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244 Memoirs of the Life and Writings of M. de St. Crotz. fApril 1, 
Secret Religion of the Ancient Nations, 
or Historical Researches on the Mysteries 
of Pavanisin:” Paris, 1784, one volume 
ectavo. This tract, hke the Critical 
Examination of the Historians of Alex- 
ander, we owe to acompetition proposed 
by*the academy of belles-lettres. Sc. 
Croix, who had been long employed in 
researches concerning the mysteries of 
paganism, could not have found a more 
favourable opportunity for making use 
of the materials which he had collected 
on this equally obscure and curious 
question, than the subject proposed for 
the prize of St. Martin in 1777, which 
was, to make known the names and at- 
tributes of Ceres and Proserpine, the 
origin and reason of those attributes, 
and in short the whole worship of those 
divinities. St. Croix, being already pre- 
pared, by the previous direction of his 
Studies, for an investigation of this 
nature, entered the lists with great ad- 
vantages; and the acadeiny, in awarding 
the prize to the profound and judicious 
treatise of their learned associate, must 
have felt some complacence at their 
sélection of the topic of discussion. The 
prize-treatise, augmented with new 1l- 
Justrations, formed the. printed: volume 
of which we are speaking. Let us throw 
aveil over the trouble and inconvenience 
shich the author suffered from his too 
great confidence in a scholar of more 
Jearning than judgment, who undertook 
the superintendance of its publication, 
and let us forget the injuries which St. 
Creix himself forgot. The treatise was 
translated into German in 1790, and the 
translator suppressed all the additions 
which the author had disavowed, “ Thus,” 
said St. Croix, “ my work is to be found 
in German rather than in French. After 
its publication in 1784,” added he, “T 
pursued further inquiries, and collected 
many particalars for an enlarged and 
corrected edition; but a!l these materials 
were burnt or thrown away by Jourdan’s 
soldiers, who seized my paternal dwell- 
ing and turned me out ofit in 1791. I 
am.now employed, as diligently as my 
situation and my health allow, in repai:. 
ing that joss, in order to put a, new 
edition to press as soon as possible. 
M. de V. has altered and disfigured 
ihe farmer Onein such a manner, as to 
make it very diiicult to collect from that, 
those just? results and consequences 
which should flow naturally. from ny 
inguiries. Entertaining no doubt about 
himself, he seems to have consi- 
thein 
dered ail my labour as merely a vain 
S 
we 
parade of eradition.” It will gratify all _ 
- who feel an interest in the advancement 
cf learning, and in the faine of St. Croix, 
to know that a copy of the first edition 
of this werk, marked with many correc- 
tions, erasures, and additions, was found 
among his papers after his decease; and 
that the literary friend to whom he left 
the charge of all his manuscripts, will 
falfil a part of that honourable trust, by 
giving this second edition to the werld 
with all possible dispatch. . 
“« History of the Progress of the Naval 
Power of England :” originally published 
at Yverdon in 1782; the second edition 
at Paris, in 1786, two volumes duode- 
cimo. The author at first designed only 
to examine the navigation-act, and its 
effects on the augmentation of the naval 
power of England; but this examination 
having obliged him to consider the state 
of the English marine before and after 
that act, (a law against which the pub- 
licists inveighed, without having duly and 
"impartially weighed its motives and con~- 
sequences,) he conceived and rapidly ex- 
ecuted the plan of this work. 
The first edition, though composed 
with precipitation, had great success; 
and there were even several piracies of 
it published. The author had, through a 
blameable complaisance for the editor, 
put his-work to press before he had pro- 
cured all the materials that were necessary 
for completing it; and besides this, as 
he himself said, on its publication he 
hardly knew it again, from its abounding 
with typographical errors: hence he 
readily complied with the general wish, 
by giving a new edition of it, rendered 
more complete and correct. The fol- 
lowing quotation will shew in what re- 
spects he found it principally necessary 
to amend the first edition, and what be 
himself thought of the second. “ Having 
come to Paris, requested of the marshal 
de Castries, who was. then minister of 
\ 
the marine, access to the papers of his. 
ofice; and my request was very readily 
and obligingly granted. Though I did 
not make so much use of this permission 
as | ought to have done, yet I drew from 
that source several important documents; 
and with others, some letters of marshal 
Tourville, which I printed among the 
justificatory pieces of my new edition, 
and which’ are not its least orna- 
ments. The work was corrected, very 
much augmented, and almost entirely 
re-written: I paid:great attention to the 
style, and endeavoured to give it a ra- 
pidity and conciseness that should even 
strike - 
~ 
