tinent. It found, however, a formidable opponent in the Dictionnaire Hiftorique, profeffed to be the production of a fociety of literary men, but now known to be the work of Louis Mayeul Chaudon, a Benedictine monk. Chaudon's book paffed alfo through many editions, received various augmentations and improvements, and finished by being extended to nine volumes, crown octavo, clofely printed in columns. Of the two Dictionaries, we are inclined, on the whole, to give a decided preference to the latter; but Ladvocat's Dictionary is of fufficient merit to deserve an English tranflation, and probably is quite as extenfive as the purchasers here would in general defire. It is also alledged, that the original has now become scarce.

The tranflation was fuggefted, as Mrs. Collignon informs. us in a fhort Advertisement, by feveral gentlemen of Cambridge; and it has been printed for her at the expence of that Univerfity. These are ftrong teftimonies in favour both of the tranflator and of the work; and we fhall be very glad to make it known alfo in the metropolis, a ftep which feems hitherto to have been much neglected. No London publisher is mentioned in the title-page, nor is the book generally to be found there, even by enquiry. The following fhort account of Rollin may be given as a fpecimen of the Dictionary.

"ROLLIN (Charles) born Jan. 30, 1661, at Paris, fon of a cutler. He studied at the College du Pleffis, where he acquired the efteem of the principal, M. Gobinet, who had an uncommon regard for him, was afterwards teacher of the fecond clafs; then of rhetoric at the fame college, and fucceeded Herfan his mafter, in the rhetorical chair at the Royal College, 1688. M. Rollin was appointed rector of the Univerfity in 1694, and coadjutor in the College de Beauvais, 1708, and died September 14, 1741, aged 80. He had been admitted into the Academy of Infcriptions, 1701. His principal works are, Traité des Etudes, an excellent book, 4 vols. 12mo.; Hift. ancienne des Egyptiens, des Carthaginois, des Affyriens, &c. 13 vols. 12mo. a work univerfally approved; Hift. Romaine depuis fa foundation, &c. M. Crevier, his pupil, and profeffor of Rhetoric in the College de Beauvais, has con tinued this work from vol. 9 inclufively to vol. 16, and given the Hift. of the Emperors to Conftantine, 12 vols. 12mo. The whole has been printed in 4to.; the Tr. des Etudes, 2 vols. l'Hiftoire ancienne, 6 vols. 'Hiftoire Romaine, 8 vols. 'Hiftoire des Empereurs, 6 vols. It feems aftonishing that M. Rollin, whofe attention had been devoted to Greek and Latin from his childhood, fhould write fo well in French; but he was always careful to communicate his works before their pubdication to the Abbé d'Asfeld, and other good judges, who took pleasure in polifhing and correcting them. He fuffered fome trouble from his warin oppofition to the bull Unigenitus. M. Rollin's character Bands equally high, whether we view him as a citizen or a writer.

N

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXII. AUGUST, 1803.

He

He trained up his pupils to virtue, to the love of religion, and of their country; nor could any be better formed to inspire them with a tafte for ftudy and application. At the bottom of his portrait, which was begun by Defrochers and finifhed by Petit, are the following lines. A cet air vif et doux, à ce fage maintien, Sans peine de Rollin on reconnoit l'image, Mais, crois moi, cher Lecteur, medite fon ouvrage

Pour connoitre fon cœur, et pour former le tien.

The pofthumous works have been published."

A longer and more particular account of this author is given in Chaudon's Dictionnaire Hiflorique; but that work is altoThe gether on a larger scale than Ladvocat's here tranflated. book feems in general correctly printed, but we obferved RUINANT for RUINART in the laft volume; and Defrocher is printed above for Defrochers.

ART. XIII. An Effay, theoretical and practical, &c. By John Gunn.

IN

(Concluded from p. 55.)

the fecond Part of this Effay, Mr. G. applies thefe principles to the practice of the violoncello; and diftinguishes firft between chords of compreffed harmony, and chords of expanded or difperfed harmony. The laft are of confiderable importance in the ftudy of this inftrument. They form the chords in three ways.

I. Leading position, or common chord,
II. Medial pofition, or chord of 6th.
III. Final pofition, or chord of th.

The chord of the dominant confequently is found in four pofitions.

The fecond Chapter treats of Cadences, whence we shall make the following extracts.

§. 38. The terminations or clofes, either of a whole piece or of the fmaller portions or phrafes of which it confifts, are called cadences. A cadence confifts properly of two chords, in a certain progreffion or reiation of their fundamental baffes to each other; the preceding chord is called the leading chord, and the clofe or cadence is faid to be made on the latter.

§. 69. Thus the three notes, D, C fharp, D, are the concluding period of a melody, to which the fundamental bafs DAD is af

3

figned.

figned. This period may be analyfed into two fmaller phrafes, DC fharp, and C fharp D, whofe fundamental baffes are DA to the first, and AD to the laft. It will be evident, that the phrafe which afcends a fifth from D to A is lefs fatisfactory than that which defcends a fifth from A to D. The former, therefore, terminating on the fifth of the key, has been called, by English and French writers, an imperfect or irregular cadence; by the Italians and Germans, femi cadenza, or half cadence; and the latter, which concludes on the key, is called a regular or final cadence." P. 27.

After the elucidation of these doctrines by many examples, Mr. G. calls thofe cadences Medial which are derived from the preceding cadences by inverfion.

There are alfo given four examples of Interrupted or Sufpended Cadences.

I. The cadence, when the 6th of the major key is taken inftead of the key note: this is frequently called the false cadence*.

II. When the laft final chord is made a dominant feventh, by a chromatic tranfition from the leading note.

III. The cadence, when the key is alfo changed by fharpening the fourth of the key upon the falfe cadence, which bears the fharp fixth.

IV. The falfe cadence in the minor key. P. 32.

Mr. G. fpeaking of the difficulty arifing from extreme keys, again recommends the Musical Games of his prefent wife. See our vol. xxi. p. 41.

Chap. III. Of the Preparation and Refolution of Dif

cords.

As we have ventured to differ from Mr. Kollmann, in refpect to the ufe of the term preparation, (vol. xviii. p. 394) it may be useful to infert Mr. Gunn's ideas on this fubject. After defcribing the mode of performing the dominant hármony on the flat feventh, he adds:

§. 78. The introduction of the flat feventh, which forms the above four diffonant intervals, is rendered more natural and pleafing to the ear, by its previously having conftituted a concordant interval in the immediate preceding chord. This is called its Preparation; and, according to the more rigid rules of harmony, is an indifpenfable condition of its introduction as a difcord; but this may, in mo dern mufic, be often difpenfed with; and its paffing diatonically on the next chord, and changing it to a concordant interval, is called its Refolution, which can never be difpenfed with." P. 33.

* See Rameau. Principles of Compofition, p. 87; (chap. xxviii. of Licences, and firft of the Falfe or Flying Cadence) London, 1752.

N 2

Here

Here we find nothing said about the doctrine of the seventh prepared by the eighth; and, indeed, Mr. G. expressly adds:

"§. 79. The difcordant interval is not only frequently introduced without preparation, as in the major and minor final cadences, but the refolution is, on fome occafions, when the melody of the part requires i, allowed to be made in another part, which licence is called, in the German school, a changing of the part," &c. &c.

Mr. G. adopts, in explanation of the fcale when accompanied afcending and defcending, the three fundamental harmonics of the key, the dominant, and fubdominant; these he diftinguishes by the letters,

K. D. S.

This doctrine we have had reafon highly to commend, in our review of Mr. King's work, vol. xvii. p. 523; and we fhall here fubjoin Mr. Gunn's explanation of the theory.

"$. 80. Melody has been defined, harmony in fucceffion, and if the existence of the harmonics and diatonic scale, in the aliquot parts of the ftring of a musical inftrument, mentioned in the preceding theory, will appear to favour this opinion, the following exhibition of the diatonic fcale, as the production of the three fundamental chords, will give it additional fupport." P. 34.

The fundamental chord of the key produces the third and fifth of the fcale, the fundamental chord of the fubdominant produces the fourth and fixth of the fcale, and the fundamental chord of the dominant produces the fecond and feventh of the fcale.

The following Chapter upon Modulation, will be very useful to the violoncel o performer.

Mr. Gunn's opinion of the fubject on which Mr. Kollmann difputes with Mr. King, is contained in the fixth Chapter.

Of Sufpenfions and Anticipations.`

f. 108. When one or more notes of a chord, in an unaccented part of a bar are prolonged or continued on the accented part of a bar on a bass, to the harmony of which they do not belong, the latter chord or harmony thereby formed, is called a fufpenfion; and the difonant interval it contains, is refolved on the next unaccented part

of the bar.

"§. 112. The preparation of the discordant interval of the fecond and its refolution into the third, are evidently inverfions of the fufpenfion and refolution of the feventh into the fixth, though not usually called a fufpenfion. This will appear from the (annexed) examples, and from the first part of example 43 (where the fubdominant harmony prepares on the octave the 7th of the dominant) whence I apprehend a decifive argument may be drawn, that the occafional introduction of chords, as fufpenfions is altogether different and foreign to their conftruction

as

chords, which refpects the afcertaining their juft intervals; as will appear from the introduction of the minor feventh on the dominant, in ex. 43; whilft their fufpenfions refpect only their use and manner of introduction in particular circumstances. Yet on no better grounds than confounding this diftinction, has the exiftence of the chords alluded to (5. 52, p. 17) been attempted to be denied, and the chords difcarded as phantoms."

In confequence of reading these remarks, we promised* to give fome particular proofs in favour of Mr. Kollmann's fyftem; but as Mrs. Gunn has produced her extended work on the Musical Games, and Mr. Kollmann has announced a new work, which is to prove the truth of Kirnberger's theory by examples, adduced from the earliest writers of counterpoint to the present times, we are induced to fufpend our intentions, until thofe works fhall be reviewed, concluding at prefent with the remark, that Mr. Gunn does not appear fully to underftand the particular point on which the whole queftion depends.

ART. XIV. Animal Biography, or Anecdotes of the Lives, Manners, and Economy, of the Animal Creation, arranged under the Syftem of Linnæus. By the Rev. W. Bingley, A. B. Fellow of the Linnean Society, and late of St. Peter's College, Cambridge. Three Volumes. 8vo. 11. 7s. Phillips, London; Balfour, Edinburgh; Archer, Dublin. 180g.

THE

HE term Biography has hitherto been ufually applied, to denote a relation of the actions or character of fingle individuals of the human species, as diftinguished from the civil hiftory of focieties; Mr. Bingley has extended it to animals in general, which, although contrary to its common acceptation, is perfectly confonant to the etymology of the word, and well adapted to give a complete idea of the defign of the present work; which is, to describe the habits and manners of life obferved in the various tribes of animated nature.

This compilation being profeffedly intended for the use of general readers, as a fubftitute equally pleafing, and far more ufeful than the books ufually taken up to pafs away time, all those animals are omitted, of which nothing is known but their exiftence; hence, the two claffes of mammalia and birds occupy the two first volumes; while the more numerous, but lefs