rical compofition, and the delight we take in studying it. Hiftory connects us with paft ages, by the picture of their vices, their virtues, their acquirements, and their errors; and configns ours to the judgment of those that are to come. By it we learn to estimate men only by the good they have done, and not by the falfe fplendour of their appearance. Sovereigns themselves, thofe unhappy beings from whom all combine to conceal the truth, may at this fevere, but just tribunal, anticipate the judgment that will be formed of them. The decifion which history pronounces on the characters of fuch of their predeceffors whom they refemble, is the type of that which pofterity will pronounce with regard to themselves.

I do not know for what reafon the writers of history have almoft univerfally agreed to reduce it to the form of an abridged newspaper, exact as to facts and style. It is faid that the hiftorian ought to abftain from reflections, and leave them to be made by his readers: for my own part, I think, that the best way of fuggefting reflections to a reader, is to make them: the whole art lies in knowing how to manage them, to prefent them at a proper time, to connect them with the fubject in fuch a manner as to augment inftead of diminifhing curiofity. In a word, reflections feem to me as neceffary in order to render history agreeable and to fix facts in the memory, as the demonstrations of geometry are to fix in the mind the truth of a propofition. The historian, it is faid, ought to be merely a witnefs who gives evidence, while reflections would only tend to make his partiality be fufpected. But it appears to me that the very manner of relating facts, make an hiftorian be as much fufpected as reflections can make him; and partiality for partiality, that

which hurts the leaft is to be preferred.

The knowledge of historical facts is connected with philofophy in two ways; by the principles which serve as foundations to hiftorical certainty, and by the advantages which may be derived from hiftory. Men placed on the theatre of the world, are confidered by the philofopher as witneffes, or judged as actors: he ftudies the moral world as he does the phyfical, uninfluenced by prejudice; he attends to the narrative of an author with the fame circumfpection as he does to the phenomena of nature; he obferves the fhades that diltingnifh the true hiftory from the probable, and the probable from the fabulous; he knows the different languages of fimplicity, of flattery, of prejudice, and of hatred; he decides on the characters of hiftory; he determines what regard is to be paid to facts, he judges of the force of evidence, and of the credibility of witneffes: guided by thefe rules, it is chiefly in order to know the men with whom he lives, that he studies the hiftory of thofe who have lived. To the generality of readers, history is the food of curiofity, or a relief from ennui; to him it is only a collection of moral experiments made on the human race; a collection which would be lefs numerous and more complete, were it made only by philofophers; but which, rude as it is, ftill contains many important leffons; as a collection of the medical obfervations of every age, always augmented and always imperfect, forms, notwithflanding, the most effential part of the art of healing. MAN.

The nature of man, the ftudy of which is fo neceffary, is an impenetrable mystery to man himself, when he has nothing but reafon for his guide; and the most acute philofophers, by means of continual reflec

tion,

tion, and deep contemplation on fo important a fubject, often come to know fomething lefs of it than the reft of mankind.

HONOURS.

Reafon, no doubt, permits us to be gratified when honours are paid us: but though, without feeking or expecting them, their acquirement may increase our felicity, their abfence ought not to impair it; in this confifts true philofophy, and not in affesting to defpife what we wish for; it would be to eftimate honours too highly, either to fhun them too eagerly, or to court them with too much avidity; thefe contrary effects are produced by the fame caufe, excefs of vanity.

HYPOCRISY.

Hypocrify is not only deteflable by the mafk it puts on, but ridiculous from the tranfparency of that mafk; its inward refentment against thofe that discover it, and its fecret anguish upon detection, proceed lefs from knowing that it is hated, than in feeling that it is defpifed.

MEN OF LETTERS.

Thofe men of letters who cannot find in the commerce of the world any hints for the illuftration of the particular objects of their ftudy, ought only to frequent thofe focieties where they may find, in the fweets of mutual confidence and friendship, a neceffary relaxation. Of what advantage to a philofopher are our frivolous converfations? they ferve only to narrow his mind, and to deprive him of thofe excellent ideas which he might acquire by reading or meditation. It was not at the Hotel de Rambouillet that Defcartes difcovered the application of Algebra to Geometry, nor at the Court of Charles II. that Newton conceived the idea of univerfal gravitation; and as to the manner of writing, Mallebranche, who lived in retreat, and whofe only relaxations were little childish fports, is confider

We have innumerable treatises on Logic; but has the art of reasoning occafion for fo many rules? To fucceed in this art, it is as unneceffary to have read all these writings, as it would be to have read all the enor mous treatifes on morality in order to become honest men. Geometricians, without fubjecting themselves to the rules of Logic, and having only good fenfe for their guide, arrive, by a road that is always fure, at the moft diftant and abftract truths; while fo many philofophers, or rather writers on philofophy, feem to have put at the head of their works large ef fays on the art of reafoning, only that they might bewilder themselves methodically; like thofe unhappy game. fters who spend much time in calcu lating chances, and lofe after all, PHILOSOPHY.

It has been faid that, for the good of their people, kings ought to be phi lofophers. It would be fufficient if they were furrounded by the wife; but philofophy flies from courts wbere it would become cynical, and confe. quently ill-received. Ariftotle grew at last diffatisfied with Alexander, and Plato, at the court of Dionyfius, complained of being fubjected in his old age to the caprices of a tyrant. In vain did another philofopher, a flatterer of the fame Dionyfius, endea vour to excufe his attendance upon the court, by faying, that phyficians fhould attend the fick: it might have been anfwered, that when diseases are incurable and contagious, one expofes onefelf to catch the infection, by undertaking to cure it. If there ought to be philofophers at court, it is juft as there ought to be profeffors of Arabic in the republic of letters, to teach a language which no body ftudies, and which they themselves are in danger of forgetting without conftant application to it,

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The leading views of the mind, the predominant paffions, the fentiments that fink deepest into the heart, the maxims by which men are governed in the conduct of life, recur more frequently than any others, in their converfation, their literary compofitions, and epiftolary correfpondence; according to that fcriptural proverb, Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth fpeaketh. If it be juft to form an eftimate of the king of Pruffia by this standard, we shall find that his ruling paffion was a love of glory. He was ambitious of excellence of every kind: and from his earlieft manhood conceived the defign, in which he ever afterwards perfevered with unremitting conftancy, of rifing to proud diftinction by arts and arms, and of rendering his name immortal. Defined by fate to fill a throne, he forefaw a time when he would be called to act a part on the great theatre of the world, in the character of a warrior, a legiflator, and a statefman. The interval he employed in fuch ftudies as at once prepared him for fuftaining thofe characters with advantage, and nourishing his paffion for fame. Princes, who look back to a long line of ancestry, and forward to the condition of their progeny, are more warmly interested, and feel themfelves more nearly related VOL. X. No. 59.

PP

walks of life, whofe views are confined to the prefent period, and who are often toffed about from one fituation to another by the caprice of fortune. Frederic, who inherited ample dominions in Germany, and whofe family had given more than one fucceffor to what remained of the dignity and power of the Cæfars, was naturally enamoured of the Roman hiftory, and particularly of the writings of Julius Cæfar and Tacitus. All that pertained to the Romans, undoubtedly the greatest and most powerful nation, as well as the moft diftinguifhed by good fenfe, that appears on the roll of hiftorical records, he studied, not with the paltry aim of a school-boy or pedant, fedulous to acquire a reputation for Roman literature and language, but with the practical and important views of a philofophical commander and fatefman. We find him, accordingly, adopting, in his own conduct, not only many of their political, but alfo military maxims. For, as the king juftly obferves, though the inftruments of war may be changed, the laws of caftro-metation, of occupying and taking advantage of ground, and other particulars, being fixed in human nature, and the nature of things, are immutable. From the Roman Hiftory he drew feveral wife maxims for infpiriting his troops in war, and difpofing of them in times of peace. Never, perhaps, was any man fo fully fenfible how eafily defpondency or courage is communicated to the minds of men; how great the power of hope and fear, praife and blame, reward and punishment. He entertained a juft fenfe of the extreme difficulty that attends every attempt to unravel the thread of fecond caufes, and to penetrate the real motives that influence the wills of men. Appear

ances,

ances, in general, he judged to be deceitful: the greatest princes, he obferved, had but very little power over human affairs: the utmoft force and fagacity were, in general, foiled by unexpected events: fome invifible and unknown power feemed difdainfully to fport with human projects. But, while the king was thus of opinion with the hiftorian Salluft, that all things were governed by chance, in fact he was alfo of opinion with the fame hiftorian, that not a little was within the compass of human resources, and that it was poffible for men, if they were in general controlled, in many inftances to control fortune. The engines he opposed to the caprices of fortune were two, perfeverance and a ftrict economy. Unawed by what he emphatically called the phantoms of futurity, he ftudied to improve prefent circumftances, confident, that though chance might deftroy a fingle aim, perfevering wifdom would prevail at laft. In all the turnings of intrigue and nogociation, he was never difcouraged by any repulfe. Even when he had to encounter ftrong prejudices, he boldly made an attack. Though beaten back, he renewed the charge, under the conviction that ideas, how ever unwelcome to the imagination at, first, by repetition become familiar, and by familiarity make an impreffion. Firm in his purposes, he was neither tranfported by profperity nor depreffed by adverfity. It has been obferved, that the king of Pruffia, on feveral occafions, committed more to hazard than became a prudent general; and his fpirit of adventure has been contrafted with the caution of Prince Ferdinand of Brunfwick. But when we confider that he never went abfolutely on a forlorn hope, and reflect on his great maxim refpecting the inability of fortune, and the deceitfulness of appearances, we fhall conclude that Frederic the Great, even in thofe fteps that appeared to

be precipitate, calculated the chances of making up for poffible lofs by pofitive perfeverance. That he might, by means of perfeverance, overcome chance, and weary out the caprices of fortune, he not only obferved great economy, but employed his difcerning mind in encreafing the refources of wealth by the encouragement of agri culture, manufactures, and general induftry. If, in certain inftances, and particularly where ufelefs pomp and parade were concerned, his œconomy feemed to border on severity; his bounty to the ingenious and induftrious husbandman was carried to an equal length on the other fide.

The king of Pruffia was at much pains to learn the fentiments of the great body of the people, and of intelligent fpectators or by-ftanders in every nation with which he had to do, concerning the character and conduct of their own miniftry. In every kingdom,' fays he, there are men of fenfe, who fee objects in a found, clear, and difpaffionate light: whereas thofe who hold the reins of government look at things with fascinated eyes, and are often led into confequences they did not forefee, but which they fupport, as they refulted from the measures which they had adopted.'

Frederic, in judging of characters, did not fuppofe, that because a man was evidently poffeffed of one quality he might not be poffeffed of other qualities that might feem to be incompatible with it. Though a perfon were evidently governed by a certain humour in certain circumftances, he confidered that he might be governed by a different humour in different circumftances. He counted on great inequality of temper and difpofition. The inconfift encies of the human mind did not furprife him; he looked for them.

He laid infinite ftrefs on fecrecy of defign and celerity of execution. And in order to conceal Lis defigns, he did not think it fufficient to obferve a pro

found