It is indispensably requisite at Göttingen that every professor should be able to give account of the progress and existing state of the science to which he is appointed. Any one, who two years after the publication of a work of importance in his department should not have read and analysed it, with a view of enriching his own observations, would not be regarded as a worthy successor to the chair of Haller, of Mosheim, of Gessner and Michaelis. Beckmann, who had studied at Göttingen at a time when the example of these great men dictated the law and gave the tone to the University, and perhaps to the literature of Europe, was determined to keep pace with the spirit of the age, and not to remain ignorant of the great advances then making throughout Europe, in the numerous sciences which furnished the subjects of his practical investigations. But this was a task of no slight magnitude: and indeed when the immense additions to so many different sciences are considered, can it be wondered at, that, notwithstanding his utmost zeal and application, he found it impossible to read up all the important works which had appeared since 1770, in chemistry, physics, natural history and mathematics? Despairing of success in so Herculean an undertaking, he began to entertain feelings of aversion towards what he deemed the innovations, which were then changing the face and enlarging the scope of science. But his course of lectures, turning principally on practical matters, was not materially affected; he was, however, so fearful of falling under the imputation of being behind the progress of the age, that he devoted his mind, peculiarly fitted for this kind of study, almost exclusively to the history of arts and trades; employing in the illustration of his subjects, the materials to which he had access in the very extensive library belonging to the university; and it is to his consequent labours and researches that we owe the “History of Inventions and Discoveries.” In this work, Beckmann traces their first germs from the remotest periods of antiquity, and following their gradual development, exhibits the latest improvements among civilized nations with almost unequalled acumen and ability. It abounds with invaluable materials respecting the general history of the origin and progress of the mechanic arts, which are so important a branch in civilization; and what must give it an additional value in the eyes of all who are unwilling to place reliance on assertions unsupported by authority, or may be anxious to investigate the subject more deeply, the most scrupulous references to original authorities accompany each article. Among the numerous other works of merit for which we are indebted to the literary industry of Beckmann, are, “A History and Analysis of early Voyages and Travels,” a highly interesting collection, which occupied the last years of his life, and was left unfinished at the eighth number; elaborate editions of “De