freshes the immortals, is ftrong enough to intoxicate man. Thus they have got Platonically tiply; but there is no harm done: duke eft defipere in loco,-they rave elegantly; and thofe whofe fpirits are are not exalted by a cheerful glafs, are, generally speaking, infipid when they are fober. This latter is never the cafe of our two Germans. The upshot of the matter is, that until we come at clearer theoretical notions of Beauty than have yet been exhibited, we must content ourselves with examining the objects whofe contemplation excites its fenfation in the mind. Take the pupil of nature and virtú from the myftical philofophy of Plato, and carry him to nature in her fairest and noblest forms, and from thence to the works of the ancient artifts; to the productions of Raphael, Corregio, Mengs, Weft and Reynolds, and the landfcapes of Claude Lorrain, Pouffin, and Loutherberg; there let him look, combine, compare, and feel;— and then, though he never may be able to define Beauty, he will certainly know within himself what it is, and what it is not.Quod nequeo difcere et fentio tantum.

WINKELMANN had a certain opinion concerning the beauty of the fexes, which the ladies will not judge orthodox, and the gentlemen, if they are civil, will ftill lefs adopt, and of which. they, perhaps, alone can judge fairly, who have no fex at all; which feems to have been pretty nearly the cafe of our Abbé. After having obferved, that in the claffes of inferior animals the male is always (he ought to have faid generally) more beautiful than the female, he proceeds audaciously, and affirms, that the fame rule holds good in the human fpecies. In all cities (fays he) there is a greater number of fine men than of fine women: I never faw fuch great beauties in the perfon of a woman, as I have obferved in our fex. What character of beauty does any woman poffefs, that is not vifible in fome man? You must not allege against me the charms of the female breaft; for the beauty of this is of fhort duration, and nature did not defign this part for beauty, but for utility (why not for both Mr. Winkelmann?), even for the nourishment of the offspring; and of confequence it cannot remain beautiful.' True, but because a rofe fades, does this prove that it never had any bloom or beauty?-However, let us proceed; what follows is more worthy of attention. Beauty exists in man in an advanced age, and it may be faid of many hoary heads, that they are truly beautiful; but I never heard of a beautiful old woman.'-No! Let us fee:-at firft fight there appears to be fomething plaufible in this remark; but it requires and deferves difcuffion. Beauty in the fexes is not the fame in its nature, its forms, proportions, expreffion and colour, though may have fome common characters in both. Vigour and energy are the diftinctive characters of mafculine beauty: Elegance,

it

delicacy,

delicacy, foft expreffion, roundness and fineness of contour, and a tender bloom, are the peculiar lines of female beauty. Age is, indeed, more detrimental to thefe, than to the ftrong features of mafculine beauty: the former exhale like an aerial vapour; the latter, though altered by years, leave noble remains, that render even the ridged front of old age vencrable. Again, we judge with lefs feverity of the beauty of men, becaufe beauty is not the principal quality upon which we value them, and their talents and virtues, when they are endowed with any that are remarkable, add an imaginary dignity even to their figure; whereas the fex, too generally speaking, attract by their beauty alone (whether through their or our fault, we fhall not decide); and therefore we are lefs indulgent perhaps towards them on this article. Be this as it may, we have feen feveral fine old women, though we acknowledge that they began to look fomething like

men.

We must copy the following paffage of one of our Author's letters to Mr. Fuefsli, as it may ferve as a hint to our countrymen who travel; though it is very abfurd in M. WINKELMANN or any one elfe to judge of the manners of a people by thofe of a few individuals. The amiable Baron de Riedefel has vifited every corner of Sicily. His defcription of the ruins of the temple of Jupiter at Girgenti is excellent-He praifes warmly the Sicilians for their hofpitality; from whence it would appear that all travellers do not meet with the fame kind of reception, for the English do not agree with Riedefel on this head. No wonder: they enter into the houfes ftiff as ftakes, their beads and eyes clouded with fplenetic vapours, as if they had no fenfation of the pleafures of life, and as if joy and amenity were foreign to their nature. How can a hoft open a well-pleafed and hospitable heart to fuch cold, referved, and filent guests? I was lately in company with fome English noblemen, one of whom was My Lord and I affure you, that during the three hours that we were together, not one of thefe gentlemen deigned to fmile.'

S

We find frequent mention in thefe letters of the famous Baron Stofch, whofe name is fo well known among the literati and the connoiffeurs of the prefent age. One of the first performances that discovered the merit of WINKELMANN as an excellent scholar and a man of tafte, was his learned Defcription of the Collection of antient Gems, made by that celebrated antiquary. This collection, together with an Atlas confift

* The cabinet of B. Stofch was one of the firft in Europe. The gems alone (including fome impreffions of rare antiques taken in pafte) amounted to the number of two thousand five hundred.

APP, Vol. LXVİ.

Min

ing

ing of 380 volumes, and valued formerly at 24,000 crowns (ecus d'Allemagne) were fold to the King of Pruffia by Mr. Muzzel Stofch, a man of taste and great merit, who inherited them of his uncle, together with a precious collection of medals and drawings of the greatest mafters, and a noble library.

We should be glad to know who, and where, is the poffeffor of a Venus, difcovered by an English gentleman at Rome (Mr. Jenkins), about twenty years ago, This ftatue (fays our Author) furpaffes all the other Venufes, even the Venus of Florence, and is a production worthy of the chifel of Praxiteles. It is fo perfectly well preferved that it does not want even a finger; and its beauty is fo enchanting, that it would be worth while to come to Rome to fee it alone.'

Thefe entertaining letters have carried us imperceptibly beyond the bounds that we ufually prescribe to our accounts of works of this kind. They are terminated by a very ingenious and interefting letter of M. Fuefsli, addreffed to the German tranflator of Mr. Webb's Researches concerning the Beauties of Painting. This letter, from which we have here only extracts, contains an admirable defcription of the most famous ftatues, antient and modern, as alfo of the moft capital pictures that are to be feen at Rome. It muft give high pleasure to connoiffeurs, and may ferve as a rich source of inftruction to young artists. We have rarely met with greater powers of defcription,' than this excellent Connoiffeur difplays through the whole of this letter, and more especially in his account of the famous groupe of Niobe in the Villa Medicis, of the Hermaphrodite, in the Villa Borghese, and of the landscape-ftile of Claude Lorrain.

ART. VII.

Les Confefions de J. J. Rouleau, Suivies des Reveries du Promeneur Solitaire, i. e. The Confeflions of J. J. RouSSEAU, to which are fubjoined the Reveries (or rather the Sublime Ravings) of a Solitary Walker. In 2 Volumes, with the Title of Geneva. 1782.

WH

HO is the man (we were going to fay the mifcreant) that has expofed to the light of noon-day this ftrange mixture of fecret, perfonal hiftory, with the wild but fometinies ingenious effufions of an over-heated brain? They rather deferved oblivion, and if poor Rouffeau was foolish enough to write them, no honeft or humane man would have been fordid or malignant enough to publish them. It was perchance fome greedy French bookfeller, or fome tool of the Parifian philofophers. It looks rather like a publication of the latter, who by ways and means have got hold of the manufcript; for the anecdotes of thefe philofophers, which were fuppofed to make a confiderable

fiderable part of the long-expected Memoirs of Rouffeau's Life (and the dread of whofe appearance had made the whole fect tremble), are entirely left out of this hiftory, in which we fee Rouffeau only expofing HIMSELF. He speaks, indeed, in his walks, which form the SECOND PART of this Work, of the perfecutions he had to fuffer from thefe pretended fages; he defcribes the attacks, fometimes imperious and violent, fometimes alluring and infidious, always fophiftical and deftitute of evidence, that they made upon his principles of morality and religion but we have none of thole particular facts, that RousSEAU is known to have collected, and which he has, more than once, reprefented as containing a mystery of iniquity.

St. Auguftin, who publifhed his confeffions, fpared himself as little as our Author has done, and if he edified the Saints by his fincerity, he entertained the wags by his materials,-for very lippery ftories indeed he had to tell. ROUSSEAU is therefore mistaken, when he fays, at fetting out, that he has formed an enterprise without example. It is true the citizen of Geneva has followed a more extenfive plan than the Bishop of Hippo, for he tells us every thing he has done, even to the ftealing of an apple; but there are certainly many of his materials that will entertain no clafs of readers, and we are often difgufted at that felf-importance in this honeft man, which makes him think, that every little ftory, that regards himself, or his aunt, or his cousin must be interefting to the public. It must be confeffed, that very trivial facts receive a seasoning from ROUSSEAU's manner of dishing and fending them up; but that is really but a very middling entertainment, in which the merit of almost all the difhes depends upon the fauce; -and this is palpably the case with the intellectual and moral entertainment, to which we are invited to fit down in the Work before us.

This we obferve only, with refpect to the Confeffions, which are comprifed in fix books and fill 300 pages. In regard to the reveries or folitary walks, which fill little more than a third of that space, though they alfo contain many infipid and vulgar anecdotes, fuch as may happen to every barber's boy who carries home the wig that his mafter has dreffed, yet they exhibit entertainment of a higher kind, of which we shall give, in their place, fome fpecimens, that will diminish the unfavourable impreffions, which thefe confeffions may produce.

Since thefe Confeffions have been published, we fhall not pafs them over in filence; because fome account of the private hiftory of this extraordinary man may be an object of curiofity; tho' the whole account, as it here lies before us, muft certainly produce fatiety. There are very few men, whole whole lives are fit to be exhibited to public view.

M m 2

J. J.

J. J. ROUSSEAU was born at Geneva (which is now a prey to the fatal confequences of his romantic principles) in the year 1712. His father was a watch-maker, a man of parts, who had been liberally educated, as is very frequently the cafe with the tradefmen of that city. This man read romances with his fon, almoft without interruption, until the boy had arrived at his 8th year. Plutarch's Lives fucceeded the romances: * And by thefe (fays he) and the converfations, they occafioned between my father and me, was formed within me, that free republican, proud, invincible fpirit, that could bear no yoke, and which has tormented me through the whole courfe of my life, even in circumftances the leaft adapted to its exertion.' I looked upon myfelf as a Greek or a Roman: I became the perfon whofe life I read; the recital of striking inftances of intrepedity and conftancy of mind made my eyes fparkle, and gave the tone of thunder to my voice. One day, while I was telling, at table, the ftory of Scævola, I frighted the company almost out of their wits, by laying hold of a chafing-difh to act the part over again.'

He was, nevertheless, a good boy, was carefully educated, and had good examples about him, as he tells us the moment after. I had, indeed, fays he, the defects incident to this early period of life: I was a prattler, a glutton, and sometimes a liar. I made no fcruple of pilfering fruit, fweet-meats, and eatables; but I never took pleafure in doing mifchief, in accufing my play-fellows, or in tormenting flies or any other animals. I however recal to my memory, my having once piffed in the tea kettle of Mrs. Clot, one of our neighbours, when the old Lady was at church. I even confefs, that when I think of this, I ftill fall a laughing; for Mrs. Clot, though no bad fort of woman, was a grumbler of the first order. Here then I have given a fhort, but faithful hiftory of the misdemeanors of my infancy.'

When he was getting out of infancy, he was deprived of the prefence of his father, who had been obliged to retire from Geneva to Nion, on account of a quarrel he had with an officer. On this occafion his uncle Bernard, who became his guardian, fent him with his own fon, to board with M. Lambercier, minifter of a village, who was to inftruct them in Latin and other branches of fchool-education. Nothing certainly can be more trivial than the events of this period, and yet we are told they had a predominant influence upon the fentiments and character of this old man during the whole courfe of his life. We fhall' abridge the account of a whipping, which Rouffeau received' (probably on his pofteriors) from Mrs. Lambercier, the schoolmafter's fifter, because it gives occafion to fome very fingular reflexions. 'Mrs. Lambercier had for us, fays he, a maternal affection,

5