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An Elemeiitary Treatise on Natj/ral Philosophy. Trans- 

 lated from the French of ]\1. R. J. IIauy, Professor 

 of Mineralogij at the Museum of Natural History, i!ic. 

 By Glistuvs Gregory, yl. 3i. rf the Royal Military 

 Academy, IFoolwick. 2 V^ols. 8vo. wilh Plates. 



f* The design of M. Haiiy/' as the translator observes, " in 

 coinposiiig this work, was not to produce a compilation of 

 earlier performances, a collection of insulated dissertations, 

 in which every former theory shall be exhibited, but none 

 examined ; it was rather to give a cast of unity to this de- 

 partment of human knowledge, to present Natural Philosophy 

 though in an abridged, yet in a complete form, to free it 

 from a great number of superfluities wilh which it had been 

 overcharged, and to develop scarcely any but theories now 

 solidly established, though perhaps previously contested, 

 that he might be the belter able to place Physics in the situa- 

 tion it ought to occupy, by assigning their due portions to 

 the comparatively recent branches of Magnetism, Electricity, 

 Galvanism, Crystallography, &c., and by enlarging those 

 boundaries which some modern authors seem to have esta- 

 blished upon too narrow a space;" 



The object which Mr. Gregory bad in view in the Trans- 

 lation, was, by giving this work in the same form as his own 

 treatises on Astronomy and Mechanics, to complete -a 

 course of Natural Philosophy. He has not, houever, con- 

 fined himself to a bare translation, but has given manv valu- 

 able notes, which add considerably to the usefulness of the 

 work. 



Mr. Gregory has done justice to the author in his transla- 

 tion, and has, we think, rendered a service tu the public, by 

 giving, in an English dross, a work written professedly for 

 the use of the French National Lycreum, in conjunction 

 with Biot's Elementary Treatise on Physical Astronom\, 

 and Francocur'o Elements of Mechanics. 



The work seems to be well adapted for the purpose it was 

 imended to answer, and has less irrelevant verbiage thanjs 

 generally to be met wilh in French works on Physics. It is 

 not, however, entirely free from this fault : ihe lollowing cx- 



orihum. 



