&c. &c. M. G. has also adopted those measures to a degree of longitude, in the parallel of lat. 30o. Six hundred Roman miles, in the opinion of Pliny, were equal to 4,800 Olympic stadia; which gives in longitude in this parallel, 9°. 53'. 18". These tables are useful in assigning distances where none are mentioned by antient writers. The last six plates of this series contain more extensive distances, on the respective stadia ascertained by our author, and which he proves to have been acknowledged by the Greeks themselves, as employed among them by their astronomers, geographers, and travellers.

By means of this method M. Gossellin demonstrates, that the major part of the distances transmitted to us by the writers of Greece and Rome, far from being so erroneous as they have usually been thought, are, on the contrary, sufficiently coincident with the present state of our geographical knowledge. He infers also, that hereby we may rectify numerous passages in antient writers, which hitherto have been considered as altogether mistaken, or corrupted, or entangled with inextricable difficulties. "If it were possible," adds M. G., that my method should be complained of as too favourable to the antients, I would answer, that the rules of criticism imperiously demand, on every occasion, such an interpretation of these authors, as places their intention, and the sense of their words, in the most favourable point of view; and that in geography, when a measure is exact, or nearly exact, to whatever standard it may be referred, we are not allowed to fancy that it is an error."

Our readers will appreciate the validity of these remarks: we fear that while we vindicate antient writers from one defect, we attribute to them another, and perhaps a worse, we mean that confusion to which they must have been aware they subjected their readers, by omitting to determine to what stadia they referred. We fear, too, that by similar adoptions of convenient scales of measurement, we may make any thing of any thing.

After these tables M. G. places illustrations of the different points attributed to the winds among the ancients; accompanied by what we may call the compasscard of the Romans, compared with the compass-card of the moderns.

This volume is ornamented and eluci

dated by five geographical charts, constructed by M. Gossellin, shewing, 1. the geographical system of Eratosthenes; 2. the geographical system of Hipparchus; 3. the Mediterranean sea, according to Polybius; 4. the Northern Hemisphere, according to the Hypothesis of Strabo; 5. the geographical system of Strabo.

The typographical execution of this volume is entitled to great applause. We do not find that the translation has hitherto been subjected to any close or critical examination, but we doubt not that it may be considered as of great utility in the study of antient geography and statistics.

Le Danger des mauvais Livres, &c.— The Danger of bad Books, a Sermon on Rev. x. 10. Svo. pp. 44. Geneva, Bonnant, 1806.

THE subject of this discourse in the present state of society is distinguished by its importance: much mischief has been done by bad books; and in no instance, unhappily for morals, is the maxim that "evil communications corrupt good man"ners," more completely justified. The general spread of instruction in reading among us; the infinite number of opportunities for gratifying that inquisitive disposition which is interwoven in human nature, and of which books are the ob ject; the readiness of concealment which attends smaller works; the facility of lending and borrowing, with the gratification of perusal enhanced by secrecy: these and many other circumstances sufficiently known, render the circulation of bad books extremely dangerous to individuals, and equally pernicious to the state.

We include in this description whatever is contrary to religion and good morals, to the prosperity of the commonwealth, to loyalty, to liberty, to public tranquillity, to peace among individuals, to personal security, and, we may add, to personal enjoyment. Writings which, by affecting undue seriousness, slide into austerity; which produce melancholy, even from the very principles and radices of chearfulness; which propagate discontent, peevishness, moroseness, distraction of mind, misanthropy, under whatever appellations they may be disguised, are, in our opinion, little less censurable than those more obviously criminal performances,

which promote levity, frivolity, indifference to mportant objects, dislike to reflection, inconsideration, alienation of mind from the duties of a person's station, and that ruinous perversion of sentiment, which when it is once effectually rooted in the heart, resists the efforts of reason and nature, of affection, prudence, patriotism, and even of piety itself.

To all these kinds of books, though not intended in the present discourse, the character maybe attributed which distinguished that described in the text adopted by the worthy author: "sweet as honey in the mouth, but bitter as gall when received into the stomach." The discourse opens with the following apostrophe.

Such

"MEDICINES FOR THE SOUL! was the expressive inscription which a king of Egypt placed over the door of his library. It belongs, no doubt, to well selected books; but, alas! how many of those which appear in our days would be more aptly described as poisons!" Those of this poisonous class M. Cellerier, the preacher, treats with the severity they deserve; and, what must have been uncommonly gratifying to himself, his persuasions were attended with the happiest success; for we learn from credible authority, that the Committee of Subscribers to the Institution for the instruction of Catecumens in Geneva, in consequence of this discourse, took measures, though attended with considerable expense, to prevent the circulation of dangerous books, by remonstrating with those who trafficked in them, and by inducing these traders to relinquish their profits, and give up their disgraceful commodities that they might be committed to the flames. Many dealers in such trash, and many who lent them out to read, many young persons, and some parents, of their own accord, brought out and destroyed whatever they could discover of a like kind: an acceptable sacrifice to piety! a happy result of their pastor's admonitions to "imitate those generous christians of Ephesus, who, touched by grace, burnt at the feet of the Apostles those pernicious books which they had formerly prized! "Go, go," says he," at your departure from this sacred place, deliver up whatever of this nature you may happen to possess to those who watch for your souls! and thus fulfil ye their joy!"

Collection des Ecrits de Gustave III. Roi de Suède, &c.- Collection of the political, literary, and dramatical Writings. of Gustavus III. King of Sweden: to which is annexed his Correspondence, &c. 4. vol. 8vo. Stockholm.

Unquestionably in the strict rules of criticisin, the intrinsic merit of a work ought to be the sole object of consideration; yet, from immemorial prescription, candid critics have been indulged in occasional deviations from so narrow a path. We shall plead the privilege, while we gratify our feelings, and we trust those of our readers, by paying a scanty but sincere tribute to the memory of the royal author of the volumes before us. The works of crowned heads will not come every day under our cognizance; and when they do, we may safely be allowed to speak favourably of a deceased sovereign.

Few thrones have been graced with more dazzling virtue than that of Sweden. Nature in those hardy climes seems to have cast the souls of kings in her noblest mould. The still increasing wreath of glory has been transmitted with the diadem through a succession of heroes, from Gustavus Vasa who emerged from the dungeons of Denmark, and from the mines of Dalecarlia, to free his country from a foreign yoke, to the present dauntless monarch, who stands erect and unappalled amidst the crush of empires. In this honourable list we find the name of Gustavus III. worthy of such predecessors and worthy of such a descendant; he too freed his country, if not from foreign bondage, yet from foreign influence, and from domestic factions equally baneful, and equally opposite to true liberty. He fell, at length, by the blow of an assassin; a royal victim to the sanguinary tyrants of Europe! The achievements of the king belong to history; the work before us, with which only we are concerned, unfolds the man.

As a man of letters Gustavus would have been eminent had he ranked among ordinary citizens; for, to its merit alone must be attributed the adjucation of a prize by the Academy of Stockholm, to an essay which he had composed. It appears that no suspicion was entertained of the real author, till after a length of time the nonclaimance of the prize induced a conjec

ture as to the honour conferred on the institution.

The subjects chosen by a writer of eminent station, should correspond, not distantly, with the rank of the author; and, though another poet might have composed an Opera equal in merit with the Gustavus Vasa, or Gustavus Adolphus of our royal bard, yet we own, that there is a something of peculiar interest, in the character of the Swedish hero, as delineated by his descendant. It admits us in some degree into the recesses of the royal mind while composing it, and opens the reflections of a king, on the actions of a venerated ancestor, and on the characters of his contemporaries. It is easy to combine in the favourite hero of a piece, every virtue under heaven, but to do justice to his opponents, to lighten the deep shades in which national animosity, or personal enmity has enveloped them, is to triumph over a partiality not only natural, but predominant in the human mind.

Inasmuch then, as a clear view of truth, and an unbiassed acknowledgment of excellencies of whatever kind, in a foe, is a more difficult task to a king than to any of his subjects, in the same proportion are the labours of a sovereign intitled to more than ordinary candour, and what would be only a middling effort, of genius or of virtue, in another, is in him a very fair subject of praise, and to be accepted with the most cordial marks of esteem.

The volumes which compose this collection have been published successively; the first three have been some time before the public; they chiefly comprise the literary productions of Gustavus, the elegant recreations of a refined and enlightened mind. The drama seems to have been his favourite amusement: but his Discourses to the Senate, are at least equally unequivocal marks of a liberal and vigorous understanding. The third volume was published in 1804; consequently before the period included in our Review. It contains merely a continuation of the Amusemens Dramatiques of this royal literato; and exhibits his conceptions of characters in various conditions of life. They are mostly founded on history or tradition; and have, usually, a strong reference to Swedish manners. They have merit; but may rather please an English reader, than an English audience. The fourth

volume which has but lately appeared, contains his Correspondence.

Most collections of Posthumous works are liable to the imputation of lessening eminent men in public opinion, but in the correspondence of Gustavus, however various the situations in which he appears, we alternately love and admire the loyal subject, the affectionate son, the good father, the warm and faithful friend, the firm and enlightened statesman, the undaunted warrior, and the generous constitutional king, at once solicitous for the welfare of his people, and conscious of their liberties. Severe censors may af fect to be offended at the playfulness which Gustavus not unfrequently indulges; and, perhaps, may denote it by the harsher appellation of levity. Some levities mark condescension, others denote malice. we. cannot so much as suppose the latter in Gustavus, and why should the rigid etiquette of public ceremony controul the freedom of private correspondence?

The following extracts will explain the sentiments we mean to convey, much more forcibly than any expressions of our

own.

Extract of a letter from the Prince Royal GUSTAVUS, to the Court Chancellor BARON DE BUNGE, authorised by the States of the Kingdom to offer his Royal Highness a place in the Senate, with an effective vote.

Ekolsund, July 16, 1769.

I return the inclosed papers you had in trusted me with, and I feel that the sentiments you manifested towards my person, deserve from me the greatest sincerity. I know too well what every citizen owes to his country, espe cially when he has received those proofs of national affection which I have experienced, ever to shrink from any services within my power, and which as a Swede and as Prince, than any one am bound to perform. But, wide is the difference between serving the country and governing it.

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I have, it is true, the honour of being the first citizen in the state; but in that respectable situation, I am still a subject and a son; and I know the extent of the duties those relations impose on me, towards the best of masters, and the tenderest of fathers. The love of his subjects, the respect of all Europe, the unanimous assent of the nation to his will, all these are sufficient considerations to in duce me to refuse a place I might have wished for at sixteen, but which I feel myself incapa ble of filling at three and twenty.

Such are, Sir, the first reflections which,
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have occurred to my mind, the following are founded on more solid grounds.

The senatorial dignity, which I should in a manner assume by accepting a vote in the senate; is in itself, and from its origin, the situation of first counsel to the King; by our constitution it is so, in name and in reality; but, to this duty of advising the king, is joined the power of enforcing such advices, and of prescribing to him such measures, as are approved by the majority. Would you think it fit, Sir, nay, would you think it consistent with that respect a son owes to his father, thus to assume the right of advising him, of tracing the line of conduct he is follow, and of making my will, in some measure a law for him?

If the king my father was weighed down by age or by infirmities, so as to be unable to attend to state affairs with that vigour and energy they require, I should then feel it my duty as a subject and a son to assist him with my advice. Or, if the King, still at variance with the senate, had to maintain a painful struggle with that body, as he has done for a long time, I should then accept the prerogative offered me, and I would make use of it to maintain the independence of my country, its liberties, and the rights of my father. But those very reasons which would have induced me to accept in the last Diet the place I am now offered in the senate, urge me to refuse it at this period. I should then have been my father's support, I should now become his counsel and this title has something too shocking for a son, when he does not receive it from the free will and unbiassed confidence of his father.

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The day before the memorable revolution of 1772 which crushed the democratic spirit in Sweden, Gustavus wrote the following note to the Count de Vergennes, the French ambassador at his court.

Stockholm, August 18, 1772.

I request you will express to the King your master all iny gratitude for the constant friendship I experience from hin; tell him that tomorrow I hope to prove myself worthy of such a faithful friend; the justice of my cause and Divine Providence will assist me. But should I fall; I trust that his friendship will protect those I shall leave behind me; I trust that a brother whose courage and loyalty have shone so conspicuously, and those brave subjects, who should then have sacrificed every thing for their king and country, will not be abandoned by the most faithful and the most ancient ally of Sweden.

Nor was the revolution he happily effected, disgraced by any acts of private resentment, eleven years after that event, Gustavus still harrassed by his restless sub

jects, expressed thus his generous feelings to his chancellor.

Ulricsdal, May 25, 1781. Count de Wachmeister.-I have received your three letters, the last of which is dated the 17th of May from Motilla. I cannot sufficiently praise the prudence you have shewn. Pechlin is so dangerous a man, that we must have nothing to do with him till we have complete legal grounds to detain him effectively; and from what you report of him, I do not see that he is sufficiently guilty to lay himself open to a legal prosecution for high treason. I have once had this turbulent genius in my power, and had I said a word, his head would then have fallen at my feet; but, as I was so fortunate as to effect the revolution of 1772 without bloodshed, I thought it more consistent with that signal blessing, to release a man, who, however guilty towards me and my house, was then defenceless in my hands. I thought that it was only by such a conduct I could shew my gratitude to the Supreme Being, whose infinite goodness allowed me to save my country without imbruing my hands in blood. Since that time I have had the good fortune never to be driven to that dire necessity; and this has strengthened the resolution I have taken, never capitally to punish turbulent, or even criminal subjects, whatever may be the consequences. But this will not prevent me from using every means to put it out of their power to ruin themselves and the country, and to bring destruction on others.

Then follow the king's directions to watch narrowly the conduct of Pechlin, so as to prevent the possibility of his doing mischief, but not to make any attempt on his liberty. We do not think that a greater magnanimity, or a higher sense of honour, has ever been displayed than what is contained in the following letter. Gustavus was then at war with Russia; betrayed by not a few of his subjects who kept up intelligence with the enemy: and he had been basely abandoned by part of his army. The letter is directed to Baron Stedingk, a general officer in the army then in Finland, and a trusty servant of Gustavus.

Kymenegard, August 15, 1788.

I have just received your two letters, and Count de Ferfen has got your packet. No! I never shall bend under the yoke of the Empress. All manner of negotiation is now utterly impossible, but through the medium of a third court, and if I must fall, I had rather be crushed by my own subjects than by my enemies. I do not see that things are desperate. Nyslott must be kept as long as possible; as