49;8 Seientlfc Puillciiite/is, i^e, 



have already appeared In the Annales de Chimie and Journal de Phyfiquc i but this C(A' 

 lection contains, as Lametherie informs us, fome new articles and annotations of the 

 author. 7 he utility of fuch colle£lions is obvious, even if their fole objeft were to form 

 into one body the fcattered productions of a man of genius. The works of many emi- 

 nent writers of Meifloirs have loll half their utility, for want of this friendly office to 

 fcience and to pofthumous fame. 



An Englilh Tranflation of the late Dr. Stewart^s " Propofttlones Geometrica Mart Veterum 

 demonjiraia" is announced for publication by Mr. Ley bourn. 

 It confifts of a feries of geometrical theorems, moftly new, inveftigated firll by analyfis, 

 and afterwards fynthetically demonftratcd by an inverfion of the fame analyfis. The uti- 

 lity of fuch a work is evident ; and the celebrity of the original, which is now fcarce, will 

 render the prefent tranflation more valuable. 



From a paflage in the Ekge de Leibnitz, in the volume of the French Academy for 17 15, 

 and in the firft of the two volumes of Eloges par Foittentlle, I conclude that the George Dal- 

 garu, mentioned in page 345, is fo named by an error of the prefs, which but too f'requently 

 occurs in copying proper names from obfcure manufcript. His name appears to have 

 been Dalgarme. I (hall give the paflage in Englilh, on account of its curiofity and value. 

 <See page 493 of the laft-mentioned work.) 



" It might now feem as if we had exhaufled the fubjeG of the labours of Leibnitz. But 

 " this is not the cafe ; not becaufe we have pafled over in filence a very great number of 

 " individual fadts, fufficient to have eftablilhed the fame of any other man, but becaufe 

 •' what remains to be narrated is of a very different kind from what we have already given. 

 ** It is the project of a Philofophical and Univerfal Language, which he had conceived. 

 <« jyHkins Bifliop of Chefler, and Dulgarme, had laboured at this enterprife : but when 

 ** Leibnitz was in England, he obferved to Boyle and Oldenbeurg, that he did not think thofc 

 " great men had followed the true method. They might caufe nations whofe languages 

 ♦' were different, to communicate together with eafe ; but they had not fcized the true 

 " real chara£lers,vi\nch. were the moft delicate inftrument the human underftanding could 

 *• avail itfelf of, and were calculated extremely to facilitate the procefTes of reafon, the 

 ** powers of memory, and the invention of things. Thefe charafters were to referable as 

 •' much as poffible the charadters of Algebra, which, in faO:, are very firaple and very ex- 

 •* preflive, which never prefent any redundancy or equivocal expreffion, and of which all 

 " the varieties are demonftrative. He has fomewhere fpoken of an alphabet of human thoughts, 

 ** which he meditated. According to every appearance, this alphabet bore relation to his 

 " univerfal language. After the difcovery of this, it would have been alfo neceflary to have 

 *' difcovered the art of perfuading the different nations to ufe it ; and this would not have 

 " been the fmalleft difficulty of the talk." With regard to this laft art, it appears to me to 

 be very fimple, and capable of being pointed out in a few words. On this fubjeft the readier 

 may confult the remarks at pages 189 and 191 of our prefent volume. 



