into the difpenfation of Heaven, in producing those great revolutions which his wisdom may fee fit to bring about; but to reft fatisfied that they will take place in their proper time.

When, therefore, the Apoftle ufes the like phrafe, probably, as in the cafe of our Lord, in answer to fome query put to him, it is not likely that he should vary the established meaning of it, by referring it to the general refurrection, but applied it to that period when the Jewish conftitution was to be abolished, and Jerufalem laid in ruins; efpecially if it is confidered that this period was then very near at hand.'

But while we give full credit to Mr. Nißbett for his ability, we own that he has not brought conviction to our minds. The boldness of eastern metaphor is not applicable to the fober style of epistolary inftruction; and the deftruction of a city is too obfcurely pointed out, by the coming of the Lord. We confefs, that we fhould rather look for a folytion of the difficulties in the different interpretation of the term generation; and we cannot think it inconfiftent with the Apostle's charac. ters, to warn their converts to avoid evil, by the uncertain period of the duration of the world, or to urge them to perfift in the faith, fince their time of trial might not be long.But we must take another opportunity of explaining our opinions on this fubject.

The Man of Sin, Mr. Nifbett fuppofes to be fame impoftor of that time, and not to allude to the reputed fucceffors of St. Peter. The remarks on Dr. M'Knight's translation are not important: that author agrees with Mr. Nisbett in his interpretation of fome paffages; but others, he fuppofes, really allude to the last day.

FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

S it is fome time fince we refumed fubjects of Natural Phi

Alofophy and Hiftory, the materials, in this department,

have accumulated; but, if a little difadvantage arifes from the latenefs of fome part of our information, it will be more than compenfated by our being enabled to communicate it in a more connected order. Indeed, though we mention our latenefs, it is a comparative term only: for we fall only ftep back a few months, except in fome controverted fubjects, while, in the ufual courfe, it would have been ftyled early information, fome years hence,

Our readers are acquainted with the fplendid work of Meff, Marivetz and Gouffier, entitled Phyfique du Monde. We have mentioned the fucceffive publication of different parts of the fifth volume. The third part appeared very lately, and contains

E 4

their

their theory of fire, which, we are forry to obferve, is, in many refpects, exceptionable. They think, that the æther, or the æthereal fluid, is the fole matter of fire; but that it produces heat only, when put in motion by the parts of bodies. We have found,' fay they, that the ftate of bodies, when they are styled hot, depends on the inteftine motion of their parts; and this motion can only be attributed to the action of a fluid, which pervades and agitares the finalleft particles. Fire, which cannot then be the principle and caufe of its motion, must be its confequence and neceffary effect. We could not, therefore, till this time, form any idea of fire, if we would confider it as a diftinct body, except as a body whofe effects are perceived by its being exerted to action in confequence of friction, and the intenfity of whofe motion increases in proportion to the folidity of the body employed, and the force as well as the velocity of the frictions. This is the Newtonian fyftem, which Newton doubted of, and which the chemistry of modern times has destroyed. The authors fupport it by numerous arguments, and attack their antagonists with much fpirit, though without fuccefs.-The system is oppofed even in their own country; and in a late publiçation of M, Reynier, on Fire, and fume of its principal effects,' a very different opinion is maintained. All bodies,' fays our author, contain fire, not as a fluid pervading them, but as a conflituent part, and of courfe this portion of their substance cannot be accumulated without changing their forms. It is dilatable, and can change its dimenfions, and, in its different motions, tends to reftore an equilibrium, in which it equally preffes, and is preffed on.' This fyftem very much resembles M. de Luc's, which we shall examine at fome length, in our next Number. M. Reynier, however, differs from him, in attributing all the operations of this fluid to its alternate dilatations and compreffions. Heat, for inftance, is only fire, dilated by. any caufe; and this principle is, in the work before us, extended fo as to explain many of the phænomena of nature.

6

M. Reynier is not very fuccefsful in other branches of his philofophy. He has been long the antagonist of the systems of Bonnet and Spalanzani; and, in different effays, has attempted to fhew that organized beings may be reproduced from fœcun. dated feeds, without the concourfe of the fexes, and that these beings may be formed by the fimple aggregation of organized matter. We now mention him, because he has very lately returned to the charge, and, in a very elaborate memoir, added different arguments and facts in fupport of his last pofition.

The facts which afford him the best affistance, in this last menoir, are the phænomena of the vegetable fly from the .nushroom of moffes. There is a kind of mushroom, the Clavária Milita

We ufe the terms Moffes for moffy grounds. Solway mofs, and other fimilar grounds, have the fame denomination.

ris of Linnæus, (Syft. Natur. Ed. Vindob. 725.) which grows only on the head of a dead infect, in the nympha ftate. The phænomenon was firft obferved in the Caribbee iflands, and a proper account of it, with a judicious explanation, was given by Dr. Watson, and fir John Hill; but the kind of mushroom was, in those climates, a different one, The vegetating fly of Europe was defcribed in a letter from M. Muller to M. Buckner, inferted in many literary journals. M. Reynier defcribes this beautiful faffron-coloured mushroom very particularly, and infits that it always grows on infects, from which botanists tear it rudely, and without either examination or reflection. He has discovered many new forts of this plant; and thinks not only that they grow on organized beings, but that their form is the con fequence of the matters that produced them. This curious opinion is to be the fubject of a fubfequent memoir.

Having found two plants of this kind laft autumn, he began to examine them, and diftinctly faw, that each plant penetrated the hairy fhell and the chryfalis, and burst these coverings in confequence of its expanfion, at the fame time. If we admit that every body proceeds from a germ, in this cafe we must fuppofe, fays he, that the germ had penetrated the fhell and the chryfalis, or had been taken into the infect's ftomach, and paffed with its fluid into that organ, previous to its metamorphofis. The first pofition, he thinks, falls of courfe; and the fecond, he endeavours to fhew, is equally without foundation, as the action of the ftomach, the great folvent powers of the gastric juices, muft deftroy the principle of life. The question is thus reduced to an abfurdity; but the abfurdity may, perhaps, be retorted. The facts are not well established: many botanists have found this mushroom on peat. De Lat found it on the furface of the cranium of a living bee; and Bruyfet has made a fimilar obfervation. In America, it has indeed been found arifing from the internal parts of the exuviæ, but of exuviæ fo decayed, as to be permeable in many parts to the air; and thofe who have contemplated the fimple arrangement of the ftomach, and circulating fyftem of infects, will fmile at the folvent powers of the gaftric juice, and the action of the organ which contains it. Our author, however, goes on: he fhews how an infect must produce a vegetable, because the matter of vegetables and animals differ only in the former containing lefs fire than the latter; and the infect muft lofe much of its fire by putrefaction. We must, therefore, wonder that every dead Daphne is not changed into a laurel; or that yews, in our church-yards, are not as common as graves. The whole theory, of which our readers will probably wif for no farther fpecimen, is an elaborate explanation of Buffon's fyftem of organized matter, where much ufe is made of the internal mould, and the meshes of M. Bonnet.

M. Reynier has not efcaped without oppofition, nor has he remained filent to his antagonist M. Millin de Grandmaifon,

of

of the academy of Orleans, we have yet feen no reply; but to another antagonist, on a collateral branch of a difpute on the fame principles, he has addreffed fome remarks.--We must take this matter up a little higher. The fame author published a memoir on the marchantia polymorpha *, (L. Sp. Plant. 1603) in which he endeavours to fhow, that this kind of mofs is reproduced from the cups, without the intervention of any impregnating farina from male flowers, fince the cups were early and carefully feparated from the parent, and every other plant. He did not long enjoy this partial triumph. The abbé P. an ecclefiaftic of fome rank, foon reproved him for his hafty conclufion, and for not reflecting that, in the inftance he mentioned, the propagation was rather by means of a flip than by feed; that, from having examined one part only, he could not decide on the nature of other parts, which might be sexual; and that at belt, if the fact contended for was really true of the mar chantia, it would not greatly affect the general question, efpecially as the feeds of many cryptogamic plants had already been difcovered. To thefe obfervations M. Reynier has just replied; but his great argument is directed against the general analogy of the propagation of plants, and his beft fupport of this argument is the experiments of Spalanzani, which we have examined in our review of the tranflation of his two volumes. In the interval, between the reply and the rejoinder, a very fenfible letter, addreffed to M. de la Metherie, appeared in the Journal de Phyque, in which this question is greatly elucidated. We fhall only attend to thofe parts of it which relate to the prefent difpute. Schmiedel, the author obferves, to whom we are indebted for an excellent work, entitled, Icones Plantarum et Analyfes Partium, publifhed indifferent portions, at Norimberg, from the year 1747 to 1782, in folio, has explained the different organs of this fpecies of marchantia, which are fubfervient to its increase. The one is the little cup, which Reynier obferved; and it contains minute globules, by no means fexual, which M. Schmiedel calls granula vivipara. The cups are in fact flips or fucke:s, as Reynier himself has fuggefted; and this able author has erred only in fuppofing them the only modes of propagation, for the marchantia has, befides thefe flips, male and female organs. They have both a fimilar appearance, that of an umbrella, or a head, on a-foot-ftalk. The borders of the heads of the male flowers are only waved, and thofe of the female divided into eight or ten rays. The former, examined with a good microfcope, are porous; and these pores lead to fmall oval cavities, which the author calls polliniferous follicles, or the true antheræ. Under the rays of the latter is a little range of germs, by age changed into capfules, which, in

The trivial name polymorpha arifes from its heads, at different times, affuming different forms; by which means botanifts of credit have improperly multiplied the fpecies of the marchantia.

fead

ftead of being free, as in other genera of moffes, are divided by a membrane which fhelters them. This defcription is confirmed in every effential respect, by M. Hedwig; and, in his work, entitled Theoria Generationis & Fructificationis Plantarum Cryp togamicarum, a very excellent differtation, which obtained the prize from the academy at Petersburg, for the year 1783, it is illuftrated by fplendid and accurate plates. Many other parts of the fructification are also described and delineated; but we could enlarge only on what was most effential to our prefent enquiry. Indeed we should have long fince reviewed the whole work, if the neceffity of conftantly referring to the plates had not prevented us. We may add, however, to the other obfervations, that M. Hedwig not only discovered the feeds, but fowed them : -they produced plants, and figures are given of their appearance on their first expanfion.

We have, in this detail, given the origin, and we fufpect the termination, of this attack on the fyftem of Bonnet, by a difciple of Buffon; an attack and a difpute, in themfelves of no great importance; but which have led to facts and obfervations both new and curious, inftructive and important.

Though we may anticipate our account of a future volume of the Memoirs of the Society of Agriculture, yet M. Bernard's remarks are too nearly connected with our prefent fubject, to be omitted. They relate to the fig-tree, and the very fingular operation named caprification. It was found that figs ripened imperfectly, and that their feeds were not fruitful, if a branch of the wild fig (caprificus) was not fufpended over the tree. As the wild fig contained infects, it was fuppofed that these insects penetrated the fruit of the tree to which they were brought, and gave a more free admiffion to the air, and to the fun. Linnæus explained the operation, by fuppofing that the infects brought the farina from the wild fig, which contained male flowers only, to the domestic fig, which contained the female ones. From what Haffelquist faw, in Paleftine, he feemed to doubt of this mode of fructification, and M. Bernard oppofes it more decidedly. He could never find the infect in the cultivated fig; and, in reality, it appeared to leave the wild fig, after the ftamina were mature, and their pollen diffipated: befides, he adds, what they may have brought on their wings must be rubbed away, in the little aperture, which they would form for themfelves. At Malta, where there are feven or eight varieties of the domeftic fig, this operation is only performed on thefe which ripen latest: the former are of a proper fize, fine flavour, and in great abundance, without it; fothat he thinks the caprification only hallens the ripening. But it probably does more: we muft, however, follow M. Bernard.

He examined the parts of fructification of the fig; and he obferves, if this examination be made previous to the ripening, that round the eye of the fig, and in the fubftance of its covering, may be feen triangular dentated leaves, preffed one against

another;