given a new explanation of an ancient fable in an interesting drama In the first act, the scene is in the bark in which Deucalion saved Pyrrha from the flood. It concludes with their landing on the mountains of Thes. saly. In the second, Pyrrha, notwithstanding her gratitude and love for Deucalion, refuses to marry him, till they have prepared land sufficient to insure subsisten e to their off-spring. This land, like all the other primitive valleys, is covered with pebbles rolled over them by the waves; and thus, by casting the stones behind them, they repeopled the world. Mons. Levesque has treated on the manners and customs of the Athenians in a long paper, of which we shall give an abstract in a future number. Among the names that the ancient Greeks have handed down to the exe. cration of posterity, Phalaris, the ty, rant of Agrigentum, and Apollodorus, the tyrant of Cassandrea, in Mace. donia, are frequently coupled toge ther, by those who would adduce ex, amples of incredible barbarity. But the time when the former lived is uncertain; and that of the latter, though much less ancient, is little better known. As Polyenus relates, that this tyrant usurped the authority after Eurydice had restored the Cassandrians to their liberty; the first ques, tion that arises is, Who was this Eurydice? Mons. Clavier enters into a learned disquisition to show, that she was the wife of Ptolemy, son of Lagos; and that the usurpation of Apollodorus must have taken place soon after the year 280, B.C. Mons. Mongez has continued his inquiries concerning the dress of the ancients. In an account of the antiquities of Lyons, it is said, there is a cistern a hundred feet long, and fifteen feet high, which is still red with the tartar of the wine that was kept in it. On being analysed by Mons. Darcet however, it appeared, that no tartar was present; and that the red colour was owing to a mixture of broken pottery in the mortar. In making this mortar, a considerable portion of oily matter had been used. Mons. Petit-Radel has pursued his investigation of the ancient history of Spain, in four papers, in which he has traced the migrations of the Iberians, and the characters that distinguish the Celtic from the Iberian cities. An inquiry concerning the armorial bearings proper for the city of Paris, has led the same gentleman to derive both the name of Parisi, and the symbol of the ship, which has occupied the principal place in its arms since the thirteenth century, from Isis, whose worship had found its way into some of the northern countries before the Roman arms. This he would have revived with a motto from Lucan, Tuam recepimus Isim.' Homer's shield of Achilles has furnished M. Quatremere de Quincy with a subject of discussion, which he furnishes with a new attempt to represent the poet's ideas in an engraving, In another paper he has examined the use the ancients made of gold in their works of art. He observes, that we must not estimate either the value or abundance of gold in ancient times by the present state of things. Gold was naturally the first metal that presented itself to mankind, and the ea siest wrought. Hence solid statues of it at a time, when the art of the founder was in its infancy. But those subsequently formed with a core of another metal were still called solid; and others were made of hammered gold, gold laid in plates on a model, or of some other metal simply gilt. Mons. Sylvestre de Sacy, in his memoirs on various antiquities of Per Bia, published in 1792, from the in- rope. Thus sixteen centuries have scriptions on two monuments near Kirmauschah, on the mountain BeeSutoon, supposed the figures to represent Sapor II. and his son Bahram. Having since a most perfect and accurate copy of the inscriptions, taken by the Venetian traveller Bembo in 1674, he finds, they are Sapor II, and his son and immediate successor Sapor III. A Greek inscription on another part of the mountain, copied by the same traveller, mentions one Gotarzes, whom Mcns. de S. conjectures to be the king of Parthia spoken of by Tacitus. In the same paper he endeavours to explain the subjects and inscriptions of varions engraved gems of the Sassanides. Mons. Lanjuinais, who has been engaged several years in the study of the languages, literature, religion and philosophy of India, has formed the plan of a series of papers on these subjects, part of the first of which he has read to the class. He means to confine himself to India, within the Ganges and the island of Ceylon,, In an essay on the periods of the civilization of nations, Mons Tou longeon has proposed to lay down principles, from which the remotest antiquity of any nation may be reduc ed. Mons. T. first sets out with two axioms. 1st, all societies, that are still in the savage state, that is, without property in land, and without native distinctions, are newly formed, and in the first stage of civilization. 2d, Those that are in the state of barbarism are the oldest, since they have passed through an improved state of civilization to that degeneracy which has rendered them barbarous. Proceeding to the application, he takes the Belge for an example.... These in the time of Cæsar were savages living on fish and pulse; and consequently in the first stage of civilization. For near two centuries they have been one of the most civilized nations in Eu The been sufficient to enable this people to pass from the lowest to the highest stage of civilization; a period which we may assume, therefore, to be suffici. ent for this purpose. If this period be applied to the Egyptians, Greeks, Hebrews, Latins, it answers equally well; and if it be necessary to allow the Chinese three or four centuries more, we may ascribe it to the natural slowness of these people. result is nearly the same, if we apply the calculation to the Russians, English, Poles, Italians, and various nations of Germany. The state of the land too is another indication of that of its inhabitants; and a soil become bar. ren and desert denotes a land where the abode of man is at an end. is the interior of Africa; such the de serts that surround the once magnifi cent Palmyra; and such would be the site of Paris, were it to remain un inhabited for half a century. Such Mons. Levesque has communicated to the class part of an extensive work on a country, that had long been a prey to an incurable anarchy, and in our own days has had its very name blotted out by powers styling them selves its friends. To maintain that anarchy was the object of men who resided in its capital under the sacred title of ambassadors, and the French were not the least industrous in pro moting it. Their refinement in this crooked policy went so far, that Mons. de Choiseul, who was not destitute of greatness of mind, in his instruc tions to Mons. de Paulmy, distinguish ed for his probity and intellect, enjoins him, while he foments anarchy among the Poles, to prevent a confederation, or decided civil war, lest the evil attendant on this, should open their eyes, and ultimately produce a general union, by which the govern ment would be consolidated. Whatever difference there may be in the constitutions of countries, their misfortunes will be nearly similar, when anarchy, the enemy of all constitutions, prevails. The miseries of France were never so great as toward the close of the reign of Charles VI. Two of his sons, whom he had nam ed regents in succession after insanity had disqualified him for holding the reins of goverment, were taken off and a barbarous mother, the execrable Izabella of Bavaria, brought fresh misfortunes on her husband and her son, who at length succeeded to the throne as Charles VII. by procuring a revocation of the powers delegated to this son, and causing herself to be declared regent in his stead. AssoAssociating herself with the Duke of Burgundy, the assassin of the Duke of Orleans whom she had loved, they made themselves masters of the King's person; dissolved the parliament, and composed another of their own creatures; left the capital at the mercy of the Burgundian soldiery; and placed the whole kingdom in a state of anarchy, while its enemies the English were in the midst of it with an, invading army. Some of the obscu rities of this part of French history Mons. Boissy d'Anglas has endeavoured to clear up, correcting the mistakes of Voltaire, du Haillan, Mé zeray, the Count de Boulainvilliers, and others. Mons. Gregoire, long known to the world for his exertions in behalf of the Negroes and of the Jews, has endeavoured to investigate the origin of certain prejudices existing in different parts of France, against particular descriptions of people. These prejudices have declined greatly since the middle of the last century, though they are not quite obliterated in the remoter districts, as those against the Cagots in the vicinity of the Pyrenees. The ancestors of these persons are supposed to have been set apart and shunned as lepers; but, if so, the disorder appears to have worn itself out. The same gentleman has given an account of an ancient bell, of an extraordinary shape, from the convent of Bobbio, in Piedmont. It is about three feet in diameter, and spherical : one hemisphere being complete; the other formed of ten branches, each tapering to a point. Its sound is much louder than that of a common bell of the same weight. Nothing is said of its thickness. A small por tion of the ear was analysed by Mons. Vauquelin, and found to consist of copper 76 parts, tin 20, lead 4. Be fore it had been analysed, Messrs. Molard and Montgolfier cast four •ther bells of the same shape, but of different compositions. That which came nearest to it in sound, consisted of equal parts of copper, brass, and tin. The result of their trials was sufficient to lead to expectations of considerable improvement in bells. The prize for the question on the civil and political state of the nations of Italy under the Goths, was awarded to Prof. G. Sartorius, of Goettingen. As the class regretted it had not a second prize to bestow, the minister sent it 1000 franks(41 13s. 4d.), which were conferred on Mons. J. Naudet, Prof. at the Napoleon Lyceum. The prize for the critical examination of the historians of Alexis Cominenus was divid ed berween Prof. F. Wilken, of Heidelberg, and Mons. le Prévost d'tray, inspector general of the imperial university. The following is the prize question for 1812. What was the state of French poetry in the 12th and 13th centuries? and what kinds of poetry were most cultivated? titors are particularly desired to examine the works of the French poets properly so called, or trouvères who are much less known than the trou The compe badours. The papers to be sent before the 1st of April. REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE THE class, in concert with that of the physical and mathematical sciences, has carefully examined a new piano forte, invented by Messrs. Erard. The necessity of giving a greater power to the tones of this instrument has induced the makers to recur to the triangular form of the harpsichord, and the brothers Erard have lately added considerable improvements, which have produced greater strength in the mechanism, more facility of execution, and great advantages in the harmony. The alteration is in the parts be tween the keys and the strings. The lever of the key is divided into two, one of which acts upon the other. The second lever raises the jack by means of a kind of continued lever, formed of two inverted stirrups very near together, which succeed each other alternately, so that before the first ceases to exert a uniform action, by its falling down, the second acts. This instrument comprises six octaves, and all its tones are very fine and sonorous, from the highest to the lowest. Mons. Ponce read an essay on the perfection of the painting of the ancients compared with that of their sculpture. In this he endeavours to show, that the ancient painters were far inferior to the moderns, The correspondence on the remains of Cyclopean structures, according to the system of Mons. Petit-Radel, has been extensive. Mons. Dodwell, a learned English architect, and Mous. Middleton, an Ame rican amateur of antiquities, have communicated some very beautiful drawings of the ruins of Norba, on an eminence overlooking the Pontine marshes. They are still in the state to which they were reduced by the despair of the inhabitants, avoid falling into the hands of Sylla, when they slew each other to by whom they were besieged. Drawings of the walls of Aletrium, Signia, and Ferentinum also were seut by the same gentlemen, and Messrs. Von Rennenkampff of Livonia. They were all originally Cyclopean structures, formed of blocks of marble from the Apenuines. On the walls of Aletrium, phallic subjects are sculptured in relief, so that they must have been coeval with the walls. They were probably connected with the worship of Hermes, who was adored under the same symbol at Elis; whence were derived the Pelasgic colonies, who occupied this part of Italy in the remotest times. The rude state of the art in Greece, in its earliest periods, is observable in the two mutilated basso relievoes, probably intended to represent either Mars or Hermes. The walls of Signia and Ferentinum. are composed in the upper part of square stones; and those of the former are of volcanic tufa, perfectly resembling that of which the works of the kings at Rome are constructed. Apparently therefore they were restored by Titus, the son of Tarquin, who is mentioned by Roman authors as the founder of the city. Mons. Dodwell has also sent drawings of various Cyclopean structures, which he discovered in that part of the country of the Sabines nearest Tivoli. Mons. Simelli, an architect resid. ing at Rome, and by birth a Sabine, has sent an account of a tour he made in his native country, with the Trojan war, though it was but little known to the Hellenes in the time of Strabo. Thanks to Mr. Dodwell our information respecting Greece has not been defective, as he has answered our questions from Rome, while all the letters of Mons. Fauvel miscarried. The drawings and descriptions of Mons. D. have shown, that there were two varieties of the Cyclopean structure in the walls of Lycosuræ, the most ancient city of Arcadia, one posterior to the other: and there too are other walls, ap plans and elevations of nine ruins of Cyclopean structures. They appear to be in the place which Dionysius of Halicarnassus assigns to the ruins of Tiora, and a sacred enclosure, in which the aborigines consulted oracles similar to those of Dodona. Eastward from Amiternun are two walls of similar structure, built on steep rocks, running along the mountains, separated only by a torrent. They appear to have been the boun. daries of the Sabines and Vestins, which is confirmed by a Latin inscription on one of them. Baron Degerando has sent a draw-parently belonging to a time when ing of part of the walls of Spoleto, in Umbria, consisting of Roman squared stones, on a Cyclopean a Cyclopean foundation. The names of the magistrates, by whose orders the repairs were done, are mentioned in an inscription. The questions proposed by the class, having come to the hands of the officers in the army of Spain, excited the attention of the former pupils of the Polytechnic school in particular. One of them, M. Brianchon, lieutenant of artillery, has sent some observations on three kinds of building, found in the walls of Toledo. The foot of the wall appears to be of Cyclopean structure; on this are squared stones; and the top is of brick. Mons. de Marty, a learned Spaniard, and Mons. de Laborde, had noticed three similar structures in the walls of Tarragona, where we find the work of the Romans placed on that of the ancient Spaniards. It may be remarked, that Livy, speaking of the walls of Saguntum, distinguishes by the name of camenta the irregular figure of the block of a structure, that he ascribes to very remote times. It is mh to be wished, that these inquiries should be pursued in Spain, a country which was known to the Pelasgians of Zasynthus two hundred years before this structure was no longer in use. This learned traveller has also ad ded to the list of Cyclopean remains already known to us, the ramparts of the citadels of Elatea, Ithaca, Amphissa, Leucas, and Strymphalus. He like wise mentions eighteen cities of the Peloponnessus, in the ruins of which he observed only the square blocks of the second age of Grecian antiqui ties. Mons. Allier had long ago communicated to us a drawing of a Cy clopean ruin at Delos: and Mons. Fourcade, cominissary general at Sinope, has sent us some observarions made in the neighbouring islands. In a plain on a mountain in Crete, the site of the ancient citadel of Cydonia, he remarked large ruins, which he supposes to be Cyclopean. This is very probable, when we consider the reinote period at which the Telchini settled in Crete, and that of their return to Baotia,.where according to Pausanias, they built cities: for the best critics agree, that the Telchini and the Cyclopeans were the same. Mons. F. has observed the Cyclopean construction also in the walls of the ancient Cythero in the island of Cyprus, of the citadel, and of the temple of the ancient Phenician Venus. They were surmounted with other ruins, |