rules and directions above prescribed and directed, as they will answer the contrary at their peril.

JOHN GARRET, Clerk to the faid Company.

A TOUR through the SOUTHERN PROVINCES of FRANCE.

(Continued from Vol. XLIX, page 417.)

LETTER V.

Mr. V to Mr. B

Marfilles, O. 20, 1788.

AT length, my dear B, I have gathered up refolution enough to take my leave of Aix and Mad. D——. Our parting fhowed that we had taken a lively intereft each in the happiness and welfare of the other. I have found nothing as yet to replace her value in my breast; her converfation was peace and pleafure, her confolations were a cure for the malady of the mind, and her advice the wildom of a protesting angel. The only charm to foothe the pain of abfence is in hope; that delightful hope that promifes we fhall meet our friends again.

I hall endeavour to recollect fome curiofities of this province of which I omitted to fpeak in my laft; and then I fhall proceed to give an account of Marfeilles, where I am now arrived.

In the diocefe of Arles, and three

leagues from that city, towards the North Eaft, is the BOURG DE BAUX, a place which is remarkable for its having given its name to one of the most ancient and illustrious houfes ever known in the history of Provence.

The celebrated Countefs of Baux, famed in the hiftory of the provincial TROUBADOURS, who prefided at the Court d'Amour, gave her decifions upon the questions propofed to her in verfe. She lived at the beginning of the twelfth century; a datum to which we may trace the earlieft poetry of the Troubadours which remains extant. The names of the ladies who held the Court of Love with Etienne de Baux, and who were its Privy Counfellors, are preferved to us in the lives of the ancient Troubadours, published by Jean de Noftradamus, an author of the fixteenth century. We find there the Countefs de Dye, who was herfelf a poet, and wrote fongs for le Beau Guillem-Adhemar, Adelazie, Countess of Avignon, la Dame de Sigue, and la Dame de Clauftral, all of them Counteffes of Marseilles.

Towards the fea, and at seven leagues from Arles, on the eastern fide, is the fmall but hand fome town of Salon, the birth-place of Doctor Michael Noftrodamus, born in the feventeenth century, famed for his predictions in verfe. The tomb of this pretended prophet has nothing very remarkable about it; but a traveller like myself must not say he has been at Salon without taking a look at it. This tomb is to be seen in the church of the Cordeliers, in going in by the door of the cloister at the right hand against the wall. It is nothing more than a projection of about a foot from the wall. It is a fquare of about the height of a man, and the lower part is in the form of a flope or theive. Upon this tomb is the buft of Noftradamus, which reprefents him as he was at the age of fixty-two years. His arms, and those of his wife, are upon a fquare of black cloth, between his portrait and his epitaph, which is graven on a tone. It is in Latin, of which I will give you the literal tranflation. "Here reft the bones of the illuftrious Michael Nefirodamus, the only one worthy, in the judgment of all, to write with his almost inspired pen, and according to the direction of the fars, the events which would arrive upon the earth, who lived fixty-two years fix months and fix days, and died at Salon in the year 1566. Pofterity envy not his repofe.

Anne Pouce Gemelle fouhaite à fon epouse la veritable felicite.

They tell us here, that the prophet of Salon buried himself alive in his tomb; but very few helieve it. It is more than likely, too, that Noftroda. mus, who was a clever man, knew better than that he actually poffeffed the power of divination to which he pretended. His Centuries, which he wrote without doubt for his amufement, and which are applicable to all manner of events, paft, prefent, and future, owe their fuccefs alone to the ignorance and credulity of the age he lived in. Noftrodamus dedicated the fecond edition of his book to Henry the IId, from whom he received many kindnelles, as well as from Catharine Medicis, Emmanuel Duke of Savoy, Catharine of France his wife, and even from Charles the IXth. He had a brother named John, Member of the Parliament of Aix, and one of the best provincial poets of his time, and who published the lives of the ancient Troubadours,

Troubadours, which contain many very curious anecdotes. The fame Michael Noftrodamus had a fon named Cæfar, who has given us a badly-written hif tory of Provence, but full of interciting facts. I recolle&t having read in fome hiftorical work, that there was formerly near to Brignolles, the Abbey de la Celle, founded about the year 1011, and of which the Religieufes were removed to Aix in 1659, on account of the relaxation of difcipline which was introduced into that houfe. Among the nuns of diftinction, I can only recollect the name of Garfenis de Sabran, Countess of Provence, and mother of Raymond Berenger. She had her gallants, and was fond of the romantic gallantry fo much the fathion of the time. Her Troubadour, who in all his fongs boasted the merits of that Princefs, faid, that to make himself worthy of her he should poffefs the politeness of Aimar, the gentility of Trincaleo, the generofity of Rendos, the affability of the Dauphin, the good-humour of Father de Maubon, the bravery of Seig neur de Beraud, the wit of Bertrand,

the cartefey of Chalillon, the magnificence of Nobles, the voice of Miraval, the gaiety of Pont de Cap d'Oeil, the rectitude of Bertrand de la Tour. Un tel amas, he adds, would be perfect.

Will you not put this delicate praife on a footing with the belt pieces of the age? For my part, I am inclined to believe that that ingenious fong was known to the author of the following, which was made at the Court of Lewis the XIVth it is a woman who fpeaks:

"Si j'avois la vivacitè
Qui fait briller Coulange,
Si je poffedois la beautè
Qui fait regner Fontange;
Ou fi j'étois comme Conti
Des Graces le modèle,
Tout cela feroit pour Crèguy
D'ût-il m'etre infidèle ?"

Before I conclude my account of Aix, I mult fay a word or two of the Tour d'Aigues, which is not far from the right bank of the Durance. It is a very handsome feat, and which has been in the poffeffion of feveral great families. Antoine Renè de Bouliers laid the foundation at the beginning of the Sixteenth century. His fon and grandfon continued the work. Before the principal gate is an efplanade worthy of being noticed, with very deep moats, full of running water, round the caftle.

There is a facade which is well spoken of by military men. There is also a handfome fquare tower above, which they tell us was conftructed by the Romans. This beautiful building is allo a monument of love and madness, exemplified in the perfon of Jean Louis Nicholas, Petit-fils d'Antoine, and Baron of Cental, who defigned it to be the habitation of a great Princefs with whom he was enamoured, and whole adventures are no fecret.

Qui plus qu'une autre femme
Porta grave dans fon ame
Le commandement divin

De l'amour de la prochain." The cyphers of this Queen's name are to be found in a thousand places, about the walls of the caftle; and thofe of the Baron accompanied with three Latin words,

"Satiabor cum apparuerit.”

"I fhall be fatisfied, when she appears.” But the hope of this amorous gentleman was disappointed.

Ne vit jamais un lieu fi beau,
Au demeurant la gentille Princeffe
Et le Baron, qui s'attendoit lans ceffe,
En fut pour les frais du château.”

Whether this tradition is fabulous or not, it is certain that the Queen Catharine of Medicis paffing through Provence retted at this cattle, the 6th of July, 1579, and remained there until the next day in the evening. She was accompanied by the Cardinal of Bourbon, the Marthal of Montmorenci, the Prince of Conde, the Princels of Lor raine, her little daughter, the Princess of Conde, and others. It is laid by thofe who will not believe the ridiculous pailion of the Baron de Cental for Queen Margaret, that it was on this occalion that the old Baron, then more than eighty years of age, cauted to be written on the walls of the castle the words Satiabor cum apparuerit, to exprefs the joy which he felt at being honoured with a visit from his fovereign.

Now then for Marseilles, which is not unjustly called la Grèce Française. It is furprising that our authors agree in giving this city only the third rank among the towns of Provence. Aix, it is true, is now the capital, and Arles was formerly one, of a great kingdom; but Marfeilles was allo in its time a powerful republic, and ought incon

testably

teftably to be regarded as the most commercial, the richest, and beft peopled town of the province. It is fituated in the Mediterranean, at the extremity of a gulf, covered and de. fended by feveral islands, and is partly built on the acclivity of a hill, and partly on a plain.

There is not any proof that there were any other towns in Gaul at the time of the foundation of Marseilles, which owed its origin to a colony of Phocians. Juftin tells us, that thefe Phocians having landed in Provence, fent their deputies to Nanus, King of that country, to afk his leave for them to fettle on the coaft, offering at the fame time to make an alliance with him. This Prince was at the time occupied about the marriage of his daughter Gyptis, and was about celebrating the custom which required, that when any Nobleman would efpoufe the Princes, they fhould affemble all the young men of the fame condition with hertelf, and that the one to whom the fhould prefent a cup full of water fhould be accepted the fon-in-law of the King. The Princes of the country were then at the Court of Nanus. The day of the ceremony was arrived. The meeting was held, and all were attentive, expecting Gyptis to declare her choice, when Protis appeared at the head of the Phocian deputies, in the midit of the affembly. Prefently the looks of every one were fixed on the trangers; they admired above all the handiome figure, the manners, and the drefs of Protis. The Princefs, urged by a new impulfe and fentiment which fhe could not refift, moved forwards, and presented the ftranger Protis with the cup, to the aftonifhment of all; but Nanus, who had only commanded a fet of favages, flattered, without doubt, at having alliance with the Chief of a polifhed people, confirmed the choice of his daughter, and made a grant to the Phocians of the ground on which Marseilles was built. This was about fix hundred years before the Christian

era.

The account which thefe firft colonies fent into Ionia of the beauty and fertility of the foil, engaged their countrymen, who had just tallen under the ycke of the Perfians, to for fake their native place. The greater part embarked fecretly with their wives and children, and threw into the fea a mally piece of iron made red hot,

fwearing never to return to their coun try until that piece of iron fhould come up and float on the furface of the water. Some of them landed in Corfica, others in Italy, and the greater number at Marfeilles. Fifty leven years had expired at that time fince the Phocians had begun to raise the walls of the town, and the popular government was already established there. This republic was not long before it began to flourish by the industry and genius of its inhabitants. They did not confine themselves to teach only the Celtic Gauls the cultivation of herbs and plants, and of the fruits which they had brought from Afia Minor; they gave them, befide, the first notion they had ever entertained of the use of writing, as well as of the beauties of eloquence and poetry.

Ariftote, you may remember, in his Treatife on Republics, makes great eulogium on that of Marfeilles. The ancients fpoke of its wife laws, which were graven upon tables, and put up in the public places, to the end that no one might be ignorant of them; but they had fome remarkable for their fingularity. Men convicted of a crime which merited death were condemned to drink the cicata, or hemlock. It was for this purpose that they kept the fugar of that deadly plant in a public depofitary near the prison. You well remember that the fame law was prac tifed at Athens.

Another law till more worthy of remark was that which respected fuicide. It was not allowed the Citizens to fhorten their days; but those who found themfelves old and infirm, or who were tired of life, explained their reafons to the Magistracy if they were approved, they granted them the permiflion of drinking publicly the cicuta, after having taken leave of their friends and relations. One of our colmographifts of the feventeenth century fays, that fifty years only before the time he wrote, the ruins of the place where the cicuta was kept was to be feen, and that it was not deftroyed until the hopital general was built on the pot. Happy confequence of civilization! It was a juft and grand difpofition of Providence, that an establishment for the prefervation of life fhould replace one which was erected by favage barbarity for the purpose of deftroying it.

All our ancient authors agree, that

the

According to Pliny, Marfeilles was the mitreis and the abode of the fciences.

The Marseillois publicly worthipped the Diana of Ephefus, whom they had confulted on leaving Phocia. They raised a temple to her in this new fettlement, as well as to Apollo. The wort of the thing was, that they facrificed human beings to thefe falie gods they abandoned, however, that horrid custom by degrees. In the first times fathers facrificed their own children; afterwards they immolated range flaves in the flames. Thefe barbarous facrifices were offered up in the Sacred Groves fituated near the town. They became at length reduced to a fimple ceremony, and which was not reforted to but in times of calamity. They made choice of a poor creature, whom they nourished with every delicacy for leve ral days, and when he was fat enough, they poured all manner of maledictions on his head. They loaded him with all the iniquities of the people, and drove him out of the town.

The Phocian Marfeillois had many long and fevere wars to maintain against the Salis and others; and when nearly vanquished, they formed an alliance with the Romans, and made confiderable conquests, and by their numerous navies had the dominion of the feas: but what made them more celebrated was, their knowledge of the fciences and fine arts. There was established at Marfeilles an academy, where they taught not only the Greek and Latin tongues, but even rhetoric, poetry, and philofophy, medicine, jurifprudence, theology, mathematics, and aftronomy. "I fall not forget Marfeilles," cried Cicero, in his oration for L. Flaccus. "Thou whofe virtue is fo eminent, that most nations fhall yield to

The Queen Medicis came once by fea to this place: her galley was feventy paces in length, with twenty-feven oars on each fide, and entirely gilt with gold on the outside. The poop was inlaid with Indian cane, ebony, granate, ivory, and lapis lazuli, and was covered with twenty rings of iron enriched with topazes, emeralds, and other precious tones, with a valt number of pearls, which together gave a moft fplendid appearance. The arms of France compofed of diamonds of the greatest value, and thofe of Tufcany with five large rubies, a fapphire, and an immenfe pearl at the top, and a fine emerald in the midit, was at the back of the feat of the Queen. There were, befides, a crofs of diamonds, and another of rubies. The rooms of this galley were hung with gold tapetry; the rowers were clothed in fcarlet, and had bonnets enriched with the fleur de lys in gold. This fplendid barge was accompanied by fix others, Florentines, five belonging to the Pope, and five of Malta.

In reading this defcription, you will think of the voyage of the famous Cleopatia up the river Cydnos, in a veffel, the poop of which was of gold, the fails of purple cloth, and the oars filver, and their movements regulated by the found of instrumental mufic, where the Queen Cleopatra lay in the most voluptuous attitude, under a pavilion of gold, and was attired with all the brilliant decorations which the poets have given to Venus. Yet, my dear B-, what is there in al this pomp and luxury equal to the beautics of chattenefs and fimplicity! The mind cannot reflect on thefe elegancies without affociating them with the defires and paflions which have kindled them, pride, effeminacy, wantonnefs, and luft. We are afraid to examine who were their owners, because we have a prefentiment that they could not be virtuous or honeft. Grandeur of apparel and equipage fuits a Monarch and the Nobility, but then it must be that grandeur and apparel which is in agreement with the dignities of honour and vir. tue: the achievements of bravery, and the clothing which corresponds with

the

the mind; rich but not gaudy, grand but not voluptuous.

I am not apt to moralize: give me, however, thofe fcenes where plainness and fimplicity are the chief characters, and which promife to the mind of philofophy a feries of undisturbed plea. fures and enjoyments, where no inordinate paffions interfere, where no pride is to be pampered, where no dignity other than that of virtue (which, by-the-bye, can support itself) is to be maintained.

But not to get too ferious, I muft tell you, that Gustave has got into a quarrel here, and about a woman too, UNE BELLE MARSEILLOISE. I was

disturbed a few mornings ago by a violent altercation below itais: it was Guftave, who was engaged with a tall, ugly, boney figure, no lets perfon than my Traiteur. They had feized hold of each other's hair, and was in the elegant attitude of Roman gladiators; when my entrance in fome measure put a stop to the combat, in which poor Guftave muft inevitably have come off wort, as his thin flender legs could fcarcely uphold him even when no impetus was applied to dinurb the equilibrium of his body. I concluded that, as Guftave was a great epicure, he had been finding fault with the cooking of the Becafes and Becoffines which we had had for dinner. It was not fo. My valet had, it feems, been caught by the Traiteur with his wife, on whom he beftowed the title of Traitreffe with no fmall portion of refentment. Gustave very gallantly defended the character of the lady, who put herfelf under his protection from what he called the cruelty of her hufband: and indeed it was quite amuting to fee the beautiful MARSEILLOISE, with a face as fwarthy as an Egyptian, and eyes like a lynx, putting her arm within that of the old valet, and chattering at her husband, while the gallant Guftave fiercely bid defiance to the Traiteur.

I began to be uneafy on account of my fervant, whom I refpect for his fidelity to me, and honefty to all the world, except where his gallantry is concerned, which, by his own account, has happened more than an hundred times in his life. The lady paired off with Guttave, and he provided her a lodging. The Traiteur threatened a great deal, but the lady, to put an end to the fears of her lover, and the threats

of the other, declared openly, and with a great deal of candour, "that they were not married," and that the had a right to choofe where the pleased. So Guftave came off in triumph; and proud enough he has been ever fince. He begged my pardon for having occa fioned me any disturbance; and affured me, that nothing could have made him fo incautious, but un combat de l'amour.

Excufe, my dear B, the trifles with which I try to entertain my friend. If what I hear is true, you ftand in need of amufement; and if fo, I cannot em. ploy my felf better than to give recrea tion to a mind that I have ever loved to find happy and at peace. Whatever gloom may be around you, and whatever phrenzy of opinion may disturb the more officious, that my dear Bmay remain tranquil and compofed is the mott fincere with of his friend

ESSAYS, HISTORICAL, LITERARY, and
MORAL.
No. VII.

On the ORIGIN and PRACTICE of
DUELLING.

"It is," faid I, "in fields of war, and in actions which have the fervice of our country in view, that courage is permitted to be shown; that which arms us against our friends or countrymen, in contempt of all laws, as well divine as human, is but a brutal fiercenefs, madness, and real pufillanimity."

Memoirs of the Duke de Sully,
Minifler of Henry the Great.

AMONG the remains of barbarifm

which have contaminated the refinement of civilized fociety, the fanguinary practice of Duelling is moft obvioutly deftructive of the principles of justice, and molt effectually counteractive of the dictates of humanity.

Laws were enacted to retrain the vicious propenfities of men, and to prohibit them from injuring their neighbours; but this practice fets all law at open defiance, and, by allowing free indulgence to the gratification of private refentment and infidious malignity, gives impunity to crime, and places the aggreffor on an equal footing with the injured. Laws require that all litigations between men thould be fettled on the immutable principles of

justice;