1

Romans, he marched against the enemy. His friends, within the walls, who were numerous, co-operated with his defigns, and in a few days, overtures for peace were made to the pontiff. He acceded to them, but on condition, that they fhould annul the arrangements they had made, and if they would have fenators, that they fhould acknowledge all their power was from him. The people were fatisfied, and they threw open the gates, through which Eugenius entered, among the acclama tions of a fawning and inconftant multitude. Before this event Arnold had retired; but he left behind him many friends ftrongly attached to his perfon and principles.

"We hear little more of this enthufiaft, for fuch he was, till the reign of Adrian, our countryman, when, on account of fresh tumults, he and his adherents were excommunicated, and Rome was threatened with an interdict, unless they expelled the whole party from their walls. This they did. The Arnoldifts retired with their champion into Tuscany, where he was received as a prophet, and honoured as a faint. His enemies, however, prevailed he was made prifoner, and conducted, under a strong efcort, to Rome. In vain was intereft made to fave his life; he was condemned and executed, and his aches thrown into the Tiber, let the people fhould collect his remains, and venerate them as the relics of a fainted martyr.

great

"Such was Arnold of Brefcia, a man, whofe character, whofe principles, and whofe views, we per

not

haps fhould be difpofed to admire, had his life been recorded by unprejudiced hiftorians, and brought down to us drawn in the blackest colours, which party, bigotted zeal, and enthufiafm could lay on. He was rafh, mif-judging, and intemperate, or never would he have engaged in fo unequal a conteft.-The view of fuch a phenomenon in the twelfth century excites a pleafing admiration. To attack the Roman pontiff and his clergy in the very centre of their power, required a more than common fhare of fortitude; to adopt a fettled fcheme of restoring to its priftine glory the republic of Rome, demanded a fretch of thought, comprehenfive and enterpriting; and to forego the ease and indulgence of a diffipated age, for the reformation of manners and the fuppreflion of what he thought ufurped dominion, argued a character of mind, difinterefted, generous, and benevolent. But Arnold, like other reformers, went too far; and paffion foon vitiated undertakings, which were begun perhaps with motives the most laudable.—The readiness, with which the Roman people embraced this plan of lowering the jurifdiction of the pontiff, and restraining it within thofe bounds, which the true spirit of christianity had fixed, at once fhews, that they could reafon juftly, and that they confidered the unbounded fway of the triple crown, to which reluctantly they fubmitted, as an affumed prerogative, to which violence or mifconftruction, and not christian right had given efficacy."

СНАР

TO

Ohave defcribed the opinions and the principles of M. Turgot, is to have painted his character. Ifwe feldom find the character and conduct of men conformable to their principles, it is because they feldom poffefs the principles which from hypocrify or vanity they affect to poffefs; or it is because their principles are prejudices which they have imbibed, and not truths whofe proofs they have felt; and that their reafon has no fhare in them. M. Turgot, on the contrary, had adopted no principle without analyzing it, and without an intimate perfuafion of its truth: all his fentiments were confequences of his opinions, and all his actions directed by reason. This explains to us wherefore he was fo fevere refpesting his own moral conduct, and yet fo indulgent to the faults of others, whom he often thought lefs culpable than our prefent focial inflitutions and wherefore it was that of all the crimes of humanity, the abufe of power and the contempt of truth, excited his firongeft indignation; (for be confidered the knowledge of truth as the foundation of happiness, and the fentiment of benevolence as the fountain of every other virtue :) and wherefore, laftly, he held the diffufion of knowledge by means of good productions, as one of the most important fervices that could be conferred upon fociety; and could never forgive thofe who by restrictions upon the liberty of writing injured the progrefs of knowledge, nor thofe who defended in their works fentiments which they could not be lieve. Impoftors, whatever habit and mask they wore, excited in him

2

an averfion mixed with difguft; because in his eyes to deceive men, and to do them a real injury, was the fame thing. This ftrong conviction of mind, when united to courage, produces frength of character; and we feel how rare a phenomenon it must be. M. Turgot poffeffed it, and could not help defpifing the man who poffeffed it not. Indulgent towards those who gave way, or who furrendered themfelves entirely to their difpofition for pleafure, he was inexorable when they mixed religious practices with fuch gratifications; becaufe this mixture is a proof either of a fhameful pufillanimity, or a criminal hypocrify.-His hatred of the wicked was open and irreconcileable: and he even pretended that honeft men only were ever inexorable; for that knaves knew how to injure and to revenge, but not how to hate.-Satire, if it were true, and had vice and public crimes only for its object, appeared to him a jutt weapon. He believed that a min might be permitted to conceal his name, for it was not neceffary, for a mere difplay of courage, that an honest man fhould expofe himself to unjust oppreffion; and [thus] the mott virtuous man that perhaps ever exited wrote fatirical verfes.

"As he could not diffemble his hatred of the wicked, and his contempt for cowardice and meannefs, the fe fentiments involuntarily paint. ed themfelves upon his face, his looks, and upon his whole countenance. This defect in the command of his outward deportment, refulting from the candour of his foul, contributed as much as his

con

:

this hatred of the vicious was confequence of his love of human nature, it never infpired in him injuftice or vengeance. It influenced not even his judgments. He praifed his most inveterate enemy, if he did any thing deferving of praife, and defended him against any unjuft imputation, allowing him the merit or the good qualities that he really poffeffed; but he did not think himself obliged, in order to obtain the reputation of a great foul, to betray the truth, nor to pare vice because himself had been the victim of it.

"His difinterestedness was such might be expected from ftrict juf tice, an exact estimation of the advantages of wealth, and a true fuperiority of mind. The difintereft ednefs which is allied to vanity, and of which men are defirous of making a merit, excited his compaffion or his contempt.-Poffeffing the virtue of humanity in its highelt perfection, he exercifed it with all the delicacy, and I dare affert with all the refinement, of which it is fufceptible. It was his duty to be beneficent, but he was fo with. out oflentation; and he confidered this virtue as a weakness, unless by fubjecting it to reafon it was made ferviceable to the general utility. All his fentiments were pure; all his first impulfes were mild or courageous; and his calm foul, replete with candour and juftice, offered to

"The conftant agreement be tween his principles and his conduct, his fentiments and his reafon; the union of ftedfaft justice with the fweetest humanity, of the most rigorous virtues with the most ami. able qualities, of fenfibility with firmnefs of character, of juftness with fubtlety of thought, of method in reafoning with boldnefs of ideas, of refined analysis with extenfive views, of depth with accuracy of derail; the uncommon merit of having embraced every thing in his knowledge, and the more uncommon merit ftill of having introduced into the mighty whole fo much clearnefs and truth; an immoveable conftancy in his opinions, without ever exaggerating them; all thefe qualities, form an affemblage that is perhaps peculiar in the history of man, and which could not have been exhibited but in a peaceable and cultivated nation, and in an enlightened age.

Many individuals have practifed great virtues with more eclat, have poffeffed more brilliant qualities, and difcovered in a fingle line more ge nius; but no man perhaps ever difplayed a whole fo perfect and fo im poling. It feems as if his wifdom and his ftrength of mind, by feconding the happy gifts of nature, had made him not fufceptible of any ignorance, weakness, or defect, but what are infeparable from the ftate of a limited being.

"It is in this extraordinary union that we should look both for the fource of the little juffice that was done to him, and of the hatred that was excited against him. Envy feems to attach itself more closely to that which approaches to perfection, than to that which, though it

firikes

fikes with astonishment, affords, by a mixture of defects and vices, that confolation of which envy ftands in need. We may hope to dazzle the eyes of men and obtain the title of a man of genius, by combating or by flattering popular prejudices with addrefs, and we may hope to cover our actions with the mask of fome exaggerated virtue; but the conftaut practice of virtue that is fimple and unoftentatious, with a reafon always upon the retch, and always iteady in the road of truth; this is what hypoerify, this is what impofture defpair of imitating; and is therefore what they endeavour to ftifle and de

roy.

To judge properly of M. Tur got, it is neceffary to know his whole character. He might have been thought cold, and yet his reafon only had preferved him from being very paffionate. He was efteemed difdainful, whereas never did man feel a more profound efteem for talents and virtue, or fet a higher price upon the efforts of mediocrity, when modeft, and usefully employed. He appeared, minute; but it was only because he had in cluded every thing in one vaft plan, and connected whatever appeared of importance in his eyes by ties that often were invifible to all but himself. He feemed susceptible of

prejudice; but it was only because he judged for himself, and because the common opinion had no power over him. He was believed proud; but it was only because he conceal ed neither the confcioufnefs of his powers, nor the firm conviction of his opinions; and because, feeling how clofely they were connected with each other, he would neither abandon them in converfation, nor defend feparately any detached part. The particulars of his opinions were indeed not known, and few perfons in Europe were ripe for doing juftice to them as a fyftem; and as the cafe could not be conpared to that of detached difcoveries in a fingle science, or literary works in actual poffeffion of the public, how could perfons under the influence of prejudices judge of him with fairness?

"It was by these circumstances that a man who never did any thing but what was good, might happen to have many enemies; while his reputation as a virtuous and intrepid citizen, and as one poffeffed of understanding and extenfive knowledge, correfponded among the vul gar to their idea of one of the most extraordinary men that nature ever produced, and of one perhaps who fell the leaft fhort of that perfection to which human nature can be raised."

"JOHN

OHN Jebb, the subject of thefe memoirs, was born in South ampton-ftreet, Covent Garden, London, on the 16th of February, 1736, N. S. He was the eldest fon of the

rev. John Jebb, (who was the youngest fon of Mr. Samuel Jebb, formerly of Mansfield, in Notting hamfhire) dean of Cafhell in the kingdom of Ireland, and of Anne,

daugh