brother Robert orders to gett ftones as money fhall come in: he writes to me that you are pleased to give leave that they fhould be got in your quarry, for which I thanke you. If it pleafe God to bleffe me with life, I intend to fettle fome land upon the school, to continue for ever; but that land I defire to buy in fome of your neighbour townes, and not in others.When an opportunitie bappens for such a purchafe, I pray let my brother know, Superfcript. MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS. LIFE of COUNT GRIFFENFELD, the DANISH LEGISLATOR; translated from the DANISH of 0. MALLING. RIFFENFELD, one of the most illuf and who were excellent judges, bore ample teftimony to the fuperiority of his powers, and encouraged him to continue with unabating ardour, in that career in which he Grious Natermen that Denmark, may, had already diftinguished himfelf, though that even Europe, can boaft, was not indebted for his high preferments and titles to blind chance. It is rare, however, that men of the moft fhining abilities rife to honours and emoluments merely through perfonal merit. Every man, almoft, has lucky moments in his life; and Griffenfeld, in this refpect, feems to have made the beft ufe of thofe that fell to his lot. He was highly gifted by nature, and thofe gifts were cultivated by the most unremitting industry, and a grasp of mind calculated to embrace great plans, and to render the most important fervices to his country. This is not the place to enumerate the many advantages which the ftate derived from the exertion of his talents; we shall only mention his application to thofe tudies which formed the mind of this great man. Griffenfeld was fcarce nine years of age when he was placed in the school of Co. penhagen: he was not long in this feminary, when he gave public proofs of the promptitude of his genius, which did him great honour. A difputation was to be held in the academy for the degree of doctor: it was a cullom, on thele occafions, that one of the ableft of the students fhould be chofen to recite in public the fubject matter of the thefes which were to be opposed and defended. Young Schumacher (his family name) was named by a large majo rity, and the happy manner in which he difcharged this talk, was a proof that this preference to the reft of his elder fellowftudents was not dictated by party, but that it justified the choice. When he was a junior fophifter, he maintained three public difputations: thole who heard him on thefe occafions, he had fcarce completed the thirteenth year of his age. Griffenfeld did not stand in need of any incitement, his mind was naturally devoted to the pursuit of knowledge. He turned his attention to the ftudy of mathematics, divinity, the Eastern languages, and eloquence. He never miffed a public lecture; he read the best writers he could find, explored new paths in science, and distinguished himself in every department of knowledge. Learning always looks for a guide and protector-Griffenfeld found both. Bishop Brokman, one of the moft pious and learned men of his day, had converted his houfe into a fchool, in which young men of promifing talents were trained up, in all thofe arts that contributed to the happiness and embellishment of that country. The fame of Griffenfield reached this prelate's ear; he therefore adopted him as a fon; as his father, a wine-merchant in Copenhagen, had just died in very indigent circumftances. Here he was left entirely to thofe books and ftudies which pleased him moft. The good bishop foon found that he was not difappointed in the hopes which he had entertained of his pupil. Frederick III. chanced to fup one night with the bishop, who took occafion to fpeak of this young man he prailed him, and as a proof that he had not over-rated the progrefs which he had made in his ftudies, he was called, with the king's permiffion, and explained feveral paffages in the He. brew Bible, with a facility and felicity that pleafed the king fo highly, that he immediately ordered him an annuity of 300 dol. lars for fix years, in order to travel into foreign countries. The royal bounty could not have been directed to a more worthy object, than to a perfon who pre fer.d ferred the acquifition of knowledge to that of wealth, for in all his travels the former was his fole end. In Germany, France, England, Italy, and wherever he came, he reflected honour on his country: he fought out the learned, and they fought him; he attended their lectures, he converfed and correfponded with them on almost every fubject. In England he was peculiarly diftinguished, fo far, that, notwithstanding he was only a Danish ftudent, yet he was requested by the most learned body in that kingdom to fit for his picture, which is honoured with a place amongst the great men in the library of the university of Oxford. Before he fet out on his travels, he laid down a plan, which he followed up with so much fuccess, that his country reaped the advantages of it. He turned his thoughts to the study of ftate policy, a fcience little known to the Danes at the time; he learned to fpeak and write the Jiving languages with fluency and correctnefs; he obferved the effects of the different Laws of every country through which he paffed, on the manners and state of the inhabitants; he weighed the policy and ftate maxims of the different courts, fo that in thefe pursuits and enquiries he expended the pension which his fovereign was pleafed to allow him. in council, he was one day heard to fay" In a fingle Griffenfeld I have found more wifdom than in all this council." ACCOUNT of COUNT ALFIERI and TUSCAN LITERATURE. more; and with him the pure fprings To come out of a regular grammar. fchool, or univerfity, where the Tulcan language is no more taught than the Chinele, is now-a-days a fufficient qualification for any of my countrymen to become authors on literary or scientific subjects in their native tongue.* The writers themselves of grammatical works, while they do not dare to lay On his return to his native country, he of thofe illuftrious fathers of the Tuscan down a fingle rule without the authority fat down to reduce the refult of his obfer- eloquence, Dante, Boccacio, Petrarca, Vilvations into maxim: of ftate, for the mulani, Paffaventi, &c. difgrace their very tual welfare of the king and his people.- pages with the moft trivial, inharmonious, As an inftance of his promptitude, he once and negligent diction. Nothing can be ftepped forth, when no other perfon could be found to do it, and anfwered the speech Grammar, or the Profpetto de Verbi Tofcani, more useful and judicious than Corticelli's of an Imperial Ambaffador in elegant Latin, by Piftolefi; and nothing can be more dethough at the time he scarce knew the con- fpicable than the low ftyle of their pretents of it, and of course had not turned it faces, and grammatical remarks, if we over in his mind. It is not a matter of except the quotations, which thine scatterfurprize then fuch a man should be ap-ed here and there, like diamonds in a dungpointed by his prince to write a Code of Laws for his kingdom, which, for perfpicuity, order, and elegance of language, ftands, even to this day, unrivalled. His actions therefore evince, that a fingle pen is as useful to the state, and as deftructive to the foe, as a host of armed men. It is to be lamented, and cannot be denied, that this extraordinary man, by fome unhappy oversight, furnished his enemies with an opportunity of blafting all his reputation: he was accufed of fome mal-practices, and at laft condemned to lose his head, which was afterwards commuted for perpetual imprisonment. Even in this fallen fituation, the king ufed often to speak of his talents with admiration mingled with regret. As his majefty one day fat hill. Any native of Tufcany or any other *The Tufcan language is taught in the Univerfities out of Tufcany; but thofe fcholars have to furmount the corruption of their dialect (Romans only excepted, who speak univerfally the Tufcan language, with great accuracy, as to the utterance of its founds, Tufcans in point of terms, conjugation of but with far greater corruption than the verbs, idioms, &c.) which they learn with their nurfe; fo that thofe who excel in their Tufcan writings are real phenomena. Such, however, and a very wonderful one too, was Count ALFIERI, born at Afti, in Piedmont. I know of no other fince the days of Bembo and Cafa. part part of Italy may now fet up for a Tufcan poet, if he be only born with a kind of natural sprightliness of mind, which, united to a knowledge of mythology, and the fuperficial reading of fome poets in any language, may enable him to please his readers with imagery, and that tinsel fo violently reproached in Taffo, while only very few lines of his noble poem deferve that charge. These poetafters, nevertheless, speak very highly of Petrarca; but they are far from bestowing any pains in imitating that admirable bard, either in the purity of terms, juftness of epithets, or in the fyntax and construction of the verbs, fentences, and periods. The profe-writers are ftill worfe: they would think it beneath their conceited importance to attend to any thing befides the force of their arguments, or the illuftration of their fubject. They have always ready for their defence these trite lines of Horace, Ar. Poet. Licuit, femperque licebit Signatum præfente notá producere nomen.” If we ask them which are the words that may be faid to be ftamped prafente notá, they immediately reply with another line of the fame author: thofe fanctioned by use or custom «Quem penes arbitrium eft et jus et norma loquendi." Allowed, I would fay to them; but by this custom or use, is it to be understood, in } thefe matters, of the ftyle of writing or fpeaking of the greateft portion of a na tion? Moft certainly not; for Quintilian, Inftit. Orat. Lib. 1, Cap. 6, juftly obferves, that if the use or custom, "ex eo quod plures faciunt, nomen accipiat, periculofiffimum dabit præceptum non orationi modo, fed, quod majus eft, vita." What are we then to understand by custom? The fame author tells it to us ibid. in plain terms, "Confuetudinem fermonis vocabo confenfum eruditorum; ficut vivendi, confenfum bonorum. And who are to be confidered thofe eruditi capable of furnishing a genuine ftandard for literary compofition? Thofe who have ftudied rhetoric in the Latin language; or those who have learnt natural philofophy, mathematics, law, &c. ? How can all these fciences give these eruditi a correct and elegant style, when nei The book used to teach rhetoric in the grammar-schools of Tufcany is written in Latin, and only Latin quotations are introduced in it. I entertain little doubt of this being the cafe in all the schools of Italy. 4 ther themselves nor their preceptors have ever bestowed any time in attentively perufing their best Tuscan claffics, or ftudying their grammarians and critics? I they would make themselves perfectly acquainted with those books, and they were to find the Tufcan language deficient in words to exprefs what they want, then indeed, and only then"Fingere cinetutis non exaudita Cethegis Continget.” What I have obferved on the proper choice of words, is equally applicable to the fyntax of every fentence; and that concinnitas, or callida junctura, as the above Latin critics call it, confifting in that harmonious and elegant arrangement of fentences and periods, fo fascinating in the writings of the pureft Tufcan claffics. Since unfortunately our language has, through neglect, fo much degenerated, in ludicrous, colloquial, or very familiar fubjects, one ought to follow the current, and write or fpeak, as it is now universally done in polite circles: but in lyric, fub. lime, elegant, fcientific, or didactic subwritten upon them fhould be our indifpenjects, the claffics who have refpectively fable guidance as to the style and the fyntax of our writings. For they have not felves, but the Tufcan idiom owes to them only acquired immortal fame for themits own too; without whom it would never have become fo univerfally admired in Europe above all other living languages for its harmony, delicacy, and exquifite beauties.* Our modern profe-writers, however, like to many literary democrats, fcorn to be confined by any rule, and each of them writes according to that language he has molt read; if Latin, like Latins; if Greek, * Horace fays that languages change, and Dr. JOHNSON has adorned the title page of his dictionary with thofe lines; but I maintain that it is only through neglect that languages change-if they were properly culti vated, they would become permanent by books. Such changes may have proved ufeful to the English (though the fublime writings of Shakespeare make me of the contrary opinion, fubmitting always, as a foreigner, to the English literati on this point), but they have proved highly detrimental to the Tufcan language, which had attained its higheft point of perfection in the 14th century. The MEDICI had nearly brought it to its former purity; but, as Alfieri fays, " Boreal fcettre, ineforabil, duro," has foon undone what they had fo gloriously effected. like like Greeks; if French, like the French,&c. As to their Tufcan claffics, far from feriously studying them, they ridicule the very names of Boccacció, Bembo, Cafa, Salviati, &c, &c. and becaule the celebrated Academy Della Crufca have compiled a dictionary from the authority of the pureft authors, and written their explanations and preface with equal ele gance; inftead of availing themselves of this invaluable treasure of Tufcan eloquence; they often compofe lampoons against these eminent compilers, and ridicule them by compofitions fuppofed to come from them, replete with all the ob. folete words to be met with in their Vocabolario; as if they had infinuated the use of thofe antiquated terms, er adopted them themselves: while, on the contrary, they expreffively obferve that fuch words have been registered for the intelligence of ancient authors; and, to warn the reader from adopting them, they have con#tantly annexed to each either the initials V. A. or V. L. meaning as they fay, that fuch a word is either ancient or pure Latin. But no more of this tubject; in vain volumes have been written already upon it; and they might be doubled in vain. The evil is now too univerfal, too inveterate. Let us content ourselves with the perufal of the ancient Tuscan claffics, and thofe who flourished under the MEDICI; and let their admirable language be con fidered as dead. DOMINICO MORIA MANNI* died while I was at Florence, feventeen years ago; and with him the Tufcan profe was buried. VITTORIO ALFIERI is now dead; and with him the Tuican Mules are fled for ever. No other qualification, no other The laft furvivor of the Academicians de la Crufca, author and editor of many works; who had a confiderable share in the compilation of the laft clatiical edition of the Vocabolaria, done at Florence, 1729. + Befides nineteen tragedies, poems, &c Count Alfieri has diftinguished himself by feveral works in profe, written with the greatest purity of tyle and the most impreffive Tufcan elegance, much refembling the famous tranflation of Tacitus, by Davanzati.-It is inexplicable why the criticifms, with which the Count has accompanied the Edition of his tragedies, done at Paris, are written in a moft negligent and unclaffical ftyle, very much like that of his eminent opponent Calzabigi, whole criticisms, and the Count's reply to them, are found in the fame Paris edition of the tragedies, characteristic ornament, no other diftinctive mark, or peculiar beauty, is left to the Tufcan tongue, but the exclu five power of finishing all its words in a vowel.* Count ALFIERI, Mr. Editor, honoured frequently the city of Sienna (my native place) with his prefence; and there the first edition of his inimitable Tragedies appeared, under his immediate infpection, about twenty years ago, in three volumes 4to. When I was first called, as preceptor of the Tulcan language, to enjoy the happiness of living in this blissful land of freedom, in 1789, by the kind invitation of the late JOSIAH WEDGWOOD, Efq. I did not fail to provide myself with these invaluable volumes, and I would venture to fay, that I was the first to import them into Great Britain; since the first notice taken of them, I ever faw, was in a newspaper in 1791; and the Monthly Reviewers gave an account of them in December, 1797. By a chain of fortunate events, having been introduced to that illustrious hifte rian, WILLIAM ROSCOE, Esq. among many flattering honours and inestimable favours, graciously bestowed upon me, both by him, and his amiable and learned friend, WILLIAM CLARKE ESQ. were a few copies of hitherto unpublished poems of LORENZO DE' MEDICI, in 8vo. which have afterwards appeared again in the fecond volurne of his Life. I had only been a few weeks in London, when I heard that Count ALFIERI was an inhabitant of the fame metropolis. I immediately fent him a copy of those poems to Upper Seymour Atreet, with a letter, to which the Count condefcended to make the following answer. "Al Sigre: Antonio Montucci, Londra." ringraziarla vivamente dell' una, e dell' altro. Senza infuperbirmi ; né credere alle non meritate lod; che la di lei gentilezza le dettava, ho ammirato nel fuo foglio la efattezza delle correzioni, e varianti che ella fi é compiaciuta con tanta fua pena inseriroi, e farranno aggiunte al libro. Ho ammirato in lei altresì e il fuo fcrivere, e lo affafforare caldamente il noftro Poeta, (Dante) pregi oramoi rari pur troppo nell' addormentata Italia, che se fteffa, e le fue ricchezze e forge non fente. Mi rallegro dunque di cuore d'aver trovato uno di più, che fente il bello, e fpero al mio ritorno di Scozia, per dove parto a giorni, di nuvamente. rallegrarmene feco di bocca. Intando me le profeffo di cuore As the Italian literati will now be very bufy in collecting all that is extant of that immortal poet, pray, Mr. Editor, communicate them the above letter (by the means of your invaluable miscellany) although addreffed to an infignificant member of the literary world, whofe abilities are confined to giving fome Tuscan leffons, mufing over fome Chinese volumes, and reading the Monthly Magazine for a mental recreation. ANTONIO MONTUCCI. Pancras, April 21, 1804. P. S. Any of your readers defirous of seeing the original of the above letter, will be welcome to a fight, by applying to me. PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE. MEMOIR on the OBSERVATIONS which it is of importance to make on the TIDES, in the different PORTS of the REPUBLIC, read in the SITTING of the 26th FLOREAL, YEAR XI. (May 16, 1803.) It is only when the mafs of facts becomes convincing and plaufible in the aggregate, that premature explications are abandoned, in order to adopt other principles. Experience is the first and the principal intrument of all our phyfical knowledge; nevertheless, before this can be well established, the human mind must have In experimental science its fitting of the 12th Floreal laft, made a confiderable progrets; of course, Infticute had named a committee, conLifting of the Citizens La Place, Rochon, and Levêque, for the purpose of drawing up a plan of obfervations to be made on the tides, in the different ports of the republic. The following memoir contains the views and reflections of the commiffaries on this important object. In the natural fciences, theories are at first, only an explication, more or less ingenious, of the phenomena, which is neceffarily fubordinate to the number of known facts, and to the accuracy with which they have been obferved. Properly fpeaking, it is only a fpecies of outline, more or less extenfive, which embraces all that is known on the fubject treated of. We commonly remain long attached to thefe first theories, or rather thefe firft fketches; time and the authority of authors, confer a fort of fanction on them, the effect of which is to difpenfe with further obfervations, and by that mean to render the science ftationary, during coniderable intervals of time. MONTHLY Mag. No. 116. modern. But if the number and the accuracy of obfervations can alone give rife to true theories, it is equally evident that we do not perceive the neceffity of good obfervations, until we become acquainted with the true laws of nature; it is only at this point of time, that in every part of the natural fciences, the art of observation makes real progrefs and extends its dominion. Amongst the great phenomena of na. ture, that of the flux and reflux of the fea has always been an object of admiration with all men, and of meditation, and even painful inveftigation, for philofophers. Pitheas conjectured that the tides were regulated by the moon. Strabo has tolerably well defcribed the principal phenomena; and, from time to time, different opinions have been propagated as to the caufes of the flux and reflux of the fea, the most remarkable of which, by the number and character of its partizans, is that of De cartes. We find, in fact, some paffages 4 D |