under foot is doubtlefs very juft; but, at the fame time, it is highly dangerous to be expofed. It is only for the man of determined refolution to behold fuch a reprefentation without terror; and he feels a fecret joy in reflecting on the tranfient triumph of vice, and the eternal reward that is the portion of virtue. But from children fuch pictures fhould be concealed; they should be made to contract a placid habit, with notions of order and equity, which fhould, fo to fpeak, compofe the fubftance of their minds. We do not teach them an idle morality that confifts in frivolous queftions, but one that is practicable and may be applied to all their actions, that speaks by images, that forms their hearts to humanity, to courage, and to facrifice self-interest, or, to fay all in one word, to generosity.

We have a fufficient contempt for metaphyfics, thofe gloomy regions, where every one erects a fyftem of chimeras, and always to no purpofe. It is from thence they have drawn imperfect images of the divinity, have disfigured his effence by refining on his attributes, and have confounded human reafon by placing it on a lippery and moveable point, from whence it is continually ready to fall into doubt.. It is by phyfics, that key to nature, that living and palpable fcience, we are enabled to run through the labyrinth of this marvellous affemblage of beings, and to perceive the wisdom and power of the Creator; that fcience, properly inveftigated, delivers us from an infinity of errors, and the unformed mass of prejudices give place to that pure light which it fpreads over all objects.

"At a certain age, we permit a young man to read the poets. Thofe of the present day know how to unite wifdom with enthufiafm: they do not deceive reafon by a cadence and harmony of words, and find themfelves led, as it were against their inclination, into the falfe and the capricious; nor do they amuse themfelves with dreffing of puppets, with fpinning of counters, or thaking the cap and bells. They are the recorders of thofe great actions that illuftrate humanity; their heroes are taken from all nations where are to be found courage and virtue: that falfe and venal clarion, which vauntingly flattered the coloffes of the earth, is totally deftroyed. Poetry has preferved that veridical trumpet only, which can refound through a long feries of ages, because it declares, fo to fay, the judgment of pofterity. Formed by fuch models, our children acquire juft ideas of true greatnefs; and the plow, the shuttle, and the hammer are become more brilliant objects than the feepter, the diadem, and the imperial robe.”

The author continues his obfervations through a variety of fubjes that are worthy the attention of a fpeculative and philofophical mind. The doctors of the Sorbonne next pass in review before him; he delineates in the prefent tenfe the future economy of the hospital for inoculation; and he afterwards enters the important field of theology and jurifprudence. An extract from the chapter on the latter of these subjects will convey an idea of that rational and primitive fimplicity, which in general directs the reprefentations of this ingenious author.

"The

"The potent arm which bears the fword of juftice has. fmote that enormous body, but void of foul, in which were united the avidity of the wolf, the cunning of the fox, and the croaking of the raven. Their own fubalterns, whom they made to perish by famine and vexation, were the first to reveal their iniquities, and to arm against them. Themis commanded, and the herd difappeared. Such was the tragical end of thofe rapacious vermin, who deftroyed whole families by blotting of paper.)

But in my time they pretended, that without their aid a confiderable part of the citizens would remain idle at the tribunals, and that the courts of juftice themselves might poffibly become the theatres of licence and diforder." They were certainly the proprietors of stamped paper, who talked in that manner."-But how can caufes be decided without the aid of attornies? O, our causes are decided in the best manner imaginable. We have referved the order of counfellors, who know the dignity and excellence of their inftitution, and being ftill more difinterested, they have become more refpectable. It is they who take upon them to explain clearly and concifely the caufe of complaint, and that without vehemence or exaggeration. We do not now fee a pleader, by labouring a tedious infipid brief, though stuffed with invectives, heat himself to a degree that cofts him his life. The bad man can find no advocate among thefe defenders of equity; their honour is anfwerable for the caufe they undertake; they oblige the guilty, by refufing to defend them, to appear trembling and endeavour to excufe themselves before a court where they have no advocate.

Every man now enjoys the primitive right of pleading his own caufe. They never fuffer a procefs to have time fufficient to become perplexed; they are investigated and determined in their origin; the longest time that is allowed for the developing any caufe, when it is obfcure, is that of a year; the judges, moreover, never receive any prefents; they became afhamed of that difgraceful privilege, by which, at firft, they received but trifles, but, at laft, exacted the most enormous fums; they were fenfible that they thereby gave examples of rapacity; and that if there be any cafe in which intereft ought not to prevail, it is that important and awful inftance where man pronounces in the facred name of jus tice."I find that you have made amazing alterations in our laws. "Your laws! Stop there. How could you give that title to an indigefted mafs of contradictory customs, to thofe old fhattered papers that contained nothing but ideas without connection and grotefque precedencies? How could you adopt that barbarous mafs, in which there was neither plan, nor validity, nor object; that confifted merely of a difguftful compilation, where genius and perfeverance were abforbed in a noifome abyfs? There have arose men of ability, of a love for the human race, and of courage fufficient to induce them to undertake an entire reformation, and of that capricious mafs to form a regular and just body of laws.

"Our kings have given all their attention to this immenfe project, in which fo many thoufands were interested. It has been acknowledged that legilation was the firft of ftudies. The names of Lycurgus, Solon, and thofe who have followed their steps, are of all others the most respectable. The luminous point proceeded from the utmost north; and, as if nature would humble our pride, it was a woman who began that important revolution.

"Juftice has spoke by the voice of nature, fovereign legislator, mother of virtue, and of all that is good upon the earth; founded

Ii2

on

on reafon and humanity, her preceps are wife, clear, concife, and few. All general caufes have been forefeen and included in the laws. Particular cafes have been derived from them, as the branches that fpring from a fertile trunk; and equity, more fagacious than law itself, has applied practical justice to every event. "These new laws are above all things thrifty of human blood; the punishment is proportioned to the crime; we have difcarded your captious interrogatories, and the tortures of confeffion, worthy of the tribunal of the inquifition; and thofe horrid punishments calculated for a nation of cannibals. We do not put a robber to death, because we know that it would be injuftice to murder him who has never murdered any one; all the riches on the earth is not equal to the life of a man; we punish him by the lofs of his liberty; blood is rarely fpilt; and when we are forced to fhed it, as a terror to bad men, it is done with the greatest folemnity. A minifter, for example, who abufes the confidence of his fovereign, by employing the power with which he is entrusted against the people, can find no pardon He does not, however, languish in a dungeon; the punishment attends the crime; and if a doubt arifes, we chufe rather to fhew him mercy than to run the horrid rifk of keeping an innocent man longer in prifon.

"A criminal, when feized, is expofed in fetters, that he may be a public and friking example of the vigilance of justice. Over the place of his confinement there continually remains a writing which explains the caufe of it. We do not confine men, while living, in the darkness of the tomb, a fruitlefs punishment, and more horrible than death itself! It is in the public eye our prifoners füffer the shame of their chastisement. Every citizen knows why this man is condemned to imprisonment, and that to labour at the public works. He whom three chastisements does not reform, is marked, not on the fhoulder, but the forehead, and banished for ever from his country."

Inform me, I entreat you, about the lettres de cachet; what is become of that ready and infallible expedient, which cut fhort all difficulties, and was fo convenient to pride, revenge, and perfecution?" If you ask this question feriously," replied my guide, in a fevere tone, 66 you offer an infult to our monarch, to the nation, and to myself. The torture and the lettre de cachet are ranked together, and only remain to pollute the pages of your history."

Many curious and interefting fubjects occur in the profecurion of thefe Memoirs, of which an account will be given in our next Review. As far as we have proceeded, it is evident, that the author poffeff's taste, and a fund of natural and juft obfervation. From the pleafing character of the visionary age which he affects to defcribe, he has chofen an advantageous fituation for a retrofpective view of the political imperfection of the present times; and it would tend to the happiness of mankind, that the government of every country would endea vour to remedy the defects in legislation and manners which are centured in the course of this work.

[To be continued. ]

IX. The

IX. The Life of Theodore Agrippa D'Aubigné, containing a fuccinct Account of the most remarkable Occurrences during the ci vil Wars of France in the Reigns of Charles IX. Henry III. Henry IV. and in the Minority of Lewis XIII. 8vo. 5. 3d. boards. Dilly.

OF

Fall the troubles excited in Europe on account of religion in the fixteenth century, thofe in France are the most remarkable; and in them Theodore Agrippa D'Aubigné was no inconfiderable actor; the writer of the work before us, admiring the spirit and conftancy with which he expofed his fortune and his life in defence of his religion, undertakes not only to hold forth to public view his character, which ought not to fink into oblivion, and which has not yet met with an hiftorian who has done it justice in thofe effential points where it merits moft, but alfo to give a fair reprefentation of the proceedings of the Huguenots, in oppofition to the partial accounts given of them by various writers who have been influenced by party and religious prejudices. Both these purpofes are undoubtedly laudable; to relate the actions of a virtuous man, especially thofe in the trials of adverfity, is to give mankind the propereft leffon for becoming virtuous, as it may induce them to imitate fuch amiable examples.

Theodore Agrippa D'Aubigné was fon to John D'Aubigné, lord of Brie, in Saintonge, a zealous Huguenot, who was careful not only to procure literary inftruction for his son, but also to have him taught early the principles of the reformed religion; and we are told, that he made fo great a proficiency in learning, as to be able at fix years old to read the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages. He manifefted early that spirit of conftancy and refolution, which fhone forth throughout the course of his life; an inftance of it appears in the reply which he made, while yet a child, to the keeper of the prifon in which he was confined for being heretic, who affured him that he was condemned to death, and advised him to abjure his herefy immediately, as it would be too late to do it when the hour of execution came. I feel,' faid he, more horror at the thoughts of the mass, than at the approaches of death! no pains had, indeed, been spared to inftil this fentiment into his mind, his tutor having been of the reformed religion, and his father having omitted no opportunity of inspiring him with abhorrence of the Catholic religion. We fhall relate one circumftance, which shows to what an height the elder D'Aubigné's hatred of it was arrived.-When Agrippa D'Aubigné had attained his ninth year, his father carried him to Paris; in their journey thither, they arrived at

Amboise foon after the confpiracy of the difcontented Catholics and the Huguenots against the Guifes had been discovered, defeated, and very feverely punished; many of the confpirators' heads were still fixed on the gallows, and fo little changed, that the elder D'Aubigné could diftinguish the faces of his friends. So afflicting, and fo horrible a fpectacle threw him off his guard, and although he was in the midst of a crowd of feven or eight hundred perfons, ftruck with horror and refentment, he cried out, "Oh, the traitors, they have murdered France;" and laying his hand on his fon's head, faid, "My fon, I charge thee, at the hazard of thine own head, as I will, at the hazard of mine, to revenge these honourable chiefs, and if thou faileft to attempt it, my curfe fhall fall upon thee." The crowd, that were beholding the horrid fpectacle with the malignant pleasure of cruel bigots, were fo offended at the boldness of D'Aubigné, that it was with difficulty he and his escorte efcaped the effects of their refentment."

In the year 1567, the Huguenots having taking arms, because the terms granted by a pacification had not been fulfilled, Agrippa D'Aubigné, who was then about feventeen years of age, determined to enter among the Huguenot troops; but his guardian not approving it, had clofely confined him; and to binder his escape, caufed his cloaths to be taken from him every night; yet this precaution could not prevent his joining a party of his companions, who, when going to the war, paffed by his chamber in the night, and fired a gun as a fignal to him, and whom, when he had let himself down by his sheets, he ran after barefooted, and with no other covering than his fhirt, his feet bleeding with the wounds which they received from the fharpnefs of the ftones.

From a youth of fuch a spirit and abilities, the cause he engaged in was likely to reap fome fervice; and accordingly, we find the fuccefs of many of the Huguenot enterprizes were owing to his courage and prefence of mind.

Young D'Aubigné met with opportunities of fhewing his bravery before a peace was concluded, after which, returning to take poffeffion of his paternal eftate, he had the vexation to find it poffeffed by a maternal relation, who pretended that he had authentic teftimony of the death of D'Aubigné; and it was not without the greatest difficulty that this ufurpation was fet afide.

D'Aubigné going foon after to Paris to follicit permiffion to lead into the fervice of the Low Countries a company which he had raised, happened to wound an officer, who attempted to arreft him for having been fecond to a friend in a duel. A