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not till 1658, as he himself told Mr. Conduitt, that he made his first scientific experiment. . . . . I do not hesi tate to add that these letters, of Newton to Pascal, show by intrinsic characters, as for instance their style, that they are not the production of this distinguished man."

M. Chasles, in reply to this, among other things, said that these letters were found among the papers of M. Desmaizeaux; were sold to a M. Blondeau de Charnage, and were recently in a "famille des plus honorables."

M. Faugère reported for the commission to whom the papers were referred, and said that the fabricator of these documents had not troubled himself to imitate even the handwriting of Pascal. He was content to give to his writing a more or less ancient character, and to employ an orthography somewhat conformed to that of Pascal's time. The combination of new ink with old paper is apparent, though an attempt has been made to give it a yellowish appearance, by a process which has poorly succeeded.... The letter attributed to Pascal's writer are by the same hand as those attributed to himself. The style is also markedly dif ferent from Pascal's, and there are numerous anachronisms. . . . In closing, M. Faugère said that this was a forgery without parallel for its audacity and extent.

At a reunion of the Academy in October, a letter was read from Mr. Grant, director of the observatory at Glasgow. He writes that, "According to these documents Pascal must have determined the relative sizes of the sun, Jupiter, Saturn, and the earth, the densities of these bodies, and the force of gravity at their surfaces. I shall attempt to prove that these results, thus attributed to Pascal, are pure inventions and re

productions of numerous sentences contained in the third edition of the Principia. We will begin by citing some dates which have reference to the question. Pascal was born in 1623 and died in 1662. The first edition of the Principia was published in 1687, ... and the third in 1726. Madame Périer says that her brother at the age of thirty years gave up all worldly researches. Nevertheless, I will take the year 1662 as the date of the pretended discoveries of Pascal in astronomical physics."

He then notices the data known at the time of Pascal which he could have used for reaching his results, and also those which Newton had for use; and shows that the numbers communicated by M. Chasles, are identical, not with those which are contained in the first edition of the Principia, but with those established by Newton in the third edition, which numbers are based principally on measurements executed by astronomers who were not born at the time of Pascal's death. "In taking these circumstances into consideration, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the numbers communicated by M. Chasles are gross for geries of corresponding numbers contained in the third edition of the Principia."

Another letter was also read from Sir David Brewster. He had by request received from M. Chasles photographic copies of some important letters, in order to compare the writing and the signatures with those of the authentic letters in the possession of the Earl of Portsmouth. He writes, "In comparing the notes with the genuine letters of Newton, Lord Portsmouth and Lord Macclesfield recognized immediately that there was not the least resemblance between the forged pieces and the authentic letters.... Sir Frederick

Madden, who has charge of the department of manuscripts of the British Museum, says, that he does not hesitate to declare that this is a gross forgery, as is shown not only by the writing but by the paper."

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE.

In the endeavor to form a proper estimate of the character of any distinguished man, many difficulties beset the path of the inquirer. When that man is regarded by many learned and philosophical persons as gifted with supernatural powers and in intimate personal relations with the Deity, by others as little less than a lunatic, and by others still as a rank impostor, the probability of arriving at entirely just conclusions is rendered very small, and from the bewildering maze of contradictory opinions the student is apt to turn in despair to some more congenial and satisfactory labor.

To no one are these remarks more applicable than to EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, a philosopher, a statesman, the founder of a religious sect, a man of blameless life, and yet possessed of such diverse and wonderful traits of mind and character that the world has for over a hundred years hesitated what position to give him. There are evidences, however, that a change is taking place, and that ere long there will be a greater accord relative to a man who, whether the recipient of revelation or a sufferer from derangement of the nervous system, was certainly one of the most remarkable individuals of whom we have any account.

Two very distinct epochs are clearly distinguishable in Swedenborg's career. The first, which may be called his scientific life, extends from his birth, in 1688, to the year 1743, when, as he says, it pleased the Lord to open his sight to a view of the spiritual world; the second, the period of his illumination, extends from the year 1743 to his death in 1772. During the first period he wrote a number of mathematical and philosophical memoirs, many of which gave evidence of marked originality, and all of which were characterized by that

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power of severe and exact reasoning which is of such great value to those engaged in scientific studies. At the very close of this period he published two works, which are of themselves sufficient to give him a high position. The first of these, "The Economy of the Animal Kingdom," having recently been republished in this country in sumptuous style, we propose to bring briefly to the notice of our readers; the second, "The Animal Kingdom," was translated several years ago in England by Wilkinson, but has long been out of print, and is now rarely to be found even in the stalls of second-hand booksellers.

Of course, within the necessarily restricted limits of a review, it is impossible to notice all the points, or even many, which are brought forward by an author. "The Economy of the Animal Kingdom" is so written, that only a very few of the principles enunciated can be touched upon. We shall, therefore, be obliged to content ourselves with a general survey of the plan of the work and the citation of two or three observations which appear to us peculiarly striking or original.

"The Economy of the Animal Kingdom" is written very much after the plan of a commentary. The views of the most eminent anatomists and physiologists constitute the first part of each chapter; these are followed by the "Induction," in which the author enunciates, in the most condensed and perspicuous language, the facts of the subject, as he understands them; and, then taking up separately each clause of the "Induction," he makes a full and exhaustive commentary upon it, in which he gives a free rein to his own views.

In anatomy and physiology, Swedenborg was not an experimenter or an originator of facts. His object was to take the results of the labors of others and to deduce special and general principles from them. But in the execution of his plan he often gives utterance-without seeming to lay much

'The Economy of the Animal Kingdom, considered Anatomically, Physically, and Philosophically. By Emanuel Swedenborg, late Member of the House of Nobles in the Royal Diet of Sweden, etc. Translated from the Latin by the Rev. Augustus Clipold, M. A., in two volumes, pp. 564– 432. Boston: T. H. Carter & Sons. 1868.

stress upon them, and sometimes even with an appearance of reluctance to some striking assertions or theories, for which the anatomical or physiological researches at his command afforded no warrant, and which only now are beginning to be accepted. In the course of this notice we shall have occasion to point out several of the more remarkable of these instances. The principle which stands as the foundation of Swedenborg's physiological system is that the blood is the substance of which all the organs and parts of the body are formed, and that it is the centre of vitality. In enunciating this doctrine, which is in the main correct, according to our present views, Swedenborg unduly exalts the position of the blood, attributes to it qualities which it does not possess, and assigns to it substances which do not enter into its composition. Thus, in the introduction, he says:

"The blood is, as it were, the complex of all things that exist in the world, and the storehouse and seminary of all that exist in the body. It contains salts of every kind, both fixed and volatile, and oils, spirits, and aqueous elements; in fine, whatever is created and produced by the three kingdoms of the world, the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral. Moreover, it imbibes the treasures that the atmosphere carries in its bosom, and to this end exposes itself to the air through the medium of the lungs.

"Since the blood, then, is an epitome of the riches of the whole world and all its kingdoms, it would appear as if all things were created for the purpose of administering to the composition and continued renewal of the blood. For if all things exist for the sake of man, and with a view to afford him the conditions and means of living, then all things exist for the sake of the blood, which is the parent and nourisher of every part of the body; for nothing exists in the body that has not previously existed in the blood."

The introduction is written in so philosophical a spirit, and is so stored with the most striking truths, that we would like to transfer it bodily to our pages. One other extract must, however, suffice. In setting forth the necessity of exact knowledge and the advantages of experience, the author gives these words of caution:

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