Do not the two words printed in italic, in the latter part of the foregoing extract, imply fomething rather too indelicate and mafculine for the pen of a lady?

P. 229. O amazing myftery! that the infinite God, the glorious fecond perfon in the Trinity, needed to be further qualified than from his own infinity to fuccour his people when tempted.'

This, we fear, will be understood no where.

P. 233. Hail! O glorious Saviour, every drop of thy precious fhed blood! O hail! every precious myftick groan, from the pure and unfpotted breaft of him who is the God of all confolation.'-In the fame page fhe again finks beneath the importance of the fubject, by complaining of forrowful anguish and faint qualms, while fuffering by our enemies, and the enemies of the Saviour. The fame peculiar phrafe is ufed, p. 354. --Now may we, defolated and dejected in our state of diftance and captivity, weep, when we remember Zion, yea, faint, and almoft die away in love-qualms *, when reflecting on our forfeited love-pledges, and our Lord's abfence.'-These need no comment. Nor will divines, who, like our fair meditant, are fond of fpiritualizing Solomon's Songs, have much objec

tion to them.

P. 302. In the month of September laft, near to the beginning of it, fome time, I think, in the fecond week; from which time till the middle of October, was a very extraordinary time with me a fpiritual anguifh was excited upon my mind, attended (by God's good hand upon me) with fuch delightful, yea, vehement pangs of love-fick defires after God, and to be, by the fmiles of his countenance and favour, made furthcoming ↑ to the glory and praife of his glorious name, &c.

Surely our Editor does not include fuch thoughts and expreffions as the foregoing, among thofe which he hopes will anfwer the important ends of ipiritual edification' to those who read them.

To multiply quotations of this fort, would be no agreeable tafk to us, nor would it furnish any very rational entertainment to many of our Readers. Enough has been extracted to thew both the fpirit and turn of moft of Mrs. Steuart's Meditations, and to give a tolerable idea of their unfitnefs, in many refpects, to meet the eye of an enlightened and difcerning age and nation.

And in p. 273.- A needy finner I am;-all that is in the world cannot keep me from ftarving to death, and fwooning away in love-fick qualms, if I am not fupplied by my Lord from that fulness that is in him, which is that that alone can fatisfy my foul.'

fpelt.

This word is often used in thefe Meditations, and is always thus
ART. XIII.

G.

ART. XIII. CONCLUSION of the Philofophical Tranfa&tions. Vol. For the Year 1769. See our laft Month's Review.

LIX.

ANTIQUITIES.

Article 27. An Account of feveral fepulchral Inferiptions and Figures in Bas-relief, difcovered in 1755, at Bonn in Lower Germany. By John Strange, Efq; F. R.S.

THE

HE Author in his paflage through Germany and the Tyrol, in his way to Italy, had an opportunity of oblerving fome curious remains of Roman antiquity, confifting of basreliefs in the highest prefervation, which had been discovered on digging certain foundations in a garden belonging to the Elector of Cologne, together with fome infcriptions. Two plates exhibiting these antiquities accompany this article. Article 61. An Attempt to elucidate two Samnite Coins, never before fully explained, &c. By the Rev. John Swinton, B. D. F. R. S. &c. &c.

The most eminent antiquarians, as Mr. Swinton, with his accustomed gravity, obferves, have not fcrupled to affert' that the word SAFINIM, found on the reverfe of a certain Samnite denarius of Papius Mutilus, must be equivalent to Sabini or Samnites, the Sabines or the Samnites; whereas, with much erudition, he makes it nearly evident, from the nature and genius of the coin itfelf; from the Samnite mode of abbreviation; and from its fimilarity to other coins, bearing the names of Italian captains, and adorned with the fame fymbols, that it ftands for SAFINIus Marci filius, poffibly an Italian general who had diftinguifhed himself in the focial war ;-whofe exploits indeed are not come down to us, and whofe very name, that fingle evidence of his ever having exited, though recorded on brafs, appears to have been filently pofting on the high road to utter oblivion, till our alert antiquarian outpoft challenged and ftopped it on the very borders of the gulph; after it had cluded the fcrutiny of the Marquis Scipio Maffei, Signior Olivieri, M. Pellerin, and his numerous brother centinels, who inceffantly guard the paffes into that region.-May the Philofophical, Tranfactions, Ere perenniores, in which it is now depofited, and commences a fresh æra of existence, preferve and tranfinit the folitary name of Safinius-(for even they can do no more) and the prænomen of his venerable father, to the lateft pofterity, more faithfully than the medal of Papius Mutilus! Article 66. Extract from the fournals of the Royal Society, refpect

ing a Letter addreffed to the Society by a Member of the Honjo of Jefuits at Pekin in China. Ey Charles Martin, M. D. Sec. R. S. &c.

The controverfy which has lately arifen among the literati of Europe, on the occafion of fome conjectures of the ingenious

Y 3

Mr.

Mr. Turberville Needham, published in 1761, relative to a fuppofed connection between the hieroglyphical writing of the ancient Egyptians, and the characteristic writing now in use among the Chinefe, are not unknown to our learned Readers *. The Egyptian fymbols or characters infcribed on the celebrated buft of fis, at Turin †, appeared to him to resemble feveral Chinese characters, which are to be found in the great dictionary Tching, tfee, tong; from whence he conjectured, first, that the Chinese characters are the fame, in many refpects, as the hieroglyphics of Egypt; and, fecondly, that the fenfe of hieroglyphics may be inveftigated by the comparative and appropriated fignification of the Chinefe characters. As the fimilarity between thefe two fpecies of writing has however been contested, an appeal has been made to the only competent judges of this question, the literati of China. The Secretary of the Royal Society has accordingly addrefied himself on this fubject to the Jefuits at Pekin. Among other queftions propofed to them, which we omit, they were in particular defired to inform the Society whether certain characters, to the number of 29, copied from the buft at Turin, together with divers other characters, to the number of 200, copied from undoubted monuments of Egypt, are really and indeed Chinese characters; and, if they be, of what dialect and of what age are they?'

In answer to this and other enquiries relative to this subject, the Society have received a paper from Pekin, of which the prefent article is an abstract. It is accompanied with 27 plates reprefenting feveral of the ancient and modern Chinese characters used in writing; together with copies of feveral ancient Chinese infcriptions, drawings of vafes, and other antiquities. With regard to the question abovementioned, the writer of the paper fent from Pekin (who appears, from fome mifcarriage or other accident befallen fome of the packets fent to him, to have received only that which contained the Turin characters) decides, that though four or five of thefe characters have a sensible refemblance to the like number, to be found in the abovementioned Chinese dictionary; yet that they are not genuine Chinefe characters; having no connected fenfe, nor a proper refemblance to any of their forms of writing; and that the whole of the infcription has nothing of Chinese upon the face of it. Many of the literati of that country, whofe province it is to tudy the ancient writings, and whom he confulted upon this occafion, concur with him in this opinion; declaring that these fymbols are abfolutely unintelligible and new to them.

See Review, vol. xxix. p. 31-34.

A caft of this venerable remain of antiquity has been procured, and fent hither, by Mr. Montagu, and is now, through the bounty of his Majefty, depofited in the British Mufeum.

The

The Author does not however abfolutely renounce Mr. Needham's general conjecture; and accordingly prefents the Society with a collation of 73 Egyptian hieroglyphics, collected principally from Kircher, and has placed by them a number of ancient and modern Chinese characters, which more or less refemble them; and recommends the farther inveftigation of this curious fubject to the learned. He likewife gives what he calls an hiftorical picture of the Chinese tongue, and an account of the rules which have been obferved in the formation of its characters. He is profufe in his praifes of this language, and extols its force, grace, energy, amenity, grandeur, and fimpli city,' particularly in many of the paffages of the King: obferving, at the fame time, that, notwithstanding all its different idioms or varieties, that tongue contains only about 330 words, every one of which, however, is nearly multiplied into four, by as many different accents or inflexions of the voice, of which it is difficult to give an European an idea; and that, nevertheless, it is neither monotous, barren, or hard to underftand, as has been fuppofed by Europeans. He obferves too that the accents give a certain harmony and pointed cadence to the most ordinary phrafes,' and, with regard to clearness, affirms, that the Chinese fpeak as fast as we do, express more meaning in fewer words, and nevertheless underftand one another.

It does not however appear from this paper, how, with the ufe of only four times 330 words, all this clearness is attained. For our own parts, notwithstanding our learned Miffionary's eulogia, we rejoice that we are mafters of that fimple but noble invention, the four and twenty letters, and of the thoufands and tens of thousands of words that are formed out of them. As Reviewers particularly, we have reason to be more than ordinarily thankful on this account. Taking our whole corps together, we may modeftly reckon ourselves tolerable mafters of half a dozen alphabetical languages at leaft: but had we the 80,000 Chinese characters to cope with, to qualify us for our office-(fuppofing it could exift under fuch a fuppofition)-instead of treating duly every month, at our eafe, as we now do, de omni fcibili, our whole body, one or two greybeards excepted, would fcarce be got half way through their hornbooks. But to conclude with a more ferious reflection; we fhall add, that we know not whether the confiderable progress which the Chinese have made in feveral of the fciences, under all the disadvantages of a written language, fo unfavourable, from its very ftructure, to the diffufion and propagation of knowledge, does not furnish a ftronger and more fatisfactory proof of the high antiquity to which they pretend, than any which are founded on their history.

ELECTRICITY and METEORS.

The two first papers belonging to the firft of these claffes are the 9th and 10th articles, in which Dr. Priestley relates fome curious experiments on the force and direction of electrical explofions. Thefe were published fome time ago in the Additions to his Hiflory, and have been already noticed in our Review +. In the 13th article, an account is given by the Rev. Mr. Paxton, of the effects of a violent thunder-ftorm on the tower of the church of Buckland Brewer in Devonshire ; from the pinnacle of which fiones were, by the force of the electrical explofion, projected and difperied in all directions, and to different diftances; fome of which (if there is no typographical error in the number) weigned feven hundred pounds. The 14th and 20th articles contain meteorological journals of the weather in the year 1768, kept at Plyn outh, Bridgewater, and Ludgvan. In the 15th and 49th articles, accounts are given of two ren a.kable Aurora boreales; the firft obferved at Paris, by M. Meflier, and the latter at Oxford by Mr. Swinton. The remaining articles of this clafs are the two following:

Article 21. Propofal of a Method for fecuring the Cathedral of St. Paul's from Damage by Lightning; in Confequence of a Letter from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's to James Weft, Efq;

Pr. R. S.

While the intrepid and fagacious wardens or other guardians of the parochial church of St. Bride's, after repeated electric fhocks from above, and reiterated admonitions and remonftrances from us and others, ftill continue to brave the utmost fury of an electrified cloud; the Dean and Chapter of their metropolitan church, lefs daring, and doubtless more enlightened, have applied to the Royal Society for their opinion and particular directions, relative to the best and most effectual method of fixing electrical conductors to that building: incited to this meafure by a confideration that the old church of St. Paul's had twice already fuffered by lightning,' and by a prudent folicitude to fecure the prefent fabric from fimilar accidents; which, but for the interception of the ftorm by St. Bride's church, within thefe few years, might, they obferve, have already happened.' In confequence of this application a committee was appointed by the Royal Society, confifting of Dr. Franklyn and Dr. Watson, and Meffrs. Canton, Delaval, and Willon, who were affifted, in the examination of the building, by Mr. Mylne, furveyor of St. Paul's.

+ See vol. xliii. September, page 214.

See Monthly Review, vol. xxxvii. October 1767, p. 247, vol. lii. March 1770, p. 204, and vol. xliii. September 1770, p. 216.

As