kissed her hand, and bathed it with his tears. What a moment for a Rubens to paint the moft formidable monarch in Europe paying this tribute of fenfibility to a fifter whom he loved! And what a fine companion for the picture of Coriolanus †, at the inftant when that haughty Roman was facrificing to an emotion of tenderness his glory, his revenge, and his life!

"Man is a difcontented animal; he loves to complain: the king's fubjects complain of taxes, and I have never seen any fubjects who do not complain of theirs. The Pruffians complain lefs than any others, and the reafon is evident: the government is fteady, impartial, and the weight of the taxes does not alter, as in other countries, but is always the fame. Men every where take pleasure in speaking ill of their fovereign: God knows there never was a better king than ours, yet his subjects speak ill of him‍ every day. To me therefore a very strong proof that the Great Frederick is good, arifes from his fubjects faying a little ill of him and much good. But here is another proof much stronger : he has never put a man to death ; and when I tell you that he lives without guards, I fancy you will allow that to be a proof of his having an inward sense that he has never done an unjust action.

In fupport of our obfervation on his critical taste and knowledge, we present our readers with his ninth letter.

VIENNA.

"One must not leave Vienna without feeing Metastasio: he is a lively old man and an agreeable companion. He is the greatest poet that Italy has produced fince Taffo: I would have faid the greatest that she has ever had, were he not a living author; on which account he must not be praised too much. Read his Canzonettes, in particular that which begins Grazie agl' ingannino tuoi, and fay, what Italian poet has written with fo much purity, fo much elegance, and fo much grace? He embellishes whatever he touches, and to me he appears abfolutely the firít that has established true principles of good tafte in Italy. In thofe little compofitions there is a native beauty and freshness in the colouring, a fimplicity and delicacy in the thoughts and fenti. ments, that makes them enchanting.

"Metaftafio is not wanting in any one of the talents that conftitute a great poet. Born with good fenfe, with a profound and penetrating genius, and a lively and fruitful imagination, he poffeffed all that he could derive from nature: at twelve years of age he went into the family of the celebrated Gravina: that learned man, who faw the tinfel, the Sparkling fooleries, and the barren abundance of the Italian writers, fhewed Metaftafio that the true fource of a certain tafte was the Greek authors. The young pupil caught this idea thoroughly, examined the princi

+ The king has bespoke this picture; and it is now almoft finished by the celebrated Battoni at Rome.

ples of thofe poets, and on their principles he has laboured all
his life. Italy is at prefent incapable of infpiring fublime fenti-
ments; it gives a competent knowledge of the tender paffions:
in Italy he paffed his youth; there he learned to write his De-
metrio, his Olympiade, and his Demofoonte. At the age of twenty-
five he went into Germany; his refidence at Vienna, and the
reading of Corneille, elevated his mind; he wrote his Regule and
his Clemenza di Tito: no author has better understood Horace ;
few poets have fo well executed his ideas.

Scribendi recte fapere eft et principium et fons :
Sound judgment is the ground of writing well.

Rofcommon.
"He ftudied philofophy; and he did not begin to treat of a
fubject till he had thoroughly examined it,

·Omne fupervacuum pleno de pectore manat,

All fuperfluities are foon forgot,

Rofcommon.

is an obfervation, which he knows the wisdom of; and he has written with as much rapidity as precifion.

"He has been as fenfible of the value of Boileau as of Horace; and he has never fwerved from thofe great principles;

Tout doit tendre au bon-fens ;

Rien n'eft beau que le vrai, le vrai feul eft aimable.
Let fense be ever in your view;

Nothing is beautiful that is not true;

The true alone is lovely,

The perfons who have compofed the mufic for his verses, and thofe who fing and repeat them, are best able to judge of the harmony of his poetry in thefe two claffes there is only one opinion from Petersburg to Naples.

"No Italian has fo well developed the emotions of the foul, nor has had fuch fuccefs in moving and interefting his reader. Metaftafio rofe to the fublime; but he was born with tenderness; and it may be faid, without wronging any nation, be it who it will, that few of their poets have fo well painted the tender paffions, and made fuch strong impreffions on the heart.

"When one clofely examines his works, and compares them with the Gothic productions of Dante, with the abfurdities of Ariofto, with the extravagances of Marini, and with the pueri, lities of Taffo, one is aftonifhad at the decifion of the Italians; they prefer Taffo to Metaftafio, and Ariofto to Taffo; but there is no method of difputing with the Italians in regard to poetry, as they deny all the principles admitted in any other country.

"I am far from fpeaking here against the talents of the Italians; they have infinitely more, in my opinion, than any other nation in Europe; but thefe talents are uncultivated, and of many reafons the most effential is, that the country is deftitute of Mæcenafes.

"I hope you no longer think that I deny that Dante had an aftonishing genius, and that he has fome paffages of the highest fublime that the genius of Ariofto was quick and fertile; that

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no one tells a story better; that he has fome defcriptions exquifitely beautiful; and that his Orlando Furiofo is a poem full of mirth and variety. Marini had a vaft imagination; but he is madder than Ariosto.

"I am only the friend of truth, and if I do not deny the merit of these poets, much lefs fhall I deny that of Taffo. Nature perhaps was lefs generous to him than to them; but his poems would be placed above theirs at Paris, at London, and at Athens. That the Jerufalem Delivered has many faults, that it has falfe thoughts, fome play of words, and much tinfel, is certain; but it is alfo certain that it has much gold. The fubject is most happy; the conduct of the poem in general is difcreet; its step, majeftic; its language, noble and well fupported, and its verfification always beautiful; it has the pathetic, and it has the fublime. The Aminta is a mafter-piece of elegance and fublimity, and much more perfect than the Gierufalemme Liberata.

"Metaftafio feems to me to have more natural talents than Taffo, all his beauties, and many more, and none of his faults. He fatisfies the mind, he delights, he enchants the imagination, he captivates the heart; and for these reasons he will always be the poet of men of fenfe, the poet of the women, and the poet of all perfons who have tafie.”

The following letter, the fourteenth, is to be admired for fome very pertinent and beautiful obfervations; allo for its pleafing and picturefque defcriptions.

NAPLES, February, 3, 1779.

It is not furprising that Virgil should make fuch fine verfes at Naples: the air there is fo foft and fo pure; the fun fo brilliant and fo warm, and the face of nature fo rich and fo diverfified, that the imagination is fenfible of a vivacity and vigour which it never perceives in any other countries.

"I am not a poet, but I am very fond of verfes, and I have never read them with more pleasure than here. Every time that I go to my window, I feel myfelf electrified, my fpirits revive, my imagination warms, and my foul becomes fufceptible of the gentleft and fublimeft impreffions. This will not furprise you when I have only mentioned the objects which there prefent themfelves to view,

"On the right is the hill of Pofilipo, whofe form is most agreeable; it is femi-circular, and adorned to the fummit with trees and pleasure-houses; from its point, which lofes itself in the fea, this mountain infenfibly increafes 'till it arrives behind the centre of Naples, and on its fummit is feen a vaft tower, which overlooks the city, and crowns the fcene. On the left appears a chain of very high mountains which furround the other fide of the gulph, and whofe rugged boldnefs forms a moft happy contrast with the elegant and cultivated beauties of Pofilipo:-Shakespeare and Corneille would always have looked on the fide of Vesuvius; Racine and Pope on the fide of Pofilipo.

"The

"The Volcano is the most interesting of mountains by its form which is a very beautiful cone, by its height, and above all, by its neighbourhood to the city: it fmokes inceffantly, and feems always to threaten Naples with the fate of Sodom, to confume it with fire and brimftcne. At its foot is Portici, and all along the fide are towns hanging from the mountains which form the portion of a circle of ninety miles.

"The fea is under my window, and befides the ideas which it prefents itself as the most interesting object in nature next to the fun, by its grandeur, its beauty, and the variety of its appearances, it here fhews all the riches of commerce by the large fhips which are paffing every moment. I often rife before day to enjoy the breath of the morning, and the fuperb defcription which the illustrious Rouffeau gives of the rifing of the fun. In no horizon does he appear with fo much fplendor, no where elfe does he fo well deferve the epithet of aureus †. He rifes behind Vefuvius to illuminate the pleafant hill of Pofilipo, and the bofom of the most beautiful gulph in the univerfe, fmooth as a mirrour, and filled with veffels all in motion. The object which terminates the perfpective is the island of Capréa, famous for the retreat of Tiberius and the rocks of the Sirens: on viewing it, one remembers that towards those rocks the prudent U yffes flopped his ears; and that, nor far from thence, the lefs wife Hannibal gave himself up to the pleasures of harmony, and to the careffes of the enchanting Camilla."

His three letters containing his conferences with Voltaire, deserve being transcribed, if it were only to give an example that even the moft artful will oftentimes betray their difpofition. It is plain, Voltaire thought himfelf a Newton, the greateft genius of the world. Such an idea muft arife from pride and error. Although Voltaire had great judgment, we not allow him the proper judge of himself, nor to poffefs the ftandard meafure of genius,-We almoft wonder his vanity would fuffer him to acknowledge any other genius befides himfelf. From the temper of the man, we may venture to affirm he would not have acknowledged even Newton, had he been either an historian or a poet,

What he fays of England appears more the dictates of envy than of admiration, In fome inftances he lofes the gentleman in the partialift. But what had Voltaire to do with gentility? He, who could ungratefully affront the frien

* Sorrento, one of thofe towns, is the country of Tafso, ↑ Idcirco certis dimenfum partibus orbem,

Per duodena regit mundi fol aureus aftra.

The golden fun, through twelve bright figns the year

Rules, and the earth in feveral climes divides.

fhip of Majefty, we must not expect could preferve a common decency in cenfuring a country to its native. W.

Obfervations made during a Tour through Parts of England, Scotland, and Wales. In a feries of Letters. Quarto, no Price. Becket.

Of all the employments about which the human mind is occupied, there feems to be none fo well adapted to fatisfy that curiofity and defire of novelty natural to man, as travelling. There is no fet of travellers fo agreeable as thofe of the fentimental caft, who, by expatiating on the beauties of nature and art, convey the moft pleafing fenfations. Our author in this work has taken care to interfperfe among his narratives and defcriptions very pleafing reflections and meditations upon various fubjects: the following we shall lay before our readers.

"As I walked along the terrace of this ancient structure (Windfor) ruminating on the many monuments of human vanity, which I had been examining, my mind naturally turned to that fubject which we have frequently difcuffed; namely, the tenure on which we feem at present to poflefs the principles of our existence. Man!" wonderful in his creation, and no lefs incomprehenfible in the movements of his foul, puzzled me in every view that I could place him look but around,: faid I to myself, and in one inftance you will find him liberal; in another penury fhall prey upon his vitals. Religion and morality, blafphemy and fraud fhall actuate him by turns. Kindrefs and affection fhall be at the one moment pleafing, and at the other difgufting to his fenfes. Strange contradiction! but fuch is the animal, denominated human. How many pages, how many volumes have been written to prove the natural good nefs, natural depravity, or the united influence of both these principles in the mind of man. And yet, how wide, how very wide, are we still from a certainty on this head! This day we are told, that God ordaineth every thing for the best, that whatsoever is, is right that partial evil is a general good. The next comes a philofopher on a different hypothefis: the life of man, he tells you, is embittered by ferrows and misfortune. Difeafe and infirmity, by his creed, croud upon you with unremitting fury. The rage of natural is not more inveterate than that of physical evil. In fhort, every thing is imperfect; and whether, from original fin, or from destiny, man is doomed to mifery in this world, and to eternal torments poffibly in the next.

"Speculatively right, however, as the first of thefe doctrines may be, there is still too much of certainty and apprehenfion in

the