nity of instruction which he could wish; and adopted that respectful attachment to it, which he ever after retained. His college tutors, who saw that all his hours were devoted to improvement, dispensed with his attendance on their lectures, alleging with equal truth and civility, that he could employ his time to more advantage. Their expectations were not disappointed: he perused with great assiduity all the Greek poets and historians of note, and the entire works of Plato and Lucian, with a vast apparatus of commentaries on them; constantly reading with a pen in his hand, making remarks, and composing in imitation of his favourite authors. Some portion of every morning he allotted to Mirza, whom he employed in translating the Arabian tales of Galland into Arabic, writing himself the translation from the mouth of the Syrian. He afterwards corrected the grammatical inaccuracies of the version, by the help of Erpenius and Golius. In the course of his application to this ancient language he discovered, what he never before suspected, a near connection between the modern Persic and Arabic, and he immediately determined to ac quire the former. He accordingly studied it with attention in the only Persian grammar then extant; and having laboured diligently at the Gulistan of Sadi, assisted by the accurate but inelegant version of Gentius, and at the well chosen praxis at the close of Meninski's grammar, he found his exertions rewarded with rapid success. His vacations were past in London, where he daily attended the schools of Angelo, for the purpose of acquiring the elegant accomplishments of riding and fencing. He was always a strenuous advocate for the practice of bodily exercises, as no less useful to invigorate his frame, than as a necessary qualification for any active exertions to which he might eventually be called. At home, his attention was directed to the modern languages; and he read the best authors in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, following in all respects the plan of education recommended by Milton, which he had by heart; and thus, to transcribe an observation of his own, with the fortune of a peasant, giving himself the education of a prince.' There being no immediate prospect of a fellowship, the pressure on the finances of his mother, occasioned by his residence at Oxford, induced him at the age of nineteen to accept the situation of tutor to Lord Althorpe, the present Earl Spencer, then only seven years old. This charge he undertook in 1765, and relinquished in 1770. He owed the appointment to Dr. Shipley, afterward Bishop of St. Asaph, and his future father in-law. The biographer informs us that Mr. Jones valued the accom plishments of a gentleman not less than those of a scholar; and that he not only took lessons from Angelo in fencing, and from Gallini in dancing, but was at the same time instructed in the exercise of the broad sword by a skilful Chelsea pensioner. While in the Spencer family, he had also opportunities of making several excursions to the Continent; of which he availed 4 availed himself by perfecting his knowlege of the modern languages. These pursuits, besides the duty of fulfilling his charge, would have formed the whole history of an ordinary man in such a situation, but they constitute a very inconsiderable part of that of Mr. Jones; this period of his life being signalized by labours the most extraordinary, and such as were sufficient to immortalize him. Here it was that he composed his Commentaries on Asiatic Poetry, and his Persian Grammar, which were afterward published; and that, at the request of the king of Denmark, he undertook, completed, and published his French version of the life of Nadir Shah, from an Arabic manuscript. The close of the year 1767, the second of his residence in this noble family, "Was marked with an occurrence, which probably had a material ` influence on the determination of his future pursuits. From a motive of mere curiosity, he was prompted to peruse the little treatise of Fortescue, in praise of the laws of England; and, although he was more diverted with the simplicity of the Latin stile, than attracted by the subject, he felt so much interest in the work, as to study it with considerable attention. In the course of the reflections which it excited, he was naturally led to a comparison of the laws of England with those of other countries, and he marked with delight their uncontroverted claim to superiority over the laws of every other state, ancient or modern. Of this fact he acknowledged that he had never before entertained an idea. He was now qualified to appreciate with more accuracy, the merits and defects of the republican system of Greece and Rome, for which he had adopted a strong partiality, natural to an enthusiastic admirer of the orators and poets of those celebrated nations; and to examine their jurisprudence by a standard of comparison, which impressed his mind with a decided reverence for the institutions of his own country. He was not, however, regardless of the deviations in practice from the theoretical perfection of the constitution in the famous contested election at Northampton, of which he was an unwilling spectator.' It is known to our readers that the Life of Nadir Shah was not a voluntary task, but that the ingenious translator was in a manner compelled to undertake it. In his apology for appearing as an author at so early a period, he remarks; If he had reflected on the little solid glory which a man reaps from acquiring a name in literature, on the jealousy and envy which attend such an acquisition, on the distant reserve which a writer is sure to meet with from the generality of mankind, and on the ob struction which a contemplative habit gives to our hopes of being distinguished in active life; if all, or any of these reflections had oc curred to him, he would not have been tempted by any consideration to enter upon so invidious and thankless a career. But, as Tully says, he would have considered before he embarked, the nature and extent of of his voyage; now, since the sails are spread, the vessel must take itę course.' We mean not wholly to deny the justness of these reflections, but we must be allowed to observe that they give an ex parte view of the case; that they represent the unfavourable side of it; and that every profession, every occupation, nay every situa tion in life, may in this way be held forth to disadvantage. Surely authorship is not here fairly treated. To what else did this very eminent person owe the honors paid to him, the fame which he acquired, the civil distinction and wealth to which he raised himself? We own that it is not commonly the fate of authors to be thus successful: but it may be that their usual humble post is more the fault of the individuals, than that of their profession. [To be continued.] ART. II. Mr. Holcroft's Travels from Hamburgh to Paris. Jo. MORALITY and inimorality are words of extensive and seriously important meaning: but the application of them, in a general way, to the pulchrum and the turpe of human conduct, will contribute very little either to enlighten or to reform mankind. Loose and undefined declamations against the vices of any age or nation, though they may gratify the irritated feelings of the misanthrope, or may afford some pleasure to the man of virtue, from a benevolent hope in their good consequences, are never found by experience to produce any actual benefit. The traveller, who would institute a profitable inquiry into the comparative and moral state of countries, must therefore descend to particulars; must view the people, who are the the subject of his investigations, in their several attitudes and relations; must analyze opinions and prejudices; must attend to the different modes in which habits and manners are formed; and must separate the component parts, of which the great mass of the public national character is composed. On this plan, Mr. Holcroft proceeds in his moral delineation of the French people, whom he appears to have studied with a more sedulous care than any other of his countrymen; and for which reason, we think, his work is intitled to a more protracted attention than any book of Parisian travels that has hitherto claimed our notice. We believe that we do him justice, when we observe that he makes no attempt to amuse and flatter the pride of one nation at the expence of another; and. that his strictures are as much intended for the benefit of the French Philan French as for the instruction of his own countrymen. thropy and good nature are apparent in his censures; and he catches with pleasure at every symptom in the present manners and usages of France, that is indicative of a return to simplicity, good sense, and good taste. The materials of some parts of Mr. Holcroft's Travels were collected and arranged, not in the streets and society of Paris, but in his study; and the chapters thus manufactured may subject him to the charge of some little book-making manage ment. He may plead, however, in excuse for these historical researches, that it was proper, in his estimate of the French character, to advert to the origin of their different discriminating features, whether of sentiment or practice; and that, in this view, retrospection was as necessary as actual observation. His work would have been less expensive, had he been the mere journalist: but, in its present shape, it forms a more complete and satisfactory whole. In the 2d volume, the author adverts to the state of duelling under Henry IV., and traces gallantry from that period, through the court and age of Louis XIV., to the present time. He considers the consequences of this passion with respect to love, marriage, and the decencies of social life. To exemplify his doctrine of the omnipotence of circumstances in forming all existing beings,' he minutely depicts the progress of education among the French, including the nursing and dressing of children, and follows them through the several stages of infancy and youth to manhood. After having considered how the individuals are formed for society, he next regards them as acting in that society. Here, national politeness, and the conduct of one individual to another, the manners of the populace, the state of religion, the character and influence of the government, the nature of the police, the recreations and amusements of the people, the prevailing taste, the state of science and the arts, and the tendency of the whole to render the community progressive or retrograde in true wisdom and virtue, are objects of his notice and delineation. Such is the outline of Mr. H.'s undertaking, which he has laboured with much assiduity;-to what degree he has succeeded, we shall give our readers a farther opportunity of judg ing. On the subjects of conveniences, comfort, and neatness, he exhibits this contrast between England and France: • Nations, like individuals, have their distinctive vanities; and the wealth of nations is exhausted in their gratification. I do not speak of the treasures entrusted to or exacted by governments; but of the collective mass of individual wealth. In England, the custom is fortunately established of seeking to gratify vanity by something like endless researches after the useful but even this has its excess; the conveniences of life are so multi I* plied } plied that, though each piece of furniture, each contrivance may have its use, the limits of simplicity and good sense are invaded, and utensils themselves are, some of them, troublesome. The saving of labour, in objects the most trifling, is so generally encouraged, that habitual activity is benumbed, and the haughtiness of indolence nurtured an Englishman must have a machine to spare the labour of his arm, if it be but to draw a cork. In this, as in most habits, there is exuberance; but there is likewise incalculable advantage. In France the very opposite habit is inordinate: the most common conveniences are, numbers of them, wanting: in French houses, soņie are lost, some are broken, some mislaid; and many have never been provided, or imagined. Instead of that profusion of utensils to which the English are accustomed, a thing so necessary as a pepper-box is only to be found at a few tables; if pepper be asked for, it is brought in a saucer, and is often sprinkled with the finger and thumb; nay a man runs some risk in many a reputable family of losing his dinner, if he do not bring a knife in his pocket: yet table spoons and heavy four pronged forks of silver are common to every decent family; and every person has a clean napkin at dinner, though all wipe their forks and dirty clasp knives, that are never brightened, on their bread. A few of the fashionable and the wealthy are adopting as many of the English customs as they know, and as their manners will permit; and, in these families, knives and forks are changed with the plates: but the bulk of the people have never witnessed or heard of such a practice. In England, there is no master or mistress of a family who does not think it discreditable, if there be not something like agreement ̇ and unity, in the articles of furniture and dress, their arrangement, their cleanliness, and their whole appearance. In France, the inattention to such things is so general, that an Englishman is astonished at the discordancy. So strange is the assemblage of objects, finery and wretchedness are in such frequent contact, gilding and cobwebs, dark gateways and dirty staircases, leading to spacious apartments in which magnificence lies in disorder and neglect, these and the continual repetition of similar incongruities obtrude upon the man of observation an almost unvaried picture of grandeur and beggary. It is however highly gratifying to perceive that, great as these inconsistencies still are, they are dimiuishing. In the year 1783, they were so numerous and so offensive that I scarcely could credit what I saw. At that time, I have often walked on the terrace of the Tuileries, the place where magnificence and grandeur had most exerted themselves to excite admiration. The gardens, the statuary, and the architecture vied for pre-eminence: the façade of the place is several hundred yards in extent; and is decorated with porticoes, corridors, columns, pilasters, and every multiplied ornament to excite surprise: yet, at that time, from the windows of this palace were daily hung old shirts, patched stockings, stained and worn-out breeches, or whatever other object the persons who were allowed apartments there thought proper to press upon the public eye. No one noticed the practice: no one testified the least feeling of impropriety; it was but a repetition of what might be seen in every other part of the city.' When |