: and told him that it was by no means a journey of any length; "Very true Sire," replied the poet "We had ordered our campaign "dreffes; but our taylors made us wait fo long, that when they brought them home, the town your majefty went to besiege "had been long taken.* 66 Madame de Maintenon was one of Racine's greatest protectors. He had one day reprefented to her in very strong terms, the miferies which Louis the Fourteenth's expenfive wars. had entailed upon his people. She was much `ftruck with the force of his reafons, and the powers of his defcription; and defired him to draw up for her a memorial on the fubject. This the fhewed to Louis, who was much difpleafed at it, and infifted on knowing the author. She had the weakness to tell him, and he immediately exclaimed, What, because "he knows how to write good verfes, does he "pretend to know every thing else; and be"caufe he is a great poet, does he think him"felf capable of being a great minifter?" On being told of this, Racine exclaimed, " 166 I 66 am a dead man,” ran into his bed-chamber * The collections that those great men had made for the History were burnt in a fire at M. de Valincour's house. VOL. I. X and and took immediately to his bed, forgetting what he had advanced in his tragedy of Efther: What bufinefs has that man at Court, He went afterwards to Court at the requeft of Madame de Maintenon, but appeared very melancholy and unhappy there, in spite of the notice the king affected to take of him. He died foon afterwards, and told his friend Boileau, who came to fee him in his illnefs, "I love you so much, my dear friend, that "I am really glad to die before you. I do not "know how I could have lived without you; and in the fame ftrain of ardent friendship, when on his death bed he applied for the arrears of his own penfion for the fake of his family, he defired his fun to ask for those due to Boileau at the fame time. "We muft 66 never be feparated," faid he; " and I am "anxious to let him know that I conti"nued his friend to the laft moment of my life." Racine Racine was an excellent fcholar. His So phocles and Euripides were full of marginal notes on the dubious paffages of thofe tragic poets, and were preferved in the king's library at Paris. The Memoirs of the Life of Racine are written by his fon, who added to them fome account of his father's friends, Boileau, Moliere, and la Fontaine. 66 "My father," fays young Raciné, “to disgust my brother from writing verfes, and from "fear that he should attribute to my father's Tragedies the attention that was paid to "him by the men of rank about the Court, "faid to him, "Do not suppose that my verses procure me all this notice. Corneille writes "much finer verfes than I can do, yet no one pays him the least attention. He is only "admired in the mouths of the actors. So "inftead of tiring a company with reciting 66 my own verfes (about which I never talk), "I content myself with converfing with them "in the way they like, and talking of things "that amuse them. My business with them " is, to tell them how clever they are; fo that "fometimes when the Prince of Condé has paffed many hours with me, you would be "aftonished, 66 X 2 "aftonifhed, were you prefent, to obferve that I "have not spoken five words; but by degrees I "lead him on to talk, and he goes home much better pleased with himself than with me." LE CLERC. THE candour and modefty of this great scholar were not lefs remarkable than his crudition. When his judgment was matured by age, he became afhamed of what he had written in his youth on the fubject of Genefis. He made a public recantation of his error, by annexing afterwards to his Commentary on Genefis a Differtation concerning Mofes, the writer of that book of the Pentateuch, in which he acknowledged very fairly the errors he had given into in the firft edition of his Commentary. However," fays the learned and pious Dr. Huntingford, "the cenforious may be in"clined through malevolence to attribute a "change of fentiments to improper motives, yet in the estimation of candid judges, ha"bituated to reflection, it fullies no man's "honour to abandon a mistake and adopt a right principle. It degrades no man's un"derstanding to acknowledge that he has "thought . "thought erroncoufly; but that after mature "enquiry he has changed his opinion; for very "little do they anfwer the purpose of increaf"ing age, who become not ufefully wifer as they grow older. The Spanish proverb " fays, A wife man alters his opinion, but "a fool never does; and Lord Chief "Juftice Mansfield often faid, that to ac"knowledge that you were yesterday wrong, "is but to let the world know that you are "wifer to-day than you were yesterday." MONTESQUIEU. THE pofthumous Works of this writer were. published in 1783. In a preface to an Oriental Tale, intitled 'Arfaces and Ifmenia,' printed in them, he says, "He wrote that Tale "from a defire that he had to make even def "potifm agreeable to his countrymen; being 66 perfuaded in his mind that a limited monarchy (which, from the inftability "of human affairs, was but too apt to dege"nerate into defpotifm) was the government "best fuited to the country of France.*" Of Through how many different changes of government have the French paffed fince they deftroyed the regal one! |