rifhed, a spirit of emulation foon renders them univerfal. Books growing daily more numerous, grow daily worfe; fince authors, neglecting nature, copy from their predeceffors, or affecting fingularity, deviate from the true path. But as publications increafe, the difficulty of literary fuccefs increases likewife; for if it is unneceffary to read the bad, yet some labour is requifite to difcover the good. Let it be further confidered, that as books multiply, indolence and luxury prevail. The conveniences of life have always been the forerunners and attendants of polite literature. Demofthenes, Plato, Xenophon, Sophocles, flourished in Greece; Cicero, Cæfar, Livy, Virgil, Horace,in Rome, when fuccefs in war and commerce had introduced magnificence and politeness. When Alexander the fixth, and Julius the fecond had enlarged and fecured the papal power in Italy, the fine arts were foon cultivated in the glorious pontificate of Leo X. The popes and other potentates could not be fuppofed to attend to literature, or patronife genius, while their thoughts were wholly turned upon recovering or eftablishing their dominions. Hiftory fhews us the condition of the French monarchy before Francis the first, and even for an age after, till Richlieu abo-, lifhed the feudal power, and that ferocity of manners which sprung from it as from a feminary of war. In the reign of Henry the third,fcarcely were coaches known in Paris. The houfes were like caftles or prifons, and the whole tenor of their life muft neceffarily have been of a piece. Nor could it then have been imagined that they would ever attain that elegance, politeness, and tafte, which afterwards prevailed in the age of Lewis the fourteenth. But human affairs are in a perpetual flux; urbanity and fplendor, as I have already more than once had occasion to obferve, na turally degenerate into luxury and effeminacy,as literature begins to decline. The Athenians were never fo diffolute as in the age of Demetrius Phalereus, from whom the corruption of literature took its rife; nor the Romans as when Seneca and Lucan depraved the public tafte in the reign of Caligula and Nero. Seneca himself, and after him Rollin *, have well obferved that the manners of a people have a great influence upon li terature. Thus luxury enervates compofition, and neceffarily occupies many of those hours which ought to be devoted to ftudy. Yet the ambition of literary fame ftill continues; and we relinquish the ftudy of the ancients for more compendious methods of instruction. We are inftantly accommodated with compilations, which may fatisfy the indolent lovers of brevity, tho' they require no great exertions of genius, imagination, or industry. The prefs teems with effays, compends,journals, encyclopædias, and other works of the fame kind; all of which may ferve to convey a fmattering of knowledge, but obftruct, instead of facilitating, the progrefs of true learning. We may fafely conclude then that tafte may be upon the verge of deftruction, tho' men of letters feemingly abound; and Abbe Racine was in the right when he faid t†, "L'efprit devient commun, .. quand le genie devient rare" authorlings fwarm as men of real genius difappear. I would not be thought to derogate from the reputation of the present French literati, fome of whom are as great an honour to their country as were the most eminent of the age of Lewis the fourteenth. The fciences, particularly 'natural philofophy, medicine and the mathematics, have been enriched by new discoveries and obfervations, and handled with greater perfpicuity and elegance than before. Whatever Rollin des belles-lettres; reflections fur le gout. + Reflexions fur la poesie, chap. 11. Whatever oppofition Buffon's Natural History may have met with, the ftyle is certainly noble and perfpicuous, and in this refpect will be always univerfally admired. Yet it must be confeffed that a too close attachment to the sciences cannot fail to retard the more polite. studies, as they introduce a habit of philofophical precifion, and of courfe drynefs and fterility, into works of tafte. "That philofophical fpirit," fays M. D'Alembert, "fo fafhionable now-adays, which would know every thing and fuppofe nothing, has even infected the belles-lettres. This,it is faid,hurts their progrefs, and would it could be denied!" I shall not prefume to decide whether greater advantage redounds to fociety from the demonftrative fciences, or from the liberal arts and the belleslettres. It is fufficient for me that I have fhewn the error of thofe who contend that literature is in a better condition at present than in the laft century. To conclude this fubject, I fhall transcribe a paffage from the celebrated Abbe Le Blanc *. "We have renounced," fays he," the true models of compofition, and adopted fuch as are altogether répugnant to found tafte. What befel the Romans has likewife befallen us. We are no longer delighted with nature; the beautiful, the majestic, the fimple, difguft us. Like those whofe vitiated palates can only be affected by strong liquors, we require fallies of wit and fancy,ingenious descriptions, brilliant ftrings of points and antithefes. In a word, we are so intent upon the fuperftructure, that we neglect the foundation. The tafte of our modern preachers and architects is much the fame. Our fermons are witty,tho' void of eloquence; our buildings overcharged with ornaments, tho, the architecture is naught. True orators have always confidered this affectation of pleasantry as beneath the dignity of their profeffion. The eloquence of a modern dazzles, that of a Cicero, of a Boffuet enlightens. "Our poetry is nearly in the fame condition: we have ftill many good verfes, but how few good poems? If a compofition is but witty, it pleases as if we knew not that excefs is always faulty. We are weak enough to imagine we have more wit than our predeceffors of the laft century. For the truth of this the ladies will refer you to the writings in the age of Lewis the fourteenth. Yet, ftrange as it may appear, I will venture to affert that this very flow of wit, fo predominant at prefent, is perhaps an effect of our want of it. To impofe on the world, we take every opportunity of difplaying our all; whereas the authors of the preceeding century, fure of pleafing, difplayed only what was neceffary.. They knew what they poffeffed, and they knew how to make a proper ufe of it. The former are to the latter what a petty fhop-keeper is to an extenfive trader. The one, to allure cuftomers, is obliged to exhibit his whole ftock; the other, certain of giving fatisfaction,only exhibits what is neceffary to point out his profeffion. The moderate ufe which Racine and Boileau made of their wit is equally a proof of their wisdom and fuperiority. They acquired this noble fimplicity by imitating the authors of the Auguftan age. Such was the character of Virgil, of Tully, of Livy; but their fucceffors, however ingenious, were tainted with the abufes which had crept into literature. Tacitus's only aim feems to have been fingularity of expreffion. That grandeur which appears in Seneca was entirely owing to embellishment, and his affectation of fublimity fhews that it was not natural to him. Yet unhappily these are the favourite authors now-a-days. We hunt *Lettres d'un François. Let. 43. I cannot help differing from M. le Blanc when he places Tacitus in the fame light hunt for wit, we interlard our eloquence "Confefs then, Sir, that we have Thus reafons M. Le Blanc; and I shall only add an obfervation of Atterbury, the celebrated Bishop of Rochefter. While in difgrace at the court of George the first, he refided at Paris; and being upon a journey from thence, in the year 1729, to meet his daughter, he remarks in a letter to his friend Mr Pope, that he had found more good tafte in the fouthern parts of France than in Paris, Far from doubting this circumftance, I rather think it a natural effect of the viciffitude of literature. A tafte for the fine arts, like every other fashion, originally appears in the metropolis, and afterwards gradually becomes general; nay it often happens that what has already ceased to be the tate in town has hardly reached the country. When the belles-lettres had attained perfection in Paris, we cannot therefore fuppofe them fo far advanced in the other cities of France. But as this tafte,this perfection in the fine arts, is ever fluctuating, no fooner is it diffufed through the provinces, by the illuftrious works iffuing from the capital than the fource begins to be corrupted. Luxury, effeminacy and diffipation, which contribute fo much to destroy ufeful learning, and are always the attendants of affectation, exceffive refinement, a love of novelty, and a deteftation of the beautiful fimplicity of nature in works of taste, are introduced into. the capital when the other parts of the nation have juft attained perfection. Those then who have a less early acquaintance with writers of eminence, are likewife lefs early infected by the bad example of innovators. Now Atterbury went from Paris to the south of France twelve or fifteen years after the death of Lewis XIV. when the corruption had not as yet feized the more remote parts of the kingdom. It may even happen that an author will influence one province and not another. Thus one of the reafons why the Tufcan literature flourished in the feventeenth century fo much more than that of any other province in Italy,may perhaps be that Taifo, from whom the decline of Italian literature, in fome meafure, proceeded, was never so much admired in Florence, owing perhaps to his controverfy with the academy della Crufca. ANSWER, To Question third, (P. 276. Vol. I,) fan, are collected to a point by THA HAT rays proceeding from the a convex lens is a propofition eafily folvable; as on account of his immenfe distance, they are always confidered as parallel: but it is one of the first prin. ciples in optics, that fuch rays are refracted to a certain point by a convexglafs, (called, on that account, the Focus of parallel rays.) Hence the fun's rays,by the application of a convex lens, must be collected to a point, and there their light and heat will be both accumulated, and will have the fame proportion, to the light and heat at places where unrefracted rays fall as the diameter of the lens has to that of the illumined spot. It is on this account that a fimilar effect is expected upon the application of lenfes light with Seneca. They not only flourished at different periods, but the folidity and ftrength of Tacitus's flyle is altogether unlike the brilliant fophiftry of Seneca. + See Pope's Letters. lenfes to the rays afforded by torches or fires. Thefe terreftrial difpenfers of light and heat; nor is this fo very unnatural for one who is unacquainted with the principles; but to one in the leaft converfant in optics, it is a miftake in the nature of things, because it is not on account of the heat of the fun, but of his distance, that his rays are thus collected. But as the rays proceeding from thefe other objects (at the greatest diftance we have in our power to make the experiment) have ftill a confiderable degree of divergency; therefore by the laws of refraction they cannot be collected to a point by any lens. For in diverging rays, falling upon the furface of a convex lens, there is but these three cafes. ft. If the luminous body is placed nearer than the principal Focus of the lens: then the rays of each pencil are only made to converge lefs. 2d. If at the principal Focus, then they proceed parallel after refraction, in both which cafes there is no im ge formed, as the pencils of rays never come to a Focus. 3d. But if the object is placed beyond the principal Focus, there is an inverted image formed at a distance, increafing the hearer the object is placed and vice verfa. This is the theory, and I apprehend, any who will try the experiment, will find it to agree therewith. Therefore I prefume, that this, inftead of being an unfurmountable difficulty; is rather a proof of the juftness of the law of refraction, if any fuch were needed. N. B. It is needlefs to trace the effect produced on fuch rays by concave reflections, as it is known to be the fame as that of a convex lens. ver established in Caledonia. It is diffi- Had the inhabitants of Britain rofe That the Caledonians, in the time Dr. M'Pherfon's Differtation on the S of opinion that Druidifm vas ne- deracies, and confirmed their engage ments ments with facrifices and the blood of was, as I obferved before, the Taranis victims *. of their neighbours to the South. In the ancient language of the Scots, both the names of this divinity are retained to this day, with a fmall variation of the final fyllables. Terran, among the Highlanders, is the lower muttering of thunder, and Tarninach † fignifies the loudest peals of that awful noife. Druidifm was certainly the original religion of all the branches of the Celtic nation yet Cæfar obferves, that the Germans, who undoubtedly were principally defcended from the great Celtic stock, had no druids among them. We have reason to differ in opinion from that great man. Cæfar was too much engroffed with his own vaft projects, to enter minutely into the theological inftitutions of the Germans. Tacitus, who made the customs and manners of Germany his particular ftudy, informs us that priefts poffeffed great influence in that country. Druid, or rather Druthin, is originally a Teutonic word. Its meaning is, the fervant of God, or the fervant of Truth: Dru or Tru fignify God or Truth indifcriminately. It is certain that every German prieft was called Dry, and the Saxons of England brought that word from Germany into Britain.- The English Saxons, before their converfion to Chriftianity, worshipped, it is apparent, the ancient gods of Gaul, and nearly under the fame names. The Tuifco, or Tuifto of Germany, to whom the Saxons dedicated Tuesday, was the fame with the Teutates of Gaul; and the Thor of the Saxons was the Taranis of the ancient Gauls. The meaning of Teutates is GOD the FATHER of all BEINGS: Dyu, in the ancient British, which was undoubtedly the fame with the language of Gaul, fignifies God; and Tad, or Tat in the Armorican dialect, is, to this day, the word for father. The Thor of the Celto-Scythians of Germany This identity of religion which prevailed among the ancient Germans and Gauls, is a proof that tribes of the latter were the prevalent colonies of Germany. The Tectofages, a people. of Gallia Norbonenfis, poffeffed themfelves, according to Cæfar, of the moft fertile regions of Germany. The Boii and Helvettii, nations fprung from the Gaulifh fstock, made very confiderable acquifitions near the Hercynian forest. The Suevi were the most powerful nation in Germany. Of the feveral tribes into which the Suevi were divided, the Senones pretended to be the most noble and the moft ancient. Their pretenfions to antiquity Tacitus fupports with an argument ariling from the genius of their religion. At a ftated time,' faith the excellent hiftorian, "all thofe who have derived their blood from the Senones meet, in the perfons of their reprefentatives or ambaffadors. This affembly is held in a wood, confecrated by the auguries of their predeceffors, and their fuperftitious fears of former ages. In this wood, after having publickly facrificed fome unhappy man, they commemorate the horrible beginnings of their barbarous idolatry." In this paffage every one may fee the ftrongest features of Druidifm, painted in the moft lively colours, and placed in the cleareft Catibus et facrificiis confpirationem civitatum fanciro. + Tarninach is probably a corruption of Nd'air-neambnach, or Tarnearach, as it is pronounced, literally fignifying Heavenly Father; thunder being thought the voice of the Supreme Divinity. Or perhaps it may be derived from Torneonach literally an uncommon and wonderful noife: or from Nd'air-neonach, the Wrathful Father. |