chiefly creatures of his own imagination, are we not falling into the very error we endeavoured to avoid, by giving that credit to the Hiftorian which we refufed to our Tutor? If my Pupil is to fee nothing but ideal representations, I would chufe to sketch them with my own hand, as, in that cafe, they will probably be better adapted." As to modern hiftory, our Preceptor entirely rejects it; becaufe its characters too much refemble each other, and the Writ ers of it, intent only on difplaying their talents, think of nothing but painting highly-coloured portraits, which frequently bear no refemblance to any thing in nature. The antients, he obferves, abound lefs in portraiture, and fhew lefs wit, tho more good fenfe in their reflections. Thefe, however, being different from each other, he prefers at firft the more fimple to the more profound and judicious. He would neither put Salluft nor Polybius in the hands of a boy; and as to Tacitus, he thinks him intelligible only to old men. Thucydides is, in his opinion, the best model for Hiftorians; in that he relates facts without judging of them, and at the fame time omits no circumftance which may ferve to direct the judgment of the Reader. "Unfortunately, continues he, his conftant fubject is war, and a recital of battles is, of all things, the leaft inftructive. Xenophon's retreat of the ten thoufand, and Cæfar's Commentaries, are remarkable for the fame prudence and the fame de-' fect. Honeft Herodotus, without painting, without maxims, but flowing, fimple, and full of pleafing and interefting particulars, would be perhaps the best Hiftorian, if his details did not frequently degenerate into puerility, more likely to vitiate than improve the taste of youth: it requires difcernment to read He rodotus. I take no notice of Livy at prefent, except that he is a Politician, a Rhetorician, and every thing that is impropery 3 at this age. "History is generally defective in recording only those facts which are rendered confpicuous by name, place, or date; but the flow progreffive caufes of thofe facts, not being thus diftinguifhed, remain for ever unknown. How frequently do we find a battle, loft or won, mentioned as the caufe of a revolution, which was become inevitable before the battle was fought? War is generally nothing more than a manifestation of events already determined by moral caufes, of which Hiftorians are ig norant. To these reflections our Author adds, "that history is a representation of actions rather than of men, who are fhewn only at certain intervals, in their veftments of parade: we fee man only in public life, after he has put himself in a proper pofition for being viewed. Hiftory follows him not into his houfe, into his clofet, among his family and friends: it paints him only when he makes his appearance; it exhibits his dress, and not his perfon. "I should rather chufe to begin the ftudy of the human heart, by reading the lives of particular men; for there it is im poffible for the Hero to conceal himself a moment. The Bio grapher purfues him into his moft fecret receffes, and expofes him to the piercing eye of the fpectator; he is best known when he believes himself moft concealed. I like, fays Montagne, thofe Biographers who give us the hiftory of councils, rather than events; who fhew us what paffes within, rather than ⚫ without: therefore Plutarch is the Writer after my own • heart." Suetonius is another Biographer, the like of whom, he thinks, we shall never fee. In fpeaking of the art of drawing characters, Mr. Rouffeau very judiciously obferves, that we ought not to judge of phyfiognomy by the ftronger lines in the face, nor of the characters of men by their great actions; public tranfactions being either too common, or too much studied and prepared: and yet he remarks, that fuch are the only incidents worthy the dignity of modern hiftory. He then relates a little anecdote of the great Marshal Turenne, which we shall infert, for the entertainment of the Reader. "Marthal Turenne was inconteftably one of the greatest men of the laft age. The Writer of his life has had the courage to render it interefting, by relating fome minute particulars which make his Hero known and beloved; but how many was he not obliged to fupprefs, which would have taught us to know and love him ftill more! I fhall inftance only one, which I have from good authority, and which Plutarch would by no means have omitted, but which Ramfay, if he had known it, would not have dared to relate. "The Marthal happened, one hot day, to be looking out at the window of his anti-chamber, in a white waistcoat and nightcap. A fervant entering the room, deceived by his drefs, miftakes him for one of the under cooks. He comes foftly behind him, and with a hand, which was not of the lighteft, gives him a violent flap on the breech. The Marfhal inftantly turns about, and the fellow, frightened out of his wits, beholds the face of his Mafter down he drops upon his knees-Oh! My Lord! I thought it was George And fuppofe it had been George, replied .. the the Marshal, rubbing his backfide, you ought not to have firuck quite fo hard. Such are the strokes our modern Daubers dare not attempt. Go on, and remain for ever deftitute of nature, void of fenfibility! fteel your hearts with your wretched decoFum; and by your formality render yourselves despicable! But thou, honeft young man, who readeft this anecdote, and who feeleft with tenderness all that sweetness of difpofition which it immediately indicates, and which is fo rarely found in our first emotions; read alfo the minutiae of this great man when his birth and name were in queftion. Remember it is the fame Turenne who constantly gave place to his nephew, fo that one might always perceive the child to be a fovereign Prince. Com pare thefe contrafts, love nature, defpife opinion, and know mankind.” We fhould here bid adieu to our Author for the present, did we not think it expedient to take fome notice of a paffage wherein he hath expreffed himself very equivocally on the fubject of gratifying private refentment. On telling us that Emilius is averfe to all manner of quarrelling, he fubjoins the following Note. "But fuppofe any one fhould refolve to quarrel with him, how must he behave? I anfwer, his conduct will be fuch that he will never be expofed to quarrels. But, fay you, who can be fecure from a flap in the face, or from not having the lie given him by fome brutal drunkard, or hectoring bravo, who, for the pleasure of killing his man, begins by affronting him? The cafe is different: neither the honour, nor life of a worthy member of fociety ought to be at the mercy of fuch wretches, and we can no more be fecure from fuch an accident, than from the fall of a tile. A flap in the face, or the lie, received and endured, will be attended with confequences to fociety, which no wifdom can prevent, and for which no tribunal can avenge the perfon injured. Therefore, the infufficiency of the laws in this cafe, reftores to him his liberty, and he becomes the fole Magiftrate, the fole Judge between the offender and himself; he must interpret and execute the law of nature; he owes himself juftice, he can receive it from no other hand, and there can be no government on earth fo fenfelefs as to punish him for having taken it. I do not fay he ought to fight; that were madness: Ifay, he owes himself juftice, and he is the only Difpenfer of it. Without fo many edicts against duelling, were I a fovereign Prince, I would be anfwerable to put an entire stop to affronts of this kind, and that by a very simple method with which the courts of justice should have no concern. Be that as it may, Emilius, if the cafe fhould happen, knows the justice he he owes himself, and the example he ought to fet to perfons of honour. It is not in the power of the bravelt man to prevent his being infulted; but it is certainly in his power to prevent the perfon infulting him from long making a boast of it." Are we not very naturally led, however, to afk, how? Surely our Author would not infinuate, that men have a right, in fuch a cafe, to avenge themfelves by aflaffination. But if they fhould neither fight nor feek fatisfaction by law, what other method is to be taken? We must confefs, we cannot enter into our Author's views, and wish he had thought proper to be a little more explicit on an affair of fo delicate and important a nature. We can conceive many ill effects, that must neceffarily arise from fuffering fuch inftances of infolence and ill-manners to pafs off with impunity; but we know of none fo fatal to civil fociety as thofe, which muft arife from men being permitted to be fole judges in their own caufe, and avengers of the infults put on themselves. Mr. Rouffeau enters next on the fubject of Religion, introducing a long and extraordinary paper, faid to be written by another hand, and containing the profeffion of faith of a Savoyard curate. It is this paper which hath drawn on him most of that obloquy, which hath been caft on this multifarious performance but we muft defer the confideration of it, as alfo our account of the remainder of the work, to another opportunity. [To be concluded in another Article, 1 K-n-k Gratulatio folennis Univerfitatis Oxonienfis ab celfiffimum Georgium Fred. Aug. Walliæ Principem Geargio III. et Charlotta Regina aufpicatiffime natum. Folio. 5s. T. Payne. T is very fortunate, gentle Reader, both for my honour and fland, the poetical labours of two learned Univerfities have been published, and are now under the review of me, MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS, member of feventeen academies, and mafter of all languages, whether living or dead! What other Critic would have been equal to the Tafk of reviewing thefe Poems, which are written in fo many different tongues for, behold! here is Welch and English, Latin and Greek, Hebrew and Arabic, Syriac and Syriaco-Palmyrene. I fay, Reader, thou mayeft efteem it a happiness to obtain the ftrictures of a Critic fkilled in all thefe languages: but without further preface I will proceed to the work. One thing, however, I must tell thee, if thou art a mere English reader, and understandeft not the title: thefe poems are the congratulations of the Academicians prefented to the Sovereign of these kingdoms, upon, the aufpicious birth of a fon and heir. The Latin Copy of verses, written by the Vice Chancellor upon this occafion, I do most refpectfully pass by, because I think the writings of a perfon in that high ftation ought to be exempted from all criticifm. The firft Poem that I fhall take notice of in this collection is a Sapphic Ode, written by the learned Dr. Leigh, Master of Baliol College. It is well known, that the interrogative ftyle doth greatly contribute to the fublime. The Doctor, therefore, beginneth his poem very judicioufly with fome furprizing queftions: "Hey-day!" quoth he, what is the matter now? Daggers put up! Who could have dreamt of this? What! has the Iron Age run out of Britain? What new kind of coin is this we have got among us? (this is Mars's doing; he has been a houfe-breaking) Is the Golden Age come again?" Such is the fense of the two firft ftanzas. It was furely a beauteous conceit, that of the Golden Age coming again, in allufion to the treafures of the Hermione, the Havanna, &c. Ha! ha ha! verily, I cannot but fimile at the abfurdity of fome critics, who fuppofe that the Doctor, by his Unde nummorum facie receuti alluded to the new guineas and the quarter-guineas of his prefent Majefty's coin. It is well known, that the new guineas were ftamped upon a very bad die; to fay, therefore, that Albion rejoiced in them, would have been a perfonal affront to the King; and as to the quarter-guineas, they were furely too diminutive to make a figure in a Sapphic odę., But it is a grie vous thing, Reader, to want tafte; and it is well for thee, and for the author of this poem, that it hath found an adequate critic. Towards the end of his ode, the Doctor chaftifeth the Emprefs Queen, no doubt, very properly: And let the woman' fays he, "who gnafheth her teeth through the towns of Auftria, fhut her mouth, and caft a fheep's eye at this cradle," that is, the cradle of the young prince. J Aufiria e frendens mulier per urbes'. biodra Labra compressa, et placidos ocellas ?) na rin si dolay His ferat cunis: 1 Animated and fublime is the strain of Dr. Fortefeue. His verfe is like unto a trumpet, that ftirreth up the breaft, and verify, I Fiw Is ! |