knows that we are not; or that we fhall interpreted, it means you are a bad poet; and as I do not think you have nerves to hear the truth, you are but a filly fellow."-" And do you find that frankness always fucceeds "" It very seldom .fails." "I read the verfes of my young Poet; and I told him, "Your verses not only are bad, but they prove to me that you will never make good ones."-" I muft make bad ones then, for I cannot refrain from writing."-"What a dreadful curfe! Do you know the difgrace, Sir, into which you are about to fall? Mediocrity in Poets can neither be endured by gods nor men, nor by booksellersfhelves; fo faid Horace." -"I know James you fee is endued with conftituit."-" Are you rich ?"-« No.”— tional bravery, which has been the cafe alfo of more diftinguished Fatalifts of whom history has recorded the atchieve ments. Concerning the friendly alliance between courage and fatalifmm we fhall not now fpeak; obferving only, that this fpecies of philofophy is very fit to infpire confidence in fuch as are engaged in perilous undertakings. According to thefe principles, fecurity and apparent safety are fometimes, to ufe an expreffion of our poet, more dangerous than danger. The reader may not be forry to be told, that James and his mafter continue their journey unmolested by the robbers whom the former had routed. But let us drop James for a while, and attend to his master; not him of the fable, but Diderot, the mafter of both, who, quitting his fictitious character, thus relates an anecdote of himself: "The hiftory of the port of Pondiherry.-After the ufual compliments pon my wit, my genius, my taste, my condefcenfion, and other difcourie of which I do not believe a word, though I have been in the habit of hearing it repeated, and perhaps with fincerity, for twenty years. "Are you poor ?"-" Very poor." "About a dozen years after I gave this advice to the young man he again made his appearance. Id.d not recollect him." I am, Sir, faid he, the perfon whom you fent to Pondicherry; I have been there, and have amafled a fortune of an hundred thousand francs. I am returned, have fet about writing verfes, and here are fome which I have brought you."-"Are they still bad ?”—“Still.” -"But your lot is fettled, and I have no objection to your perfifting to write bad verfes."--"In truth, this is my intention.” This you will think, Reader, a fingular occurrence and a fingular character; but M. Diderot has many of them in store. Here what he fays in another place upon this fubject : "Is it this that excites your incredulity? In the first place, nature is fo diversified, efpecially They call to their affiftance their friend "Certainly." efpecially in characters and instincts, that there is nothing in the imagination of the poet fo extravagant of which obfervation and experience do not preient us with the model. I myself, who now speak, have met with the fellow of the Mock-Doctor, which till then. I had confidered as the most entertaining of all fictions.-What! the fellow of a husband whofe wife fays to him, I have three children on my bands, and who anfwers, Lay them down then. "They afk for bread." "Give them a rod." Precifely.-The following is the dialogue that paffed between him and my wife: "Are you there Menfieur Gouffe?"-" Yes, Madam, for I cannot be in two places at once." Where" And from this heroic action you are you come from?"-" From the place imagine that Gouffe was poffeffed of a I went to."-"What have you done great fund of morality."—" No, indeed! there?"-"I have repaired a mill that be undeceived; he had no more idea of it was out of order."-" Whofe mill was thana horfe.' '-"Impoffible!"—" It is it ?"-" I know nothing of that; I did true, however. I had employed him in a not go there to fet the miller to rights." piece of bufinefs; I gave him adraft upon "You are very well drefied, contrary my agent for eighty livres; the fum was to cuftom. Why under this fuit, which written in figures, What does my man is very becoming, have you a dirty fhirt?" but add a cypher, and draws eight hun-"Because I have no more than one." dred livres." "Ah! fhocking!""And why no more?" Becaufe I "He is not more difhoneft when he robs have no more bodies than one at a time?” me than generous when he ftrips himself "How are your children ?"--" Admi- to ferve his friend. He is an original, rably !" And the boy that has fuch deftitute of principles. The eighty livres fine eyes, fo plump, fo pretty a kin ?"--- were not fufficient for him; with a dafh "Much better than the reft; he is of the pen he procured the eight hundred, dead." for which he had occafion. And then with what a valuable book was I prefented? Some time after I had occation for another valuable book, and again he furnished me with it. I wished to pay for it; he refused to accept the price. I had occafion for a third." "This time," faid he, "I cannot fupply you; my Doctor of the Sorbonne is dead." "Take Gouffe to a tavern, tell him your bufinefs, propofe that he should go with you twenty leagues off he will accompany you. After having employed him,difimifs him without a penny; he will return perfectly fatisfied with his treat ment. "Gouffe and Premonval kept a fchool of mathematics together. Among the numerous scholars that attended there was a young Lady, called Mifs Pigeon, the daughter of the celebrated artist who conftructed those two planifpheres which have been tranfported from the Royal Garden to the Hall of the Academy of Sciences. Mifs Pigeon went every morning with her fatchel under her arm, and her mathematical inftrument cafe in her muff. One of the profeffors, Premonval, fell in love with his fcholar, and in fpite of the propofitions upon folids, infcribedupon the iphere, 'fhewas got with child.' Father Pigeon was not a man to acquiefce with patience in the truth of this corollary. The fituation of the lovers becomes embarraffing; they hold a conference; but having nothing, nothing at all in the world, what could be the refult of their deliberations? "And what connection has the death of your Doctor of the Sorbonne with the book that I wish to procure? Did you take the two former out of his library?" Affuredly !"-" Without his leave?"" Poh! What need had I of that, in order to adminifter diftributive juftice? I only displaced these books for the better, by transferring them from a place where they were ufelels, to another where they were to be ufed to advantage." After this, fhall we venture to judge of men by their conduct? But there is the ftory of Gouffe and his wife which is bett of all." And this, Reader, you actually find fome forty pages after, at the end of this firft Volume. But we have not room for its infertion. Towards the end of the fecond Volume a plealant pleasant quarrel takes place between James and his mafter, in confequence of the fuccefs of the former in an amour in which his matter had failed. We will extract the more prominent parts of it: Matter."Well now, James, you fay you were fixed in the houfe of Deigland, and Denefé ordered by her mother to pay you at least four vifits a day. The baggage to prefer a James !" at once fly out, and fet a crying, might and main, Yeu ball go down stairs---I will not go down flairs. The hoftels came up (the quar el was at an inn), and being a difcreet and prudent dame adjusted the matter, by requiring mutual concef fions, not knowing," adds the Author, "that this, which the took to be the firft conteit, was more than the hundredth of the fame fpecies that had happened." James. "A James! a James, Sir, James very widely remarks, on an amicais a man like another."--Mafter. "James, ble refumption of the argument after. you are mistaken; a James is not a man wards, when the mafter propofes that they like another."--- James. "He fome- fhould now change ftations, "Do you times is better than another."-- Matter. know what would be the confequence? "James, you forget yourself! Refume You would lofe the title without obrainthe hiftory of your amours, and remember ing the fubfiarce. Let us remain as we that you are, and ever will be, no more are; we are both very well; and let the than a James."--- James. "If in the rest of our life be employed in making a cottage where we met the robbers James proverb."---Matter. "What proverb?" had not been a little better than his maf---James. "James manage, bis majter.” ter."---Malter. "James, you are imper----We shall be the first to whom the laytinent; you abuse my goodnefs. If I ing will be applied, but it will be rehave been guilty of the folly of taking you peated of a thousand far fuperior to you out of your place, I know very well how and me." to fend you back to it again. James, take your bottle and your bafon, and go down ftairs."---James. "You are pleafed to fay fo, Sir; I feel myfelf very well here, and I will not go down ftairs."--Mafter. "I fay, you fhall go down ftairs.". James. I am fure you don't fay true. What, Sir, after having accuftomed me for ten years to live on the footing of a companion ?"-Mafter. "I think proper to put an end to this." --James. : After having fuffered all my impertinences ?"---Master." I intend to fuffer them no longer."---James. "After feating me at table by your fide, calling -Malter. me your friend." "You do not know then what is the meaning of the word friend, when bestowed by a fuperior upon his inferior."---James. "When it is known that all your orders are not worth a pinch of fnuff till ratified by James after having coupled your name fo close to mine that the one never goes without the other, and all the world fays, James and bis Mafter! all at once you are pleafed to feparate them. No, Sir, that will not be. It is decreed on high, that as long as James lives, as long as his mafter lives, and even after they are both dead, it will be faid, James and his Mafter !---Mafter. "And I fay, James, that you fhall go down ftairs inftantly, because I command you." --James. "Command me to do fomething elfe, Sir, if you have a mind to be obeyed." "And now James and his Master, who had hitherto contained themfelves, both There is much folidity of reflection and knowledge of human nature in this little occurrence, which has the appearance of levity; and a very useful hint may be gathered from it for the direction of Jocial condu&. But this we willingly refer to the reader's fagacity. He will allo find, in different parts of this work, feveral happy itrokes of wit and humour; but in this particular Diderot is much inferior to his predeceffor Voltaire. In mixing it occafionally with indecency and profaneness both Authors agree; and the philofopher of Fermey may be thought to be equalled, if not outdone, in the fable of the Sheath and the Hanger, and in the application of that fine paffage of Ovid, Os homini fublime dedit, which that Poet attributes to the author of nature, to James's broad flouched bat. For his indecency Diderot defends himself for mally in the very arguments of Sterne; but fuch arguments, by proving too much, prove nothing. If their truth be admit ted, it follows, that books do not at all contribute either to injure the morals or to improve them; it fhould be added, that the more exceptionable paffages are omitted in the tranflation betore us. Many other refemblances of Sterne occur befides this which we have noticed. The Author confefles this resemblance in one cafe; admitting alío, that the point of originality can only be decided by priority of composition. The main queftion, concerning predef tination or fatality, remains in its primi tive metaphyfical darkness; from which, learning and diligence, far fuperior to Dideror's, have not hitherto been able to draw it forth. A work of levity and gaiety was certainly not defigned to alter the condition of it; but may contribute a little to display the character of thofe who maintain it. James is a pleafant fellow; but he fometimes appears, what his Matter calls him, a dangerous raga muffin. Whoever conceive themfelves impelled by inevitable fate will probably feel lefs remorfe for the malignity of their fchemes, than grief for their fruftration; for how convince him of guilt, who throws the fault upon the Stars? or how delight bis fancy with the temporal rewards of bonefly, who believes that he is born to be banged? R. R. A Refidence in France, during the Years 1792, 1793, 1794, and 1795, defcribed, in a Series of Letters from an English Lady, with general and incidental Remarks on the French Character and Manners. Prepared for the Prefs by John Gifford, Efq. Author of The Hiftory of France, Letter to Lord Lauderdale, &c. in Two Volumes. London: Printed by J. Plymfell, for T. N. Longman, Paternofter-Row, 1797. "Plus je vis l'Etranger, plus j'amai ma Patrie." IN the following paffage we fee the ftate of Religion during the tyranny of Robefpierre, and his unprincipled and fanguinary faction: While the confternation was yet recent, the deputies on million in the departments fhut up the churches entirely The refuse of low clubs were paid and encouraged to break the windows and deftroy the monuments of them, and these outrages, which it was previously concerted, fhould at first affume the appear. ance of a popular tumult, were foon regulated and directed by the mandatories of the Convention themselves. The churches were again opened-atheistical and licentious homilies were fubftituted for the profcribed fervice, and an abfurd and ludicrous imitation of the Greek mythology was exhibited, under the title of the Religion of Reafon. On the printipal church of every town was infcribed the Temple of Reafon; and a tutelary goddefs was inftalled with a ceremony equally pedantic, ridiculous, and profane; yet the philofophers did not on this occafion disdain those adventitious tids, the ufe of which they had so much declaimed against, while they were the auxiliaries of christianity. "Mufic, proceffions, and decorations, which had been banished from the ancient worthip, were introduced in the new one; and the philofophical reformer, even in the very attempt to establish a religion purely metaphyfical, found himself obliged to inculcate it by a grofs and material idolatry. Thus by fubmitting his abitractions to the genius of the people, and the imperfections of our nature, VOL. XXXI. JUNE 1797. DU BELLOY. perhaps the beft apology was offered for the errors of that worship, which had been profcribed, perfecuted, and ridiculed. "Previous to the tenth day, in which a celebation of this kind was to take place, a Deputy arrived, accompanied by the female goddefs; that is, (if the town itfelf did not produce one for the purpose), a Roman dreis of white fatin was hired from the theatre, with which he was invefted, her head was covered with a red cap, ornamented with oak-leaves, one arm was reclined on a plough, the other grafped a spear-and her feet were fupported by a globe, and environed by mutilated emblems of feodality. "Thus equipped, the divinity and her appendages, were borne on the fhoulders of Jacobins en bonnet rouge, and efcorted by the National Guard, Mayor, Judges, and all the conftituted authorities, who, whether diverted or indignant, were obliged to obferve a refpectful gravity of exterior. When the whole cavalcade arrived at the place appointed, the goddess was placed on an altar erected for the occafion, from whence the harangued the people, who in return profelfed their adoration, and fung the Carmagnole, and other Republican hymns of the fort. "They then proceeded in the fame order to the principal church, in the choir of which the fame ceremonies were renewed; a priest was fometimes procured to abjure his faith, and avow the whole of Christianity an impofture: though it must be obferved in juftice to the Freuch Clergy, that it was feldom poffible to find Fir any any who would confent to this infamy: in fuch cafes the part was exhibited by a man hired and dreffed for the purpofe. The feftival concluded with the burning of prayer books, faints, confeffionals, and every thing appropriated to the uie of public worship. "The greater part of the attendants looked on in filent terror and attonithment; whilst others intoxicated, or pro. bably paid to act this fcandalous farce, danced round the flames with an appearance of frantic and favage mirth. It is not to be forgotten, that Reprefentatives of the People often prefided as the High Pritfts of thefe rites; and their official dispatches to the Convention, in which theie ceremonies were minutely defcribed, were always heard with burits of applaufe, and fanctioned by a decree of iniertion in the Bulletin." It might have been expected that during the extreme fcarcity of grain, the farmers would become, and often with fufficient reafon, objects of fufpicion; yet the records of oppreffive cruelty have feldom, probably, have never before equalled the following detail of their perfecutions: It occurs in a note at the rooth page of the Second Volume, and is in part authenticated by the fpeech of Dubois Crancè, Sept. 22, 1794. "The avarice of the farmer was doubtlefs to be condemned, but the cruel defpotim of the government almoft weakened the fenfe of rectitude, for by confounding error with guilt, and guilt with innocence, they habituated you to indifcriminate pity, and obliged you to transfer your hatred of a crime to thefe who in punishing it, obferved neither mercy nor juftice. A Farmer was guilJotined, because fome blades of corn appeared growing in his pond; from which circumftance it was inferred, he had thrown in a large quantity, in order to promote a fcarcity; though it was fubitantially proved on his trial, that at the preceding harvet the grain of an adjoining field had been got in during a high wind, and that in all probability fome fcattered ears which reached the water, had produced what was deemed fufficient tellimony to convict him. Another underwent the fame punishment for purfuing his ufual courfe of tillage, and owing part of his ground with lucerne, initead of employing the whole for wheat; and every where thefe people be came the objects of periecution, both in their perfons and property. "Almost all our comiderable farmers," fays Dubois Crancè, have been thrown into prifon; the confequence is, that their capital is eat up, their stock gone to ruin, and our lands have loft the almoft incalculable effect of their industry. In La Vendcè fix millions of acres of land lie uncultivated, and five hundred thoufand oxen have been turned aftray, without shelter and without an ow ner. Maniacs of every nation, as was the cafe of Margaret Nicholson, and others, have occafionally, and it may easily be accounted for, directed their wild vengeance against the Throne; but no initance of the bloodly retaliation of defpotifin can exceed that of Robefpire. Let the reader run over the following narrative, and shudder at Revolutionary Syftems. "The affaffins of Henry the Fourth had all the benefit of the laws, and foffered only after a legal condemnation; yet the unfortunate Cecilia Renaud, though evidently under a flate of mental derangement, was hurried to the feaffold without a hearing, for the vague utter ance of a truth, to which every heart in France, not loft to humanity, mult affent. Brooding on the mileries of her country, till her imagination became heated and difordered, this young woman feems to have conceived fome hopeles plan of redress from expoftulation with Robespierre, whom the regarded as a principal in all the evils the deplored. The difficulty of obtaining an audience of him, irritated her to make fome comparifon between an hereditary Sovereign and a Republican one; and the avowed, that in defiring to fee Robespierre, the was actuated only by a curiofity to contemplate the features of a tyrant. On being examined before the Committee, the fil perfifted that her defign was fealment pour voir comment etoit fait un trans and no inftrument, or poflible mears of deftruction was found upon her to jukits a charge of any thing more than the wild and enthusiastic attachment to Royalilim, which the did not attempt to difguife. The influence of a feminine propenfity, which often furvives even the wreck of reason and beauty, had induced her to drets with peculiar neatre's when the went in fearch of Robelpierre; and from the complexion of the times, pofing it very probable a vifit of this nature might end in imprisonment and death, fhe had alfo provided herself witha change of clothes to wear in her lait maments. ** Such |