66 Mr. Parkes's History of 



tions upon several subjects, Miscellaneous Observations, ^c." 

 In eight volumes. The second edition, revised and corrected. 

 Octavo, London, 1722. In March 1710, Michael De la Roche 

 began a work entitled " Memoirs of Literature," and he 

 continued it in four volumes, to September 1714. The first 

 of these viras in folio., the three others in quarto. Neither of 

 these are now often seen ; but the work was reprinted in the 

 year 1722, in 8 vols, octavo, and this is the book which is 

 generally found in the libraries of the curious. In the preface 

 to this impression, the editor writes thus : 



" The first edition of these papers being very scarce, I have 

 reprinted it with several improvements. This new edition 

 consists only of three hundred and fifty copies ; so that this 

 work will always be uncommon." A copious table of the con- 

 tents is prefixed to each volume, and a large index to the 

 whole closes the eighth volume. This work is so full of enter- 

 tainment and instruction, that I have always considered it to 

 be one of the most valuable of our literary journals. The 

 variety of interesting matter is so great, that it would be very 

 difficult to satisfy oneself in making extracts. I am, however, 

 desirous of observing, that these volumes contain a more full 

 and circumstantial account of the character and death of 

 Nicholas Anthoine, who was strangled and burnt in 1632, for 

 having left the Christian religion and embraced Judaism, than 

 can be found elsewhere. This work also contains a more par- 

 ticular account than I have ever seen, of the writings of the 

 learned Michael Servetus, who discovered the circulation of 

 the blood *, and who was burnt alive at Geneva, in the year 1553, 

 by the intrigues of Calvin, for the opposition which he had' 

 given to the prevailing religious doctrines of the times. As 

 the works of this great man are now extremely scarce, in con- 

 sequence of the copies having been collected and burnt by 

 authority at Vienna and Frankfort, the facts which Michael 



*Dr. Wotton tells vis that Servetus announced this discovery in a work 

 entitled Christianismi Restitutio, which was first printed in 1553, the 

 very year in which the author vvas burnt. See Wotton's Reflections on 

 /Vucieut and Moderu Learning, 1705, page 215. 



