ences the philofopher is expofed during an uninterupted series of lunar obfervations. As the moon during a revolution may pafs through the meridian at all hours of the day or night; the aftronomer who day after day profecutes fuch obfervations, muft be prepared at all, even the moft inconvenient, hours, and facrifice to them his fleep and all his enjoyments. How fecluded from all the pleasures of focial intercourfe, and how fatiguing fuch a mode of life is; thofe aftronomers, indeed, know not who then only fet their pendulum-clocks in motion, when fome of the eclipfes of the fun, moon, or of the fatellites of Jupiter, are to be viewed. At this time, and in the present ftate of the fcience, these are juft the most infignificant obfervations; and an able aftronomer, well fupplied with accurate inftruments, may every day, if he take into his view the whole of his profeffion, make more important and more neceffary obfervations.

Le Monnier was Lalande's preceptor, and worthy of fuch a scholar: and he promoted his ftudies by his advice and by every other means in his power. Le Monnier's penetrating mind, indeed prefaged in young Lalande, then only fixteen years old, what in the fequel has been fo fplendidly confirmed. In his twentieth year, he became, on the recommendation of his preceptor, a member of the Royal Academy: and in 1752 he was propofed by him as the fitteft perfon to be fent to Berlin, to make with La Caille's, who had been fent to the Cape of Good Hope, correfpondent obfervations for the purpofe of determining the parallaxes of the moon, then but imperfectly known. Le Monnier lent his pupil for this expedition bis mural quadrant of five feet. His zeal for aftronomy knew no bounds. For this reafon, Lalande, in his Notice des Travaux du C. Le Monnier, fays of himself: "Je fuis moi-même le principal refultat de fon zèle pour l'astronomie."

Le Monnier was naturally of a very irritable temper; as ardently as he loved his friends, as easily could he be offended; and his hatred was then implacable. Lalande, as he himself expreffès it, had the misfortune to incur the difpleasure of his beloved preceptor; and he never after could regain his favour. But Lalande's gratitude and refpect for him always continued undiminished, and were on every occafion with unremitting conftancy publicly declared: patiently he endured from him undeferved ill-treatment; fo much did he love and efteem his inftructor and mafter to the day of his death. "I have

not ceafed to exclaim (writes Lalande), as Diogenes exclaimed to his master Antifthenes: you cannot find a stick strong enough to drive me away from you!"

What a noble trait in the character of Lalande! If the readers of his correfpondence in the General Geographical Ephemerides have not already perceived that nobleness of foul and unaffected candour form the outline of his character; they would be completely convinced of it, if I were permitted to print many other interefting paffages in his letters. Such characterif tic traits of celebrated men deserve to be recorded and made public; not their trifling and innoxious weakneffes held up to view with all the glaring colours of witticifm. In 1797, Lalande wrote an eulogium on Le Monnier for the Conn. des Tems, in the language of a grateful pupil, penetrated with fentiments of profound veneration and efteem for his beloved mafter but Le Monnier refused to read it. When I had the pleasure of enjoying the familiar converfation of Lalande in 1798, often has he related to me many particulars of the harsh and implacable treatment and refentment of Le Monnier, whom he never ceased to revere; and as he told me the affecting hiftory of their variance, tears would involuntarily start into the eyes of the worthy old man.

This is not the place to give a circumftantial account of this intricate quarrel; we fhall only farther remark, that La lande was the warm friend and admirer of the no less eminent aftronomer La Caille, whom Le Monnier mortally hated. An intimate friendship likewife fubfifted between Le Monnier and D'Alembert, but Lalande had no friendly intercourse with the latter.

The celebrated geometrician and profeffor of Mathematics at Utrecht, Hennert, may likewife be reckoned among the fcholars of Le Monnier. I here fubjoin an extract from a letter which Mr. H. wrote me from Utrecht, the 26th of

May, 1797: "Le Monnier is a penetrating and philofophical aftronomer: I learned much from him in Paris; though I lodged with the late De l'Ifle, where I frequently made obfervations in company with Meffier. Le Monnier was the friend of D'Alembert; and consequently an oppofer of Lalande."

Le Monnier left behind him fome valuable manufcripts, and a number of good obfervations, with respect to which he had always been very whimsical, and of which in his latter years he never would publish any thing. He had by him a series of lu

He

nar obfervations, and a multitude of obfervations of the ftars, for a Catalogue of the Stars, which he had announced fo early as the year 1741; among which was twice to be found the new planet Uranus. (See Lalande's Aftronomie, Tables, p. 188.) The more he was requested to communicate his obfervations, the more obftinate he became; he even threatened to destroy them. At the breaking out of the revolution, Lalande was greatly alarmed for the fafety of thele papers; he wished to preferve them from deftruction, and made an attempt to get them into his poffeffion; but all his endeavours were in vain. was only able to learn, that Le Monnier had hidden them under the roof of his houfe. Le Monnier having been firft feized with a fit of the apoplexy fo early as the 10th of November 1791; Lalande apprehended, left, if no one except hitelf should know where he had hidden his papers, the infirm old man might perhaps have himfelf forgot it. He hopes, however, that his fon-in-law, La Grange, may have fome information concerning them. Le Monnier left behind him three married daughters, the fecond of whom was on the 31ft of May, 1792, led to the altar of Hymen by

the celebrated La Grange.

REVOLUTIONARY ANECDOTES. [Interefting and Original Anecdotes of the French Revolution; to be continued in a regular feries from its commencement to the prefent period, and including its fecret biflory.]

ON

WESTERMANN.

N the 3d of July 1794, General Weftermann, at the head of three thousand five hundred men, took poffeffion of Châtillon, in La Vendée; and delivered more than fix hundred prifoners of the troops of the line, with the wives, mothers, and daughters of the adminiftrators of Parthenay, whom the royalists had taken as hoftages, after having pillaged every thing which that unfortunate town contained.The royalifts made a gallant refiftance; but they were the victims of a rash mode of warfare, which they had employed with fuccefs against troops lefs inured to war. They endeavoured to throw themfelves upon the cannon, and carry thein off by main ftrength; but a few discharges of grape-fhot brought great numbers of them to the ground, and put the reft to the rout. They owed their fafety to flight, and to the Bois aux Chévres, (Goats' Wood), which afforded them a place of refuge.

Two days after they contrived to take

their revenge in a manner equally artful and fanguinary. The republicans being au bivouac under the walls of Châtillon, at twelve o'clock in the day, the hour at which the grand guard was relieved, the out-pofts perceived a large drove of oxen on the high road advancing towards them with hafty steps, and made no doubt that they would turn out an excellent prize. Thefe oxen were driven en by a column of royalifts who were concealed by a cloud of duft raifed by the feet of the cattle. At the moment when the republicans were about to feize their prey, they were affailed by the above column, and by a great number of royalifts hid among the corn. The cavalry had only time to leap upon their hortes, while the enemy fell upon the artillery, and mafiacred the cannoneers at their poft.

The

An artillery-man -man feeing all his comrades lie dead by his fide, having one of his arms broken, and being on the point of falling into the hands of the enemy, took up the match, placed himself before the gun, and thus blew himfelf from its mouth. royalifts killed every thing that came in their way. Only a fmall part of the cavalry efcaped, and fixty infantry commanded by a chief of battalion. Thefe were all that remained of Wettermann's legion*.

The fratagem of the royalifts was however foon repaid by another.

In the month of October following, Chalbos, General of Divifion, marched to Châtillon at the head of twenty thousand

men,

He

and took poffeffion of the place. Three days after, Weftermann, who commanded the van guard, going out to reconnoitre, perceived the enemy advancing towards the town with a fuperior force. haftened to fend information of it to General Chalbos, and advised him to prepare to repel the attack. "This is a mere vifion, (anfwered Chalbos); Wettermann does nothing but dream." He was foon undeceived. The royalists attacked, on

*This was not the first time that oxen had

The been employed in ftratagems of war. claffical reader will remember with what addrefs Hannibal made ufe of them, in order to extricate himself from a perilous fituation, between the rocks of Formiæ on one fide, and the marfhes of Linternum on the other. That able general collected two thoufand oxen, tied bundles of vine-cuttings to their horns, fet fire to them in the night, and then drove the infuriated animals towards the heights and paffes occupied by the Romans, who fled panic-ftruck, and gave the Carthaginians time to pass the defile.

every fide, the final detachment commanded by Weftermann, who fell back upon Châtillon, thinking there to find affiftance; but the royalifts entered the place at the fame time, and met with no refiftance from the troops ftationed there, who were completely furprifed. The republican column was confequently put to the rout, and all the baggage fell into the hands of the enemy.

The fugitives being rallied in the Bois aux Chévres, Weftermann arrived in a rage again't Chalbos, called him a coward, and a man incapable of commanding republicans, threw away his fabre, and fwore that he would abandon the fervice. His comrades crowded round and confoled him. "Where (faid he) are the cafks of brandy?" The brigands have got them." -" So much the better. Where were they left?"- "At the entrance of the town." -"Are there fixty brave fellows among you, who will follow me?"-" We will, all!"

To these fixty men he added three hundred chofen grenadiers; threw his coat upon a hedge, fet off for the place where the brandy had been left, ordered his detachment to use the fame cri de guerre as the royalists, and not to fire a flot. He reached Châtillon at the beginning of the night, crying, Vive le Roi; cut down every thing that came in his way; fet fire to the town in all quarters, and made a horrible carnage of the royalifts, who were dead-drunk with brandy. He was difcovered by only a fingle man, who, perceiving himself wounded by the general, cried out, but too late, ""Tis Wefter

mann !"

CAVERNS OF LA VENDEE.

Ir is not without reafon that the war of La Vendée has been confidered as one of the most extraordinary that the annals of the world ever had to record. It was faid in ancient times that armies fprang out of the earth; but this was merely a poetical fiction. In La Vendée it was realifed. The royalifts had dug caverns into which they carried pieces of cannon, and stationed there confiderable bodies of troops. It was there in particular that the priests, monks and brigands concealed

themselves. The alarm was given to them by men, generally dreffed like woodcutters, who climbed to the top of trees, and by whittling informed them of the approach of their victims. Sometimes this fanguinary miniftry was filled by women, who tended cows, by young thepherds, or by children.

The entrance to thefe caverns was a heap of earth covered with fod, over which the paflenger might tread without fufpicion. They were difcovered in the following manner. Two Chouans who were taken prifoners, carried to L'Orient, and about to be tried by the Military Commiffion, promised to point them out, provided a pardon were granted them. They obtained it. Dardure, lieutenant of gre-, nadiers, of the eleventh Parisian battalion, undertook to go and vifit thefe gloomy retreats, put on the difguife of a Chouan, and fet off accompanied by the two guides, who fhewed him one of the caverns, but from a distance, for fear of being recog nized.

Over this fubterraneous camp a very aged woman was ftanding fentinel. To her Dardure addressed himself in the language of a Chouan, and by dint of artifice and entreaty prevailed on her to indicate the entrance. He had before concerted his meafures with a detachment concealed at a Imall diftance. A gefture was the fignal for their approach; Dardure entered at the head of them, and found the cave full of peasants, with monks and priefts in their clerical habits. They were immediately feized, conducted to L'Orient, and shot. Ere long, the department of Morbihan, which was particularly infefted with brigands, was cleared of thefe mysterious retreats whence they iffued unawares.

This was not the firft brave action of lieutenant Dardure. At Vertont, a village a league diftant from Nantz, he found himself furrounded by three hundred royalifts, his detachment, from which he was feparated, confifting of only thirty fix grenadiers. He immediately cried out, "Fire upon me, I am in the midst of the brigands!" But he defended himself with fo much ftrength and dextery, that he contrived to efcape, leaving feventeen of his men dead upon the fpot.

MONTHLY MAG. No. XLIX,

4 M

ORIGINAL

HYMN TO CUPID *.

1.

HAIL, rofy fon of Venus! hail!

To thee our vows and incenfe rife.Leave, at our call, thy native skies, And in thy vot'ries' bosoms dwell!

II.

All hearts with glowing shafts subdue; With ten-fold heat inflame each foul; 'Till lovers figh from pole to pole, And ev'ry knee is bent to You!

III,

Oh! may bright Venus' orient beam
Soon usher in th' aufpicious day,
When thou on earth, enthron'd fupreme,
Shalt reign with unrefifted fway!

IV.

Thy councils Love and Joy fhall guide, And frame thy laws to rule the land; And blooming Beauty, by thy fide, Thy trufty minifter shall stand.

V.

Thy guards shall be the dimpling fmiles, And lightnings fhot from melting eyes, And confcious blushes, wanton wiles,

And whispers foft, and am'rous fighs.

VI.

Gay Youth fhall o'er their flutt'ring bands,
As chief, prefide,-attentive ftill
To watch thy nod, bear thy commands,
And execute thy mighty will.

VII.

Lo! from thy amarantine bow'r
Their hoft quick rushes at his call:-
And foon fhall each oppofing pow'r
Before their conqu'ring legions fall.
VIII.

Then, in thy filken fetters bound,
Earth's various tribes, around thy throne,
Shall captive bow their heads to ground,
And THEE their fovereign ruler own.

IX.

E'en ftubborn Mars, fubdu'd, enchain'd, Before thy fhrine fubmifs fhall kneel, Shall rend the wreath by valour gain'd, And fighing break the murd'rous fteel. X.

With his own hand from earth he'll tear His fav'rite laurel drench'd with blood, And in its place the myrtle rear,

With nectar's juice by thee bedew'd.

*The difference, in the arrangement of the rhymes, between the first two and the fucceeding ftanzas, arofe from cafual overfight, and their having been written at very diftant periods from each other; the latter being now added at the requeft of a friend who wished fome addition to the former, on feeing them in print.

Leads to thefe northern climes the blushing day

From Ethiop's burning plains refulgent borne.

No cloud acrofs the welkin fteers its courfe

Upon the earth to pour its genial show'rs; No fountain bubbles from its mofly fource, No fparkling dews refresh the fainting flow'rs.

The beech juft deck'd in April's varied hues,

Droops o'er its graffy feat all faint and pale; Its widely fpreading arms their foliage loose, And yield their ripening honours to the gale. Beneath the golden fheaf, (his labour done) The weary reaper lays him down to rest; Whilft lovely Sylvia fhades him from the fun, Or wipes the drops from off his brawny breast. There too extended on the burning ground

The filent cur reclines befide the pair; The happy group repofe in fleep profound, Lull'd by the murmuring flies that fan the air.

The amorous bull, that burnt with fierce defire,

And fmote the rugged oak with angry roar Languid and weak, now fee him flow retire, To cool his paffion on the breezy shore. There as he bellows 'mong the echoing caves,

And to the breeze uplifts his curly brows, The conícious heifer, ftanding in the waves, Anfwers his ardent flame with gentle lowes

The