the character of one Cleander, who has all the means of being happy in this world, and yet is miferable because he thinks himself so, without knowing why. This character is illuftrated by that of Lewis XI. of France, who ordered public prayers throughout his kingdom to prevent the north-wind from blowing; and made a vaft collection of relics, believing they would fecure him from death. The author gives us feveral other very whimfical particulars of the fame monarch, which we shall omit, because they are well known to every one who has the leaft acquaintance with hiftory. We cannot, however, fee with what justice the author has called this a Converfation upon Morality, as we do not meet with a fingle hiftorical inftance, among the many he has brought, that can properly fall within that head. The ftory of the viscount Turenne reftoring to her husband a lady of exquifite beauty, whom he took in the caftle of Sobre, is a tawdry modernization of the continence of Scipio. The king of Navarre running after the countess of Guiche, instead of pursuing his victory at Coutras, is an action that can scarcely be brought into the class of morality. Neither can we fee with what propriety our author has mentioned, under the fame head, a very fingular law of the Englith, with regard to their women, which is, that, notwithftanding a married woman fhould be absent above a year from home, yet, provided her husband goes not out of Great-Britain, should she, in the interim, be brought to bed, he is ob liged to father the child as his own, and as fuch to take care of it. Our author next entertains us with a very facetious custom (as he calls it) of the kings of Guinea, who eat in one apartment and go to drink in another; what prodigious difcoveries are made from an intimate acquaintance with men and books! Of the like import is the relation of a certain prince in Africa, who had a court fo numerous, that they every day killed two hundred men to feed upon. If the good abbé can swallow this ftory he is fit to be one of his fable majesty's guests; and yet, as he most fagaciouflly obferves, There is no accounting for taste.

In the fame conversation, we have a most inftru&tive differtation on the original of the cuftom of the Turks to carry horfes tails by way of ftandards; which our author very gravely accounts for from their having nothing else to carry. The third of the abbe's converfations turns upon points in politics; the fourth, upon heroic virtue; and the fifth, confiders how far converfe with the fair fex may advantage a young man at his entrance into the world.

The author and our readers would (perhaps) be equally offended, fhould we transplant into this Review any more of his

flowers

flowers from the French hiftory, or any more of his obfervations, which are as equally profound and curious as they are entertaining and instructive. We must not, however, omit the example he has produced of heroic virtue, in his little king Pepin cutting off, at a fingle blow, the head of a monftrous lion; then strutting about and asking his courtiers "Think ye, that I am worthy to command you?" The zeal and piery of our worthy abbé is remarkably eminent in propofing, as one of his models for heroic virtue, Simon de Montfort, general of the crufade against the Albigenfes, whom we heretics have been taught to look upon as one of the most inhuman monsters that ever difgraced human nature; but the abbé is far from confidering him in that light. After telling us that the head of this glorious hero was knocked from his fhoulders by a woman,

This hero, replied Ariftus, deserved a better fate, and a death more honourable. There is a particular in his life which is very remarkable: he laid fiege to the city of Beziers, which he carried by affault, and put all to the fword he found therein, in order to strike terror into the rebels, and force them to fubmiflion. This example of feverity intimidated the other towns. Carcafionne believed fhe was ftrong enough to oppofe the conqueror; but she was befieged, and attacked fo brifkly, that the inhabitants were constrained to furrender at difcretion, with a rope about their necks, and their waifts naked. He was more rigorous still in his punishments towards them of Cartelnaudari, who made a fhew of refiftance: for the count picked out an hundred and fifty of the inhabitants, the most obftinate amongst them, and caufed them to be burned.'

Our author's panegyric upon this illuftrious general and martyr for perfécution, would have been complete, had he not concealed one true circumftance of his hiftory, which was his having fet fire with his own hands to the faggots which confumed, upon one pile, thofe hundred and fifty obftinate heretics. The remaining examples of heroic virtue are generally taken from the Roman hiftory. As to the last converfation, we recommend it to the perufal of all pretty mafters who have juft left their boarding schools.

To conclude our review of this very elaborate performance, we must be of opinion, that fyftems in hiftory prove as fallacious as fyftems in philofophy. The abbé Bellegarde lays down certain maxims, and, Procruftes like, he hacks, mangles, and maims hiftorical facts, to make them coincide with his maxims; every page of his book ftrengthens this obfervation. One inftance out of many may fuffice:

During treaties, ceffations of arms, and conferences, fays Arfennes, then it is we ought to be most of all upon our guard,

to

to prevent any furprizes; for what could not be obtained by open force, has been often fucceeded in by a well planned device. The count de Senlis, in order to draw Lewis Ultra Marine into the fnare he had laid for him, who was greatly defirous of re-annexing Normandy to his crown, made him believe that the whole province wifhed this re-union; and that, if he would come thither in perfon, they would deliver up to him the governor of the duchy, whom they looked upon rather as an ufurper and a tyrant, than as having any lawful claim to the poffeffion of it. The king, abused by the fe ill-grounded hopes, marched directly into Normandy at the head of his troops. The Norman prince, fenfible of his own weakness, had recourfe to a ftratagem. He demanded a conference, and affect-. ed to appear greatly intimidated. The king granted the conference, and came to it accordingly, at the village of Cref çenville, between Caen and Lifieux. The Norman had taken his measures fo well, that, finding his own the ftrongest party, he cut in pieces all those who accompanied the king, feized upon his perfon, and fent him prifoner to Rouen."

If the reader will turn to the fame ftory, as related in the Modern Part of the Univerfal Hiftory, vol. xxiii. pag. 248. bẹ will find thofe authors, who are very accurate in their vouchers, give fo different an account of the whole of this tranfaction, that we can scarcely know it to be the fame ftory, did not the catastrophe terminate in the king's being fent prifoner by the Normans to Rouen.

VIII. An Efay on a Course of Liberal Education for civil and active Life. With Plans of Lectures on, 1, The Study of Hiftory and general Policy; 2, The Hiftory of England; 3, The Conflitution and Laws of England. To which are added, Remarks on a Code of Education, propofed by Dr. Brown, in a late Treatife, entitled, Thoughts on Civil Liberty, &c. By Jofeph Priestley, LL. D. 8vo. Price, in boards, 3s. 6d. Henderson.

T is with fome concern that we have feen of late fo many attempts by the various grammars, dictionaries, fpellingbooks, reading and pronouncing effays, and other daily treatifes of the fame kind, to reduce the bufinefs of education (the moft important, if not the moft noble, cf any in civil fociety), to a mere mercenary job. Parents who have been neglected in education, are generally the most zealous for feeing their own defects fupplied in their children. Being themselves unqualified to judge of real merit, they take up with every pompous plaufible profeffor who affures them that he is in fole

pof

poffeffion of the fecret of reading and pronouncing GA and GE, and that he is willing to communicate it to their fon or daughter for a trifle of expence, which within these forty years would have carried either of them half-way through the course of a decent, proper, nay learned, education.

Notwithstanding this obfervation, which we are afraid every day's experience more than verifies, we dare not wantonly extend our cenfure to the modes of getting an honest livelihood by ingenious improvements of those parts of education that Perhaps in former days were too much overfeen. Neither are we to be understood as attacking any man in his lawful way of bufinefs. For this reafon we with Jofeph Priestley, L L. D. rutor in the languages and belles-lettres in the academy at Warrington, all fuccefs in his laudable trade (perhaps we ought to have said profeffion) of education, while he confines himself to those branches that are within the compafs of his knowledge and abilities. We thall not even dispute his accomplishments with regard to executing the plan of lectures upon history which he has laid down, however frong our inducements may be, from certain paffages of the Effay before us, to question them.

We with Jofeph Priestley, LL. D. had given us fome more unexceptionable specimen than he has done of his quaFifications to fill the profefforial chair of English history, than his admitting Rapin as one of the most fhining lights that is to be held out for the direction of his pupils. Rapin, it is true, is often quoted as an authority, which he never could have been had not his work appeared at a time when his principles were favourable to thofe of an oppofition formed by the best writers and politicians of the age. Lord Bolingbroke, who both difliked and defpifed him, found it convenient, out of hatred to Sir Robert Walpole's perfon and adminiftration, to quote and praise him; and the differtation upon parties, backed by fuch friends as he had at that time, had credit enough with the good people of England (who delight in history and politics) to gain admiffion for Rapin into their favour with as much veneration as the Turks receive the doctrines and difcoveries of the Koran.

We are giad, however, now to have an opportunity of fuffering Jofeph Priestley, L L. D. to become his own advocate, for which purpose we fhall here exhibit a specimen of his eloquence ex cathedra, in which we equally admire the uncommon force of his genius for literary difcoveries, the ftrength and variety of his ftile, and the beautiful rounding of his periods.

Man is a being endowed with various powers, by which he is fitted for extenfive connections, and confequently, for various

and

and extenfiue obligations. Moreover, the greater perfection we attain to, that is, the more we rise above the brutes, and the more exalted happiness we are capable of, the more complex, we may truly fay, doth our internal frame grow; and, at the same time, the more extensive, and the more intimate are the connections we are capable of forming with OTHER Beings. Confequently, the more important is our conduct in fo critical a fituation, and the more attentive doth it behove us to be to every circumftance belonging to it.

It is our great happiness and advantage, that, complex as our fituation in life is, we have faculties capable of comprehending it in all its important relations, and of deriving the greateft benefit from it. But ftill thefe great advantages we cannot reap, unless we carefully confider our fituation, and feduloufly endeavour to accommodate ourselves to it.

If we confider. any particular station in life, as that of a magiftrate, a phyfician, a general, &c. we fhall immediately fee, that it is impoffible, either to discharge the duties, or enjoy the advantages of it, without thoroughly understanding it.'

Moft profoundly dictated! fentiments and difcoveries worthy of profefforial dignity. But, good doctor, take a little compaffion on an ignorant reader who only afks for information fake, What other beings are those with whom we are capable of forming more intimate connections; are they dogs, cats, cows, or horfes? Do, good doctor, let us a little into the fecret. It may be of special fervice to fome honeft candidate for being tutor to the royal menagerie; for we do not find that any of the keepers of the wild afs have yet formed any fuch intimate connections with her as to render her tame.

Notwithstanding our profound veneration for Jofeph Prieftley, LL. D. we can by no means think that the study of English history in a private academy is at all proper towards forming the minds of young gentlemen of fortune to the knowledge of the English conftitution. It is a study that requires the most mature abilities; and prepoffeffions with regard to fo important a confideration have often been attended with the most fatal confequences: nor should we be at all furprised if the legislature should not think it below their dignity to interpofe in an affair that may be productive of the greatest public detriment, efpecially when we confider how probable it is that fuch private profeffional chairs may be filled by ignorance, bigotry, prejudice, and principles, either defpotic, monarchical, or anticonflitutional. As to Jofeph Priestley's difpute with Dr. Brown, concerning that phantom, that contradiction in terms, which they agree in calling a Code of Edu¬ cation, we fhall only obferve,

Qui Bavium non odit, amet tua carmina Mavi,