Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1832-09-01
ALEXANDRIA GAZETTE,
Ii E r A r Y.
T From the National Gazette

From the National Gazette.
| We received and read, last week, the number
of the London Quarterly Review. for jelly. II
contains some able scientific and political arti
cles. The literary are not Of the best descrip.
housekeeping perhaps tbs frst--on the new
volumes of Diderot's correspondence and works.
The career aud character of that writer are ,rac
ed and criticised with sound sense and consider
able effect. The article on American Ornitholo-
sy is learned and curious, but very ambitious in
the style. A full tribute of honor is paid to the
labours of Wilson and Audubon. The review
er takes care to tell that he is not sure that eli.
Their Of those Orntholgiss was native Of Ame-
rica Audubon is Of Louisiana by BIRTH The
Charles Lucien Bonaparte in the opinion that
our worthy fellow citizen, Mr.. A Lawson, is
the first pathological ensraver of our age''-
NJ. Bonaparte is high authority, and the review
or assigns no reason for his dissent, unless it be
conveyed in his intimation that Me- Lawson en-
graves "too laboriously," and is guilty of a
''hish and minutely finished filling up of the
plates" 1t appears that there is no region out
OF Europe, OF which SO ample and correct an or
astrological knowledge has been obtained, as Of
the United States. At the emil Of the article on
Todd's Life Of Cranmer, there is an elaborate
plea for the Established Church of England,
against which, says the reviewer-Iniidcls, Ca.
tholics, Dissentcrs, Wigs Radicals, are all com
bined. In the article on Mrs. Somerville's NE.
chanisns of the Heavens, we find the subjoined
acknowledgment of the merits OF DR.. Bowditch's
translation of Laplace's Mecanique Celeste.
1--WE must not stop without saying something
of Mr.. Bowditch's performance; though what we
do say must be short. The idea of undertaking
translation of the whole 'Mecanique Celesye,'
accompanied throughout with cOpIous running
commentary, is one which savours, at first sight
of the sigantesque, and Us certainly one which,
from what we had hitherto had reason to conceive
Of the popularity and diffusion OF mathematical
knowledge on the opposite shoress of the AtIan-
tic, we should never expected to have found orr.
ginated-or, at least, carried into execution, in
that quarter. The first volume only has as yet
reached US; and when we consider the great diff
ticu!ty Of printing works of this nature, TO say
nothing of the heavy and probably unremnnerat-
ed expense, we are not surprised at tie delay Of
the second.
Meanwhile the part actually completed (which
contains the first two books of Laplace's work.
is, with few and slight exceptions, just what we
could have wished to see-an exact and careful
translation into very good ENTHUSIASTICALLY
we'll printed, and accompanied with notes ap.
pended to each page, which leave no step in the
text of moment unsupped. and hardly any ma
terial difficulty either Ut conception or reasoning
unelucidated. To the studentof Celestial Me-
chanisn' such work must be Invaluable, and we
sincerely hope that the success of this volume,
which seems thrown out to try the feeling OF the
public. bath American and British, will be such
as to induce the speedy appearance Of the sequel.
Should this unfortunately not be the case, we
shall deeply lament that the liberal offer Of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, To
print the whole at their expense. was not accept
ed. BE that as II may, II is impossible to re.
gard the appearance Of such work, even in its
present Incomplete state, as otherwise than high
ly creditable to American sciencc, aud as the
harbinser Of future achievements in the lof,iest
fields of intellectual prowess. Here at least, is
an arena on which we may contend With an en-
uatou unembittered by rivalry. .Whateves,'
says Delambre, be the state of political rela-
tons, the sciences ought to form. among those
who cultivate them, republic essentially at
peace within itself,'-a sentiment applicable,
doubtless. 10 all, hut pre- eminently SO to that
calm, dspassionate pursuit Of truth which forms
the very essence OF the abstract Sciences"
The secoad volume is more splendid trophy
than the first. 1t lis not to be apprehended that
Dr. Buwdltch will even hesitate about printing
the sequel. This great monument will be Who'll
ly raised by himself.
TFfon, The Philadelphia Gazette ]
The celahratsh Prnfassnr WILSON well known