• a voice that now fails me, and of a fervour that is dying away.' The affecting connection which this picture prefents, of one great man who had just disappeared, with another great man who was foon to follow, fills the foul with a fweet and profound melancholy, by exhibiting to it the vain and fugitive fplendour of talents and of renown, the mifery of the ftate of man, and the folly of an exceffive attachment to a life fo forrowful and fo fhort. We admire in the Univerfal Hiftory, a genius equally vaft and profound, which, difdaining to fetter itfelf with frivolous details, fo much reforted to by the herd of hiftorians, looks and decides, at one glance, on legiflators and conquerors, on kings and nations, on the crimes and the virtues of men, and defcribes, with an energetic and rapid pencil, time which deyours and swallows up all, the hand of God on human greatnefs, and kingdoms that perifh like their mafters. How could the eagle, which looked from fuch a height, and faw fo far,how could the painter who drew in fuch a noble file, the hiftory of the world-how could he defcend, in the education of a prince, to minutia e qually unworthy of the prince and of himself? I fhall not weaken by a faftidious repetition the praifes that have been bestowed on this work; I imagine that an apology is rather due for the author, on an effential and delicate point, which may, however, prove a new eulogium. Beffuet was accufed of having, in this malter-piece of eloquence, fhewn himself more an orator than a historian, a divine more than a philofopher; of having dwelt too much on the Jews, too little on the nations that make ancient hiftory important; and for having, in fome degree, facrificed the world to a nation that all others affected to defpife. To this accufation he replied, that if he was thought, in fo extenfive a perform ance, to have neglected the rest of the world, for the fake of the only people to whom the true God was known, it was because he thought it his duty, not only to that God, whofe fervant he was, but to France which had confided its hope to his inftructions, to inculcate on all occafions upon the mind of the young prince, the molt powerful motive which can force princes to be juft, the idea of that eternal and allpowerful Being, whofe impartial eye obferves them, and by whole dreadful award they mult finally abide. Boffuet trembled to think how much the human race would be to be pitied, if the few, to whom providence has fubjected the rest of mankind, and who have nothing to dread on earth but the moment in which they are to quit it, did not view above their throne a Supreme Judge, who has promifed reparation to thofe whofe injuries they have either occafioned or permitted. This patriotic citizen was perfuaded, that those who unhappily confider the belief of a God of little importance to other men, would be guilty of high treafon to the human race, fhould they endeavour to wreft that belief from kings. It is proper that fubjects fhould hope in God; it is neceffary that Monarchs fhould fear him. FENELON. The moft endearing charm in the works of Fenelon, is that fentiment of peace and tranquillity with which he infpires his reader; he is a friend who vifits you, the gentleness and calmnefs of whole foul diffuse themfelves through yours; he moderates, or at leaft fufpends for a moment, your griefs and your pains. There are multitudes of men who make us incline to hate human nature, but Fenelon makes us love it. The reputation of the Telemachus, which has never varied in the rest of Europe, has experienced feveral reveries in France. When the work appeared, appeared, the novelty of its manner, the graces of its ftile, and, ftill more, the indirect, but continued cenfure of a monarch, who had now ceafed to be adored by his fubjects, made it the object of univerfal admiration. The corruption which the regency introduced, and which made the nation lefs fond of books that inculcate virtue, the violent faction that arofe against Homer, of whofe work the Telemachus appeared to be an imitation in the monotory, which it was faid, is evident in the diction and in the ideas, made the latter, for a long time, be claffed among those works that merely convey agreeable inftruction to youth. It has acquired an increafed reputation in our age,which is better informed than the preceding in the true principles of the happinefs of ftates, and which feems to comprize them in thefe two words, Agriculture and Toleration. Statues ought to be erected to the citizen who has fo much recommended the firft, and to the bishop who fo much practifed the laft. However, we may admire his great and illuftrious antagonist Boffuet, and though this laft has fecured immortality by his truly fublime writings, yet there will, perhaps, remain to late pofterity, more works of the amiable Archbishop of Cambray, than of the eloquent Bifhop of Meaux; not on account of fuperiority of talents, for on that I do not pretend to decide, but, for this reafon, the only one worthy of being meditated by philofophers, that Fenelon, preferring as he himself fays, the human race to every other confideration, wrote what he thought would be useful to them at all times, and in all fituations; while Boffuet, being more of a divine, and confequently more engroffed with one fubject, was obliged, whether from particuJar circumstances, or by his own native ardour, to devote himfelf al moft entirely to controverfial dif putes. Now, you know, that thofe unhappy difputes, being connected with the deftiny of the fects that give them birth, are fwallowed up in that river of oblivion, where fooner or la ter they are both loft. What a leffon for all authors, among whom nig. gard Nature rarely makes a Boffuet! let them ftrive lefs to astonish the prefent generation, than to intereft the generations to come. FLECHIER. Flechier dedicated himself to the fervice of the Altar, and acquired a reputation which his funeral orations afterwards eftablished and encreafed. In the two first that he pronounced the fubject was dry and barren; but, without having recourfe to the commonplace-topics of morality, the eter nal burthen of fuch difcourfes, he found means to intereft his audience, by ufeful and affecting truths, elegantlý conceived and nobly expressed. But a more exalted subject, and more worthy of him, was referved for his eloquence. He was appointed to pronounce the funeral oration of Marthal Turenne, and he performed it in fuch a manner as to fulfil the expectations that his own merit, and the fame of that hero, had made to be expected from him. It was difficult to praise, in a fatisfactory manner, the man already fo much praised by the tears and the groans of a whole nation. Flechier, now become the organ of the public grief, was able to draw fresh tears from eyes that feemed to have been exhaufted, and fresh accents of forrow from thofe who now no longer expreffed any but by their filence. This fuccefs was the more flattering, as it effaced that which Mafcaron, Bishop of Tulle, had obtained on the fame fubject. Thofe who had heard and applauded the laft orator, thought that nothing could equal his eloge; and promifed him the victory over his rival. Well prepared against admiration, they went to hear Flechier, and were were forced to confefs, that to him belonged the triumph. In the funeral orations that fucceeded thofe of this great man, Flechier had no longer a Turenne to celebrate, but the public esteem, or feverity, exacted almost as much from him as if he had had fuch heroes to praife. Notwithstanding this formidable difpofition in his hearers, he had the good fortune to maintain a reputation which it was fo difficult to preferve from diminution. The reafon was, that, in all his discourses, the orator, even when rifing above his fubject, never feemed to depart from it; that he always avoided exaggeration, which, by attempting to aggrandize little things, makes them appear ftill lefs; but, above all, that he had a ftrict regard to truth, which is fo often and fo fcandalously outraged in fuch performances: in his orations, we never find that falfehood, which befieges the great during their lives, coming to wind round their tombs, and to infect their athes with a vile incenfe; nor do we ever hear their virtues celebrated before an audience to whom their vices only were known. The funeral orations of Flechief have maintained their reputation to this day, and we may add, defervedly, if we confider that they were pronounced at a time when the true principles of eloquence were well understood. The file is not only pure and correct, but full of neatnefs and elegance; to purity of diction the orator adds a gentle and flowing harmony, fuch as our most admired writers had not till then put into their verfes, and which nobody had introduced into French profe, except Balzac, in whom, however, it is often exaggerated, and as turgid as his ftile. Poetry, to which Flechier had been attached before he took to the pulpit, had made him very fenfible to the charm which refults from the happy arrangement of words: we feel, while we read his difcourfes, that he muft VOL. X. No. 60. 3 E have begun with poetry, and, indeed, nothing is fo ufeful to an orator in exercifing his ear as the making of verfes," whether good or bad, just as it is néceffary for young people to take leffons in dancing, in order to acquire a noble and elegant gait. The advantage we derive from Flechier's having taught us the harmony of profe, ought to make us pardon the faults that might otherwise be objected to his manner of writing. There is hardly any orator who has not fome favourite figure of speech which he of ten abufes: the Antithefis is the figure of Flechier, and it is often a rock on which he splits; he brings it forward on every ocaafion, and exhibits it almost always rather in the words than in the ideas. This continual uniformity of oppofitions, which are fome times frivolous and puerile, is very dia ftant from the language of grief, and would totally difguft the reader, were he not relieved by touches of the most affecting fenfibility. This turn to the pathetic was ftill more obvious when he delivered his orations. His action was fomewhat languid, his voice weak, and its tone continued, which altogether affected his hearer with kindred difpofitions; the foul was penetrated by the fimple expreffion of the fentiment, and the ear by the foft cadence of the periods: thus he was fometimes obliged to interrupt himfelf to give fcope to applaufe, not, indeed, to thofe tumultuous plaudits which refound at our profane exhibitions, but to that general and modeft murmur which eloquence extorts in our churches from hearers that are greatly moved; it is a kind of involuntary burft of public admiration, which even the facredness of the place can neither reftrain nor reprefs. This admiration, it is true, has diminished a great deal fince the funeral orations of Flechier are now only read. But whatever faults may be perceived in them, the author feems to have preferved the fecond place in this diffi cult Cult walk, which his own age had affigned to him. We will diminish, or enlarge the interval between him and Boffuet in proportion as we are more or less affected by the impetuous eloquence of the one, or charmed with the harmonious elegance of the other; but it feems agreed on, that Maffillon and Bourdaloue, the other oracles of the chair, fo different from themselves in their fermons and funer al orations, cannot be placed in this interval. SIR, TH To the Publisher. HE other day I accidentally turned up the Edinburgh Weekly Magazine of June 6th, 1776. 'There I found a fhort sketch of the life of Eward Wortley Montague, Efq. The outlines pretty juft, but fome mistakes, in my opinion, and not a proper flatement of that won derful man's character. I was for feveral months intimately acquainted with him, and have heard him tell many anecdotes of his hiftory and adventures. He was a prodigy for knowledge in history and the Belles Letters, pofleffed of the most retentive memory, and a most agreeable and entertaining companion, with out being affuming; matter of all the living languages in Europe, and an elegant Latin and Greek scholar. When I first became acquainted with him, he took a fancy to learn Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and Chaldaic; and I was aflured, in a few months he made more progrefs in them than most people do in years.I have wit neffed his converfing with French, Spaniards, Italians, Germans, Dutchmen, and Swedes, none of whom could diftinguith him from their countrymen; fo juft was he in the accent, phrafes, and idiom peculiar to each nation, and, at the fame time, he spoke the English fo properly, you could not have found out that he had ever been out of London. When about ten years old, his father gave him a blow for fome youthful trick, he eloped, and was not heard of for about five years; in this period, he had been chimney-fweeper, mount tebank's tumbling-boy, fhoe-black, apprentice to a fifhing fmack at Yarmouth, &c.; on board this laft, when about fifteen years old, I have been affured he was difcovered, and returned to his father's houfe. As to his being. found out by the Conful in Spain, and his various adventures previous to that event, I can fay nothing par ticular; but am rather apt to credit his being detected at Yarmouth, and believe his many extraordinary adventures in Spain, and the other countries of Europe, were pofterior to his marriage, when about feventeen, with his mother's maid (or wafherwoman, I know not pofitively which) whether he was really fo or not, and haď only promifed marriage, I can't say; but it occafioned his going abroad in Captain Campbell's fhip, (afterwards Admiral Campbell) in that unfortu nate attempt on Porto Bello by Haddick; and, in that expedition, none of the fhip's company (amounting to above 270) who had embarked inEngland, returned but the Captain, Mr Montague,and two others. I am not quite fure really if Campbell was then Captain, or only a Lieutenant; in that cafe, only three returned to Europe. The woman was eafily induced not to claim Mr Montague publicly, and I was affured the got a penfion from his father. For himself he had L. 300 a-year fettled, payable quarterly, if he went abroad and renounced that woman. But this would not have fupported and fubfifted him, confidering his rambling way of life and adventures, he had a compronrife with his father, and got a larger allowance. He got a feat in Parliament, and behaved very properly in that line; he purchafed a troop of dragoons, and did duty in Flanders and Germany as a gallant officer. I do not remember the year his father died, but on that he threw up the army, had fome difpute about bis father's will, who left him an eftate or annuity of L. 12 or 1400 a-year. Being in Scotland, I have only thefe circumftances from report after thefe affairs being fettled, I heard he fet out for the Continent, Arabia, Egypt, Turky, &c.; and public report correfponds pretty much with the account given of his travels in that magazine. He was undoubtedly a molt extraordinary and exotic genius, and fuch as perhaps no age but our own can parallel. if his mother had not given him yearly a larger fum. Accordingly he went to the Continent, but never would marry while that woman lived; true, he had in every place he refided in, a nominal wife, and I have been affured that, at one time, he had 24 who had bore the name and defignation of Mrs Montague; (I have teen no less than three living in the fame house with him, all bearing that name, and quite cordial together), but I am perfuaded none ever had the marriageceremony performed by either Priest, Rabbi, Clergyman, or Magiftrate, unlefs the above-named woman, his mother's maid; and his leaving all theie, when he moved his quarters, without any of them claiming him, nes it clearly the cafe. Whatever foibles and particularities he had, he was poffefed of an amazing acutenefs, fen'ibility, knowledge, and was a molt gentiemanly, friendly, entertaining companion at all times, and of itrict honour. It was faid, that in 1743 If this fcrawl merits your inferting it, Sir, into your magazine, you are very welcome to it from YOUR READER. Dec. 3. 1789. Original Letters between the Emperor, the Emprefs Queen, and the late King of Pruffia, relative to the Bavarian Succession. Copy of a Letter written by the Emperor's own hand, to the King of Pruffia, from Olmutz, dated April the 13th, 1778. TH lieve to be more analogous to our trué interefts than all the difputes into which we could poffibly enter. I have reduced thefe ideas to a project of convention, which is here annexed, and which I have the honour to fend your majefty. I fhall not add a fingle reflection, well convinced not one will efcape you of which the fubject is fufceptible. I have at the fame time fent full powers to Cobenzl, in order that, fhould your majefty ap prove the plan, it may immediately be figned; and fhould any change or explanation be required, concerning acceffary circumttances, 1 intreat your majefty would inform me of them, by an answer from yourself, with a certi3 E 2 Sir and Brother, HOUGH I have hitherto deferred fulfilling the mutual promife into which we entered, as well at Neifs as at Neuftadt, to maintain a perfonal correfpondence, it was only that, being prepared for all accidents, I was delirous of waiting till I myfelf was at a diftance from the metropolis, and confequently from whatever might feem to partake of art and policy, that I might communicate my ideas to your majefty, which I be tude |