that the French had no tafte nor ta lent for epic poetry. I am, in general, as animated and eloquent as you; pay, in thofe qualities, I fometimes even excel you yet, in interefting events, in variety of fituations and defcriptions, and in splendour of diction, my poem is much inferior to yours. I could not call up a Clorinda, an Herminia, nor an Armida. Reafon was my only inftrument; you were matter of all the magic powers of enchantment. Tao, I perceive that my circumftances were more favourable than yours. My heroes were of my own creation; you were obliged to copy real characters and events. Volt. The annals of France afford a number of ftories fufficiently wild and romantic for the ground-work of an epic poem; but the Italians are caught by the ear; the French are fools who expect their writers to be fages. The romance-writer is allowed to collect an heap of the most extravagant fictions; while the epic poet, (but fuch an one is unworthy of the name) is chained down to plain facts, and fober reafon. The reafon is, that the one pretends only joke or trifle; but 'tis understood to be the character of the other, to fpeak feriously. In wit or humour, I was not inferior to others. There's Ariofto, under that fhade. I believe he can give you fome pretty good inftances of my powers in thefe. Tao, Those pages feem to divert him; perhaps they would affect his feelings in a different manner, if he were ftill in the world which we have left. Volt. One of the greatest bleffings which Elyfium affords is, that here we are no longer capable of feeling either envy or jealoufy; and are no longer in danger of fuffering from the envy or jealoufy of others. Tao, I have fcarce ever felt those emotions in my own breaft; but I long fuffered undefervedly from the jealoufy of others. Volt. Unfortunately for all thofe who envied and perfecuted you, the glory and splendour of your character will always ferve to fhew the bafeness and deformity of theirs. Talo, If you flatter me not, this inftance may be a monument of in ftruction to mankind; at least to those into whofe hands fortune has put the unhappy power of oppreffing their brethren; and to thofe who, though deprived of the power, yet feel the inhuman defire. Volt. To tell you a fecret, I was not humbled by perfecution, I compa red myself with my perfecutors; and then, perhaps, I did them too much honour. But you have not mentioned to me the obfcure fellow who wrote that filly ftanza against you., Tao, That man thought to put himself on an equal footing with me. 'Twas there he would have injured me: But I prudently took no notice of him. Volt. I must confefs, that I was not capable of fo much patience: I returned blow for blow and I have fometimes flain an antagonist with a fingle hemiftich. : Tao, If he was so very weak and tender, might you not have left him to die a natural death? Hercules ne ver entertained himself with killing butterflies. Volt. I was blamed, as well as you, for attempting too many different fpecies of writing; but I could never reach the fublime elevation of the comic opera. Taffo, No-you could never have been the author of an Armida. Volt. Nor you of a Zara. My works, if divided among ten different writers, would gain each of them a very refpectable character; yet I could never enjoy my reputation in peace. Tajo, I had compofed my epic poem; and the Duke of Ferrara proclaimed to the world that I was mad. After that, however, thanks to the attention and to the tafte of good Pope Clement Clement VII. I was crowned in the capitol. I died on the evening of my triumph. Volt. I was not quite fo fortunate as you. I was crowned too on the threatre, at Paris; but I did not die till eight days after my coronation. Tallo, May I afk you one question? Volt. With all my heart. Taffo, Were you to return to the earth, and to begin life again, pray, how would you chufe to employ your felf? Volt. Doubtlefs, in the very manner in which I have done already: Only, I would not chufe to be poet, hiftorian, and courtier, ali at once. He who takes up the pen at the command of genius, may forget the world with out fearing to be forgotten. While he labours in folitude to to inftruct mankind, and to confole them amid the misfortunes of life, he often enjoys truer happiness than he could poffibly find in the bustle of fociety. Tao, Perhaps the lot of no one man on earth is preferable to that of others: And yet I queftion if Godfrey of Bouillon would change his name for mine. Volt. Take care of your own, my illuftrious master. It will, for ever, be easier to deliver Jerufalem, than to compofe a Jerufalem Delivered, Genuine Copy of a Letter from the late David Hume, Efq; to the late Sir John Pringle, M. D*. TH Feb. 10. 1773. MY DEAR SIR, HAT the prefent Pretender was in London in the year 1753, I know with the greatest certainty, because I had it from Lord Marechal, who faid it confifted with his certain knowledge. Two or three days after his Lordship gave me this information, he told me that the evening before he had learned feveral curious particulars from a Lady, (who I imagined to be Lady Primrofe) though my Lord refufed to name her. The Pretender came to her house in the evening, without giving her any preparatory information, and entered the room, when fhe had a pretty large company with her, and was herself playing at cards. He was announced by the fervant un der another name: She thought the cards would have dropped from her hands on feeing him; but he had prefence enough of mind to call him by the name he affumed, to afk him when he came to England, and how long he intended to stay there. After he and all the company went away, the fervants remarked how wonder fully like the ftrange gentleman was to the Prince's picture, which hung on the chimney-piece, in the very room in which he entered.—My Lord added (I think from the authority of the fame Lady) that he used so little precaution, that he went abroad open ly in day-light in his own drefs, only laying afide his blue ribband and star; walked once through St James's, and took a turn in the Mall. About five years ago, I told this ftory to Lord Holderness, who was Secretary of State in the year 17533 and I added, that I fuppofed this piece of intelligence had at that time efcaped his Lordship. By no means, faid he; and who do you think first told it me? It was the King himself, who fubjoined, " And what do you think, "my Lord, I should do with him?” Lord Holderness owned that he was puzzled how to reply, for if he declared his real fentiments, they might favour of indifference to the Royal family. The King perceived his embarraffment, and extricated him from it, by adding, "My Lord, I fhall juft "do nothing at all; and when he is " tired *The Original is in the poffeffion of Sir James Pringle, Bart. "tired of England, he will go abroad "again."-I think this story, for the honour of the late King, ought to be more generally known. But what will furprize you more, Lord Marechal, a few days after the coronation of the prefent King, told me that he believed the young Pretender was at that time in London, or at least had been fo very lately, and had come over to fee the fhew of the coronation, and had actually feen it. I asked my Lord the reafon for this ftrange fact. Why, fays he, a gentleman told me fo that faw him there, and that he even fpoke to him, and whispered in his ears thefe words: "Your Royal Highnefs is the laft of "all mortals whom I fhould expect "to fee here." "It was curiofity "that led me," faid the other; " but "I affure you," added he, "that the "perfon who is the object of all this "pomp and magnificence, is the man "I envy the leaft." You fee this ftory is fo near traced from the fountain head, as to wear a great face of probability. Query, what if the Pretender had taken up Dymock's gauntlet? I find that the Pretender's vifit in England in the year 1753 was known to all the Jacobites; and fome of them have affured me, that he took the opportunity of formally renouncing the Roman Catholic religion, under his own name of Charles Stuart, in the New Church in the Strand! and that this is the reason of the bad treatment he met with at the court of Rome. I own that I am a fceptic with regard to the laft particulars. Lord Marechal had a very bad opision of this unfortunate Prince, and thought there was no vice fo mean or attrocious of which he was not capable; of which he gave me feveral inftances. My Lord, though a man of great honour, may be thought a difcontented courtier; but what quite confirmed me in the idea of that Prince, was a converfation I had with Helvetius at Paris, which I believe I have told you. In cafe I have not, I fhall mention a few particulars. That gentleman told me that he had no acquaintance with the Pretender; but fome time after that Prince was cha ced out of France, a letter, faid he, was brought me from him, in which he told me that the neceffity of his affairs obliged him to be at Paris, and as he knew me by character to be a man of the greatest probity and honour in France, he would truft himfelf to me, if I would promise to conceal and protect him. I own, added Helvetius to me, although I knew the dan ger to be greater of harbouring him at Paris than at London; and altho I thought the family of Hanover not only the lawful fovereigns in England, but the only lawful fovereigns in Eu rope, as having the full and free confent of the people; yet was I fuch a dupe to his flattery, that I invited him to my house, concealed him there going and coming near two years, had all his correfpondence pafs through" my hands, met with his partifans upon Pont Neuf, and found at laft that I' had incurred all this danger and trouble for the most unworthy of all mor tals; infomuch that I have been affured, when he went down to Nantz to embark on his expedition to Scotland, he took fright, and refused to go on board; and his attendants, thinking the matter gone too far, and that they would be affronted for his cowardice, carried him in the night-time into the fhip, pieds et mains liés. I afked him, if he meant literally? Yes, faid he, literally: they tied him, and carried him by main force. What think you now of this hero and conqueror? Both Lord Marechal and Helvetius agree, that with all this strange character, he was no bigot, but rather had learned from the philofophers at Paris to affect a contempt of all religion, You must know that both these perfons thought they were afcribing to him an excellent quality. Indeed both of of them ufed to laugh at me for my narrow way of thinking in these particulars. However, my dear Sir John, I hope you will do me the juftice to acquit me. I doubt not but thefe circumstances will appear curious to Lord Hardto whom you will please to pre SIR, fent my refpects. I fuppofe his Lord. St Andrew's Square, To the Editor of the EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. WHEN a Theory of the Earth by another in its turn. Thus our con was announced by one of Dr Hutton's character and abilities, no wonder that the public expectation was roufed. It was what many had attempted in vain, and what we may be rather furprized to fee again at tempted in an age, when men, by purfuing that road which they have difcovered to be the only one to truth, may be happily convinced, that in no department of fcience are more data wanting than in this. So little do we know as yet, and fo lately have we begun to know that little of the materials compofing our globe, that probably, for ages to come, every fuch theory will be literally the bafiefs fabric of a vifion. Such to me, I must acknowledge, Sir, appears the prefent one; nor will you, I hope, refufe a place to a few objections, which forced themfelves upon me in the perufal of it. The theory in miniature is this: "The land, as we fee it, must gradually be worn away, the higher parts of it washed down to form foil on the lower, thence, by the fame means, carried to the bottom of the ocean, and there depofited in beds. Thefe, by the operation of heat or fire, are confolidated into firm ftrata of ftone, and, like our prefent ones, are then by the fame agent raised above the water, and thus form new land, to be peopled with vegetables and animals, like the prefent. This new continent will decay in the fame manner, and be fucceeded tinents have been made up of the materials of others which preceded them; thefe again of others before them, and thus the globe, for any thing we know, may be from everlafting to everlaft ing." Let us fee how thefe outlines are filled up. A propofition is fet out with, which of itself would require an elaborate proof, yet none is offered; it is," that the deftruction of the higha er parts of the land is neceflary for the growth of vegetables, and that foil is nothing but the materials collected from the deftruction of the folid land." We have, Sir, a thousand inftances where the contrary is extremely probable. The barren-lavas of Etna, after a feries of years, become fertile plains, even tho' that mountain fhould pour no afhes upon them; nature has made another fort of provifion for peopling her realms: fhe fends lichens, which, like hardy colonists, can find fubfiftence any where, to take poffeffion for her of fuch barren fpots, and prepare them for the reception of other larger, but tenderer productions: at laft, a bed of vegetable mould is formed deep enough for any tree. What a depth of vegetables do we not see accumulated in our peatmoffes, which, of themselves, can form excellent foil by proper treatment: and every one has heard of the rich foil of the American woods, which, in its prefent state, receives only the annual fupply of fallen leaves. The poffibility then of a rich mould being formed by vegetation vegetation alone is certain. Let not the tedioufnefs of the procefs be urged; as much time would, in all probability, be required to reduce into the ftate of an earth, and to spread out in plains, fufed strata raised from the bot tom of the deep. Befides, is there one field in a thousand at this moment, which receives, or from its fituation can receive an accumulation of foil in the manner fuppofed? But to confider the principal point, the lowering of the legh land by the action of rain, rivers, &c. carrying them dowa gradually into the fea. At first, this appears a natural fuppofition, and, to a certain degree, it is true; but on a clofer examination it will be found to act to lefs extent than it may be thought to do. That in the courfe of recorded ages it has done nothing, or next to nothing, the Doctor has candidly allowed. The highest nfountains, . g. the central chain of the Alps, are of an indestructible granite; the fuppofition, therefore, cannot hold with respect to them: Lower ones, if of a decompofable ftone, have decay ed, and at length have been covered with plants and foil; but when once a thick mat of complicated rocks and leaves has been formed, as is the cafe in perhaps of the land of the globe, it is eafy to fee that the power of water to carry down earth from the hills muft be very finall. Indeed we may fay, that the wafte of land is at prefent nearly confined to the beds of rivers, or their banks. What a fmall portion of the earth is this! The comminution of ftones in time produces a little fand, which is carried down, and here and there depofited; but much the greateft part carried off by rivers is mud or earth, perhaps wholly produced from decayed vegetables, and the wafte can be more than fupplied by the growth of every year. The next ftriking feature, in the hypothefis under confideration, is, that the ftrata have been confolidated by heat. Granting that they have been all oriVOL. VII. No 41. ginally depofited at the bottom of the fea, a thing by no means proved, the queftion is natural, How have they attained the aftonishing hardness which, in many places, they are poffeffed of? A dilemma is at once forced upon us, "It must have been either from fire or from water; from water it could not be, therefore it must have been from fire." What authority have we for thus reftricting nature? can any of us fay, that other powers were not employed? Man employs many chemical agents, and fhall nature be reftricted to two? We have never been wit→ neffes of any thing like the formation of a granite, or of a marble; we cannot, therefore, fay how they are produced: one thing we know most certainly, that, in all the ways we can try it, fire is as totally incapable of producing either of them, as water is: reafoning then on the Doctor's own principles, neither of these can be the caufe, we must have recourse to a third; we have efcaped the dilemma, therefore, and need enter it only as we please. But let us amufe outfelves with a comparative view of the effects of fire and of water; we may, perhaps, fee them in a different light: Do we know what degree of hardness a long continuance at the bottom of the fea is able to give, without the affistance of heat? No, certainly. Continuance for a series of ages, and the infiltration of conglutinating matter, may almost do any thing. Thefe are out of the reach of observation; but, in other inftances, from the fimple action of air and water, do we not fee examples of subftances dug from the quarry in a foft state, hardening into stone, without any heat above the common temperature of the atmosphere, and vice verfa? Are there not petrifying waters capable of converting wood into a ve ry hard ftone, without the affiftance of heat? Near Messina, we are informed, is a beach where a great quantity of ftone is every year produced by the Xx depofi |