that Logman and Elop were the fame perfon. The Perfian poet Gelal-edyn relates; that Leqman, upon an accufation, that he had ftolen fruits which he knew to have been eaten by fomne flaves, proposed to his maller to make both him and them drink, as a teft, large quantities of hot water; and that the other flaves, then vomited the fruits they had fwallowed, while Loqman, who had taken none, was clearly acquitted by the teft of the hot water. Waheb, an old commentator on the Koran, mentions Logman to have been the author of the pointed obfervation, that the tongue and the heart are the best parts of man, and the worst." The poet Sady relates, that Loqman, when advised to give wholefome moral advice to certain robbers who had pillaged him, made anfwer." No file can brighten the iron"No which is entirely confumed by ruft." The 31ft Chapter of the Koran is intituled "The Chapter of Loqman: And Mahomet appears to have availed himself of the authority of this fage, in order to command refpect to the doctrine of the unity of the Divine Nature. The number of Fables in this collection is 37. They are all well known in European literature.

Nouveaux Memoires Hiftorique, &c.

New Hiftorical Memoirs on the Seven Year's War. By M. De Ketrow, ancient Captain in the Service of Pruffia. Tranflated from the German. 2 vols. Paris. 1803.

T

write a new Hiftory of a War, on which fo much has been already written, fo as to throw any fresh lights on it, does not feem very easy: these Memoirs, however, are fo far valuable, as they give the opinion of an eye-witness of most of the principal events they record; and who, though actually engaged in most of the battles, was of fuch a rank as not to be responsible for any of the confequences, and therefore most likely to be impartial in his narrative. What, however, he gains in impartiality, he may lose in the means of information, as a person whofe exertions are confined to the command of a platoon, can hardly have an opportunity of observing the extended and complicated movements of a large army.

The author of this Work, though he praifes in high terms the military character of Frederick, is not at all sparing of cenfure on particular occafions, and fhews, in many inftances, that battles were lost by his rafhness and imprudence, and gained by the fkill of his generals.

Mr. De Ketrow concludes his account of the victory gained by Frederick over the French at Rofbach, with this observation on their national military character. "Here the national character of the French was clearly fhewn; their courage is as eafily kindled as it is extinguifhed; they march up to the enemy with the greatest confidence,

but

but fhould any unforfeen accident happen, they eafily give themfelves up to defpondency. Succefs alone can encourage the French to new victory." To this the author adds in a note, "I had an opportunity, after the battle, to converse with several officers of the regiment of Provence: I asked them how far they thought their army might then be got? Really, Sir,' replied one of them, I think many of our troops are already arrived in France.' I could not forbear laughing heartily at fo abfurd an answer, but I at the fame time pitied the ignorance of the Frenchman, who made his defeated countrymen in one night take a leap of 60 or 70 German miles." Here the fimplicity of the German Captain mistakes the ftrong expreffion by which the Frenchman cenfures the timidity of his countrymen, for a bona fide geographical error,

The following anecdotes will fhew our readers the ideas M. De Ketrow has of the tragic-comic; and the clemency of the illuftrious Frederick. After defcribing the fanguinary battle of Zorndorf, the author proceeds,

"But, my readers, turning from the bloody picture I have juft drawn, will, perhaps, be obliged to me for relating a tragi-comic anecdote, which proves, that fometimes the most pleasant incidents, will fufpend the horrors of the tragic scenes of war. When the regiment of the Prince of Pruffia drove the Ruffians from Galgengrund, who were firing from behind the trees, a foldier of the enemy threw himself at the feet of Lieutenant Hagen, crying out,Ah, dear Sir, pity me, lave my life!' Astonished to find a Frenchman among these barbarian hordes, Hagen afked him with gaiety, What the devil do you do in this curfed place "He was holding out his hand to the Frenchman, when a non-commiffioned officer followed him at the fame moment with his fword drawn, and laid him dead at the feet of his deliverer. Hagen revolted at this, but he did not dare reproach the non-commiffioned officer, because orders had been iffued to give no quarter."

Few of our countrymen will find much pleafantry in this anecdote, any more than they will much humanity in the rigour with which Frederick enforced the order to give no quarter, in the anecdote which immediately follows:

"Col. Waknitz, having taken under his protection a Ruffian officer, who had implored his mercy, was lefs patient than Hagen: he fhot with his pif tol one of the body-guard who attempted to kill the Ruffian officer, after he had furrendered at difcretion. However juft the indignation of the brave Waknitz might be, and however excufable his action was at the tribunal of humanity, it contributed, nevertheless, to draw on him that disgrace which he afterwards received from the king."

As fo much is known of the public character of Frederick, we fhall, from the book before us, prefent him in a new light, and as a writer of perfonal fatire, and, though a monarch and a conqueror, fuffering in fome degree from the refentment of those he fatirized.

"Frederick amufed himself in the bofom of literature, amid the fatigues

of

of war: he kept up a correspondence with Voltaire, D'Alembert, and feveral other celebrated literary characters. His natural tafte for poetry often infpired him with fatires, when he made himself amends for all the wrongs his enemies had done him, not sparing them in the leaft. As he had formerly enflamed the rage of Elizabeth, by a copy of verfes, when he also allowed himself to irritate Maria Therefa, by a very cutting ftroke of calumny, fo he now addressed a very keen invective against Choifeul to Voltaire. Voltaire had the indifcretion to communicate this to the Minister, who never forgave Frederick, for the infult."

We fhall conclude our account of this article with a relation the author gives of the attempt on the life of the King of Portugal, in the year 1759, which is quite different from every other relation of that extraordinary event.

ces.

"It is proved that the Duke D'Aveiras had placed two of his fervants to fire on the carriage, where the King was wounded, but it was not against the monarch that the ftroke was meant; the blow was intended to fall on Pedro Taxeiro, his valet-de-chambre, who was fufpected of having a defign on the life of the Duke. It was on the carriage of the valet-de-chambre that they fired: it was without any escort, and the moment of the attack was exactly that when the King was accustomed to prefide at his council, These circumstances are fufficient to prove, that the Duke had no defign to affaffinate the King, even if it were not attested by other credible evidenIt unfortunately happened, that the King availed himfelf of the moment, when he was fuppofed to be otherwife engaged, to visit his mistress, and made ufe of the carriage of his valet-de-chambre; and by a ftill more unfortunate accident, one of the balls wounded him in his arm. It was the Marquis de Pombal, prime minifter, and the King's favourite, who difcovered the author of this attempt; he was not ignorant that the attempt was directed against the valet, and not against the King; but his unbounded pride induced him to make ufe of this circumftance to get rid of the Duke D'Aveiras, and the family of Tavora, whofe influence gave umbrage to his ambition. He had not much difficulty in perfuading the intimidated monarch that his life had been threatened; and he knew how to give fo much probability to the pretended plot, that all the world gave credit to it. By thefe means he was the real author of thofe capital punishments which were inflicted on many perfons of the highest diftinction, who were entirely innocent of the crime of which they were accufed. By this alfo Pombal prez pared for the perfecution which the Jefuits experienced in Portugal, and which ended in their banishment from that kingdom. The poffeffions of the order, as well as of those who perifhed on the fcaffold, were confiícated to the ufe of the Crown, and it was calculated that they amounted to a third of the value of the whole kingdom."

This fingular event, which appears to belong principally to the history of Portugal, forms a very ftriking feature in the general hiftory of Europe, if we are to look on it as the author fuggefts, as the primary cause of the abolition, or rather difperfion of the Jefuits; to the mixture among the mafs of mankind, of an order of men diftinguished for their abilities, their intrigue, and their fway over those who were devoted to them, and deferted and depreffed by those go

vernments

vernments which it had before been their intereft to fupport, the future hiftorians of thefe times may, perhaps, impute much of these calamities, which have afflicted mankind. Thofe who have "heads to contrive, tongues to perfuade, and hands to execute any mifchief," were as ready inftruments for anarchy and atheism, as they had been for fuperftition and defpotifm.

D. Ruhnkenii Elogium T. Hemfterhufii; et Vita D. Ruhnkenii, Auctore D. Wyttenbachio.-Lugduni Batav. et Amftelodami. Apud A. et J. Honkoop et P. den Heng ft. 8vo. Pp. 407. 1800.

Wallenbach's Life of Ruhnken, &c.

THE

HE contents of this elegant volume are already well known on the continent, and are in no common eftimation among those who have a true love for claffical literature, and a difcerning reverence for the character of a Coryphoeus in illuftrative and emendatory criticism. They are the compofitions of two of the most eminent fcholars that taught at Leyden and Amfterdam in the eighteenth century. They commemorate the lives and ftudies of three as worthy and ingenious men, as have ever made a figure in Greek and Roman erudition. They include, in great part, the hiftory of claffical learning in Holland and Germany, for more than half a century. They are, moreover, enriched with two valuable critical epiftles by Dr. Richard Bentley, which were never before publifhed.

The eulogy of HEMSTERHUIS, by Ruhnken, is the first piece in the volume. It is written with uncommon purity, propriety, and energy of Latin ftyle. There is, in it, more of the manner and phrafeology of Salluft, than of any other Latin author. Yet, the author is far from confining himself implicitly in it to the mere imitation of Salluft, There are places in which he seems to have derived his inspiration, in a good measure, from Cicero. And his fentences have often that ftructure and that distinctness which belong rather to our best compofitions in the vernacular languages of modern times, than to the claffical remains of antiquity. This eulogy is, in the whole, for elegance and propriety of compofition, for vigour of eloquence, for clear difcrimination of the moral and literary character of the perfon to whofe memory it is facred, for the maxims of moral wisdom, for the truths in philofophy, for the principles of rational criticism which it involves, inferior to nothing of the fame kind with which we are acquainted, in any language ancient or modern.

Tiberius Hemfterhuis, the fubject of this eulogy, was born at Groningen on the ift day of February, 1685. After a fuitable education in his boyith years, he became, at the age of fourteen, a ftudent in the University of Groningen. The ftudy, in which he made there the greateft proficiency, was mathematics, then taught by the very eminent John Bernoulli. He went thence, to ftudy "ancient hiftory," under Perizonius, who, at that time, was very famous for the lectures on that branch of knowledge, which he delivered at Leyden. From Leyden,

Leyden, when scarce nineteen years of age, he was called to the Profefforship of mathematics and philofophy at Amfterdam. At Amfterdam, he was perfuaded to undertake the completion of an edition of the Lexicon of Julius Pollux, which had been left unfinished by the death of a former editor. This task he accomplished in a manner, of which he was himself at first not a little proud, and which procured him much flattering praise from the Greek scholars of Holland and Germany. But, when, in the joy of his heart, he fent a copy of his book to Dr. Richard Bentley in London; the Do&or, after perusing it, furprized him with letters, which, though indeed complimentary, fhewed that the young editor was often exceedingly wrong in his emendatory conjectures, for want of a 'fufficient knowledge of the metres and the forms of verfification used in the poetry of the ancient Greeks. The worthy and ingenuous Hemfterhuis not only felt and acknowledged that Bentley was every where in the right, but was fo humbled, and fo much afhamed of the infelicity of his own criticisms, that, he fhut his books in defpair; and for feveral months after, could not. endure even to look upon a Greek author. When he returned to his ftudies in this language, he read with incredible ardour and perfeverance. Beginning with Homer, he perufed the whole feries of Grecian claffics, downwards, in the order of time, to the latest era of the native culture of Greek literature. He laid none afide till he had thoroughly fatified himfelf in regard to the fenfe and the genuineness of every paffage. He applied to all, lights of illuftration derived from the thorough knowledge of the fundamental principles of thofe partą of fcience to which they feverally related. He found, in particular, that his early proficiency in mathematics had given a precifion to his habits of research and difcernment, which he was enabled to introduce with the greatest advantage into his philological difquifitions, and into his efforts of conjectural emendation. In the year 1717, he accepted an invitation to the Profefforfhip of Greek Literature at Franeker. Though he did not fend much to the prefs, yet his ardour in ftudy was infatiable and indefatigable. His lectures difplayed a copioufnefs and accuracy of claffical learning, which were esteemed to fet him above all rivalry as a scholar. He publifhed, however, certain "Animadverfions of the Writings of Lucian," which were univerfally acknowledged to add to the learning of a Scaliger and a Salmafius, more than a double portion of their judgment. And, on the margins. of the different books that he perufed, he was accustomed to infcribe notes, which all his friends and pupils regarded as ineftimably precious. He accepted, in 1740, an invitation to fill the profefforfhip of Greek Literature and Hiftory in the University of Leyden. He died on the 7th of April, 1766, in the 82nd year of his age. He was not lefs a proficient in Latin than in Grecian learning. It was his peculiar praife, as a fcholar, that he was neither the bigot of ancient literature, nor an inconfiderate and illiberal enthufiaft in that of the moderns exclufively; but illuftrated to himself the obfcurities in the one by lights which he derived from the other. His lectures were

somewhat