
/ 
liar phidacee of the power intended to be 
reprefenced. 5 ‘ 
Tt would bea tafk of more labour than 
difficulty to go through the whole range of 
allegorical portraits, with which poets of 
the “frk eminence, ancient and modern, 
have enriched the dees of fiction ; for, 
indeed, originality of conception in this 
walk 4 invention is rare 5 and neither the 
variety of abftra& ideas perfonified, nor 
the number of diftin& perfonifications of 
each, is very coniiderable. But fuch a 
complete collection was not the object of 
this eflay; which was rather defigned to 
eftablifh by examiplés a fyftem of the di fe 
ferent clafles of thefe fancy-formed beings, 
founded on the feveral modes in which the 
imagination proceeded in their formation. 
in doing this, principles, I truft, have been 
developed, which will affift the Rudent of 
poetry in judging how far any attempt of 
740 Padus of the National Inftitute, ath April 1799. “[OBobee ‘ 
“this kind has attained | that perfe&tion. 
ee fhould be the aim of every work of 
t, but which can never be reached by 
es exertions. Many writers, it is 
true, without the direct application ef 
rules, have produced pieces of the highef 
merit, and which-may ferve as models for 
others; but this has been in confequ ence 
of that fenfe of propriety, either innate, or 
derived from refle&tion and obfervation, 
which is an internal rule to the poffeffor. 
The poetical mine explored in this effay 
contains the richeft ore, but the moft liable 
to be buried in drofs. It has been m 
na purpofe to fix fuch charatteriftic 
arks on both, as to a future mif- 
poe of the one for tne other; or the in- 
termixture of glittering alloy to debafe the 
fplendour of the pure metal. + 
a 

Proceepincs at large of the Nationat InsTITUTE of France, on 
the 4th of April » 1799, as publifhed by the Secretaries. 
nOuee of the Dees of te Clafs of 
Moral and Political Sciences, by Citzzen 
DAUNOU. ' : 
ITIZEN ANQUETIL has~ pub- 
' lifhed two mores one is a volume 
in 8vo, entitled: Motives of the Wars and 
Treaties of pe of France, from 1648 to 
17835 the title of the other, which is in 
6 volumes 12mo. is, 42 Abridgement of 
Uni: werfal Exiftory, or Hiftorical Synapfis of 
the World. 
Citizen Bour OIn ein 
De siaaae of Vol lian Be 
publithed the 
and of Bernis ; 
es relative to 
in 2 vols. 
fay treatife on cofmo 
. Citizen MENTELL smmunicated 
to the clafs the refult of a Jabour on the 
geography of Greece. has treated 
particularly of Laconia, and has made it 
iis eet to defcribe the city of Helos, 
SP 
a 
E 
oe plasue, a fcourge e in the train of 
flavery, ‘which defolates the frontiers of 
‘Turkey, but whieh may find too many 
opportunities or from its bounda- 
ries, from the general movements where- 
with Europe is ‘at prefent agitated, ought 
eloping 
to excite more than ever ae attention of 
philofophérs and the vigilance of govern. 
ments. What are the méans of combat- 
ing or of fuppreffing this fcourge? Such 
is particularly ¢ the quefiien on Which citi 
nately celebrated by the flavery- 
zen Papon has been occupied in a work, 
a {ketch of which he has: offered to the 
clafs., In tracing the origin of the plague, 
the author obferyes that. Egypt was un- 
acquainted with it in thofe glorious and 
happy ages, wnen the berders of the Nile 
were rendered by the arts and fciences the 
moft fertile and populous country on the 
globe. It was in Europe, and elpecially 
in Etaly, that this fcourge was then indi- 
genous and endemial. _It was feen to. 
ravage the Roman | territory five and twenty . 
times during the five firft ages of the re- 
public ; duri ring the two following it be- 
came more rare in proportion as civilifa- 
tion improved; 1¢ appeared again under 
the laft emperors; recommenced with 
them the ages of barbarifm, and devaf— 
tated a ions time the fneft countries in 
Europe, til i” the epoch in which the arts 
reviving, extinguiflied a feeond time ‘the 
germs of contac’ ion, or banifhed them ta. 
the.coats of f uncultivated Africa. 
Citizen TOUL ONGEON read the preli- 
minary Sees fe of a work, imtitled, 
The Epochs of the’ Revolution. "To write 
the hitory of ore’s own time, and efpeci- 
\ally of a time of revolution, is, the author 
himfelf obferves, an hazardous undertak- 
ing and extremely dificult. But after 
having confidered the inftru€tive leffons” 
which fuch an hift written with fcru- 
y Yo 
pulous impar tality, Thay offer even to” 
contempo? ‘aries and thea Sars on the fcenes 
wilien it expoles, citizen Toulongeon con- 
cludes 
