every thing we have borrowed from them! | perilous navigation from Naples to Sicily, As to the women, who have fondly be- gives him an occasion too fair to be unlieved all that has been said in their praise, improved of expatiating in praise of two it would be too hard, perhaps, to undeceive | French sea officers, whose skill and intrethem entirely. But I must own, that since | pidity effected his preservation. This naI have, with my own eyes, seen so many turally introduces an account of their of them, of every class; I dare not read a prowess on that element, against English single English novel. I tremble lest the tars; but our readers will think with us, adorable Clarissa or the angelical Amanda that when a Frenchman is so lost to truth should have a chalk complexion, bad and justice, as to give the palm of skill teeth, a bending shape, a strong knit frame and intrepidity in marine affairs to his own and a most enormous foot. This picture nation, it is high time to avail ourselves is quite different from that usually drawn of a liberty of which France has not been of English women, but it is not the less able, hitherto, to deprive us, that of clotrue, generally speaking. I take all Paris sing the work and dismissing it with to witness as to this, and we had much ado, with all the French politeness, to prevent our betraying the sensations produced by those foreigners. I will not speak of their dress, which like their carriage, is the reverse of any thing graceful, and the little the French women have condescended to borrow from them, they have been obliged to alter, correct, and, in a manner create anew."

scorn.

One reflection, however, we may be permitted to address to our ladies. This Frenchman speaks the sentiments of many of his nation, who, while in company with English women, affect to admire English beauty; but we know, that after they are out of sight and hearing, they ridicule those very persons and perfections which they had professed to admire. Our ingenious and discerning gentle- There is, moreover, a bitterness in their man takes care on the other hand, to in-ridicule, proportionate to the satisfaction form us of the qualities a woman must possess, to obtain his approbation. We will not quarrel with him on the indispensable qualification of her being a French woman, and a Parisian. But we sincerely congratulate our fair country women on their being strangers to the meretricious graces with which he has decked the idol of his fancy. Censures coming from a man whose taste and heart appear thus equally vitiated, are praises indeed ! Who would take the opinion of libidinous satyrs, on the modest charms of "fair Dian's train ?"

But to return to M. de Lesser. It may be easily supposed, that, by way of compensation, the French receive from him a tribute of praise, fully equal to the load of abuse he has laid on other nations. To do him justice, he is, on this head, uncommonly diligent in availing himself of every opportunity. Flattery springs up at every step he takes, and no French agent in Italy but is a model of all virtues, and a bright example to the debased inhabitants:

Tous les gens querelleurs, jusqu'aux simples

man.,

An dire de chacun, étoient des petits saints. Among other instances, a wonderful escape from shipwreck, in the long and

they had pretended, and fully coextensive with those compliments, which in expressions of affected ecstacy they had lavished on the subjects of their praise and peculation. We deny not that France has produced men of honour; we have known many but they were never equally vo luble with those whose interested motives animated their loquacity: they dealt less in flattery, but more in truth: and if their promises were less copious, their performance was more certain.

Neufte Entdekungen, &c. New Discoveries on the Origin and Propagation of Small-Pox and of the Venereal Disease. By Schaufus. 160 pages in 8vo. Leipsic. Feind. 14 gr.

To explain the origin or the age of small pox, the author quotes a passage in the travels of Sonnerat, who says, "that "Mariatale, mother of Vichnou was the "Goddess who presided over small pox, "and that this employment had been al

ready assigned to her, previous to the eighth incarnation of Vichnou, when "the coast of Malabar was still covered "by the sea." Hence the author infers, that as the sea rises four feet in every century, small pox must have been known

in India, more than four thousand years ago. According to him, India has been likewise the parent of the venereal disorder, which he says, was brought into Europe by the Bohemians in the fifteenth century. The proofs of these two assertions would lead us too far, and we refer the curious to the work itself, in which they will also find conjectures on the Asiatic origin of American nations.

There appears to be a contradiction in our author's mode of calculation; for if the sea still rises, the coast of Malabar instead of emerging, must be immersed deeper and deeper.

This article is translated from a foreign journal; and we suspect a mistake in thecritic who drew up the report; or of the press. New Globes, Celestial and Terrestrial, made by J. Carey, Strand, London. Prices of 9 inches, from £2. 16s to L4. 4s. 12 inches from £3. 13s. 6d to £5. 10s. 21 inches from £9.9s to £16. 16s according to their fittings up. We have been induced, not less by our inclination than by our duty, to inspect the Globes of a new appearance, lately published by Mr. Carey. Their general effect is very neat and elegant but we think the terrestrial globe rather too highly tinted, especially the water. Possibly Mr. Lowrie's new manner of colouring the water in maps, by lines drawn with uncommon truth and beauty, may have given somewhat of a tone to our geographers: but, we must confess, that however exquisite may be his execution, the employment of it in this instance, does not increase our satisfaction. It produces a too powerful opposition between the land and water, and too strongly distinguishes what already with proper management, was sufficiently distinct. Mr. Carey's celestial globe, is composed on the same principle as the Astrarium, reviewed in p. 76. The stars are extremely distinct, and being relieved from their cumbersome companions are more intelligible to the eye: but our objection still recurs, that the History of the Heavens is omitted by the non-insertion of the constellation figures. The regions they occupy are, indeed, marked by slight division lines; yet we think occult delineations of the objects themselves might have been introduced, without any disadvantage The

places of the stars appear to us to be laudably correct.

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Isaac Watts, D. D. with extracts from his correspondence. Svo. pp. 177. price 2s. 6d. Williams and Co. London, 1806. THERE is no great difficulty, we believe, in extracting from the works of such a man as Dr. Watts: not a line of whose productions ever had the slightest tendency to do harm. "Few men," says Dr. Johnson, “have left behind them such purity of character, or such monuments of laborious piety."...." He is at least one of those few poets with whom (even) youth and ignorance may be safely pleased; and happy will be that reader whose mind is disposed by his verses, or his prose, to copy his benevolence to men, and his reverence to God." After this opinion of our eminent critic, we cannot but commend the pamphlet before us: yet we should at all times prefer a complete work of the Dr.'s to excerpts In fact, we have never seen a selection which satisfied us; since there evidently appears something incongruous in mingling verses intended for the lips of a child, with Pindarics descriptive of the loftiest themes: each alone is commendable, but both are injured by association. In this pamphlet, the life is given more at large than usual; and it may be read with advantage, though we do not perceive much that is new in it. We learn without surprize, that the Dr. wished to have corrected some things in his hymns: we wish he had done so; but, if this be our judgment on good Dr. Watts's performances, whose devotion was guided by learning, what must be our opinion of those imitations, which since his day have deluged certain religious interests? productions, possessing neither the Dr's learning, good sense, sobriety of thought, candour of manner, poetical talents, (nor even tolerable rhimes, the lowest branch of poetry,) to recommend them!

These observations are not intended for the present pamphlet, which contains, besides the life, only letters to or from this illustrious divine. Among them we find one to the Dr. from Gibson, Bishop of London; and one from the Dr. to the Bishop; another from the Archbishop of York, &c.

The portrait prefixed is a pretty performance, and we believe, is authentic: but

why, if so, was not the place where it is preserved mentioned, together with the name of the painter?

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE PERSONS INCLUDED
IN THE PROPHECY OF M. DE CAZOTTE.

[See pages 64 and 70, Review of M. de la
Harpe's Works.]

That extraordinary paper which M. de la Harpe left behind him, and which we presented to the public by an accurate translation in our first number, has excited a prevailing curiosity, as to its history, and its fulfilment; we have therefore requested from a gentleman, every way competent to the subject, such further information as may assist us in forming a judgment of it; and this will be faithfully communicated to our readers, as opportunity permits.

M. de la Harpe does not name the place where the conversation occurred; but, from recollection of the persons then in high life, and a combination of general circunstances, there is no doubt of its having been at the house of the Duke de Nivernois, who was a member of the Academy, a man who delighted in the convivial parties of the literati, and had regular days appointed for receiving them at his table. That he was " the highest talents," as M. de la Harpe describes him, his works sufficiently prove. The titled part of the company agrees with this suggestion.

a man of

As the narration of M. de la Harpe leaves the character of M. Cazotte in a considerable degree of obscurity, and as the events of his life are no less striking than those which befell his companions, we shall insert, in a future Number, so much of his history as is necessary for the information of our readers. It is clearly understood, that, without exception, the subjects of these remarks were atheists; which renders the confidence they placed in prediction so much the more remarkable: as, where blind chance prevails, on what principles can a plan of events, which is clearly implied in prediction, be either supposed or supported?

SEBASTIEN-ROCH-NICOLAS

CHAMFORT

Was born of obscure parents at Clermont in Auvergne; he gave very early proofs of attachment to those principles which have been the cause of such dreadful calamities to mankind, and he was well known as a literary character of eminence before the revolution. He was educated at the college des Grassins, from whence he was expelled for his ill-conduct, along with the celebrated Letourneur, the translator of a variety of works from the

66

English*. They were afterwards received
with great indulgence, and reinstated in the
college, which indulgence they very ill re-
quited. Upon being pressed to take his de-
grees for the church, Chamfort answered,
"I never will be a priest; I too much love
repose, philosophy, women, honour, and
true glory." He therefore finally quitted
college, and was reduced to the most abject
distress, subsisting only by writing for a few
journalists, and sermons for priests, whom he
so much despised. He wrote for the book-
sellers, le Vocabulaire François; and, not-
withstanding his extreme poverty, foretold
that he should become a member of the
Royal Academy, and be received with
sure by the great, "whom (said he) Í de-
plea-

spise, but who will make my fortune, and
"enable me to live en philosophe." In 1764,
his play, entitled la Jeune Indienne, ap-
peared, and was well received; but his great
irregularities and debauched life deranged his
health, and prevented him from following
up this good fortune, and plunged him into
a state of extreme misery. He now became
acquainted with the Abbé Laroche, who, up-
on the death of Helvetius, recommended him
to Lord Huntingdon, as qualified to succeed
him in accompanying two young English-
men of rank in a two years' tour through italy.
This he would not accept of, although he
was offered 1500 pounds for his trouble; but
finding his health reinstated, he preferred a
life of dissipation to a situation of confine-
ment, and some responsibility. In 1770, he
produced his Marchand de Smyrne, which
had great success, and contributed greatly to
his fame. He was afterwards placed on the
pension list for 1200 livres, as assistant writer
to the Mercure. He first became acquainted
with the Duchess de Grammont, at Barreges,
where his deranged state of health obliged
him to retire for the benefit of the waters of
that celebrated place. She introduced him
to her brother, the Duc de Choiseuil, at
Chanteloup, from, which time he got easy
access to the circles of the great, whose ruin
was his constant object. In 1776, he pub-
lished his Dictionnaire des Théâtres, and his
famous tragedy of Mustapha was performed
and ushered to the world before the court at
Fontainebleau; it met with such applause,
that the King granted him another pension,
and the present Prince of Condé gave him an
appointment in his household, which, al-
though a sinecure↑, yet he soon relinquished,

* The same, we believe, who translated Cibber's comedy of Love's last Shift, by the phrase la dernière Chemise de l'Amour.

+ Grouvelle, his friend, undertook to per form all the labour of the situation; the same Grouvelle that read the sentence of death to the unfortunate Louis XVI, during which time Santerre, the brewer (now a bankrupt and a vagabond), was seen to smile.