole edifice, which consists of a ridge of conical form, covered with a kind of thatch, or dried grass, laid over long poles that meet at the top. ficence, fupported by liberality, and entrusted to the management of men every way qualified, by their talents and experience, to bring it to a happy conclufion. But no human pradence can guard against the dangers This ridge forms the whole ap of the ocean, the confpiring clements, that is to say, a single room, with a or deftructive rocks; and unforeseen, hole in the roof to give passage to the accidents often render the best concerted voyages abortive. apartment; fmoke, when the fire is lighted to dress their victuals. Their kitchen is in the middle of their chamber, where they eat and fleep all together, without the leaft appearance of dif M. de Leffeps being charged by the Comte de la Peyrouse to carry his disparches over land to France, bade farewell to the illuftrious navi- guft or fcruple. In these apartments gators of the Boufsole and Aftrolabe there is no such thing as a window; in the port of St Peter and St Paul, nothing, in short, but a door, fo low at the fouthern extremity of the pe- and narrow as hardly to afford enninfula of Kamtschatka, on the 29th trance to the daylight. The staircafe of September, 1787. The prepara- is worthy of the house; it is a beam, tions for his departure occafioning fome delay, he employs the mean time in a description of the harbour and environs, and in the mention of a project to convert the few houses on the fea-fide to a confiderable fortified town. On the 7th of October he fets off for Okatzk, in company with M. Kafloff, commandant of that place, with feveral other Ruffian officers, and several attendants, and takes advantage of a short stay at Paratounka, on the opposite side of the bay, to defcribe the balagans and ifbas, the miferable places of abode of the Kamtschatkadales. "The Kamtschatkadales reside in the fummer in the former, and in the winter retire to the latter. As the government wishes to bring them, by insensible degrees, to conform to the manner of ehe Russian peafantry, and to lodge in a more wholesome manners, it is forbid in the fouthern part of Kamschatka to conftruct in future any yourts, or fubterraneous dwellings. "The balagans are raised above the ground on several posts fixed at : or rather a tree, very rudely notched, one end of which refts upon the ground, and the other is raised to the height of the floor. This tree preserves its original round form, though it is cut on one fide into what I cannot well call steps, as they are fo inconvenient that I have been several times very near breaking my neck in walking up them. And indeed whenever this cursed staiscafe happens to turn under the feet of those who are not accustomed to it, it is impossible for them to preserve their equilibrium. They, must come to the ground, and run more or less risk in proportion to the height. When they wish to give notice that nobody is at home, they only turn the staircase with the steps downward. "Reasons of convenience may perhaps have furnished the idea of conftructing these curious dwellingplaces; they are neceffary and fuitable to their kind of life. Their principal food being dried fish, which is alfo that of their dogs, they have occasion for a shade, where the wind enters on every fide to dry it, as well as ter. as their other provisions for the winThe ruftic colonnade or portico that composes the lower part of their bolagans anfwers this purpose there they hang up their fish at a fufficient height to keep it out of the way of the dogs, which are conftantly half-ftarved that they may be in the better order for running. These dogs draw the carriages of the Kamtschatkadales. The best, that is to say, the fiercest, have no other kennel than the kind of portico I have just mentioned, and are tied to the columns or pofts that fupport the building. "Their istas, or winter abodes, if larger, would perfectly resemble the houses of the Ruffian peasants, which have been many times described. In the larger room there is sometimes a miferable couch, made of planks and covered with bear's-skin: it is the bed of the master of the family; and happy are the women, who in these favage countries are the flaves of their husbands, and do the most laborious work, when they can take a little repose upon it." After a few words concerning the police of the Kamtschatkadales, and a description of the environs of Parataounka, our traveller proceeds on his journey, and stops at Natchikin, at no great diftance, to notice a hot fpring that issues boiling out of the side of a hill. After an exact analysis he finds this water to contain a small quantity of fulphur, a greater abundance of vitriolic acid, and still more calcare ous earth, joined to some particles of a nitrous falt. In the continuation of his journey we shall not follow M. de Leffeps in the description of many circumstances of no great moment: the hills he afcends, the hills he defcends, the streams he crosses, the villages of which he makes mention, &c. because not worthy of mention. M. de Lefseps apologises for these minute details by a promise he had made to his reader of scrupulous exactness, for which promise we are candid enough to believe he had some good reafon; but as we have not made a limilar one, we. shall only add that he arived fafe at Bolcheretzk, where he had an opportunity of obferving how much the fimplicity of the Kamtschatkada'es is impofed upon by the Coffacks and Ruffians, and by the paflion for fpirituous liquors, which feems even more irrefiftable in them than in the other northern nations. A ftay of three months at Bolcheretzk enables our traveller to acquire a confiderable knowledge of the character and manners of the Aborigenes. Their dress, their music, their dancing, their manner of hunting and fishing, their diseases and remedies, language, government and climate, every thing, in short, by turns engages his attention, and furnishes details, both curious and interesting; fome short extracts from which will not, we fancy, be difagreeable to our reader. "The principal nourishment of these people confists, as I have already faid, of dried fish. The men themselves make their provision of this aliment, while the women attend to household affairs, and employ themselves in gathering the fruits and vegetables, which, after fish, are the favourite nourishment ef the Kamtfchatkadales, and of the Ruffians of this country. The days when they go abroad to collect their stock for winter confumption, are so many feftivals; they celebrate them with tranf ports of the most noify and licentious mirth, which gives occafion to curious scenes, that not unfrequently are very indecent alfo. They wander in bands about the country finging, and giving a loose to all the follies their imagination can suggest; all fear and shame is banished; nor can I better defcribe their extravagant phrenzy than by comparing it to that of the female Bacchanalians of paganism. Woe to the man whoin accident brings in their way! However determined or 3 B2 active |