APPENDIX

TO THE

EIGHTIETH VOLUME

OF THE

MONTHLY REVIEW.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

ART. I.

Hiftoire des Membres, &c. i. e. Hiftory of the Members of the French Academy, by M. D'ALEMBERT, concluded: See our last Appen dix, page 655.

W

E return with the more pleasure to this work, as we find the fifth and fixth volumes, which our former review of this publication did not include, equally amusing and inftructive with the first four. We cannot, however, quite agree with the author, when, in his eloge of the Abbé du Bos, he fays, that he was one of those men of letters who had more merit than reputation.' Indeed we are of a totally different opinion, and think that his fame confiderably exceeded his defert. The fubjects which he treated, were interefting, and he was one of the firft among the many Frenchmen who wrote and talked prettily and ingeniously about the fine arts, without feeling their ef fects with true taste and enthusiasm. Who talk more fpeciously and frequently about mufic than our Gallic neighbours? and what mufic is lefs pleafing to the reft of Europe than theirs? not fo much in the compofition, the laws of harmony being nearly the fame every where, as in the expreffion; which is fo nationally and radically bad, as to fpoil and corrupt the mufic which they perform of every other country, and reduce it to a level with their own. What the Abbé du Bos has afferted of the mufic of the ancients, difcovers at once his ignorance of the subject, and his firm reliance on the ignorance of his readers. His decifions concerning poetry and painting are more frequently the effects of arrogance than good taste or found judgment. Voltaire fays, that he had never written verfes or used a pencil; but he had read, feen, and meditated much.' He certainly was more APP. Rev. VOL. LXXX, fond

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fond of difcuffion, than of the filent and attentive examination of works of art: and it has often been a matter of difpute in France, whether, in judging of productions of art, difcuffion or fentiment was the beft guide. M. D'ALEMBERT wifely advifes his Countrymen to feel firft, and difcufs afterwards. But we have known few French connoiffeurs, who would not rather talk than liften, during the perufal of poetry, or the performance of mufic.

We meet with fome admirable traits of character, eloquence, and benignity, in the notes to the eloge of the celebrated preacher Maffilion, bishop of Clermont en Auvergne: and the manner in which this prelate pleads the cause of the poor of his diocese to Cardinal Fleury, then minifter of ftate, is a model of elegant fimplicity and pathetic fupplication. The cardinal and he were of different parties in the religious difputes of France at that time, yet they respected and feared each other: and Maffillon pleafantly faid, "We are mutually afraid of each other, and we are both glad to find each other a coward." When he had lent his chapel to fome fectarists, who occafioned a disturbance, he said: "I opened the door to ignorance, for the fake of peace, but I fhould have remembered that among priests as well as among common people, ignorance is much more to be feared than fcience."

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Maillon left his whole poffeffions to the poor, which did properly belong to his family. Charlemagne, hearing of the death of a bishop, afked how much he had left to the poor; and was told, two pounds of filver. A young prieft, who stood by, obferved, that it was but a finall viaticum, a fhort allowance, for fo long a voyage. The prince, pleafed with the reflexion, told the priest that he fhould be his fucceffor, and added, "but don't forget what you have faid."

The eloge of the Marquis de St. Aulaire, who arrived at his hundredth year, and at fixty became an agreeable poet, is amufing and full of anecdotes. And in that of the Don Quixote in benevolence and fpeculative patriotism, the Abbé de St. Pierre, we find fo many initances of a wild imagination under the guidance of a good heart, fo many impracticable but well-intentioned fchemes for the benefit of fociety, the melioration of the government of his country, and the peace and happiness of all Europe; that virtue feems to have been his miftrefs, his dulcinea, whom he is always feeking, but never finds. This worthy Abbé is fuppofed to have been the first who ventured to use the word Bienfaifance in the French language; and it is certain that, in order to make it current, he put its principle in practice on all occafions. He wrote against exceffive taxation, religious intolerance, the ufelefs expence and magnificence of courts, fupported with the fubitance and tears of the people. He regarded arbitrary power

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and its confequent evils as the certain ruin of a state. These are common-place fentiments in England, but were new and heroic in France, at the beginning of the prefent century. He was the firft who faw through all the glare and fplendour of the court and character of Lewis the XIVth, and the defects and vices of that prince's principles and government. But fo long and conftant had been the practice of adulation to which the members of the French Academy were accustomed, that they treated him as guilty of Academic treason for publishing, even after the decease of that monarch, his fentiments in a pamphlet called La Polyfynodie, Plurality of Councils, and expelled him from the Academy. This good man being afked, the day before he died, what he thought of his approaching end, anfwered, that "it feemed like a journey into the country."

The prefident Boubier, a man of confiderable erudition, was elected into the French Academy, on the condition that he would quit Dijon, the place of his birth and refidence, and fettle at Paris; to which condition, he acceded, but was unable to perform his promife, for want of health. Though remote from the capital, he could not remain in obfcurity, but from the variety and extent of his learning, he was courted and confulted by the literati throughout Europe: and many learned men, who had availed themselves of his councils, dedicated their works to him. It were to be wifhed (fays M. D'ALEMBERT) that men of letters would prefer fuch patrons to the generality of ill-chofen Mecænas's fo unworthy of that title, and whofe pride and indifference incline them to receive as a debt, the homage which men of genius and talents pay to them.'

At a time when the minifters of ftate were frequently changed in France, an author dedicated his book to the Brazen Horfe on the Pont-neuf at Paris, perfuaded that his patron would long remain in place. But the Duke de Montaufier, the governor of the Dauphin, would never fuffer him to read the dedications which were addreffed to that young prince: However, he discovered him one day reading, in fecret, one of thefe epiftles; but instead of taking it from him, he obliged the prince to read it aloud, and ftopping him at the end of every phrafe, faid, "Don't you see, fir, that they are laughing at you with impunity? can you fin- not cerely believe yourself poffeffed of all the good qualities afcribed to you; or can you read, without indignation, fuch grofs flattery, which they would not venture to beftow without having the meanest opinion of your understanding?"

• The most noble of all dedications (continues M. D'ALEMBERT), the most worthy perhaps of reaching pofterity, and unluckily the most unknown, is that of the learned Lefevre, father of Mad. Dacier, addreffed to Peliffon, while he was in the Baftile, for having defended the unfortunate Fouquet, his benefactor.

Do you /

Pope dedicated Parnell's Poems to Lord Oxford in the Tower; but his rifque of perfecution was fmall in England, compared with that of Lefevre in France, where minifters are armed with lettres de cachet; which are a kind of muskets charged with white powder, that have been faid to go off without making a report. A friend approaching the bed of the prefident Bouhier within an hour of his death, found him in a feemingly profound meditation. He made a fign that he wished not to be difturbed, and with difficulty pronounced thefe words: I am watching death: fimilar to those of an ancient philofopher, who, when dying, faid he was watching what paffed at the moment when the foul quitted the body.

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Among the fubjects propofed by the French Academy for the prize of eloquence, till about the middle of the prefent century, the chief part were religious or moral: as, the Science of falvation; the merit and dignity of martyrdom; the purity of foul and bidy; and even a paraphrafe on the Ave Maria. All these feem more fit fubjects for the pulpit than a literary fociety; but as there are generally many bifhops and dignified clergy in the Academy, it afforded them an opportunity of difplaying their abilities as preachers, who were unable to diftinguish themselves as poets. After thefe fubjects were exhaufted, and the nation feemed furfeited with monotonous and infipid repetitions of common-place precepts of virtue and piety, the Academy propofed the panegyrics of celebrated men, who had diftinguished themselves by pencil, compafs, fword, or pen." The public has much applauded feveral of thefe difcourfes; and fubjects of this kind feem now to have entirely fuperfeded the fermons of former times: fome of which, however, fays M. D'ALEMBERT, merited diftinction; but thefe were chiefly compofed by laymen; among whom thofe of Fontenelle and De la Motte were the beft. We have heard of fermons written by the late Dr. Johnfon for his friends, and there is one in the Eloge de Mengin, with which Fontenelle fecretly fupplied his friend Brunel, and gained him the prize. This difcourfe was written on the danger of certain ways to falvation which feem fure. The fubject is treated by Fontenelle with fo much wisdom and philofophy, and rendered fo interefting by his enlarged and ingenious reflexions, that we are tempted to prefent our readers with an extract of fome length in English.

How aftonishing is the infinite diverfity of religious worship into which the universe is divided! Every people, by the light of nature, and an internal fenfe of their own weaknefs, agree in fubmiffion to fome fuperior Being, though they difagree in the ideas which they have formed of him. Every thing of which the fenfes can judge, or which the imagination can form, whatever is moft brilliant and beyond our reach, as well as whatever is moft vile, terrific, and noxious, has been deified by fome people or other; all has had its incenfe, its altars, and its victims. The variety of religious worship

bas corresponded with that of the divinities. In one place, they will always have visible gods reprefented by ftatues; in another, it is a crime to represent the objects of worship; here flows the blood of animals and men; there, the incenfe only fmokes; fometimes the angry gods are appeafed by public games and fpectacles; and fometimes by rigorous penance and voluntary fufferings. He who honours the divinities of one country abominates thofe of another; and the moft holy ceremonies of one people are often regarded by their neighbours as facrilegious.

There is however but one God, and miferable is that people to whom he is unknown!--Among fo many different religions, and ways to falvation which men purfue, how is the right path pointed out to us? Alas! that which is preferred by the inhabitants of the country where we happen to be born is almost always fuppofed, without examination, to be the fafe and true road to eternal happiness: every people march with equal confidence in the steps of their countrymen. And how difficult is it to eradicate a firft opinion which has taken poffeffion of us in youth, undisputed by reafon, and at a time wheni t has no rival opinions to deftroy?-O celestial truth! why is thy light fo feeble, or why are men fo blind? why does univerfal darkness almoft cover the earth? why do innumerable nations run to perdition without knowing it? can one involuntary error merit fuch a punishment? We must not pretend to fathom the abyss of eternal Wifdom; it is our duty to fubmit to its decrees: God is juft, and will only punish the culpable; and if our weak reafon is unable to reach the latent caufes, fprings, and regulations of Omnipotence, let us not murmur, but fubmit with humility and refignation to the ignorance of our nature.'

The Abbé Girard, author of the juftly celebrated little book entitled Synonymes François, or definition of fynonymous words in the French language, has not been forgotten by M. D'ALEMBERT. This admirable work, fhewing the nice and almoft inperceptible shades of meaning in words of which the choice feems indifferent, obtained the author admiffion into the French Academy in spite of all the cabals and oppofition of rival philologers. We know not of any fuch work in any other language ancient or modern, though it feems equally wanted in them all.

The royal lecturer and profeffor of philofophy, Terraffon, was a very fingular character: abfent, fimple, totally ignorant of the world, with much learning, and original wit and humour. He made a good tranflation of Diodorus Siculus merely, he faid, to expose the credulity of that author. When he fuddenly became very rich by the Miffiffippi fcheme, it had no effect on his conduct or philosophy, though he faid he would not answer for himfelf beyond a million of livres; however, thofe who knew him would have been bound for him much farther. He was, however, as fuddenly ruined by this bubble as he was enriched, when he wrote a friend word that he had got rid of many diffi culties in which wealth had involved him, and he should now enjoy

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