child, born at eight months, usually dies soon after, while one born at seven months often lives. The truth of this, indeed, has been questioned: there is, however, no doubt of it, and Hippocrates gives the reason of this curious fact. He says, that, at seven months, the formation of the infant being perfected, it makes its first effort to come into the world. If it succeeds, it is not so strong as it would have been at nine months; but being perfected in its formation, it often lives. If, however, the infant fails in that first effort to come into the world, it is so weakened, that if it make a second at eight months, and is born, it generally dies soon after, not having had time to recover strength after the first effort; whereas, at nine months, it has had time to regain sufficient strength to sustain the second effort to come into the world.

129. PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT.

There is much reason to suppose, that the Jews were employed by the Kings of Egypt to erect the Pyramids, and execute other public works, such as digging canals,

raising dykes, and building cities. Josephus, lib. xi. chap. 5, says Пugauídas dè ἀνοικοδομέντες ἐξέ τρυχον ἡμῶν το γένος. Manethon says, in his History of Egypt, that the Jews worked in the quarries. All the ancient historians agree in stating, that the Kings of Egypt employed their slaves in building cities and raising public monuments. Among other things, in which Sesostris prided himself, was, that he had not employed the natives of the country in such works; and he made this circumstance the subject of inscriptions which he placed on these monuments : δείς εΓχώριος εἰς αυτά euoxonxe. Pliny, lib. 36. ch. 12., says, the Kings of Egypt made the people work at the Pyramids, to employ them; and Aristotle, lib. v. ch. 11., says, the poor, or more probably slaves, among whom were the Jews.

130. THE ISLAND ATLANDTIDUS.

We are not to consider all that Plato has said of that Island, in his Timeus, Critias, and other dialogues, as a philosophic fiction. It is sufficient, to give it a character of

more reality, to observe, that Phenician or Carthaginian ships, after being carried by contrary winds on the coast of America, might have the good fortune to return, and lay the foundations of an opinion, that there existed a large island or continent as extensive as the old world; or we may admit another idea of Plato in the Timeus, justified in our days, by the discovery of the Russians, that to the north east of Asia there are islands, from which the western coasts of America may be descried, and which open a communication between the two continents. As to the communication by the western ocean, it might have been facilitated by the Azores; and it appears, even, that before Christopher Columbus had formed the project of the discovery of America, he had visited these islands, where he had seen the manuscripts of an old pilot of one of them, from which it appeared that he had been in America; and in the library of St. Mark, at Venice, there is a map of the world of the fourteenth century, in which America is indicated, although in a very imperfect manner.

There is even much

reason to think, that some mariners had penetrated to the isthmus of Panama; otherwise, how could Plato have imagined, that in the grand island or continent, there was an isthmus which united the two parts, as, he says, the isthmus of Suez joins Africa and Asia. It is the same persuasion which makes Seneca say, in his Medeá, that the time will come, when a new world will be discovered, and the island of Thule (Iceland) shall no longer be the last of the old world.

131. RESULT OF THE GLOBULAR FORM of THE EARTH.

From this form it results that a man at the top of a mast of a vessel, sailing round the world, will travel more leagues than one on the deck, because he describes a larger circle in like manner, a man's head travels further than his feet during the same journey. From the same cause it results, that a vessel full of water in a valley, being carried to the top of a mountain, will overflow its edges without being less full, because in being more and more elevated, the water

will be gradually pressed by a larger superficies of the atmosphere: whence it follows, that the same vessel will contain more water at the foot of a mountain than at the top, and more in a cellar than in a garret. Another result of the globular form of the earth is, that two threads in the air, with each a weight, at a great elevation, will not be parallel to each other, but will make two inclinations, tending each toward the centre of the earth.

132. OF WIT AMONG THE GERMANS.

Dupuy, who published the Perroniana, was the first who advanced the proposition so offensive to the Germans, that wit is very rare with them, and which has so greatly prejudiced them against French writers. In page 163 of the Perroniana, edit. of Daillé, Amsterdam, 1669, he says, "Gretserus is much to be admired; he has "much wit, for a German.'

133. INFIDELS INVITED TO BELIEVE, Infidels say, the being of a God cannot be demonstrated. It is certain, however,