His "Travels through Germany," a very voluminous, but fevere work, have raifed him up an hoft of enemies, and en-, gaged him in frequent difputes. The poignancy of his wit, and the keenneis of his fatire, have, however, in general, borne him triumphant through the conteft. He has lately published an enter taining fatirical work, in confequence of a wager between himself and his friend BODE (an excellent German writer, and the tranflator of Sterne's Tristram Shandy, "Sentimental Journey," and Smollett's " Humphrey Clinker), entitled "The Hiftory of a Fat Man," in allufion to BODE's perfonal appearance. BODE, however, did not live to fee the completion of this work, and NICOLAI has annexed, at the end of the 2d volume, an honourable teftimony to the merits and virtues of his deceafed friend.

In his manners †, NICOLAI is very plain; but nothing can exceed the charms of his converfation. He poffeffes an inexhauftible fund of anecdotes, relating to writers and eminent men of every defcription, among whom his acquaintance is unlimited. Thofe who vifit him, always experience the most lively regret, when they take leave of him. As a judge of books, it is doubtful whether all Europe can produce his fuperior. T.D.

COPY of a LETTER fent from JOHN PAUL JONES, Efq. Commander in Chief of the American Squadron in Europe, to the Right Hon. The Countess of SELKIRK, St. Mary's Ifle, Scotland.

[The following Letter is the production of a man, who, on various occafions, acted a very confpicuous part on the theatre of the world. It places his character in a very different light from that in which it has commonly been viewed, and as it is one of the first principles of justice, to condemn no man, until he may have been heard in 'his own defence, we hope it will not be altogether unacceptable to the public. We are promised fome others, written by the fame perfon, and equally, if not more interesting.]

283

at any action of perfons under his command, which his heart cannot approve:. but the reflection is doubly fevere, when he finds himself obliged, in appearance, to countenance fuch action by his authority.

"This hard cafe was mine, when on the 23d of April last, I landed on St. Mary's Ille. Knowing Lord Selkirk's intereft with his king, and efteeming, as I do, his private character, I wished to make him the happy inftrument of alleviating the horrors of hopeless captivity, when the brave are overpowered, and made prifoners of war. It was, perhaps, fortunate for you, Madam, that he was from home; for it was my intention to have taken him on board the Ranger, and to have detained him, until, through his means, a general and fair exchange of prifoners, as well in Europe as in America, had been effected.

"When I was informed by fome men whom I met at landing, that his lordship was abfent, I walked back to my boat, determined to leave the island: by the way, however, fome of the officers, who were with me, could not forbear expreffing their discontent: obferving, that in America no delicacy was fhewn by the English, who took away all forts of moveable property; fetting fire not only to towns, and to the houses of the rich, with- ́ out diftinction, but not even fparing the wretched hamlets and milk-cows of the poor and helpless, at the approach of an inclement winter: that party had been with me, as volunteers, the fame morning, at Whitehaven; fome compliance, therefore, was their due: I had but a moment to think how I might gratify them, and, at the fame time, do your ladyfhip the leaft injury. I charged the two officers to permit none of the seamen to enter the houfe, or to hurt any thing about it; to treat you, Madam, with the utmost respect; to accept of the plate which was offered, and to come away without making a fearch or demanding any thing elfe. I am induced to believe, that I was punctually obeyed, fince I am informed that the plate which they brought away is far fhort of the quantity expreffed in the inventory which accompanied it.-I have gratified my men, and when the plate is fold, I shall become the purchafer, and will gratify my own feelings, by restoring it to you,

to direct.

as you be pleafed

ROBISON, in his late publication, are of too illiberal and contemptible a nature to merit serious refutation.

"Had

284

"Had the Earl been on board the Ranger, the following evening, he would have feen the awful pomp and dreadful carnage of a fea engagement; both affording ample fubjects for the pencil, as well as melancholy reflection for the contemplative mind.-Humanity starts back at fuch fcenes of horror, and cannot but execrate the vile promoters of this detefted war. For they, 'twas they unfheath'd the ruthlefs blade,

And heav'n fhall afk the havock it has made,

The British fhip of war Drake, mounting zo guns, with more than her complement of men, befides a number of volunteers, came out from Carrickfergus,

in order to attack and take the continental fhip Ranger, of 18 guns, and short of her complement of officers and men.The fhips met, and the advantage was difputed with great fortitude on each fide, for an hour and five minutes, when the gallant commander of the Drake fell, and victory declared in favour of the Ranger. -His amiable lieutenant lay mortally wounded, befides near forty of the inferior officers and crew killed and wounded.. A melancholy demonftration of the uncertainty of human profpects, and of the fad reverse of fortune, which an hour can produce. I buried them in a spacious grave, with the honours due to the memory of the brave.

"Though I have drawn my fword in the prefent generous ftruggle for the rights of men, yet I am not in arms merely as an American, nor am I in purfuit of riches. My fortune is liberal enough, having no wife nor family, and having lived long enough to know, that riches cannot enfure happiness. I profefs myself a citizen of the world, totally unfettered by the little mean diftinctions of climate or country, which diminish the benevolence, of the heart, and fet bounds to philanthropy. Before the war began, I had, at an early time of life, withdrawn from the fervice, in favour of

calm contemplation and poetic ease." I have facrificed not only my favourite fcheme of life, but the fafter affections of the heart, and my profpects of domestic happiness; and I am ready to facrifice

my life alfo, with cheerfulness-if that forfeiture would reftore peace and goodamong mankind.

will

As the feelings of your gentle heart cannot, in that refpect, but be congenial with mine, let me intreat you, Madam, to ufe your felf-perfuafive arts with your hufband, to endeavour to ftop this cruel and deftructive war, in which Britain never can fucceed. Heaven can never countenance the barbarous and unmanly practices of the Britons in America, if not difcontinued, will foon be retaliwhich favages would blush at, and which, ated in Britain, by a juftly enraged people. Should you fail in this (for I am perfuaded you will attempt it, and who can refift the power of fuch an advocate?) your endeavours to effect a general exchange of prifoners will be an act of humanity, which will afford you golden feelings on a death-bed.

clofed; but, fhould it continue, I wage "I hope this cruel conteft will foon be no war with the fair! I acknowledge their power, and bend before it with profound fubmiffion! Let not, therefore, the amiable Countess of Selkirk regard me as an enemy: I am ambitious of her esteem and friendship, and would do any thing confiftent with my duty, to merit it.

"The honour of a line from your hand, in answer to this, will lay me under a very fingular obligation. And, if I can render you any acceptable service in France, or elsewhere, I hope you fee into character fo far as to command me my

without the leaft grain of referve. I wifh to know exactly the behaviour of my people, as I am determined to punish them, if they have exceeded their liberty..

"I have the honour to be, with much

esteem, and with profound refpect, Madam, your most obedient, and most hum

ble fervant,

(Signed) J. P. JONES. "Ranger, Breft, 8th May, 1778."

Note, It is a well known fact, that at the

fale, he purchafed the plate, and returned the whole that had been carried away, to the Countess of Selkirk; not the most trifling article being milling. D. F. R. S.

FROM

No. VIII.

WILLIAM WHISTON.

(Communicated.)

M for great fincerity, and

R. Whifton was a man diftinguished great freedom of fpeech. He had fome acquaintauce with bishopSherlock,and occafionally went to dine with him. But the bishop made a speech in the House of Lords, which was understood to be an apology for the employment of bribery and corruption on the part of government; and then Whifton vifited him no more.

They afterwards met accidentally, at the houfe of Sir Jofeph Jekyll, mafter of the rolls, when the bishop afked Whifton, what the reason was that he did not come fometimes to dine with him as ufual? "No, my lord," faid Whifton, "never fince your political fpeech in the Houfe of Lords." The bishop replied, that

Mr. Whifton knew that he took his reproofs patiently, and he was defirous that he should come to him as formerly "No, my lord," faid Whifton," political bishops are the ruin of all religion:" and he immediately went away in apparent indignation.

When Dr. Leng was made a bishop, the first time that Mr. Whifton faw him, after he was raised to the bench, he faid to him, "I wonder, my lord, how fo learned and fo good a man as you are, came to be made a bishop."

Of Dr. Gibfon, bishop of London, Whifton faid, "that bishop feemed tö ́ think, that the church of England, as it just then happened to be, established by modern laws and canons, came down from heaven, with the Athanafian creed

in its hand."

The then bishop of Durham, in a converfation with Whifton, expreffed a doubt to him, whether the Linus, who mentioned in St. Paul's epistle to Timothy, could poffibly be the bihop of Rome, as he was fuppofed to be, when he was only fpoken of as "one of the brethren." Whiston replied, "bishops, my lord, were not then right reverend fathers in God."

Speaking of Dr. Wilfon, bishop of Man, Whiston faid, "He has always appeared to me one of the beft bishops of our modern ages; and fo much the better, as he is clear of the fnares and temptations of a lord of parliament."

I ufe the edition of 1789, 3 vols. 8vo. In vol. iii. p. 232, et feq. he gives what may be called facts and reafons, to prove that corruption and aristocratic influence alone diminish factions, and prevent anarchy, even in fo poor a country as that of the Grifons, and in a republic fcarcely known among the nations of Europe.

1

The reader is deeply impreffed with this truth, till he comes fo far on as p.278, where the mystery is folved, tefte invito.

"At prefent, the Houfe of Austria directs all the affairs of the Grifons with the moft unbounded authority. That power has acquired this fway, by regulary difcharging the public penfions, by holding the leading members of the diet Valteline, and mediator in all the difputes in its pay, by being a guarantee of the between the Grifons and their subjects.”

Where is now Mr. CoXE's candour?

He might as well argue, that, because our Edward IV. Henry VIII. Charles II. were penfioned by France, no monarchy can exist without foreign penfions.

Is it not rather a piece of jefuitical art, to place this main intelligence at fo great a distance from its proper place, and real point of view? In fact, it is not prejudice, but repeated obfervation, which leads me to fay, that, in the writings of all ecclefiaftics (with very few exceptions), one meets with fpecimens of jefuitifm. They are fo accustomed to deceive, that they practice ait in fpite of themselves, as it were, and even in trifles and indifferent obje&s.

when, in reality, the real merit of its invention is contained in a few of its earliest chapters; while the remaining parts of thefe works have been formed with great facility, and without any extraordinary efforts of genius. I fhall exemplify this obfervation by the two celebrated works of Fielding and Swift. The former, in his "Life of Jonathan Wild the Great," offers a very curious fpecimen of the force of irony. He calls villainy, "greatnefs;" a prig, or thief, "a hero" narratives of fwindlers, "matters of the great kind;" honeft ingenuous perfons, "filly people," and when they trust to fharpers, he fays, "they are little wretches, who deal with great men." Heartfree is therefore full of "low and bafe ideas;" his faithful apprentice is a low and pitiful fool," &c. It is evident; that the only merit to which this invention of reverfing terms and ideas can pretend, confifts in the first thoughts-having once exhibited them, all the reft is merely a repetition of the fame notions; and although the whole may appear, to a fuperficial reader, as originality, a critic of tafte will furely acknowledge, that it is not what it appears, and that it becomes, at length, if we may fo exprefs ourfelves, invention without invention. Fielding having once difplayed the manner, any common writer could have followed it without any exertion; and what a common writer can perform, is evidently not a work of genius.

The fame obfervation will extend to "Gulliver's Travels." When Swift had once refolved to defcribe a very diminutive, and a very gigantic race; men as horfes, and horfes as men; the idea, whatever be its value, after it has been fully displayed, becomes, like the irony of Fielding, nothing but a continuation; a kind of plagiarifm on the author himfelf. The real merit of fuch inventions is foon terminated; yet an author, by purfuing them, will feem, to most of his readers, as abounding in the most fertile imagination; while he, in fact, is only repeating one idea, with, very frequently, neither novelty nor variation. The Yahoos and Houyhnhmns have, in my opinion, no invention at all, unless to call a horfe a man fhews any invention.

This obfervation will not extend to the other merits of thefe admired performances; for others they have, of a much more durable kind than the extravagance of their merely reverfing our ufual

notions.

W

LITERARY FECUNDITY.

E have had fome curious inftances of literary fecundity. Lope de Vega, whofe entire days feem to have been devoted to compofition, without many hours given to reading; or what is equally neceffary, to the correction of his own productions, did not rival the indefatigable powers of father Macedo, a Portuguefe Jefuit, not without celebrity in his day. The Portuguese biographer counts 109 different works of this author; and, indeed, one cannot refrain from a fmile at the good old man himself, who, in one of his later works, boasts of having delivered in public, 53 PANEGYRICS; 60 LATIN ESSAYS, and 32 FUNERAL EULOGIUMS: and that he had compofed 48 EPIC POEMS; 123 ELEGIES; 115 EPITAPHS; 212 DEDICA

110 ODES ;

TIONS; 700 FAMILIAR LETTERS ; 2600 HEROIC POEMS; 3000 EPIGRAMS; 4 LATIN PLAYS, and that he had (being gifted with the talent of an improvifatore) delivered more than 150,000 VERSES. extempore !

It is fufficiently obvious, that Father Macedo was the prince of impertinent writers; and that he was one of thofe, whofe unhappy industry produces a most barren fertility. What is, however, not lefs fingular in our Jefuit, was, that having written a treatife againit Cardinal Norris, on the fubject of the monkery of St. Auftin, it was thought neceffary to decree filence to both parties. Macedo, compelled to relinquish the pen, refolved to fhew the world that he did not confider himself as vanquished, and fent his adverfary a challenge! He proceeded according to the regulations of chivalry; and appointed a place of rendezvous in the wood of Boulogne. Another edict, to forbid the duel. Macedo complained that it was hard, not to fuffer him, for the fake of St. Austin, for whom he had a peculiar efteem, to fpill neither his ink, nor his blood!

One may judge of his tafte by his "Origin of the Inquifition." That humane and divine tribunal he discovers to have been in the terreftrial paradife. He pretends to prove, that God was the first who began the functions of an INQUISITOR, and that he exercifed his power over Cain, and the workmen of Babel. Macedo obtained a profeffor's chair at Padua, for having given, during eight days, at Venice, fome famous arguments against the Pope, which were published by the title of The Literary Roarings of the Lion at St. Mark:" alluding to the lion whofe mouth is now clofed.

race,

Learn'd with wild forms the obelisk to grace,

And mould the idol God in ductile earth,
The loom and polish'd needle took their birth.
When doom'd to dull obfcurity no more,
Fair Science reign'd on each surrounding thore,
And ftretch'd her arm o'er Greece and early
Rome,

Still in her train appear'd the labours of the loom.

When Gothic night o'erwhelm'd the chearful day,

And fculpture, painting, all neglected lay,
And furious man, creation's favage lord,
Knew but the hunter's fpear, the murderer's
sword;

Our fofter fex emboís'd the 'broider'd veft,
In flow'ry robe the blooming hero dreft;
Or rang'd in tap'ftry's glowing colours bright
The mimic crefts, and long embattled fight.
Now Learning's better fun-beam shone anew,
And Gothic horrors, gloomy night, withdrew;
Again Prometheus wak'd the fenfelefs clay,
Grace, beauty, order, leapt to fecond day.
Moft did the manly arts its influence feel,
The pencil chas'd the housewife's humbler
feel;

Rent was the aged tap'stry from the wall;
Exulting genius gloried in its fall;

To monftrous fhapes, and hydra forms uncouth,
Succeeded nature fair, angelic truth;
The artistman awoke the victor's lay,
And woman's labours crumbled in decay.
Then LINWOOD rofe, infpir'd at once to give
The matchlefs grace that bids the picture live;
With the bold air, the lovely lafting dye,
That fills at once, and charms the wond'ring

eye..

No time can heal. Oh! I've for ever loft
My first, my early, and my only love.
Dear fource of comfort! thou art now no more;
Thou waft the foft'ner of my ev'ry care;
My friend, my fweet companion, and my all.
What can to me existence now endear,
Since chearfulnefs and healthwith thee are fled,
And peace and hope are ftrangers to my breast?
My limbs, late active and alert, refift
Have pow'r to bear from earth my tott'ring
The dictates of my will, and trembling, fcarce

frame.

Been breath'd-but God, who life bestow'd, faw fit

Her ftate to change, and took her to himself.
In her, religion wore its fairest form,
PP