markable that the French did not relish this incomparable comedy for the three first representations. The strokes of its satire were too fubtle and delicate to be felt by the generality of the audience, who expected only the gross diversion of laughing; so that at the fourth time of its being acted, the author was forced to add to it one of his coarsest farces; but Boileau in the mean time affirmed that it was the capital work of their stage, and that the people would one time be induced to think fo. 3. Unthought-of frailties cheat us in the wife *. For who could imagine that LOCKE was fond of romances; that NEWTON once studied astrology; that Roger ASCHAM and Dr. WHITBY were devoted lovers of cock-fighting; that Dr. CLARKE valued himself for his agility, and frequently amused himself in a private room of his house in leaping over the tables and chairs : and that our author himself was a great VOL. II. * Ver. 69. epicure? epicure? When he spent a summer with a certain nobleman, he was accustomed to lie whole days in bed on account of his head-achs, but would at any time rife with alacrity, when his fervant informed him there were stewed lampreys for dinner. On the eve of an important battle, the Duke of MARLBOROUGH was heard chiding his servant for having been so extravagant as to light four candles in his tent, when Prince Eugene came to confer with him. ELIZABETH was a coquet, and BACON received a bribe. Dr. BUSBY had a violent passion for the stage; it was excited in him by the applauses he received in acting the Royal Slave before the King at Chrift-Church; and he declared, that if the rebellion had not broke out, he had certainly engaged himself as an actor. LuTHER was so immoderately paffionate, that he fometimes boxed MELANCTHON'S ears; and MELANCTHON himself was a believer in judicial astrology, and an interpreter of dreams. RICHLIEU and MAZARIN were MORIN, a pretender to astrology, who cast the nativities of these two able politicians. Nor was TACITUS himself, who generally appears fuperior to superstition, untainted with this folly, as may appear from the twenty-fecond chapter of the fixth book of his annals. Men of great genius have been fomewhere compared to the pillar of fire that conducted the Ifraelites, which frequently turned a cloudy fide towards the spectator. 4. See the fame man, in vigour, in the gout; THE unexpected inequalities of our minds and tempers are here exhibited in a lively manner, and with a perfect knowledge of nature. I cannot forbear placing before the reader Tully's pourtrait of Cataline, whose inconfiftencies and varieties of conduct are thus enumerated: * Ver. 71. K2 "Ute batur batur hominibus improbis multis, et quidem optimis se viris deditum efsse fimulabat; erant apud illum illecebræ libidinum multæ: erant etiam industriæ quidam stimuli ac laboris; flagrabant libidinis vitia apud illum: vigebant etiam studia rei militaris: neque ego unquam fuisse tale monstrum in terris ullum puto, tam ex contrariis diversisque inter se pugnantibus naturæ studiis, cupiditatibus que conflatum. Quis clarioribus viris quodam tempore jucundior? Quis turpioribus conjunctior? Quis civis meliorum partium aliquando? Quis tetrior hoftis huic civitati? Quis in voluptatibus inquinatior? Quis in laboribus patientior? Quis in rapacitate avarior? Quis in largitione effusior * ?" 5. What made, say, Montagne, or more fage Charron t. ONE of the reasons that makes Montagne so agreeable a writer is, that he gives fo strong a picture of the way of life of a country gentleman in the reign of Henry the Third. The descriptions of his caftle, • Orat. pro M. Cælio. Sect. 3. † Ver. 87. of of his library, of his travels, of his entertainments, of his diet and dress, are particularly pleasing. Malebranche and Pascal have feverely and justly censured his scepticifm. Peter Charron contracted a very strict friendship with him, infomuch that Montagne permitted him by his will to bear his arms: in his book of Wisdom which was published at Bourdeaux, in the year one thousand fix hundred and one, he has inferted a great number of Montagne's sentiments; this treatise has been loudly blamed for its freedom by many writers of France, and particularly GARASSE the Jefuit. Our Stanhope, though esteemed an orthodox Divine, translated it. BAYLE has remarked in oppofition to these cenfurers, that of a hundred thousand readers, there are hardly three to be found in any age, who are well qualified to judge of a book, wherein the ideas of an exact and metaphysical reasoning are set in oppofition to the most common opinions. POPE has borrowed many remarks from Charron, of which sensible writer Bolingbroke was particularly fond. K 3 6. A godless. |