that by dexterous management all the real money he had fpent had returned into the royal coffers, and that the fuppofed long fleeps were all illufions effected by the confederacy of the agents employed; that his confinement had lafted no more than fourteen months; that Cadiga had been wounded, but was not dead; and that he himself had played the part of Çozro in the drama, but that he had never made him undergo any feeming punishment when he had deserved it by his impiety and crimes. Let this dream of exiftence (continues the fultan) then be a leffon to thee for the future, never to suppose that riches can enfure happiness; that the gratification of our paffions can fatisfy the human heart; or that the immortal part of our nature will fuffer us to tafte unmixed felicity, in a world which was never meant for our final place of abode.. Take thy amiable Mandana to thee for a wife, and receive the fixed confidence and love of Schemzeddin.

The history says that Nourjahad was from that minute raised to be the first man in power next to the fultan; that his wifdom and virtue proved an ornament and support to the throne of Perfia during the courfe of a long and profperous life; and that his name was famous throughout the Eastern world.'

Such is the fubftance of this hiftory, which in many places is pious and affecting; but we cannot think it applicable to any ftate of life, or that the conduct of it is reconcileable to probability. The author has, however, rendered its cataftrophe entertaining and pleasing to those who delight in the marvellous.

Letters of the Right Hon. Lady
written during her Travels in
Perfons of Distinction, Men of

VI. An additional Valume to the
M-
y W-
-y Me:
Europe, Afia, and Africa; to
Letters, &c. in different Parts of Europe. 8vo.
Becket.

T

Pr. 35

HE publication before us contains the fame characters of ftile and manner that distinguished the former volumes published under the name of this celebrated lady, the auhenticity of which, we believe, has never been difputed.

Letter LIII. with which this volume opens, contains fome matrimonial anecdotes, which are compofed with that eafe, freedom, and sprightlinefs, that is to be met with in her ladyhip's leaft laboured performances, but are always intermixed with found fenfe and proper reflexions. The next letter confifts of remarks on fome illuftrious perfonages at the court of Vienna. As thofe perfonages are birds of paffage, we fhall pot trouble the reader with any extracts from the author's obfere

8

obfervations. When we mention the letter to have been written in the year 1717, it is needlefs to fay through what new scenes and changes the character of that court, and every other in Europe, has fince paffed. The fame date juflifies her ladyship in her opinion, that Rouffeau (the poet, not the philofopher) excelled all the English writers of that time in lyric poetry. The next letter is addreffed to Mr. Pope, with whom the writer was at that time upon very good terms. When we confider to whom this epiftle was directed, we can easily account for the pains which her ladyship has taken to render it one of the most agreeable of the whole collection; and therefore we shall make no apology for giving it entire to our readers.

To Mr. P.

" Sept. 1, 1717.

• When I wrote to you laft, Belgrade was in the hands of the Turks; but, at this prefent moment, it has changed mafters, and is in the hands of the Imperialifts. A janiffary who in nine days, and yet without any wings but what a panick terror seems to have furnished, arrived at Conftantinople from the army of the Turks before Belgrade, brought Mr. W the news of a compleat victory obtained by the Imperialists, commanded by prince Eugene, over the Ottoman troops. It is faid, the Prince has difcovered great conduct and valour in this action, and I am particularly glad that the voice of glory and duty has called him from the--(here several words of the manufcript are effaced.)--Two days after the battle the town furrendered. The confternation, which this defeat has occafioned here, is inexpreffible; and the Sultan apprehending a revolution from the refentment and indignation of the people, fomented by certain leaders, has begun his precautions, after the goodly fashion of this bleffed government, by ordering feveral perfons to be strangled who were the objects of his royal fufpicion. He has also ordered his Treasurer to advance fome months pay to the janiffaries, which feems the less neceffary, as their conduct has been bad in this campaign, and their licentious ferocity feems pretty well tamed by the publick contempt. Such of them as return in ftraggling and fugitive parties to the metropolis, have not spirit nor credit enough to defend themselves from the infults of the mob; the very children 'taunt them, and the populace spit in their faces as they pafs. They refused during the battle to lend their affiftance to fave the baggage and the military cheft, which, however, were defended by the bashaws and their retinue, while the janiffaries and fpahis were nobly employed in plundering their own camp.

• You

* You fee here that I give you a very handsome return for your obliging letter. You entertain me with a moft agreeable account of your amiable connexions with men of letters and tafte, and of the delicious moments you pass in their fociety under the rural fhade; and I exhibit to you, in return, the barbarous fpectacle of Turks and Germans cutting one another's throats. But what can you expect from such a country as this, from which the mufes have fled, from which letters feem eternally banished, and in which you fee, in private fcenes, nothing pursued as happiness but the refinements of an indolent voluptuoufnefs, and where thofe who act upon the public theatre live in uncertainty, fufpicion, and terror. Here pleasure, to which I am no enemy when it is properly feafoned and of a good compofition, is furely of the cloying kind. Veins of wit, elegant converfation, easy commerce, are unknown among the Turks; and yet they seem capable of all thefe, if the vile fpirit of their government did not stifle genius, damp curiofity, and fupprefs an hundred paffions, that embellish and render life agreeable. The lufcious paffion of the Seraglio is the only one almost that is gratified here to the full, but it is blended fo with the furly spirit of defpotifm in one of the parties, and with the dejection and anxiety which this fpirit produces in the other, that to one of my way of thinking it cannot appear otherwise than as a very mixed kind of enjoyment. The women here are not, indeed, so closely confined as many have related; they enjoy a high degree of liberty even in the bofom of fervitude, and they have methods of evafion and disguise that are very favourable to gallantry; but after all, they are ftill under uneafy apprehenfions of being difcovered; and a discovery exposes them to the most merciless rage of jealousy, which is here a monfter that cannot be fatiated but with blood. The magnificence and riches that reign in the apartments of the ladies of fashion here, feem to be one of their chief pleafures, joined with their retinue of female flaves, whofe mufic, dancing and dress amuse them highly; but there is fuch an air of form and ftiffness amidst this grandeur, as hinders it from pleafing me at the long run, however I was dazzled with it at first fight. This ftiffness and formality of manners are peculiar to the Turkish ladies; for the Grecian belles are of quite another character and complexion; with them pleafure appears in more engaging forms, and their perfons, manners, converfation and amufements, are very far from being deftitute of elegance and ease

I received the news of Mr. Addifon's being declared Secretary of State with the lefs furprize, in that I know that post was almoft offered to him before. At that time he declined it,

it now.

and I really believe that he would have done well to have declined
Such a poft as that, and fuch a wife as the coun-
tefs, do not feem to be, in prudencé, eligible for a man that
is asthmatick; and we may fee the day when he will be hear-
tily glad to refign them both. It is well that he laid afide the
thoughts of the voluminous dictionary, of which I have heard
you or fomebody elfe frequently make mention.
But no more

on that fubject; I would not have said so much, were I not
affured that this letter will come fafe and unopened to hand.
I long much to tread upon English ground, that I may see you
and Mr. Congreve, who render that ground claffick ground; nor
will you
refuse our present fecretary a part of that merit, what-
ever reafons you may have to be diffatisfied with him in other
refpects. You are the three happiest poets I ever heard of;
one a secretary of state, the other enjoying leifure with dignity
in two lucrative employments; and you, though your religious
profeffion is an obftacle to court promotion, and difqualifies
you from filling civil employments, have found the Philofopher
fone, fince by making the Iliad pass through your poetical cru-
cible into an English form without lofing aught of its original
beauty, you have drawn the golden current of Pactolus to
Twickenham. I call this finding the Philofopher's ftone, fince
you alone found out the fecret, and nobody elfe has got into
it. A――n and T—I tried it, but their experiments fail-
ed; and they loft if not their money, at least a certain portion
of their fame in the trial- -while you touched the mantle of
the divine Bard, and imbibed his fpirit. I hope we shall have
the Odyffey foon from your happy hand, and I think I fhall
follow with fingular pleasure the traveller Ulyffes, who was an
obferver of men and manners, when he travels in your harmo-
nious numbers. I love him much better than the hot-headed
fon of Peleus, who bullied his general, cried for his mistress,
and fo on. It is true, the excellence of the Iliad does not de-
pend upon his merit or dignity, but I wifh nevertheless that
Homer had chofen a hero fomewhat lefs pettifh and lefs fan-
tantick a perfect hero is chimerical and unnatural, and con-
fequently uninftructive; but it is alfo true that while the epic.
hero ought to be drawn with the infirmities that are the lot of
humanity, he ought never to be reprefented as extremely ab-
furd. But it becomes me ill to play the critick; fo I take my
leave of you for this time, and defire you will believe me,
with the higheft efteem, 'Yours, &c.'

The LVIth letter is dated from Florence, and contains nothing which we call new, excepting that he has now found out the bard of Twickenham to be a wicked wasp, and the in

yentor

That

ventor of a ridiculous ftory concerning her ladyfhip; man, (continues fhe) has a malignant and ungenerous heart; and he is base enough to affume the mask of a moralift, in order to decry human nature, and to give a decent vent to his hatred of man and womankind.'

In the LVIIth letter, addreffed to Mr. P. we find some remarks on Paris, with a very humorous differtation upon French ftaring and grinning. Her ladyship likewise hints at a comparifon between the gardens of Verfailles and thofe of the royal gardens in England; but we are uncertain whether the latter at that time were laid out in the fame beautiful taste which gives them their prefent appearance. In the next letter her ladyship maintains, that Mahomet having excluded women from his Paradife is a mistake. All he requires of them is, to merit the enjoyment of future happiness, by their living in fuch a manner as not to become useless to the world, and by employing themselves as much as poffible in making little Muffulmans. Her ladyship very humorously contrafts this doctrine with that of nunneries and convents. This letter contains abundance of accurate and juft obfervations. We are next prefented with an Inquiry into the truth of Monfieur de la Rochefoucault's maxim, That marriage is fometimes convenient, but never delightful,' written by her ladyship, which, if we mistake not, has been printed before.

We cannot conclude this article without felicitating the English ladies upon one of their number having wrested the palm of epiftolary writing from France, where it has been long enjoyed, and we believe with fome juftice, by the fair sex.

VII. The Sale of Authors. A Dialogue, in Imitation of Lucian's Sale of Philofophers. 8vo.

THE

Pr. 35.

Bladon..

HE author of this performance, having obferved that an abfurd Lexiphanic ftile was become fashionable among us, and apprehending a general decline and corruption, nay even a total alteration of our language, was prompted by a zeal for the honour of his country to chastize thofe prefumptuous pedants' who had introduced this ridic...lous jargon, and reftore the English tongue to its ancient purity.' With this view he attacked fome of the principal Lexiphanic writers, and acquitted himself with the spirit of a hero in romance. Perceiving, however, that he was not yet mafter of the field, that there were still remaining numbers of pretended poets, critics, and hiftorians, anonymous authors and dirty ragamuffins, he refolved to complete his conqueft, and take poffeffion of all the

realms