Eso Retrofpect of French Literature Natural Philofophy and Botange 
Communications; American Review ; 
Republication of Forcign Works; Se- 
fe€tions; and Poetry.” The original 
communications are, as they muit be in 
every fimilar work, of very unequal me- 
rit; there are many admitted into the 
prefent, which we think are puerile and 
meagre. The critical part ot tne publi- 
eation feems to be the beft; we are prin- 
eipally indebted to it for the materials of 
the prefent article, and we with they had 
been more abundantly furnifhed. To 
unite a Magazine and 2a Review, has 
fometimes been attempted In this country, 
but never with any tolerable fuccels: 
American publications indeed are fo few, 
vhat it was perhaps apprehended they 
would hardly fupport a regular periodical 
review ; if mrfcellaneous matter, however, 
muft occafionally be inferted, let it be 
fabordinate; the critical portion fhould 
on no account, as it very evidently is in 
the volume before us, be cramped and 
confined by matter of very inferior merit, 
A place is allotted in the American 
Review so * Seletions” truly, from fo- 
reren works, chiefly Englifh: this betrays 
a fcantinefs of contributions which augurs 
¥ 
not well, and yet we are perfuaded that 
the work is fupported by fome gentlemen 
of high literary attainments. Why not 
omit this degrading portion, and allow 
fcope, large, if not unlimited, for the ex- 
ercife of criticifm ? The following is a 
lift of foreign works republithed in Ame- 
rica and noriced in the firit eight num- 
bers of the Monthly Magazine; with it 
we fhall at prefert clofe our account of its 
Literature, ‘* St. Pierre’s Studiés of 
Nature,” ‘* Dr. Witfius’ Economy. of 
the Covenants,’ ‘* Mofheim’s Ecclefiaf- 
tical Hiftory,’ The fourth volume of 
Dr. Robertfon’s ‘* Hiftory of America,” 
Count Rumford’s ‘* Effays,” An ‘ En- 
cyclopedia*” in eighteen volumes quartes 
Matham’s ‘* Naval Gazetteer,” Southey’s 
‘¢ Joan of Arc,” and “ Poems,” Bifhop 
Berkeley's ** Adventures of Signor Gay- 
dentio di Lucca,” and two Tranflations of 
Kotzebue’s * Count of Burgundy;” one 
by Mifs Plumptre, and one by Mr. 
Charles Smith of New-York. 
We fhall continue and probably extend 
this account of American Literature is 
our future.Supplements. 
“* Probably reprinted trom the Scotch, 

FRENCH LITERATURE. 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY aND Bo- 
SAL NY 
*« Renouvellemens Periodiques des Con- 
frnens terreftres,” &c.—Of the Periodical 
Renovation of the Terreftrial Continents ; 
by Lours BeExTRanp, Emeritus Profef- 
for of the Academy of Geneva, and Mem- 
berof that or the Sciences and: Belles Let- 
tees of Berlin, 1 vol. 8vo. i 
« This work,” fays M. Bertrand, 
#675 deftined for the ufe of thofe, who 
are pleafed to afcend from effeéts to caules : 
they will here behold a multitude of facts 
pafs in review before them; feleéted for 
the moft part from the travels of the ce- 
lebrated Sauffure, in the Alps.’ The 
anthor. confiders the earth as compofed of 
Jrata, formed from the refiduum of vege- 
rables of all kinds, durmeg the. interval 
between the different inundations that 
have occurred ; for, according to his fy{- 
tem, the whole earth has been covered 
fuceefively with water. 
Ffe attempts to refute the theorg of 
Letbnitz, relative to the caufes that have 
led to the prefent ftate of our planet; he 
alfo difeuffes the opinions of Buffon, Sauf- 
furg and Deluc, concerning the manner 
in which the waters have receded from 
the. land, and concludes that it has been 
at once fudden and violent. | 
The prefent ftate of the Alps, enables 
- him to conceive: a new fyftem relative ro 
the formation of continents, and he alfo 
enters into mineralogical details, concern- 
ing different fpecies of fone. ; 
After combating the opinionef Deluc, 
that the continents tend to a permanent, 
which will be the laft and beft ftate, the 
author concludes, from the phenomena 
produced by the toadftone, that the earth 
is a hollow {phere, and he explains its 
compofition and motions. 
The above fketch is fufficient te evince 
that this work is calculated for the learned 
alone; and the philofopher and mine- 
ralogift will be at no lofs to difcover that 
it abounds with ideas worthy af being 
attended to. 
“Manuel Economique des Plantes,” 
&c. An Economical Manual of Plants, 
or an Account of all the Plants thar are 
ufeful in the Arts, by J. P. Bucuoz, 
Author of feveral Medical and Veterinary 
works, &c. 1 vol. 8vo. 374 p. ? 
In this manual, the author has men- 
; tloacd 
