containing much erudition badly digefted, little accuracy, and no tafte, is devoted to the hiftory of the ancients, and authors of the middle age. Baillet, two hundred years after, revifed, on a new. plan, the obfcure work of Raphaël de Volterre, and gave it the title of Jugemens des Savans. But in fpite of the difplay of fcience we meet with, in fpite of the fcepticifin of the author, which, contrary to his religious principles, is fometimes difplayed, there is fo much incorrectness in his judgements, that the laft volume is occupied entirely in anfwering the objections of Menage, and inclines one even to condemn a work that one might otherwife offer for a model. The guides of Baillet, as well as of Raphaël, feem to have been thofe hif torians, who have confined their refearches to writers of a particular clafs; and they have not neglected any walk, in which the buman mind has recreated, or by which it has been aggrandized. Shall we now fpeak of theology, which, to the fhame of civilized Europe, for fo many ages has been the fcience most ftudied? The Hiftory of Ecclefiaftical Writers, of William Cave, attracts the attention of thofe who value that kind of refearch. The Nouvelle Bibliotheque of Elles Dupin, doctor of the Sorbonne, is more complete. This laft work, with the additions of Gouget, is comprifed in no lets than fifty volumes octavo, but might be reduced, in the crucible of the philofo. pher, to one. Medicine, which sometimes, like theology, has been in the hands of quacks, has found hiftorians in almoft every nation of Europe London and Geneva have furnifhed two of high celebrity; Freind, who has had the judgement to devote only one quarto volume to the hiftory of Medicine, fince the times of Galen to the fixteenth century; and Manget, who has had the patience to complete four volumes in folio, called Bibliotheque des Medecins: these two works have fince been rendered useless by the infinitely more judicious one of Leclerc. Philofophy cannot be forgotten in this long enumeration; for every where, when enlightened men appear, there are found others who take or ufurp in their writings the name of philofophers. The difciples of Scotus, on the banks of the Sorbonne, believe themfelves little inferior to Plato or Tacitus. It is in Brucker and Stanley, difguifed, traveltied and mutilated in fo many ways, through different encyclopedias, one mult expect to find the elements of what I call a philofophical library. It is not only neceffary to confult authors who have collated many works; but it is of importance alfo to have recourse to thofe enlightened men who, in every country, have been celebrated by their fellowcitizens; or, what is still more difficult, to give them their proper immortality. Here the fources of intelligence are most pure, because an author is never better known than in that age which he has illuftrated by his genius; but they are at the fame time most abundant, fo that their index alone would fill a volume. To fpeak of Spain.-About 1592, Ifidore gave his countrymen a volume in folio, under the title of De Claris Hifpanie Scriptoribus. About one hundred years after, Antonio published four, with the name of Bibliotheca Hifpana: this laft work took in the literary History of Spain, fince the time of Auguftus Hyginus, that dreamier over ancient mythology, to Peter Ximenes, bishop of Coria, which last circumftance is proper to be mentioned, that he might not be confounded with the celebrated Cardinal of the fame name, to whom we are indebted for the fuperb Polyglott. If we extend our view to Sicily, we shall find the Bibliotheque Sicilienne. Should we go to the Low Countries; we meet with the Bibliotheque Belgique of Foppens. If we ftop at Germany, we fee the Bibliotheque Germanique of Hertzius. All is bibliotheque in an age of erudition: in aftertimes, however, very few things are admitted into the little bibliotheque of tafte. Germany, befide her general hiftories of those whom the calls illuftrious writers, has alfo a crowd of provincial hiftories, confecrated to villages, monafteries, and academies. Who would believe for example, that Æpinus and Boyer published, in 1728 and 1729, two volumes in quarto to celebrate the profeffors of the little univerfity of Altorff. England, alto, and France have paid their tribute to the memory of men of letters but as the learned philologifts, who attempt works fimilar to thefe, exclude no fpecies of human knowledge, nor any nation; and as thefe voluminous collections are better to confult, than to read; the form of them molt commodious for every klats of readers, is that of a dictionary. In the mean time it is proper to remark, that the firft idea of an historical collection of men of letters, in an alphabetical form, is difputed between a Spaniard and a German. The Spaniard wrote his history first, and kept it by him; the German finished his work after, published it, and carried away the glory of the dif covery. The Spaniard was a Jacobin, his name was Ciaconio, the most learned man of his age, and above all the moft tolerant, if we may judge from his Treatile On the Soul of Trajan, drawn from hell by the prayers of Saint Gregory. He made a collection, in Latin, of all the most celebrated writers, from the beginning of the world to his own time: but at the moment of printing them, the cenfors refufed their approbation; he quietly then withdrew his manufcript, and this act of obedience obtained for him the rank of a faint, together with the title of patriarch of Alexandria. The work of Ciaconio, finished about the year 1533, was not published till two hundred years after; thanks to the learn ed Camufat at last, who took it from the dufty fhelves of a monaftery, and gave it to the world under the aufpices of Cardinal de Fleury. Twelve years after Ciaconio, the German of whom I fpoke, Conrad Gellner, not fearing, as a proteftant, to fee his thoughts circumfcribed by the Roman cenfor's compaffes, published at Zurich his Bibliotheque Univerfelle, in alphabetical order; a work which feems to poffefs all that Ciaconio's promited, and which has fince acquired fresh value from the judicious abridgements made at different times, by Lycopene and Semler. Geffner was the Pliny of Germany, yet could not efcape, though his labours were immenfe, the horrors of indigence, and died happily of the plague, at a time when he was perifhing by famine. The Academy at Etienne, in France, taught by the example of Geffner, composed in Latin, on his plan, but with erudition little digefted, their Géographique, Hiftorique Poetique Dictionnaire, which appeared for the firft time in the year 1596. England, the literary rival of France, as well in letters as in arms, naturalized this treasure, and reprinted it with the additions of Nicholas Lloyd, in 1670, at Oxford, in one volume folio. The fuccefs of the work of Etienne, enlarged by Lloyd, electrified Moreri. This perfon endeavoured to obliterate his model for an Hiftorical Dictionary printed at Lyons, by the production of another; -a piece of fuperfetation, the grand merit of which is, to have given birth to that chef-d'oeuvre of modern erudition and philolophy, the dictionary of Bayle, Bayle himself, in fpite of eulogies fo juftly merited, was nothing more than a mere compiler; he has only inferted in his book, articles, with the materials of which other perfons had furnished him. He wifhed to draw from oblivion an innumerable crowd of theologians, round whom philofophy would rather have thickened the impending fhades. He has inadvertently made his text for his notes, and not, as it ought to be, his notes for his text. He has laboriously diffeminated his knowledge through four folio volumes, becaufe he wrote for the bookfellers; but if he had liftened to the voice of his own genius, which told him to labour for glory, he would have reduced to one half volume his pafsport to immortality. The idea of rendering the dictionary of Bayle more extenfive, ftruck many in Europe, as a thing proper to be attempted. In the year 1739, the bookfellers of Holland addreffed themfelves to a fcholar, till then unknown, and entreated him to make a continuation of Bayle; juft as we have feen at Paris the bookfellers contemporary with Montefquieu folicit the firft literary man of his age, to make a fecond volume of Lettres Perfannes. A learned man, of the name of Chauffepié, fell into the fare: he published, in the middle of this century, four enormous volumes in folio, as his model, and had the vanity to entitle himself the fecond Bayle, which met only with the approbation of his friends and his own intolerable felf love. Another imitator of Bayle, a little more efteemed than Chauffepré, is Profper Marchand; but he is very incorrect. France has, of her own literary hiftory, a great number of valuable works, wherein the may justly pride herfelf. I shall not fpeak here of the Literary Hiftory of the Benedictines, because it was not extended to thofe ages which can antwer the purpose of any double furvey of literature. But I fhall notice, with gratitude, the excellent Gloffary of Ducange, if I find it neceffary to weigh in the balance of reafon the di plomas, the charters and writings of the middle age; as well as the excellent work of De Lelong, and De Fontenelle, on our hiftorians the philofopher thould not be frightened at the fight of five volumes in folio of those two laft collections, if he flatters himself, by confulting them, he shall one day become the Titus Livius of men of letters. In the long interval, between Lelong and Ducange, we must place thofe laborious collators Gouget and Niceron, one of whom, in his Bibliotheque Française, and the the other in his Mémoires fur la Vie des Hommes illuftres, have prepared the materials of a good hiftory of Literature. Thefe are the mafons, without which the Historical architect could not raife his edifice. The best memoirs of this kind, in my opinion, is the hiftory of our three academies, and, above all, the eulogies pronounced at the Louvre, by the Frerets, the D'Alemberts, the Condorcets, and the Fontenelles. Such is the analysis of the conftituent parts of my literary mine. All the ores are not equally rich; but one has brought erudition, and another tafte, to their refpective crucibles; and the best improvement of thefe materials is now the bufinefs of philofophy. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, NY of your readers would much A oblige me by informing me where I can have the infpection of Mr. Hume's hand-writing; as I wish to afcertain, beyond the poffibility of doubt, the authen ticity of fome unpublished MSS reputed to be written by him, and now in my poffef tion. I should also be obliged by any information concerning Sir Henry Cary, who was fent by James I. on an embaffy to France. Yours, &c. Sept. 5, 1799. cus, it is not improbable that this art may have been fuccefsfully employed to render the rude and stubborn timbers fomewhat pliable; but as the magnitude and ftrength of the parts increafed, it would become lefs easily applicable and efficacious, and confequently fall into difufe. an Mr. Wakefield will readily pardon this correction of a trifling inaccuracy, as it does not in the leaft affect the merit of the Latin quotation; for I cannot but remember how contemptuously he speaks of an acquaintance with "manual fcience," if employed in the criticism of poetry, when reviewing Dr. Johnson's ftrictures on a line of Gray's Bard, in his valuable edition of that unrivalled lyric poet. And he will alfo excufe the addition of another remark, which fuggefts itself on the prefent occafion, and is not altogether unconnected with the preceding fubject. Mr. Wakefield's extenfive erudition, and exquifite relish for the beauties of poetry, enable him to bring together, and compare in all their fhades and difcriminations, the vast variety of coincidences of thought and expreffion that occur in the great poets of ancient and modern times: occupation in which he apparently finds confiderable enjoyment himfelf, and certainly communicates a great deal to his readers. But he is too fond of exhibiting thefe paffages as imitations, and with this view, is over curious in tracing the progrefs of an idea, an image, or a phrafe. With W. him a fingle word, or a fimilar turn of expreffion, often affords fufficient ground for affirming that the author bad fuch another in his eye when he compofed the verse or paffage in question. But furely this is lowering the nature, and contracting the extent, of our mental powers. Would it not be more animating and invigorating to confider thefe fcattered poetic bloffoms, thus collected into clusters, not as the produce of feeds wafted from a few parentplants, but as all fpringing up independently in the rich foil of genius, and under the foftering influence of education? A felection from ancient and modern poets, formed on this principle, and confifting of paffages where the refemblance is not too fanciful and evanefcent, would afford a high literary gratification to youthful fcholars; nor would it be unworthy of Mr. Wakefield's leifure hours, fince only erudition the most varied, and memory the moft retentive, fuch as he is acknowledged to poffefs, are adequate to the task. I am, &c. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. IN SIR, N your Magazine for Auguft laft, I find a communication from Mr. Wakefield, in which that acute critic has been led into a mistake evidently from his ignorance of a common mechanic art. The paffage quoted from the Argonautics of Valerius Flaccus, Lenteque fequaces Molliri videt igne trabescannot, without unwarrantable latitude of conjecture, be confidered as furnishing even a diftant allufion to the application of fleam; it, indeed, exactly coincides with a modern practice, which we have no reafon to think has ever been loft fince its difcovery, well understood by every cooper, who always employs the action of a gentle and flow heat in foftening and bending the ftaves till they affume the fpheroidal form of the cafk. In the infancy of hip-building, when veffels were of a small size, and perhaps even in the days of Valerius Flac Sept. 10, 1799. N. K. WHIC HICH is feldom mentioned by poets and orators without a perfonification, has, however, been the fubject of few exprefs portraitures. The common skeleton figure of Death, with his dart and hour-glass, is a very vulgar and trivial conception. It must alfo appear to any one who reflects on the nature of the animal body, grofsly abfurd to reprefent the moft powerful of beings under a form deftitute of every part which contributes to motion and energy. But in this inftance, as in many others, the ideas of agent and patient are incongruously blended. Milton, whofe genius foared infinitely above the pitch of common imaginations, has given a very fublime, but at the fame time indiftinct, image of this terrific power. It is in the well-known allegory of Sin and Death. The other shape, If fhape it might be call'd that shape had none For each feem'd either; black it stood as Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell, pear the obfcure lineaments of a horrid phantom, fufficiently refembling the poet's idea, to produce all the effect he intended. Though it is poffible Milton might have taken a hint from the following paffage of Spenfer, yet I think it can scarcely be faid that the former was borrowed from the latter, as Mr. Thyer reprefents. But after all came Life; and laftly Death, Death with moft grim and grifsly vifage feen, Yet he is nought but parting of the breath, No ought to fee, but like a fhade to ween, Unbodied, unfouled, unheard, unfeen. F. Q. VII. 7. The whole of picture is in the fecond of thefe lines it is the metaphyfical account of Death alone, to which the rest refer. A critic, with more probability, has pointed out Homer's description of Hercules in the lower regions (Odyffey_xi.) "black as night," and ever in act to shoot, as an object of Milton's imitation. Milton afterwards reprefents the infatiable and all-devouring character of Death, by the image of ravenous hunger. This is a claffical idea. Thus Silius Italicus, Mors graditur, vafto pandens cava guttura rictu L. II. 548. Death ftalks, and wide his yawning throat expands. Seneca the tragedian joins to this action that of his unfolding numerous wings. Mors alta avidos oris hiatus And Statius paints him as a devouring monster, hovering over the field of battle, and, like the chufers of the plain in the And shook a dreadful dart; what feem'd his Gothic mythology, felecting his victims. head The likeness of a kingly crown had on. Here is a striking example of the power of poetry to excite grand and impreffive images, which painting cannot follow, though they refer to the fenfe which it peculiarly addreffes. The gloomy indiftin&tnefs of outline in this fhadowy figure, and its questionable form and fubftance, which render it totally unfit for the determinate ftrokes of the pencil, do not prevent the imagination from embodying a mafs of black cloud, through which ap MONTHLY MAG. No. L, -Stygiifque emiffa tenebris Mors fruitur cælo, bellatoremque volando Campum operit, nigroque viros invitat hiatu, Nil vulgare legens; fed quæ digniffima vita Funèra, præcipuos annis, animifque, cruento Angue notat. Theb. VIII. 376. It is under the femblance of the god of war that Death appears, in a noble ode in Mafon's Caractacus, beginning with Hark! heard ye not yon footstep dread That hook the earth with thund'ring trea!? Perhaps, however, in this very bold ad martial figure, we want fome of the pecu4. Y liar liar features of the power intended to be reprefented. It would be a task of more labour than difficulty to go through the whole range of allegorical portraits, with which poets of the first eminence, ancient and modern, have enriched the world of fiction; for, indeed, originality of conception in this walk of invention is rare; and neither the variety of abftract ideas perfonified, nor the number of diftinct perfonifications of each, is very confiderable. But fuch a complete collection was not the object of this effay; which was rather defigned to eftablish by examples a fyftem of the different claffes of thefe fancy-formed beings, founded on the feveral modes in which the Imagination proceeded in their formation. In doing this, principles, I truft, have been developed, which will affift the ftudent of poetry in judging how far any attempt of this kind has attained that perfection which should be the aim of every work of art, but which can never be reached by cafual exertions. Many writers, it is true, without the direct application of rules, have produced pieces of the highest merit, and which may ferve as models for others; but this has been in confequence of that sense of propriety, either innate, or derived from reflection and obfervation, which is an internal rule to the poffeffor. The poetical mine explored in this effay contains the richeft ore, but the most liable to be buried in drofs. It has been my chief purpose to fix fuch characteristic marks on both, as to prevent future miftakes of the one for the other; or the intermixture of glittering alloy to debase the fplendour of the pure metal. J. A. PROCEEDINGS at large of the NATIONAL INSTITUTE of France, on the 4th of April, 1799, as published by the Secretaries. NOTICE of the Labours of the Class of Moral and Political Sciences, by Citizen DAUNOU. C ITIZEN ANQUETIL has publifhed two works; one is a volume in 8vo, entitled: Motives of the Wars and Treaties of Peace of France, from 1648 to 1783; the title of the other, which is in volumes 12mo. is, An Abridgement of Univerfal History, or Historical Synopfis of the World. Citizen BOURGOING has published the correfpondence of Voltaire and of Bernis; citizen GOSSELIN refearches relative to the geography of the ancients, in 2 vols. 4to; and citizen MENTELLE an elementary treatife on cosmography. Citizen MENTELLE has communicated to the clafs the refult of a labour on the geography of Greece. He has treated particularly of Laconia, and has inade it his bufinefs to defcribe the city of Helos, fo unfortunately celebrated by the flavery of its inhabitants. The plague, a fcourge in the train of flavery, which defolates the frontiers of Turkey, but which may find too many opportunities of eloping from its boundaries, from the general movements wherewith Europe is at prefent agitated, ought to excite more than ever the attention of philofophers and the vigilance of governments. What are the means of combating or of fuppreffing this fcourge? Such is particularly the question on which citi zen PAPON has been occupied in a work, a fketch of which he has offered to the class. In tracing the origin of the plague, the author obferves that Egypt was unacquainted with it in thofe glorious and happy ages, when the borders of the Nile were rendered by the arts and sciences the moft fertile and populous country on the globe. It was in Europe, and especially in Italy, that this fcourge was then indigenous and endemial. It was feen to ravage the Roman territory five and twenty times during the five firft ages of the republic; during the two following it became more rare in proportion as civilifation improved; it appeared again under the laft emperors; recommenced with them the ages of barbarifin, and devaftated a long time the finest countries in Europe, till the epoch in which the arts reviving, extinguifhed a fecond time the germs of contagion, or banished them to the coafts of uncultivated Africa. Citizen TOULONGEON read the preliminary difcourfe of a work, intitled, The Epochs of the Revolution. To write the hiftory of one's own time, and efpecially of a time of revolution, is, the author himself obferves, an hazardous undertaking and extremely difficult. But after having confidered the inftructive leffons which fuch an hiftory, written with fcrupulous impartiality, may offer even to contemporaries and the actors on the scenes which it expofes, citizen Toulongeon con cludes |