of Laws, obliged him to go and reside some time in them. After having travelled over Germany, Hungary, Italy, Swisserland and Holland, he continued near two years in England, where he was courted by the learned. On his return to his native country, he put the last hand to his work on the Cause of the greatness and fall of the Roman Empire. His Political History, written for the use of states. men and philosophers, appeared in 1734. That force and strength of genius which shine forth in this work, were still more displayed in his Spirit of Laws, published in 1748. This performance may be justly called the Code of the Law of Nations, and its author the legislator of mankind. It is the production of a free mind, and of a heart filled with that general benevolence which comprehends all men.

If the Spirit of Laws, however, procured him respect among foreign nations, it raised up the critics. against him in his own. The vexation arising from those criticisms, whether just or unjust, and the life which Montesquieu was obliged to lead at Paris, tended greatly to hurt his constitution, which was naturally delicate. In the beginning of February 1755, he was attacked by a disorder in the breast. Both the court and the city were alarmed at his illness. In his last moments, Montesquieu spoke and acted like a man, who wished to appear both a christian and a philosopher. He died on the 10th of Feb. 1755, at the age of 66, regretted as much on account of his genius, as of his personal qualities. He was a man of extensive generosity, and as amiable in society as great in his works. His mildness, his cheerfulness, and his politeness, were always conspicuous. His conversation lively, engaging, and instructing, intermixed with witticisms and pertinent remarks, was interrupted by fits of absence, which he never affected, and which always pleased. Being an economist without avarice, he was unacquainted with pomp: he had no occasion for it to render himself

conspicuous; he was much sought after by the great, but their company was not necessary to his happiness; he shunned them as often as he could, and retired to his country seat.

After his death, a collection of his works was published in three volumes quarto. In this collection there are some small treatises, of which we have made no mention. The most remarkable is the Temple of Guidus, a kind of poem in prose, in which the author delineates a pleasing and animated picture of the simplicity of love. We find also at the end of Montesquieu's works a fragment on Taste, in which there are many new ideas. Mr. Secondat, the worthy son of this great man, preserves in his library six volumes in quarto, of manuscripts, under the title of Materials for the Spirit of Laws, and detached parts of the History of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. But the public will never have the pleasure of seeing these fragments, nor the history of Louis XI. which his illustrious father threw into the fire through mistake. In 1758 Mr. de Lyre published, in 12mo. a work entitled the Genius of Montesquieu. This is a choice selection of the most beautiful thoughts scattered throughout the different works of this writer, who had himself approved the idea of such an abridgment. "The reader will find," says the compiler," only detatched lines of a long chain, but they are links of gold."

MORAVIANS, or to call them by their proper name, Herrenhuters, are a sect of christians, which have arisen about the middle of the last century, and made a considerable progress in several countries, under the direction of Count Zinzendorf, on which account they are called Zinzendorpeans, by the king of Prussia in his "Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg." From the narrative which the Count of Zin

a

zendorf has given of himself, we learn, that from the tenth year of his age, he formed a design of gathering together a little society of believers, amongst whom he might live, and who should entirely employ themselves in exercises of devotion under him. In 1721, when he became of age, his thoughts were wholly bent upon executing his project; and being joined by some persons who were in his way of thinking, he settled at Bertholsdarf in Upper Lusatia, an estate which he had purchased. He gave the curacy of that village to a minister of his own complection, and Bertholsdarf soon became talked of for a new sort of piety.

The fame of this was carried to Moravia by one Christian David, a carpenter, who had been before in that country, and had endeavoured to propagate a distaste to the doctrines of the Roman Church, and to create among several people an inclination to Protestantism. This fellow engaged two or three of the proselytes he had made, to leave that country and to come with their families to Bertholsdarf, where they were gladly received by the Count. They were directed to build a house in a wood, about two miles from that village, which was soon finished; so that on St. Martin's day 1722, these people held their first meeting there. A great many people from Moravia and elsewhere, flocked to this new settlement, and established themselves under the protection of Count Zinzendorf, who also himself fixed his residence there. In a few years it became a considerable village, having an orphan house, and other public buildings. Thirty-four houses were built there in 1728, and in 1732, the number of inhabitants amounted to six hundred. An adjacent hill, called the Huth Berg, gave occasion to these colonists to call their dwelling place Huth des Herrn, and afterwards Herrn Huth, which may be interpreted, "The guard or protection of the Lord;" and from this the whole sect has taken its name. The Count Zinzendorf

died May 9, 1760, at Herrn Huth in Silesia, in his sixtieth year.

MULLER, (GERARD FREDERICK) a native of Germany, was born in 1705 at Herparden, in the circle of Westphalia. He came to Russia during the reign of Catharine I. and was, not long afterwards, admitted into the Imperial Academy of Sciences. In 1731, soon after the accession of the Empress Anne, he commenced at the expence of the crown, his travels over European Russia, and into the extreme parts of Siberia. He was absent several years upon this expedition, and did not return to Petersburg until the reign of Elizabeth. The late Empress, an able judge and rewarder of merit, conferred upon him a very ample salary, and appointed him counsellor of state, and keeper of the archieves at Moscow, where he resided about sixteen years. He collected during his travels, the most ample materials for the history and geography of that extensive Empire, which was scarcely known to the Russians themselves before his valuable researches were given to the world in various publications. His principal work is, a "Collection of Russian Histories," in nine vols. 8vo. printed at different intervals, at the press of the Imperial Academy of Sciences.

He spoke and wrote the German, Russian, French and Latin tongues with surprising fluency; and read the English, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Greek, with great facility. He died in the latter end of 1783. The Empress, who, in consideration of his great merit, had honored him with the order of St. Vladimiz, has, in respect to his memory conferred a pension on his widow, and ennobled his son.

MURRAY, (WILLIAM) Earl of Mansfield, see Mansfield,

NEPOS, (CORNELIUS) a Latin historian, who flourished in the time of Julius Cæsar, and lived according to St. Jerome, to the sixth year of Augustus. He was an Italian, and born at Hostilia, a small town in the territory of Verona, in Cisalpine Gaul, He had written the lives of the Latin captains and historians, with some other excellent works, which are lost. All that we have left of his at present, is, "The Lives of the illustrious Greek and Roman Captains," which were a long time ascribed to Aemilius Probus, who published them, as it is said, under his own name, to insinuate himself thereby into the favour of the Emperor Theodosius; but, in the course of time, the fraud was discovered, although several learned persons have confounded the two authors.

NEWTON, (SIR ISAAC) was descended of an ancient family, which had been settled above three centuries upon the manor of Woolstrope in Lincolnshire, and born on Christmas day 1642. He lost his father in his infancy, so that the care of his education fell to his mother, who was a woman of excellent sense. At twelve years of age she put him to the grammar school at Grantham, and after some years spent there, took him home, with the view of introducing him into country business, that he might sooner be able to manage his own estate himself. But finding him stick close to his books, without any turn to business, she resolved not to cross his inclinations, and sent him back to Grantham, where he stayed till he was eighteen years of age, when he removed to Trinity College in Cambridge, in 1660. He had not been long at the university, when he turned his thoughts to the mathematics. In 1664 he took the degree of B. A. Amidst his studies, he was forced from Cambridge in 1665, by the plague, and it was more than two years before he made any further progress in mathematics., However, he was far