tions of Boffuet and Rollin, as containing fufficient general information for youth, and as being written in a very superior

manner.

However, the Author has given a paffable detail of what occurs in Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and fome other writers, with regard to the Egyptians. His compofition is not deferving of particular commendation. His style is not free from inaccuracies, nor is it void of affectation. He aims at fomething of a philofophical refinement, in his narration and reflections, but he poffeffes not the ingenuity, penetration, and acuteness, which conftitute the real merit of that mode of hiftorical writing.

Notwithstanding thefe defects, Dr. Laughton's pretenfions are not inconfiderable. This will appear from his preface, in which he acquaints his Readers, that, in an introductory difcourfe, he hath fhewn the divine difpenfation and intention of longevity immediately after the deluge, the difperfion at Babel, origin of languages, method of handing down events in various parts of the world, the fpeculative branch of the Egyptian religion, fource of the Grecian mythology, and errors in ancient chronology. How compleatly he has performed his promifes,. will be evident from one or two examples.

The whole of what he fays concerning the difperfion' at Babel, and the origin of languages, is as follows: Until the building of the tower of Babel, it is allowed by Jews, Chriftians, and Mahometans, that one language prevailed over all the earth. How the confufion was effected, has been a matter of fpeculation: fome have thought that the Almighty inspired the builders of that tower with new words; and others conjectured, that the confufion arofe from their forgetting the ufual application of the words, and naming one thing for another, though all indifferently spoke the original tongue.

The Hebrew now fpoken, as well as the Arabic and Chaldee, are generally fuppofed to be dialects of the language Spoken by Adam, which is loft. The Hebrew cannot be entitled to the high diftinction, fo vainly contended for, of being the language taught of God. It is far inferior to other lan guages in elegance, copioufnefs, and clearnefs, and is fo exceedingly dry, that the Hebrews want words to exprefs the moft common things, and are obliged to ufe the fame periods continually, for want of expreffions to vary the phrafe. The Arabic is greatly fuperior to it, the Greek is vaftly more elegant and harmonious, and modern languages are more abundant in beauty, fertility of words, and modes of conveying ideas.

Such a fuperficial and indeterminate account of things, the manifeft refult of ignorance, affuming the guife of wifdom, can only excite the fimile of contempt.

With

With regard to the fource of mythology, the Author informs us, that the Fable of the Grecian Bacchus is borrowed from the Hiftory of Mofes, and he endeavours to point out fome circumstances of refemblance, between that divine Lawgiver, and the ftory of Bacchus, as defcribed in Euripides. Bacchus, however, as Mr. Bryant hath fully fhewn, must be referred to an earlier period.

Vulcan, fays Dr. Laughton, means Tubal Cain, who first wrought iron. Janus with two faces alludes to Noah, who faw the first and latter world. Jupiter Hammon, who had a temple in the deferts of Lybia, and received divine honours, was Ham, the fon of Noab, to whom Lybia was granted in the divifion of the earth by his father. The Chaos of the Poets is evidently borrowed from the Book of Genefis, and the Golden Age from the happy ftate of our firft parents. The garden of the Hefperides, the golden apples, and the dragon Which guarded them, with Pandora's fatal curiofity, are evidently the garden of Eden, the tree of life, the ferpent which beguiled Eve, and the evils confequent on Eve's difobedience. The fabulous war of the Giants against the Gods, and the mountains they piled up to affault Heaven, arofe from that ambitious attempt to build the tower of Babel. Lot's wife turned into a pillar of falt, furnished them with the fable of Niobe changed into marble. Adonis is derived from the Hebrew Adonai, fignifying Lord; Jove from Jehovah.

Thefe unfupported affertions, in which there is a great mixture of error and falfehood, the Author would pass upon us for an explanation of the fource of the Grecian mythology.

That part of the work before us, from which we have received the most pleasure, is the Recapitulary Differtation. It contains a number of fenfible and judicious remarks; but, at the fame time, they are fuch as have been made by preceding Writers.

ART. III. A Practical Effay on a Cement, and Artificial Stone, juftly fuppofed to be that of the Greeks and Romans, lately re-difcovered by Monfieur Loriot, Mafter of Mechanics to his moft Chriftian Majefty, for the cheap, eafy, expeditious, and durable Contruction of all Manner of Buildings, and Formation of all Kinds of Ornaments of Architecture, even with the commonest and coarseft Materials. Tranflated from the French Original lately published by the exprefs Orders of the above Monarch. 8vo. I s. 6 d. Cadell. 1774.

HIS pamphlet feems to convey intelligence of great importance with refpect to all kinds of building and architecture, fuppofing the art treated of to be really loft; and which ought to be as extenfively known as poffible, in order that if

fallacious,

fallacious, it may be quickly detected; or if well founded, that it may receive the improvements which experience may add to it, and be adopted for the general fervice of mankind: Something like this, however, was laid before the Public, by Mr. Doffie, in his fecond volume of Memoirs of Architecture, &c. See Review, vol. xliv. p. 479, where our Readers will fee the process for making a mortar, impenetrable to moisture; as communicated to a noble Lord, from a gentleman at Neuf chatel.

The refult of Mr. Loriot's inquiry concerning the materials employed in the Roman buildings remaining in the south of France, is thus given :

• Most of these monuments exhibit nothing but enormous masses in point of thickness and height, the heart of which, but juft faced with an almost fuperficial coating, evidently confifts of nothing but pebbles and other fmall ftones, thrown together at random, and bound by a kind of mortar, which appears to have been thin enough to penetrate the fmalleft interftices, and fo form a solid whole with these materials, whichever kind was first laid to receive the other, when poured into it.

It is enough therefore to confider these ruins, with the smallest degree of attention, to be convinced, that all the fecret of this mode of conftruction confifted in the method of preparing and using this ftrange kind of mortar; a mortar not liable to any decay; bidding defiance equally to the perpetual erofions of time, and heaviest strokes of the hammer and pick-axe. At least, when any little ftone, and it must be a round one, gives way to them, the mould of cement left by it is found equally hard with the compleateft petrification.

How different, then, muft this ancient mortar be from the very beft of our modern! the latter, one would imagine, never dries perfectly but to fall to duft again at the leaft touch. Of this the remarkable crumbling away of our most recent buildings is an evident proof.

Another of the extraordinary qualities of this Roman cement is its being impenetrable to water. This is not a mere conjecture. It is a fact, which the aqueducts of theirs, ftill in being, leave not the leaft room to doubt of; for, in thefe works, they never employed either clay, maftich, or any other refinous fubftance, to prevent the waters making their way through them. The areas of thefe canals, refting fometimes on the ground, fometimes on a wall, and fometimes on arches built for the purpose, as well as their roof and fides, confifted of the fame kind of fmall ftones bound together by this extraordinary cement; with this difference, that the infide furface was compofed of finer and fmaller ingredients; which, at the fame time that it does not look any thing like a coating made at fecond hand, and of courfe capable of being scaled off, carries evident marks of its being the refult of a peculiar operation, which it may not be impoffible to imitate by carefully attending to the obfervations that will occur in the courfe of this Essay.

REV. Sept. 1774•

Thus,

Thus, then, it plainly appears, that these works were carried on by means of caffoons. The trenches made for the foundation formed, of themfelves, the lowest tire; and, furely, nothing could be easier than to fill these with the materials ready prepared for that purpofe; though the Romans, no doubt, did it with their largest and heaviest ftones. After bringing the work to the furface, they had recourfe to planks made to fit into each other, fucceflively extending them in length and in heighth, and binding the oppofite ones at fuch a distance from each other, as to form the thickness of the wall; and withal with fufficient ftrength not to deviate ever fo little, from the perpendicular, on either fide.

It was, thus, that they formed, as it were in a mould, these enormously maffive walls, compofed, as we have already feen, of every fpecies of pebbles and other small ftones, which our modern architects know not what to do with for want of a mortar qualified to conftitute with them one folid compact body!

We may easily conceive, at what a great rate, even a small number of hands, if well fupplied with materials, must have been able, by this means, to push on any work in the building way. For this purpofe, nothing more was requifite than to have in readiness a fufficient number of troughs full of the proper mortar; throw at random into the caffoons the pebbles and other fmall ftones; and then faturate the latter with the former; all which might be perfectly well done, by the fmalleft degree of attention to get as much stones as poffible into the caffoon; and then make the mortar fill up all the interstices between them; and, with regard to vaulting and arching, they had their centers, as well as the moderns. When they had an aqueduct to build, then, as the interior furfaces of its channel required a coating of that peculiar cement, which is ftill obfervable in them to a certain thickness, and which we have already taken notice of, they began by laying it on the planks of the interior cafing and the centers, previous to the throwing in of the coarfer materials; and thus formed a cruft, which effectually kept the water from any ftones of a fpungy nature, that would otherwise have imbibed it.

• Without this method of cafing, they would never have been able to conftruct, either walls of fo prodigious a thickness, or channels of fo furprising a thinnefs. In a word, the effect of this cement must have been very quick, to coalefce and fet as readily as our gypfes and plafters, and directly refift the preffure of the other materials laid upon it. In fact, the leaft fhrinking or fwelling must have proved fatal to works of this kind, not one of whofe parts, perhaps, yielded a folid and horizontal basis to any other.

This fixednefs and perfeverance within the fame volume conftitute another important quality, which the flenderest observation muft

Admitting the truth of all that has been advanced, poffibly buildings might be carried on with more accuracy, as well as fpeed, if iraffes of flints, rubble, or pebbles, with this cement, were previously formed on the fpot, of convenient fizes, as we do bricks; to be afterward laid together with the fame kind of mortar.

convince

convince us the Roman cement is endued with; and being the la as yet difcovered, we may proceed to fum up all the excellencies pe culiar to this extraordinary compofition.

In the first place, then, this cement, from a liquid, turned very quickly to a folid ftate, and hardened with time as plafter does.

Secondly, it acquired a furprising degree of tenacity, and laid fuch hold of the smallest stones, it came in contact with, as scarce to bear being parted from them.

Thirdly, it was impenetrable to water.

"Fourthly, it continued always of the fame volume or bulk, with out either fwelling or fhrinking.

But Monfieur Loriot, after examining, in the course of his travels, almost all the monuments of this kind left by the Romans in France; after confidering all the materials nature afforded in the places where they erected them; after, in fhort, comparing and combining all their poffible local refources; found himself obliged to confels, from the clearest conviction, that they employed no materials but what we still employ; that their cement owed all its exsellency to the lime, fand, brick-duft, and other materials of that kind, with which they made it; but that they had another method. of mixing up these materials, and ufing the mixture.

This fyftem, uncommon and bold as it might then appear to be, not only kept poffeffion of his mind; but funk deeper into it from day to day, in confequence of the new obfervations he had fre quent opportunities of making, till, at length, in the beginning of the year 1765, he took upon him, for the first time, to prefent the Royal Academy of Architecture a memorial, in which he gave his opinion, and laid down his reafons for it, with regard to both these points; to wit, the fameness in the fubftance of the materials, and the difference in the manner of mixing them. And, having already convinced himself of the inertnefs and infufficiency of lime that had been flaked for any confiderable time, he fcrupled not to affert, that the Romans ufed quick-lime on their fcaffolds; and that it was to its vivifying quality we were to attribute all the wonderful effects of

their cement.'

His experiments in confequence of this conclufion were as follow:

Taking fome lime, which had been a long time flaked, out of a pit covered with boards, and a confiderable quantity of earth over them again, by which means the lime had preferved all its original freshnefs, he made two parts of it, and plafhed and beat them both perfectly well.

'He then put one of these parts, without any addition, into a glazed earthen pot; and, in that condition, fet it to dry, of itself, in the fhade. Here, in proportion as it loft its moisture by evapo. ration, it cracked and split in every direction; parted from the fides of the pot; and crumbled into a thousand pieces, all of them equally friable with the bits of lime dried up by the fun, which we ufually meet on the banks of our lime-pits.

With regard to the other part, Monfieur Loriot just added to it one-third of its quantity of powdered quick-lime, and then had the

Q 2

whole