Dans ton ame indigente appeler le plaisir, De la nature avare implorer un desir' The concluding phrase is remarkably happy.- Amid severest woe:" • Du Désespoir qui rit l'effroyable alégresse? If this piece had been shorter, and more compressed, the author's poetical talents would have appeared to greater advantage. Of an Ode to Enthusiasm, by M. LE BRUN, we cannot speak in such favourable terms. We have not remarked any disgusting fault, indeed, but neither have we discovered any felicity of expression, or strength of composition. First Canto of a Poem, entitled the Vigil of Parnassus; by the same. This canto comprehends the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, supposed to be related by the Muse Erato. This fiction, we presume, was intended to excuse the boldness of entering into competition with the author of the Georgics: but we fear that M. LE BRUN has not paid his court very adroitly at Parnassus; if this be a specimen of the powers of the Muse Erato, she certainly does not write poetry nearly so well as Virgil. The Process of the Senate of Capua, an Anecdote taken from Livy, by M. ANDRIEUX, is told with liveliness: but the moral of the story, which implies that the Parisians should be contented with their government as it stood three years ago, is now a little obsolete. The Hospital for Fools, a Persian Tale, (in Verse,) in Continuation of the Thousand and One Nights. By the same.- A wellconceived and well-told story. An Emir of Bagdad, on visiting a madhouse, has many representations made to him by persons confined in it, that they are detained there by the machinations of their enemies. To decide on their complaints, he appoints Safad, the physician, to examine them. in his palace. A sudden tempest increases the fury of the lunatics to such a degree, that it is deemed unsafe to trust them out of confinement; and the Emir, on receiving this intelligence, as he is going to hold his levee, feeling himself exhausted by other employments, determines to send Safad to give audience in his palace. By some accident, Safad is not informed of this change of measures, and repairs to the palace in expectation of meeting only with lunatics. The courtiers present their petitions in turn, and are entered by the physician Decad. 3. lib. 23. on on the list of incurables.-There are evidently some strokes at the times and circumstances, as they were when this composition was read: among others Un chanteur présentoit ses projets de finance Un grave magistrat ses petits airs de danse.' On repairing to drink sherbet with the Emir, Safad is astonished to see several of his supposed madmen admitted to the same honour. He is then undeceived, and the matter ends in a laugh. The moral is a little stronger, however, than the Stoical paradox. M. ANDRIEUX infers that all men are mad: Que chacun s'interroge, Chacun reconnoîtra qu'il a droit á sa loge; Un peu plus, un peu moins, nous extravaguons tous : The author, indeed, might think himself justified in this conclusion, by limiting the application to the state of France at that period. The Miller of Sans Souci, an Anecdote, by the same. Frederic the Second is here introduced, with three notable qualifications, as 'Grand Roi, bon Philosophe, et fort mauvais Chretien." It would have been happy for Europe, however, if the greatness of the king had been tempered with a little Christian philosophy. The anecdote is, that Frederic wished to purchase a mill, which interfered with his projected improvements at Sans Souci; that the proprietor refused to part with it, so obstinately, as to induce the monarch to intimate that he could take it by force;" Yes, (replied the miller,) if we had not judges at Berlin." The force of the reply struck the king, and he left his neighbour unmolested. There is no trusting however, to this kind of forbearance, as M. ANDRIEUX remarks, since the prince who respects a mill may steal a province. Two fables by M. MONVEL, senior, are not of the first class; yet the latter is rather above mediocrity. Counsels of an old Man to young People. By LEMONNIER. Though "spoken in parables," these counsels might have been omitted without any disadvantage to the present collection. Memoir on the Study of the Antients. By M. BITAUBÈ. This paper has given rise to very serious reflections in our mind. If the study of the learned languages require such a defender in Paris, the axe of Robespierre has fallen heavier than could have been believed; and the present generation must be enemies to every thing respectable in literature. This we cannot suppose; and we therefore must make allowance for the well-meaning zeal of M. BITAURÉ, when he speaks of the revival revival of letters in France; and when he attributes such importance to the inconsiderate opinion of CONDORCET, that translations may supply the place of original writers. In return for this great dread of the new doctrines in literature, M. BITAUBE has most faithfully attached himself to the old established common-places on his subject, and has dealt them out void of improvement. Yet, from one passage in this essay, one might be tempted to conclude that the French are a very learned people; for he says, Shakespear often astonishes and enchants us, but we read Sophocles more frequently. It certainly is not so in this country. The pleasures attending an intimacy with the best Greek and Roman writers are so far beyond the view of the mere learner, that we doubt whether the representations of M. BITAUBE will much increase the number of scholars. He appears, however, to be himself well acquainted with the master-pieces which he recommends to attention. Socrates at the School of a Theologist; or Reflections on the Dialogue of Plato entitled Eutyphron. By the same. This short paper contains a supposition that, in the dialogue with Eutyphron, Socrates is made to introduce a general defence of his philosophy. Considerations on the three Tragic Poets of Greece. By PIERRE-CHARLEY LEVESQUE. We were almost converted to M. BITAUBE'S opinion of the low state of French literature. by the beginning of this paper; which states at large many facts concerning the origin of Tragedy, which an author of this country would cursorily notice as generally known. As we proceeded, however, the prospect began to clear; and we finished with the conviction that M. LEVESQUE is a writer of taste and learning, though unnecessarily diffuse in some parts of his essay. We cannot be expected to follow him through details so familiar to literary men, but we shall notice some points on which there may be a difference of opinion. In his character of Eschylus we think, the author has been misled by the exaggerated ridicule of Aristophanes, whose sarcasms cannot be regarded as a foundation for sober criticism. We expected that the judgment of Dionysius the Halicarnassian would have been cited: but he does not seem to be in M. LEVESQUE'S list of authors. The French critic says that Eschylus could not excite pity; that he could only terrify the spectator.-The Greek Censor, who certainly knew more of Eschylus, says that he knew the proper bounds of expressing the passions; καὶ ἠθῶν και παθῶν τό πρέπον εἰδῶς. Ας Eschylus was the first dramatist who aided the effect of his pieces by stage-machinery, we may allow something for the usual usual exaggerations of the Greeks, in speaking of the terror and amazement which he excited. Sophocles is this essayist's favourite: but it was unnecessary to be unjust to his predecessor, in order to exalt this charming poet. We have been particularly pleased with one part of M. LEVESQUE'S observations, and we shall translate the substance of them. The great object of the tragic theatre of the Greeks, which it is easy to recognize in the pieces of Sophocles, was to inspire men with fortitude against reverses of fortune, and with resignation to the decrees of fate. Sophocles and Euripides flourished during the time of the Peloponnesian war: they had witnessed the celebrated pestilence which wasted Attica; they had seen whole republics destroyed by fire and sword, the citizens carried of, loaded with irons, sold for slaves, or slain, drowned, or burned; and there was not a man in Greece who might not dread a similar fate. He who in affluence enjoyed the favours of fortune, and the charms of the arts, might in one day undergo the yoke of servitude. Greece had become a theatre of revolutions; every citizen might be made the victim of them; and tragedy inspired him with courage against the evils with which he was threatened. The terror excited by the exhibition of great vicissitudes, the pity extended to those who suffer by them, these are the sentiments which tragedy awakened, to soften them by habit; because, during unhappy times, these sentiments felt in all their force, are additional evils. Aristotle had therefore reason for saying that the Greek tragedy, by means of terror and pity, purged these feelings; that is, it deprived them of that excessive poignancy, by which they only aggravate the sufferings of humanity. The character of Euripides is well drawn, and displays much knowlege, not only of that author's works, but of the antient drama in general. The paper is closed with some general remarks on the chorus of the Greek tragedy. The author supposes that, as the chorus was not only the original representation, but a religious rite also, it continued to be necessarily imposed on dramatic writers, however ill suited to their views. We find a note of some extent, relating to the Epic Cycle, or Collection of Epic Poems, which supplied the Greek dramatists with most of their subjects. A Memoir relative to Aristophanes, by the same, is designed to vindicate the memory of this great writer against the attacks of some of his critics, and especially against the aspersions of Voltaire; who probably, as M. LEVESQUE suggests, had never read Aristophanes in the original. Nothing can be more unfounded than Voltaire's assertion, that Aristophanes was no poet; his choruses contain some of the sweetest and most elevated passages of which Grecian poetry poetry can boast. The hymn to the Nightingale, in the comedy of the Birds, is alone sufficient to immortalize him, as a specimen of excellence in both kinds of composition. M. LEVESQUE has been very happy in pointing out the resemblance between the Greek comedian and Molefe. It is not necessary, in order to account for this similitude, to resort to Meliere's acquaintance with Aristophanes; they were men of similar genius; of easy wit; of exquisite humour; and correct in their delineation of ludicrous characters, placed in ridiculous circumstances. They were equally original, for 'they copied nature; and the analogy of their writings is equally flattering to each of their memories. Memoir on the successive Improvements of Painting in Greece, by the same Author. This is a very learned and copious essay but as the materials from which it is drawn have been already worked by writers of this country, and as the remarks however ingenious and well expressed, contain little novelty, we shall give no abridgement of the author's observations. As a specimen of the ingenuity of M. LEVESQUE, we shall extract the following note, illustrative of a passage in Pliny: Pinxit [Apelles] et qua pingi non possunt, tonitrua, fulgura, fulgatra. We read after this passage, Brontem, Astrapen, Ceraunobolion appellant. These words scem useless, and Pintianus believed that they had been added by some Greek transcriber: Hæc verba Græculi alicujus potius quam Plinii puto. I have no doubt that they are the words of Pliny; I do not believe them to be superfluous; and I think that they instruct us in a custom of the antients, which we know to exist among the modern amateurs. It often happens that a name is given to a celebrated picture, taken from some accidental image introduced in it, or from some circumstance which concerns it. Thus, a Holy Family by Andrea del Sarta, is called the Madonna del Sacco, because St. Joseph is represented in it seated on a sack:-a picture by Guido, which represents St. Benedict in the desart, is called La Turbantina; because a woman dressed with a kind of turban appears in it :-a print representing the disciples at Emmaüs, engraved after Titian by Masson, is called the Print of the Table Cloth, (estampe de la Nappe,) because a table-cloth is very skillfully managed in it :-the portrait of the Marshal d'Harcourt is known under the name of Cadet a la Perle, because he wears a pearl in his ear:-and a print by Rembrandt is called the Hundred Florin-Piece, from the price which has been given for a single proof. In the same manner, the antients called a painting of Protogenes the Woman and Mules, (Hemionida) though it was supposed to represent Nausicaa, because this princess was painted on a car drawn by mules. Thus three pictures of Apelles had received names relative to their most striking effect, and those are the names which Pliny mentions: One was called Bport, another Aspa and the third Kepavonia. I believe that the latter was that which represented Alexander darting the thunder. Pliny, in mentioning that |