To which are prefixed, an Addrefs the Right Hon. Thomas Pelham ; and Obfervations on the Irregular Ode. Second Edit. Svo. pp. 68. (Not fold.) Dublin. EXTRACTS. ON THE IRREGULAR ODE. "THAT the irregular ode is fufceptible of exquifite beauty, and has, befides, appropriate recommendations, living and concludent teftimony avers. Objections, neverthelefs, important at least in the confequence of thofe that have urged them, appear against it. By inquiring into the validity of thefe, its true capacity may perhaps be found; and in that its value. "Johnfon, admiring the equability of the couplet, and being, confequently, at variance with the changeful freedom of blank metre and lyrical numbers, ftates, in his animadverfions on the Poems of Prior, which are written in unequal meafures, that the effence of verfe is order and con'fonance'." "P. 13. "As men are feldom difpofed to imagine they have been studious in vain, very fingular opinions, which the mimic of understanding, than to are generally more a-kin to affectation, understanding itfelf, have rarely pro duced much credit to their authors. Yet, without referring to the influence of pride, it is by no means wonderful that fuch opinions fhould find an introduction into the world, not only in confequence of the treachery of judgment, but because unnumbered cir cumftances concur to render men as diftinguishable by variety of taste as of features. They have their characters from education and experience. Senas well, perhaps, from conftitution, as fibility is not equally alive in every informed mind, nor judgment equally To all authors circumenergetic. ftances frequently occur, to evince the danger of an implicit reliance on the integrity of opinion. How often, during the hours of compofition, have ideas been received as delightful, which were defined to be fuddenly and contemptuoufly difmilled! How often, in have thofe very ideas been recalled confequence of perfected deliberation, and adopted! "Such facts enforce the neceflity of circum circumfpection; nor will the truly wife, who are ever modeft, diffent from received opinions but with all the referve of prudence. They know it is more likely that error may attach to the mind of an individual, than to a community of minds; and that in all queftions of tafte, men, who are too well informed to take opinions upon truft, will refer to their own experience and reafon, and probably proteft against the pride of the critic, who dogmatically protefts against the judgment of the public. "Although the most ancient, the lyric is generally allowed to be the moft impaffioned, moft rapturous, and moft elevated mode of poetry, not excepting the epic itfelf." Of thefe particulars of its character, the oldeft compofitions, thofe of the Pfalmift efpecially, afford the most interesting and fublime examples. We are, befides, to confider it as it is capable of conforming to the changeful purposes of the poet; in which refpect it is a powerful, if not infallible objection to the maxim, which fuppofes, that the form of compofition fuitable to every occafion can fuit no occafion well. By confequence, it is not more perfect when expreílive of the fublimity and impetuofity of Pindar, than when it complies with the dignified fimplicity and graceful courtlinefs of Horace; foftens to the gentle purposes of Sappho; or accommodates the hilarity and ease of AnaCreon. Such being its capacity, a recol lection of its effects might well induce the Macedonian conqueror to check the rage of fpoliation, and hold facred the manfion which had been inhabited by the Theban bard. But who could conceive it to have been poffible, did not the fact exist, that an able advocate of tafe, a critic of deferved celebrity, the illuftrious Montefquieu himfelf, could have afperfed the very species of poetic compofition, which, through a fucceflion of ages, had remarkably contributed to forward, refine, and enrich taste, as the tuneful rapture of folly? His opinion, however, was only heard, lyric poetry exifts to testify that nothing powerful, because nothing true, can be advanced in fupport of error." P. 14. "Rhyme, fays Milton, and Johnson confeffes he fays truly, is no neceffary adjunct or true ornament of poetry t Certainty is to opinion what luftre is to a gem, its abiding recommendation; and the certainty of this opinion, the poet, in an unimitated and unequivocal manner, has proved by extensive practice. But what is the inference which muft arife from the confeflion of a critic, who, having repeatedly taught us that rhyme is effential to verfe," permits us now to conclude, that it is unnecessary to poetry? If rhyme be not neceffary to poetry, it cannot be neceffary to verfe; fince the fole purpose of verfe is the embellishment of poetry. By confequence, the critic has defeated himself, whether confonance be confidered as uneffential to poetry, or as entering into the 'effence of verse.'But who is the man that has at all times his Minerva to direct him? "Thus compelled, by the irresistible evidence of Milton, to relinquish rhyme, the critic, in the warmth of his feelings, feems difpofed to furrender verfe likewife; expreffing a doubt whether of poetry, confidered as a mental operation, verfe is a neceffary adjunct ‡.' "It is true, poetry might subsist independently of verfe; but it is as true, that, fo detached, it would fubfift with abated refpectability. Virtue, every man knows, is feparable from reafon; but, as the dignity and joy of reason cannot, without the aid of virtue, be perfected and truly illuftrated, virtue is therefore its neceffary affociate. Such, in these refpects, as virtue is to reafon, to poetry is verfe; and, that it is, all languages maintain; for all languages, as the critic confeffes, have difcriminated poetry by the mufic of "It is almost impoffible to conceive, that he could have studied, without being alive to the beauties, not only of the ancient, but of fome modern lyrifts. Amongst the latter, he could not furely have overlooked the tender Petrarch, whofe favourite Vauxclufe Voltaire commemorates in confideration of its former inhabitant: Lieux où dans ces beaux jours, Petrarch fufpiroit fes vers et fon amour'." "Vid. Preface to Paradife Loft," Da "Life of Milton." gretted, gretted, that in the moft violent attachment to regularity and rhyme, or the most incautious moments of compofition, he should have been betrayed to fay, that what reafon could urge in defence of blank verfe had been confuted by the ear. Perhaps a fimple statement of this affertion is fufficient, fince it is only lefs idle to argue in difproof of obvious fallacy, than to publifh the fallacy itself. We shall, however, venture to remark, that as argument can be reafonable only in being juft, fuch as reafon has advanced in defence of blank metre can never be reafonably overcome. How then fhall they be confuted?-By the ear!-Impoffible! In a queftion that refers to a purely mental operation, we cannot admit an appeal from mind to matter; from the intellect to the animal; from the fupreme judging faculty to a merely mechanical organ. Even of mufic, properly fo called, the ear is not the judge. This opinion is confirmed by the unanimous confent of the ancients; who, far from imputing the wonders faid to have been operated by mufic, merely to its effect on the fenfe of hearing, afcribe them immediately to its influence on the paffions, or judging faculty of the foul. If then the ear is not judiciary in the fcience of mere found, how fhall it be fuppofed capable of judging of metrical compofition, from which fentiment is infeparable? The moft, therefore, that can be advanced on the subject is, that the ear, as menial to the foul, mechanically receives and tranfmits founds; of the pleafure and propriety of which the foul is the critic. To defcribe the ear as acting in a higher function, would be as erroneous as to impute the fcience by which mufic is elicited from an inftrument to the inftrument itself: it would be to deny to the foul, when immediately interested, a right of judging for herfelf, and the ufe of that power of reflection by which the determines, that the pleafure of what is called the melody of verfe is the effect of a peculiar arrangement of charming language. Were not thefe obfervations true, liftening idiocy, whofe auditory organs "Life of Milton. "Vid. Malcom's Treatife on Mufic, c. xiv. and Grafs Muf. Dic. art. Mufique. "The Executive Directory." "The People." "The Council of Five Hundred." CON CONTENTS. VOL. I. MEMOIRS of Louis XVI. Queen-Princess Elizabeth Dauphin-Jean Silvain Bailly-Benoit-Etienne Charles de Lomenie de Brienne-Jacques Pierre Briffot Chabot-Anacharfis Clootz-Caritat de Condorcet--George Jaques Danton-Camille DefmoulinsCharles François Dumouriez-P. F. N. Fabre d'Eglantine-Thomas Mahé Marquis de Favras-Marquis de la Fayette-Gobet-Jaques Réné d'Hebert-F. Henriot. VOL. II. Michel Lepelletier de Saint Fargeau-Pierre Manuel-Jean Paul Marat-Gabriel Honore Riquetti Comte de Mirabeau-Jaques Necker -Louis Philippe Jofeph Duc d'Orleans-Thomas Pain-Jerome Petion --Maximilien Robespierre-Appendix of Original Papers. EXTRACT FROM THE PREFACE. "THE plan of this work is to fketch the lives of the principal actors in the French revolution, and to trace the influence of individuals in producing events which have filled the world with aftonishment, and for which hiftorical parallels are fought in vain. It is alfo no lefs the object of these memoirs to fhow the nature, fpirit, and tendency of thofe principles which contributed to the fuccefs of fanguine innovators, who, under a pretence of ameliorating the condition of mankind, meditated the fubverfion of focial order. "I was firft induced to undertake this work from obferving the general fyftem of mifrepresentation which has prevailed in defcribing the characters of thofe who have acted confpicuous parts in the French revolution. Wri ters, friendly to the cause, have laboured to justify the promoters of it, not by demonstrating the purity or propriety of their views, but by an unlimited cenfure of their opponents. Succeeding factions have adopted the fame line of conduct towards their predeceffors. Language and invention have been exhaufted in terms of abuse and modes of crimination. "On the other hand, fome have affumed the task of being their own biographers; and, with a fhameless difregard of truth and decency, have lavished on themfelves and on their co-operators all the eulogies which eould be claimed by wifdom, virtue, difintereftedness, and pure patriotifm. "From fuch publications real information can rarely be derived; if the narrators have afforded means of tracing the progrefs of their own conduct from year to year, they have feldom prefented true motives of ac tion, or faithfully difplayed their ultimate views. The biographical works which have appeared in the course of the French revolution are, therefore, not to be implicitly depended on, but can only obtain a partial credit, by a comparison with cotemporary narratives, and with the hiftory of the times. "And yet it is from the fe fources that moft of the writers who have defended the revolution have drawn their materials, implicitly crediting all the unjuft afperfions which the enemies of monarchy have caft on the King and Queen, and on their adherents, and relying on the interefted and partial accounts which the regicides have given of their own conduct and party. They have alfo frequenty exaggerated what they found; and as they feldom precifely quote their authorities, they have impofed on many, whom want of leifure, or facility of difpofition, have prevented from pursuing the proper means of detection. "I have made it my bufinefs faithfully and diligently to examine both fides of the queftion; to felect, combine, and compare the difcordant accounts of the fame transaction; to' weigh the motives which various parties have affigned for their own conduct, and that of their opponents; and to draw fuch probable refults as were warranted by circumftances and authorities. "To avoid every imputation of in-. tended error, I have made it an invariable rule to advance no affertion for which I have not produced my authorities. Without this precaution my work would have had no claim to a different eftimation from thofe political romances, which are daily obtruded on the world, under the names of hiftory and biography," P. v. EX EXTRACTS. PERSON, &C. OF LOUIS XVI. "A FEMALE author, who began a pretended hiftory of the revolution, has defcribed the King as fufficiently ugly to difguft his confort, and almost excufe thofe exceffes, which the focopioufly and falfely attributes to the Queen The correctness of her report might be fairly questioned from the tenor of her whole performance, which is a mere rhapfody of bellous declamations, in which the facts are admitted without examination, and put together without confiftency; but a better refutation arifes from the reports of those who well knew the late King, and from the portraits of him publifhed under the best authorities. The following defcription of him, by M. Montjoye, I have every reason to think is in general correct: Louis was endowed with a good conftitution, and with an extraordinary fhare of corporeal ftrength. His height was five feet five inches + He carried his head with dignity. His forehead was large, and his fea⚫tures ftrongly marked; he had rather a downcalt, though a steady look. His eyes were blue and large; he had full cheeks, a well-proportioned mouth, and regular teeth; his lips were fomewhat thick, like thofe of moft of the Bourbons, and his fkin remarkably white. In the latter years of his life he grew rather corpulent; but this embonpoint became him, and gave to his gait a degree of firmness, equally remote from awkwardnefs and negligence. Though naturally lively, he feldom laughed aloud; and thofe who were not admitted on a footing of familiarity, thought him ferious and referved. Even at the time when he addicted himfelf to violent exercife, which his conftitution rendered neceffary, he was always fober. Till his acceffion to the throne he drank nothing • but water; he afterwards mixed it, ⚫ but never drank wine alone, except now and then, after meals, when he gluttony and the love of drinking ftand confpicuous. Even Dumouriez, the pretended royalift, afferts that the corrupters of his youth, in order to degrade his character, inspired him with factitious vices, fuch as anger and the love of wine.' On the for mer point Dumouriez, with his usual futes himself in the very fame volume, difregard of truth and confiftency, conwhere he ufes the following expreffions: The world is much deceived in refpect to the character of this prince, who has been defcribed as a violent and choleric man, who fwore frequently, and was accustomed to treat his minifters with much roughness. Dumouriez, on the contrary, ought to do him juftice by obferving, that 'during the three months he was accuftomed to fee him, and that too in very difficult fituations, he always 'found him polite, mild, affable, and of wine, which Dumouriez is not afhamvery patient.' With refpect to the love ed to impute to him, without vouching a fingle inftance in fupport of it, and which many fhameless libellers, till a general has been alleged against the King by fo belief of it has prevailed; it is fo totally deftitute of foundation, so abfolutely void of fanction from thofe authors who either knew the King or had any regard for veracity, that little hefitation is neceffary in placing this among thofe efforts of calumny, by endeavoured to aflimilate the character which the paralites of the Palais Royal of the virtuous monarch with that of the Duke of Orleans." Vol. i. p. 7. STATE OF THE PRISONS DURING THE TYRANNY OF ROBESPIERRE. gaillard gives an account of the gene"THE following extract from Montral fituation of the prifoners, which abhorrence. For thefe four months the cannot be perufed without fentiments of prifoners have been forbid all commuence the most barbarous treatment,and nication with mankind. They experi fopped a bit of bread in foreign wine."the coarfe food now allowed, and the I have been more particular in ftating thefe facts, becaufe amongst the vices with which flander fullied the name and memory of this unfortunate prince, privation of which is often threatened, is examined by commiffioners and thrown in through openings from the committee of public fafety, "Mrs. Wolftonecraft's Hiftory of the Revolution, p. 133." "French meafure-equal to upwards of five feet ten inches English.” 66 I which |