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scene of action. It is attributed to the Count de Mirabeau, the force of whose mind, and the variety of whose talents, the late revolution has added to and developed.

The following is the character given of M. Neckar, under the name of Narses.

• His childhood was too rude and uncultivated to promise any brilliant success. His education was that of a book-keeper, and his earliest ambition was to be rich. Repulsed by the sex, favoured by circumstances, smiled on by fortune, he amaffed an opulent eftate. Uncouth in his person, aukward in his manners, obscure in his birth, esteemed by no man, liked by no woman, he trusted he should find in the oftentation of wealth an equivalent for every other enjoy

ment.'

-No fooner had he entered into this great engagement with the public, than, tormented on one fide with an anxiety to lead, and on the other apprehenfive that the machine of an assembled nation would be too mighty for his grafp, he became terrified at the scene, of which he had lifted the curtain. From that moment every step he took became a blunder.

An affembly of Notables, to which one order of proceeding is prescribed by the minister, and another adopted by themselves. Narses inspires neither confidence nor respect, neither the voluntary subjection of esteem, nor the irresistible one that we pay to beings of a fuperior order.

• Regulation of elections, almost every where rejected. System and balance of privileges, obscure, indecisive, irresolute, and hypocritical. Artificial procrastination and delay. All these are the resources of intrigue, not the emanations of genius. Discourse at the opening of the states-general, discovering at every turn a mind intoxicated with vanity, displaying an incapacity or an unwillingness to explain and illustrate: a

composition, indecent, unmanly, out of place, betraying a narrow under. standing and a timorous heart.

• Conferences, in which they rather stammer than discuss, in which they rather grope than proceed, in which that fearfulness appears in all its deformity, that springs from a confciousness, that the man is unequal to his situation, that he is arrived at the limit, when he must either suggest one of those grand expedients that reconcile the fluctuating opinions of mankind, or confefs at once his imbecillity and nothingness.

• Behold then the great secret revealed, that for ten years was so successfully concealed from a misguided nation! Narses is now discovered to have no digested plan, to want the mind that should conceive one, to have neither skill to borrow the ideas of others, nor friends to correct his errors, and prompt him how to discharge a task, that a vulgar mortal should never have undertaken.'

The author likewise draws his own picture in these words:

'Men's minds are as various as their faces. This man takes his departure from a single idea; but he modifies it in a thousand ways, he applies it to a thousand subjects, he builds upon it a system of the most extensive application. That man has a strict and severe logic, he connects dissevered principles, he hangs upon them important consequences, he constantly gives to the truth he would enforce the most irresistible evidence. A third is gifted with a continual flow of useful conceptions, that he brings in, as a tribute to the general weal; he enlarges his talent by the honesty of his zeal, and he inforces his zeal by the respectability of his eloquence. Another still has made mankind his study, in the world, in books, in the midst of important action; habituated to contemplate, he fees the characters of men under all their different appearances; endowed

with a felicity of description, he paints the most striking likenesses. Iramba identifies himself with these four perfonages; he appropriates their faculties, he increases them from his own stock, he appears a colossus. There are many men in Iramba, but you never fee any thing but himself. Surely he, who possesses the talent of engroffing human understanding, is entitled to fill the first situation! Accordingly his rivals yield to him the palm, and are contented to occupy the second place.'

M. de Calonne is thus described, under the name of Chabrias.

• Chabrias was qualified, to explain himself with perfpicuity and ease, to infinuate a wholesome and a just opinion without appearing to suggest it. He knew the value of temporary expedients, and he perceived at a single glance the excellencies and the defects of any project that was submitted to him. He was one of those ministers, whom you may perfuade, but whom you cannot deceive. His coadjutors had sufficient proof of his penetration and his genius. How then did it happen, with all these advantages, that Chabrias did not give birth to the profperity of France? It was because he was a man of urbanity, and defired to be at the fame time agreeable and useful.

• The man of urbanity is he, who is unwilling to lose a single fuffrage, who is anxious to be panegyrifed by the women, to be sung by the poets, to be carved by the statuaries, and to be loved by men of wit. All these successes were obtained by Chabrias; but to gain and to secure them it was necessary to grant more than he ought to have granted; hence his prodigality. Prodigality forces us upon expedients; expedients give birth to projects; projects are the offspring of eccentric minds; and to such minds it becomes necessary to have recourse.'

- Uneconomical in matters of

detail, he repaired these faults with interest, by the most brilliant operations. A bad steward, a good financier, an able minister, a true statefman; such is what he was, and what his country would have found him. But his levity continually exposed him to the adopting, without examination, men, operations, and plans, that tarnith the glory of those wifer measures, which sprung from his own reflection and were the children of his own understanding.

'What then is the nature of this unfortunate quality, this levity? It is that a man divides his attention between business and pleasure; it is, that a man gives to affairs a single moment, to intrigue whole hours of his time, and devotes his evenings to the fex. It is, that he reads without studying, liftens without reflecting, and argues without judgment and determination. It is, that he prefers the most expeditious methods, that he is disheartened by objections and difficulty, that he dreads to confult men of severe argument and nice calculation. Wit amuses him, gaiety allures, experience tires, timidity shocks, precautions disguft. He judges with precipitation, he yields to importunity, he is inaccessible to merit. What we call levity is made up of rash promises, lavish hopes, and vague and inconfiderate proposals."

Thoughts in the form of Maxims, addressed to Young Ladies on their first establishment in the World, By the Countess Dowager of Carlifle. Small 8vo. 2s. 6d. Cornell.

Though fome of these 'Thoughts,' may appear at first trifling, we have found none but what we think may be occasionally useful. While whirling in the vortex of fashion, young ladies reflect only when folly, impropriety, or fomething worse, resulting, perhaps, at first from venial trespasses,

drives them to obscurity, and gives them opportunities for thinking, without the state of mind which makes thinking pleasing or falutary. We have marked a few of the Countess's maxims, which we will transcribe. They inculcate, in every page, true delicacy, proper conduct, and judicious distinctions, in fome of the most dif ficult predicaments of a lady's life.

'Suffer not any, unauthorised by af finity, to be frequently repeating the criticisms of the world on your conduct; on trifling occasions it is feldom corrective, but it never fails to four the temper.'

'Let no such expression fall from your lips, as low company, no body; because your rank in life may separate you in general from society of lower degree, but perhaps poffeffing superior merit to that you are connected with.?

Shut your ears against every prejudice which the long services of perfons about you, may encourage them to attempt in piring you with."

'It is a juftifiable pride, if any may be deemed such, to conceal our

joys or our forrows from them that are incapable of understanding their causes."

' A good manager, and a notable woman, proves but too often to be a very unpleasing being in society; these duties should be performed in the circle of their own domestic sphere, and are never to be boafted of out of it."

• Assume no masculine airs; to support necessary fatigue is meritorious, but real robuftness and superior force is denied you by nature; its semblance, denied you by the laws of decency.'

• Obstinacy in dispute becomes habitual; beware of it, it will insensibly degenerate into passion, and paffion degrades a woman.'

• Be not prone to imagine that the arrows of farcafm, so often and so heedlessly thrown out in mixed com. panies, are always pointed at you; it is absolutely necessary to affume a decent courage in numerous societies, for too nice a sensibility deprives the owner of any degree of defence againft infult and arrogance.'

D

The Virtuoso, or, Filial

R CORAL was educated in the study of phyfic, and took his degree in that science; but having a greater paffion for what is curious, than for what is useful, he degenerated from a phyfician into a virtuoso. The country, in which he fettled, foon observed that the Doctor was more disposed to examine the veins of the earth, than to feel the puise of a patient: His practice of course declined; but he was happily enabled to live without the aid of his profession, by the affluent fortune of his wife. Sewas a lady of a mild and engaging character, but of a delicate constitution, and, dying in child-bed, left him an only daughter, whom he called Theodora. The Doctor was by no means a man of warm paffions, and never entertained an idea of marrying again; though a female fo filift once endeavoured to work upon his VOL. XỊ. No. 63.

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indulgent to his fervants, ant'as fond of his 'ittle daugh er as a virtuof) can be of any living and ordinary production of nature. Thodora discovered, in her canthood, a very int 'gent fpirit, with peculiar feetnels of temper. As the grew up the difp ayed a ftriking talent for the pen il, and particulariy endeared henelf to her rath, by furprifing him with a very accurate and prited delineation of three of the most precious artiles in hi cabinet; a compliment which fo warmed the heart of the delighted old natura ist, that he declared he would give her five housand pounds on the day of her marriage. No one doubted his ability to fuifil fuch a promife; for though he had squandered confiderable fums on many ufeleis baubles, he was, in all common articles of expence, so excellent a manager, that, instead of injuring, he had increased his fortune; and from this circumstance he was generally believed to be much richer than he really was. The odra nad now reached the age of Lineteen, and, though not a beauty, the had an elegant perfon, and a countenance pecu iarly expressive of se sible good-nature: Her heart was so very affectionate, that it not only led her to love her father most tenderly, but even to look upon his whimfical hobby-horse with a partial vene ation. This fingularity of fentiment contributed very much to their mutual happiness, and rendered our gentle and ingerious damfes not fo eager to eicape from te cuftody of a fancifut old father, as young ladies of fashion very frequently appear: Yet, happy as she was, Theodora admitted the vifits of a lover, who had the address to ingratiate himself with Dr Coral.. This lover was a Mr Blandford, a young an of acute under ftanding and polified manners, fettled in London as a banker, and supposed to be wealthy. He had been introduced to Miss Coral at an aflembly, and foon afterwards folicited the honour of her hand for life. The Doctor, who was re markably frank in all pecuniary affairs, very candidly told the young gentleman what be intended for his daughter, declaring, at the fame time, that he left her entirely at her own difpofal; but, either from the favourable opinion he entertained himself of Mr Blandford, or perhaps from fome expreffion of approbation which had fallen from his daughter, the Doctor was very firm in his belief, that the match would take place; and being alert in all his tranfactions, he actually prepared his five

thousand pounds for the bridegroom, be fore there was any immediate profpect of a wedding. Theodora was certainly prejudiced in favour of Mr Blandford; yet, whether the really felt a reluctance to forfake her indulgent father, or whether the confidered it as dangerous to accept a husband on so short an acquaint ance, the had hitherto given no other anfwer to his addresses, but that she thought herself too young to marry. Blandford confidered this reply as nothing more than a modest preliminary to a full furrender of her perfon, and continued his fiege with increasing affiduity. In this very critical state of affairs, Dr Coral was fummoned to a distance by a letter from a friend, who announced, to him the death of a brother virtuoso, with a hint, that the Doctor might enrich himfelf by the purchase of a very choice collection of the most valuable rarties, which, if he was quick enough in his application, he might poflibly obtain by a private contract. For this purpose, his correfpondent had inclosed to him a letter of recommendation to the executors of the deceafed collector. This was a temptation that Dr Coral could not refift. Without waiting for the return of his daughter, who was abroad on an evening vifit, he threw himself into a poft chaife, and travel ed all night, to reach the manfion of this departed brother in the course of the following day. He was received very cordially by a relation of the deceafed, and furveyed with avidity and admiration innumerable curiofities, of which he panted to become the poffeffor. But as the collection was very various and extensive, the Doctor began to tremble at the idea of the fum, which the proprietors would unquestionably demand for so peerless a treasure. The delight, with which bis whole frame was animated in furveying it, fufficiently proved that he had a high sense of its value, and precluded him from the use of that profound and ingenious art, so honourably practised by the most intelligent perfons in every rank of life, I mean the art of vilifying the object which they design to purchase. Dr Coral, after commending most of the prime articles with a generous admiration, demanded, with that degree of hefitation which anxiety produces, if any price had been fottled for the whole collection. The gentleman, who attended him, enlarged on thegreat trouble and expence with which his departed relation had amassed this invaluable treasure, and concluded a very elaborate borate harangue in its praise, by informing the Doctor, that he might become the happy mafter of the whole on the immediate payment of three thousand five hundred pounds. The Doctor was more encouraged than dismayed by the mention of this sum; for, in the first place, the price was really moderate; and, fecondly, he had the comfortable knowledge, that he had the power of instantly securing to himself these manifold fources of delight. But the comfort arifing from this affurance was immediately destroyed by the reflection, that all his ready money was devoted to the approaching marriage of his daughter; and his parental affection combating, with some little success, against his paffion for virtu, the good Doctor had almost refolved to reinquish all ideas of the purchase. Unluckily, he took a second survey of the choiceft rarities, and met with an article which had been accidentally miflaid, and overlooked in his first view of the collection-perhaps its present effect upon him was the greater from this cafual delay; certain it is, that this additional rarity fell with an amazing force on the wavering balance of his mind; it entirely overfet his prudential affectionate refolution, and, haftily seizing a pen, which lay ready in a massive ink stand of a curious and antique form, he inftantly wrote a draught upon his banker for the three thousand five hundred pounds.

At this passage of my little work, I forefee that many an honest spinster, who may be reading it to her companions, will pause for a moment, and express an eager defire to know what this wonderful rarity could be. When I inform her it was a very little box, containing the uneatable product of a tree, the may, perhaps, imagine it a pip of the very apple-which tempted our inconfiderate grandmother:-Eve, indeed, may be faid to have instituted the order of vir tuosos, being the first of the many perfons on record who have ruined themselves and their families by a passion for rarities.

But to return to her legitimate descendant, the curious Dr Coral. This gentleman confidered, that if he neglected the present opportunity, he might never again be able to acquire the very scarce and marvellous production of na ture, which he had long thirsted to pofsess, and which now stood before him.

Not to teaze my fair readers with any longer suspense, I will directly tell them, the above-mentioned little box contained

a vegetable poison, collected, with extremeft hazard of life, from the celebrated Upas tree, in the island of Java. A Dutch furgeon had received this inefti mable treafure from the sultan of Java himself, as a part of his reward for having preserved the life of a favourite beauty in the royal feraglio; and the furgeon, on his return to Europe, had gratefully presented it to the deceased virtuoso, who had been the generous patron of his youth.

Dr Coral was inflamed with the keeneft defire of beginning various experiments with this rareft of poifons, without suspecting that it might deprive his daughter of a husband; taking, therefore, this inestimable little box, with a few more of the most precious and portable articles in his new acquisition, and giving the necessary directions concerning some weighty cabinets of medals, and other more bulky rarities, he re-en ered his post-chaise with that triumphant feftivity of mind, which can be conceived only by a successful collector.

As the Doctor delighted almost as much in the idea of buying a bargain, as in the pofieflion of a rarity, he amufed hinself, in his journey home, with various projects for the difpofal of his ample treasure. It was his plan, to felect the articles which he particularly prized, and by a judicious fale of the remainder, to regain almost the whole fum that he had so rapidly expended. Hofseffing a high opinion of his own judgement in affairs of this nature, he pleased himself with the apparent facility of his design, and under the lively influence of these agreeable thoughts, he arrived at his own door. The affectionate Theodora flew with peculiar eagerness to receive him, having fuffered no little anxiety from his extraordinary abfence. The sprightliness of his appearance foon relieved her from all her folicitude, and they entered the parlour very gaily together, where Theodora had just been making tea for a female relation, and the affiduous Mr Blandford.

The Doctor, like most peop'e of a busy turn, had a particular pleasure in talking of whatever he did, as he never meant to do any thing that a man ought to blush for; and he now began to entertain his company with an account of his adventures: He enlarged with rapture on his purchase, intimating that it had cost him a very large fum, and not mentioning his undigested scheme of repay. ing himself.

Observing,