PBEFACE 



I HAPPENED to be conversing, a few months ago, with a 

 foreign gentleman of distinguished knowledge and abilities, 

 on a circumstance which is observed by every foreigner who 

 is capable of making observations, and of which every native, 

 whose information extends beyond the productions of his 

 own country and one or two among the swarm of Parisian 

 journals, must be sufficiently sensible : I mean, on the very 

 slow and imperfect manner in which the improvements of 

 literature and science, that are made in several countries 

 abroad, become generally known in England ; and to the 

 accidental occurrence of this subject, the present publication 

 entirely owes its rise. The train of such a conversation 

 would naturally lead us to recollect many names, among 

 the philosophers of Germany and Sweden in particular, of 

 whom it may be said, almost in the strict acceptation of the 

 terms, 



'H/xeZs Se /<A.eos olov aKouoyu,ev, cwSe TL tS/xev- 



with whose contributions to the sum of human knowledge, 

 the Authors and Professors of Britain, how confident soever 

 of their own superiority, might find it no disadvantage to be 

 better acquainted than they in general appear to be. 



In a review of this kind, it was impossible to leave un- 

 noticed the merits of that original genius whose Essays are 



