280. 
and although, by preceeding upon fatts, 
it is as fufceptible of certitude as any of 
the fciences which are termed exadt. 
He proceeds to obferve, that this fcience 
has not been hitherto inveftigated with 
method and freedom; and that, to this 
day, it has never been the dircét object 
of the refearches of any learned body. 
The order according to which he fe- 
commends thac the fecond clafs of the 
inftitu:e fhould undertake the invefti- 
gation of it, confifts, 1ft, in making the 
enumeration of all its known truths; 
2d, in bringing to perfeétion the inftru- 
ments of exprediing the fame, which 
here are languages; and, 3d, in agreeing 
upon the obfervations and experiments 
requifite to be made, in order to clear up 
doubtful points. 
Tracy, with a view to execute this 
plan himfelf, exhibits, in thefe two me- 
moirs, a f{ummary table of fuch deolog ical 
truths, as he conceives to be evident. 
He maintains, that the faculty of think- 
ing, as it exifts within us, may be de-— 
compofed into five diftinét and effential 
faculties ; that of apprebending or perce:v- 
zng, of remembering, of judging, of willing, 
and finally that of moving, which appears 
zo him to be an integral part of the 
faculty of thinking, and neceffary to its 
action, provided that the fenfation of 
motion, in contradiftinétion to that of 
yefiftance, gives occafion to exercife our 
faculty of comparing or judging. He 
then proceeds to examine the relations of 
four of thefe fenfations, with that of 
volition or willing; and concludes, 
that they are all partly dependent on, 
and partly independent of the latter. 
He next inveftigates the formation of our 
ideas, confidered as knowledge or things 
known, and of our ideas confidered as 
fentiments and paffions. He remarks, 
that liberty is the. faculty of aéting 
apreeably to our own will, and thence 
infers, that liberty and happinefs is but 
one and the fame -idea, confidered with 
relation to the means, and with relation 
to the end. 
LAROMIGUIERE prefented obferva- 
tions relaive to' the fiftem of the operations 
of the underftanding. His memoir is di- 
vided into two parts: in the firft, he 
difcuffes the degree of difficulty which 
was overcome, in ‘order to difcover the 
fyftem of Condillac. He makes the fup- 
pofition, that it was as yet unknown; 
and he enquires by what feries of re- 
fleétions a perfon might have been led to 
difcoyer it. In the fecond part, he gives 
Clafs of Moral and Political Sctences. 
[ April, 
an analy fis of the fyftem, which he modi- 
fies in fome refpects, adding alfo toita 
number of new views or objects. 
~LAROMIGUIERE recited another me- 
moir, entitled, What we are to underfland 
by the word idea ? This memoir is divid- 
ed into five chapters. After giving, in 
the firft, general confiderations on the 
neceility of determining the fenfe of 
words; he fhows, in the fecond, that the 
word idea is one of thofe whofe fignifi- - 
cation varies the moft in differentauthors, 
and that the zdea has been confounded 
fometimes with zbought, fometimes with 
the fifi operation of the underfianding, 
fametimes with she reprefeniation of 05- 
jedis, and fometimes with the knowledge 
of ceriain objedis, which we canuot repre- 
Jent to ourfelves. In the third chapter, 
he endeayours to prove, that we only 
have ideas as far as we can diftinguifh 
objeéts one from another, fo that a fenfa. 
tion becomes an idea, at the initant when 
it is difunited from the other fenfations 
with which it was complicated. ‘The 
fourth chapter is devated to the folution 
of certain queftions which have hitherto 
perpiexed metaphyficians, and all the 
difhculry of which depended on erro- 
neous definitions of the ward idea. 
' LeEveEsgue recited a memoir on the 
manners and cufioms of the Greeks in the 
time of Homer. We remarks, that in the 
works of this poet traces are to be found 
of the origin of human focieties; men 
not knowing the caufes of every thing, 
created as many fuperior powers, as 
there appeared phenomena to explain. 
We find in Homer's works, as well as by 
an infpection of the map, that Greece 
received its population from the nerth. 
The civil polity of thofe times was a 
mixture of monarchy, ariftocracy, and 
democracy. A king all-powerful in 
war, governed during the time of peace 
by a council of old men, and called an_ 
affembly of the people when the fitua- 
tion of affairs interetted the whole body 
of the ftate. The men were ferocious 
in combat, and hofpitable in private 
life. The ftranger,’and the poor man, 
were confidered as inviolably facred. 
Though always engaged in war, there 
exifted then no fcience of war as an art. 
The Greeks were unacquainted with 
the art of befieging a piace; they had no 
cavalry; thofe whom we term: cayaliers, 
fought in chariots. ‘Their marine was 
altogether in a ftate of infancy ; thips 
were not yet provided with decks; they 
were launched into the water by the 
re Tae er Tn ae iy ‘ forces 
