/ 
1799-] 
calculation of the experiment from theory, 
feemingly founded on the fame principle. 
But, only half underftanding the matter, 
partly through miftakes in principle, and 
errors in calculation, he has inadvertently 
made a great number of blunders in his 
calculations. Firft, he changes 263.433 
feet into 43.3 fathoms, inftead of 43.9 3 
and this error runs through all the rett of 
the work. Then he fuppofes LALANDE 
made the experiment at Paris; whereas 
that author {fays, he had the experiment 
from another perfon at Boulogne. Next 
he adds the height of the tower to the ra- 
dius of the parallel of latitude, inftead of 
to the radius of the earth ; thereby mak- 
ing the direétion of the tower to be ina 
right line with the former radius, inftead 
of with the laiter. lLaftly, he makes 
0.936 inches, Englifh meafure, equal to 
8.77 French lines, inftead of 10.524 lines, 
as it ought to be: thus making the quan- 
tity of deviation, by theory, more than 
double of what LALANDE makes it. 
Proceedings of the National Inftitute. 
381 
Inftead of the calculation of Edmontoni- 
enfis, then, take the following more cor- 
rect one. 
Firft AB= 247 French feet-= 263.24 
feet Englifh. : . 
As 163, :4/263.24221": 4.046 fe- 
conds nearly, time of fall. 
As 1 fec.: 1532 4.046 fec.: 603, the 
angular motion at the equator. 
As 1: cof. 50° 42’ (the lat.) $2603: 
38.°425—= £C=/EDF at Boulogne. 
As 1: fin. 38.°425°! DF = 263.24: 
EF=0.049 ft.== 0.588 inc. == 0.552 ines 
French= 6.6 lines, being very near the 
fame as LALANDE makes it by theory. 
In the above are emitted the effect of 
the earth’s annual motion, the unknowr 
refiftance of the air to the falling body, 
and poflibly, as W. S. obierves, other 
circumftances which may affect the mae 
thematical accuracy of this conclufion. 
Edinburgh, Your’s, &c. 
May, 7. James Noatu. 
ee - y 
ProcEepines at large of the NATIONAL INSTITUTE of France, on 
the ath of fanuary, 1799, as publifhed by the Secretaries. 
(Continued from our laft Number.) 
Notice of the Labours of the Clafs of 
_ Literature and Fine Arts, by Citizen 
ANDRIEUX. 
ITIZEN Seis has communicated 
to the clafs.a letter which he wrote 
in the country, addreffed to Citizen GaIL, 
profeffor of Greek Literature in the Col- 
lege of France, relative to the tranflation 
of the Idylls of Theocritus which this 
jaft has given to the public. Citizen Selis, 
atter fone reflections on the kind of wri- 
ting called the Idyll, makes it his bufinefs 
to inveftigate the manner peculiar to 
‘Theocritus, the moft antient ot the poets 
that we know in this kind; he highly 
commends, the fimple, natural, and even 
suftic manner of that paftoral writer. He 
acknowledges that he prefers it to the no- 
ble and affecting, but rather ftudied graces 
of the Bucolics of Virgil; and if he 
compares it for a moment with the ma- 
drigals of Fontenelle’s Shepherds, it is 
only to cenfure, with afrank averfion and 
a generous indignation, all the turns of 
fineffe and all the purfuit of witty points 
which the French author has lavifhed in 
his pretended paftorals. Thus Citizen 
Selis would guard us againit the dan- 
gerous mania of running after falfe wit, 
and bring us back to nature, from which 
we too often deviate. 
This letter will indicate to young ftu- 
_ dents in literature the neceflity of explor- 
ing the fountain-head, of ftudying the 
beautiful fimplicity of the antique among 
the Greeks, who, tor two thouland years, 
may claim the prerogative of being our 
matters and models in all the artsot ima~ 
gination. 
Horace framed a precept to this pur- 
pofe, in his time: 
———_—_—_——_—_——- Vos exemplaria Graca, 
Noéturna verfate manu, verfate diurna. 
It is of Theocritus and of Virgil that 
BorLeau has faid: 
Que leurs tendres ecrits, par les Graces dités, 
Ne quittent point vos mains, jour et nuit feue 
illetés. 
Citizen DUTHEIL has given an ac- 
count to the clafs of the contents of a 
manufcript Greek volume in the National 
Library, very important, not only for the 
quantity, but, alfo for the nature of the 
articles which are found init. Thefe ar- 
ticles, moft of them anecdotes, are to the 
number of fixty-eight. Some appear to 
be colle€tions of letters or of hiftorical 
and oratorical pieces; others are treatifes 
or poems, at prefent totally unknown. 
The moft confiderable of thefe different 
tracts, are referable, it istrue, to what are 
called the middle ages, even to the laft cen- 
tury of the Lower Empire; but they are 
not the lets interefting on that account, as 
all that period of the civil, political, and 
literary hiltory of the Greeks flands much 
in need of illuftration. 
Citizen 


