We cannot avoid observing, that, where the author defcends to panegyric on the works of a cotemporary writer, the evidence of a good taste and difcernment becomes exceptionable, and he may be fufpected to facrifice truth to compliment.

FOREIGN

ARTICLES.

XIV. Moyens d'extirper l'Ufure, ou Projet d'Etablisément d'une Caifje de Pret public à fix pour Cent, fur dettes Actives, Effets au Porteur, Effets de Commerce, Loyers, Fermages, Contrats et Obligations; à huit, fur nantiemens Mobiliers; modéré à fix pour les Ouvriers, Laboureurs, Artifans, jusqu'à 200 Livres ; et Gratis aux Pauvres, pour un Mois, jufqu'à 12 Livres. Projet formé d'apres les Loix relatives à ces fortes d'Etablissemens, fuivi de plufieurs Plans pour en faire et affurer les Fonds. Par un Avocat un Parlement. 12mo. Paris. FROM its cruel effects on the fubfiftence of multitudes, and from

its tendency to the oppreffion and ruin of laborious and useful members of fociety, ufury may juftly be confidered as one of the molt fatal internal difeafes of a ftate: and as it chiefly prevails and fpreads in commercial nations, it is in fuch nations chiefly that humanity and policy ought to join their endeavours in order if poffible to prevent, or at least to reftrain its exceffes. For thefe ends, wife and charitable establishments have in feveral ages and countries been planned and executed; from which perfons in temporary diftrefs may derive a temporary affistance for a moderate intereft, without expofing themselves to be funk yet deeper, and finally ruined by the rapacity and extortion of ufurers. Hence the Monte di Pietà, in almost every city of Italy and Spain, and fo fuitable to every chriftian country, where fociety ftill interefts itself in the fate of its members.

In France there are but a few fimilar inftitutions, viz. at Nancy, Sedan, and Arras: for though Lewis XIII. attempted, in 1626, by an edict to introduce them into every part of the kingdom, he was by some particular circumstances obliged to defist. The attempt was renewed in the minority of Lewis XIV. but oppofed and defeated by the then queen-regent: and when that monarch afterwards, in 1643, granted his letters patent for this purpose to the Chevalier Gerbier, the patentee was unable to raife the neceffary funds, and the scheme confequently failed: and although it has been often attempted, has not yet been perfected in that kingdom.

It is now revived by the author of this prefent performance, and recommended to the public attention by the most forcible arguments which either policy or humanity can fuggeft, or genuine patriotifm employ. He has dedicated his book to Henry IV. a prince who having long and feverely felt diftreffes of almost every fort, had learned to commiferate thofe of others; and of whom a -faying is prefixed to this treatise, too good-natured not to be inferted here: Si l'on ruine mon peuple, qui me nourrira? Qui soutiendra les charges de l'etat? Vive Dieu! s'en prendre à mon peuple, c'est s'en prendre a moi!"

The author feems to have very minutely and accurately enquired into the biftory, nature and effects of the Monte de Pietà; but is fenfible how often the fcheme has hitherto mifcarried in France. There are projects, fays he in his preface, that from their very

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birth

birth appear to be unfortunate and profcribed. In vain they prefent themselves preceded by the cries of neceffity, and offering a thousand evident advantages in their train: by I know not what fatality, they are hardly ever examined; and whether it be that little minds are incapable of taking in the whole at one view, of that felfish minds oppofe their eftablishment, they are scarce produced but they lose themfelves in a croud of chimeras.' He then accounts for this general prevention; and concludes with exhorting his fellow-citizens to re-examine the fubject with him, without any other view but that of public good.

The work itfelf is divided into three parts; it contains many learned and curious difquifitions, folid reafonings, and interesting obfervations, a full and minute detail of the author's plan of fuch an inftitution; the feveral rates of intereft taken by French ufurers, compared with thofe of the propofed eftablishment; by which it appears that the ufurer's interefts for 1000 livres, generally anount to 650 livres per annum; whereas the establishment would, for the fame fum and time, take no more than 86 livres.

This advocate of the parliament, has pleaded the cause of humanity, with great ability and energy. As a writer, he deferves our approbation; as a man, the esteem of the benevolent and humane.

XV. L'Etude de l'Homme. Par M. Contan. 12mo. Paris.

MR.

R. Contan has divided his methodical and valuable meditation on the most interefting of all human ftudies, that of man, in to three parts. He begins the first by proving the certainty of his existence; then confiders him as compofed of two different and very diffimilar fubftances; a body, material, alterable, divisible, and mortal; and a foul, immaterial, indivisible, unalterable, and immortal.

From the immortality of the foul he rifes to a contemplation of the attributes of the Deity, from whofe perfections he very forcibly deduces the certainty of a future state.

In further confidering the nature of the body, he finds the greater part of its operations merely mechanical, and known or perceptible not to the body, but to the foul only, who, during her union with the body, feels its alterations, and interests itself in its fate.

In the fecond part, he confiders the nature of other furrounding material fubftances, with their analogy, mutual relations, and, immediate influence on the human body. The foul being immaterial, the only influence of the furrounding bodies on her, is exerted in affording her opportunities for forming additional perceptions and ideas. With regard to the body, he owns, that furrounding bodies have a much greater power and influence on our bodies than thefe have on them. Air, for instance, whether wholesome or not, we muft breathe: water alfo, being, like air, susceptible of alterations, operates much more powerfully on our bodies than our bodies do on water. Of the aliments, however, which we confume, both the quality and quantity generally depends on our own choice. The indifpenfable neceflity of fleep for repairing the wafle of the body, and for strengthening its animal fpirits, and the feveral functions of the fenfes, are here well de fcribed.

From thefe confiderations of his nature and his faculties, he proceeds

ceeds to a confideration of the ends for which man exifts; the proper application of his faculties and powers; his diftinct but invariable duties to God, to mankind, and to himfelf: and after having thus furveyed and compared the various conditions of human life, with their respective duties, he concludes with a concife valuable preparation for death, for which he calls in religion to the support of

his reafon.

A ferious, repeated, and periodical confideration of the objects concifely but diftin&tly treated in this performance, cannot but promote the primary purpose of all human study, and contribute towards rendering individuals more useful and serviceable to society, and more happy in themfelves.

XVI. Anecdota Litteraria, ex MSS. Codicibus eruta. Vol. II. 8v0. Romæ.

THE merits of this volume of a miscellaneous collection, will best appear from an enumeration of its contents.

1. Frammento Greco d'un'Orazione di Libanio colla Verfione Latina e Note. 2. Giambi Greci d'incerto Autore sopra alcuni antichi Scrittori Afceti Greci, colla Verfione e Note. 3. Lettera Latina di S. Paolino Vefcovo di Nola fcritta ad Aletio. 4. Tre Omilie Latine del Ven. Beda. 5. Orazione Funebre Lat. di Benedetto d'Anagni in Morte di Alto de' Conti. 6. Orazione Latina di Tommaso Inghirami di Volterra, fopra nominato il Fedra, recitata a Giulio III. in Lode di Filippo II. Re di Spagna per l'Efpugnazione del Regno di Bugia. 7. Orazione Latina di Blosio Palladio Romano, che recitaffi a Leone X. per l'Obedienza preftatagli dal nuovo Gran Maeftre dei Cavalieri di Rodi. 8. Dialogo Latino di Franc. Aligeri Figlio di Dante III. fopra le Antichità della nobiliffima Fami-. glia Valenti di Trevi. 9. Trattato Latino di Aldo Manuzio Figlio di Paolo, fopra le Statue Antiche e loro Ufo. 16. Collezione di Lettere Latine di alcuni illuftri Scrittori, cioè di Franc. Petrarca, di Niccolò Marchefe d'Efte, di Bafinio Parmenfe, di Lionardo d' Arezzo, di Antonio Agoftini, &c. 11. Collezione di Lettere Italiane di alcuni Scrittori del Secolo XVI. 12. Collezione di Poesie Latine, cioè un' Epigramma inedito di Marziale, Verfi di S. Damafo Papa, e di Valeria Proba Valconia com molte Varianti Lezioni. 13. Lettera Latina in Versi di Balinio da Parma a Sigifm. Pandolfo Malatesta di Rimino, in Lode della Lingua Greca, e contre il Porcellio. 14. Difesa delle Donne Bolognele contro il divieto degli Ornati, Capitolo in Verfi Italiani del Senator Franc. Bolognetti all' Conte Niccolo Ludoviti. 15. Frammento d'un Papiro del V. e VI. Secolo, riguardante una Donazione fatta alla Chiefa di Ravenna. 16. Calendario d'una Chiefa Veneta del Sec. XI. 17. Raccolta di LXI. Antiche Ifcrizioni Latine e Greche, Gentili e Cristiane, con Note Lapidarie, che le illuftrano.

The editor of this heterogeneous collection always mentions the refpective libraries from which the MSS. of these feveral pieces were taken.

XVII. Vite de' Pittori, Scultori ed Architetti che anno lavorato in Roma, morti dal 1641. fino al 1673. da Giambatfilta Pafferi, Pittore e Poeta. Roma.

PASSERI, the author of this volume, was born about the year 1610; applied himself first to the belles lettres, and afterwards, fomewhat late, to the art of painting; in which he happened to be employed

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employed at Frascati when the famous Dominichino arrived there on his flight from Naples, by whofe inftructions Pafferi owns to have been greatly improved. He had a stronger inclination for poetry than for painting; and his poems, though indifferent, were approved by cardinal Altieri, by whofe recommendation Pafferi obtained an ecclefiaftical preferment in the church of Maria in Via Lata; who being thus amply provided for, neglected his art, and wrote these memoirs of the lives of contemporary artifts. For his judgment of the refpective merits of his brother artists, his work was elteemed; but on account of the liberty with which he had expreffed his fentiments, it was preferved in MS. till all the perfons mentioned by him had long been dead, and in a manner forgot

ten.

In his time the dilettanti at Rome feem to have been divided into two parties, by one of whom Bernini's merits were perhaps too much extolled, and by the other too much depreciated. Pafferi appears to have been one of his zealous antagonists, and often cenfures him in this work.

It contains an account of the lives and works of thirty-fix artists: viz. 1. Dominichino. 2. Baccio Ciarpi, born in 1578, at Florence, afterwards mafter of the famous Pietro di Cortona; Ciarpi was an excellent painter, and a good man; he died in 1642. 3. Peter de Laar, on account of his grotefque figure, nicknamed Bamboccio: Fu di figura ridicola, groffo di tefta, con un nafo beftialiffimo, ma faceto, amico della recreazione, e buon compagnone.' 4. Guido Reni. 5. Franc. Fiamingo, alias Quefnoy, the ftatuary. 6. Auguftin Taffi, his real name was Buonamici, but being patronized by the Marchefe Taffi at Rome, he was commonly called after his patron's name. He was an excellent painter, but a rake: the grand duke of Florence once fent him to the gallies, though not as a flave, where he applied himself to draw fea-pieces; after his release, he was accufed at Rome of having feduced the celebrated paintress Artimia Gentilefchi, and imprisoned. In his old age he suffered feverely by the gout and want. 7. Franz Mochi, a ftatuary. 8. J. Lanfranco. 9. Andreas Camaffei. 10. Giambattista Calandra. 11. Vincent Armanno. 12. Aleffandro Turco. 13. Pietro Tefta. 14. Angelo Carofelli. 15. Aleffandro Algardi, the ftatuary. 16. Hieron. Reinaldi, an architect. 17. Jan Miel, a Dutch painter. 18. Martin Lunghi, an architect. 16. Guido Ubaldo Abatini, a painter, born in 1600, died in 1656, of a fright, having lot his mistress by the plague, 20. Ludov. Gentile, a native of Bruffels. 21. Julian Finelli, a ftatuary. 22. Agoftino Mitelli. 23. Franc. Albani. 24. Michael Angelo Cerquozzi. 25. Catherina Ginnaffi, a lady of diftinction, whofe inclination for painting was favoured by her uncle, cardinal Ginnaffi, who caufed her to be inftructed by Celio, though the afterwards preferred Lanfranco's manner. When the cardinal built the church of St. Lucia, the painted fome altar-pieces with great applaufe. At his death her uncle converted his adjoining paJace into a nunnery, and entrusted her with the direction of it; to this convent the at length retired, and died in it in 1660, aged 70 years. 26. Andreas Sacchi. 27. Giov. Franc. Romanelli. Giuseppe Peroni, a statuary. 29. Nicolas Pouffin. 30. Franc. Barratta, an excellent ftatuary, and one of Bernini's fcholars. 31. Giov. Angelo Canini. 32. Giov. Franc. Barbieri, alias Guercino. 33. Franc. Baromini, a celebrated architect, but who contributed to that depravation of tafte in architecture, which is said still to pre

28.

vail in Italy. It has fometimes been pretended that in an excessive and frantic fit of envy to Bernini, he had stabbed himself. Passeri, his cotemporary, and who lived then at Rome, relates that it happened in a delirious fit of a fever, in 1667. 34. P. Franc. Mola. 35. P. Berettini, of Cortona. 36. Salvator Rofa.

The editor of this performance is faid to have preferved his author's fentiments concerning the respective merits of the artifts, but to have expunged many uninteresting and trifling details, and fal lies of falfe wit, and by reducing the bulk, to have improved the value of Pafferi's work.

FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. 18. Expofition anatomique des Organes des Sens, jointe à la Nevrologie entière du Corps humain, et Conjectures fur l'Electricité animale, avec des Planches imprimées en Couleurs naturelles, fuivant le nouvel Art. Par M. d'Agoty, pere. Folio, with fix Plates. Paris.

THESE plates are well engraved and coloured, and will, with the text, be of confiderable use to young anatomifts,

19. Defcription et Ufage d'un Cabinet de Physique experimentale. Par M. Sigaud de la Fond, ancien Prof. de Mathematiques, &c. 2 Vols. 8vo. with Cuts. Paris.

A full and methodical inftru&tion in the art of making physical experiments.

20. Réponse d'un jeune Poëte qui veut abandonner les Mufes, à un Ami qui lui écrit pour l'en détourner. 8vo. Paris.

Difgufted by the variety, contradiction, and uncertainty of judgments and taftes, this young poet feems at firft determined on bidding farewel to the Mufes:

D'un prettige brillant déformais revenu,

Il fait apprécier le bien d'être inconnu;

But he foon retracts hinfelf:

21.

Ouï, tu fais mon deftin, Mufe aimable et funefte;
Le fort de tes amans, femblable au fort d'Oeite,
Et de venir fans cefle adorer tes attraits,

Et de jurer toujours qu'ils n'y viendront jamais.'

Le Siége de Marieille, par le Connétable de Bourbon, Poeme, &c.
Svo. Paris.

The fubject of this poem was interefting and happy, but has been indifferently executed.

22. L'Amour de la Gloire. Epitre, 8vo. Paris. Immenfum gloria calcar habet, is the motto of this rather declamatory than poetical epiftle.

23. Les Bienfaits de la Nuit, Ode. 8vo. Paris.

I have endeavoured to thow mankind the influence of night on them; every thing appeared then to me to belong to my subject, aftronomy, navigation, geography, politics, and ethics; and this mistake has ruined my performance. Very frequently I have alcribed to night, what might as juftly be appropriated to day, &c.' Such is the perfect impartiality with which our young poet, Mr. André, publicly judges of his own performance; which yet is by no means deftitute of merit.

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