enjoyed, especially under Louis XVI. an ufurped celebrity, he cannot be reckoned among the writers who have adorned that monarch's reign; all his writings having appeared in the time of Louis XV.

Condorcet, who laboured to fucceed to D'Alembert's throne, belongs to the age of Louis XVI.: but he cannot be quoted among illuftrious authors. His works, of which fcarcely the titles are remembered, have neither animation nor depth, and his style is dull and dry. Some bold attacks on religion, which ought not to have been countenanced, and trivial declamations against defpotism, have alone given a degree of fame to his writings.

The Abbé de Lille, a man of truly poetic genius, ranges in the period of Louis XVI. Had he been born at a time in which poetry was more the object of delight; had he compofed, instead of tranflating; had he chofen interesting fubjects; he would justly have enjoyed the greatest reputation.

Among the very fmall numbers of writers whom this age can properly enter on the lift of thofe of the reign of Louis XVI. the Comte de Choifeul-Gouffier is entitled to diftinction; and I know not whether, in any æra, we can find a man of his rank who has compofed a work equal in merit to his Travels in Greece. This publication unites, with the deepest knowlege of antiquity, a pleafing style, diverfified, and always fuited to the fubject.

The numerous and celebrated authors of the time of Louis XIV. and Louis XV., who exercised their talents in various ways, having augmented the turns of language, and varied the forms of ftyle, it feems as if language had fuppled itself in their fkilful hands, and that thence may have refulted a general facility of expreffion and compofition. In fact, a croud of examples of all kinds offer in fome degree, to every writer, affortments ready prepared, from among which he may clothe his ideas. Thefe have been incitements to write, and the number of authors has increased to infinitude under the reign of Louis XVI. but scarcely one of them has raised himself above a certain ftandard.

A small work, in which are united fpirit, elegance, and humour, the Almanack of Great Men, has made known the vast number of men in France who have been fubjugated by the mania of fcribbling. It is aftonishing to fee the quantity of productions, from the madrigal to the tragedy, which appear and difappear in the metropolis, like infects which are born, flourish, and perish in the course of twentyfour hours. Two remarkable works were published during the reign of Louis XVI. One is the Hiftory of the Difcovery of the two Indies, which met with the greatest fuccefs, without caufing a high opinion. of the author, who was regarded only as the editor of another perfon's ideas. This work is compofed of various reports, and forms a whimfical combination of different styles, principles repeated over and over again, high-flown declamations, and, fometimes, the most disgusting delineations of voluptuoufnefs: altogether, meretricious ornaments have here entirely robbed the fubject of its grandeur. Such is the book of the Abbé Raynal on the difcovery of both the Indies. The reader of it might imagine that he was hearing a quack doctor, mounted on his stage, and difpenfing to the gaping multitude common

place

place farcalms (des lieux-communs) against defpotifm and religion, which are remarkable only for their boldnefs. This book is no longer read, and is only confulted as a dictionary:- but, in a short period, when time and various circumftances fhall have effected alterations in the colonies, when fome fhall have declined and others fhall have advanced in confequence, the Abbé Raynal will not be of any the leaft utility.

The other work, the Travels of the young Anacharfis, was the confequence of more than thirty years of application; the models of this learned compofition were the Cyropædia, Sethos, and the Travels of Cyrus; the form, which the author has given to it, requires that the young Anacharfis, in fome degree refembling Telemachus, fhould intereft the reader :-but the work contains only a frigid, uniform, and unanimated narration. Anacharfis afks questions, and they are answered; and it is without any enhancement of the amufement of the reader, that the author has given to his book the dead carcafe (cadavre) of a romance. It cannot be included among the productions of genius: it comprehends no profound defign, it offers no grand refult, and the style has no character.

To Sethos and the Cyropædia, as models for the author of Anacharfis, may be added an antient work, the History of the Dinofophifts of Athens:-but there is another, which appeared in this century, and which feems to have formed the outline of the Travels of Anacharfis; viz. the Hiftory of the Seven Wife Men of Greece. The fages meet at the Court of Periander, king of Corinth, and converfe together on religion, politics, and the different governments of Afia; they travel through feveral celebrated countries; they go to Scyros in order to fee Pythagoras, and thence to Samos, with that philofopher. They then repair to the Court of Polycrates, and laftly come to Sardis to vifit Crafus.

6

Anacharfis, who has travelled to China to fee Confucius, finds the Seven Wife Men at Sardis, and gives them an account of his adventures. Anacharfis is one of the principal actors in this historical romance, which comprehends the most interesting details refpecting various countries of Greece, and the most important events of that period. This work has been forgotten, but merits not oblivion:

Et babent fua fata libelli.

M. Necker must be reckoned among the writers of the reign of Louis XVI. He is the first who confecrated the pomp of eloquence and the flowers of imagination to matters of civil administration: but his works, which anfwered the end of the author, that of making an impreffion on men of the world, and elevating him to a high fituation, are void of learning and of fentiment. The fuccefs of the publications of M. Necker fhould doubtlefs have encouraged placemen in France to write on the fame fubjects, and to promulgate found theory, fupported by experience: in fine, the example of M. Necker fhould have triumphed over the prejudice which prevented thofe perfons, who were called to fill exalted ftations on account of their birth and their fituation, from giving their ideas to the public.'

The author now paffes to what, by a ftrange mifnomer, he terms a conclufion, which is introductory to fix chapters of anec

4

dotes

fatigue Tay

dotes relative to Maurepas, Turgot, Saint Germain, Pefai, Necker, and De Brienne, which may be read without fatigue, and forgotten without much regret. the extracts translated by G.2.

ART. XI. Confiderations fur la Revolution Sociale. 8vo. pp. 261. 35. fewed. De Boffe, London. 1794.

THIS volume, afcribed to M. FERRAND, is faid to have been "read and approved" by perfons of weight in the diplomatic fcale; and it has thence derived an importance, to which it is not entitled by compafs of thought, eloquence of ftyle, nor foundness of counfel. It may be confidered as fpeaking the language of the Concert of Princes. It continues to hold up the pretended fecret Propaganda Society, fuppofed to have branched from the Jacobin Club of Paris over the whole furface of Europe, as an inftitution of infinite concern, alarm, and danger; as directed by leaders of filent activity and unrelenting zeal, no lefs prudent than determined, no lefs unprincipled than able. It contemplates not only the overthrow of hereditary inftitutions, and of all corporations and establishments, as the darling purfuit of this hidden combination, but fuppofes it to meditate the deftruction of property itfelf, and, with it, of the very cement of focial and civilized life. Against this chimera, the author thinks it the deadly fin of the European powers to have waged war with fo feeble an effort; and he advifes them to cross the Rhine with new emigrants, and to afcend the Loire with new Chouans, in order to carry into execution the manifeftoes of the Duke of Brunswick, and to fubftitute in France a regular military government, inftead of its defpotic anarchy.

Page 224 the author thus goes on:

I know that it will be objected to me, that the very exceffes of the Jacobins have flopped the progress of their doctrines, and that their principles are lefs to be feared, fince we have seen how they apply them.

I acknowlege that the people were at one time on the point of being undeceived: their own misfortunes naturally recalled them to fubmifuon and to reafon. This was the moment which governments ought to have feized, in order to crush a fect which had juft made itself detefted by those whom it had feduced; to teftify that horror of it in which their people were then difpofed to join with them; and to attach more strongly to their authority those who began to perceive that their own happiness was interested in maintaining it. But this is what governments have not thought it proper to do: it is perhaps that of which they had no idea: the moment is passed in which they might have availed themselves of it, and that moment will not Though London appears in the title-page, the work was printed abroad.

return.

return. The Abbé Sieyes and Robespierre have perceived that the edifice, which they constructed, grew feeble under the weight of the crimes which were to have elevated it; that the exercife of the most facred of duties was ftained by fo many murders, combustions, and anarchical plunderings. They have thrown on the fhoulders of the party which they wished to ruin, the mafs of atrocities which arofe from the general receffes of the republic, in order to fpread itself among foreigners: by them Briot, and after him Danton, have been charged with every thing: like the unclean animal, the death of which, among the Hebrews, expiated all national iniquities, their punishment was offered as the juft fatisfaction which the republic made at the fhrine of humanity; and, after the produce of their pillages had been taken away, their lives, being become fufpicious or formidable, were facrificed to the revenge of individuals, and converted into burnt-offerings to public indignation.

The Convention had decreed that there fhould no longer be any other divinity than Reason and the Country: it had legally established Atheism. Thefe abfurd decrees excited univerfal indignation among foreign nations. Danton is alone found guilty; and the infernal genius of the Committee of Public Safety dared to take on itself to revenge the Deity. The dogma of materialifm revolted from common fenfe; Robespierre is become the apostle of God: in truth, he has created a divinity after his own principles: he has formed God after his own image. France has had four religions in four years: catholic at the opening of the States General; fchifmatic under the pretended Conftituent Affembly; atheistical under the Convention; deiftical in the vizirat of Robespierre. In the laft inftance, fhe has folemnized the inauguration of this fpeculative idolatry; Robespierre was the patriarch; but the horror, which the perfon of the grand prieft infpired, did not extend to the doctrine itfelf: which was already fecretly embraced by the greateft number. This belief has nothing of constraint, this morality has nothing of rigor; it flatters inftead of combating the paffions therefore all the paffions will declare themfelves on its fide the government which has confecrated it regulates itself only by these very paffions; therefore it will give birth to them wherever it may penetrate. In all countries, fo commodious a religion and a law will always obtain the fecret affent of the multitude, and will confequently form the religion and the law of the ftrongeft. It is no longer doubtful what the constitutionalists, what the firit republicans, had done, and which they faid could only take place in France. In every country, the number of unprincipled people is greater than that of perfons who have principles; and the number of the poor is greater than that of the rich. In all countries, the majority of the people, incited to murder by impunity, induced to piliage by the law, and freed from the troublefome reins of a felf-denying religion, will not long hefitate between their prefent intereft, which is always placed before their eyes, and true principles, which are never recalled to their minds.'

The Convention, after the death of Robespierre, followed the fame courfe which it took after the death of Danton.'

If

If there yet be perfons, in this or any other country, fo infatuated as not to turn with contempt from the ravings of thefe Anti-jacobins, and fo wicked as to delight in the fresh hot ftreams of human gore with which they are inundating Europe, it may be well to remind their prudence, that armies are recruited by an appeal to the religion and loyalty of the populace; that the friends of monarchy, hierarchy, ariftocracy, are those who haften to the front of the battle; that the difaffected, from a horror excited by the caufe of the allies, prefer parish-pensions to those of the military cheft; and that every regiment, which difappears before the frown of fate, is equivalent to a maffacre of fo many men attached to the antient order of things, and fufficiently courageous to arm in its behalf, Tay "the extracts translated by ART. XII. Commentarius in primam partem, &c. i.e. A Com- G2 mentary on the First Part of Ariftotle's Book concerning Xenophanes, Zeno, and Gorgias; with a Defence of the Megaric Philofophy. By Profeffor M. G. L. SPALDING. 8vo. pp. 81. Berlin. 1793.

THIS fragment of Ariftotle, in which the most obfcure of all fubjects is treated, is ftill farther obfcured through the corruptness of the text. Some valuable corrections are made, by the affiftance of the Leipfic manufcript, in Fabricius's Greek library, book iii. c. 6. Profeffor SPALDING had an opportunity of examining this manufcript, but was unfortunately in fuch hafte, that he could only extract from it a few authori ties to juftify his own emendations. These have confiderable philological merit: but neither the commentary, the corrections, nor the defence, have the fmalleft tendency to explain and reduce to common fenfe the doctrine of the To Ev; that is, that whatever exifts is one, eternal, and immovable; a doctrine nearly resembling that of Spinoza, as abfurd as it is impious, and clearly refuted by Ariftotle, both in his phyfical and metaphyfical works. Gil...s

ART. XIII. Reflexions fur la Paix, &c. i. e. Thoughts on Peace, addreffed to Mr. Pitt-and to the French Nation. 8vo. pp. 48. Is. 6d. Printed at Geneva; Debrett, London. 1794.

THE title-page informs us that this pamphlet was printed at

Geneva: but, as French books are as accurately printed at Geneva as at Paris, and as this publication contains feveral typographical errors, which are evidently of English origin, we are inclined to think that, wherever the work might have made its first appearance, the prefent edition is from the London prefs. Those who are intimately acquainted with the French language will the more readily join with us in this opi