The length of this analyfis obliges us to confine our extracts. The following obfervations on "An Early Tafe for Reading," convey a fair fpecimen of Mr. Godwin's language: "There is, perhaps, nothing that has a greater tendency to decide favourably or unfavourably refpecting a man's future intellect, than the question whether or not he be impreffed with an early taste for reading. "Books are the depofitary of every thing that is most honourable to man. Literature, taken in all its bearings, forms the grand line of demarcation between the human and the animal kingdoms. He that loves reading, has every thing within his reach. He has but to defire, and he may poffefs himfelf of every fpecies of wifdom to judge, and power to perform. The chief point of difference between the man of talent and the man without, confifts in the different ways in which their minds are employed during the fame interval. They are obliged, let us fuppofe, to walk from Temple-Bar to HydePark-Corner. The dull man goes ftraight forward; he has fo many furlongs to traverse. He obferves if he meets any of his acquaintance; he enquires refpecting their health and their family. He glances, perhaps, the fhops as he paffes; he admires the fashion of a buckle, and the metal of a tea-urn. If he experience any flights of fancy, they are of a fhort extent; of the fame nature as the flights of a forest-bird, clipped of his wings, and condemned to pass the rest of his life in a farm-yard. On the other hand, the man of talent gives full fcope to his imagination. He laughs and cries. Unindebted to the fuggeftions of furrounding objects, his whole foul is employed. He enters into nice calculations; he digests fagacious reasonings. In imagination he declaims or describes, impreffed with the deepest sympathy, or elevated to the loftieft rapture. He makes a thousand new and admirable combinations. He paffes through a thousand imaginary scenes, tries his courage, talks his ingenuity, and thus becomes gradually prepared to meet almost any of the many-coloured events of human life. He confults, by the aid of memory, the books he has read, and projects others for the future inftruction and delight of mankind. (To be concluded in our next.) THE MONTHLY VISITOR. MAY, 1797. MEMOIRS OF GENERAL BUONAPARTE. F there be one advantage in a ftate of civil commo illuftrious men. To circumftances, indeed, we are ever indebted for advancement: and this might teach us to be more diffident in our purfuits. We may plan, and wifely plan—according to the best of our intelligence-a determination of conduct in this profpe&t or the other; yet, let not that determination amount to confidence and prefumption, while we are fubject to His difpofal who alone is the Director of circumstances. -The moft induftrious mechanic is often vainly induftrious, while the man of fpeculation and enterprize is crowned with affluence and diftinction. Such are the perplexities, and fuch the viciffitudes of human affairs. If thefe obfervations were ever applicable to any perfon and time, they are so to the subject of this sketch, and to the times in which we exist. The family of Buonaparte is of Tuscan extraction; originally from St. Miniato, about twenty-five miles from Florence: hence the Italians, although they hate the French, admire and efteem their General: they confider him in the light of a countryman, who, by his admirable skill, has indisputably revived their ancient VOL. I. Kk military military glory. The prefent branch of this family, is, notwithstanding thefe particulars, a native of Corfica. His father was one of the three Nobles who reprefented the states of Corfica, in 1770, when deputies were first sent to wait on the King of France, after the conqueft of that island. Dying about fourteen or fifteen years ago, he left a widow and fix children, four fons, and two daughters. Governor Marbauf, who was fond of his family, fent to France, to an Ecole Militaire, the two eldeft, viz. Napilone, the General, and Guifeppe, his younger brother. Marbauf dying in 1786, they returned from France to their mother. The eldest, the prefent General, was then eighteen or nineteen years old. At the commencement of the Corfican revolution, 1790, the younger was appointed Member of the Departmental Directory at Corte, and the eldest Commander of the National Guards at Ajaccio. At the fchool in France, he had laid a juft foundation for the acquifition of military knowledge; and panted for nothing fo much as a practical opportunity for the improvement of his art. He was even about to take a command in the Turkifh horfe, when appointed to a divifion of the French army in the South. What ufe he has made of that command need not be here recapitulated. One anecdote, however, relative to his first conquefts in Italy, we cannot omit; for to thofe who have eftimated the fuccefs of the French arms folely from the report of their Generals, it will convey fome unexpected information. On the entrance of the Republican armies into the Italian territory, numbers of the people who were incenfed with the oppreffions of their rulers, immediately embraced their invaders. Thefe men were not to be idly maintained; they were accordingly not only em bodied with the troops, but put foremost in every engagement: a scheme which proved fuccessful to the utmoft. So far, now, from claiming any connection with their country, ftanding as traitors to that coun |