fending of the parliament into exile, was a trial to the wife policy of the prefident Henault. His friendship for the firft prefident, De Mefmes, led him to fecond all the views of that great magiftrate: he took part in all the negociations, and was animated purely by the public good, without any private advantage. On the death of the Cardinal du Bois, in 1723, he fucceeded to his place at the French Academy.Cardinal Fleury recommended him to fucceed himself as director, and he pronounced the cloge of M. de Malezieux. Hiftory was his favourite ftudy; not a bare collection of dates, but a knowledge of the laws and manners of nations; to obtain which he drew inftruction from private converfations, a method he fo ftrongly recommends in his preface. After having thus difcuffed the most important points of the public law of France, he undertook to collect and publish the refult of his enquiries, and he is defervedly accounted the firft framer of chronological abridgements; in which, without fopping at detached facts, he attends only to thofe which form a chain of events that perfect or alter the government and character of a people, and traces only the fprings which exalt or humble a nation, extending or contracting the fpace it occupies in the world. His work has had the fortune of thofe literary phænomena where novelty and merit united excite minds eager after glory, and fire the ardour of young writers to prefs after a guide whom few can overtake. The firft edition of the work, the refult of forty years reading, appeared in 1744, under the aufpices of the chancellor Dagueffeau, with the modeft title of an Effay. The fuccefs it met with furprifed him. He made continual improvements in it; it has gone thro' uine editions, and been tranflated into Italian, English, and German, and-even into Chinele. As the best writings are not fecure from criticism, and alone indeed deferve it, the author read to the Academy of Belles Lettres a defence of his Abridgement. All the ages and events of the French monarchy being prefent to his mind, and his imagination and memory being a vaft theatre on which he beheld the different movements and parts of the actors in the feveral revolutions, he determined to give a fpecimen of what paffed in his own mind, and to reduce into the form of a regular drama one of the periods of our hiftory, the reign of Francis II. which, though happy only by being fhort, appeared to him one of the most important by its confequences, and moft eafy to be confined within the ftage bounds. His friend the chancel lor highly approved the plan, and wished it to be printed. It accordingly went through five editions; the har mony of facts and dates is exactly ob served in it, and the paflions interested without offence to hiftoric truth. In 1755 he was chofen an honorary member of the Academy of Belles Lettres, being then a member of the Academies of Nanci, Berlin, and Stockholm. The queen appointed him fuperintendant of her house. His natural sprightlinefs relieved her from the ferious at tendance on his private morning lectures. The company of perfons most diftinguished by their wit and birth, a table more celebrated for the choice of the guests than its delicacies, the little comedies fuggefted by wit, and executed by reflections, united at his houfe all the pleasures of an agreeable and innocent life. All the members of this ingenious fociety contributed to render it agreeable, and the prefident was not behind any. He composed three delightful comedies: La Petite Maison, Le Jaloux de Soimeme, and Le Reveil d Epimenide. The fubject of the last was the Cretan philofopher, who is pretended to have flept 27 years. He is introduced fancying that he had flept but one night, and astonished at the change in the age of all around him: he mistakes his miftrefs for his mother; but, difcovering his mistake, offers to marry her, which the refufes, though he still continues to love her. The queen was particularly pleased with this piece. She ordered the prefdent to reftore the philofopher's mif trefs to her former youth: he introduced Hebe, and this epifode produced an agreeable entertainment. He was now in fuch favour with her Majefty, that, on the place of fuperin tendant becoming vacant by the death of M. Bernard de Conbert, mafter of requests, and the fum he had paid for it being loft to his family, Henault folicited it in favour of feveral perfons, till at last the queen bestowed it on himself, and confented that he fhould divide the profits with his predeceffor's widow.-On the queen's death he held the fame place under the dauphinefs. A de. A delicate conftitution made him liable to much illness, which, however, did not interrupt the ferenity of his mind. He made feveral journies to the waters of Plombieres: in one of thefe he vifited the depofed king Stanislaus at Luneville; and in another accompanied his friend the marquis de Paulmy, amballador to Switzerland. In 1763 he drew near his end. One morning, after a quiet night, he felt an opprettion, which the faculty pronounced a fuffocating cough. His confeffor being fent to him, he formed his refolution without alarm. He has fince faid that he recollected having then faid to himfelf, What do I regret and called to mind that faying of Madame.de Sevigné, I leave here only dying creatures. He received the facraments. It was believed that the next night would be his left; but by noon next day he was out of danger. Now, faid he, I know what death is. It will not be new to me any more. He never forget it during the following 7 years of his life, which, like all the rett, were gentle and calm. Full of gratitude for the favours of Providence, refigned to its decrees, offering to the Author of his being a pure and fincere devotion, he felt his infirmities without complaining, and perceived a gradual decay with unabated firmness. He died Decemb. 24, 1771, in lis 86th year. He married, in 1714, a daughter of M. le Bas de Montargis, keeper of the royal treafure, &c. who died in 1728, without leaving any iffue. He treated as his own children, thofe of his fifter, who married, in 1713, the count de Jonfac, by whom he had three fons and two daughters: the two youngest fons were killed, one at Bruffels, the other at Lafelt, at the head of the regiments of which they were colonels; the eldeft, yet living, is lieutenant general and governor of Collioure and Port Vendre in Rouffion: the ideft daughter married M. le Veneur count, de Tillieres, and died in 1757; the fecond married the marquis d'Aubeterre, amballador to Vienna, Madrid, and Rome. D. H. tion, which the old gentleman asked me to English for him, that occurred n. the critic's remarks on Dr. Tucker. Depurge ubi fiam. Dr. Hawed, poor old fellow, who has lately been wou ded in bringing up the rear of learned Prefbyterians, is blamed for his requent citations of heathen writers. Put the paflages this brave old veteran adduces, are all found, orthodox, claffical ftuff. But his quotation is from fome barbaroes, unknown author: as the paffage, in its prej a form, is abfolutely unintcligible. Unable to 'conftrue it, I proposed it to the examination of two of my fellow collegians. When a pallage is unintelligible, we critics have recourfe to conjectural emendation. One gentleman, therefore, for fam proposed to read fyftemą, and understand ef. Mark where your fyftem is, i. e. Define your principles. But the other gentleman, who was more acute than us all, happily reftored the true text, by a very flight and beautiful alteration. For, oblerving that the Dean had written formerly against the Jews, he himself made no doubt, and convinced us, that fam was a corruption, for fus fiat. Depunge ubi fus flat: Put down a prick where the jawine flands. Yours, &c. J. C. CANTAB. MR. URBAN, TO No fort of criticifin is more ufeful than the pointing out the mistakes of popular writers. I take the freedom of mentioning to you two unfcholarlike blunders in the elegant Differtations of Dr. Blair and Dr. Beattie, lately pub lifhed, and much admired. The former, in his chapter on hiftory, obferves, introduced fictitious orations into hifthat Thucydides was the first who tory:" whereas there are many, and very ftriking fpeeches in Herodotus. The latter of thefe two critics, in his chapter on the beauty of motion, mentions the well-known line of Virgil, Vera ince patuit Dea, as an illuftration of his reafonings on the fubject. But the word "inceilù" undoubtedly relates, not to the beauty of Venus's gait and air, but to that fort of motion that was peculiar to celestial beings only, and by which they were cafily diftinguished from mortals; fmooth gliding without ftep," as Milton expreffes it. MR. URBAN, AS I received more pleasure and in formation than ufual, from read ing a Collection of Royal and Noble Wills from William the Conqueror to Henry VII. printed in 1780, 4to; I could not help wondering that fo little notice was taken in magazines and public papers of fo curious and uncommon a publication, which I could no otherwife account for than by fuppofing, that the generality of readers expected little more from it, than a detail of the disposition of property, in which few are concerned; and delivered in all the verbage and technical terms of modern conveyancing; where, amidst a multiplicity of idle words, the fignificant only are fo thinly frewed, that an impatient reader may eafily skip over them; and find himself at laft very little enlightened. But the direct contrary is the cafe with this collection; the language, whether French, Latin, or English, bears no refemblance to that of the law, and will furnish large additions to the collections of the Gloffarist: whilft, for what reafon I hardly know, the property difpofed of is next to nothing, at leaft takes up very little room; and the accounts of their fer vants, plate, chapel, and all furniture, affords excellent materials and in great abundance to thofe who love to collect -particularities relative to the private life of our great ancestors; a fubject, that hath lately been treated by a French author, for his nation, in their ufual lively and agreeable manner. Perhaps I may, in fome future Magazines, fay fomewhat on each of thefe heads, with a few mifcellaneous articles: at prefent I fhall only fay, that the prefacer obferves, that Sobieski did not expect his teftamentary act to be performed: which indeed was not likely to be the cafe with an elective King of Poland; fince the fame happened to Henry VIII. and Lewis XIV. two of the most imperious monarchs that ever reigned. Later wills are faid to have been toffed, into the fire by the royal heir: whofe proceedings are not in general thought to be amenable even to a Lord Chan. cellor: tho' the fpirited behaviour of a late Earl, who ferved the procefs As difpofing by will of one's property, real as well as perfonal, is now fo freely and univerfally practifed; it may be information to many to be told, that this has only been the cafe in England for the last two centuries: and most perfons will think it extraordinary, that this fhould not have been derived from the common law; but from an Act of Parliament. See Hon. Daines Barrington, on Ancient Statutes, 27 H. VIII, p. 52. Rayner Heckford, Efq; on Bookland and Folkland, 1775, P. 45, &c, Even in au age, when the authority of our King is thought to have run high, and that of the Parliament proportionaby low, R I. and his faccefors, Kings of Ergiand, feemed to have been firft enabled to make the Walls by an exprefs ftatute. Royal Wills, Pref. p. iv. of of King Henry VIII. the ancient and ftately country-feat of the Abbots of Saint Alban's at Tyttenhanger in Hertfordshire. Here he furnished the chapel with painted glas, taken from the choir of Saint Alban's church, and with other ornaments, which he bought of the King. One of the purchafes was a chalice from the high altar, which is the fame that now belongs to the chapel of Trinity college, Oxford. It is a noble cup of filver gilt, fuperb in Gothic fculpture; and a drawing of it was made for the Antiquarian Society, by the late ingenious engraver, Mr. Benjamin Green, at the expence of Mr. Wife, Radclivian librarian. The old house at Tittenhanger was pulled down, in 1652, by Sir Henry Pope Blount, a great free thinker and traveller. He built the houfe now ftanding, where is a curious picture of Sir Thomas Pope's fecond wife, and a vellum copy of Trinity college ftatutes. Thefe particulars are recommended to the notice of Mr. Warton, in cafe he fhould publifh a third edition of his LIFE OF SIR THOMAS POPE. Yours, &c. MR. URBAN, ALBANENSIS become eafy and familiar, from the apprehenfion of comfort and tranquillity, by which they are to be fucceeded. Thus every one becomes a candidate for pleafure: fince all the toils, dangers, misfortunes, which are felt by the active and bufy part of mankind, are endure for the fake, and in expectation, of fome plcafurable purchase in reverfion. If we confider immediate gratification only, where fenfe is concerned, pleafure can never be allowed to be a fixed and fettled object. Moft unphilofophical was it therefore in the ancient philofophers, when they confidered pleafure only as an external operation, to enquire, where the fovereign good, externally confidered, was placed. Had they reafoned with propriety, they would have concluded, that every man found it to be fuch as was fuitable to, and correfponded with, his frame and temper of difpofition. If Herillus ftands forth, and affirms, that the greatest pleasure arifes from knowledge, and the acquifition of truths, appertaining to the objects which furround us if Epicurus tells us, that. freedom from pain is the only true happiness of life: if Anaxagoras recom. mends abftinence and moderation, as 1 pain, even the moft acute pain, perfective of all our wishes: if the Pecould be circumfcribed, in its dura- ripatetic advance all external gratification, and the humour, fashion, capri- tions to our choice, as the best ingre cioufnefs of the age fhould introduce it dients of human defires: if Ariftippas to our acquanitance and familiarity; it advifes us to drink largely and liberally would be difficult to difcover thofe, by out of Circe's cup: What is the refult whom this evil would not be adopted, of all thefe feveral opinions, but a grain conformity to general habit and cuftification founded upon that, which tom; for the purchafe would be made, even at the expence of life itself. The pleafures of life have more of the aloe, iban the boney. Diftrefs, anxiety, difappointment, difcontent, confidered as evils, are avoided: but when once laid nto the lap of pleafure, and drawn from thence, the thorns of the rofe, though ever fo pungent, are patiently endured, even when the favour of the flower is vanished away. Difficulty and labour every one's perception tells him is peculiarly fuited to his own pleasurable feelings? Thefe philofophers preclaimed a fovereign good; but they had not confidered the constituent principles of fuch a good. For how fovereign, if fluctuating, tranfitory, fallacious? A fubordinate fatisfaction fuch may be; but it can never be fovereign, unlefs ftable, permanent, and fedate. While thefe fages without fagacity Have we not feen in thefe modern times, that tender and delicate counterpart of the human fabric fubmitting to pain, in fupport of a prepofteroufly Gothic pile of head-drefs; when the neck was bowed in the carriage, and the lady looked like a criminal, in a legal Aate of punishment? The painful uneafinefs, at this juncture endured, mut not have been many degrees removed from that of the neck in the pillory; and all this in compliance with the tyrant, fashion. If narratives may be depended upon, when fupported by unquestionable authority, fome of thefe fair elegant forms, unfortunately while they coveted the fleeting Shadows of public attention, have paid a facrifice to their gaiety, in the lofs of their lives. Can it be matter of furprize, if heat of weather, co-operating with the heat impreffed upon the brain by an edifice of hair, and an increstation of petrid unguent, have occafioned fudden deaths? fearched fearched the waters for the pearl, having difcovered a refemblance, they rejoiced in pronouncing it an acquifition of the real object. The dominions of pleafure are immeasurably eccentric. Whoever launches forth into this boundless fea of deceitful allurements, in a veffel unfurnished with the proper requifites for its fecurity, may be wafted to and fro for a time without peril, while the fun's rays and the calm fea are propitious; but to hazard a voyage, and to retreat prof. perously into port, there must be a compafs to direct, an helm to regulate the courfe, and mafts and failing to effectuate the veffel's motion, with ballaft to make it steady. Come on then, philofopher, and make further researches after this fovereign good. Has a regular enquiry been made into the great ends and defigns of life? Have the means been carefully confidered, which lead us on gradually to fuch ends? Has it been a matter of contemplation, whether there has been an exact correfpondence between the faculty and the object; fo that no falfe medium has intervened to difcolour the object? All these things must be carefully examined, before the purfuit of good begins: unless we envy the brutal appetites, and, think it the beft fenfe, to be governed by fenfe only. Range then through this department of indolent fedulity, and obferve in what manner the profpect terminates. The champions enter the lifts. The found of the inftrument awakens the purfuit. All rush forward, and fly to the embraces of the delufive form. Rapture, exultation, felicity, triumph for a seafon, till the rude, disfigured, gloomy intruder, Satiety, fteps forward, and fcatters darkness over the whole profpect. What is fatiety fuffered to caft her fable mantle over thefe rofy powers of blifs? Where is fatisfaction! Why does not the advance, and difabufe the votaries of pleasure, by the exclufion of fariety? Miferable fate of things! Alas! pleafure is at length a painful purfuit! the painful purfuit of pleasure! We purfue pleasure, and in the fame inftant fly from happinefs. Stand forth then, thou votary of fhadows, and examine with the utmost caution the ftate and difpofitions of thy ideas. After a wafte of time, devoted to the comple.. tion of these fallies, which would have difgraced the festival of Flora, and have made the favage blub, fay, is all right within? Is the midnight revel, the lethargic infenfibility of the fucceeding day, to be acknowledged the pure unfophifticated feeling of fatisfactory delight? Have you full poffeffion of this all-powerful queen-regent of your affections? Defcribe her fixed empire, and the immunities enjoyed under it. Alas! you grasp with impetuous warmth of defire at this lovely form, and, like Macbeth grafping at the dagger, you are obliged at length to conclude, that there is no such thing. What! are all thele profufions of delight at last only the mere spectres of the brain? Confefs then, that all is error and delusion: that it is as vain to have a firm poffeffion of this elufory form, as it is for the cenitnel in Hamlet to strike the ghost with his partizan. 'Tis bere, 'tis there, 'tis gone. If the weights in the fcale are falfe, we shall be deceived in the value of the purchase. Imperfection, laffitude, difappointment, are acknowledged to be the confequences of voluptuous freition; and if imperfection is to be found here, it neceffarily implies perfection fomewhere. If we confider pleafine according to its true incaning, it will be found to be a regular rational apprehenfion of an object, in every refpect fitting and fuitable to a faculty rightly dif pofed. In the object no fault can refide, for that appears the fame to every one: but the fault is in the faculty. when the deceit arifes, which, through its weakness and inftability, difcerns, or thinks it difcerns, that in the object which does not properly belong to it. We eagerly bend before the awful majefty of opulence; we make great ftrides to be invefted with honours and dignified diftinctions: we are continu ally competitors for power and fuperi ority: but we do not reflect, at this juncture, that thefe fruitions are only coveted, as the true means inftrungntally fubfervient to a nobler objeft in view: for when we are poffefled of these gratifications, we still are in jabour after fomething more, to make the grand scale of happiness complete. It is not then power, riches, dignity, honour only, but forething else wlach thefe attendants are expected to bring with them, that we fo much labour to acquire. What then is this? It is that central perfection of enjoyment," that full and complete affemblage of earthly happiness, the eafe, quiet, content, and inward fatisfaction oi vind. Labour earnestly for a mind couitious of refti |