'Tis not unreasonable to fuppofe with M. Geoffroy, that the Poifon of the Tarantula may occafion an extraordinary Tenfion of the Nerves, much greater than is fuited to their refpective Functions, and hence the Lofs of Memory and Motion; but at the fame Time, this Tenfion being equal to that of fome Strings of an Inftrument, puts the Nerves in Motion to a certain Tone, and obliges them to vibrate when struck by the Undulations peculiar to that Tone; and hence the Cure by Mufic: For Motion being thus reftored to the Nerves, by a proper Mode, the Spirits are recalled, which before had almost intirely abandoned them.

It may perhaps be added, with some Probability, and pretty much on the fame Principles, that the Patient's Averfion for certain Colours arifes from this, that the Tenfion of the Nerves, even out of the Accefs, being ftill different from its natural State, the Vibrations thofe Colours occafion in the Fibres of the Brain, are too contrary to their Difpofition, and make a kind of Diffonance therein, which is Pain.

Another Quotation we fhall make from the HISTORY is the eleventh Article: On an ancient Communication of the Mediterranean with the Red-Sea.

M. le Comte de Pontchartrain had fent into Egypt fome Memoirs made by M. Delifle, which pointed out what was to be wifhed, in order to rectify the Map of that Country. Thefe Memoirs were accompanied with very ftrong Recommendations to the Confuls and Vice-Confuls.

It was in the Execution of thefe Orders of M. de Pontchartrain, that M. Boutier travelled over the whole Delta, and fent to that Minifter a Map of it, with a little Account which explained it. M. Delifle, to whom M. le Comte de Pontchartrain had done the Honour to fend the whole, spoke of it to the Academy.

The modern Egypt is but little known, altho' it is fufficiently near and frequented; and we may reckon

reckon, that it is the fame with all Countries, where the Inhabitants are in Ignorance, and where learned Strangers feldom travel, at least to make Obfervations. Altho' M. Boutier has not travelled over the Lower Egypt, fo much as it would be neceffary, he has nevertheless, in M. Delifle's Account, confiderably restored the Map, which was very much diffigured. He begins with confidering the Delta of the Ancients, thofe Mouths which they have ascribed to the Nile, the greatest Part of which had been loft by the Ignorance of the modern Geographers, and a great Number of Towns, whofe Names are not yet much altered; for Example, Samanout, or according to the Coptes, Sebennetu, which is the ancient Sebennitus, Abbout fier, or Butfir, which is Bufiris, &c. But what is moft remarkable in this Map is, an Extremity of a Canal, which goes out of the most Eastern Arm of the Nile, and which M. Delifle judges to have been a Part of that which formerly made the Communication of the Nile and the Me-. diterranean with the Red-Sea. The Foundation on which he goes is this:

Herodotus, in his fecond Book, fays, there was in the Plain of Egypt, a Canal drawn from the Nile, a little above the Town of Bubafte, and below a Mountain, which went on the Side of Memphis; that this Canal was extended very far from Weft to Eaft; that afterwards it turned to the South, and flowed into the Red-Sea; that Nechus, Son of Pfammiticus, was the first that undertook this Work, where 120,000 Men had perished; that they had quitted it upon the Anfwer of an Oracle; but that Darius, Son of Hyftafpes, had finished it; that it was four Days Navigation; and that two Gallies. might pass a-breast in it.

Diodorus fpeaks of it in the first Book of his Bibliotheca, and agrees with Herodotus, except in this, that he makes the Canal to be left unfinished

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by Darius, to whom very bad Engineers had reprefented, that the Red-Sea being higher than Egypt, would overflow it; and in this, that he does not make the Work to be finished but by Ptolomæus Philadelphus. He adds, that this Canal had been called the River of Ptolomy; that this Prince had caufe a Town to be built at its Out-let into the RedSea, which he named Arfince, from one of his Sifters; and that the Canal might be opened or fhut, according as it was neceffary for Navigation.

Strabo, lib. 17. of his Geography, agrees with Diodorus in every Thing: It only remains to reconcile Herodotus, who makes the Work to be finished by Darius, with Strabo and Diodorus, who give that Honour only to Ptolomy; but there might happen to a Work of this Nature, as foon as it was finished, an infinite Number of Inconveniences, which rendered it useless, till a new one was made.

At the Point of the Gulf, which they have called the Red Sea, were two Cities, Hieropolis and Arfinoé, which laft, according to Strabo, was alfo named by fome Cleopatris. Befides Strabo, speaking of the Expedition made into Arabia by Elius Gallus, the firft Roman Governor of Egypt, fays, that Gallus caufed Veffels to be built at Cleopatris, near an an◄ cient Canal derived from the Nile. In another Place, he fays alfo, that Hieropolis was upon the Nile, and at the Extremity of the Red-Sea.

M. Delifle has confulted the Arabian Authors, in Reference to this Affair. Elmacin, lib. 1. cap. 3. fays, that under the Caliph Omar, towards the Year 635 of the Chriftian Era, Amir caused a Canal to be made to transport the Corn from Egypt into Arabia; probably he only renewed the old one, the Navigation of which might eafily have been neglected in the Decline of the Roman Empire. But in the Year 150 of the Hegira, which agrees with the Year 775 of Chrift, Abugiafar Almanzor, fecond

Caliph of the Abbafides, caufed this Canal to be stopped on the Side of the Sea. "If ever this "Union fhould be renewed, the World would "change its Face; China and France, for Example, "would become Neighbours, and our Pofterity "would lament the Fate of the barbarous Ages, "when the Europeans were obliged to go round Africa to get into Afia."

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ARTICLE VIII.

A Reply to Mr. Warburton's Appendix, in his fecond Volume of the Divine Legation of MOSES. Together with a few Obfervations on his Writings, and occafional Reflections on fome ufeful Subjects. London: Printed for George Hawkins, at Milton's Head, between the two Temple Gates in Fleet-ftreet. Octavo. Pages 308.

THI

HIS Book is wrote with fo much Refentment as nothing can juftify, but the ill Ufage the Author pretends to have received from his Anta-gonist. Whether that, fuppofing the Complaint not to be groundless, will excufe the Severity of this Reply, I will leave others to determine. What there is of Argument therein, may perhaps be confidered by Mr. Warburton. The perfonal Reflections it abounds with, will, I hope, be neglected by him, as bearing harder upon the Writer himself, than they can upon any other Subject. For I think it may be affirmed, univerfally, that he who abufes others, abuses himself most of all.

This Piece is ufhered in by a long Introduction of thirty-one Pages, which is throughout an In vective.

vective. The following Work is divided into fix Chapters. The firft contains feveral Cfervations on Mr. Warburton's Appendix. The fecond confifts of Remarks on the fecond Volume of his Divine Legation of Moses. The third is about bor. rowing from others, being a Difcuffion of this Question, "Whether the Heathens after Chrift, refined, ftole, borrowed, or foftned their Doc "trines, &c. from the Gospel, or first Christians, "fo as to deftroy, or leffen their Authority as

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Heathens?" The fourth Chapter is an Inquiry, Whether the Heathens had the fame Notion of Angels, as Jews or Chriftians? The fifth Chapter is concerning the Punishment of Children for the Crimes of their Parents. The laft Chapter examines whether the Heathens encouraged or approved the Crime of Self-murder.

Having taken the Notice I have done of the Acidity of this Work, and the Spirit of the Author, it may be fome Entertainment to the Curiosity of my Readers, if I exemplify both in the enfuing Citation, of the Character of Mr. Warburton, which is drawn up in the forementioned Introduction; and which is exactly fuch as we might expect from the Painter, how unlike foever it may be to the Original.

"Mr. Warburton, fays this fkilful and candid

Limner, appears to be a Man of very quick Parts, "and great Learning; of a ftrong Head, good "Memory, and indefatigable Induftry; one who "was naturally, and at first setting out, capable of "the greateft Improvements in all Sorts of Truth: "Being poffeffed of these most desirable, and (to "meet in one Man) most uncommon Qualities, he

was led on, and feduced by much too eager, "much too impetuous a Defire of Knowledge, till "he quite loft Sight of Truth, the only amiable " and proper Object of it: So that now he appears like fome unhappy Traveller upon a free Horse,

" who,