“212 ’ French National Infiitut?. 
types.» There are ftrong reafons for adopting the —- 
‘hion. i att de 
Cit. Cailhava, pains occupied with the comic art, coms 
municated extraéts from fome ancient Spanifh pieces of 
Calderon de la Barca, entitled Le Purgatoire de St. Patrice, 
Le Diable et le Saint, &c.; and he obferves, that the drama- 
tic authors, who bring upon the ftage in fo agreeable a 
manner ghofts, devils, and monks, have’not the merit. of 
the invention, and only carry us back to thofe coarfe farces 
which difgraced the infancy of the modern theatres. . Cit, 
Cailhava'calls the attention of government to that: noble 
dramatic art, which might and ought to exercife a powerful 
influence over the opinions and manners of civilized »na- 
tions. The ancients had particular magiftrates appointed 
for the purpofe of keeping a watchful eye over the theatres. 
The archons and the ediles were, in all probability, more 
difficult in’ their choice’ of pieces than the direétors -of thofe 
fpetacles at prefent. Dramatic authors did not ‘labour in 
hafte: for pitiful wages... Sophocles and -Menander were: 
crowned in the affemblies of the people, at the’ Olympic 
games; and ‘before the ‘eyes of all Greece. Between: good 
tafte and good morals there is more analogy than’ is gene+ 
rally believed. ‘There is a certain exquifite fenfe of propriety 
which arifes frony a happy difpofition, cultivated by a diberal 
education; and it is of importanee that this fenfe fhould 
never be fuffered to become weak, and that all our-inftitus 
tions, our ufages; and above ail our theatres, fhould tend.to 
firengthen it. } 
Cit. Langles has pablidhed the three firft silo “66 a 
collection of Voyages in Afia, tranflated from different Ori- 
ental and European languages, with a fhort account of the re- 
volution im Perfia, a memoir on Perfepolis, and hiftorieal notes. 
| Cit. Schweighaufen, affociate of the Inftitute, who, has 
already given editions of Appian and Polybius, has juft pub- 
lithed a new one of Epictetus and Cebes. enriched with 
learned notes. 
Cit, 
