1797-] 
VINCENZ10-ANTONIO REVELLI has 
recently publifhed the profpedtus of an 
Italian work, entitled, Ogere Filofofi{che 
Pittoriche. ‘The importance and grandeur 
of the plan, entitle it to particular no- 
tice. After a pompous elogium on the 
art of painting, confidered in its relations 
to politics and morals, the author coin- - 
municates the different procefles he ob- 
ferved in painting, by natural. and artifi- 
cial lights, with his motives for engaging 
in the prefent work. The learned dit- 
fertations . of Winckelman, Mengs, 
Sultzer, &c. on the fubject of Ideal 
Beauty, appear to him, he obferves, by 
no means to have exhautted the fubject, 
which he treats in a point of view al- 
together novel and original. He exa- 
mines upon what bafis the ideal beautiful 
is founded, and on what laws it depends; , 
and concludes, that the Beautyful or Bel- 
fezxe, confifts in the particular form and 
organization beft adapted to the animal 
fun@tions. This affertion he corroborates 
by an exaét analyfis of twelve mafter- 
pieces of fculpture, which have been pre- 
ferved from the works of antiquity. He 
next enters upon an examination of the 
works of Camper, explores his ideas 
of different temperaments, original tactics, 
charaéters, &c. &c. and, by a hatural 
tranfition, treats of the paffions, which he 
divides into fimple and compound; of 
their general and particular effects; of 
all accidental impreflions, &c. He points 
out the method of rendering them ac- 
cording to their true expreffion, in 
conformity to the leffons furnifhed by the 
the twelve models which he has felected. 
Nothing efcapes his difcernment, and it is 
to be hoped, that the work will fully 
an{wer the expeétation univerfally ex- 
cited by the profpedius, which there is 
every reafon to look for. 
: ACADEMY. : 
The academy, which owes its founda- 
tion to the zealof LAGRANGE, CIGNA, 
and SALucEs, confifts of nearly all the 
literary charaétersin Piedmont. Its me- 
moirs occupy an honourable ftation in 
academical colleétions. Exclufive of five 
volumes of Mifcellanea, there have ap- 
peared five additional volumes of Memorrs, 
- in the French language. The count de 
MoRr0zzo continues to merit the ho- 
hourable rank of prefident by his zeal and 
knowledge. His colleagues atfift him with 
ardour, and with the fupport of fuch 
briiliant talents, there is every reafon to 
hope that this fociety will maintain the 
high reputation it fo juftly poffeffed be- 
fere the revolution. 
State of Literature in Piedmont and Scotland. 
357 
LIBRARY. 
The Public Library contains about 
24,000 volumes. It abounds eminently in 
works upon the fubjeét of Natural Hiftory. 
The botanifts contemplate, with pleafure, 
28 volumes of plants, coloured after na- 
ture, by a Piedmontefe artift, Each 
volume contains 150 plants, and it 1s fup- 
pofed that the number of volumes, when 
complete, will amount to 45. A new 
volume appears every year. | 
eet 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ACCOUNT OF THE FORMER PrRo- 
GRESS AND PRESENT STATE OF 
“LITERATURE AND SCIENCE IN 
SCOTLAND. 
[ Continued from our laft.] 
isin abdication of James, the triumph 
of Prefbyterianifm, the reduétion of 
Epifcopacy to fubfift in Scotland unen- 
dowed, and merely by fufferance, the ~ 
final ruin of all the hopes of Popery, and 
the long-protraéted contefts between Ja- 
cobitifm and Whiggifm, were little 
adapted to kindle up,among the Scots, new 
fires of literature and {cience, or to refufcia 
tate that {mothered fame which might be 
fuppofed ftill to lurk among embers now 
half-cold. The political contefts which 
preceded and attended the negociations of 
the treaty of UNIon between the Scottifh 
and the Englifh nations, gave occafion, 
indeed, for a number of fpeeches and 
pamphlets, in fome of which there is a 
confiderable difplay of humour, argu- 
ment, and vehement eloquence. In the 
{peeches particularly of Andrew Fletcher, 
and of Hamnulion Lord Belhaven, are va- 
rious burfting flafhes of eloquence, fuch 
as are fcarcely excelled by any thing in 
the whole range of ancient and modern 
literature. Yet, after fuch flafhes as 
thefe have, in the exordium, or in the 
parts immediately fubfequent to it, afto- 
nifhed and affeéted our minds, the con= 
clufion is too often found to be but lame 
and impotent. Daniel Defoe vifited 
Edinburgh, while the treaty of UNrow 
was in negociation, and poured from the 
prefs an inundation of pamphlets, intend- 
ed to aid in overpowering that oppofition 
with which the Jacobites and the parti- 
zans of the houfe of Hamuilion ftruggled 
to defeat the views of thofe by whom the 
Union was accomplithed. About the 
fame time was projected the publication 
of that {plendid andimportant collection, - 
the Diplomata Scoti@, compiled by Az- 
derfon, a manof no contemptible talents 
and induftry. Several treatifes upon 
{ubdjects of agriculture, manufactures, and 
Aaaz commerce, 
