notions,-thofe latent fparks at which, when difcovered philofophy lights her lamp. Proceeding in this method, he eftablifhes four principles, founded in the affections of human nature, up to which the obligation of every moral precept may be regularly traced, and which may therefore be confidered as the fundamental axioms of ethics. ift. In confequence of the natural affection of felf-love, man is obliged to the duty of felf-prefervation, and of puríuing that degree of happinefs of which he is capable. Hence he is obligated to all thofe moral laws which are derived from this firft principle. the affection of natural benevolence, he is in like manner bounden to the 2. By duty of preferving his fellow-creatures, and of promoting their happinefs, as far as he is able. 3. As man is defigned by nature to be a focial Being, and cannot attain the felicity of which he is capable without the co-operation of his fellow-creatures, the Deity has implanted in his conftitution a powerful inclination to affociate with other men: by this natural affection, therefore, he is bounden to all those duties which are neceffary to the existence and welfare of that fociety of which he is a member. Laftly, There is, in our minds, an innate propensity to admire whatever is grand and fublime, and, if the object be an intellectual Being, endued with ufeful and beneficent attributes, to love, esteem, and reverence him:-but if, by the affections interwoven in our nature, we are induced to indulge these sentiments even to thofe of our fellow-creatures who excel in wisdom and goodness, with what higher degrees of them mult we be infpired, when their object is the allwife and good, as well as omnipotent, Creator and Preferver of the universe, in whom every perfection centers, and on whofe beneficent providence all things depend? To thefe affections we are alfo induced by that natural apprehenfion of evil, and that defire of protection, which flow from a fenfe of our own weaknefs, frailty, and impotence.'-On these circumstances, our author founds a fourth principle, which is, that man is obligated, by the very conftitution of his nature, to reverence and worship, and to feek the protection and favour, of that Supreme Being, whom he acknowleges as God.' It may, perhaps, be objected that there are fome nations, which feem to have no knowlege of any object of worship: but our author justly obferves that the difcuffion of this question would be entirely foreign to the fubject. The axiom fuppofes this knowlege as attained, and the duty of attaining it is deduced, not from this, but from the firft axiom: a confequence of which is, that we are obligated to acquire, as far as we are able, whatever knowlege is neceffary to our happiness. Such is the refult of this ingenious author's investigation. In the course of it he difplays an accuracy and clearness which we have feldom feen equalled, and hardly ever excelled; and which renders his work a model of philofophical difquifition: it has also the merit of being written in excellent Latin, and in that chafte argumentative ftyle which is moft fuitable to the fubject. ART. ART. XIII. Verbandelingen uitgegeeven door de Hollandfche Maatschappye, &c. i.e. Memoirs publifhed by the Philofophical Society of Haarlem. Vol. XXX. 8vo. pp. 420. Haarlem. 1794. THE HE greater part of this volume is taken up with the differtation on the principles of moral obligation by Profeffor CRAS, which we reviewed in the preceding article; and to which an excellent Dutch tranflation, by the author, is added. There is a fecond differtation on the same subject, to the writer of which, for what reafon we cannot difcern, a filver medal was adjudged. He expreffes what he calls the first principle of moral obligation, in the following manner: "Act fo, with all your powers, that your relations to the Supreme Being may be at all times the greatest and beft poffible. This is the will of God; for he intended that there should be a coincidence of the moft numerous and the greatest relations of finite fpirits; and therefore this law is connected with the most powerful external obligation." After the arguments concerning this fubject which we have already given, we fhall not trefpafs on the patience of our readers by animadverting on this differtation, the author of which has not revealed his name. Whoever he may be, he feems to have confined his ftudy both of philofophy and language, to the fcholaftic theology of the middle ages; for we fcarcely ever remember to have read fuch confused and unintelligible jargon, expreffed in fuch barbarous Latin. The only other article is an account, by PET. STEPH. Kok, M.D. of Louvain, of the cure of a palfy of the loins and lower parts, by the Rhus radicans, foliis ternatis, Linnæi. The cafe was that of a woman, about thirty years of age, who had been paralytic above four years before. Dr. Kok vifited her; and after having tried, without fuccefs, all the medicines of which he had either heard or read, he gave up the patient as irrecoverable: but, after an interval of a fortnight, he refolved to make an experiment with extract of the Rhus radicans, which is recommended by feveral French writers as very efficacious in this difeafe. He began on the 5th of May, by adminiftering twenty grains, three times in a day, and gradually increafed the dole to two drachms. The patient felt not the leaft inconvenience from the medicine, by perfevering in which the mended daily, and, on the 8th of July, was completely cured. The fact is certainly uncommon, and may be ufeful: but the Doctor's obfervations on the disease, which he afcribes to a defect in the fecretion and circulation of the nervous fluid, would be thought rather hypothetical by many of our medical readers. An account of the efficacy of the Rhus Toxicodendron in paralytic complaints, by Dr. Alderfen, will be found in our Review for December last, p. 460. APP. REV. VOL. XV. PP ART. ART. XIV. Tafercelen Van de Staatfomwenteling in Frankryk; i. e. PP. 200. THE publisher of this work, M. ALLART, who feems to be one of the moft fpirited and enterprifing of the Amfterdam bookfellers, conceiving that a full account of fo important an event as the French revolution must be highly acceptable to his countrymen, has undertaken to gratify their curiofity in a more elegant ftyle and more expenfive manner of publication, than is generally adopted by the Dutch,-at leaft in thefe times. For this purpose, he has caufed the beft reprefentations of the most ftriking fcenes of this eventful drama, that have been engraven in France, to be copied by able artists, and has engaged a writer who appears to poffefs confiderable abilities and an elegant taste for compofition, and who is fuppofed to be a gentleman who, by a late work, has acquired deferved reputation as an hiftorian. The volume before us carries the hiftory of the revolution no farther down than to the union of the three orders in the National Affembly on the 27th of June 1789; fo that the publication in fuch fmall volumes bids fair to be very expenfive, and to require a long time before it can be completed. The narration, however, is very far from being prolix, and is compofed in an eafy, agreeable ftyle. In an account of facts fo recent, and that have been fo often related, we cannot expect that any thing can occur which would be new to our readers; especially as the author fuffers the events to speak for themselves, and does not interrupt the narrative with his own remarks: it is therefore fufficient to observe, on this part of the work, that he appears to have collected from well known and, we believe, generally approved authorities. In his introduction, however, the author favours us with fome general and philofophical obfervations on the fubject of his work, and on the oppofite opinions of mankind concerning the revolution. He dwells on the neceffity of diftinguishing accurately between the feditious tumults of a mob, and the infurrection of a nation; the one always odious, prompted by ignorance and the moft felfish and violent paffions; while the other, he obferves, may be refpectable, as it requires a knowlege of the general interefts of fociety,-a freedom from all prejudice in favour of error, merely becaufe it has been long eftablifhed,-and a facrifice of private interefts to thofe of the community. When the conflitution of a country is effentially faulty, or unjustly administered; when tyrannical governors introduce all the infamous arts of oppreffion; when the infolence of power demands fervile fubmithion, and distributes what it calls juftice in the most arbitrary manner; then the probability of infurrection will be in proportion to the the good fenfe and magnanimity of the people. The most oppreffive government may endure for ages, where ignorance and felfishness prevail; the most infamous tyranny, if it will fometimes confer partial favours on its immediate inftruments, may scourge mankind as long as fuperftition keeps the people blind, or felfifh paflions deter them from the facrifice of private intereft: but let the veil of error fall from the eyes of fuch a nation,-let true felf-love, which feeks its happiness in the common welfare, infpire the minds of a confiderable number of the citizens, and they will foon plan an infurrection, against which the crooked policy of their oppreffors will in vain employ the most violent measures.' Such, according to our author, are the characters of a national infurrection, which he applies to the French revolution in 1789. He obferves that this ftupendous measure was begun and carried on by the representatives of the people, affembled in confequence of the King's command. That they proceeded much farther than he or his minifters intended, was owing to the defperate circumftances in which the nation had been involved by the extravagance of former administrations, and must be afcribed to caufes which, in fimilar cafes, will always produce national infurrections.-Though the hiftorian, however, expreffes the most unreserved approbation of the revolution itself, he is very far from withing either to excufe or to palliate the particular inftances of cruelty, which refulted either from the violent refentment of the populace, or from the odious paffions of individuals; he confefles that there were many fcenes in France, from which every humane man must turn away with the utmost averfion, and in relating which he will endeavour to inspire the abhorrence that he feels: but though he will indulge his feelings, he will not fuffer them to get the better of his judgement. He will reflect on the unavoidable circumstances of human nature; and he will confider that the calm dictates of reason are not of themselves fufficient to excite men to great and hazardous enterprises, but that a stronger impulfe is neceffary, which must have a degree of force proportioned to the importance and dif ficulties of the undertaking, and which, if it meet with formidable oppofition, will fometimes rife into all the violence of paffion. Hence it is to be lamented that no confiderable revolution, however juft in itself, or however well conducted, ever took place without being difgraced by fome particular inftances of injuftice and cruelty. In eftimating the meafures of the National Affembly, it is no more than just to attend to the oppofition which they had to encounter, and to the dangers to which they were exposed from the adherents of the old court, from the intrigues of the princes and nobles, and from the influence of bigotted ecclefiaftics; for it is furely not equitable to fet all the actions of the revolutionifts in the worst light, without taking Pp 2 taking any notice of the cruel defigns and projects of the other party, which, if they had not been prevented, would have given occafion to moft dreadful fcenes of flaughter:-but, continues our author, whatever we may think of the juftice of particular measures, the candid politician muft acknowlege that the conduct of the National Assembly displayed such conftancy and confiftency, as muft lead us to conclude that its measures were the refult of abfolute neceffity; and their efficacy fhews that they were highly expedient. The grand object of the revolution, though cenfured by politicians as romantic and impracticable, has been eftablifhed, and has hitherto triumphed over all the violence of hoftile oppofition, and the more dangerous arts of corruption. Permanent energy and confiftency of character have been impreffed on the French, of which they had been deemed incapable; infomuch that the moft de clared enemies of the revolution have been obliged to acknowlege their aftonishment at the fuccefs of a plan which they had considered as abfurd, and to confefs that it could not have been thus completed by any other measures than thofe which the Na tional Aflembly actually adopted. Such is the fubftance of the author's general view of the revolution, on which we shall leave our readers to make their own comments; what his opinion is concerning later events, in judging of which mankind are more divided, we know not An impartial account of them would be desirable: but it is perhaps yet too early to hope for it; we must wait till the angry paffions on both fides fhall have fubfided, and till, without being fwayed by national and political prejudices, men can give a patient attention to the facts and arguments of all the parties conIn fuch a review, the moralift will undoubtedly find many characters and actions which deferve the severett censure: but he will naturally examine whether these were all on one fide only, and whether the plans and defigns, if not the actual meafures, of the other party were not equally unjust and odious. In this cafe he will lament the lot of mankind, who are fo often the victims of ambition, and will direct his hopes of happiness to that better state of fociety, which the imperfections of human governors will not be fuffered to difturb, and in which he will be fubject to no power that is not directed by unerring wifdom and goodness. ART. XV. Des Moyens de faire la Paix; 1794. WH i. e. Concerning the London, (a Pretence) HATEVER may be thought of the contents of this pamphlet, its object will certainly be defirable to every good |