first year of his age; the 501. was paid the next morning. His funeral was attended by a few friends, and fome members of the Royal Academy, to which he was fecretary for foreign correfpondence (a place without profit), and he was committed to the earth in the upper burrying-ground of Mary-la-Bonne parish. It is but juftice to add, that by means of the 501. just mentioned and the arrears of his penfion, every debt he had is covered, and that he died without a claim upon him more than he was able to discharge if he had lived. After the account here given of Baretti, a character of him may appear fuperfluous; but, as every author, while living, hopes for a friend to perform that office rather than an enemy, let friendship be an excufe for the following fketch.

The perfon of Baretti was athletic, his countenance by no means attractive, his manners apparently rough, but not unfocial; his eye, when he was inclined to please, or be pleafed, when he was converfing with young people, and efpecially young women, chearful and engaging; he was fond of converfing with them, and his converfation almoft contantly turned upon fubjects of inftruction: he had the art of drawing them into correfpondence, and wished by thefe means to give them the power of expreffion and facility of language, while he himfelf conveved to them leflons on the conduct of life; and the beft anfwer that can be given to all thofe accounts, which have reprefented him as a man of a brutal and ferocious temper, is the attachment which many of his young friends felt while he was living, and preferve to his memory now he is no more. He was not impatient of

contradiction, unlefs, where contempt was implied, but alive in every feeling where he thought himfelf traduced, or his conduct impeached. His Tolondron, and letters to Mrs. Piozzi, befpeak this temper; and, as invective always finds its way to notice more readily than other fubjects, it is not to be wondered at, if these have left more impreffion on the public than his other works. But let it be remembered, that in both inftances he was attacked. Mr. Bowle treated him (or was believed to treat him) as a murderer; Mrs. Piozzi, as a man of an unfeeling and ungrateful heart; he fuffered by his irritability on thefe and other occafions. His letter to Voltaire produced him nothing but a few copies to give to his friends; his Tolondron Lever fold; his letters in the European Magazine he gave to the printer. In every other intercourfe with the world, he was focial, eafy, and converfible; his talents were neither great or fplendid; but his knowledge of mankind was extenfive, and his acquaintance with books in all the modern languages which are valuable, except the German, was univerfal.

His conduct in every family where he became an inmate, was correct and irreproachable; neither prying, nor inquifitive, nor intermeddling; but affable to the inferiors, and conciliatory between the principals; in others, which he vifited only, he was neither intrufive nor unwelcome; ever ready to accept an invitation when it was cordial, and never feeking it where His love it was cold and affected. to the English nation was fincere and unbounded. He might have lived in wart at home, probably as much as he experienced in England;

but,

but, if his converfation may be depended on, he preferred his humble penfion here, to double the amount in his own country. His affiftance to every Englishman who wished to vifit Italy, his readiness to give or procure recommendations was conftant, and many have received civilities and attentions from his family, who were unconfcious that requests for that purpofe had been tranfmitted. His friendship with Dr. Johnfon was unbroken for five and twenty years; the coolnefs which arofe juft before the Doctor's death, he has ftated with great fimplicity in his Tolondron. It is an additional proof of his impatience under flight or contempt; but his reverence of the abilities and worth of his friend was unimpaired to the laft moment of his life. They had been friends in diftrefs; and one evening, when they had agreed to go to the tavern, a foreigner in the ftreets, by a fpecious tale of diftrefs, emptied the Doctor's purfe of the laft half guinea it contained; they took their fupper, however, as they had agreed, but when the reckoning came, what was the Doctor's furprize upon his recollecting that his purfe was totally exhautted! Baretti had fortunately enough to anfwer the demand, and has often declared that it was impoffible for him not to reverence a man who could give away all that he was worth, without recollecting his own diftrefs.In point of morals, Baretti was irreproachable; in regard to faith, he was rather without religion, than irreligious: the fact was, poffibly, that he had been difgufted with the religion of Italy before he left it, and was too old, when he came to England, to take an attachment to the purer doctrines of the Proteftant

church: but his fcepticism was never offenfive to thofe who had settled principles, never held out or defended in company, never propofed to milead or corrupt the minds of young people. He ridiculed the libertine publications of Voltaire, and the reveries of Rouffeau; he detefted the philofophy of the French pour les femmes de cham bre, and, though too much of a philofopher (in his own opinion) to fubfcribe to any church, he was a friend to church establishments.

If this was the leaft favourable part of his character, the best was his integrity, which was in every period of his diftreffes conftant and unimpeached. He had once trefpaffed upon Mr. Cadel's liberality to the amount of 701. with little hope of difcharging the obligation; fortune relieved him, by bringing him an Eastern prefent from a young lady, who had been one of thofe he took a pleafure to inftruct; the was just married to Mr. Middleton, in Benga!, and tranfmitted hịm, among other treafures, a diamond of fome value; the ufe heade of it, was to lodge it in Mr. Cadell's hands till it could be fold, and the deht difcharged. His regularity in every other claim was equally confpicuous; his wants he never made known but in the laft extremity; and his laft illness, if it was caufed by vexation, would doubtlefs have been prevented, by the intervention of many friends who were ready to fupply him, if his own fcruples, ftrengthened by the hopes of receiving his due from day to day, had not induced him to conceal his immediate diftrefs till it was too late to affift him.

Such was the character of Jofeph Baretti, as it appeared to the writer

of these anecdotes. Those who never lived with him, may perhaps draw contrary inferences from his difputes with Mr. Bowle and Mrs. Piozzi; but if any of those who knew his course of life, should think more has been said of him than he deferves, the prefs is open to their remarks. A panegyrift might think

himself called upon to reply to them; but the writer of this account, knowing what he has faid is the truth, cannot object to other truths being laid before the public. It may be some satisfaction to his numerous correfpondents to be inform ed, that every letter in his poffeffion was burnt without inspection."

NATURAL

forth feveral puppies, which I had the honour of feeing with you. This was a very short time after the brood had been produced by Mr. Gough's wolf, the fubject of my former paper, therefore the puppies were nearly of an age with mine. Thefe puppies Mr. Symmons has reared; only one of them was a female, and she had much more of the mother, or wolf, in her than any of the rest of the fame litter. I communicated my wish to Mr. Symmons, that either his puppy or mine fhould prove

which he immediately, with great readiness, acceded to. On the 16th, 17th, and 18th of December, 1788, this bitch was lined by a dog, and on the 18th of February the bought eight puppies, all of which the now rears. If we reckon from the 16th of December, fhe went 6 days; but if we reckon from the 17th, the mean time, then it is 63 days, the ufual time for a bitch to go with pup. Thefe puppies are the fecond remove from the wolf and dog, fimilar to that given by my Lord Clanbraffil to the Earl of Pembroke, which bred again. It would have proved the same fact if she had been lined by either a wolf, a dog, or one of the males of her own litter.

I may juft remark here, that the wolf feems to have only one time in

the