refufed certificates by me and my clergy, have obtained good livings in America, and found room for repentance. If their former misfortunes have been a warning to them, I rejoice at their fuccefs; but if they are once more negligent of their conduct, there is no farther beneficial pardon for their follies in this life, though they should fincerely feek it with tears.

My dean, your kinfman, is much beloved at Derry, and is highly delighted with the preferment. That place was the first object of his fondnefs, and agrees with his confitution; his wife was born in it, and is related to great numbers near it. He is very generous, and a great economift; lives fplendidly, yet buys eftates; and equally takes care of his reputation and his family. The income is above 13001. per ann. but he hath leven curates, to whom he is generous. It is a preferment which will increafe daily, and the outgoings continue the fame. It is now a clear 10001. and will next year be probably better. I have only room to affure

you, that I am,

Yours moft fincerely,

T. DERRY..

Dr. Rundle had been a valetudihary through life, and his conftitution, foon after this period, was perceptibly yielding to the inveteracy of the chronic diforder under which he laboured. His life was protracted a few years by medical affiftance. He died at his palace in Dublin on the 14th of April, 1743, fcarcely fixty years old. The fubjoined letter, written a fhort time before, evinces the firmnefs with which he awaited the hour of diffolution.

To Archdeacon S.

Dublin, March 22, 1742-3.

Dear fir,

A'

DIEU-for ever-Perhaps I may be alive when this comes to your hands-more probably not;-but in either condition, your fincere well-wifher.-Believe me, my friend, there is no comfort in this world, but a life of virtue and piety; and no death fupport-. able, but one comforted by Chriftianity, and its real and rational hope. The firft, I doubt not, you experi ence daily-May it be long before you experience the fecond 'I have lived to be Conviva fatur,passed through good report and evil report;

have not been injured more than outwardly by the laft, and folidly benefited by the former. May all who love the truth in Chrift Jefus, and fincerely obey the Golpel, be happy! For they deferve to be fo, who (dneva v dyan) feek truth in the fpirit of love.

Adieu!-I have no more strength. My affectionate laft adieu to your lady.

T. DERRY.”

the Turk, who is not tormented by ambition, or the thirft of wealth, whofe mind is never occupied by the chimeras of intrigue, who knows not envy, which debafes the foul, nor exhaufts himfelf in the purfuit of the fciences, to which we too often facrifice our health; the Turk, I fay, who lives on wholetome and fimple aliments, and paffes his days amid the flowery fields he cultivates, and in the bofom of his family who obey and revere him, grows and rifes into a Coloffus. The falubrity of the air he breathes, the fweet temperature he enjoys, the delightfu! fcenes perpetually before his eyes, and the peaceful life he leads, all contribute to ftrengthen his body, and preferve his vigour even beneath the fnows of age. Hither the fculptor, devoted to his art, and emulating the ancients, fhould come in fearch of models. He would fee young men of eighteen or twenty, five feet fix, or eight inches high, who poffefs all the graces peculiar to their time of life. Their mufcles have till a little plumpnefs, which will foon aflume a bolder, character; their cheeks, gracefully rounded, difplay an animated carnation, and their eyes are full of fire; their chin is covered with a light down, never violated by the razor; their air is full of grace and dignity; and their whole carriage, and every gefture, befpeaks health and vigour.

In men arrived at maturity, the features and outlines are more developed. Their legs are naked; and when their robes are lifted up, the muscles appear boldy prominent: their arms exhibit thofe figns of ftrength which were vifible in thofe

* About fix feet English.

of the ancient Athlete: their shoul ders are broad, their chefts full, and their necks, never ftraightened by the ligatures, which from infancy confine thofe of the Europeans, retain all the beautiful proportions affigned to that part by nature: no tight breeches, or garters, bind their legs below the knee; that part of their leg, therefore, is never distorted or contracted, nor is the knee too prominent. In a word, all their limbs, unaccustomed to the fetters which confine our motions, and which habit alone could render fup. portable, preferve their natural form, and that admirable fymmetry which conftitutes male beauty. When they ftand erect, all parts of the body properly fupport each other. When they walk, they move with an air of dignity, and bodily ftrength and firmness of mind difplay themselves in every gefture. Their majestic eye announces that they are accuf tomed to command. Pride and feverity may fometimes be apparent in their looks, but meanness never.

The Mahometans, who inhabit the island of Crete, are fuch, madam, as I have here pourtrayed them. They are, in general, from five feet and a half to fix feet high.† They refemble the ancient ftatues; and, in fact, fuch were the men the artifts of antiquity took for their mo dels. It is not, therefore, wonderful they fhould have furpaffed us, having a more beautiful nature from which to copy. One day, as I was walking with an officer in the envi rons of Canea, he exclaimed, at the fight of every Turk that palled, O! were I only permitted to choose

here

here feven hundred men, I fhould have the finest regiment in France! In a country where the men are fo remarkable for bodily ftrength and dignity of afpect, you may justly conclude, madam, that the women cannot be wanting in beauty and the graces. Their drefs does not prevent the growth of any part of the body, but is accommodated to thofe admirable proportions with which the Creator has decorated the moft lovely of his works. All are not handfome; all do not poffefs charms; but fome of them are. extremely beautiful, particularly among the Turks. In general, the Cretan women have a luxuriant bofom; a neck gracefully rounded; black eyes, full of fire; a fmall mouth; a nofe perfectly well made, and cheeks which health tinges with the fofteft vermilion. But the oval of their faces is different from that of the women of Europe, and the character of their beauty is peculiar to their nation. I will not attempt a parallel between the two. Whatever is beautiful deferves our homage, though delicacy of fentiment fhould ultimately fix the taste of a man of juft feeling.

my

During the first year or two of travels in the eastern countries, accustomed as I had been to the elegant head-drels of the ladies of France, their curls, and different coloured powder, I could not endure the black hair of the oriental women, and their drefs feemed to me to give them a harth and forbidding air. So difficult is it for reafon to difengage itlelf from the fet ters of habit, that I long continued the flave of this prejudice. But, after more mature reflection, their long black locks, artificially plaited, without either powder or pomatum,

and which neither spoil their dress, nor foil the furniture of their apartments, appeared to me well calculated to heighten their beauty. Their ebon colour feemed to give more luftre to the fairness of their complexions, and the glow of their cheeks. Their rofe - water, with which they wash their hair, exhaled an agreeable perfume; and I was delighted with the natural beauty of their treffes. I then changed my opinion, and could not help withing the European women would not fpoil one of their most charming ornaments with the colours of art, fo much inferior to thofe of nature. How much more lovely would the fair beauty appear, adorned with the pale gold of her flowing locks! How would the dark hair of the brunette, arranged with art, fet off the rofes of her cheeks! These, madam, are the obfervations of a traveller, who, by comparing the different cuftoms of nations, has been able to banish his prejudices, and is convinced that nature alone is truly beautiful; but he fets little value on, and entreats your excuse for, the reflections in which he has here ventured to indulge.

You must not be furprifed, madam, that I have not mentioned the Grecks who inhabit the island of Candia, who partake with the Turks the advantages of a ferene fky, a pure air, and happy temperature. They enjoy, indeed, in common with them, thefe precious bleffings; but they are oppreffed by tyrants. They live in perpetual anxiety and apprehenfion, and frequently terminate their miferable lives in defpair. Excepting the Spachiots, who are lefs expofed to tyrrany, thefe unfortunate beings have neither the lofty ftature, nor the ftrength, nor the

B 3

beauty

beauty of the Turks. The ftamp of fervitude is vifible in their faces; their looks are crouching, and their features diftorted by knavery and meannefs. Such is the character of thofe Cretans, who were once fo jealous of their liberty; thofe experienced and intrepid warriors, who were courted by all nations; and thofe friends to the arts, which they cultivated amid their fhady groves. At prefent, cowardly and indolent, they live in debafemcit, and we may read in their degraded countenances, that they are fives.

I have the honour to be, &c."

gians and polemical writers. The converfation of the cardinal is equally brilliant and inftructive: he knows fomething of every fubject, and relates with grace and perfpicuity every thing he knows: he fpeaks upon the fciences, and upon matters of erudition, as Fontenelle wrote his worlds, in reducing the moft abftracted matters to the capacity of the vulgar; and renders them in terms which men of education and refinement ufe in treating familiar fubjects of ordinary converfation.

Nobody relates more elegantly than the cardinal, and without entreaty; but, in the most fimple narratives, wherein erudition would be infipid from the mouth of another, it finds graces in his, from the aid of his perfon and elegant pronunciation. Age has deprived him

de Polignac, and he always infpires me with the fame fentiments of admiration and refpect. He appears to me to be the laft great prelate of the Gallic church, who profeffes eloquence in the Latin as well as the French language, and whofe erudition is very extenfive. He, alone, among the honorary members of the academy of Belles Lettres, understands and fpeaks the language of the learned, of which this academy is compofed; he expreffes himfelf upon matters of erudition, with a grace and dignity proper and peculiar to bimfelf. It may be remembered that M. Boffuet, whom the cardinal, at that time ab é de Polignac, replaced in 1704, at the Academy Françoife, was the laft prelate who had a diftinguifhed rank among the theolo

preferves fill enough of them, efpecially when we call to mind the many great occafions in which his graces and natural talents have fone. My uncle, the bishop of Blois, who was nearly his cotemporary, has frequently spoken to me of his younger days. Never was a courle of ftudy made with more reputation than his not only his themes and compofitions were excellent, but he had time and facility to aflift his fellow-ftudents, or, rather, to do their duty for them; fo much fo, that the four pieces which gained the two premiums and the acceffes, in the college of Harcourt, where he ftudied, were all compofed by him. When he was engaged in philofophy, at the fame college, he would maintain, in his public thefis, the fyftem of Def

cartes,

cartes, which it was then found difficult to establish: he acquitted him felf with great reputation, and confounded all the partifans of old opinions. Nevertheless, the ancient doctors of the univerfity having taken it ill that he should have combated Ariftotle, and not having been willing to give a degree to the enemy of the preceptor of Alexander, he confented to maintain another thefis, in which he read his recantation, and made Ariftotle triumph over the Cartefians themfelves.

No fooner was he received doctor in theology, than the cardinal de Bouillon took him to Rome, to the conclave of 1689, wherein the Pope, Alexander VIII. was elected. As foon as the abbé de Polignac was known in this capital of the Chriftian world, which was then the centre of the most profound erudition and refined policy, he was generally loved and efteemed. The French cardinals and ambaffador judged him the most proper person to make the pope hearken to reafon upon the articles of the famous af fembly of the clergy of France in 1682. It was difficult to perfuade the court of Rome to fwallow this pill; yet the wit and eloquence of the, abbé de Polignac brought it about: he was charged to carry the news of it to France, and had, on this occafion, a private audience of Lewis XIV. who faid of him, in French, what the pope, Alexander VIII. had faid in Italian: This young man has the art of perfuading you to believe every thing he pleafes; whilst he appears at first to be of your opinion he is artfully maintaining a contrary one, but he gains his end with fo much address, that he finishes always by convincing you he is right.

He

had not yet put the finishing ftroke to this great affair before the pope recalled him to Rome. He affifted again at the conclave wherein Innocent XII. was elected, and he returned to France the following year 1692.

About two years afterwards the king named him ambassador to Poland, a very delicate appointment, from the particular circumftances at that period. John Sobietki was in a very declining ftate of health ; Lewis XIV. wifhed not only to preferve fome credit in Poland, but to give, for a fucceffor to the declining king, a prince devoted to France. The prince of Conti had offered himself, and Lewis XIV. charged fecretly the abbé de Polignac to en deavour to get him elected, notwithftanding the oppofition to the queen dowager, who was a French woman, but who, with much reafon, favoured her children, in fpite of all contrary cabals. The abbé, keeping his inftructions very fecret, arrived at the court of Sobieski a year before his death; he delighted all the Polanders by the facility with which he fpoke Latin; he might have been taken for an envoy from the court of Auguftus, if he had not been heard to fpeak French to the queen, who was feduced by his wit and appearance; but he could not abandon, on his account, the intereft of her family. Sobiefki died, and the general diet affembled to chufe a fucceffor. The eloquence of the abbé de Polignac, the promifes and hopes with which he allured the Polanders were, at first, attended with fo much fuccefs, that a great part of the nation, headed by the primate, proclaimed the prince of Conti; but in the fame moment, the fums which the elecB 4

tor