Haif-yearly Retrofpect 
under different heads, which for fplendid 
engravings or typographical beauties, 
might very properly have been ranked in 
the prefent divifion ; among thefe are Mr." 
Masson’s Stapelie nove, Mr. RasH- 
-LEIGH’s “ Specimens of Mineralozy” Mr. 
FREEMAN’S “‘ Specimens of Britifhb Plants,” 
Mr. Lyon’s ‘ Antiquities at Wocdchefter,” 
Mr. DaLuaway’s ‘“ Conffantinople,” 
Dr. SmitTu’s publication of Mr. As- 
BOT’s “6 Lepidopterous Infects,”’ Gc. Sc. 
&c. The works of uaconnected art are few. 
Mr. JOHNCHAMBERLAINK, keeper of the 
king’s drawings and medals, (whole. ele- 
gant engravings from the Caracci, we 
mentioned inour laft retrofpect) has pub- 
lifhed ten numbers of “ Iyzitations of origi- 
nal Drawings, by Hans Bolbein,” in the 
collettion of his majefty. Thefe drawings. 
of Holbein, are the portraits of fome of 
the chief perionages of the court of Henry 
the eighth; they were found in a bureau 
at Kenfington; how they came there is 
unknown, for it is mentioned in Horace 
Walpole’s ** Anecdotes of Paintings,” that 
they had been fold into France, and pafled 
through a variety of hands. Thefe 
drawings are eighty nine in number, and 
are held in very high eftimation; they 
have little more than outlines, are drawn 
with chalk upon paper ftained of a.fleth 
colour, and are fcarcely fhaded. T'he 
heads ot Sir ThomasMore, Bifhop Fither, 
Sir Thomas Wyat, and Broke Lord 
Cobham, are regarded as mafter pieces. 
_My. CHAMBERLAINE’S magnificent un- 
dertaking is to be completed in two 
numbers more: the engravings areexecut- 
ed by that very eminent artift Barto- 
LOZZ!, as are thofe of the following 
work, publifhed alfo by Mr. CHampeEr- 
LAINE, namely “ Imitaiions of original 
Defigns, by Leonardo de Vinci.’ A more 
acceptable prefent can fcarcely be offered 
‘ to the public, than a colle€tion of imita- 
tions from that wonderful mafter: the 
curious and valuable volume of the ori- 
ginals—of thirteen, the only one in this 
kingdom—was difcovered foon after his 
prefent majefty’s acceffion, in the fame 
cabinet wherein queen Caroline found the 
portraits by Holbein. The fubjects of 
thefe drawings, one number only of which 
has yet appeared, are mifcellaneous; fuch 
as portraits, finele figures, tilting, hori{es, 
&c. botany, perfpetive, gunnery, optics, 
hydraulics, mechanics, and verv accu- 
rate delineations, with a molt f{pirited pen 
of a variety of anatomical fubjeéts. An 
ufeful little traét has been publithed en- 
titled “ A new Treatife on Flower Paint- 
inp,” containing, with other matter, direc- 
tions how fo mix Various tints; it is in- 
of Britifp Literature. 497 
é 
troductory to a work, intended tobe pub- 
lifhed in numbers, which is to contain 
coloured fketches of Howers.’ Mr: Irg- 
LAND’s * Pidiurefque Views on the River 
Wye, from its fource at Plinlimmon Hill to its 
junction with the Severn, below Chepftow,” 
by no means diicredit the reputation 
which he has already acquired as a 
draught{man. 
EASTERN LITERATURE. 
MajorOusELEY’s* Oriental Collefions,™ 
which was mentioned in our lalt retrofpest 
as an incipient work, we are forry to un- 
derftand, is given up for want of patro- 
nage! the circumftance is to be doubly 
regretted, as the laft fix months have af- 
forded but one folitary publication on the 
fubjeét of oriental letters! This is a{mall 
tract in two parts, by the author of 
** Iadian Antiquities,” entitled + Sanferit 
Fragments,” &c. In the firft part, Mr. 
MAURICE vindicates himfelf from the 
cenfure, that his Indian hiftory and An- 
tiquities are written under the influence 
of a particular fyitem: this fyftem, he 
obferves, is the Chriftian Religion, “a 
fyftem founded on the bafis of incontro- 
vertible faét, and fupported by concurrent 
teftimonies.*”” In this tra&t, he concludes 
his arguments relative to the Hindoo re- 
cords, which in fome points have been fup- 
pofed to militate againft the Mofaic ac- 
counts: ‘ with refpeét to the Hindoos,”” 
fays Mr. M. ‘as it does by no means 
appear to me, that they ever were ac- 
quainted with the Mofaic writings, they 
could not poffibly have obtained the 
knowledge of the great events defcribed 
in their allegorical legends, but through 
the medium of traditions, preferved with 
more or lefs accuracy in the principal 
branches of the firft great family after the 
deluge. To fuppofe, that Mofes derived 
his information from the Indian. book, 
through an Egyptian channel, as has 
been loudly and repeatedly aflerted by our 
{ceptical opponents, is the quinteflence of 
abiurdity.”” The fecond part is drawn 
from the fame materials, with general 
VALLANCEY’S publication, (which we 
have already noticed under the depart- 
ment of History) and contains the no- 
tice ot a Bramin colony in the Britith 
iflands. 
MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. 
An Englith tranilation has appeared 
in two oftavo volumes, of the celebrated 
Leonard Euler’s “ Elements of Algebra ;* 
one of the mott explicit treatifes on thefub « 
jet extant. This work is enriched with 
the critical and hiftorical notes of M. 
BERNOULLI, and withelaborate additions 
byM. pELAGR@ANGE. LikeColinMac- 
laurin, 
