try, and subject to its fevereft penalties, thefe men, on every occafion, received the moft dreadful firings, and fought with the bravery of defpair. The confequences of this plan must be obvious. Few of the French were flain and the General, when he gathered his account, noting only the number of killed and wounded Frenchmen, fent up to the Convention a report that aftonifhed Europe! This, it must be admitted, was a grand manoeuvre; and the army which is thought to have gained fuch victories, without, comparatively fpeaking, the lofs of a fingle man, may well be contemplated as ominous and deftructive. The talents of Buonaparte are undoubtedly great. Added to the above, he has a peculiar mode of arranging his troops. They are in apparent confufion : fo that the enemy cannot difcover what his intentions are, how to attack him, or how to evade his attacks: and hence, with inferior forces, he makes his opponents believe that they have fuperior numbers to fight with. He is abftemious in living, fond of, and active and regular in bufinefs. He has four diftinct fecretaries in conftant employ one, for the military branch of the army: another, for its pay and expenditure, or internal œconomy; a third, for his political correfpondence with the Directory, and with foreign ftates; and a fourth, for the police or management of the conquered countries. He is ardent beyond every thing for military glory, and full of the most anxious zeal of rivalling those heroes commemorated by Plutarch, whose works he is conftantly reading. His firmnefs in the moment of danger and furprize has feldom been excelled. When, with only twelve or fifteen hundred men, he was on the point of being attacked by four thousand Auftrians, he alked the officer who fummoned him to furrender, "How he dared to bring fuch a meffage to the General of the French army?"-and the Auftrians, awed by the fuperiority of his genius, actually threw down their arms. Kk 2 His His perfon is interefting and great. He is of middle ftature, rather flender, of a pale and delicate complexion, though tolerably ftrong; blue eyes, aquiline nofe, the chin prominent, the forehead wide: the whole a countenance ftrongly indicative of a difcerning and elevated mind: he is habitually of a taciturn and contemplative difpofition; yet he is not devoid of the French elegance and gaiety. His addrefs is fuch, that he contrives to make even his rivals fecond his views, and affift his operations. He has excited in his troops an enthufiafm beyond example: the place in him the moft unlimited confidence, and think that under his command they are invulnerable to defeat. With this confidence in his genius they join fuch a refpect, and even terror for his character, that they dread the reproaches of their general more than the fwords of the enemy. He has only, in a critical hour, as at Lodi, to put himself at their head; and, impelled by the enthuhafm of their caufe; confidence in the perfon of their Commander, and terror for his reproaches if defeated; there is not a task that they will not attempt, nor a dif ficulty which they feem unable to vanquish. But the qualifications of their General are not confined to the circle of arms. His letters are masculine and noble; the correspondence of an heroic mind.— Cæfar was the imitator of Alexander; and Buonaparte has read Plutarch's Cæfar. A THE REFLECTOR. "The man who, from the vulgar pate, Is enemy to Church and State." ANONYMOUS, Ta time when prejudice is fo much reviled, and prepoffeffions of every defcription deemed inimical to the interefts of truth, an inquiry into the nature and and utility of prejudice may not be confidered as unacceptable. Admitting that all our knowledge, unless attended with the immediate affent of the fenfes, is the information of prejudice, to what a neceffity are we inevitably reduced! If we are to admit no circumftance as an ar ticle of belief, until that circumftance be explicit to our understanding, how are we to act in the common emergencies from the common intelligence of life? Such a mode of conduct prefuppofes an innate capacity, and an inftinctive wisdom, which its advocates utterly disavow. I am informed that there is a city called Paris, and I am told that two and two make four : I may deny the existence of Paris, because I cannot identify that city by the evidence of fight; while I admit, that two and two make four, becaufe my knowledge is adequate to the ftatement. Many, I know, will be apt to difregard this comparison, and affert, that it is not applicable to my fubject. It may not apply in every particular: but it is enough if it proves that was a man to reject knowledge till knowledge grew up within him, he would be the most ignorant, therefore the most prejudiced being on earth. The enemy to prejudice will hardly contend for such a scheme: he will retort from another quarter." What I contend for, he will fay, is very different. I only with that men, when they be come reasonable in fcience, would deftroy more of their carly fuperftitions: the partialities of friendship and kindred; the love of our country; refpect for the wisdom of the ancients, and the ceremony of eftablished authority, are among the fruitful fources of prejudice." To judge of these accufations, let us examine them feparately. There was a time when the influence of local attachment needed not a defence: if the merits of that fentiment were difcuffed, the difcuffion formed rather an eulogium on their beneficial tendencies, than a queftion fufpicious of their propriety. Never, till within a few past years, did it enter into the philofophic head, Kk 3 head, that the tender partialities of life were injurious to the general weal. This affirmation, however, is not meant to fix any delinquency on the exifting enemies to prejudice. Man has ever been bufied in difcovering the causes of his mifery; and, unwilling to fee that it originates in his depraved capacity, he is inclined to believe that thofe feelings which are more powerful than reafon, as they confirm the prefent order of things, are the fources of all his diftrefs. Could this be eftablished, not only would it be defirable, but every one who, by reforming himself, would ameliorate the condition of his race, muft immediately wish to eradicate fenfations fo inimical to happiness. In difcuffing this point, it is impoffible to overlook the force of our early attachments. The love of home is peculiar to all. Difcord may leffen, but it cannot fupprefs this affection. And is it poffible that fo powerful a principle can operate to the injury of fociety? Is that fentiment inconfequențial, much more baneful, which reftrains ambition, engenders patriotifm, and humanizes the force of intellect? Did not the influence of commerce, and a fame the offspring of luxury, inflame the bafe, and erase the mild wishes of the heart, never would the conqueror command or opprefs his infulted flaves. Not till men forget the dictates of Nature, do they commence the reign of tyranny. The dear fpot which first gave them a being, to which their wishes were contracted, and from which their hopes never wandered, is forgotten; they are vitiated by corruption-they are emboldened by infamy, and they are no longer patriots, for they ceale to be men. The love of our country, then, is a prej dice and the partialities of friendship and kindred arife from the fame ftock. Here it is oppofed-" that any particular and exclufive favour, inafmuch as it extends not to all, fo it abates or weakens thofe feelings which belong to univerfal man." True-thefe partialities are particular; but they are not exclufive.Surely Surely that muft be an unfocial fyftem where every thing is general. Even a family-the smallest divifion of united life is not exempt from particulars: one part of that body is often more attached than the other, without abating its combined felicity. So it fares with extended communities. We are prone to individuality, in talents and in affections; it is fociety which gene-. ralizes our nature, and fo far has fociety a falutary effect but that effect becomes deftructive when it would rudely tear away each folitary confolation. Without this inclination, the most heinous of crimes would often efcape. We can hear, little moyed at the recital, that thousands have bled on the field-while, let but a felected inftance of murder be prefented to our minds, we fhrink with horror and deteftation from the offence. A refpect for the wifdom of the ancients, and for the ceremonies of established authority, have, in many inftances, been productive of evils to mankind; yet, on the whole, it may be fairly queftioned-whether their confequences have not rather been beneficial than injurious. Perhaps a candid, though a literary man, will not hefitate to acknowledge, that one half of our literature is unneceffary, and one quarter of the remaining half, worse than unneceffary, abfolutely pernicious to the beft interefts of virtue. If our enquiries had been confined to the useful rather than the amufing, and even to the amufing rather than the vicious, we had long fince been fatisfied: and he will probably accede, that in this view, a refpect for the wifdom of the ancients is far from an unfalutary prejudice. Nor is a deference for established authority, when impartially confidered, productive of fewer advantages. As long as we hall continue imperfect-in other vords-as long as we fhall continue to be men and women, fo long will the weight of ceremonies have no inconfiderable influence on our minds, and confequently, our actions. We hear much of the decline of fuper ftition, |