on each bar. The boyars and other noblemen of his fuite were obliged to blow the bellows, to flir the fire, to carry coals and per form all the other offices of journeymen black fmiths.

Some days after, on his return to Mofcow, he went to fee Verner Muller, bestowed great praise on his establishment, and asked him how much he gave per pood for iron in bar, furnished by a mafter blacksmith. "Three copecs or an altin," answered Muller. "Well then," faid the Czar, "I have earned eighteen altins, and am come to be paid." Muller immediately opened his bureau, took out eighteen ducats, and counting them before the prince, "It is the leaft," faid he, " that can be given to fuch a workman as your Majefty." But the emperor refufed them: "Take again your ducats," faid he, "and pay me the ufual price; I have worked no better than another blacksmith; and this will serve to buy me a pair of fhoes, of which I am in great want." At the fame time his majefty fhewed him thofe he wore, which had already been foled, and ftood in need of another repair. He took the eighteen altins, went directly to a fhop, bought a pair of fhoes, and took great pleasure in fhowing them on his feet, faying to those who were prefent; "I have earned them well, by the fweat of my. brow, with hammer and anvil."

One of these bars forged by Peter the Great, and authenticated by his mark, is ftill to be feen at Iftia, in the fame forge of Muller. Another, forged alfo with his own hand, is fhewn in the cabinet of the Academy of Sciences at Petersburgh: but this lat ter was forged at a later period at Olonetz, on the lake of Ladoga.' His familiarity with common life gave him a diftafte for the forms and parade of ftate; his aim was to be free and easy.

When Peter and his confort dined or fupped alone, which often happened, they had only a very young page, and favourite chambermaid of the Emprefs, to wait on them. And when he had feveral of his minifters or general officers at his table, he was only attended by his chief cook, Velten, a denchtchick *, and two very young pages, and they had orders to retire as foon as the deffert was put on the table, and a bottle of wine had been fet before each guest.

་

No lacquey ever made his appearance during his repafts, except when he ate in public. I have no occafion for them," he often repeated, "to make their obfervations on me when I give a loofe to my converfation.'

He faid one day at table, to the old Baron of Mardfeldt, envoy from the court of Pruffia: " Hirelings and lacqueys never lofe fight of their mafter's mouth: they are fpies on all he fays, mifconftrue every thing, and confequently repeat every thing erroneously."

To indulge our readers farther with thefe anecdotes, would incroach too much upon our limits. Mr. Stæblin informs us, that, by order of the empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, abundance of materials were put into the hands of

* A Denchtchick is a foldier appointed to wait on an officer; the Emprefs allows officers to a certain number, according to their refpective ranks.

13

M. de

M. de Voltaire, that he might write the life of her father; and that no expence was fpared to induce him to undertake the task. The court were, however, greatly furprised and diffatisfied with Voltaire's performance: in which, it is faid, the defire of gain prevented his making ufe of half the MSS. he received; and which he afterward applied to other works. In feveral parts of this "fhapelefs abortion," he is affirmed to have fubftituted his own thoughts for thofe of his hero, and circumftances the very reverse of thole contained in his authorities. To fome expoftulations which he received on these points, he replied, that it was not his cuftom to copy implicitly the MSS. fent to him, but to give his thoughts according to the beft information he could procure; and that though he was fenfible of the merit of the anecdotes communicated to him, they did not come within the limits of his plan. To a question, why he unneceffarily omitted the names of several great perfons and places, and fo disfigured those which he had been pleafed to name, that they were scarcely known? he replied, "As far as relates to the disfiguring of proper names, I fuppofe it is a German who reproaches me with it: I wish him more wit, and fewer confonants."

Thefe anecdotes are all authenticated by the names of the feveral relaters; and at the end is an alphabetical account of them, fhewing the opportunities which they had of knowing what they affirmed.

Noo.

ART. VIII. The Olla Podrida, a periodical Work, complete in fortyfour Numbers. 8vo. 6s. Boards. Dilly. 1788.

.

ΕΓΑ βιβλιον μεγα κακον, is a maxim which was perhaps never more univerfally affented to than at prefent. With all the fondness for reading, now fo obfervable in every class of the community, few are to be met with who will enter on laborious difcuffions, or perufe voluminous performances. Unambitious of poffeffing thofe genuine pearls of fcience, which muft be fought by diving to the bottom of the ocean which produces them, the generality of readers content themselves with the fhells that are to be gathered from its fands and its fhallows. The great art, therefore, of fashionable book-making is to be brief, gaudy and fuperficial. Many writers now employ themfelves in dealing out learning, as innkeepers do their liquors, in fmall quantities*.

In the rank of these literary retailers, we may properly place the authors of periodical papers, who endeavour to inftruct and amufe the public in fhort mifcellaneous effays. This has been found an agreeable method of holding the mirrour up to nature, and of fhewing the very age and body of the time, its form and Punch, in fmall quantities." ASHLEY.

K 4

pressure :

preffure: hereby the moral obferver has an opportunity of expoting many foibles and follies, which lie out of the reach of more ferious animadverfion.

The trade, indeed, of periodical effay-writing is now grown old, and has been continued through fo many hands, that it isbecome exceedingly difficult to give it the charms of novelty; but, nevertheless, in the hands of perfons of genius, it will not fail of yielding, ftill, fome amufement.

The OLLA PODRIDA comes to us with this recommendation it is the joint labour of fome tolerable literary cooks, and of course will be expected to have fome relish. The names of thefe providers of food for the mind are, for the most part, given in the preface, by Thomas Monro, A. B. of St. M. Magdalen's College, Oxford, who holds himself out to the public as head cook, or, to ufe his own words, as the original projector and promoter of the Olla Podrida.' This Gentleman (from the multitude of periodical effayifts who have preceded him) might be fuppofed to have been puzzled to find a new title for his work; and confidering the difficulty, he has been rather fortunate. A collection of mifcellaneous papers might not improperly be compared to a hodge podge, or Olla Podrida; but then, furely, a gentleman who fets before his guefts fuch a difh, fhould provide them with a fork or fpoon, to pick out what they refpectively like from the heterogeneous mafs. It must therefore, to drop the metaphor, be confidered as a great defect in the volume before us, that it is furnished neither with an index, nar table of contents. Mr. M. has fervilely followed his predeceffors in other things; and what could be his reafon for not imitating them in giving an index, or a fhort table of contents, is a matter concerning which we are unable to form any guefs, unless it be, that this would have given him a little more trouble. The utility of fuch helps to the reader, in a work like this, must be lo obvious, that we could not avoid thus noticing the omiffion.

The merit of this collection is various. Different writers muft neceffarily have different abilities. Mr. Monro, though the conductor of the Olia Podrida, has produced feveral papers that are agreeably written; but when he attempts to delineate certain characters, he often caricatures, to fuch a degree of extravagance, as totally to deftroy the intended effect. That the progrefs of a poem might be known by the ftate and fize of a gouty perfon's chalkttones; that an epic poem has been foretold by the fhooting of a corn, and an ode to peace prophefied from a pain in the fhoulder, are but forry conceits (and thefe are in the firft Number), and fo totally out of nature, that they ceafe to be wit.

We

We were concerned likewife to fee this volume, the production of ingenious men, difgraced by a pitiful imitation of Bob Short's letter in the Spectator. Such a fquib might once be admitted in a periodical paper; but the facility with which it might be imitated, ought to keep a man of genius from even attempting it.

But thefe are little defects, which the reader will eafily pardon. Mr. M. has, in his fecond paper, fhewn himself a good critic, in oppofition to the Adventurer; and his delineation of the characters of Ulyffes and Achilles, as drawn by Homer in the Odyffey and the Iliad, appears to be just :

From the contemplation of the character of Ulyffes and Achilles very different fentiments arife. When we are obferving the former, the mind is rapt in unwearied admiration, it is fcarce awakened to obfervation from a continued feries of praife-worthy actions, but flumbers in the fulfomeness of perpetual panegyric.-If we would examine thoroughly the character of the latter, the mind must be ever at work: there is much to praife, and much to condemn; through a variety of good and bad circumftances, we muft" pick our nice way." His well-placed affection, his warm friendship, will create love; his revenge odium, and his cruelty abhorrence. Doubts will arife, and enquiry must be made, whether the one is more to be approved, or the other more to be avoided. Thus are we kept for ever on the watch; if our vigilance be for a moment abated, we have paffed over fome leading feature in the character of the hero, or loft the recital of fome circumftance, by which we might determine whether the virtues or the vices of Achilles preponderate. When Ulyffes comes forward, the mind is already prepared, and knows what to expedt: he is either the πολύμητις διος Οδυσσεύς, ihe wife and divine Ulyffes, or the 9 ayrınç audny, Ulysses godlike in voice.— But upon the appearance of Achilles, we are uncertain whether he has broken his refolution of not going out to battle, or whether he is meditating the deftruction of the Trojan bulwark.'

As a further specimen of Mr. Monro's agreeable manner of writing, we fhall extract what he advances in Number 31. on the fubject of Sunday schools.

An attempt has lately been made to rescue the lower orders of people from their extreme of ignorance, by the appropriating one day in the week to the inftilling of religious knowledge into the minds of the young, and exciting in them a defire of intellectual improvement. For the profecution of this plan, fermons have been preached, and fubfcriptions opened, and every mode of perfuafion and encouragement been adopted, that wealth, learning, and benevolence could fuggeft. Yet to thefe laudable defigns there have been found many enemies. Armed with the fallacies of logic, they have with fufficient ingenuity demonftrated to us, that the ignorance of the multitude is a public good that to the "hewers of wood, and drawers of water," learning is injurious, or unprofitable; and that the husbandman and the mechanic have other objects on which their attention is more properly engaged than wifdom and science.

All

All the arguments which were first produced to restrain the arro gance of the overwife, are made ufe of to reconcile ignorance to its darkness, and to hide the light from thofe who, having never enjoyed it, are little folicitous to acquire what they have fo long been able to live without. Many of these reafoners have anfwered fome private end. Some have difcovered the skill with which they can argue in a bad caufe; and others, under the fanction of fuch reafoning, have indulged their avarice, by fparing their money. But let him who would prove, that ignorance is either a blessing or a virsue, remember, that he advances the pofition of a wicked man, which he muft fupport with the arguments of a fool.'

Some of Mr. Kett's papers have confiderable merit, especially Number 39, on epitaphs. The Reverend Mr. Graves, the author of Columella,The Spiritual Quixote, and other works; the Jate Mr. Headley of Norwich, the publisher of Select Beauties of ancient English Poetry; and Francis Grofe, Efquire, F. A. S. and other gentlemen, have contributed to this collection; but thofe to whom it ftands most indebted, are Mr. Berkeley, who communicated the Vicar's Tale in Number 32, 37, and 38; and the author of thofe papers, figned Z. The Vicar's Tale, the only one in the volume, is most affecting, and would not difgrace the Adventurer: and as to those numbers which bear the fignature of Z, we must acknowlege, that they have in general pleafed us more than any others in the work.

From politics, the author has cautiously abftained; and as to interference in religion, he thought he fhould do little good; for he remarks, that it fares with this as with a fhuttle-cock, which is ftruck from one to another, and refts with none.'

On the whole, the Olla Podrida is an amufing mifcellany; and though it has fome defects, the reader will have no occafion to reproach the author with having made his correspondence with the public the vehicle of private calumnies, or with having ministered by his pen to the gratification of vice. Moo.

ART. IX. A Series of Letters. Addreffed to Sir William Fordyce, M. D. F. R. S. Containing a Voyage and Journey from England to Smyrna, from thence to Conftantinople, and from that Place over Land to England; likewife an Account, &c. of the Cities, Towns, and Villages, through which the Author paffed, &c. &c. 8vo. 2 Vols. 12s. Boards. Payne, 1788.

HE writer of the work before us, whofe name is Lufig

THE nan, and who ftyles himself Korμonoliтns, or, a citizen

of the world, fays, in his preface, The following letters, containing the obfervations which I made in my voyages and travels,

Our readers are not unacquainted with this traveller. In the 68th vol. of our Review, p. 529, we gave an account of his Hiftory of the Jate celebrated but unfortunate Ali Bey; to whom, as we understand, Mr. Lufignan was fecretary.

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