one who heard this converfation burst out into a loud laugh, and Monfieur was quite difconcerted."

And this was the husband firft affigned to our charming Princefs Henrietta, fifter to Charles II.! Even her fucceffor, who has furnished thefe fragments, fays, fhe was very much to be pitied. Madame, my predeceffor, fays fhe, was very young, beautiful, amiable, and full of grace. She was furrounded by the greatest coquets in the kingdom, who were all miftreffes to her inveterate enemies, and who tried every thing in their power to prejudice her husband against her.' Indeed, fuch were the diabolical politics of the French court during the life of this Princess, that it was thought neceflary, even by Lewis XIV. himself, to alarm his brother Monfieur, with jealoufy, left he fhould turn his mind too much to politics!

Madame's character of her fon, the celebrated Regent Duke of Orleans, correfponds with the ideas which have been long formed of that voluptuous Prince; who, according to Voltaire, resembled his ancestor Henry IV. more than any one of his race; poffeffing the fame valour, goodness of heart, indulgence, gaiety, facility, and franknefs, with a more cultivated mind.

Speaking of him, while in his youth, Madame fays,

My fon has ftudied hard, has an excellent memory, quick conception, and has a pleafing figure: he neither refembles his father nor his mother. My late husband had a long face, my fon has a fquare countenance; but he has his father's gait and gestures. Monfieur had a little mouth and bad teeth; my fon has a great mouth and fine teeth. Though learned, he is wholly free from pedantry, and has not the leaft difpofition to melancholy. He has a prodigious number of little entertaining ftories at his fingers ends, which he picked up in Italy and Spain, and which he relates admirably. [ love him however beft when he is ferious; he is then more natural and pleafing.'

As thefe Letters were chiefly written to Princess Caroline, afterward Queen Caroline, at the English Court, Madame takes great pains to affure her correfpondent, that her fon the Regent never had any intention of affifting the Pretender, either publicly or privately; and if Lord Stair would have made an alliance with him, the rebellion of 1715 would never have happened, as he would have prevented the Chevalier de St. George from paffing through France.

My fon (fays fhe) understands war, and fears nothing; but his great defect is too much gentleness, and the liftening to people who have less understanding than himself, by whom he has been often deceived. Whatever has happened that is difagreeable or unfortunate may be ascribed to that defect. Another fault is his too violent paffion for women. Except in thefe particulars, I know of nothing reprehenfible in him; but this is fufficient, and these propensities are but too frequently the fource of great evils.

Formerly

Formerly his figure was very pleafing, but at prefent he grows too fat for his height. But notwithstanding his want of beauty, the women are all mad for him; intereft helps attractions, for he pays well. As my son is no longer a youth of 18 or 19, but near 40 years of age, people are not pleafed with his attending balls for the fake of getting at young women, at a time that he has the whole kingdom on his fhoulders. I cannot deny but that my fon has an infatiable love for women; but he has a favourite Sultana, Madame de P***. She is at prefent a widow. She is tall, well made, brown, for the ufes no white, has fine eyes, a beautiful mouth, and little understanding; in fhort, fhe is a charming morfel.

It is certain that my fon is fufficiently informed to trust to his own judgment in moft things. He is well verfed in mufic, and does not compofe amifs; he fpeaks many languages, and loves reading; he understands chemistry; has dipped into most of the fciences; but all this does not prevent his being tired of every thing. If he is ever intoxicated, it is not with drams and liqueurs, but with generous champaigne. I tell him every day that he is too good to the people about him; but he laughs, and fays it is a good fault. I cannot conceive whence he had his patience; his father had none, and I am fure he had it not from me. What the women fee in his perfon, I am as unable to difcover; for though I love him myfelf at the bottom of my heart, yet his complexion is now a copper colour; his complaint in his eyes makes him frequently fquint, his manners are not very gallant, and he is very indifcreet.

My fon had a little girl by an actress, who wished to prefent him with a fecond child; but he told her it had too much of the Harlequin in its compofition-and when the defired him to explain himself, he said, it is made of too many different pieces.

I have often cenfured his fickleness in the purfuit of knowlege; but he tells me that it is not his fault; I wish to know every thing, fays he, but as foon as the knowlege is acquired, it ceases to give me pleasure.

My fon was a boy of only 17 years old when they married him by force, threatening to fhut him up in a caftle called Villers-Cotterets. The lady whom he was obliged to marry was Mademoiselle de Blois, youngest hatural daughter of Lewis XIV. by Madame de Montefpan, who, though the most indolent and nervous valetudinarian on record, lived till 1749, when he was upward of 70. The country has no kind of attractions for my fon; he is only fond of a town life, like Madame de Longueville, who being kept a great while in Normandy by her husband, would not enter into any of the amufements of the place, though feveral were offered to her choice -but he told the people about her, that it was in vain to teaze her any more about it, for he hated innocent pleasures.

My fon is naturally brave, and being in no fear of death, it is plain that he fears nothing. He does not know what it is to be jealous of his mistreffes; he pretends that tenderness and jealoufy are only to be found in romances. He eats, drinks, fings, and paffes the night with his miftreffes, and that's all. My fon is not capable of being ferious with his children, or of preferving the gravity of a father; he lives with them like a kind friend or brother. He never lays a word

13

word to me of itate affairs, a leffon which he learned from his father, who used to say, all will be right, provided Madame knows nothing of the matter. After the Mifliffippi business, I received a threatening letter, that a determined confpiracy was formed to poifon my fonbut when I fhewed him the letter, he only laughed heartily at my fears for his safety, and faid, that they were not fufficiently ingenious in France to poison him in the true Perfian manner, mentioned in the letter.'

This true difciple of Epicurus died in 1724, at 50 years of age, after enjoying every poffible human gratification, natural and artificial, to the utmoft limits of his powers; never forgetting to crop thofe flowers, which, according to his own celebrated precept, he thought it right we should sow in our paffage to another ftate:

Si la vie humaine n'eft qu'un paffage, femons au moins des fleurs.

Our extracts from thefe Fragments have been already fo copious, that we dare not truft ourselves with the entertaining account which Madame gives of the Miffiffippi fcheme by the famous projector, Law; which, befide the madness, mifery, and calamities it occafioned, was likewife productive of many circumftances truly ridiculous, during the golden dreams of the whole French nation.

If Law (fays Madame) wifhed for the favour of French women, they would kifs his derriere. One day when he gave audience to a great number of ladies, they would not fuffer him to leave them for the most preffing occafions, which though he was forced to explainthey only cried out, Oh! if that's all, we certainly shall not part with you you may do whatever you pleafe, provided you liften to us the while." There was nothing, to which they would not fubmit, in order to get at the fpeech of M. Law. One lady, despairing of fuccefs by any other means, ordered her coachman to drive to the door of a houfe where the knew he was to dine, and began crying fire! fire! with all her might; on which the whole company ran out to fee where, and Law among the reft; when the curious lady jumped out of her coach to have a full view of him, which having accomplished, fhe took to her heels, and made her escape. Another lady ordered her coachman to overturn her carriage oppofite to Law's houfe, in order to bring him out to her relief; in which the fucceeded with whole bones, and confeffed to the terreftrial Plutus that the accident was brought about exprefsly to have an opportunity of speaking to him. A livery fervant having gained a great fum, fet up a coach. The first day that he was to ufe it, he went mechanically behind his carriage, instead of taking poffeffion of the infide-when his coachman cried out, Where are you going, Sir! the coach is your own. True, fays the mafter-I had forgot. The coachman of Law himfelf became fo rich, that he gave his mafter warning-when the Projector begged that he would not leave him till he had found him another coachman. The next day his old fervant brought him two, and affured his former mafter that they were both fo good, that he would hire for his own ufe the man who was not fo fortunate as to Rev. Feb. 1789.

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please

please him. The Projector, Law, fays Montefquieu, turned the ftate, as a botcher turns a garment.'

The illuftrious author of these Fragments has frequently characterised the great perfonages with whom fhe lived, in no very flattering manner; but, if he has been fomewhat severe on them, the has not changed her ftyle in fpeaking of herself, which fhe feems to have done with Teutonic truth and fimplicity.

Infincerity,' fays fhe, paffes in this court for wit, and truth for imbecility; fo that I am neither polished nor witty-and am often told that I am too rude and fincere.-It was in pure obedience to my father's will that I came hither. In my early youth, I used to amufe myfelf with fire-arms, fwords and piftols, more than toys and dolls. There was nothing I wished fo much as to be a boy, and this nearly coft me my life; for having heard that Mary Germain became a boy by jumping, I fet about jumping with fuch violence, that it is the greatest wonder in the world I did not beat out my brains. In the whole univerfe, more ugly hands than mine, I believe, could not be found. The late King has frequently told me fo, in fport, and I have often joined heartily in the laugh; for there is nothing on which I pique myself less than on my perfonal charms; and I generally begin the laugh at my own uglinefs, which totally defeats the farcafms of others. I muft be frightfully ugly, for I never had one tolerable feature. My eyes are fmall; I have a fhort fnub nofe, flat lips; out of which the materials for a fine face are but few. I have large flabby cheeks, a lank figure, though fhort in ftature. On the whole, I am fo hideous, that, if I had not fome folidity and goodness of character, I fhould be infupportable. If any one had a mind to discover my wit by my eyes, he must take a microscope, or be a wizzard. I was once to have been married to the Duke of Courland; but having feen me, he was so enchanted, that he never returned to finish the courtship.

• I readily obeyed Monfieur, my late husband, in not importuning him with my embraces.-Indeed, I was delighted, when he propofed separate beds, after the birth of my daughter; for I never loved the trade of making children.-It was extremely difagreeable to lie in the fame bed with Monfieur; he would not fuffer one to come within a mile of him when he was afleep, fo that I lay fo near the edge of the bed, that I have often tumbled on the floor."

Madame feems, like moft foreign prince ffes, to have remained a mere bye-stander at the court of France, neither affimilating the manners, nor heartily efpoufing the interefts of that kingdom. She hated Madame de Montefpan and Madame de Maintenon alike, and entered into none of the intrigues or cabals with which fhe was furrounded. During her fon's regency, the wrote her friend, the Princefs Caroline, word, that the would not meddle with politics.

I am too old (fays fhe), and want repofe. I never learned the art of reigning, and I fhould acquit myfelf very ill. My fon, thank God, has fufficient abilities and talents to do without me. I fhalt give a good example to my fon's wife and daughter. This kingdom has unluckily been but too long governed by women, old and young,

of

of every kind; it is high time now for the men to govern themselves. However, when my recommendation can be of the leaft ufe to poor and worthy people, I fhall eagerly use it-nothing gives me more pleasure than to fucceed in fuch applications; and I thank God for it as much as if I had been profperous in my own affairs of the greatest confequence.'

And with this benevolent fentiment, fo different from that of her nephew, the Dauphin, on the fame fubject, we shall clofe our account of this worthy Princefs and her Fragments; which are rendered fo amufing, by the delineations they contain of tranfactions behind the curtain, in the most polished and voJuptuous court of Europe, that we hope our readers will not be offended at the length of our extracts and remarks. Dr Bu...y. Art. II. De la Morale Naturelle, fuivie du Bonheur des Sots. i. e. An Effay on Natural Ethics, or Moral Science. By M. NECKER. 8vo. Paris. 1788.

Is it not Patroclus, that here comes forth in the armour of Achilles, or rather in an armour as like it as this literary Patroclus could procure from the forge of a mortal Vulcan? To speak without a figure, we cannot difcern in the work before us the genuine characters of that elevated genius, that enlightened understanding, and that feeling heart, which penned the Effay on the Importance of religious Sentiments. We are much miftaken, if there is any thing more of M. NECKER in this work, than a nice, little, prim picture of him prefixed to it, and a keen and elaborate attempt to imitate his ftyle, in thirty-four fhort chapters. We are confirmed in our opinion by an Essay on the Happiness of Fools, fubjoined to the work, which is ftill more inferior to the tafte and spirit of M. NECKER than the work itfelf. This fupplement, which is an impotent attempt toward wit and pleasantry, in our opinion, fully difcovers the impof

ture.

The work, however, confidered in itself, rifes far above contempt. It abounds with fenfible and acute obfervations on moral duties and relations. The ftyle is lively and animated, though too quaint and affected; and the fpirit that reigns throughout the whole, is friendly to virtue. The author appears to difadvantage in M. NECKER's coat, but he would have paffed for a very personable man in his own. Mac.

Art. III. Mecanique Analytique. i. e. Analytical Mechanics. By M. DE LA GRANGE, Member of the Academies of Paris, Berlin, Petersburg, and Turin. 4to. 513 Pages, Paris. 1788.

The defign of this work, which is worthy the great reputation of its celebrated author, is to facilitate the folution of all the problems relative to the science of mechanics, confidered in

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all