kind of experimental certainty of the diftinction between corporeal and thinking fubftances, which mere reafon and philofophy cannot fupply, and had opportunities of contemplating the wonder. ful and inexplicable union of foul and body. "This," fays Dr. Johnfon in his exquifite Life of him, "he illuftrated by the ef fects which the infirmities of his body had upon his faculties; which yet they did not fo opprefs or vanquish, but thathisfoul was always mafter of itself, and always refigned to the pleasure of its Author." This great man, on all occafions, declared Sir Ifaac Newton to have been a most accurate obferver in chemistry, as well as in the other branches of natural philofophy. In his Lectures he conftantly called the immortal Sydenham, the British Hippocra tes. Mufic and gardening were the conftant amusements of Boerhaave. In the latter part of his life his great pleasure was to retire to his country feat near Leyden, where he had a garden of eight acres, enriched with all the exotic fhrubs and plants which he could procure, that would live in that foil. "Thus,” says Dr. Lobb, "the amusement of the youth and of the age of this great man was of the fame kind-the cultivation of plants; an employment coeval with mankind, the firft to which neceffity compelled them, and the last to which, wearied with the tiresome round of vanities, they are fond of retreating, as to the most innocent and entertaining recreation.” Boerhaave is buried in the great Church of Leyden, under a large marble urn thus fimply infcribed: Salutifero Boerhaavii Genio Sacr. It has been mentioned, to the honour of Boerhaave, by one of his Biographers, that he received the vifits of three crowned heads, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, William the Third, and Peter the Great, the laft of whom flept in his barge all night, over against the honfe of our illuftrious Profeffor, that he might have two hours converfation with him before he gave his Lec tures. Thefe vifits moft affuredly did more honour to the Princes than to the Philofopher, whofe power, like that of the Poets mentioned by Charles the Ninth in his Epiftle to Ronfard, is exercifed upon the minds, while that of the Sovereign is confined to the bodies of mankind. IN SAMUEL CLARKE, D. D. N the opinion of Dr. Johnfon, Dr. Samuel Clarke was the moft complete literary character that England ever produced. Every one must be inclined to be of this opinion, when he confiders what a good critical scholar, what an excellent philofopher, what an acute metaphyfician he was. Amongst Dr. Clarke's papers was found a letter from Sarah Duchefs of Marlborough, offering him an Irish Bishoprick, which he refused; and a letter of that great Greek fcholar Dr. Bentley to him, expreffive of his concurrence of opinion with him upon the formation of the tenfes of the Greek verbs, which he has fo fully illuftrated in a note on the first book of his edition of Homer. This great man was fo chary of his time, that he conftantly took with him wherever he went fome book or other in his pocket. This he used to pull out in company and read, and scratch under the remarkable paffages with his nail. Dr. Clarke has been cenfured by fome idle and foolish persons for playing at cards, and for being occafionally a practical joker. Those who make this objection only to the perfection of the character of Dr. Clarke, do not confider that the most busy persons are in general the moft eafily amufed. The Doctor's great and fervid mind, wearied with laborious and painful thinking, required mere refpite and relaxation from toil, and did not exact either the delicacy or the violence of amufement which those perfons demand whofe great business is pleasure. SIR ISAAC NEWTON, AS Lucretius fays of his great Philofopher, Qui genus humanum ingenio fuperavit, & omnis fays, with a noble modefty, in one of his letters to Dr. Bentley, "When I wrote my Treatife about our Syftem, I had an eye upon fuch principles as might work with confidering men for the belief of a Deity; and nothing can rejoice me more than to find it useful for that purpose: but if I have done the public any fervice this way, it is due to nothing but industry and patient thought.* "You fometimes," adds this great Philofopher, "fpeak of gravity as effential and inherent to matter. Pray do not ascribe that notion to me; for the cause of gravity is what I do not pretend to know, and therefore would take more time to confider it." * "Genie c'eft le travail," fays M. de Buffon, "Genius is the repeated effort of thinking; it comes not by infpiration, but is the working of a powerful mind applied to a particular fubject." Sir Ifaac Newton told Bishop Pearce, "that he had fpent thirty years, at intervals, in reading over all the authors or parts of authors, which could furnish him with materials for his "Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms;" and that he had written that Work over fteen times with his own hand.” "The hypothesis of matter's being at firft evenly spread through the Heavens is, in my opinion, inconfiftent with the hypothefis of innate gravity, without a fupernatural power to assist them; and therefore it infers a Deity." Dr. Johnfon faid, that he had been told by an acquaintance of Sir Ifaac, that in early life he started as a clamorous infidel; but that, as he became more more informed on the fubject, he was converted to Christianity, and became one of its most zealous defenders. As Dr. Edmund Halley, the Aftronomer, a man of very lively parts, was one day talking against Christianity before Sir Ifaac, and faying that it wanted mathematical demonftration, Sir Ifaac stopped him by faying, "Mun, you had better hold your tongue you have never fufficiently confidered the matter.” Sir Ifaac bore his laft illness, that of the stone, with great fortitude and refignation; "and though," as his Niece used to fay, "his agony was fo great, that large drops of fweat forced themfelves through a donble night-cap which he wore, he never complained or cried out." Backgammon was a favourite recreation with him, at which he ufed to play with Mr. Flamstead. Fontenelle concludes his exquifite Eulogium upon this great man with faying, that he diftin guifhed himself from other men by no kind of fingularity whate ver: a distinction but too often affected by many who, poffeffing no degree of Sir Ifaac's talents or virtues, and having no claims to the indulgence of others, endeavour to procure celebrity to themfelves by affectation. Sir Ifaac, indeed, was in one refpect but too like the common race of mortals: his defire of gain induced him to have fome concern in the fatal bubble of the South Sea; by which (as his Niece used to say) he lost twenty thousand pounds. Of this, however, he never much liked to hear; nor, perhaps, fhould it ever be mentioned, but to warn mankind against the indulgence of a paffion which rendered the character of this wonder of humanity imperfect, and which has too often entailed difgrace and ruin on those who have improvidently fuffered themselves be governed by it. TH AUGUSTUS LAFONTAINE. HE celebrated Lafontaine, whofe Clara Dupleffis and Count St. Julien have met with more than common applause in the world, being frequently confounded with his French namefake, the celebrated author of Fables and other Poems; we deem it our duty to rectify this error, and to inform our readers, that he was born of German parents, whofe ancestors were French refugees, and at the time of the revocation of the edict of Nantes: fettled in Pruffia. His father, who, if we be not misinformed, is minifter of one of the numerous French colonies, to which Pruffia is indebted for a great part of her prefent polish and wealth, fpared neither expenfe nor diligence to give him an excellent education, and to tore his mind with practical knowledge. He infpired him with an ardent love of Greek and Roman liter ature; and the clofe application with which he studied the claffics of these celebrated ancient nations, together with a practical acquaintance with the best English, French, and Italian authors, whom he was early taught to read in the original language, gave his mind a high degree of polifh, and a keennefs of judgment, which enabled him to fteer clear of thofe prejudices which but too generally check the growth of the ableft geniufes, and infect them with an illiberality highly detrimental to the progrefs of truth and humanity. He commenced his academical career at a period when profeffor Kant of Königfberg, began to revive again the long neglected ftudy of Metaphyfics; and the works. of that philofopher had a powerful influence on the turn which his genius took. Having finished his academical studies, he attended a young nobleman, as tutor, on his travels through France, Italy, Swifferland, and a great part of Germany, which contributed very much to enlarge his knowledge of men and manners, and to acquire that eminent degree of elegance and urbanity which he displays in all his writings. He at prefent, is chaplain to the regiment of Rhadden, which is in garrifon at Halle in Pruffia, where he divides his time between a familiar intercourfe with the principal learned men, who grace that univerfity, and his literary compofitions. Germany gratefully acknowledges his great merits in polite literature; and he has obtained more popularity than any one of his most eminent predeceffors ever enjoyed, and his fovereign has taken the most honourable notice of his fuccefsful attempts to reform the frivolous tafte of his cotemporaries, which produced the most monftrous compofitions in the novel line, that have inundated the continent fince the invention of the art of printing. Quintius Heymeran von Fleming, a novel, in four volumes, in which he lathes the fervile followers of tems, and the intolerance and illiberality of thinking to which they are liable, was the first elaborate work with which he opened his career, under the fictitious name of GUSTAV FREYER. This first product of his elegant mufe, which abounds with a profound knowledge of the human heart, and of principles which cannot fpread without being attended with the most salutary confequences, established his credit fo much at the first outfet, that he foon after ventured to appear without disguise on the stage of polite literature, and published his ROMULUS, GORGUS and ARISTOMENES, and RUDOLPH of WERDENBERG; three detached Legendary Tales, in which he fuccefsfully attempted to correct certain favourite erroneous notions of our times, which have been, and ftill are productive of incalculable mischief. Amongit his later publications, CLARA DUPLESSIS, St. JULIEN, the history of the Family of HALDEN, the SONDERLING (the EXCENTRIC,) the NATURMENSCH (the Pupil of Nature,) the GEWALT der LIEBE (the Power of Love ;) and, laft of all, HERMANN LANGE, deferve particular notice, as they breathe the most amiable fpirit of truth, juftice, and humanity, and are principally calculated to animate the reader with an ardent zeal of rendering his fellowmen wifer and happier. W JOHN PAUL FRED. RICHTER, HO has lately been appointed Secretary of Legation by the Duke of Hilburghaufen. This Celebrated poet with two heads, one of which has the phyfiognomy of a Cherub, and the other that of a Satyr, has but lately joined the poetic hand who ftray among the fertile and tuneful meads and groves of Weimar. The free and charming Muse of that place feems to have allured him from the noise and bustle of commercial Leipzig, where he before refided. Richter was born at Hoff, in the Marquifate of Bayreuth, where in his earlier years he was employed as a domestic tutor, and where his genius was gradually developed under circumstances not the most favorable, till at laft he rose with the flight of an eagle before the wondering eyes of the literary world. The work in which his talents first shone forth and attracted applause and admiration, was a humorous remance, in three volumes, entitled Hefperus. His preceeding publications are poffeffed of very inferior merit, and he himself confiders his Hefperus to be his mafter-piece. When Wieland firft read this work, he exclaimed, "There comes one with one of Shakefpeare's wings!" The moft lively fprightlinefs, and a mien which notices whatever is ridiculous, are depicted in his expreffive countenance. In his ever-moving eye glows that fublime ideal fire and life-that intoxication of foul, which feizes us in perufing his works. He is indeed all foul. His converfation as well as his writings abounds with wit and humour. It may be remarked of him, as it was of Voltaire, that he never opened his mouth without faying fomething witty. His literary celebrity paved him the way to the court of the Duchefs Amelia, mother of the prefent Duke of Weimar, and to many other felect circles, of which he became the foul and delight. His ftudies are a delicious feaft to his mind, from which he tears himself with the greatest reluctance. So great is his thirst of knowledge, that he has ftudied every fcience methodically; and even yet he daily reads whatever falls in his way, from Göthe and Swift, his idol, down to the Leipzig Address-Calendar, with great attention, and from them makes excerpts, of which from early youth he has collected whole piles. There is nothing in the world which he hates more than the Kantian Philofophers, because to him they feem to wish to banish love from among mankind. He even goes fo far as to propofe in his writ I |