country abounds alfo in pheasants, heath-cocks, wood-cocks, and other birds, which are exported in great plenty, and efteemed excellent food.

With regard to the government and population of Switzerland, our author obferves, that there are few countries in Europe so populous as the Swifs Cantons. He admits, indeed, that its towns are lefs populous than many in Germany and the united provinces, but then its villages he affirms are prodigiously more so. Great cities, continues he, rather depopulate a country, than increase the number of its inhabitants. The effeminacy, luxury and vice, which prevail in large towns, produce infinite diforders and multiply difeafes fo faft, that the number of people who die yearly, greatly furpaffes that of thofe who are born. In Swit zerland there are about one hundred towns, great and small, the inhabitants of which may clap their hands on their breafts, and fay with the Spartans of old, these are our ramparts. M. Faeft thinks that the number of people in Helvetia, may be reckoned without exaggeration at two millions. Now the united provinces, fays he, reckon no more than this number; notwithftanding they contain fo many large and populous cities. Again, the kingdom of Sweden, which is above twelve times larger than Switzerland, is proportionably not more populous. The proteftant cantons, we are told, are more rich and populous than the Roman Catholic; the former applying to manufacture and commerce, while the latter content themselves with grazing their cattle. Add to this, that the civil employments are much less numerous and lucrative in the Roman Catholic cantons than in the proteftant.

The inhabitants of this country, are divided into two claffes; the first compofed of the citizens, and of the gentlemen that refide either in the towns or in the country. These latter always enjoy the privileges of citizens in the capital of their refpective cantons; the Helvetic nobility, however, are far from being numerous. Their many ftruggles for liberty, and their frequent emigrations, have contributed not a little to their diminution, for there are few nobles created in Switzerland: and indeed, as they have no kind of prerogatives here as in other countries, the title is little regarded. Nay, there are instances of Swifs families, which, though ennobled by kings and emperors, make no manner of use of their titles. The nobility of the city of St. Gall are indeed still pretty numerous, they being permitted to follow trade and bufinefs, without derogating from their dignity.

The fecond clafs of people, and which is infinitely the most numerous, confifts of the inhabitants of the villages and country. One part of thefe fubfift by the profits arifing from their cattle and the culture of their fields and vineyards; the

M m 4

other

other by trade and manufactures. In the cantons that have no city, the country-people have a fhare in the government and magiftracy. In those which have cities, and where the government is aristocratical, the inhabitants of the country are governed by local figniors or bailiffs, but by no means in that manner in which the petty fovereigns of Germany, Italy, and fome other countries, tyrannize over their fubjects.

The ftaple commodities of Switzerland are flax and cotton, which they cultivate and manufacture various ways. They have, befides, a very confiderable trade in butter and cheese; as alfo in raw hides, which they export to France and Germany. They tan nevertheless a confiderable quantity of leather at Zurich, Schaffhoufe, Sonvillier, Bienne, and Neufchatel. Add to thefe branches of commerce, thofe of butter and cheefe, which are confiderable articles, and are produced of great excellence and in great plenty in the districts of Ementhat, Gruyere, Bienne, and the valley of Urs. In the late war the Swifs exported a great number of live cattle. The horses also that are bred on the Alps, are much admired for being ftrong, fpirited, and furefooted. Of the lefler articles of commerce among the Swifs, that of fimple waters, drawn from the admirable herbs, with which that country abounds, is not contemptible. They export alfo fome diftilled liquors, and carry on a trade in wood and timber much more confiderable and advantageous than is generally conceived.

The fubftance of what we have here tranfcribed, is extracted from the introduction to Mr. Faefi's work; which is in itself too circumftantial and fyftematical to admit of our giving any fatisfactory abftract of the whole.

Difcours Philofophiques de Maxime du Tyr. Traduits du Grec, par Mr. Formey. 12mo. Leyde. 1764.

The Philofophical Difcourfes of Maximus of Tyre. Translated from the Greek, by Mr. Formey.

T is worthy obfervation, that, notwithstanding the many improvements in the practical arts, the difcoveries in nature, and the pretended advances in ratiocination, which have been made in modern times, there is hardly any proposition to be ftarted in moral and metaphyfical fcience, that does not bear a very clofe affinity to fome or other of the opinions of the ancients. In point of phyfical and mathematical knowlege, the fages of antiquity were doubtless inferior to many of the learned members

of

of our modern scientific academies: but we are apprehensive that very few of the latter can boaft fuch comprehenfive intellects, fuch ftrength and fublimity of genius, as were evidently poffeffed by the former. Perhaps no age or country ever produced a genius fo penetrating and fo univerfal as that of Ariftotle; and we may venture to put Maximus of Tyre againft the Collinfes, the Tindals, and indeed the whole tribe of modern deifts; who look down nevertheless with contempt on the darkness of former ages, and pique themselves highly on the vaft fuperiority of the prefent, enlightened æra. It is very poffible the greater part of thefe gentlemen, the luminaries of the free-thinking world, are but little acquainted with the old Grecian in question: if they will give themselves the trouble, however, to look into his book, they will find thofe admired fentiments, which they conceive to be the wonderful deductions of later times, actually fuggefted by the poor, benighted heathens, many ages ago. In the mean time, left the demon of fcepticism fhould infinuate to them, that we want to impofe on them a falfe authority, we shall give a little hiftory of the performance, before we enter

on its contents.

Maximus of Tyre, commonly ftyled Maximus Tyrius, was a celebrated Platonic philofopher, in the times of Antoninus Pius, and of Commodus; but the particular date of his birth or of his death is not to be ascertained. Eufebius hath confounded him with Claudius Maximus the ftoic, preceptor to Marcus Antoninus; and others have mistaken him for Maximus the preceptor of Julian, who did not live till near 200 years after him. As to his Difcourfes, we are told that Janus Lafcaris was the first who brought them out of Greece into Italy; making a prefent of them to Lawrence de Medicis. It was from this manufcript that Cofmo Paccius, archbishop of Florence, tranflated them into Latin. Henry Stephens gave an edition of them in the original Greek in the year 1557. And Daniel Heinfius another in 1614, adding a Latin verfion of his own, with notes. But the laft and fineft edition of these Difcourses, we are told, was made in London about the year 1740. This edition is in quarto; the text being corrected by Mr. John Davies, and critical annotations annexed at the end of the volume, by Mr. Markland.

We fhall now give our Readers a fpecimen or two of this Author's philofophy. God being the author of good, whence cometh evil. Such is the title of one of these Difcourfes; in which we find delineated the whole fyftem of modern optimifm. The evils, fays this Philofopher, to which human life is continually expofed, are neceflary circumftances immediately dependent on, and interwoven with, the constitution of the univerie. What we call mifery and corruption, and is to us the fource of afflic tion, contributes, in the eye of the great fabricator of the world,

to

to the good and fecurity of the whole. It is this which is the object of his attention; and hence it is that, for the prefervation of the whole, he fuffers the parts to be deftroyed. The Athenians are swept off by the plague; the Lacedemonians swallowed up by earthquakes; the inhabitants of Theffaly washed away by inundations; and the Sicilians burnt up by the flames of Etna. -But when did Jupiter promife immortality to the people of Athens when did the Lacedemonians obtain his decree to exempt their country from earthquakes? the Theffalonians to be fecured from inundations? or the Sicilians from the eruptions of Ætna? All these things, of which we fo heavily complain, relate only to parts or component members of the univerfal frame. You look upon thefe circumftances as inftances of defect and diffolution; because you confine your view only to the parts which perish; I regard them as infallible proofs of confervation and perfection, because I take a view of things in general, and fee what precedes and follows. The diffolution of one thing is the production of another, the death of one object is the life of the next in fucceffion; while the apparent evils we fuffer are merely relative and partial; tending in fact to the general good of the whole.' How doth this fentiment differ from that of the poet? who tells us, that all chance is

-direction, that we cannot fee,

All difcord harmony not understood,
All partial evil univerfal good.

It hath been a queftion much controverted among modern fceptics, whether there be any propriety in praying to God? our heathen philofopher is not quite fo bad a Chriftian, in this refpect, as the Savoyard curate and fome others, who affect to fet fo little value on this part of our duty. Our Author, it is true, prohibits our praying for temporal benefits, as he thinks it betrays a spirit of avarice, impatience and impertinence. I look upon the prayers of a virtuous man, fays he, in the light of a grateful and holy converfation with the deity, concerning the good he enjoys; and at the fame time regard it in him as a proof of his virtue. Socrates did not afk of the gods to be made rich, or to be placed among the Athenian magiftracy. He fought not the parade of wealth and power, but goodness of heart, tranquillity of mind, a life without reproach, and a death replete with hope. Thefe were excellent gifts, worthy of being afked and received from the gods; who beftow them as willingly as they are requested fincerely.'

The fentiments of this ancient writer on the unity and perfections of God, are much the fame as those of our modern philofophers, and by no means tally with that deplorable ftate of darkness and poi theim, in which the pagan world is faid to

have been involved. It is univerfally received as an indubitable maxim, that there is one God, who is the king and father of all mankind. In this fentiment the Greek does not differ from the barbarian, the islander from the native of the continent, nor the greateft fage from the most ignorant of the people. We will fuppofe that, in the course of many ages, there should be found two or three individuals fo deftitute of fentiment, as to be ignorant of a God; animals whofe organs of fenfe fhould be infenfible to the objects of his wifdom and power, whofe ears should be deaf to the harmony of founds, whofe eyes should be blind to the beauty of colours, and, as it were, mutilated with regard to fufceptibility and intellect: what can be inferred from the incapacity of fuch a ftupid, incorrigible being? Ought we not to compare them to lions without claws, to oxen without horns, and to birds without wings? We cannot help thinking, however, that this philofopher's definition, or description, of the deity, was taken, in a great measure, from the writings of the Christians; who had diffused the gospel pretty extensively before his time. • God, fays he, is the father and creator of every thing that exifts; before the fun was, he is, and before the heavens exifted, to him was a being. Before all times, before all ages, he exifted and determined the revolutions of nature. He is the legiflator and governor of the universe, whose effence no language can exprefs, nor can the most penetrating eye difcover.' Again, in another part of the work, the fovereign mind, fays he, is perfect, it comprehends, at once, all things, at all times, and in all places.-The intelligence of God is pure and incorruptible, it need not be divided, in order to preferve and govern all things: but acts throughout the utmost extent of space, with infinite fwiftnefs; or rather, feeing all things with one view, its influence is inftantaneoufly diffused throughout the universe, as the rays of the fun diffuse heat and light over the face of the earth,'

This philofopher's notions concerning the fource of moral evil, feem alfo to be borrowed from the Chriftian fyftem. There is in the human mind an innate principle of perverfeness and depravity; to which we give the name of evil or wickedness. Let every man, therefore, who exclaims against their effects, impute the fault to himself, and not by any means to his creator.'

We could with pleasure make a farther quotation or two from this performance; but the number of publications before us prevents our dwelling longer on the fubject.