brought forth by a spontaneous and general effort every animated being. They were not yet regular and distinct species: but every sort of monstrous shape burst into existence by this eruption of every vital form, occasioned by the terreous spirits mixing for the first time with the athereal atmospheric spirits: when every particle of mud, or salt, grappled with its neighbour, in order to become together organic and constituent parts of a living being. Many of the embryos had existed under the ocean, which had hitherto kept the whole terrestrial kingdom in a state of incubation; and, being now exposed to a new element, they experienced a change in their vital organs, adapted to their new vital functions:-he even supposes that their fins were changed into arms, legs, and wings!

These first organized beings were of two sexes: but they had little (if any) similarity in their forms; the individual of one sex being unlike the individual of the other. It was only from a series of repeated unions between animals descending from a common stem, that the habits and the similarity, which now constitute the boundaries of the several species, originated.

Hitherto we have expressed in English the ideas and phrases to be found in this chapter; but our pen refuses to prostitute English words to the following passage: (pag. 330 and 331.) Mais jusques là, et aussi longtems que le sol a pû engendrer, et de prime abord, ou de son propre fonds, cette foule d'individus marins, terrestres, et amphibies, excités par l'attrait et le besoin le plus général et le plus puissant de la nature, se meloient sans se connoitre: et tous leurs accouplements etoient feconds, parceque une si grande ardeur rendoit presque indifferente l'aggregation de toutes les molecules organiques, &c. Combien d'espèces mémes, déja determinées, ont aussi adultéré, lorsque la nature avoit encore assez de force pour favoriser et consacrer ces ecarts energiques.,

This passage, impiously absurd as it is, nevertheless is surpassed both in madness and impiety by the deliriums of a M. Nicolas, whose principles of cosmogony are examined by M. BERTRAND at the end of this publication. No words can express our disgust at the Bedlamite Atheism displayed by this writer, whose real name is Retif de la Bretonne. M. BERTRAND himself, though (as we have seen) by no means a scrupulous and correct philosopher, is offended by his assertions, and deems them worth contempt and reprobation. It would perhaps have been wiser in him to overlook a publication, which

cannot

cannot but disgrace the country and the age in which it has been published.

If M. BERTRAND, like his predecessors in the same career, has been unsuccessful in establishing a plausible theory of the earth, he has like them furnished, in many instances, valuable arguments against the hypothesis most in vogue when he composed his book. M. La Metherie's theory of the earth, which is at present the most fashionable, and in any respects deserving the reputation that it enjoys, is attacked by our author in every point; and indeed the greatest part of this volume is avowedly intended as a refutation of that learned writer's system of the general crystallisation of mineral substances in the primitive ocean. The vast erudition displayed by M. La Metheris, and the air of candour and scepticism adopted by him in the discussion of many important questions, have perhaps contributed to give more popularity to his system, than a simple exposition of it divested from these accessories would have acquired. As far as his arguments tend to prove the Neptunian origin of the greatest part of the known mineral substances, and the general state of submersion in which the solid part of our globe has exifted in forner periods, they seem to us unanswerable-but the retreat of the waters, the formation of mountains and valleys, and the phænomena which they present either in their forms or in the position of the materials in or about them, require, in order to be explained, some other agent than the primitive ocean; some other operations than mere crystallization and deposition. Though M. BERTRAND's meditations do not afford any satisfactory ideas to account for these phænomena, still some of the arguments which he employs, to shew the insufficiency of the system of general crystal lization, appear to us solid and conclusive. They are so scattered through the whole work, however, as to admit of no regular extract but we recommend them to the candid attention of future writers on this curious and very problematical branch of natural philosophy.

Correa

ART. XVI. Le Nouveau Paris. The New Paris. By M. MERCIER 8vo. 6 Vols. Paris, 1799.

WHEN MERCIER wrote his romance, or dream, as he calls it, entitled Two thousand four hund ed and forty, in which he supposes an old man to awake after a sleep of upwards of six hundred years, and to describe the wonderful changes and revolutions which had taken place in Paris and among the

French

French people, he little thought that he himself was to become, in some respects, the old man whom he delineates in his dream; and that, after having employed his pen in giving a detailed picture of Paris in 12 volumes, he should devote six volumes more to a New Paris which was to spring up in his own time. Though the changes which have filled the modern cup of alteration be not exactly such as he saw in his supposed vision, they are not much less astonishing; they have been such as have violently agitated the passions of the actors, and have deeply interested all Europe; and whatever be the final issue, they must for a long time employ the thoughts and pens of politicians and philosophers.

-

M. MERCIER speaks of the French Revolution as an event which can never be forgotten, and which must influence the destiny of the human race: he describes it as suddenly overturning the manners of a peaceable people, their habits, their laws, their customs, their usages, their police, their government, and their altars; and inspiring them, by turns, with a courage the most heroic and a ferocity the most abominable. He exhibits himself, however, as a warm and strenuous republican; and he is often absurdly violent and intemperate in his invectives against Great Britain and the British government. His sentiments, and the general complexion of the volumes before us, may be inferred from the epitaph which, he tells us at the end of his preface, he has prepared for his tomb:

Hommes de tous pays, enviez mon destin :

Né sujet, je suis mort libre et républicain * !

At present, however, there does not appear much to be envied in his situation as a French Republican; and we hope that the romantic ideas of liberty, which were generated in the fermentation of the Revolution, are giving way to rational views and practical opinions. We have no objection to the author's feeling a pride in thinking that, from the commencement of his literary career to the present period, he has been the herald, the friend, and the promoter of (what he calis) a Grand Regeneration undertaken for the public felicity; and the enemy of those who have loaded it with crimes for the sake of their own profit and sordid interest. We can make allowance for his enthusiasm as a Frenchman; and to his countrymen it may be very gratifying: but we must be permitted to say that, though it gives a warmth to the colouring, it does not add to the likeness of the picture. How can he speak of felicity as about to be realized in France, (p. 37. Avant- Propos,) and prognosticate

* Men of all countries! envy me my lot; born a subject, I dieď a freeman and a republican.

with

with so much confidence the result of the Revolution? how can he assure himself that the labours, the courage, and the constancy of the French will not be thrown away, and that posterity will be made happy through the calamities and sufferings of the present race?-when nothing appears to have obtained any stability; and when neither external war nor internal commotion seem likely to have any end?

Though we cannot subscribe to many of the author's opinions, and must reprobate his violence and indecorum, he must be allowed to maintain his reputation as a very sprightly and entertaining writer: in whose hands even the stale subject of French revolutionary politics assumes peculiar interest.

The matter contained in these volumes, according to M. MERCIER's former practice, is thrown under a variety of heads or chapters. No regular method is pursued: but facts and observations, the serious and the comical, are blended together according to the fancy of the writer. We cannot pretend to give an account of all the articles in this miscellany, nor even to transcribe the titles of the chapters. Some cursory extracts

must suffice.

Speaking of himself and his undertaking, he says:

• How shall I paint the extraordinary and eventful scene which presents itself to my view? As I have been carried along on the boisterous element, my eyes, in the midst of the tempest, have not failed to notice some particular events:-but not all the stormy winds let loose from the Eolian cave, contending with each other, and overturning whatever opposes their course, can present more than a faint and imperfect image of those conflicts of human passions in which philosophers have been vanquished; and in which the lowest and most contemptible have succeeded so as to dictate impure laws to the populace, who have received them as the decrees of heaven.'

From the usual sources of information he disdains to draw. That frightful chaos formed by the writers of the revolution, that enormous mass of journals and political pamphlets, in which rage, calumny, and obscurity prevail, he professes to reject I will not (says he) open you, I will not consult you, I will give credit only to myself.' Hence much original matter may be expected.

Paris is considered by M. MERCIER both as having formed the revolution and as having spoilt it. The grand evil of the revolution he declares to have been the hasty and inconsiderate invitation of the multitude to the discussion of political matters, which are subjects in general beyond their reach.' We recognize with pleasure this sentiment in a republican. A mob may be in a few moments 'worked up to madness, but it cannot so soon be instructed.

5

Of

Of all revolutions, M. MERCIER deems that of France the most just. We will give his own words:

De toutes les révolutions, la nôtre fut la plus juste, la plus legitime, la plus impérieusement commandie par toutes les circonstances. Il falloit tuer la cour de Versailles, pour qu'elle ne nous tuât point *.

la

• La revolution s'est faite parcequ'elle devoit se faire, parce que capitale étoit menacée par les satellites de la cour. L'immense population + de la grande cité a réagi, et bien à temps; ce fut le coup de queue de la baleine qui renverse l'esquif du barponeur ‡'

Those writers are treated with a smile of contempt by our author, who endeavour to assign the causes of the revolution; and who would pretend that it resulted from an artfully' contrived and deeply executed plant. Accident is supposed by him to have effected more than foresight. In the political world, one day brings forth another, and each day is perhaps a distinct revolution; as in an earthquake each shock has a direction peculiar to itself, and often opposite to the preceding A cannon-ball fortunately cut in two the chain that held up the draw-bridge of the Bastile. This ball overthrew the' monarch and the monarchy.'-He says farther in another place, that, this ball would have been without effect had it been fired twelve hours sooner or later.'

one.

The British government is weakly accused of having resolved on the death of the king of France; and, among other reasons, for this; that the English should not be the only nation to be reproached with having brought their monarch to the block! We are blamed because the revolution did not terminate on the 13th July, when Louis XVI. kissed the national cockade in the balcony of the Hotel de Ville; and

* Of all revolutions, ours was the most just, the most legitimate, the most imperiously demanded by all circumstances. It was necessary to destroy the court of Versailles, or it would have destroyed

us.'

The immense population' of Paris may strike the inhabitants of smaller cities; and what M. MERCIER says of it, in another place, that a battle may be fought at one end of it and the people, at the other extremity know nothing about it, may excite a wonderful idea of its magnitude: but an inhabitant of the British capital, which contains at least 200,000 more inhabitants than Paris, will not be astonished at the immense population of the capital of France, and can judge how far this French writer's representation can be true.

The revolution has been effected, because it was right to effect it, because the capital was threatened by the satellites of the court.' The immense population of the great city has retaliated, and in good time; it was the stroke from the whale's tail which overset the harpooner's boat."

all

4