Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

in the diftribution, the order, and the guard, of the encampment, the rudiments of the military art. As foon as the forage of a certain diftrict is confumed, the tribe, or rather army, of fhepherds, makes a regular march to fome fresh paftures; and thus acquires, in the ordinary occupations of the paftoral life, the practical knowledge of one of the most important and difficult operations of war. The choice of ftations is regulated by the difference of the feafons: in the fummer, the Tartars advance towards the North, and pitch their tents on the banks of a river, or, at least, in the neighbourhood of a running ftream. But in the winter they return to the South, and fhelter their camp, behind fome convenient eminence, against the winds, which are chilled in their paffage over the bleak and icy regions of Siberia. Thefe manners are admirably adapted to diffufe, among the wandering tribes, the fpirit of emigration and conqueft. The connection between the people and their territory is of fo frail a texture, that it may be broken by the flighteft accident. The camp, and not the foil, is the native country of the genuine Tartar. Within the precincts of that camp, his family, his companions, his property are always included; and, in the most diftant marches, he is ftill furrounded by the objects which are dear, or valuable, or familiar in his eyes. The thirst of rapine, the fear, or the refentment of injury, the impatience of fervitude, have, in every age, been fufficient caufes to urge the tribes of Scythia boldly to advance into fome unknown countries, where they might hope to find a more plentiful fubfiftence, or a lefs formidable enemy. The revolutions of the North have frequently determined the fate of the South; and in the conflict of hostile nations, the victor and the vanquished have alternately drove, and been driven, from the confines of China to thofe of Germany. Thefe great emigrations, which have been fometimes executed with almoft incredible diligence, were rendered more eafy by the peculiar nature of the climate. It is well known, that the cold of Tartary is much more fevere than in the midst of the temperate zone might reafonably be expected: this uncommon rigour is attributed to the height of the plains, which rife, especially towards the Eaft, more than half a mile above the level of the fea; and to the quantity of falt-petre, with which the foil is deeply impregnated. In the winter-feafon, the broad and rapid rivers, that difcharge their waters into the Euxine, the Cafpian, or the icy Sea, are ftrongly frozen; the fields are covered with a bed of fnow; and the fugitive, or victorious, tribes may fecurely traverfe, with their families, their waggons, and their cattle, the fmooth and hard furface of an immenfe plain.

II. The paftoral life, compared with the labours of agriculture and manufactures, is undoubtedly a life of idlenefs; and as the most honourable fhepherds of the Tartar race devolve on their captives the domeftic management of the cattle, their own leifure is feldom disturbed by any servile and affiduous cares. But this leifure, inftead of being devoted to the foft enjoyments of love and harmony, is ufefully fpent in the violent and fanguinary exercife of the chace. The plains of Tartary are filled with a strong and ferviceable breed of horses, which are easily trained for the purposes of war and hunting. The Scythians of every age have been celebrated as bold

Gg 2

ar

and fkilful riders: and conftant practice had feated them fo firmly on horseback, that they were fuppofed by ftrangers to perform the ordinary duties of civil life, to eat, to drink, and even to fleep, without difmounting from their fteeds. They excel in the dexterous management of the lance; the long Tartar bow is drawn with a nervous arm; and the weighty arrow is directed to its object with unerring aim and irresistible force. Thefe arrows are often pointed against the harmless animals of the defert, which increafe and multiply in the abfence of their most formidable enemy; the hare, the goat, the roebuck, the fallow-deer, the ftag, the elk, and the antelope. The vigour and patience both of the men and horfes are continually exercised by the fatigues of the chace; and the plentiful supply of game contributes to the fubfiftence, and even luxury, of a Tartar camp. But the exploits of the hunters of Scythia are not confined to the deftruction of timid or innoxious beasts; they boldly encounter the angry wild boar, when he turns against his purfuers, excite the fluggish courage of the bear, and provoke the fury of the tyger, as he flumbers in the thicket. Where there is danger there may be glory: and the mode of hunting, which opens the fairest field to the exertions of valour, may juftly be confidered as the image, and as the fchool, of war. The general huntingmatches, the pride and delight of the Tartar princes, compofe an inftructive exercife for their numerous cavalry. A circle is drawn, of many miles in circumference, to encompass the game of an extenfive district; and the troops that form the circle regularly advance towards a common centre; where the captive animals, furrounded on every fide, are abandoned to the darts of the hunters. In this march, which frequently continues many days, the cavalry are obliged to climb the hills, to fwim the rivers, and to wind through the vallies, without interrupting the prescribed order of their gradual progrefs. They acquire the habit of directing their eye, and their teps, to a remote object; of preferving their intervals; of fufpending, or accelerating, their pace, according to the motions of the troops on their right and left; and of watching and repeating the fignals of their leaders. Their leaders ftudy, in this practical fchool, the most important leffon of the military art; the prompt and accurate judgment of ground, of diftance, and of time. To employ against a human enemy the fame patience and valour, the fame fkill and difcipline, is the only alteration which is required in real war; and the amufements of the chace ferve as a prelude to the conqueft of an empire.'

In the fubfequent part of this chapter, we have an account of the original feat of the Huns, their conquefts, in Scythia, their decline, and fall, the operations of the Gothic war, the battle of Hadrianople, the death of the Emperor Valens, the birth and character of Theodofius, the fettlements of the Goths in Thrace and Afia, &c.

Toward the clofe of this chapter, Mr. Gibbon expreffes his regret that he must now take leave of an accurate and faithful guide, (Ammianus Marcellinus) who terminates his useful work with the defeat and death of Valens, and that, in the study of

the reign of Theodofius, he is obliged to illuftrate the partial narrative of Zofimus, by the obfcure hints of fragments and chronicles, by the figurative ftyle of poetry or panegyric; and by the precarious affiflance of ecclefiaftical writers, who, in the heat of religious faction, are apt, we are told, to despise the profane virtues of fincerity and moderation.

[To be continued.]

FOREIGN LITERATURE.
(By our CORRESPONDENTS.)
FRAN CE

AR T. XIII.

VOYAGE Pittorefque de la Grece, Chap. VI. i. e. Travels through the different Parts of Greece, reprefented in a Series of Engravings. Large folio. No. VI. * Paris. 1780. This Number contains ten plates. It commences with the LIId, wherein is exhibited a map of Samos, accompanied with a defcription of that ifland; which retains no marks of its ancient fplendor, and is fcarcely known by its inhabitants as the country of Pythagoras. Our traveller, however, obferved there the veftiges of a temple of Juno, which are reprefented in the LIIId plate, and which are little better than a heap of ruins. The LIVth engraving gives us the dimenfions of a shattered column of that temple. In the LVth we have a view of the Ifle of Patmos, and in the following plate a view of the convent of Patmos, inhabited by eighty monks, of whom only three can read. These monks govern defpotically in the island, the fcanty produce of which would be infufficient for their fubfiftence, were it not accompanied with fupplies from their poffeffions in the neighbouring ifles, and with a fixed tribute which they receive from the Greeks, who hold in peculiar veneration the memory of St. John. The monks in queftion fwarm in Greece, and are in perpetual good understanding with the pi rates, to whofe enormous acts of cruelty and depredation they give a fanction, in return for their fhare in the plunder. Plate LVII. A View of the Infide of the Church of the Apocalypfe. It is fuftained by a grotto, which is supposed to have been the afylum of St. John; and the monks fell pieces of the rock as fpecifics against all kinds of difeafes.-Plate LVIII. Coftume, or Drefs of the Women of Patmos. It contains nothing remarkable; and we think, that the noble Author has fometimes beftowed his labour with a reprehenfible prodigality on indifferent objects.-Plate LIX. A View of the Public Place at Cos. This

For our account of the former Number, fee the 3d article in the Appendix to our fixty-fecond volume.

Gg3

ina

ifland, famous by its being the country of Hippocrates and Apelles, has at prefent fcarcely any other recommendation to the attention of the curious.-Plates LX. LXI. & LXII. exhibit plans of the City and Ports of Rhodes, and a view of the tower of St. Nicholas in that city. Our Author's hiftory of this ifland is learned and elegant, but it contains nothing that is very

new.

II. Elemens de la Geometrie Souterreine Theoretique et Practique, &c. i. e. Theoretical and Practical Elements of Subterraneous Geometry, as taught by M. KOENIG, Director of the Mines of Lower Bretany, and extracted from the Metallurgical Voyages of M. JARS, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences. 8vo. Paris. 1780. The application of the principles of ordinary geometry to the working of mines, is what the Author of this ufeful work calls fubterraneous geometry; and the rules and directions neceffary to this application are clearly and concisely pointed out in thefe elements. In the first part of this Work the Author treats of metallic loads and veins; and in the second Part he defcribes the operations of fubterraneous geometry in a masterly manner. Several of thefe operations are new, and happily conceived; and they are accompanied with plates, which exhibit various veins in a diverfity of directions, as alfo engravings of the inftruments that are to be employed in fubterraneous geometry.

III. Lettre concernant la Chaleur du Globe, demontrée par Meff. de Mairan et de Buffon, &c. i. e. A Letter concerning the Heat of our Globe, demonftrated by Meffrs. De Mairan and De Buffon, afferted by Mr. Bailli, and ftill exifting, notwithstanding the Allegations of M. R. D. L. (by which letters we fuppofe is meant M. Romé De Lifle.) By M. L. S***. Paris. 1780. Price 1 livre 10 fous.This Letter is an elaborate and ingenious treatife concerning one of the most curious objects of modern enquiry and controverfy. The hypothesis of a central fire, or a heat peculiar to the interior of the earth, that was fo ingeniously maintained by M. de Mairan, and fo romantically embellished by Meffrs. de Buffon and Bailli, has met with warm and keen opponents; and here comes a conciliatory fage, with a plan of pacification, which exhibits new points of view to the combatants, is adapted to reconcile their jarring ideas, and defigned to make them shake hands, and be friends -The theory of our Author, which is intended to form the point of union between the contending parties, is founded on experiments (for every affirmer, in our days, muft bring his vouchers, fuch as they are), and contains the following propofitions :—that the air, being a mixt, fufceptible of compofition and decompofition, is not an element;-that nevertheless it is neceffary to the action of fire, and also to the activity of the other elements;

and

and that the heat which exifts on the furface of our globe muft, be engendered in the air by the concurrence of the internal heat of the earth with that of the fun.-Our Author therefore diftinguishes the pure air (or what he calls air principle), which is beyond the reach of our knowledge and experiments, from the mixed and compounded air we breathe, which is effential to vivification and vegetation,-peculiar to our earth,-a part of its domain, a light covering, which preferves its inhabitants from the extremities of heat and cold, and a substance that is derived from its bofom, and nourished by its emanations. We refer the Reader to the Work itself for a detail of all the ad vantages that attend this new theory; the principal object of which is, to explain the rarefaction and condenfation of the air, whose various properties are here particularly confidered. His enquiry into the fource and principle of heat, which acts fuch an eminent part in the variations of this fluid, terminates in a theory that is fubtile and ingenious, and accounts plaufibly for feveral phenomena, whofe caufes have not hitherto been fufficiently known: but the great question is, Is it true? True or not, his theory comes to this,-that the folar rays, though they do not (as M. du Buffon fuppofes) produce heat by their friction against the parts of the aerial fluid, yet form combinations with certain parts of that fluid, which have an affinity to them ; and that a concentrated acid in thefe rays, uniting with the aqueous particles of the air, produces, as a primary cause, the heat, the principle of which fome have fought for in the direct influence of the fun, and others in other causes. So that, according to this theory, the folar rays, if they did not meet with the aqueous particles of the air, would arrive at the earth without warmth or energy, as they do at the tops of the mountains. The conclufions and the explications of certain phenomena, which the Author deduces from this theory, and which will certainly be read with pleasure, are fo fatisfactory, that we should be glad to fee the theory itself well established.

IV. Reflexions fur l'Etat Actuel de l'Agriculture, &c. Reflexions on the Prefent State of Agriculture; or an Expofition of the true Method of cultivating Lands to the greatest Advantage, without Manure. Paris. 8vo. 1780.This is the production of a public-fpirited member of fociety, who has applied himself early to the ftudy of agriculture, and gives us, in this inftructive Work, the refult of long obfervation and experience.

V. Hiftoire de l'Ordre Royal et Militaire de St. Louis. A Hiftory of the Royal and Military Order of St. Lewis. By M. ASPECT, Hiftoriographer of the Order. 3 Vols. 8vo. Paris. 1780.This Work is good in its kind: it contains

Gg 4

enter

« AnteriorContinuar »