'Tis a Law in the French Academy, to publiſh all thoſe Diſcourſes by which only they are known, but they ſhould rather make a Law never to print any of them.
But the Academy of the Belles Lettres have a more prudent and more uſeful Object, which is, to preſent the Publick with a Collection of Tranſactions that abound with curious Reſearches and Critiques. Theſe Tranſactions are already eſteem'd by Foreigners; and it were only to be wiſh'd, that ſome Subjects in them had been more thoroughly examin'd, and that others had not been treated at all. As for Inſtance, we ſhould have been very well ſatisfied, had they omitted I know not what Diſſertation on the Prerogative of the Right Hand over the Left; and ſome others, which tho' not publiſh'd under ſo ridiculous a Title, are yet written on Subjects that are almoſt as frivolous and ſilly.
The Academy of Sciences, in ſuch of their Reſearches as are of a more
