\do not

enjoy the comfort and convenience of living on a little. When people laughed at his fimplicity, he faid: "You are perrealy right, and I readily fubmit to the juftice of your contempt." Madame De Laffay faid of his pleafant fimplicity, that "none but a man of wit could be fo agreeably foolish." His father, who was very religious, deftined all his four fons for the church, and, of courfe, in France, to a life of celibacy. "My father," fays the Abbé TERRASSON, "by his devotion, has accelerated the end of the world to the utmost of his power." In a fit of abfence, he went in the ftreet fo incompletely drefied, that a crowd foon gathered round him, to laugh at his ftrange appearance. "I have amufed the populace (faid he) without putting them or myself to any expence." At the latter end of his life, he totally loft his memory, and when any queftion was asked him, he faid, "Inquire of Mrs. Luquet, my houfe-keeper." When the prieft, who confeffed him in his laft illness, interrogated him concerning the fins which he had committed, he could get no other anfwer from him than, "Afk Mrs. Luquet."

We have here, alfo, the eloge of Nivelle de la Chauffée, the dramatic writer, who brought into favour in France Comedies larmoiantes, or comedies in which there are more fcenes of tenderness and fenfibility, than of wit and humour. This elegant and pleafing writer, like other original authors, has had fo many feeble imitators in fentimental plays, that he has been often involved in the general cenfure of that fpecies of drama. It is certainly a different genius from comedy, tragedy, or farce, and yet the characters and incidents are as much in nature, and confequently as fit for reprefentation, in their turn, as the higher comedy of Moliere, or tragedy of Racine. The Fashionable Prejudice, the School for Friends, and Melanide, are stock plays in France, that are regarded as models in that fpecies of writing, and admired for purity of manners, delicacy of fentiment, and elegance of ftyle. In the School for Friends there is a paffage which is always applauded with enthufiafm. A virtuous cha racter in great diftrefs cries out, "What can a villain fuffer more?" and is anfwered by his miftrefs, who enters during his complaints, without being feen," Remorse." We have a ftroke of a different kind in the advice of a coxcomb to his friend who complained of the difficulties which he was in, from the number of tradefmen to whom he was in debt-Poh, pob! fays he, do spoil these people by paying them. This new fpecies of drama was ridiculed in epigrams by rival wits, and those who preferred the old comedy; they were called City Tragedies, Weeping Comedies, and Sermons; but thofe who laughed at the epigrams, went eagerly to the theatre to cry at the Fashionable Prejudice, and Melanide. However, many critics tried to perfuade the public that it was unclaffical and vulgar to weep

at

at the playhouse for any diftrefs but that of kings and heroes; while more equitable and reasonable judges thought there was no harm in being affected by the diftrefs of our equals, and that every kind of play was good, except the tiresome.

In the prologue to one of De la Chauffée's plays, he introduces Genius, who afks the Public how he can poffibly please them after so many excellent works have made them faftidious, and fo many bad ones have put them out of humour? The Public, divided by good fenfe and nonfenfe, and reprefented by different perfonages, neither knew what they wanted, nor what to ask. At length the actors quit the ftage, and Genius fays to Thalia, who receives the new piece, but feems embarraffed, "Come, come, take it as it is-thefe are bad times."

The notes on the eloge of the comic poet Nericault Deflouches, are chiefly local, and allude to French cuftoms and French critics. It will, however, amufe English readers, perhaps, to find that this dramatift, who had been repeatedly fuccefstul, was fo intoxicated by the applaufe given to his comedy of the Glorieux, the Vain Man, or rather the vain-glorious or haughty man, that in his preface to this play, after much felf-approbation, he fays: "I am not afraid to add, that the audience, in honouring me with their applause, have done honour to themselves." This arrogance produced the following epigram:

Deftouches thinks the portrait he has drawn in his play,
Of a vain-glorious man, each beholder muft ftrike;
But to others it feems, 'fpite of all he can fay,

That his picture is drawn, in the Preface, more like.

M. D'ALEMBERT refers us to the fifth volume of the Encyclopedie, and the fecond volume of his Melanges de Litterature, for an eloge on the admirable Montesquieu; but he has given fome notes here, by which it appears that this celebrated writer, though he had no great reverence for poetry, did not difdain to try his poetical powers in a few fportive verfes, which, though perhaps unworthy of his great reputation as a philofophical hiftorian and legilator, would have difgraced few profeffional poets in France fifty years ago. We fhall try to tranffufe into English, his ideas of a fong on the old mythological plan, addreffed to the Duchefs De Mirepoix.

After many vict'ries, Love

Thought in heav'n alone to reign,

Braving all the gods above,

Trying Jove himself to chain.

But with indignation fir'd,
Gods, as well as demi-gods,
Whom his froward humours tir'd,
Chas'd him from the bleft abodes.

PP 4

Banifh'd

Banish'd thus, to earth he flies,
Full of anger, pride, and rage;
Fix his ftandard in your eyes,
Thence celeftial war to wage.
But thofe eyes benign and mild
Such a revolution wrought,

That he grew a harmless child,

Nor of gods nor vengeance thought.

His Temple de Gnide, after being fo long praised and admired by readers of fenfibility, as the moft poetical compofition which had ever been written in profe, and as abounding with the moft exquifite traits of character, delicacy, and paffion, is at length dif covered, by mechanical critics in France, to be written on an uninterefting plan, a trifling fable, overcharged with description, and containing little variety of character; that the ftyle is ftudied and affected, abounding more with wit and gallantry, than fentiment and imagination; and that the work, in general, confifting only of common-place thoughts, embellished with happy ftrokes of fancy, is now only to be regarded as an ingenious trifle decorated with the name of a great man. As an appellation of ftill higher contempt, a cynical wit has called it the Apocalypse, or Revelations of Gallantry. But it seems a work of warm imagination, of which critics turned of fifty, who are no longer admitted inter ludere virgines, are very incompetent judges.

M. D'ALEMBERT has enlivened his notes to his eloges, with accounts of the intrigues and cabals of the literati who have afpired at a place in the French Academy; or who, having obtained it, wished to fhut the door against others. The quarrels of men of genius entertain the public in proportion to the ingenuity with which they torment each other. The duplicity of the Abbé Teftu, when the prefident Lamoignon was put up, in order to keep out the Abbé De Chaulieu, produced the following epigram, in which the prefident speaks:

In this fad dilemma, your council pray lend
But are you an Academician, dear Friend?

"To be fure (fays the Abbé), I'm plac'd in the chair”-
Oh, if that is the cafe, I've no wish to be there.

An excellent eloge on Fontenelle, by the late M. Duclos, has been candidly inferted by M. D'ALEMBERT inftead of one of his own. "The death of great men," fays M. Duclos, "puts an end to the jealoufy which they had excited when living; and many have never enjoyed the reward due to their merit during their lives; but the fuperior defert of Fontenelle foon filenced his enemies, and lifted him out of the reach of injuftice." He often faid, however, that he was never fafe till after fixty; at which time he had been fecretary to the Academy of Sciences fifteen years, and had eftablished a moft brilliant reputation. Boileau

and

and Racine, his fworn foes, were dead; the poet Rousseau, his detractor, was banished from the kingdom; and the poet Roi, another abufive fatirift and bitter enemy, was funk into contempt; fo that Fontenelle, who lived to above the age of one hundred, enjoyed above forty years of glory.

Fontenelle's merits were fo various, that we apply to him, fays his panegyrift, what he faid of Leibnitz, that to know him properly he should be decompounded. He therefore claffes his talents in literature, fcience, and fociety. He gained a prize in the Academy at fourteen years of age; foon after, he produced the opera of Belerophon, for his uncle Th. Corneille. After that he established his reputation by works of a new kind: his Dialogues of the Dead, his Hiftory of Oracles, and his Plurality of Worlds, were univerfally admired. Every one was aftonished at this variety of talents, which before had been thought incompatible. Fontenelle introduced the light of philofophy into literature, which wounds the eyes of those whom it does not guide. And the amusement, eafe, and grace, with which he explained abftrufe fubjects, feemed a profanation to those who only thought themselves folid, because they were heavy. Incapable of feeling his merit, they ventured to pronounce it fuperficial at a time when Bayle recognized the philofopher in his early works of amufement and the celebrated geometrician, Varignon, declared, with the most noble gratitude, how much his works had gained by being reviewed by Fontenelle. Dr. Priestley did the fame, when his Hiftory of Electricity was reviewed by our late worthy brother, Bewley, the philofopher of Maffingham.

Celebrity is always attacked by fatirifts without talents; but for the difgrace of literature, or rather of humanity, men of merit fometimes degrade themfelves by jealoufy. If they did but know how much they augment their own fame by refpecting that of others, they would never liften to the dictates of envy, which seems to have the peculiar power of ftifling felf-love.

What a number of reputations has Fontenelle fecured by his Hiftory of the Academy of Sciences? and how many names did he fave from oblivion by attaching them to his own, in his academic difcourfes? But his writings, however high in the favour of the public, were not fuperior to his converfation. This is a rare talent, for which he was peculiarly qualified, not only by the variety of his knowlege, but by a peculiar ferenity of mind, and difpofition for tolerating the different characters and humours of men. Every great man, faid the Duchefs of Maine to Fon. tenelle, has his peculiar folly; but you have contrived to hide yours. Tell us honeftly what it is?In all humility, fays he, I am unable, madam, to inform you which of my follies ftands highest in my own favour. This equanimity was by fome conftrued into apathy, and an utter want of feeling either

for

for perfons or things. But men of a fuperior clafs, instead of confining their inclinations within narrow and partial limits, fhould extend them perhaps to fociety at large as a wife prince, occupied with the good of his people, fhould have no favourites.

Fontenelle was perhaps the only man who felt and confeffed a diminution of his intellectual powers in old age. He well knew how neceffary memory is to the understanding, and confequently to the fupply of wit. Memory collects ideas, the understanding arranges them, and judgment determines the propriety of their union. An extenfive and prompt memory is neceffary to prefent to our choice a number of ideas, for the mind to apply and use at pleasure. In fpeaking of the lofs of his memory late in life, he faid, "I am on the point of removing into another country, and memory is fent off before, with the heavy baggage."

He was born with a delicate conftitution, and, in his infancy, it was thought he could not live. But he feems to have lengthened life to the extent of a century, by good humour and the command of his paffions, more than by care and regimen, which are as great enemies, perhaps, to nature, as excefs. In his laft moments, being asked how he did? he replied, "I only feel a difficulty of exiftence."-The eloge of moft illuftrious characters, fays M. Duclos, is only glorious to them felves, without being of much use to pofterity; but that of Fontenelle is a leffon, and an example of the benefit arifing to mankind from the right use of reafon and fcience; and perhaps we may apply to him what he said of his uncle the great Corneille, that he has only left his fecret with thofe that are able to use it.”

In his eloge of De Boiffy, who commenced his career by writing against the principal authors of his time, M. D'ALEMBERT obferves that it cannot be too often repeated to young writers, that the happinefs of their lives depends much lefs on the fuccefs of their firft productions, than on the fubject of the works themfelves; and that fatire is of all others the moft likely to be productive of durable mifchief. Satirifts are hated and feared even by their greatest admirers and abettors; and men are as uneafy in their fociety as in the company of wafps and hornets. Gentle and beneficent fouls, who know the value of public efteem, felf-approbation, and focial commerce, may apply to fatire, what a Perfian philofopher faid of imprudent marriages; "If the firft moon abounds with honey, the fecond is full of gall." Advice in these matters is of little ufe; we only believe our own experience. Boiffy was but too fenfible of the errors of his youth before he died. He had felt from the bitter effects of enmities wantonly made, that all the doors to fortune and favour were but against him; and that he had no fupport even from those who encouraged him in this infamous trade; "for thofe who

are