%06 Retrospect of French Literature--- Novels, Romances, &c. 
mirrors; ‘‘ and this celebrated geo- 
metrician,” says he, ‘¢ has afforded us 
sufficient proof, that he was capable 
of such an idea.” 
“Father Kircher,” we are told,‘* was 
the first person who conceived the no- 
tion of substituting in the place of a 
concave mirror, several smooth ones, 
so disposed, that the rays of the sun 
being reflected from their surfaces, 
should converge towards one common 
point. He employed only five of these 
mirrors, but these were placed in such 
adirection, that the concourse of the 
rays took place at more than 32 me- 
tres, 5, (100 feet), distance, and he 
found that the heat was nearly insup- 
portable.’’ This philosopher reasoned 
thus: ‘if five mirrors produce such a 
great effect what would one hundred 
do, provided they were arranged ina 
similar manner.” The heat would be 
so great, that every thing must be 
consumed and reduced to ashes.* 
‘* Several ingenious men,” it is 
added, ** have since undertaken a ya- 
riety of experiments of a similar: na- 
ture; but as pieces of polygonal 
mirror, erected at the Jardins des 
Plantes, in 1747, in conformity to an 
idea sugcested by the celebrated Buf- 
fon, surpasses every thing of this 
kind hitherto attempted, whether we 
consider the grandeur of its effects, or 
the ingenious contrivance and con- 
struction of the machine.t This mir- 
ror consisted of one hundred and sixty- 
eight glasses, susceptible of motion in 
every direction, so that it was pos- 
sible to fix it at any degree of incli- 
nation. The result was that to the 
whole could be given a form more or 
less concave, while the focus might be 
contrived in such a manner, as to 
uuite an immense number of rays, 
and produce an intense heat. “This 
mirror burnt wood at 65 metres (200 
feet), melted metals at 14 met. 5, (45 
feet), and its author was persuaded, 
that by multiplying the glasses, the 
same effect might be produced much 
further off.” 
Upon the whole this is a collection of’ 
considerable merit, as it comprehends 
the history and progress of the sciences, 
and may prove singularly useful to 
such as are so well acquainted with 
%* Kirker Ars Magna Lucis et Umbra, 
lib. Xe p- 888. i f 
+ Buffon, Hist. Nat. ed, in 12inio, 1774) 
Supplement Il, p, 141 et suiv. 
the French laneuage, as to compre 
hend its technical phraseology. It 
must be recollected, however, that it 
is only meant as an elementary book. 
NOVELS, ROMANC?s, &C. 
‘© Alphonze ou Je Fils Nature] :” 
Alphonzo or the Natural Son; by 
Madame de Genlis, 2 vols. 1@mo. 
Paris, 1809.—Imported by J. De Boffe, 
Bookseller, Nassau street, Soho. 
Madame de Genlis is one of the 
most celebrated novel writers of the 
present ave, and it is but domg her 
justice to say. that with a considera- 
ble share of ingenuity, this lady has 
always united a laudable attention to 
morais. She tells us in her preface 
“ that were virtue a mere matter of 
conversation, secret vice and miyste- 
rious crimes would be seldom attended. 
with any disastrous consequences ; 
but this not being the case, every 
bad action is always attended with un- 
happy results, and every instance of 
disobedience to the divine law is 
constantly followed, either sooner or 
later by pernicious consequences, Vice 
destroys every thing,” it is added, 
‘‘evyen the sentiments of nature; it 
produces nothing, but misery and dis- 
order in society, while virtue alone 
can maintain harmony. I have ac- 
cordingly endeavoured in. the present 
work to develope those truths, not by 
argument, but by striking examples. 
Ihave wished to conduct the heroes 
and heroines of this romance, to /ap- 
piness, by centraining their passions 
and exhibiting to them the danger of 
leaving the path sketched out to them, 
by asense of duty, in order to resign 
themselves to the enthusiasm of ima- 
ginary virtues, and fantastic preten~ 
sions.” \ 
The first chapter introduces us to 
the acquaintance of the best society at 
Besancon in France ; or at least what 
was accounted the first in a country 
town, anterior to the revolution. The 
Marchioness de * * * is represented as 
a rich dowager of forty years old, 
who possessed one of the best houses” 
in all Franche-Comté. She has a 
daughter ‘twenty years of age, edu-. 
cated at the ‘convent of Pauthemont, 
and they had» both returned “from~ 
Paris, and ‘epened their heusé to all 
{ 
' their acquaintance, in order ‘to dis- 
play themselves, as models of the ladies’ 
of ‘Versailles,’ and ‘thus exhibit a 
. * * . x prey Wt { =’ . 
_ marked superiority over: such of the’ 
provincials as were two whole years in 
, arreary 
