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214 Proceedings of the National Inftitute, 4th oes 1798. [April 
aGting by natural caufes.”” Now job is 
here made to act like a natural and ration- 
‘al being. There was no fimilitude to the 
other cafes of Abraham, Manoah, &c. 
whofe angels, having performed their 
meflage, made themfelves known by fome 
vifible fign. There was a fett ot the 
ancient Jews, and there are many people 
among moderns, fo fuperftitious as to 
believe that each perfon has his peculiar 
(pirit or angel watching over their iteps 5 
and to help themfelves on in the depth 
into which they have thus plunged, they 
go the length of fu ppofing, that when they 
have done any thing wrong, they muit 
needs have two guardian angels, one 
leading them into good, and the other pull- 
ing them to evil ; and thus, between them 
both, they deftroy their own accountable- 
nefs, give up the juftice of God, and 
defert all the doctrines of the very religion 
they profefs ! : : 
Nov. 1798. H. A. 
en ee a ene 
‘ProceEpines at large of the NATIONAL InstTITUTE of France, on 
Moral and Political Sciences, during the 
daft quarterly Sitiezg, by Cittzen La- 
euée. 
{ Year VI. of the French Republic—ivth Tri- 
maftre, 10 Thermidor. ] 
HE clafs of Moral and Political 
Sciences had propoled, 2s a fubjeét 
for one of the prizes to be diftributed by 
the Inftitute, the folution of the fellowing 
queftion : 
eo What are the moft proper infletuiions to 
found the movats of & people?” 
The clafs has received nfteen memoirs 
on this fubject + three of them appear to 
merit a diftinet notice, becaufe their au- 
thors hare approached to the end pro- 
pofed in the queftion; but not judging 
that any has attained it, the prize will not 
be diftributed. 
The works of which 
thought fit to make a particular mention 
are, that which was depoiited on the third 
day, at the office of the iceretary of the In- 
ftitute, and which bears for epigraph thefe 
verfes of Horate: 
the clafs ha 
- 7” od _ - 
&¢ §: forte neceffe eft fingere, non exaudita 
= Dae Se ee ye OP = i ne 
ontinge:—aabiturgue leentiq jumpta pudenter. 
J 
Phat which was infcribed under num- 
ber 6, and which has for its epigraph this 
pallage ot Cicero: ‘* Nez exim ulla res 
uchementius rempublicam  cortinet. quam 
fides’ That which was infcribed ander 
number 10, bears for epigraph thefe 
words, taken from the memoir ifelf: 
“ Ox whansre point la vériu, ou la re- 
fpecie.” 
The clafs has theught proper. to pro- 
ofe the fame quefticn afrefh: it was allo 
confidered, at the fame time, that the cle- 
mentary queftions of the general queifion 
require to be indicated in anew program. 
This program will be publithed im the 
fitting of the 15th Yendemiaire next. 
the ath of Fuly, 1798, as publifbed by the Secretaries. 
Notice of the Labours of the Clafs of 
The.clafs‘ of Moral and Palifieal Sex. 
ences had alfo to adjudgea prize upen’ 
_ this queition : 
_‘* For «what objedis azd on what con- 
ditions is it expedicat for a republican flate 
to open public loans?” 
As the authors of the memoirs fent to the 
concurrence, or coacours, do not appear to 
have attained the end of the queftion, the 
clafs propofes the fame fubjeét afreth. 
_ Ina feparate program, which appeared 
in the Monthly Magazine for January, 
the following gueftion in focial fcience 
was propofed : | 
‘* How far ought the porver of a father 
of a family to extend, and what limits 
Should be prefcribed to it in a well- couftituted 
republic ?°* 
Although this laft queftion involves 
very interefting matter, and efpecially at 
a period when the legiflative body is about 
: aa AE Ee [se 
to be employed in digefting a civil cede, — 
the clais probably entertained the firft idea 
of it from a very extenfive difeuffion which 
took place at one of its own fittings, on 
paternal authority. The clafs had heen 
invited to this difcufiion by two memoirs 
of our fellow-member De SALLES, and b 
a memoir in two parts of our Bt 
member REDERER ; all three relating to 
the principles of government in China. 
In his frit memoir, entitled « Oy the 
ae Pe is defpotifm.ia China, and the 
eras which accompany it, have produced 
on the erty centuries of its fiable auration,? 
Citizen DesaALLes, after combating 
RayNat, who thought he had difcovered 
principles of republicanifm in the soverne 
ment of China, drawsa conclufion, from 
a comparative examen of all the hiftories 
grounded upon the Chinefe writers, and 
from the different voyages of embafty 
that China, during the tern: ofits twent ty 
two <lynaitics, has never admitted into ite 
government 
— ee ee 
