638 
‘times, to be prefcribed by the Council 
of the College.”” This volume contains 
nine effays, three ‘* on the Advantages 
of an academical Inftitution in India ; 
three on the beft Means of acquiring a 
Knowledge of the Manners and Cuf- 
toms of the Natives of India; and 
three on the Character and Capacity of 
the Afiatics, and particularly of the 
Natives of Hindooftan. There are alfo 
three thefes, the firft in. the Perfian 
language, on this pofition, ** Anaca- 
demical Inftitution in India is advan- 
Retrofped? of French Literature. —Hiffory. 
tageous to the Natives and to the Bri- 
tith Nation ;” the fecond in the Ben- 
galee language, on this fubjeét : “ The 
Afiatics are capable of as high a degree 
of civilization as the Europeans ;” and 
the third, in the Hindooftanee language, 
afferting ** That the Hindooftanee is 
the moft generally ufeful language in 
India.*? Toeach of thefe, in its origi- 
nal language, is fubjoined an Englith 
Bok ae by the author of the the- 
Se = . ‘ i> ahi cal * ‘ 5 caer. 
HALF-YEARLY RETROSPECT OF FRENCH LITERATURE. 
HISTORY, 
és SSAI fag PHiftoire Générale des 
Sciences pendant la Revolution 
Frangaife,”” &c.—An Effay on the Ge- 
neral Hiftory of the Sciences during the 
French Revolution ; by J. B. Bror,an 
Affociate of the National Inftitute, 
Profeffor of the College of France, and 
Member of the Philomatic Society. 
The rapid progrefs of the {ciences 
during the eighteenth century, prefents 
an important phenomenon, that has 
been not unfrequently the fubje&t of 
inveftigation andremark. But we are 
here told of a phenomenon, no lefs ex- 
traordinary, that occurred during the 
French Revolution, and this was the 
fudden and fingular efforts by means of 
which they attained a degree of preci- 
fon approximating fo perfection. — 
Amidit a period of civil diicord and fo- 
reign war, more general and more deadly 
than had ever been witneffed before, 
even while fanguinary profcriptions 
devoted men of genius daily to death, 
the liberal arts were cultivated with a 
{urprizing degree of induitry and fuc- 
cess. 
After thefe prefatory remarks Citi- 
zen Biot undertakes to combat the dif- 
couraging potition introduced, accord- 
ing to him, by the fpintof party, that 
human knowledge, like the tide of the 
ocean, has its ebbs and flows, and that 
it is only pertected at certain epochs 
merely to be abafed at others; 1n hort, 
that it can attain but limited bounds, 
beyond which it ts impoflible to pais. 
He afks, on the other hand, ** What 
experience do we poilefs of the progre(s 
and the retardment of {cience, in order 
to fupport an opinion which ought 
& 
only to be founded on experience ?>—~ 
We know nothing of what has oc- 
curred at more'than twenty-eight hun- 
dred years beyond the prefent epoch, 
and during-that {pace of time, the two 
laft centuries alone excepted, the fci- 
encés have crept through the obfcu- 
-rity of nature, colleéting a fmall num- 
ber of facts which were incapable of 
being connected together, and only 
prefented the bates of certain doétrines, 
more or lefs fortunate, according to 
circumftances.  — ae oa 
~ © Trisonly during the laft two hun- 
dred years (adds our author,} that the 
ftudy of the fciences has followed a 
philofophical courfe, that the yoke ot 
authority has been thrown off, that {a- 
lutary doubts have been ftarted rela- 
tive to every thing not confirmed by 
experience, and that the art of inter- 
rogating nature has been known and 
perfected. In fine, method, likea good 
inftrument, that doubles the efforts of 
a workman, hath now multiplied the 
powers of the human mind. Accord- 
ingly, fince the epoch alluded to, the 
Genius of Improvement has advanced 
with a firm ftep, and never experienced 
one retrograde motion. It is, there- 
fore, impoflible to divine the period, 
or fix the term, when knowledge wiil 
either ceafe to be progreflive, or expe- 
rience a fudden annihilation. 
‘© The prefs, by thé rapid communi- 
cations. which it produces—the prefs, 
by fixing the difcoveries made, and 
thus rendering, as it were, each indivi- 
dual the depofitary of all the acquifi- 
tions amafled until his own time, has 
rendered the deftruction of this treafure 
almoft impoflible, The labours of our 
predeceflors 
