fineness of whofe ear and tafte he derived the greatest advantages. With much diffidence he prefented to Ramler fome of his compofi: tions; but every verfe and every word were criticifed, and very few could pass through the fiery trial. The Swifs dialect, he found at laft, was the obstacle in his way, and the exertions requifite to fatisfy the delicacy of a German ear would be exceffive. Ramler advifed him to clothe his thoughts in harmonious profe; this counfel he followed, and the anecdote may be of ufe in Britain, where many a would-be poet is probably hammering at a verfe, which, from the circumftances of his birth and education, he can never make agreeable to the ear of taste. From Berlin, Geffner. went to Hamburgh, with letters of recommendation to Hagedorn; but he chofe to make himself acquainted with him at a coffee-houfe before the letters were delivered. A clofe intimacy followed, and he had the advantages of a literary fociety which Hamburgh at that time afforded. Thence he returned home, with his tafte much refined; and, fortunately for him he came back when his countrymen were in fome degree capable of enjoying his future works. Had he produced them twenty years before, his Daphnis would have been hiffed at . as immoral; his Abel would have been preached against as propha to Zurich, and fired every breast with poetical ardour. He had fcarce left the place when Wieland came, and by both our poet was well received. After a few anonymous compofitions, he tried his genius on a fubject which was ftarted by the accidental perusal of the tranflations of Longus, and his Daphnis was improved by the remarks of his friend Hirzel, the author of the Ruftic Socrates. Daphnis appeared first without a name in the year 1754; it was followed in 1756, by Inkle and Yarico; and Gefner's reputation was fpread in the fame year, over Germany and Switzerland, by his Paftorals, a tranflation of which into English, in 1762, was published by Dr. Kenrick. His brother poets acknowledged the merit of thefe light compofitions, as they were pleafed to call them; but conceived their author to be incapable of forming a grander plan, or aiming at the dignity of heroic poetry. To thefe critics he foon after oppofed his death of Abel. In 1762, he collected his poems in four volumes; in which were fome new pieces that had never before made their appearance in public. In 1772, he produced his fecond volume of paftorals with fome letters on landscape painting. These met with the moft favourable reception in France, where they were tranflated and imitated; as they were alfo, though with lefs fuccefs, in Italy and England. We fhall now confider Geffner as an artift: till his thirtieth year, painting was only an accidental amufement; but at that time he became acquainted with Heidegger, a man of tafte, whofe collection of paintings and engrav Z 2 ings ings was thus thrown open to him. The daughter made an impreffion on him, but the circumftances of the lovers were not favourable to an union, till through the activity and friendship of the burgomafters Heidegger and Hirzel, he was enabled to accomplish his withes. The queftion then became, how the married couple were to live? The pen is but a flender dependence any where, and ftill lefs in Switzerland. The poet had too much fpirit to be dependent on others; and he determined to purfue the arts no longer as an amufement, but as a means of procuring a livelihood. Painting and engraving alternately filled that time which was not occupied with poetry; and in thefe arts, if he did not arrive at the greatest eminence, he was diftinguished by that fimplicity, that elegance, that fingularity, which are the characteristics of his poetry. His wife was not idle; befides the care of his houfe and the education of his children, for which no one was better qualified, the whole burthen of the fhop (for our poet was book feller as well as poet, engraver, and painter) was laid up on her thoulders. In his manners, Geffner was chearful, lively, and at times playful; fond of his wife; fond of his children. He had fmall pretentions to learning, yet he could road the latin poets in the original; and of the Greek, he preferred the latin tranflations to the French. In his early years, he led either a folitary life, or confined himfelf to men of tafte and literature: as he grew older, he accustomed himself to general converfation; and in his later years, his houfe was the centre point of the men of the first 2d of March, 1788; leaving a wi- His youngest fon was the Some particulars of the Death of Condorcet, from Bottiger on the fate of Letters, &c. in France. ed by Robespierre on the 31ft of AMONG the Girondi fts profcribof May, Condorcet was the very firft on the lift, and was obliged to ikulk in the most hidden corners to elude the perfecutions of the furious Jacobins. A lady, to whom he was known only by name, became, at the inftance of a common friend, his generous protectrefs; concealing him in her houfe at Paris, at the moft imminent hazard, till the latter end of April 1794; when the apprehenfion of general domiciliary vifits fo much increased, and the risk of expofing both himself and his patronefs became fo preff. ing on the mind of Condorcet, that he refolved to quit Paris. Without Without either paffport or civic card, he contrived, under the difguife of a provencal countrywoman, with a white cap on his head, to fteal through the barriers of Paris, and reached the plains of Mont Rouge in the diftrict of Bourg-la-Reine; where he hoped to have found an afylum in the country-house of a gentleman with whom he had once been intimate. This friend having, unfortunately, at that very time, gone to Paris, Condorcet was under the dreadful neceflity of wandering about in the fields and woods for three fucceffive days and nights, not venturing to enter any inn, unprovided with a civic card. Exhaufted by hunger, fatigue, and anguifh, with a wound in his foot, he was fcarcely able to drag himself into a deferted quarry, where he purpofed to await the return of his friend. At length, having advanced towards the road fide, Condorcet faw him approach, was recognized, and received with open arms:-but, as they both feared left Condorcet's frequent in quiries at his friend's houfe thould have raised fufpicions; and as, at any rate, it was not advifable for them to make their entrance together in the day time, they agreed that Condorcet fhould ftay in the fields till dufk, and then be let in by a back door. It was then, however, that imprudence threw him off his guard. The forlorn exile, after having patiently borne hunger and thirst for three days together, without fo much as approaching an inn, now finds himielf incapable of waiting a few hours longer, at the end of which all his fufferings were to fubfide in the bofom of friendship. Transported with this happy profpect, and foregoing all caution, which feemed to have become habitual to him, he entered an inn at Clamars' and called for an ommelette. Ilis attire, his dirty cap and long beard, his pale meagre countenance, and the ravenous appetite with which he devoured the victuals, could not fail to excite the curiofity and fufpicion of the company. A member of the revolutionary committee, who happened to be present, taking it for granted that his woebegone figure could be no other than fome runaway from the Bicêtre, addreffed and questioned him whence he came, whether he could produce a paffport, &c. which inquiries, Condorcet having loft all felf-command, were fo unfatisfactorily anfwered, that he was taken to the houfe of the committee as a fufpected perfon. Thence, having undergone a fecond interrogatory, during which he acquitted himself equally ill, he was conducted to Bourg-la-Reine; and, as he gave very inconfiftent anfwers to the queftions put to him by the municipality, it was inferred that this unknown perfon muft have fome very important reafons for withing to continue undifcovered. Being fent to a temporary confinement till the matter thould be cleared up, on the next morning he was found fenfeless on the ground, without any marks of violence on his body; whence it was conjectured that he muft have poifoned himself. Indeed, Condorcet had, for fome time past, carried about him the most deadly poifon; and, not long before his fatal exit, he owned" to a friend that he had more than twenty times been tempted to make use of it, but was checked by motives of afZ 3 .fection fection for his wife and daughter. Biographical Anecdotes of the Count I beheld a fine figure, noble and placid. Notwithstanding he is 78 years old, one would not attribute to him above 60 years; and although he had spent fixteen fleepless nights, in confequence of being afflicted with the ftone, he looked as fresh as a child, and as calm as if in health. His buft, by Houdon, appears to me very like; although the effect of the black eyes and brows is loft. His white hair was accurately dreft this was one of his whims, and he owns it. He has it papered at night, and curled with irons fometimes twice a day, in the morning and before fupper. He had five fmall curls on each fide. His bed-gown was a yellow and white ftripe, flowered with blue. His voice is ftrong for his age, and very pleasant: in general, when he speaks, his looks are fixed on nothing, but roll unguardedly about. His favourite words are tout ça and pardieu, which recur perpetually. His vanity is undifguifed and prominent; here are a few inftances. I told him I read much in his works. "What are you reading?" faid he. I anfwered, the Vues fur. la Nature. "There are paffages of the higheft eloquence in them :" replied he inftantly. His fon has erected a monument to the father in the gardens of Montbart. It is a fimple column near a lofty tower, and it is infcribed Excelfa turri humilis columna Parenti fuo filius BUFFON, 1785. The father burft into tears on feeing this monument, and faid to the young man, "Son this will do you honour." The fon fhewed me about the grounds. We came to the clofet in which this great man laboured; it is in a pavillion called the tower of Saint Louis, and it is up stairs. The entrance is by a green folding door. The fimplicity of the laboratory aftonifhes. The ceiling is vaulted, the walls are green, the floor is in fquares: it contains an ordinary wooden desk, and an arm chair; but not a book nor a paper. This nakedness has its effect. The imagination clothes it with the fplendid pages of Buffon. There is another fan&tuary in which he was wont to compofe;" The cradle of natural hiftory," as prince Henry called it, when he went thither. It was there that Rouleau proftrated himself and kiffed the threshold. I mentioned this circumftance to Buffon. Yes, fad he, Rouffeau bowed down to me. This cabinet is wainscoted, furnisked with fereens, a fofa, and with drawings of birds and beatts. The chairs are covered with black leather, and the defk is near the chim ney, and of walnut-tree. A treatife on the load fione, on which he was then employed, lay on it. His example and his difconrie convin ceme that he, who paffion ately defires glory, is fore in the end to obtain it. The with mutt not be a momentary but an every day emotion. Buffon faid to me on this fubject a very ftriking thing-one of those freeches which may be the caufe of a great man hereafter; "Genius is only a greater aptitude to patience." Obferve, that patience must be applied to every thing patience in finding out one's line, patience in refifting the motives that divert, and patience in bearing what would dif courage a common man. I will mention fome facts of Buffon. He would fometimes return from the fuppers of Paris at two in the morning, when he was young. A boy was ordered to call him at five, however late he returned; and, in cafe of his lingering in bed, to drag him out on the floor. He used to work till fix at night. "I had at that time (faid he) a mistress of whom I was very fond: but I would never allow my felf to go to her till fix, even at the risk of finding her gone out." He thus diftributes his day. At five o'clock he rifes, dreffes, povders, dictates letters, and regulates his household matters. At fix he goes to the forefaid ftudy, which is a furlong diftant from the house, at the extremity of the garden. There are gates to open and terraces to climb by the way. When not engaged in writing, he paces up and down the furrounding avenues. No one may intrude on his retreat. He often reads over what he has written, and then lays it by for a time. "It is important," faid he to me, "never to be in a hurry: review your compofitions often, and every time with a freth eye, and you will always find that they can be mended." When he has made many corrections in a manufcript, he employs an amanuenfis to tranfcribe it, and then he cor rects again. He told M. de S―― that the Epoques de la Nature were written over eighteen times. He is very orderly and exact. "I burn (faid he to me) every thing which I do not intend to ufe: not a paper will be found at my death." He I refume the account of his day. At nine, breakfast is brought to him in the ftudy. It confifts of two glaffes of wine and a bit of bread. He writes for about two hours after breakfast and then returns to the houfe. He does not love to hurry over his dinner; during which he gives vent to all the gaieties and trifies which suggest themfelves while at table. loves to talk fmuttily; and the effect of his jokes and laughter are heightened by the natural ferioufnefs of his age and calmnefs of his character! but he is often fo coarse as to compel the ladies to withdraw. He talks of himself with pleasure, and like a critic. Ile faid to me, "I learn every day to write; in my latter works there is infinitely more perfection than in my former. I often have my works read to me, and this moftly puts me upon fome improvement. There are, however, paffages which I cannot improve." In this opennefs there is a fomething interefting, original, antique, attractive. Speaking of Rouffeau, he faid, "I loved him much until I read his confeffions, and then I ceafed to esteem him. I cannot fancy the fpirit of the man; an unusual procefs happened to me with refpe&t to him: after his death I loft my reverence for him." This great man is very much of a goflip, and, for at leaft an hour in the day, will make his hairdreffer and valets tell all the fcan |