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they can no more convey to you a complete and perfect idea of thefe wonderful scenes, than if I were to aim at giving you some notion of the pictures of Raphael and Corregio, by telling you, they are compofed of paint and canvas.

Meyringen is a large neat village, being the capital burgh of this land of Hafli: a diftrict which enjoys confiderable privileges.-In this district there are about 6000 men capable of bearing arms, and about 20,000 fouls.

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The inhabitants are a very fine race of people: the men in general remarkably ftrong, lufty, and well made; the women tall and handfome. The latter have an elegant manner of wearing their hair, which is commonly of a beautiful colour: it is parted from the top of the forehead, from thence brought round and joined to the locks behind; which either hang down their back in long treffes, braided with ribband, or are woven round the head in a fimple plait. But the other part of the dress does not in the leaft correfpond with this elegance; as their fhapes, naturally fine, are spoiled by an abfard fashion of wearing their petticoats fo high, that they all appear as if they were round mouldered and big-bellied.

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Meyringen is fituated near the Aar, in a very romantic valley; furrounded by meadows of a most luxuriant verdure, fprinkled with cottages, which are occafionally feparated from each other by huge intervening flones and deep channels, the remaining effects of storms and torrents. Clofe to the village, the Alp-bach, a torrent fo called, falls from the mountain Houfli, in two beautiful perpendicular cafcades, but with fo much violence, and in fo large a body of water, as to caufe frequent inundations: indeed the burgh itself has been in danger of being overwhelmed and destroyed by its repeated ravages; againt which, however, it is now protected, by a wall of confiderable height and folidity. Near this torrent is another fall of water, that glides gently down the bare rock, which is there more goping; and, farther on, a third glistened as it defcended through a hanging grove of pines, that feather the fides of the mountain.

The following is the ordinary price of provifions throughout the mountainous parts of Swifferland: I have reduced the price to I the value of our money.

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Milk, per quart

Wort wine, per Do

Pays de Vaud wine

By this you will perceive, that, in proportion, bread is much dearer than the other articles; and the reafon is obvious: for, all thefe mountainous parts confit almost entirely of palturages, and

*With fubmiffion to this ingenious Writer, beautiful colour is not defcription We are not told whether black, red, or brown hair is honoured with Mr. Coxe's preference.

produce

produce little corn. The peasants of Swifferland (I mean those who inhabit the mountainous diftricts) live chiefly upon milk, and what refults from it, together with potatoes, which are here much culti vated. According to the price of provifions in England, the above lift will appear exceedingly cheap but then it ought at the fame time to be confidered, that money is very fcarce in thefe parts. Nor indeed is it so much neceffary in a country, where there is no luxury; where all the peafantry have, within themselves, more than fufficient for their own confumption; and are tolerably well provided with every neceffary of life from their own little demefnes. I had, to-day, a long converfation with one of the lads, who came with us from Altdorf, and takes care of the horses. He lives upon the mountains of Uri; and, as their winter lafts near eight months of the year, during fome part of which time there can be little communication between the feveral cottages, every family is of courfe obliged to lay in their provifion for the whole winter. His own, it feems, confifts of seven perfons, and is provided with the following ftores: feven cheeses, each weighing twenty-five pounds; an hundred and eight pounds of hard bread, twenty-five baskets of potatoes, each weigh ing about forty pounds; seven goats, and three cows, one of which they kill. The cows and horfes (if they keep any) are fed with bay, and the goats with the boughs of firs; which, in a scarcity of hay, they give alfo to their other cattle. During this dreary season the family are employed in making linen, fhirts, &c. fufficient for their own ufe: and, for this purpose, a small patch of the little piece of ground belonging to every cottage, is generally fown with flax. The cultivation of the latter has been much attended to, and with increasing fuccefs, in thefe mountainous parts of Swifferland.

The houses are generally built of wood; and it was a natural remark of one of our fervants, as we paffed through fuch a continued chain of rocks; that as there was ftone enough to build all the cottages in the country, it was wonderful they fhould ufe nothing but wood for that purpose: a remark that has been made by many travellers. But it should seem, that these wooden houses are much fooner conftructed, and are easily repaired; that they are built in fo folid and compact a manner (the rooms fmall, and the ceilings low) as to be fufficiently warm even for fo cold a climate. The chief objection to them arifes from the danger of fire; as the flames muft rage with great rapidity, and communicate eafily from one to the other. This inconvenience, however, is in a great measure obviated by the method of building their cottages apart; all their villages confifting of detached and scattered hamlets. This obfervation, however, does not hold with refpect to fome of their largest burghs and thefe muft confequently be expofed to the ravages of this moft dreadful of all calamities. I am, &c.'

The Author gives a fummary account of the Helvetic Union, or confederacy, which prefents us with a pleafing view of political connexion, on the beft of all principles, that of reciprocal fupport and benefit. We wished to extract this part of the work, for the information of fuch of our Readers as, have no

A a 2

adequate

adequate idea of the poffible advantages of confederated, national fociety; but the prefent Article is already of fufficient extent.

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The human paffions operate alike in all parts of the world, in proportion to the opportunities of exertion; hence Providence feems to intend human felicity for the rudeft fituations, where the temptations are few. These mountainous fpots are fecluded from more favourable regions by natural barriers. To live comfortably there, requires an habitual induftry; to live fecurely there, requires friendship and fortitude. They are difficult of access by individuals, and much lefs acceffible by multitudes; confequently, they cannot be invaded fo eafily as they can repulse an attack, where the very elements are their auxiliaries and what is perhaps more in their favour than all the reft, they are not, to other ftates,, worth the coft and dangers of fubjection; fince thofe virtues on which their political existence depends, would expire under the iron hand of foreign power,like flowers torn from their natural roots, and put in water for the tranfient decoration of a palace!

ART. VII. Lucius Junius Brutus; or, the Expulfion of the Tarquins: An historical Play. By Hugh Downman. 8vo. 3s. Wilkie, &c.

$779.

O this very fingular play is prefixed the following short preface, containing, in a narrow compafs, much matter, well worth the attention of all who admire, or cultivate, the drama:

To thofe who judge of dramatic merit from the Greek models, the rules of French critics, or the examples of modern writers, a juftification of the following piece would be attempted in vain. They would call it a motley performance, deficient in almost every article which conftitutes a true and proper tragedy. If the Author was to allege, that he never meant to compofe a tragedy, according to their acceptation of the word, but that his intention was to fill up a picture of real life, in a certain given time, the outlines of which were taken from hiftorical facts, his reafon would be deemed unsatis factory.

Regardless of the end propofed, they would continue to exclaim, that the unities were neglected, that the grave was intermingled with the ludicrous; that the business of the drama frequently food ftill; that the dialogue was too familiar, and the metre little better than measured profe.

How far fome of these objections may be valid, and how many more might, perhaps, with reafon be urged against particular paffages, the Author would not determine. The force of others of them he would endeavour to diminish, by answering, that they militate equally against human life itself; and that while he should be forry to have this denominated an artificial poem, he would flatter himself, it cannot be jullly thought an unnatural one.

· Dr.

Dr. Johnfon indeed, in the preface to his edition of Shakespeare, feems to have fufficiently vindicated this particular fpecies of writing, to which, thofe who please, may (inftead of tragedy) give the more fimple name of hiftory. Neither are there wanting many good judges of compofition, who wish that the lefs ftudied diction, and more plain and level metre of the school of that immortal poet, (which feems to have ended with Southern) had been continued to the prefent time. Even this performance, with all its imputed irregularities and deficiencies, will, perhaps, be preferred by them, to thofe tranflated tragedies or imitations, which of late years have, through novelty, lived their nine nights on the ftage, and been damned for ever after in the closet: though they had been corrected and metamorphofed by managers, calculated to afford to favourite actors or actreffes opportunities of fhining, and curtailed by lord chamberlains.

A diverfification of characters hath been attempted in this piece; and to give to every character the mode of fentiment and expreffion, peculiarly fuited to it. It is not at all difficult for a man of a very middling genius, to contrive a regular plot, to pen down a certain number of founding lines; and though his Dramatis Perfonæ are distinguished by particular names, to put his own fentiments in their mouths throughout five acts. Had the Author been folicitous of adapting his plan to the ftage, or wifhed to conciliate the favour of the indifcriminating multitude, he might probably have followed the fame method.

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However it may appear to us, when we are reading, no fmall attention is requifite in written dialogue of any kind, for an author entirely to caft off felf. This was the characteristic of Shakespeare; and perhaps after all, the Author of this play hath deceived himself, and it may with reafon be applied to him,

Aufus idem.'

Sudet multum fruftraq; laboret

That the Reader may, in fome measure, judge how far the Author has effected his own purpose, we fhall next lay before him fome part of the first Act, not as the most advantageous or unfavourable fpecimen of the whole, but as a paffage more eafily detached from the rest:

SCENE II. The Camp before Ardea.

TITUS, ARUN S.
Titus. Why, Aruns, in what corner fits the wind?
What! not a word to fay! quite down i' th' mouth!
Aruns. I am, and ftranger cannot guess the cause,
Unlefs tis living in inaction thus.

I would I was in Rome, or Rome was here,
Or that these coop'd up Ardeats would but fight.
I wonder that our father fits contented

Lounging in's camp. Plague on their petty fallies!
Why doth he not attack the neft at once

With fire and fword, and roufe up all the swarm ?.
It was not thus he triumph'd o'er the Sabines,
Or wrefted from the warlike Volfci's hands
Sueffa Pometia, with whofe glorious spoils

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Turning religious all at once, he built
The temple in the capitol to Jupiter.

Though had he afk'd of me, I could have told him
A better way of laying out his money.

Titus. I do believe thee, Aruns, well I know
To what divinity thou would'st have rear'd
Thy golden altars.

Aruns.

Titus.

Aye, and wifely too.

Pleaíure's my deity, my Jupiter,
My Juno, and Minerva. Titus too,
If I mistake not, is no Atheist there,
But worships with as warm enthusiasm
As any votary of them all; 'tis true
He wears a graver brow, and commits fin
With a more serious philofophic face:
There's all the difference between me and thee,
A touch of feature only, in our hearts
We are most cordially alike.

Alike!
Why now indeed thy airy fpirits dance,
Sparkling in either eye; but when I met thee,
What wert thou then? Inwrapp'd in discontent.
What wilt thou be anon? Chiding at straws
For lying in thy path; then quick, by th' fparks
Of angry paflion, kindled into flame;

Still varying like the wind-Thy heart like mine!
When didst thou find my skittish temper ftart,
And fly like thine from one to t'other fide?

Aruns. Well, be it so, heaven speed us both! But Sextus!
I envy that fame Sextus; for his genius
Soars o'er us both, and robs us of our birthright.
Not that I think, we halt behind him much
In our defign'd intentions; but fuccefs

Befriends him farther, one would fwear he kept
Fortune in pay, and that the blind eyed goddess
Accepted bribes from him. There's not a woman
He looks on with defire but he poffeffes;
He fays but to an enemy, Fall down,

And down he falls. Hah! fay't thou, is he not
A fon of Tarquin, and a glorious villain?
Titus. Glorious I grant, but not a villain, Aruns.
Pihaw! that's a name may fuit a vulgar mouth,
A tradefman talking of his brother knave;
But rank and ftation fanctify men's deeds s;
A king fuccefsful, cannot be a tyrant,
Nor a king's fon deserve a title lefs
Than that of prince.

Aruns.

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Thou reafon't well, by Mars!
When I want oracles to be delivered,
I need not go to Delphos.-Out! Alas!
My blood's again obftructed, and I feel
A pain here in my head, or in my heart,

A fort

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