be traced back, by only obferving what is going on, on its fkirts, and round each of its firft diftant fettlements. None of thofe fyftems of culture are at reft, nor can be found to have opped at any time: they are thriving and extending over the ftill undisturbed grounds; and if it were not for the growing capital towns and cities, which fwallow up a part of the cultivating tribe; for the fpirit of novelty fpringing up, with many other vices, in fuch crowds of men; and for the schemes of opulence originating in thofe centres of luxury and idleness, which, in fo many minds, have changed the original motive of extending culture, that of producing food for a growing population, into a view of greater revenue; that progress would be ftill more rapid. 39. Nothing can be more interefting, more inftructive for the hiftory of mankind, than the ftudy of countries where those progreffes are ftill far from approaching near their end. Beside what their external appearance unfolds to an experienced eye, there are numberlefs characteristic circumftances, to be collected by proper inquiries, from records, monuments, traditions, conformities of methods, of rites, of feafts, of manners, of errors, of parts of language; which lead us to refer various fettlements to the common centres whence they proceed; and the names of a great many places, defcriptive of certain spots, point out, by the language from which they are derived, the time when the prefent towns or large villages, were only mills, farms, hamlets, fords, bridges, &c. at the fame time that names of the fame fignifications, but modernifed, belong to modern fettlements which are ftill what their names exprefs. 40. That prefent ftate of the north-eaft part of Europe, as a mean ftate between a great part of Afia and America, on the one hand, and the fouth-weft part of Europe, on the other, throws a great light on the ftate of this laft country,one of thofe which I had first fet afide. Here, by particular circumstances, the archipels [may I be permitted to introduce this word?] of culture have moftly coalefced: from which caule, the diltinctions between their parts appear to be merely artificial or conventional divifions. There are indeed fuch divifions, produced by wars, and by the fchemes and jealoufies of commerce, which have introduced a great confufion between the original groupes of men, even in fome parts of the countries where the natural connections may eafily be traced : but at the fame time, from analogy with the growing countries, we may as furely conclude the origin of countries of full growth; as, by analogy with the improving marshes on the outside of long inclofed new-lands, the origin of thele, though in full culture, is clearly underflood. Confequently, the progresses of culture, culture, and of the art of agriculture; to which now I may add that of commerce, as a confequence of the growth of nations; agree with the general refult of the progreffes of spontaneous effects over the fame grounds; and the whole leads to this irrefiftible and great confequence, that the origin of our continents is at too fmall a distance from our times, for the revolution which produced them, to be blotted out of the memory of men. 41. Those real inquiries into the history of our continents, when more generally attended to, will be the tomb-ftone of every theory of the earth, the agents of which, and their agency, must be hidden under the veil of unbounded antiquity, for fancy to take the appearance of genius, and affertion that of knowlege. What study had thofe philofophers made of the real facts, who firft decided, feemingly from natural hiftory and the hiftory of mankind, (and thus were believed,) that our continents were of an antiquity loft in the night of time-paft? In oppofition to fuch determined data of real chronology as have been afforded by the continents themfelves, what are the dreams of fome nominal antiquarians, whofe imagination, fond of the remote, (and the more remote, the greater their fondness!) inclines them to adopt the fables of fome Afiatic fects, contradicted by their own monuments when attentively examined, as Mr. BRYANT, and other learned men, have proved, and denied by fome of their own countrymen !-Shall we receive, on an object of such moment as the age of our continents and that of the prefent race of men, the obfcure affertions of ignorance, pride, or defign, in fome fets of men; when it is in our power to confult the unbiaffed and ftubborn phenomena of the earth! I think, Sir, I have now completely executed what I had undertaken in refpect to your opinion on the revolutions that have happened in our globe; but there remains another point which I have not yet treated. Thinking that you had explained very naturally, and without any great deftruction of the organized beings, the deep marks of revolutions impreffed on our continents, you concluded thus: "Therefore there is no occafion for having recourse to any deftructive accident in nature, or to the agency of any preternatural caufe, in explaining that which actually appears." This point then remains to be examined, and I intend to do it as foon as fome other avocations fhall leave me fufficient leifure. I am, with due regard, Sir, Your moft obedient humble fervant, J. A. DE LUC. INDEX To the REMARKABLE PASSAGES in this Volume. N. B. To find any particular Book, or Pamphlet, fee the A. ACID, Pruffic, memoir on, delivered to the French academy, 496. colleges and feminaries of learning, in Angelo, Michael, mafteily sketch of his Arabs, obfervations on that people, 543. Aftronomical papers, in the last vol. of Attraction and repulfion, obfervations and Bernoulli, M. his paper on the gyratory Bertezen, M. his good fuccefs in pro- ducing filk in this country, 191. Blagden, Dr. his report on the beft me thod of proportioning the excife on fpi- Bog, remarkable account of the moving on the formation of ligneous Brouffonet, M. his confiderations on the Buache, M. on the geography of Ptolemy, geographical obfervations on National Cancer, experiments on the matter, from which that difeafe proceeds, 267. pleted by Dr. Maclaine, 528. Charles, M. his memoir on thermome- Cinnamon trees tranfplanted and fucceff- 277. Coal-mines, obfervations on, 420. of painting, among the ancients, 272. Cork, remarks on the floating of balls of, in water, 2. Corn-bill confidered, 98. Coulamb, M. his fifth memoir on electri Crawford, Dr. his experiments on the Crewe, Bishop, fome account of, 217. the construction of pendulums, 408. D Dartmouth college, in New Hampshire, Edgworth, Mr. his experiments on wheel- Edinburgh, rapid improvements in that Edyfione, account of the different light- Fontaines, M. des, on the irritability of ―, on fome fpecies of birds -, fifth and fixth memoirs on the Fufs, M. obfervations on a new method G Gendre, M. le, his memoir on trigono- on the integration of equations on binomial telescopes, 512. Georgium Sidus. See De la Lande. Halos. See Wood. H Hamilton, Dr. his account of the dif Hindoos, wonderful fuperftition of their Hot Springs, account of fome extraordi- Hudson's Bay company, the trade of, L'Huilier, M. on ifoperimetrical pyra. Hutton, Dr his account of certain natu- I and J Jeaurat, M. his aftronomical paper in the Jews, apology for, 173. Recommend- K Keir, Mr. his experiments on the diffo- Kraaft, M. his memoir on the dioptric L Landaff, Bifhop of, obtains a prize his memoir on the measure of a on the fituation of the Cafpian Magnets |