thoughts and turgid expreffions of the former are a complete contrast to the unadorned fimplicity of the htter. Terence excelled all other Latin poets in a beautiful fimplicity; but Terence was not an original author: he only tranflated the Greek comedies of Menander into verse. The French tafte in works of genius feems to bear a strong refemblance to that of the antient Greeks. In the paintings of the great mafters of the French school, there is a fimple uniformity of defign, which is admirable; but their colouring does not approach the glowing variety of the Italians. Pouffin, le Brun, and le Sicur, have been all deficient in their colouring. The French mufic may give us fome idea of that of the Greeks; there is not much variety in it, and they have fearce excelled in any fort of airs, except minuets many of the French minuets are admirable; but in this fpe. cies of mufic the fame notes recur oftener than in any other. Every body that is acquainted with the Greek and the French poetry, muft be ftruck with the refemblance of their taste in that branch of literature. An English or Italian poet may be compared to a painter who prefents to the mind's eye the variegated landscapes of nature; a Greek or a French poet may be properly compared to an architect who ftrikes it with the view of a noble frontifpiece, which fills the whole capacity of the foul with one great and fublime idea. The French hiftorians and philofophers are both more remarkable for loquacity than folidity. As they refemble in their tafte in literature, they have likewife a ftrong refemblance in their faces, tempers, and national character. The modern Greeks, though change of cir cumftances prevents them from fhining in arts and fciences like their renowned forefathers, moft certainly refemble them in their features; and thofe that have seen both nations acknowledge, that the prefent Greeks have in feature a strong refemblance to the French. In mirth and levity of temper they are the fame; and the third fatire of Juvenal fhews, that the Greeks in his time were in the Roman empire. exactly what the French are now in Europe. He fpeaks of their enterprifing genius, and their attempting to excel in every thing, in thefe terms: Omnia faciet Græculus efuriens, in cælum jufferis ilit. Thus imitated by Mr. Johnfon; All things to do a starving Frenchman knows, The And bid him go to hell, to hell he goes. The tafte both of the Italians and English feems to be formed upon that of the antient Romans. Romans furpaffed the Greeks in variety of topicks, and exuberance of fancy, and the English and Italians have the fame advantage over the French, though they are inferior to them in correctnefs, elegance, and fimplicity of defign. The Roman hiftorians are unequalled, the Italians make the nearest approach to their excellence; but it is only an approach. They have compofed admirable treatifes upon the theory of politics; but the English have outfhone them and all mankind as philofophers. The great Galilco firft difcovered the true aftronomical fyftem, and Torricelli the preffure of the air; but Newton brought nature and her laws to light, and his reputation has eclipfed that of all other philofophers, as the rifing fun effaces the feeble luftre of the ftars. The English, as they have furpaffed the French and Italians in philofophy, have likewife furpaffed them in poetry, France can boaft but one first-rate poetical genius, Corneille; and Italy but one firft-rate poetical genius, Taffo: but England can boaft a Milton, and a Pope, and a Shakespear, who as far outfhines all other poets as Newton outshines other philofophers. Envy itself muft own, that the world never produced more than one Newton and one Shakespear; the former explained all nature's laws, in the material H world, and the latter with a penetrating genius, dived into the inmost receffes of the human heart. It muft, however, be acknowledged, that, though the English have furpaffed their neighbours as poets and philofophers, the French and Italians have both furpaffed them in history: but this feems to be entirely owing to the genius of the English language, which as Mr. Gordon juftly obferves, is lefs adapted to history than either the French or Italian. The Purfuit of Pleafure. A VISION. go to the reprefentation of a play, which I had before always feen with as much pleasure as if it had been entirely new to me; 1 was greatly furprised and disappointed to find, that, though the piece was the fame, and the performers acquitted themselves as ufual, I beheld that with languor and indifference which could once exhilerate my fpirits when depreffed, and exalt chearfulnefs up to joy. Having fat out the play with the moft listless inattention, I returned to my lodgings in that difagreeable ftate of mind in which a man is difpleafed with himself, and with every thing elfe, without being able to af fign the reafon why. Upon entering my apartment I feated myself in my elbow-chair, with all the indifference of indolence, and took up a book, without the least expectation of being amufed by it, for I was incapable of attention, and unfufceptible of delight. I had not, however, gone through many pages of my auther, the inimitable Cervantes, when I found the truth of St. Evremond's obfervation, that the celebrated romance of Don Quixote contains a refined vein of humour, which is capable of diffipating the gloom of anxiety, and making joy fucceed to defpondence. I read fo long that fleep crept upon me unawares; nor could the powerful charms of Cervantes' wit and picturefque genius prevent the drowsy god from taking poffeffion of my fenfes, whilft my nodding reafon was bufied with reflections upon the precarious nature of pleasure, which fometimes escapes us when we think ourfelves fureft of it, and fometimes is nearcft us when we think it most at a distance: at length, however, the power of reafon was totally enchained, and imagination prefented to my foul the following vifionary scene. I thought myself upon a large expanfe of water, like the lake of Geneva, in a fort of barge, which in form refembled a Venetian gondola;. a confiderable number of barges, that were painted with gorgeous colours and figures, which difplayed the the unconfined wantonnefs of imaginations, failed to and fro in the lake and, as I could not find that they had any particular place of deftination, I concluded that thofe on beard them were only pleasuring, and that they had nothing further in view than to contemplate the profpe&t around them, and inhale the falubrious refreshment of the Elysian gale. Whilft the paffengers in the feveral barges thus amufed themfelves by rowing up and down upon the lake, they were, all on a sudden, furprifed with the fight of a phænomenon, which filled them with furprize and admiration: they faw an iland spring out of the lake, whofe verdant plains and groves, blooming with eternal fpring, recalled to their remembrance the gardens of the Hesperides, and the delightful vallies of Tempe, fo much celebrated by the poets of antiquity. As we approached it, our senses were cheared with odours, fweet as thofe by which mariners perceive that the islands of Ternate and Tydore are near; orange groves, vineyards, gardens whole trees were loaded with fruit of fuch various kinds, that their numbers furprised the beholder, whilst the bright glow of their variegated hues dazzled his eyes, and made his heated imaginatian add new luftre to the smiles of nature. The fight of this abode of delights excited us all to fteer our courfe to it, with the utmost expedition; fo that, when our barges approached the shore, we rowed like the mariDers defcribed by Virgil, in the fifth book of his Æneid, in which he has ghen fo beautiful and picturefque adefeription of the games exhibited Eneas in honour of his father's memory. We rowed with a fpirit of emulation; and the eager defire to be the first, or at least not to be the laft, rather impeded and obftructed the landing of all, than proved of any real advantage to the few who could fucceed in the attempt. Thus man's eagerness to grafp at pleasure often makes him mifs of his aim, and always rather retards than accelerates his enjoyments. The effort made by the mind to fecure the objet of its defire fo exhaufts the energy of the faculties, that the object itfelf, when poffeffed, falls fhort of the idea it had excited, and pleasure appears moft beautiful to the mind's eye when, like a picture, in which the imagination of the artist has been exerted fo fuccessfully, as even to conceal his art, it is ever in its juft point of light, and at a proper distance. No fooner had we entered the island, but our minds were almoft intoxicated with joy, and we rambled about in feparate parties, or by ourselves, without the direction of reason, the information of knowledge, or the admonition of prudence, in the mad and fruitless purfuit of pleasure. I perceived that most of those who joined in a particular party of pleafure were, notwithstanding their fanguine hopes and flattering profpects, at laft entangled by inconveniencies, and haraffed by unceafing perplexity, and this made me form a refolution to run my race for the prize of pleafute alone; unawed by the preheminence of fuperiors, unruffled by the folicitations of inferiors, and undisturbed by the intrufion of equals. I had not, however, proceeded far, when, all on a fudden, the azure of the fky, which before enchanted the fight with the beauties of Elyfium, was overcaft and obfcured, and the darkness of an eclipse fucceeded to the glare of a day, whofe Splendour Splendour dazzled the eyes, and whofe heat threw the body into a fever of delight. The gloom of defpair fucceeded to the prefumption of overweening hope, and I lay down upon the ground with all the bitternefs of languor, and all the dejection of defpondence. Having remained for fome time in this deplorable state of mind, I was all on a fudden roufed by a flash of light, which darted from heaven like a meteor, and defcending towards the earth, waved and glittered in the air like a phofphorus. As it appeared to be at no great diftance, 1 exerted myfelf to the utmost to come near it, thinking that it might dirc& me in my purfuit, and fupply the abfence of the day. I found, however, that, notwithflanding all my speed, it continued fill at a diftance, and fometimes, when I was quite fpent with fatigue, it difappeared, like an ignis fatuus, and left me to grope in the dark. But it foon blazed forth again, and I was glad to follow this delufive light rather than repine in darkness, or lie down in defpair. Having followed it for a long time, overwhelmed with conftant fatigue and disappointed by its frequent dif. appearing, it at length brought me to a part of the island where I faw a crowd of the fame perfons who had landed with me; I fat down with them, and was going to in quire of one whofe face I remembered, whether he knew what part of the ifland we were in, when all on a fudden day appeared again with all its former brightness, and we all found ourfelves feated round the fountain of pleafure. Our wandering and fatigues had made us all equally thirty, and there was now as great crowding to take the first draught as there was before to be the first who landed. I drank of the fountain myfelf, being fo parched with thirst, and fo worn with fatigue, that I could give no attention. to the effects which its waters had upon others. But no fooner had I drank than I found my head giddy, and my whole frame fo much difordered, that I tumbled and toffed to fuch a degree, that I foon awoke, and was very glad to find that my diforder was not real, but merely the effects of difturbed repofe. The firft object that I caft my eye upon was Cervantes' Don Quixote, which immediately fuggefted to my mind. that every man who goes in quest of pleafure is as void of reafon as that whimfical knight; that its purfuit is attended with danger, and ends in difguft; and that the only way to fecure folid fatisfaction is to regulate our conduct by prudence, without afpiring to high and exquifite enjoyments. COMPENDIOUS HISTORY OF FRANCE. [Continued.] ΤΗ HE king afterwards had fome difputes with Geoffrey Martel, count of Anjou, in which the duke of Normandy took part on his behalf: but Henry quickly compromifed his fhare of the quarrel, and left the count and duke, who had great animofity against each other, to fight it out. This was chiefly owing to a fpirit of envy in that monarch, to the infinuations of fome of his minifters, or to the fpirit of Policy which prevailed in thofe times, and which induced Henry to grow jealous of the increafing power of the young duke. When, therefore, te troubles broke out, and Wilfam de Arques, count de Thouloufe, who was the fon of Richard II. by afecond wife, fet up his title to the ¿kedom, in which he was powerfully fupported by his brother Mauger, archbishop of Rouen, the king favoured the malecontents at first privately, and at lentgh invaded Normandy in their favour, and in order to raise the siege of the caftle of d'Arques; in which enterprize his forces received a very fevere check, and the duke triumphed over thefe, as he had done over his former enemies. A peace followed, but no fincere reconciliation, for the king retained a deep fenfe of the difcredit he met with; and, on the other hand, the duke never forgave the affiftance which Henry had given to those who would have difpoffeffed him of his dominions. In purfuance, therefore, of his old scheme, the king united himself with Geof frey Martel; and having formed two armies, one commanded by himself in perfon, and the other by his brother Eudes, whom he had releafed out of prison, he once more invaded Normandy, but with the fame ill fortune that had attended his former enterprize; fince A. D. his own army was harraffed 1054 and beaten by repeated difadvantages, and that of his brother totally defeated at Mortemer in the Paix de Caux, which constrained him to make peace upon fuch terms as were agreeable to the duke: but the rancour between them never ceased, and was in reality the latent caufe of that implacable averfion, which, for a long feries of years, produced perpetual quarrels between the kings of France and the Norman princes, when poffeffed of the realm of England. A rancour equally fatal to both realms. The king, finding his health decay, though he was far from being old, judged it expedient to provide as well for the fecurity of the kingdom, as for that of his family. He had married a fecond time a princess of Ruffia, by whom he had three fons; and the eldest of thefe, Philip, then about feven years of age, was by the confent of the whole affembly, crowned by the archbishop of Rheims, on the feaft of Whitfunday, with much folemnity, for many great lords aflifted there in perfon, and others by their deputies; but there is nothing clearer than that as yet the twelve peers of France did not exist. There is ftill remaining a copy of the oath, taken by the young monarch, which is but short, and of which three-fourths regards the clergy, their privileges and immunities; at the clofe he promises the people, that he will employ the authority conferred upon him to the maintenance of the laws. At the fame time the king declared Baldwin, earl of Flanders, tutor and guardian to the young king, in cafe he should die before he came of age: and this was a wife and well-timed precaution; for on the fourth of April following he departed this life; fome writers fay by taking a dofe of phyfic, and drinking after it, contrary to the express direction of his phyfician; but others feem to think that the physician was not altogether innocent, but that, under the name of a medicine, he adminiftered poifon. He deceafed in the fifty-fixth year of his age, and in the thirtieth of his reign. In his time. pope |