288 
iflands. His labours will not fail to 
throw new Hight om the writers of that 
celebrated country; writers of whom, 
by his long labours, Guys feems to have 
rendéred himfelf, in fome meafure, the 
cotemporary. 
S1cARD prefented a copious and me- 
thodical extraét of the Tranflation of 
Harris's Hermes, compofed, at firft, and 
prefented to the clafs, by TnHuro. 
S1cARD has advantageoufly combatted 
the Englith grammarian; has always 
iluftrated, and often confuted him. 
LANGLES, ftimulated by his natural 
tafte, and by a fort of inftinét for Oriental 
‘literature, is every day drawing out of 
that valuable mine, too long neglected, 
Tales, moral and philofophical. Some 
of thefe he recited at this fitting. 
Francois NEUFCHATEAU, affociate 
cf the Seétion of Poefy, has celebrated, 
in verfe, the Vo/res mountains, as Haller 
formerly celebrated the Alps, and: as 
Ramond would have fang the Pyrenées, 
could his f{prightly imagination have 
‘fubmitted to the !aws of rhyme and 
metre. 
Nort Dewarity, has attempted -to 
do away the difcordance which prevails 
between the French language as written, 
and the fame as pronounced. For this 
purpofe (after 60 years of labour {pent in 
grammatical tuition) he propofes 2 better 
ufe of the accents; the recal of certain 
letters to their primitive deftination; 
to eftablifh, by fuitable figns, a difference 
between fuch confonants as are differ- 
ently articulated; to fupprefs fuch 
yowels and confonants as are not pro- 
nounced at all; and, finally, in double 
confonants, which .are pronounced, as 
fingle ones, to fupprefs one of them. 
GossEc, who is intimately verfed in 
the hiftory of the Art of Mufic, as well 
as its theory and practice, prefented to 
the clafs a wind infirument, of baked 
earth (terre cwie) made ufe of by the 
Chinefe, and known with them by the 
name of Hywven. Of thefe there arc two 
forts ; the large one is of the fize of a 
goofe’s egg, and the fmall one is not big- 
ger than a hen’s egg. In the Hyven are 
fix holes. and with the natural found of 
the inftrument, when the holes are played 
upon, it gives the feven tones, augmented 
by the oftave of the grave found /plus 
TP ofave du fon grave) thereby conftituting 
an entire gamma, and a complete fyftem 
ffound. This, however, 1s only an ex- 
tract from the grand {yftem of muic in- 
troduced into China, by Fou-hy, 2737 
years before the vulgar wra, and which 
was alfo admitted by the Egyptians and 
A 
. Proceedings of the National Inftitute. 
[ April, 
Arabians, but was thrown out by the 
Greeks. By the help of this grand fyf- 
tem, the legiflator Rameau was enabled 
to lay down the fundamental bafe. It 
was Dalambert, however, who gave to 
the fyftem its greateft degree of pre- 
c:fion and clearnefs. 
Among ether ancient monuments at 
Nifmes, is a gate of the city, which ap- 
pears, from its infcription, to have been 
ereéted by Augaftus. A part of this 
having been lately pulled down, and its 
materials configned to the building of 
anew fifh-market, fome yourg Freach 
artifts, who happened to be in the city 
(on their travels through France and 
Spain, in queft of antiquities) tranfmit- 
ted a notice of this circumftance to the 
clafs, which inftantly took meafures to 
procure from the minifter of the Interior 
a reparation of the outrage. 
| ANDRIEUX, already a favourite of 
the comic mufe, and now a candidate 
for the favours of Melpomene, recited 
the firft act of his new tragedy of Fumiug 
Bruius. 
Font awnesalfo chanted his epic poem, 
entitled, Greece faved ; compofed by him 
in the leifure time which he*can fpare 
from the courfe of le€tures he delivers 
on eloquence and the belles lettres. 
Some writers (although very few) hav- 
ing undertaken to tranflate the whole 
Thad into verfe, their efforts have not 
proved fuccefsful ; while others, who had 
only undertaken the tranflation of certain 
detached paffages, laboured more feli- 
citoufly, and gained applaufe. .OF this 
number was VILLARS, who recited the 
tranflation made by him into yerfe, of 
that part of the 16th book, in which 
the Greek poet defcribes Patroclus com- 
batting the Trojans. 
A jong time “before the tranflation of 
the Georgics into French, by DELISLE, 
the poet Le Brun had imitated the 
Epifode of Arifteus. (He had inferted 
this in his poem, entitled La Veillée du 
Parnaffé, which has not, however, been 
yet publifhed). At this fitting he recited 
his tranflation of that part of the Geor- 
gics which relates to the cruel fate of Eu. 
rydice, ,the celebrated regrets of Or- 
pheus, and the tragical end of the Thra- 
cian poet, &c. 
SCHWEIGHAUSER, profeffor of ancient 
languages at Strafburg, and affociate of 
of the Inftirute, has been long preparing 
an edition of Arrian, which is to in-: 
clude the Exchiridion of Epictetus; and 
among other fragments of philofophical: 
works, a paraphrafe, of that manual, 
by Simplicius, a philofopher, who lived 
: in 
