326 
time to facred mufic, anumerous company 
were wont, annually, to affemble, and to 
pafs over from the continent to the Pharos- 
ifland, in order to pitch their awnings on 
that fhore and befide thofe cloifters, where 
the induftry and talent of their great inter- 
preters had brooded fo lafting a benefit to 
learning and to religion. During the fa- 
crament of commemoration, rank was fuf- 
pended, enmity forgotten, licence over-. 
awed, mafter and fervant, friend and foe, 
male and female, fpread their mats befide 
one another, on fands to them holier than 
floors of palaces ; and together drank wine 
of dates, or partook a refrefhing banquet, 
preceded by thanks to the Almighty for 
the revelation vouchfafed to them alike. 
And fhallno act of grateful remembrance 
mark the departure of GeppDES? who, fe- 
parated by a far greater interval of time 
and {pace from the original of Hebrew writ, 
has tranflated more of it than any one of 
the feventy interpreters, in a manner which 
3t is the utmoft of erudition to chip at, and 
of tafte to criticize. 
Nor is the magiftrate lefs indebted to 
GeEpDEs than the inquirer. He has ftruck 
at Sadduceifm a fhattering blow. Since 
Warburton, it has been popularly notori- 
ous that the Mofaic fyftem or doctrine does 
not inculcate the idea of a future fiate. 
Whatever props of miracle or prophecy 
can be lent to fuch a religion, they tend, 
confequently, to favour fcepticifm about 
an hereafter, to fet one fupernatural com- 
munication again another, a revelation 
without a future fiate againft a revela-~ 
tion with one. Geddes has demolifhed 
thefe props, which was not eafy, without 
taking away thofe on the oppofite fide of 
the precinct. 
CRITICISM OF MERCIER’S. 
<¢ There is {carcely any difference, (fays 
Mercier) between the odes of Roufleau, 
and the profe of Telemachus: in our lan- 
guage, the moft illuérious writer cannot 
be audacicus,nor can the {cribbler let down 
his diction. . Is it not to be feared that an 
acquaintance with foreign tongues may 
change among. us this clear luminous na- 
tional ftyle?*? The invariety of French 
fiyle is no doubt a faét: but is it not a 
fault? Is it not the caufe of the declining 
tafte for French literature in Europe? The 
odes of Rouffeau are tame as pinioned 
fwans, and have never been admired out of 
their native land. Telemachus is a con- 
venient {chool-book, becaufe it is one of : 
the few profe works of the French, which 
inculcate neither infidelity nor cb{cenity : 
but in what does its literary merit conf ? 
For an epopza, it is too preaching; ior 
2 
From the Port-falio ofa Man of Letters. 
[Nov. 1, 
the idea of a perfe& government, too mar- 
vellous. It has, howéver, more epic, than 
didactic merit, and might by a skilful 
verfifier be abridged into a tolerable poem. 
Omit the fimilies, make the defcriptions 
picturefque, give dramatic fpirit to the 
dialogue, and manners and paifions to the 
heroes, and it would pleafe ; for the plor,, 
though trivial, is good. The Teléma- 
chus, like the Exodus, feems to have been 
drawn up for an epic poem, and then in- 
terpolated with a code. 
TWO MAGNETIC FLUIDS. 
C. Coulomb, known by various memoirs 
prefented to the Academy of Sciences, has 
revived the hypothefis of two magnetic 
fluids; and has endeavoured to prove, that 
their particles attraét and repel each other, 
directly as their denfities, and inverfely as 
the fquares of their diftances. 
Thus the Newtonian rule of philofo- 
phizing, never to call in more caufes than 
are fufficient for the explanation of pheno- 
mena, begins to be laid afide. Why fhould 
nature be fo fond of number one? Where 
are the proofs of an habitual unity of caul- 
ation, or of preferring few to many? Has 
fhe made men with but one hand, or in- 
fects with a fingle leg? 
SUBAQUEOUS BRIDGES, 
Philoftratus incidentally fays, in the 
life of Apollonius, (lib. I. c. 25), that Ni- 
tocris, the Affyrian Queen, made under 
the Euphrates a bridge two fathoms wide, 
or rather.an arched vault, beneath which 
one might pafs the river conveniently. The 
tale will not bear fifting: for Herodotus, 
who muft have known beft, gives (I. 186.) 
a very different account of the bridge of 
Nitocris, and makes it a mere row of piles; 
acro{s which, and during theday-time only, 
fome planks were laid for paffengers. Yet, 
perhaps, the account of Philoftratus may 
be pleaded in proof of the eventual conftruc- 
tion of a iubaqueous road, on the fite of 
of the wooden bridge of Nitocris, and: 
known’ by the fame name. | 
HEBREW INSCRIPTIONS IN EGYPT. 
Czfar Lambert, of Marfeilles, vifited 
Egypt in 1627. In deferibing Cairo, he 
mentions, concerning one of the antiqui- 
ties, a furprifing circumftance. ‘© Return- 
ing to the cattle and town-hall of Cairo, 
(fays he, p. 10.) 1 obferved, by the raics 
on the left fide, as one goes from the city 
towards it, that i¢ had of old been more 
extenfve. After pafling three gate ways, 
ene comes to an extenfive, enclofed, fquare.. 
In this is a valt open faloon, whole walls. 
are broken down, whichis adorned with 
twenty two columns, fifty feet hign, {wells 
ing out in the middle, and raifed on pedef- 
’ 
AlS,e 
