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paradoxical, fhook the fabric of focial morals by the aid of the paffions, and difmiffed his political pupils to the licentious liberty of nature, with empty exhortations to virtue and freedom. From these prolific fources of mischief have fprung the dogmas which have tinged the changing afpect of the Gallic revolution with alternate absurdity and horror-the natural equality of man, and the denial of a fuperintending providence. The Deity, after a temporary depofition, was indeed again recognised, for neceflary pur pofes, by the French legiflature; but Equality has uniformly maintained her afcendency over the revolutionary fyftem. Sometimes the versatile goddess perfonates a fansculotte, butchering a prieft; fometimes a poiffarde, demande ing the head of a national reprefentative: now fhe rolls in the blazing equipage of a money-jobber, and now affumes the appearance of a young married man going to join the troops of the fourth requifition: fometimes the invifibly fuperintends an Italian or a Dutch contribution, and fometimes conceals herself in the plume, or epicurifes in the fumptuous palace, of a director.

To inveftigate the nature and operations of this powerful agent is the purpose of the prefent work, to which, begging excufe for the length of our preliminary remarks, we will immediately conduct our readers.

M. D'Efcherny, in his advertisement, alludes to the important operation of the term equality in the French revolution, and informs us, that it was his intention to have given the word for a title to these two volumes, as the most piquant and interefting that could be chofen, but that, being apprehenfive of intimidating many worthy readers from the perufal of them, by a title fo congenial with the recollection of crimes, he adopted that which his work now bears, in order to facilitate his views in writing it, and to preclude fufpicion of his intentions.

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In the preface, he obferves, that thefe volumes are to be regarded as a continuation of his Correfpondence of an Inhabitant of Paris,' which, he intimates, was favourably received. To the work which is now before us we are extremely well difpofed, as it difcovers confiderable talents and moderate principles-a valuable combination, not very frequently found in political productions. Of the author's difpofition the following remarks afford a fpecimen.

By philofophers I fhall perhaps be called a bigot, and by bigots a freethinker: by royalifts I fhall probably be confidered as a republican, and by republicans as an ariftocrat: for men of the world I may prove too abftract, while readers of deep reflection may think that I have

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written too much for men of the world. I hope, however, that I may be able, in confiftency with my principles, to preferve that just medium which facrifices nothing to clamour that medium fo barren to writers who are influenced by vanity, but fo valuable to those who have no other with than to be useful-that medium which difpleases parties, and excludes the author who obferves it from their patronage during his life, and perhaps from their notice after his death. I have refolutely facrificed felf-love, and, rifquing contemporary neglect, have fteadily fixed my view on three objects the public good, truth, and pofterity.'

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The writer's talents are refpectably difplayed in his Eloge on Rouffeau. This is, for the moft part, a delicate and well-conceived irony on a ftate of nature, and, by an implied reductio ad abfurdum, strikingly exposes the fallacy of the fpeculations of the Genevefe philofopher. We present our readers with fome paffages on the subject.

Rouffeau was altogether compofed of fenfation, and was profound only in fenfibility. He excelled in the knowledge of the difpofitions of women, who are by nature beings of fenfation. To obtain this knowledge, he had occafion only to fearch his own heart; an inexhauftible fund of feeling gave him the power of enchanting the fex; and his own temper often discovered the caprice, fufpicions, and little weakneffes of women. Let us obferve how his genius fupplied materials for his fkepticifm-he fighed for truth and virtue; and not perceiving either in the world that furrounded him, he was led to doubt of their exiftence. By an aftonishing fiction, he endeavoured to find them in ignorance and inftinct, in their two negative ftates; for ignorance and truth are two notions which exclude each other, and fimple inftinct is incompatible with virtue. Perception, of neceffity, intervenes; and there can be no virtue without knowledge and cultivation; yet, by a dexterity not lefs admirable than new, both ignorance and inftinct become inftruments of discovery in the hands of Rouffeau. Archimedes only wanted a place for fixing his engines, in order to move the world; and what he defired, Rouffeau accomplished. He fled from the moral world to a state of fociety impoffible to be realised, and totally dif ferent from any in exiftence that is, a state of nature. He there found a place for fixing the metaphyfical lever by which he wifhed to fhake our whole fyftem of morals, and overturn all our ideas. If we closely infpect the contexture of all his works, we may perceive that he has effected a revolution not fo much by erecting as by destroying: he beats-down, he overturns, he tramples, he breaks

but, whenever he deftroys, fomething new is created. It is this art of creating by deftroying that characterifes Rouffeau, and ftamps him as an original genius, without equal and without model. He may therefore be regarded as the founder of a new system of negative philofophy, important in its confequences and utility beyond all other philofophical fyftems.'

It is on the ftudy of man in his various relations, that the knowledge of his happiness in fociety depends. The parts of a machine must be feparately well known, in order to direct their co-operation to one purpose, and to be acquainted with the adaptation and ftrength of the fprings by which it is to be moved. The moft ufeful and interefting ftudy is obviously that of man. Of the philofophers who have devoted themselves to that ftudy, each has chofen a track defcriptive of his own talents. Locke, poffeffing that intellect which reafons with itself, defcended into the depths of his mind for the purpose of analysing it: he therefore reflected all other minds from the furface of his own. Malebranche, a more adventurous but lefs certain conductor, elevated his fpeculations to the fountain of all thought, and, confidering the human mind as an emanation from that fource, placed his mirror of reflection in the bofom of the Deity. Others, like Tacitus and Montefquieu, neglecting fuch metaphyfical views of man, have folely attended to his moral character. Tacitus does not fo much defcribe the manners of a fimple and rude people as fatirise his countrymen-the diffipations, the vices, and the crimes of Rome, were naturally contrafted by the unpolished probity of the Germans. The foul of a Perfian transported into Paris, is the mirror from which Montefquieu has reflected the varying habits of the French, their follies and their vices.

These two methods of obferving and defcribing men are admirable: they ingeniously exhibit every feature with its requifite relief. By a contrivance nearly fimilar, but executed in a grand style, Rouffeau has reflected the qualities of an imaginary being on an exifting model, not of a par ticular nation, but the whole fyftem of humanity. The refult of the experiment is worthy of the grandeur of the idea. That writer, in his imaginary model, has included the whole of the relations of man to nature-the moft ele-' vated point in which it is poffible to confider the human fpecies.'

The genius of Rouffeau was diftinguifhed by the rare quality of contemplating the object of his reflection in

conceptions. After having confidered the immenfe and di verfified fabric of human eftablishments, he involved all of them in one common profcription: he took the reverse of all received ideas; and, as they are a mixture of truth and error, of opinions rational and abfurd, he applied reason in favour of these, and against the others. Two great effects refulted from these contrafts--the detection of evils to which the best inftitutions are liable, and the discovery of advan tages which remain concealed amidst prejudices and abuses." Upon the topic of equality, the author makes thefe re marks:

Equality is deftructive of liberty, becaufe its exiftence is merely tranfient. It fhould rather be fuppreffed by the law than by force; for a legal inequality protects liberty, while an inequality produced by violence overturns it. A difference of ranks and conditions is fo inherent in a body po litic, c, that no law can destroy it, and establish equality of rights. Inequality would certainly take place in defiance of the law; and where is liberty when the law is violated? It is better therefore for the law to concur than to struggle with the neceffity of things, and prefent the fpectacle of a perpetual defeat. The queftion may be reduced to this point. Inequality is a neceffary evil: is it better that it fhould be established by force than by law ?

This is the queftion of equality in a nut-fhell. What a wafte of many fage and foporific fpeculations on the fubject!-We proceed to extract a concife and accurate critique on the Contrat Social of Rouffeau.

• In the Contrat Social I can perceive nothing but vague and arbitrary principles, obfcurities, forced turns of expreffion, and fubtilties fubftituted for the frankness of reafon and the conviction of evidence. It explains none of the phænomena of the fyftem of civil fociety; nor does it reafon upon doubtful cafes. The rights of life and of death, and of keeping perfons in flavery, are not accounted for; and Rouffeau himself does not diffemble his embarrassinent, when he confiders the right of pardoning, which he attributes to the fovereign, meaning the general will: this right he is unable to reconcile with the apparent impoffibility, that the general will fhould be occupied with an individual and determinate object'

As a flattering coincidence with the opinion of our author, we are induced to mention the circumftance of Mr. Fox having faid in the house of commons, that the Contrat Social was a book which he had attempted, but in vain, to read through.

M. D'Efcherny afterwards combats many fpecious maxims of the revolutionary fchool, with found logic, and an apposite use of hiftorical examples-He notices the commer cial profperity and the focial happiness of Great Britain, which he attributes to the form of our government; but mentions, as a defect, that there is not a fufficient number of nobility interpofed between the commons and the king. ́ ́ The following unhappy contraft occurs among fome fpirited sketches of fcenes in the French revolution.

I have feen a thoughtlefs, gay, and frivolous people, fuddenly transformed into Romans, affecting lofty language and all the aufterity of republicanism, and exercising cruelty, not lavishing praife, on their victorious generals; but I have seen them quickly return to their natural difpofition, employ their legislation upon fhows, imitate the licentioufnels of Rome, not its liberty, and choose the Saturnalia for their conftitution. I thought that I beheld, as at Carthage in the time of calamity, facrifices of human blood renewed in the country of the arts and the fciences, and that I faw a people, reeking from the flaughter of 8000 victims, fly to victory under the standard of the infernal powers, to whom the facrifices were offered.'

The difcipline of the republican armies has appeared not very reconcileable with the tenets of political diforganifa tion, which they have been made the powerful inftruments of defending and propagating. Our author thus ftates and folves the difficulty.

The foldier of equality recognifes no fuperior, and Confequently cannot be termed rebellious. If he fhould be punished as fuch, the republican army would rife in its own defence. How then, it may be afked, can the democratic foldier be reduced to that obedience without which war cannot be fuccefsful? A fingle word performs this operation to a iniracle: every member of the army who in his ftation does not immediately execute the orders of his commander, is punished with death as an aristocrat, or as guilty of counter-revolutionary conduct; and thus, by a mere word, difcipline and fubordination are established. O powerful influence of terms! The epithet counter-revolutionary checks the traitor, awes the foldier Into obedience, and reftores victory to the republican flag. The epithet revolutionary produces effects ftill more aftonishing it excites emotion fimilar to that of a tempeft; the people ferment, and rife in a mass; all France precipitates itfelf, like an overflowing torrent, on its frontiers and the formidable armies oppofed to it on every fide, are no more than flender reeds, obliged to yield to the impetu

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