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he perufed, even at that early period, with delight and fatisfaction.

We are not ignorant that the subject of our Memoir has been turned into ridicule by the profligate muse of a modern fatirift; the perverfion of whofe fuperior talents, on other occafions, has excited our indignation. Such wanton attacks can neither difturb the ferenity of her mind, nor shake the fair fabric of her fame, which ftands reared on an immoveable foundation. Her writings fpeak for themfelves, and have already enfured to themselves the favourable decifions of an enlightened public. Afferting the right of private judgment, we are not, indeed, difpofed to defend every religious fentiment, which he has from the beft of motives inculcated. Nor, on the other hand, are we fo convinced of our own infallibility, nor would we be fo unjuft to the rights of others, as on this account to withhold the meed of praife. But bleft with the approbation of the wife and good, and confcious of having directed her efforts to the melioration of her fellow creatures, Miss MORE may calmly repofe on her paft exertions, and confign, without an anxious thought, her well-earned reputation to the judgment of pofterity.

BRISTOL has, in former times, been reproached with a selfish dullness; and even Hume has contributed to the prejudice, by a reflection contained in his Hiftory of England. Her credit, however, has been redeemed by the production of a Chatterton, a More, a Yearley, a Southey, a Coleridge, a Cottle, and other writers, who have attracted the attention of the literary world, Commerce ought, in justice, to lend her fupport to literature, and literature will, moft affuredly, in return, confer a dignity on commerce. The one refines, exalts, and fublimates the other. Apart they decrease in refpectability; but let it be remembered that an honourable junction of them fecures and perpetuates the welfare and prosperity of the human race.

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The mere gains of the merchant are not to be put competition with that intellectual and moral wealth, a portion of which at least, every individual fhould endeavour to acquire; and which, wherever it is found, either on a throne or in a cottage, will be remunerated with the plaudits of the Divine approbation. E.

GOSSIPIANA.
[No. XXXV.]

CURIOUS CHARACTER OF THE FRENCH, DRAWN SOME TIME AGO.

HE French unite every extreme of conduct;

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neffes feemingly incompatible. They are effeminate, yet brave; infincere, yet honourable; hofpitable, but not benevolent; vain, yet fubtle; fplendid, not generous; warlike, yet polite; plaufible, not virtuous; mercantile, yet not mean; in trifles ferious, in danger gay; women at the toilet, heroes in the field; proffigate in heart, yet decent in their conduct; divided in opinion, but united in action; weak in manners, but ftrong in principle; contemptible in private life, and formidable in public.

SOLITUDE.

MADAM DE STAEL confidered it as a vulgar error, to fuppofe that freedom and comfort could be enjoyed at court or in public, where even the minute actions of our lives are obferved, where our fentiments must be regu lated by the circumftances of thofe around us, where every person affumes the right of fcrutinizing our cha racter, and where we never have the fmallest enjoyment of ourselves. The enjoyment of one's felf (fays the) can only be found in folitude. It was within the walls of the Baftille, that I first became acquainted with my felf.

THE

THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.

THIS great General, obferving a foldier leaning penfively on the butt end of his musket, juft after victory had declared itself in favour of the British arms at the

battle of Blenheim, accofted him thus, " Why fo penfive, my friend, after fo glorious a victory ?" "It may be glorious," replied the brave Briton, "but I am thinking, that all the human blood I have spilt this day, has only earned one four-pence! To the credit of humanity be it fpoken, that the Duke, turning afide, a tear was obferved to fall from his check.

LIBRARIES.

AMONGST modern libraries, the four largest are fuppofed to be the Emperor's at Vienna; the Vatican library; the library of the Grand Duke of Tufcany, at Fiorence, and that now belonging to the French Republic, at Paris. Of ancient libraries, the Alexandrian was the most celebrated. Among the other ancient li braries, that of Lucullus is faid to have been very confiderable, as was alfo that of Trajan, which was called after him the Ulpian library. But one of the most clegant was that founded at Rome by Simonicus, preceptor of the Emperor Gordianus. It is faid to have contained 8000 felect volumes, and that the apartment in which they were deposited was paved with gilt marble. The walls were compofed of glafs and ivory; and the shelves, cafes, preffes, and desks, made of ebony and cedar.

GEORGE HERBERT.

It is recorded of this gentleman, who was stiled in his day the divine Herbert, and who was celebrated for his piety and his poetry, that being prælector in the rhetoric fchool, at Cambridge, in the year 1618, he thought proper to pass by the orators of Greece and Rome, and chofe to read upon an oration of King James. In his lecture, he analyfed the parts of the royal fpeech, he showed their connection, and he pointed out the propriety of

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the language, and its power to move the affections. He alfo illuftrated the beauties of the ftyle, which, as he very properly obferved, was of a kind utterly unknown to the ancients, who had no juft conceptions of the excellencies of regal eloquence.

SUBLIME POETRY.

IN the 74th Pfalm, of Sternhold and Hopkin's verfion, will be found the following curious lines. David is addreffing the Divine Being, and thus exclaims"Why doft thou draw thy hand aback, And hide it in thy lap!

O pluck it out, and be not flack,
To give thy foes a-rap."

SLINGING.

To teach any new habit or art, we must not employ any alarming excitements: fmall, certain, regu larly recurring motives, which intereft, but which do not diftract the mind, are evidently the beft. The ancient inhabitants of Minorca were faid to be the best

fingers in the world. When they were children, every morning, what they were to eat, was flightly fufpended to high poles, and they were obliged to throw down their breakfafts with their flings, from the places whence they were fufpended, before they could fatisfy their hunger. The motive feems to have been here well proportioned to the effect that was required: it could not be any great misfortune to a boy to go with out his breakfast; but as this motive returned every morning, it became fufficiently ferious to hungry fingers.

SLAVE TRADE.

1

LORD Orford, in a letter to Mifs Hannah More, remarks, "I do not understand the manoeuvre of fugar, and, perhaps, am going to talk nonfenfe, as my idea may be impracticable; but I with human wit, which is really very confiderable in mechanics and merchantry, could devife fome method of cultivating

canes

canes, and making fugar without the manual labour of the human fpecies. How many mills and inventions have there not been difcovered to fupply fuccedaDeums to the work of the hands, and which, before the discoveries, would have been treated as vifions? It is true, manual labour has, fometimes, taken it very ill to be excused, and has deftroyed fuch mills-but the poor negroes would not rise and insist upon being worked to death. Pray talk to fome ardent genius, but do not name me; not merely because I may have talked like an idiot, but becaufe my ignorance might, ipfo facto, ftamp the idea with ridicule. People, I know, do not love to be put out of their old ways: no farmer liftens at first to new inventions in agriculture; and I do not doubt but bread was, originally, deemed a new fangled vagary by those who had feen their fathers live very comfortably on acorns. Nor is there any harm in ftarting new game to invention; many excellent difcoveries have been made by men who were in chafe of fomething very different. I am not quite fure that the arts of making gold, and of living for ever, have been yet found out; yet to how many noble difcoveries has the purfuit of thofe noftrums given birth! Poor chemistry, had the not had fuch glorious objects in view!

"If you are fitting under a cowflip at your cottage, thefe reveries may amufe you for half an hour, at least make you smile; and, for the cafe of your confcience, which is always in a panic, they require no answer."

NEW TITLE.

LORD ORFORD, writing to the fame lady, fays, fpeaking of his newly-acquired title, "For the other empty metamorphofis that has happened to the outward man, you do me justice in concluding that it can do nothing but teafe me; it is being called names in one's old

MISS MORE lives at a place called Cowflip Green, a few miles from Bristol,

VOL. VIII.

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age.

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