create them. The different branches of poetry were created by poets: the mafter-pieces of the tragic fcene exifted before rules were thought on; and they produced the art, instead of being produced by it. Our Author criticizes Stanley for looking upon Æfchylus as a follower of Pythagoras, and for finding his tragedies impregnated with the philofophy of that fect; and not without reafon.

M. Merian acknowledges, and indeed cannot deny that Euripides had ftudied philofophy with great fuccefs; but he denies, that his tragic productions gained by this circumftance; for, fays he, the moral maxims and political difcuffions that difcover in the tragedies of Euripides, the difciple of Anaxagoras and Socrates, give them a certain fcholaftic air; and, notwithstanding the national and local merit they might have at Athens, they are, after all, but heterogeneous beauties, which diminish the effect of the piece, and make the fcene languifh. This defect, continues our Academician, was accompanied, indeed, with great and excellent qualities: Euripides fpeaks, with feeling and propriety, the language of the paffions, particularly the foft and tender ones: his verfification is admirable and full of harmony his ftyle is the quinteffence of attic elegance; but thefe excellencies make his effential defect more friking; and this defect renders him much inferior to Sophocles, the firft, in merit of the Greek, and perhaps of all other tragic poets.' Our Academician enters into a long account of the philofophy of Euripides, who fcattered throughout his pieces certain lines of the phyfics and cofmology of Anaxagoras, as well as of the morals of Socrates.

The Grecian Comedy does not greatly engage our Academician; because it is not there that fcience is to be expected fo much as in tragedy, whose aspect is folemn and ferious. It was admitted, indeed, into the comedies of Ariftophanes, because this Cynical and licentious mocker could not facrifice cofmology, phyfics, geometry, and philofophy, in general, to the laughter and amufement of the populace, without having fome knowledge of thefe fciences. But this abominable taste, this odious abuse of satire, did not last long: even Ariftophanes himself furvived it, and was obliged to change his tone. The comic poets, indeed, after him directed often their pleasantry against the philofophers, but not with those disgusting perfonalities that difgrace the productions of Ariftophanes. The philofophers, in their turn, treated the poets with no fmall degree of feverity; fo that fcience and poetry feem to have been always by the ears. Plato, 'tis true, compofed dithyrambics and hymns in his early youth; but he foon took leave of the mufes, and looked with contempt upon poetry as a frivolous and dangerous art, the enemy of morals, veracity, and fcience. Arif

totle

totle diftinguished himfelf by fome poetical productions; but in these the poetical vein keeps its diftance from the philofophical fpirit, and fcience has no part either in the fubject or in the ftyle of his poems. Zeno looked upon poetry as incompatible with the study of the fciences, and even Epicurus reprefented it to his difciples as a childish amufement, which they would do well to avoid with the utmost care; from all which our Author concludes that, generally speaking, there was no great union betwen the Grecian philofophers and poets, and that science had very little influence upon poetry, and could have no influence on it, but what was pernicious. But if it is difficult, adds he, to attribute to fcience the honour of the progress of poetry in Greece, it would be ftill more fo to account, on this hypothefis, for the high degree of perfection to which poetry rofe in the periods we have hitherto been confidering, periods in which the fciences were in a state of infancy. The lyric, epic, and dramatic poetry of the Greeks, fays our Academician, have always been looked upon as models, and those of the mo derns who have fhone moft in this enchanting art, revere the ancients as their guides; while ancient fcience is funk in oblivion, and philofophers in after-times were obliged to pull down entirely the edifice, and to erect another on its ruins. This is true with respect to natural philofophy, but we maintain it falfe with respect to that nobler branch of philofophical science, the mafter-fcience of fentiments, life and manners."

Of Grecian Poetry under Alexander and the Ptolemies.

Our Academician finds his ideas confirmed by a literary phanomenon, that was vifible under this period, viz. that Grecian poetry fuffered an eclipfe, at the very time that philofophy was rifing to a high degree of luftre, and forming fects and fchools that were to tranfmit its progrefs to future ages. Poetry made but a forry figure under the reign of Alexander: the writers of the new comedy belong to the times of his fucceffors; for the first piece of Menander was not acted before the 3d or 4th year of the 114th Olympiad. Under his fucceffors, poetry revived, particularly in Egypt; which under the three firft Ptolemies became a fecond Athens:-but our Academician (who seems to have fworn the bittereft enmity to the alliance between poetry and science) tells us that the famous poetical Pleiad of that time, were much inferior to the luminaries that arose upon Greece in the days of its freedom; and had, moreover, their luftre tarnished by the exhalations (we believe our Author fays fmoke) of erudition and fcience. Euclid taught his elements at Alexandria: this city fwarmed with natural philofophers, and, what was still worfe for poetry, with rhetoricians, critics, and grammarians, who were feriously occupied in counting fyllables, measuring verses, and weighing phrafes. Callimachus was one of these formalifts

that

that clipped the wings of genius, and his own productions feem to have gone through that operation. He, indeed, excluded from the clafs of poets all thofe whom Apollo did not inspire, and pronounced the philofophers incapable (not excepting even Plato) of poetical compofition, and of judging concerning it; but notwithstanding this, his poems difcover the constraint of a courtier and the formality of a grammarian. The fame obfervation is applicable to Apollonius, improperly called the Rhodian, whose poem, on the Argonautic expedition, is entertaining and agreeable, and fuftains, throughout, its middle courfe be tween the fublime and the bathos. The moft eminent bard of the Pleiad, and the moft worthy of being ranked among thofe of the Golden Age of poetry, was the amiable thepherd of Syracufe, whose Doric lay refounds with fuch melody in the Sicilian vales, and even under the gilded roof of Ptolemy, his benefactor, and the friend of the Mufes. He (continues our Academician) was the child of the Graces; and his genius, tafte, and fubjects remove him far from all pretenfions to philofophy. It would be difficult ever to find him guilty of fcience, or of any respect for those that profess it.'

Such is the manner in which our ingenious Academician fpeaks of Theocritus, to whom he joins Bion and Mofchus, his contemporaries, or immediate fucceffors, whofe paftoral strains are full of amenity and elegance, and breathe a spirit of gallantry, which favours fomewhat of the modern tafte, but are difengaged from every thing that looks like fcience and philoLophy.

The three laft bards of the Pleiad are Aratus, Nicander, and Lycophron; and our Author mentions them only to fhew the antipathy that there is between the language of poetry and the fubjects they treated. The firft of thefe he confiders as a fubtile pedant and a plagiary, the fecond as a therapeutic bard, who verfified for the apothecaries, a grinder of antidotes; who fung of fcorpions, toads, and fpiders; and the third, as a kind of a fool, who places all his glory in being obfcure and unintelligible; and whofe commentator Tzetzes, fuppoles that many of his verses were compofed when he came home drunk from the table of Ptolemy.-Lycophron was the inventor of anagrams; he made feveral for the king and the queen, and by dislocating the name of Arfinoe he was lucky enough to find in it the Violet of Juno; a rare and delightful difcovery, no doubt, for the Grecian and African beauties at the court of Ptolemy. Our Academician dates from this period alfo the invention of poems in the forms of eggs, wings, hatchets, and altars; a wretched, trifling, and Jack-a-dandy method that portended, or rather accompanied, and fucceeded, the decline of true taste, and the extinction of poetical genius. It is our Author's opinion, that APP. Rev. Vol. lxi. LI

in

in all nations of the earth, where letters have flourished, falfe wit has fucceeded true genius.

It is here that our Author concludes the prefent memoir. For though the following ages, down to the conclufion of the Eaftern empire, produced poets, whofe works are extant, and not all contemptible; fuch as Dionyfius Periegetes, Oppian, Nonnus, Quinctus Calaber, Coluthus, Tryphiodorus, and others, not to mention Christian poets, and several whofe fragments we have in the Anthologics; yet as thefe are all much inferior to their predeceffors, and are all fcattered far and wide through a long tract of time, that forms no fixed epocha or period, M. MERIAN paffes them by. He promises us, however, that he will follow, in another memoir, the fugitive mufes to Latium, and vifit them in Rome, the mistress of the world. He does not tell us when he will take this trip; but whenever it is, we shall willingly be of the party, for we think him exceeding good company in fuch a journey. Concerning the Philofophy of Hiftory, by M. WEGUELIN,-the Fifth and Laft Memoir.

We have already given our opinion of the chiaro obfcuro manner of this Academician, in which the obfcuro so predominates, that it requires a great deal of analytic labour to come at the valuable fum and fubftance of what is contained in his Memoirs. The matters, treated in this last Memoir, are the difference between truth and probability;-the various degrees of the latter, and the application of the rules that muft guide us in its pursuit to a great diverfity of cafes and objects that occur in hiftorywriting. There are feveral ftreaks of light in this piece that furnish matter of useful reflexion.

Memoir concerning an expedition executed by the troops of the emperor Otho the Great, before the city of Troyes in Champagne. By M. de FRANCHEVILLE.

Memoires et Anecdotes pour fervir à l'Hiftoire de Voltaire depuis fa Naiffance jafqu'à fa Mort, &c.—Memoirs relative to the Hiftory of M. de VOLTAIRE, from his Birth to his Death, preceded by his Eulogy, which obtained the Prize of the French Academy in the Year 1779,-and followed by the Pieces that were published on Occafion of his laft Vifit to Paris, and his Tragedy of Irene. Paris. 12mo. 1780.

HE anecdotes and memoirs which, alone, we propose to

Tgive an account of here, make but a fmall part of this

publication. Some of them are trite and ftale, others are new, or not generally known; and they are all, more or lefs, a proper object of curiofity, as they regard an extraordinary man, who divided too violently the fuffrages of Europe to render it

6.

poffible

poffible that his character fhould be justly appreciated so soon after his demife.-How far we may depend upon the truth of these anecdotes, we cannot pretend to fay: the work is anonymous, and the Author is unknown to us; but he feems to be well informed, well acquainted with his fubject: and he tells us feveral things that may prove interefting to those who make much of Voltaire: we fhall pick up here and there, for the entertainment of fuch, a handful of thefe anecdotes.

It is well known, that the first period of Voltaire's youth was not paffed in obfcurity.-He was very early in life admitted to the company of the abbé Chaulieu, the marquis de la Fare, the duke de Sully, the abbé Courtin; and he ufed often to say, that his father thought him undone, because he kept good company and made verfes.-But we never fhould have thought, that at any period, or moment of his life, Voltaire was thoughtlefs of literary fame, and therefore the following anecdote did not a little furprife us: When Oedipus was offered to the comedians, they difcovered a reluctance to act a piece, which feemed to contend for the prize with a tragedy of Corneille, on the fame fubject; it was, however, brought upon the stage, by dint of influence, and fplendid protection, in the year 1718. The young bard was fo little awed by this critical moment, and fo little attentive to the fuccefs of his tragedy, that he was playing tricks, upon the ftage, during the reprefentation, and carried, in a ludicrous manner, the train, or rather the tail, of the highprieft, in a scene in which that grave perfonage made a very tragical appearance. The duchefs de Villars afked, who was the young man that was thus playing off the powers of pleafantry and ridicule against the fuccefs of the piece; and being told it was the author himself, fhe fent for him immediately, and commenced an intimacy with him, into which the marshal entered with cordiality, for his part, and which lafted as long as their lives.

Voltaire used to fay, that when he began to compofe his Oedipus and his Henriade, he had no hopes of finishing them, and neither knew the rules of tragic nor of epic poetry. The latter was begun at the country feat of M. de Caumartin, fuperintendant of the finances, whofe extraordinary veneration for the memory of Henry IV. tranfmitted a high degree of enthufiafm into the fancy of the young bard, and animated him to undertake the arduous work. Having read, one day, feveral cantos of this poem, at the house of the young prefident Des Maifons, the company affailed the poet with a multitude of objections, which fo much irritated his natural impatience (which never could bear contradiction or oppofition of any kind), that he threw his manufcript into the fire, and it would have perifhed in the flames, had it not been fnatched from them by the prefi