We fhall conclude our ftrictures on this performance with the author's narrative of the celebrated ftory of Jofeph and his Brethren, which, though frequently illuftrated, is, by our author, placed in feveral novel and amiable points of view.

Ellay XVI. Story of Jofeph, Paflage. He made Jofeph a coat of many colours.

"Here is also another of thofe facred narratives which is not only exquifite in itself, but which has engaged the attention of many admirable pens: yet, furely, while the art of writing, and the powers of the understanding remain, fuch a flory will always furnish new illustra tions; and every man may be able to difcover in it, and display freth beauties to charm, and fresh elegancies to recommend. To add, however, any thing to this narrative would be unneceffary, and to recite the whole of it from the Bible, inconfiftent with the limits of my defign: a few general obfervations, therefore, will be fufficient. The happiett ftrokes of fimplicity diftinguish the very beginning of the hiftory before us. "Now Ifrael loved Jofeph more than all his children.” But mark the reafon for fuch partiality,

becaufe he was the fon of

"his old age." Though the first born is heir to our fortunes, the laft-born, is, generally, the darling of our contemplation and carefles: to the aged parent they are particularly endearing. But what was the fift effect of this endearment? Why, fuch as was fuitable to the child's age, and perfectly pleating to the notions of his youth-his father made him a coat of many colours. Ah, fatal finery! This little decoration created the envy of his brethren" And when his brethren faw that "their father loved him more than the reit, they hated him, and could

not speak peaceably unto him." How gradually the quarrel opens! When they first began to envy the poor lad, they did not, all at once, outrageously afiault him; but the patlion was left to grow, naturally; the fire was permitted to kindle from the firft fpark into a general flame. This is true nature. They could not fpeak peaceably unto him; i. e. they began to caft reflections, mixed farcafins with their converfation, and flently fneered at him. But how naturally do the dreams incrcafe the fraternal difcontent! nothing in the world could have exceeded this circumftance in point of aggravation. It was, indeed, fuch a stroke, as, at first, offended the parent, fond as he was: what effect then muft it have had upon the brothers? That which before was little more than diflike, was now abfolute averfion. They faid unto him, "Shalt "thou, indeed, reign over us, or fhalt thou have dominion over us? "And they hated him yet more for his dreams." Thus prepared for vengeance, they were ready to feize the first opportunity which might happen. His being fent by his father as a mellenger to his brethren to know how it fared with them and with their flocks was, alas, but too favourable an occafion for their latent purposes, and the manner in which they exprefs themfelves, as they behold him afar off, is, in every refpect, confiftent with the workings of nature-Behold, faid they one to another," Behold, this dreamer cometh." What a taunt was this, and how quickly did it prepare the fociety for the fentiments which immediately followed. Come now, therefore, and let us flay him, "and then we fhall fee what will become of his dreams." The fineffe

of

Reuben was an human artifice: "Shed no blood, my brothers, but caft him into this pit which is in the wildernes." This advice difcovered an equal share of good fenfe and affection., Had Reuben intemperately and flatly oppofed the intentions of the party, it is proba bly he might not only have increafed the vengeance they meant to take of Jofeph, but have likewife drawn their anger upon himself. Seeming, therefore, to think the lad deferving punishment, and only prefuming to propofe an alteration of it as to the mode, was propitious to his amiable defign of delivering him to his father. Judah's motion to fell him to the travelling Ishmaelites is, likewife, a fine incident: but the ftratagem of killing the kid, and dipping the many-coloured coat in its blood, and then fewing it to the poor old father, is a circun ftance levelled immediately at the heart, and cannot fail of wounding eyery reader of the leaft fenfibility. It were no undelightful talk to go on with a commentary on the remaining parts of this ftory, from the refidence of the hero in the houfe of Potipher, to his death and burial : in Egypt: but it is a part of feripture fo particularly handled by men of the most celebrated abilities, that every pailage has many times been the fubject of learned remark. Upon the whole, however, it appears to be one of the most beautiful and interefting narratives in the whole lettered world; 'nor will it, perhaps, be eafy to match it, even as it now ftands tranflated, by any compofition, in any language. As a chain of facred facts, recorded in the divine volume of the Chriftian religion, it affects us with awe and veneration:" as a relict of antiquity, it is dear and valuable to all poflerity; and, as a piece of writing, it poffeffes at one and the fame time, and in the highest degree, every elegance of literature: in point of ftyle, it is various and masterly; the images are pathetic beyond the force of encomium to do them juftice, and the morality and virtues inculcated, are obvious, important, and domeftic. Were it poffible to alter, without taking from its beautiful fimplicity, what a noble fubject is here for an epic poem! To alter the genuine text, indeed, advantageoufly, is not, I conceive, poffible: but to make the story the ground-work of a poetical fabric, what an exquifite piece might the genius of Milton make of it! I am in doubt, whether fuch a pen, fo fuited as it was to facred fubjects, might not render a poem upon the Hiftory of Jofeph equal, if not, ip fome refpects, fuperior, to the now unrivalled Paradife Loft.

"And yet it is with reluctance I drop the comment on this entertaining fubject, till I have a little attended the worthy Jofeph in his profperity: his faithful dealing as a steward: his honefly and integrity as a man trufted with very extenfive treafures, infomuch, that his mafter "knew not ought which he had, fave the bread which was before "him" his generous ideas of honour and hofpitality, in refifting the charms of his miftrefs: his reception and forgiveness of his brethren; his attachment to the youthful Benjamin; and his kind and filial interviews with his father, are all of them fcenes fo highly finifhed and captivating, in their kind, that, they create a fort of pious enthusiasm as we read, and the heart can scarcely take leave of them without a figh.

We have allowed to thefe ingenious volumes an ample scope both of obfervation and extract; and, as we had occafion in a VOL. V.

former

former Review to ftate our objections against a very unchriftian and irreverend Explanation of the Bible, confifting, as we then obferved, of the prophane reflections of fuch fcoffers as Toland, Bolingbroke, Boulanger, and Freret, we have now an opportunity to countenance a more ingenious, as well as a more pleafing, Comment on the Sacred Scriptures.

Hiftorical Memoirs of the Author of the Henriade. With fome Original Pieces. To which are added, Genuine Letters of Mr. de Voltaire. Taken from his own Minutes. Tranflated from the French. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Durham.

In conformity to the promise we made our readers in the last month's Review, we refume the talk of tranfcribing one or two letters more of this fprightly and entertaining writer; being in all human probability the laft in that strain with which their aged and declining author will favour the public. LETTER

To Mr. TIRIOT.

XVII.

Ferney, 16 Sept. 1768. Upon my faith, my friend, all the world are quacks; fchools, academies, the graveft focieties, are like Arnaud, the apothecary, whofe little purfes cure all kinds of apoplexies as foon as they are tied about the neck; and Mr. le Lievre, who ftill fells his Beaume de Vie, notwithstanding the numbers of people who die daily.

Some years ago the Jefuits had a lawfuit with the druggists at Paris, about fome fort of an Elixir which they fold at a very high price, after having fold abundant grace which was not fufficient; while the Janfenifts fold effectual grace, which had no efficacy. This world is a great fair, where every merry Andrew endeavours to collect the croud about himself: every man preys upon his neighbour. There is a certain fage in our little country here, who has difcovered that the fouls of fleas and knats are immortal, and that all animals are created only to live again. But there are fome people who have not fuch elevated expectations. I even know thofe who can scarce be made to believe that the water Polypus is an animal. They fee nothing in the small grafs which floats in ftinking puddles, but grafs that grows again after having been cut, like any other grafs. They do not fee that thefe weeds devour little infects; but they fee the little infects enter into the substance of the weeds and devour them.

Thefe fame unbelievers will not be perfuaded that coral is compofed of heaps of little fea vermin. The late Mr. de la Faye faid, that he had no fort of defire to be perfectly acquainted with the hiftory of all thofe fort of folks, and that it was not worth while to give one's felf any trouble about people with whom we never can live

*See Appendix to the 4th volume of our Review, on the article La Bible Enfin Expliquée, or, the Bible at length explained.

But

But we have fome other geniuses ftill more fublime than those :they will create a world for you with as little difficulty as the Abbé de la Teignant writes a fonnet, and employ for that purpofe inftruments which had never been feen. Others come afterwards, and people this world by attraction. A certain Dreamer in my neighbourhood has published his opinion, in which he seriously advances, that this world will last as long as new fyllems can be formed, but when fyftem building is at an end, the world will come to an end. If that be the cafe, the world will probably last a confiderable time.

You had great reafon for aftonishment, when you found in The Man of Forty Crowns, that the fytlem of eggs was afcribed to the great Calculator Harvev. It is true that he believed it, and was fo perfectly perfuaded of it, that he took thefe words for his motto, Every thing is produced from an egg. In the mean time, while he affures us, that every thing in nature originated in eggs, he faw nothing in the formation of animals, but the employment of a weaver in warping his web.

Next to him, others fucceeded, who faw infinite numbers of fmall worms capering about in the generative fluid. Some time after, they' were no longer to be feen, and went entirely out of fashion. All the fyftems which have been erected about the manner of our coming into the world have been destroyed one after another. The way of making love is the only one that has remained without alteration.

Your question is very apropos, when, enquiring about all these romances, you ask me, if in Lapon's collection, which is just printed at Lyons, they have printed thofe furprising letters, wherein it was propofed to perforate a hole to the center of the earth;-to build a Latin town there;-to diffect the brains of Patagonians, on purpose to be informed of the nature of the foul;-and to cloath the human body with pitch to preferve health :-you will find that these fme affairs are exceedingly foftened, and very much difguifed in this new edition. So that in the end, it will be found that all these corrections fhould be placed to my account. Ridiculum acri fortius ac melius magnas plerumque jecat res.

What is printed in my name gives me more pain; but what would you have me do? I cannot help it. Can Arnaud, the apothecary, prevent his noftrums from being counterfeited? Adieu," Qui bene latuit bene vixit.

To Mr. Du M******, Member of feveral Academies, upon antient Anecdotes.

Since, my friend, you could not obtain the Profefforship of Arabic, apply for the Profefforfhip of antient Balderdash. There are a number of them established, at least in that taste, if not under that appellation. It will be very entertaining to fhew us, if it be true, that all which we think we have invented, has been borrowed from the antients; as Reaumur has invented the art of hatching chickens without fowl, five or fix thousand years after the practice had begun in Egypt. There are people who have feen the Copernican fyftem among the

Q 2

ancient

ancient Chaldeans: but what will be ftill more amufing, will be to fhew that all our modern tales have been pillaged from the highest Oriental antiquity.

For example; the story of the Ephefian Matron was given in verse by Fontaine, in France; and before his time, in Italy: it is to be found in Petronius, who took it from the Grecks. But from whence had the Greeks taken it? From the Arabian tales. From whom did the Arabians get it? From the Chinese. You will fee it in the Chinele taless tranflated by Pere Dentrecoles, and collected by Pere Du Halde. What deferves our attention is, that the ftory is much more moral, according to the Chinefe, than according to our tranflators.

I related in one of my useless tracts, the fable from whence Moliere took his Amphyrion, which was an imitation of Plautus, who had copied it from the Greek; but the original is Indian. It was tranflated by Colonel Dow, who is a perfect matter of the facred langge, which has been spoken twelve or fifteen thousand years upon te banks of the Ganges, near the town of Benates, about twenty leagues from Calcutta, which is the capital of the English company.

I he learned Colonel Dow *, (Annal. ii. page 273) fays, that there was an Hindou of uncommon ftrength, who had a beautiful wife, of whom he became jealous; and having beat her, run off and left her. A roguish Deity, who was neither a Brama, Vishnou, or Sib, but a Deity of lower rank, yet at the fame time very powerful, transformed himself into the figure of a man, exactly refembling the fugitive hufband; and under that figure approached the forfaken wife. The doctrine of the metempfychofis gave the trick an air of probability. The amorous Deity begged pardon of the fuppofed wife for his having treated her fo ill; and having obtained her forgivenefs, he lay with her, got her with child, and continued mafter of the house. The repenting hufband, who had always loved his wife, returned, and threw himself at her feet, but found another felf fettled in his house, by whom he was treated as an impoftor and forcerer. It occafioned a law fuit, like the affair of Martin Guerre, which happened not long ago. The cafe was pleaded before the Parliament of Benares. The first prefident was a Brachman, who fuddenly conjectured that one of the two must be a dupe, and the other a Deity, and thought of the following method of difcovering the true hutband. As the husband was reputed to be a man of extraordinary ftrength, it was ordered that the contending parties fhould give a proof of their, virility in prefence of the parliament, and that the moit potent should be decreed to be the true hufband. Accordingly they performed, and the one having exceeded the other in the proportion of fity to twelve, the parliament were about to decide in his favour, when the prefident obferved, that the one was a hero, but had not furpaffed human powers, while the other must be a Deity who fported with their ignorance. The Deity confeffed the whole affair, and returned to Heaven laughing.

The tranflator has not been able to find this ftory in Colonel Dow's Hiftory, and therefore the proof of its existence muft left with M. de Voltaire.

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