The poet's defcription of the fimple inhabitants of this fequeftered ifland, is beautifully moral and poetical.

"A harmless race on this fequefter'd shore
Pafs'd the long round of lingering ages o'er,
In quiet pafs'd-from fire to fon convey'd
Nought but the net, the arrow, and the fpade.
Though few the hamlets, yet with joyful eyes
Each fire beheld a numerous offspring rife.
Like plants that thrive in fome propitious clime,
He mark'd their spring, their fpreading, and their prime,
All in one group. The sturdy youth manur'd
The field, whofe fruits fupply'd their homely board,
No din of arms difturb'd their peaceful year,
Nor rout broke wild on Reft's recoiling ear,
Nor gaz'd a crowd on Pleafure's dancing plume,
Nor Art's rude pencil ftain'd the Virgin's bloom;
Nor from the withering cheek, an eye deprefs'd
Fix'd on the pendent drops, and glittering veft.
Each deed was juft, to Virtue's ftandard brought;
And mov'd to Nature's lore th' obfequious thought,
The guileless wish; the heart's expreffive figh,
The dew that trembling melts in Pity's eye.
Th' infpiring Hope in fimpleft guife pourtray'd;
Pure loves, and joy without the whelming fhade,
The mind from Paffion's lawless empire freed,
And foul elate when Heaven approves the deed;
These mark'd a race that, to the world unknown,
Knew but the Angel gueft, TH' ETERNAL's throne.
He, who from Pride or Folly's pompous fhrine
On Worth when fuppliant turns his eye divine,
Oft heard benignant with attentive ear
Vows pour'd from lips that fpoke the foul fincere ;
And, just to grant what temperate Virtue craves,
Ey'd thefe benign amid the world of waves.

Pleas'd with this kindred race, exempt from blame,
Here Heaven's bright fons, a tribe æthereal, came,
Lur'd from their haunt, as in the first of days,
To prompt th' enraptur'd feer's prophetic lays:
Hence, as the fhepherd trod the lonely vale,
Low voices plain'd along the fwelling gale;
Or founds remote that told th' approaching doom,
Peal'd o'er the cliff, or murmur'd from the tomb!
Or fcenes, yet, veil'd to all but favour'd eyes,
In fairy vifion rofe, or feem'd to rife!

Thefe as their friends, the heavenly strangers view'd,
Pure lights unftain'd, or bright'ning from the cloud:
To man, in nought, but virtuous acts, allied.
Hence Time's myfterious veil was caft afide!
Hence the rapt ear, and mind's entranced fight!
Hence the strain'd orb that drank æthereal light!

Hence

Hence future agés marka in profpect neat,

Gleam'd through the shade of many a diftant year *!
Here, yet a youth, and wandering o'er the main,
BASILIUS ftay'd, and view'd the fimple train,
With envy view'd:-till other regions feen,
From Memory's tablet raz'd the fleeting scene.
But now the plan as cooler thought furvey'd,
He dropt the glare of life, but priz'd its fhade;
Bleft fhade! where free as in their native home,
Young HOPE, and dove-ey'd PEACE delight to roam;
Where AGE from bustling freed, exempt from woes,
Waftes its calm eve in filence and repofe.

Here too, to rear his infant-charge he fought,
Not lefs of Form divine, than guileless thought,
PEACE, the best boon he judg'd by heaven affign'd,
And deem'd; the nobleft wealth, a fpotlefs mind.
Hence from the crowd in aëry schemes employ'd,
By PLEASURE lur'd, ftill feen, but ne'er enjoy'd,
From all whom Pride mifleads, or Vice betrays,
From Hope's vain dream, and Fancy's heedlefs gaze,
From Flattery's fnowy veil that hides her share,
From playful fmiles that haunt the porch of Care ;-
From thefe, to fhield in Quiet's gentler feat,

He fought this diftant fhore, this deep retreat."

Of the particulars of the ftory of this excellent little poem we fhall give a fketch in a future article, together with two or three further fpecimens of the pathetic as well as descriptive parts of the narration.

Hifiorical Memoirs of the Author of the Henriade. With fome Original Pieces. To which are added, Genuine Letters of Mr. de Voltaire. Taken from his own Minutes. Tranflated from the French. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Durham..

Having given an ample account of thefe Memoirs, in noticing the original French in the appendix to our laft volume, we proceed to difcharge the promife we made of giving our

66

*Every reader who knows any thing of the inhabitants of the Hebrides, muft have heard of the prophetic character with which many of them are diftinguished; known by the name of the fecond fight. The late ingenious Mr. Guthrie obferves, of this circumftance (very properly in the author's opinion), that it would be equally abfurd to attempt to difprove the reality of inftances of this kind that have been brought by credible au"thors, as to admit all that has been faid upon the fubject." See his Geographical Grammar, Art. IsLES OF SCOTLAND. But, be the reader's Judgement of this what it may, every man will acknowledge that it has at leaft a fufficient degree of poetic probability to stand here with propriety; and that what the Hiftorian or Geographer relates as well founded, the Poet would be inexcufeable to reject as incredible.

readers

readers a fample or two of the letters annexed. Thefe relate to various fubjects; being apparently felected by the author as proofs of the univerfality of his genius. Of course they carry the ftrongest internal evidence that they are genuine; they are intermixed alfo with fome few letters by other hands written to the author.

"From Mr. Clairaut to Mr. De Voltaire,

"SIR,

(dated Paris, 16 August, 1759.)

"The friendship with which you formerly honoured me is never out of my thoughts, as I look upon it to be one of the most flattering distinctions I ever obtained. If I have long abstained from folliciting new testimonies of it, I beg you will attribute my forbearance only to an apprehenfion of depriving you of the leaft portion of that time with whofe value all Europe is acquainted. That apprehenfion, fo just on all occafions which determine the common run of mankind, would be ill-placed at a time when it is poffible to communicate fome reflections on points proper to engage our attention; and the vaft variety of your knowledge prevents you from thinking a correfpondence on any literary fubject dry or fterile.

"I therefore imagine that your zeal for the Newtonian fyftem, which you first established in France, by your elegant expofition of its principles, will engage you to cait a look upon my latest attempts to contribute to its advancement.

"What I mean is to fix the return of the Comet predicted by Halley, which I have performed by an application of my general theory of the irregularities in the motions of the celestial bodies, produced by their mutual action upon each other. I here fubjoin the memoir upon that fubject, which I read at our public meeting laft St. Martin's day. As it has been attacked with great acrimony in feveral journals, I thought it expedient to answer my critics, before the publication of my whole theory. I have the honour of fubmitting to your judgement this fecond memoir, as well as the firft. When the whole work is printed, it shall be presented with the fame speed.

"I am, with the highest esteem, and that refpect which is its ne ceffary confequence, Sir,

Your most humble, and most obedient fervant,
CLAIRAUT

"Anfwer from Mr. de Voltaire, to Mr. Clairaut's Letter.

SIR,

"Your letter has given me pleasure equal to the esteem with which I am infpired by your works. Your conteft with the Geometricians on the fubject of the Comet, feems to me the war of the Gods in Olympus; while upon earth we have a battle between dogs and cats. I am frightened when I reflect upon the immenfity of your labour. I remember that formerly, when I applied to the Newtonian Theory, I never retired from study without finding my health impaired :-my organs cannot bear so much application as your's. You was born a VOL. Va

Geome

Geometrician, and it was only chance that made me a difciple of Newton. Your laft work must certainly do honour to France. It is impoffible the English fhould have faid every thing Newton partly founded his laws upon those of Kepler, and you have improved upon thofe of Newton. 'Tis certainly an admirable discovery, to be able to determine the anomalies caufed by the large Planets in the course of the Comets. Our fathers, the Greeks, only knew those stars by their quality of being hairy, according to the etymology of their name, and mischievous, as we know Clodion the hairy; but you have fubjected them to calculation equally with the other Planets of the folar fyftem. However, a man must be very hard to please, who would infift upon the return of a Comet being predicted to a minute, in the fame manner as a folar or lunar eclipfe. In thofe immense distances, and in the complication of caufes by which the return of a Comet may be accelerated or retarded, we must content ourselves with fomething near the truth. Befides, can we know precifely the quantity of matter in Jupiter and Saturn? To me it appears impoffible. I fhould think, if you were allowed a month's ufance on the return of a comet, as is allowed on bills of Exchange that come from very remote countries, the favour would not be very great. But when it is acknowledged, that you do honour to France and to human nature, you receive no more than what is strictly your due. Would to heaven that our friend Moreau Maupertuis had cultivated his art like you; that he had confined himself to predict the return of Comets, inftead of elevating his foul to prophecy, diflecting the brains of giants to investigate the nature of the foul, incrufting people with rofin, in order to cure them of all difeafes, perfecuting Kanig, and dying in the arms of two Capuchins!

"To conclude this fubject, I am forry that you diftinguish by the : name of Newtonians, those who have feen the truths of Newton's difcoveries: Geometricians might, with as great propriety, be called Euclidians. Truth has no party name; error may admit epithets of - raillery: We fay Fanfenifts, Molinifts, Quietifts, Anabaptifts, to de.fignate the different forts of the blind. Sects have names, and >truth is Truth.

"Heaven blefs the Printer, who put the altercations of the Comet, instead of the alterations! He was more in the right than he was aware: every truth produces altercations.

"I too, in my turn, have good reafon to complain of those who have charged me with being an enemy to my country, because I was the first Frenchman that made a fair tranfcript of the fyftem of Newton, now Newton was an Englishman. But I have received fo many favours of the fame kind from other hands, that this efcaped me in the croud.

"At laft I have given over measuring any curves, except those defcribed by my newly invented fowing machines, at the extremity of their Radii: the refult is a little wheat. But while I was fweating blood and water at Paris, in compofing Epic Poems, Tragedies, and Hiftories, I reaped only tares. The culture of lands is more pleafing than the cultivation of letters: I find more good fenfe, and much more honelly, in my labourers and vine-dreffers, than in the literary pedlars.

"I cul

"I cultivate the earth, to that we must return at last. I have produced fome plenty in the most pleasant, and the poorest country I ever beheld. It is a pretty experiment in the philofophy of nature, to make four ears of corn grow where the gave only two. The academies of Ceres and Pomona are well worth the others.

Felix qui potuit rerum cognofcere caufas

Fortunatus et ille Deos qui novit agreftes.”

We cite the fixth Letter as a fpecimen of the poetical abilities of the tranflator*.

"Answer to the Duke de Bouillon, who wrote a letter in verfe to him, on the edition of Corneille's works, published for the benefit of that great man's granddaughter.

"I fee, my Lord, that you ftand exactly in the predicament of the Marquis de la Fare, who nearly at your age began to feel his genius for poetry roufe from its flumber; a time of life when fome more valuable talents were on the point of fuffering a little decay, and putting him in mind that there were pleasures different from thofe he had hitherto enjoyed.

"The theme of his first poem was Love; the Abbé Chalieu was the fubject of the fecond.-Your first verses are addreffed to me; you was wrong, but I am the more indebted to you. You tell me that I have triumphed over my enemies; but 'tis you that make me triumph. Aux pieds de mes rochers, aux creux de mes vallons, Pourrais-je regretter les rives de la Seine?

La fille de Corneille écoute mes leçons;
Je fuis chanté par un Turenne.
J'ai pour mois deux grandes maisons,
Chez Bellone & chez Melpomene:
A l'abri de ces deux beaux noms,
On peut negliger les Frérons,
Ou rire tout haut de leur haine..
C'eft quelque chofe d'etre heureux;

Mais c'est un grand plaifir de le dire a l'envie,

De l'abattre à nos pieds, & d'en rire a les yeux,
Qu'un fouper eft delicieux,

Quand on brave, en buvant, les griffes de l'harpie
Que des frères Berthier les cris injurieux

Font une plaifante harmonie!

Que c'eft pour un amant un paffe-tems bien dous
D'embraffer la beauté qui fubjugue fon ame!
Et d'affabler encor du fel de l'epigramme

Un rival facheux & jaloux!

Cela n'ett pas chrétien; j'en conviens avec vous;
Mais les gens
le font-ils? Le monde est une guarre:

We do not mean by this to commend him, however, as an elegant or correct writer of profe. And yet it is poffible the inaccuracies and inelegancies of language, with which this piece abounds, may be in a great meáfure owing to the hafte, in which moft tranflations of popular productions are made. Rev.

L 2

On