poets do not endeavour to paint their countrymen fuch as they are: for they are faid to poffefs as much humanity as reafon. A man in difgrace at court is, in London, congratulated with as much folicitude as in other places he is abandoned The thing for which the English are moft culpable, is their deeming fuicide an act of bravery. They ought to recollea, that even the Athenians, their model, were not fuffered to deftroy themselves till after they had given their reasons for it. The English, on the contrary, frequently kill themselves on the flighteft occafion; even fometimes merely to mortify another. A hufband diflatisfied with the behaviour of his wife, who, by his death, would be a confiderable lofer, threatened, if the did not mend her manners, to be never nary affair, which could revenged of her by hanging him- The life of Samuel, Baron de Puffen- dorff. HIS celebrated philofopher or in their public fpectacles, rarely was born in the year 1631, I fall finish this chapter with the recital of a very extraordi at Fleh, a fmall village, fituate 1 only teach him what he knew. A Saxon nobleman, ftruck with his great fagacity, could not, without pain, fee him thus left to languifh in a village. He offered to bear the expence, if his father would fend him to study at an univerfity; and Mr. Puffendorff having accepted the offer, his fon fet out for Leipfic; and entered the univerfity of that town, where he foon diftinguished himself. His ardour for ftudy occafioned him to make an aftonishing progrefs. His father, who defigned him for his own function of a minifter, was defirous he fhould attach himfelf to divinity; accordingly, in obedience to him, he began to ftudy it; but his tafte not inclining him to that vocation, he declared, Tom time to time, in favour of the faw; infomuch that he foon infenfibly relinquifhed theology. After gratifying his curiofity in all the branches of legiflation, he pitched upon common law; determined thereto by motives both of intereft and inclination. He had learned, that the feveral fovereigns who compofe the ftate of Germany, had no other minifters of ftate, than fuch as were killed in the common law of Germany. In that country it is neither birth nor a great name, but merit alone which procures places; and fuch men of learning as apply themfelves to know the private interefts of mankind, are efteemed more capable to conciliate them, than perfons of dilipated and unprincipled minds. In fhort, if you have money, you are there admitted to the chief dignities of the ftate. Pufendorff informed himfelf of all this, and refolved, by his capacity, to ftrike out a way to honour. When he had acquired at Leip fic, all the knowledge he could gain in the law, he retired to Jena in fearch of ftill farther informa tion. He was more particularly drawn thither by the celebrated geometrician Erhard Weigel, at that time profeflor of the mathematics there. Our young philofopher had already fludied the first elements of this fcience; and now thought it neceffary to make his way into the depths of it. He went accordingly to Mr. Weigel's houfe, with no other recommendation that that of his merit, and an avidity of learning. The profeffor gave him a welcome worthy of them both, not only receiving him in the most gracious manner, but offering him apartments in his own houfe. The offer was too engaging to be refufed; he accepted it therefore, and entered, without referve, upon the ftudy of the mathematics: here he found infinite fatisfaction in a first acquaintance with the writings of Defcartes; whofe manuer of philofophifing fo ftrongly affected him, that, with the affiftance of his natural talents, he foon arrived at fuch perfection in it, as he could never have thought of attaining; nay, he himself acknowledges, that, if there is any thing of exactnefs and order in his writings, he owes them to the method adopted by that philofopher. It is remarkable of Delcartes, that his doctrine formed three of the firft geniufes in the school of philofophy; namely, our Mr. Locke, father Malebranche, and Mr. Puffendorff. The latter not only found out in his works many ufeful difcoveries, but he gained what was ftill more valuable, a tafie tafte for philofophy, that love of truth and fimplicity which difpels the prejudices and delufions of felf-love. From that moment he looked upon the glaring titles taken up in univerfities, as vain and doubtful tokens of capacity and learning; while, more jealous to be learned than to appear fo, he difdained to take the honorary degrees. His mind had infinite pleasure in the ftudy of the mathematics, and his heart found every with happily gratified in the amiable fociety of Mr. Weigel. That gentleman had a defign of compofing a courfe of morality, to be handled after the manner of the geometricians. The efteem he had for Puffendorff induced him to communicate his fcheme to him; and our philofopher entered fo well into the principles of morality, that Mr. Weigel thought him more fitted than himfelf to execute it. Accordingly he gave him his manufcript, and permitted him to make what use of it he judged proper. Every thing attached our author to his profeflor; the leffons he received from him, the sweetness of his converfation, and his affiduous politenefs. But he was afraid of abufing his favours by remaining any longer in his houfe; he had already been there a year, which was too long, in his opinion, for a man incapable of acknowledging the fervices he had done him he left him, therefore, and returned to Leipfic. : While uncertain there how to proceed in order to lay the foundation of a moderate fortune, he received a letter from his brother, who was in the fervice of the king of Sweden, advifing him not to lofe his time in his own country, but to feek to fettle himfelf elfewhere. Puffendorff approved his counfel, and determined to follow it: he made acquaintance with fome Swedes, who proposed to him to undertake the education of the fons of Mr. Coyet, aulic counfellor to the king of Sweden, fecretary of state, and ambassador extraordinary to the United Pro vinces. His prefent fituation did not allow him to reject fuch a poft. He went accordingly with his pupils to Leyden, where he bufied himself in publishing the Opufcula of Meurfius; the fuccefs of which engaged him to fend out another work, entituled, Ancient Greece, written by Lauwemberg: this book appeared in 1660, under the fanction of Mr. Coyet, the father of his young difciples. Puffendorff had now attained his twentieth year; an age in which his tafte being, without doubt, formed, he turned it again to its firft inclinations. He no longer ftudied the fciences and hiftory, but for the connection they might have with the fubject of legiflation: his peculiar attention had been ingroffed by the common law; a fyftem fcarcely refcued from the chaos in which the lawyers and theologifts had funk it. The former, too deeply abforbed in their code and digeft, were defirous of making it the invariable rule of equity, and wholly neglected to raile it to its firft principles; the latter had abfolutely perplexed the fcience by their fcholaftic diftinctions, which, inftead of throwing the leaft light upon it, rendering the ftudy of it, on the contrary, long, irkfome, and obfcure. Our philofopher was D+ refolved refolved to fet forth the fubje& in the cleareft point of view. To this end he read Grotius's great work on the rights of war and peace; it failed not to enlarge his ideas, and create new ones in his mind; the refult of which was, at length, a refolution to publifh a philofophical treatise on the Law of Nature and Nations. To execute his purpose, affiftances were wanting which he could not find at Leyden, and with which time and providence alone could furnish him. In the interim, wanting a favourable opportunity, he compofed his Elements of univerfal jurifprudence, in which he interfperfed feveral things taken from the before-mentioned moral manufcript of his friend Mr. Weigel: the fubject was handled so much in the geometrical tafte, that a learned man, on reading the work, obferved, that he felt the mathema tician. In 1660, our author publifhed it at the Hague, with a dedication to Charles Louis, the Elector Palatine: the prince afterwards teftified his thanks by a very gracious letter, alluring him of his efteem, and giving him room to expect fubftantial proofs of his regard. And accordingly, the year after the elector fent for him to the univerfity of Heidelberg, and gave him the firft public profefforflip ever founded in Germany of the law of nature and nations, which that prince had lately inflituted: to this high honour he added that of employing him in the education of the electoral prince; and, to render his talents fill more ufeful, engaged him to write upon the flate of the German empire, giving him at the fame time memoirs, to aflist him in the undertaking. Our profeffor examined attentively all thefe memoirs, and after having digefted the feveral matters, found Germany to be a republican body, the ill-forted members of which form together a monstrous whole. This propofition was the chief fubject of his work. It was, indeed, fo very bold a one, that he judged it right not to declare himself the author; but gave it out under the name of Mr. Severin de Monzabana, a Veronefe; and dedicated it to his brother the Swedish ambafador at the court of France, whom he masked under the title of M. Lelio de Treozlani. To avoid all fufpicion, he allo thought proper to publish it in German; lending the manufcript to his brother to get it printed at Paris. The latter offered it to a bookfeller, who defired M. de Mezerai, the famous hiftorian, to examine it; he accordingly read it over, and deemed it worthy publication; but declined giving it his approbation, as he found fome paffages in it contrary to the interefts of France, and others, in which the priests and monks were roughly handled. The ambassador was fatisfied with this refufal, and fent the manufcript to Geneva, where it was printed in 1667, under the tittle, Severini de Monzabana, de flatu Imperii Germanici, Liber unus. It was received as the author had prefumed. Great fearch was made for him, and it was attributed to different perfons; but the right one could never be guelled at; and fo well had he taken his meafures, that the truth was never exactly known till after his death. While the author was thus fought after, the book was written against by by feveral lawyers, and fome others were very active to get it fuppreffed: at length, indeed, they did procure it to be condemned, prohibited, and confifcated, in feveral parts of Germany; and almoft immediately three criticifins were publifhed, which were followed by two others fome years after, Notwithstanding all this, Puffendorff's performance was not the lefs efteemed; but the fame it gained him proved very prejudicial; his adverfaries grew jealous and fevere: they fet on foot artful and anonymous fchemes; and their cabals were fo bafely conducted, as to detract from the eminent qualities of our profeffor; and, in fhort, at length to difplace him. The memoirs of his life do not fay how he loft his profefforfhip: a conjecture may be formed from a knowledge of the human heart. "They who have lived with envious people, know how capable they are of hurting the man who eclipfes them. There is an art of fpiriting merit away, however real it may be; and bafe minds, whofe intereft renders that art their study, almost always excel, and are fuccessful." Thus deprived of dignity, Puf. fendorff thought proper to offer his fervices to the king of Denmark he went to Copenhagen, and folicited a profefforhip then vacant; but it was carried by a competitor more ftrongly recommended, and he gained by his journey alone the chagrin of being witnefs of it, and thereby difcerning either that he was not enough known in that country, or that protection and intereft decided the fate of talents. He had hopes that more juftice would be done him in Sweden: in this view, he repaired to Lunden, where Charles XÍ. had juft erected an univerfity: here he was received with open arms, and a profefforfhip was immediately given him, of which he took poł feffion in 1670. This place enabled him to refume the ordinary courfe of his ftudies. He compofed a little work, which he published under the title of Inquiries respecting the irregular republic; it is a kind of commentary upon the fourth chapter of his book on the state of the German empire, in which he treats of the form of that empire. This performance was well received. Hitherto, however, he had not fully manifefted his abilities; he was to compleat his reputation, by the great work he propofed on the law of nature and nations; and at length, living in a ftate of quiet, and being furnished with the neceffary affiftance, he refolved on putting the laft hand to it. He read over all the political works of Hobbes, and re-read with a fcrupulous attention Grotius on war and peace. The fecond perufal was of great fervice to him: he remarked, that though the book was the production of a great philofopher, it was not however free from prejudices. Grotius had guarded fome expreffions refpect ing fcholaftic ideas, whether becaufe he had not entirely come into them himself, or thought this condefcenfion neceffary, for gaining fuch readers as held them in eftimation. Poffendorff faw the inefficacy of fuch a condefcenfion, and therefore paid no regard to it; but treated his fubject without concerning himfelf with the fcho |