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Among the Writers whom we have cenfured, the pretended Philofophers of the age will be particularly distinguished; and this, indeed, they ought to expect, if they are capable of doing justice to their own characters. Those who do not judge of Authors for themfelves, but follow the opinion of the multitude, have hitherto looked upon them as burning and fhining lights, as fuperior geniufes, as the benefactors of mankind; as for us who have read them, who know them, who have studied them thoroughly, we affign them their proper rank and station, and throw down thofe altars which inconfideration had erected in honour of them.

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There is nothing more extraordinary in the hiftory of the human mind, than the foolish enthusiasm which the philosophy of the present times excited, as foon as it began to raife its voice. The volatile geniuses of the capital communicated the enthusiastic spirit to the provinces, and the tyranny of the mode rendered the diftemper epidemical. It was impoffible, indeed, to make any refiftance. The golden age was to appear again under this new Aftræa; new Prometheujes seemed to have stolen purer fires from heaven, to animate the human race, and make it happy. Beneficence, humanity, toleration, knowledge, virtue, happiness, &c. were the bleflings which the Philofophers promised to mortals; fuperftition, fanaticism, ignorance, flavery, were the anathemas of their zeal.

But this bright horizon was foon overcaft; this gracious and gentle philofophy foon affumed a different tone, and exchanged its foft and compaffionate language for that of rage and declamation. Its light became a flaming torch, ready to fet fire to every thing; divine toleration was changed into an inexorable fury; the most important truths, the most facred principles, the most indispensable duties, heaven, earth, the altar, the throne, every thing, in a word, would have felt its fatal influence, if men had been as ready to practise its maxims, as they were eager to publish them. All on a fudden errors, lies, calumnies, injuries, abfurdities, torrents of gall and impiety poured forth from the box of this modern Pandora.

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So glaring and fudden a transformation could not fail to open the eyes of thofe who had any difcernment. Strange Philofophers, it was faid, who demand favour from every body, and thew it to no body!

But people have gone farther; they have not only read the books of thefe Philofophers, but they have followed them into the world, and watched their behaviour in public and private life, and then it was very easy to fee, that what might have been confidered as the mere effect of a momentary delirium, of the rage for fcribbling of the love of fingularity, as having dropt from their pen undefignedly, &c. was but too frequently realized

in their conduct, It has been feen that there is but little har mony among them, that they are jealous of each other, bitter enemies to those who oppofe their opinions, eager to form intrigues in order to increase and fupport their party; and now, to retard the utter ruin of their cabal, thefe haughty Philofophers are seen cringing to those in power, artfully calumniating merit whenever it appears in opposition to them, and oppreffing the victims of their animofity in the most merciless manner. How natural is it, therefore, to cry out,-Are these the Guides we are to follow, these the Models we are to imitate, these the Idols we are to worship!

The interests of Society too have led to other reflections. To deny the immortality of the foul, to free the paffions from every restraint, to confound the ideas of right and wrong, to reduce every thing to felf-love, to eradicate every virtue, to break every facred tie, to attack the laws, to overturn the most facred principles, to make human life, in a word, a mere compofition of arbitrary motives, perfonal interests, sensual and irregular appetites, animal functions, to terminate it by an utter annihilation, to preach up fuicide-what is this but infulting Society, and giving every member of it a fatal blow? What is this but depriving every mind of its vigour and energy, every foul of its principles and guide, and the most respectable preju dices of their advantages and their power? What can be expected from a Philosopher formed in such a school? Abandoned to himself, the fport of his own humours and caprice, the slave of his paffions, the conftant victim of his own deplorable exiftence, wherein can he contribute to the happiness of others, being the most cruel enemy to himself?

Accordingly, as the fruit of this baneful, this comfortless doctrine, we fee almost every where a general depravity; a narrowness of foul; an infenfibility of heart; a corruption, or Rather an utter annihilation of morals, and a total perversion of the national genius. Little objects, little views, little motives, little inventions, little amufements, fucceed that warmth, that elevation of foul, which was the glory of our ancestors, who were fuperior to us in every thing, because they were not Philofophers. Alas! of what ufe would fo much reafoning have been to them? they had the talent of acting well! Is it not well known, that a paffion for reafoning always fuppofes an imbecillity of foul? The Athenians, and all the other conquering nations were never subdued, till they knew better how to reason than how to live and to fight.

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And have not letters a right to make the fame complaint? This corrofive philofophy has deftroyed talents in their very bud, has feduced them by mere chimeras, ha bewildered them in their progrefs, turned them away from their proper objects,

weakened

weakened the fprings of genius, withered all its flowers, and banished every found principle of literature.

Has it not introduced among us thofe feeble, languid Dramas, which are only fit to lull the nation afleep, and to banish good Comedy from our Theatres? What walk of Literature has not felt the influence of its peftilential vapours? Poetry, profe, eloquence, the pulpit, the bar, are all ftrongly marked with it: it is the head of Medufa, every thing is petrified at its approach.

It is the Philofophers who have placed Lucan above Virgil, Quinault above Boileau, Voltaire above Corneille and Racine, and Perrault, Boindin, and Terraffon above all the Writers of the last age. It were eafy to lengthen this picture, but all the follies and abfurdities of the Philofophers fhall be fufficiently exposed in the work which we now offer to the Public.

This is part of what our Author has advanced in a very spirited preface. The work itself is of a piece with the preface, bold, fpirited, and decifive; and though the Author's zeal against the Philofophers gets the better of his judgment and candour in fome few inftances, yet the warmth and earneftnefs wherewith he pleads the caufe of found literature and good morals, do honour to his principles and to his tafte, and atone, in some measure, for the hafte, inaccuracy, and prejudice that -appear in fome of his articles.

The literary characters of the beft French Writers are, in general, ftrongly marked, particularly thofe of Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Fontaine, Boileau, Boffuet, Fenelon, both the Rouffeaus, Voltaire, Montefquieu, Montagne, Pafcal, Fontenelle, Flechier, D'Alembert, Bruyere, Crebillon, Buffon, Bayle, and fome others. Meffrs. Diderot, Marmontel, Thomas, De la 'Harpe, Saint Lambert, and fome others, appear to us to be treated with too much feverity; the work, however, upon the whole, muft be allowed to poffefs a very confiderable degree of merit; and it is not merely a compliment to the Author, to say, that he is an agreeable Writer, and an able Critic.

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AR T. XIV.

R.

Ifloria D'Inghilterra, &c.-The Hiftory of England, written by Vincentio Martinelli, and addreffed to Sig. Luke Corfi. 4to. 3 Vols. London. 1774

ΤΗ HIS Italian Hiftory of England is an abbreviated tranflation of Rapin; it will facilitate to the learner the acquifi

tion of the language in which it is written.

L

A & T.

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Lettera dell' Avvocato Fruftabirbe, &c.-A Letter from the Advocate Fruftabirbe to Sig. Antonio Sacchini, Master of the Chapel. 8vo. Rome. 1774

AN infignificant quarrel between Baretti and Badini, the former of whom had abused the opera called La Veftale of the latter, feems to have given occafion to this impertinent publication, which is prefaced by a poetical eulogium on Giar'dini 'Tis hard that we must not only feed these rats but be peftered with their noife! L.

ART. XVI.

Voyage D'une Françoise à Londres, &c.-A French Lady's Tour to London, or Calumny defeated by the Truth of Facts. 8vo. London. 1774.

OF equal importance to the Public with the foregoing, and, in all appearance, equally refpectable.

ART. XVII.

L.

'Lettre de Pekin, fur le Genie de la Langue Chinoife, &c.-A Letter from Pekin on the Genius of the Chinese Language, and the Nature of their fymbolical Writings, compared with thofe of the ancient Egyptians, in Anfwer to that of the Royal Society of London, on the fame Subject; to which is added, an Extract from two new Publications of M. De Guignes, of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres at Paris, relative to the fame Enquiries. By a Father of the Society of the Jefuits, Miffionary at Pekin. 4to. Bruffels. 1773.

THE curious in Oriental learning will here find abundance of amusement; for this work contains not only an essay on the genius and ftructure of the Chinese language, but a variety

of its characters, exhibited on copper-plates. These matters neither admit of extracts nor abridgments. L.

ART. XVIII.

Le Taureau blanc, &c.-The White Bull tranflated from the Syriac ; afcribed to Voltaire. 1774

SHOULD we difcharge one duty to the Public by giving an explicit account of this performance, we fhould infringe another, of greater importance. The growth of infidelity is already fo rapid, that the industry of its promoters seems to be almoft fuperfluous.

Two different English tranflations are publifhed: fee our Catalogue, in the Review for July, 1774.

L.

INDEX

INDEX

To the REMARKABLE PASSAGES in this

VOLUME.

N. B. To find any particular Book, or Pamphlet, see the
Table of Contents, prefixed to the Volume.

For the remarkable Paffages in the Foreign Articles, fee the
Second Alphabet of this Index, in the last Leaf of the Sheet.

A.

ABAUZIT, Mr. fome account of,
375. His works, ib.
ABSENT Man, rid.cule of that
character, 262.

ALCUIN, the Anglo-Saxon, ac-
count of his learning, 423.
ALDHELM, the Anglo-Saxon, ac-

count of his learning, 422.
ALFRED, K. encomium on, as a
friend to learning, ib.
AMERICA, British, political invef-
tigations relating to, 134, 270,
381, 485.

AMERICAN Indians (North) fome
ac. of, by Sir W. Johnfon, 481.
ANGLO-SAXON Kings, not abfo-
Jute, 197. Difficulty of acquir-
ing learning in their times, 200.
At what period literature began
to flourish under them, and by
what means, 420.
ANTELOPE, method of hunting in
the E. Indies, poetically de-
fcribed, 311.
APOCALYPSE humourously ex-
pounded and applied, 346. Se-
riously difcuffed, as to its divine
authority, 378. Triumph of the
Apocalypfe, 379.
ARCTURUS, inquiry into the pro-
per motion of, 352.
REV. App. Vol. 1.

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BABEL, confufion of tongues at,
and the confequent difperfion
of mankind,fingular deduc-
tions from, 439–441.
BACON, Lord, cenfured as an hif
torian, 342.
BAILLY, M. his new methods of
improving the theory of Jupi-
ter's fatellites, 353.
BANK, whether, on the whole, be-
neficial or hurtful to commerce,
442.
BARRINGTON, Daines, his effay
on the periodical appearance of
birds, 283. His investigation of
the diftinguishing qualities of the
rabbit and hare, 285.
BIRDS, of periodical migration,
curious problem relating to,
-folved, 283.

BOLINGBROKE, Lord, his fine ta-
lents, 369. His political wri-
tings commended, 462.
BRADLEY, Mr. his directions for
ufing the Micrometer, 29.
BRIBERY, good ftory of the pu-
nifhment of, 19.
Qq
BRYDONE,

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