you wish me to fee is Fr. Come, whom you mentioned to me before. If the thing were fill to do, I would obey you, and you should remain unknown to me; but friendship has anticipated humanity. M. le Marechal de Luxembourg preffed me laft fummer to receive his vifits; I obeyed; and he was fent to me twice. Fr. Come did for me what no other medical man had been able to do; all I obferved in him juftified both the high reputation he has acquired and the opinion you entertain of him: in fhort he extricated me from an unfortunate error, in proving that my difeafe was not what I fuppofed it to be. But, on the other hand, that which I really have is no lefs unknown nor incurable than the former, nor have his vifits in the leaft diminished my pain. Thus all human efforts ferve no longer any purpofe but that of tormenting me. This affuredly is not the eff &t you intended. "You reproach me with a mifapplication of my acuteness in this particular; that, being impreffed with the perfuafion that you were a man, I drew arguments to prove it by your letters. I know not if this imputation is founded; but I never believed myfelf the poffeffor of fo much acureness for it to be poffible fo to mifufe it; and alfo hold fuch a quality in too little eftimation to defire to poffefs it. But it is true that, in the kind of correfpondence you have been pleafed to purfue with me, the embarraffing perplexity of not knowing what to fay to you has probably forced me upon the expedient of raillery, a tone that by no means fuits my temper, and in which I never fail to acquit myself ill. It depends, Madam, only on yourfelf, and on your amiable friend, to afcertain that both my heart and pen are capable of another language, and that that of efteem and confidence is not wholly a ftranger to me. But you, who are my accufers, are yourfelves far from innocent in this particular; but I give you notice that the grievance I complain of is not fo venial as not to merit the pains of being at once fully difcuffed, and then difmiffed entirely from any future correfpondence. "I perceive that my paper is fo thin that the writing may be read through it; I therefore put my letter into a cover." P. 33. The fecond part of the publication is compofed of Rouffeau's Letters to M. du Peyrou, the perfon to whom at his death he confided his manufcripts. Many of thefe, and by much the most interefting part, were written by Rouffeau during his refidence in England. His behaviour here was marked by the extremeft puerilities; and it is obvious, that he perpetually made himfelf miferable by his low and con.. temptible jealoufies and fufpicions. One of his Letters, relating to his quarrel with David Hume, will clearly demonftrate this, and fufficiently fatisfy the reader's curiofity. "No doubt, my dear hoft, the incredible things M. Hume writes to every one must by this time have reached your knowledge; I am under no uneafinefs refpecting the effect they will produce on you. He has promifed the public a full account of what had paffed between us, together with the fight of all the letters. If thofe letters are faithfully and unrefervedly exhibited, you will fee in that I wrote to to him, on the iöth of July, an ample detail of both his conduct and mine, which will enable you to judge between us; but, as it is next to impoffible that he fhould hazard fuch an exposure, or at leaft without the most egregious mifreprefentations, I refer you to M. d'Ivernois for every particular; for to copy fuch an immenfe collection would not be poffible, and would befides oper anew every wound I have received. I stand in need of a truce, to recover my nearly exhaufted ftrength. For the reft, I let him go on declaiming against me to the public, and fpending his breath in the most brutal invectives. t know not how to difpute like a carman: I have a defender, whofe operations are flow, but fure; thefe I await in filence. "I will fay only a few words on the subject of the pension in queltion, from the King of England, which you yourself mentioned to me. I did not reply refpecting this article, not only becaufe M. Hume required my fecrecy in the name of the King, which I faithfully obferved till he himself thought proper to publish it; but alfo because, having never confidered my felf fure of this penfion, I wished to avoid exciting expectations in you, on my account, that might never be realized. You must be fenfible that, coming to a rupture with M. Hume, after having difcovered his treachery, I could not, without baseness, accept benefits which he would have procured me. It is true, this treachery and benefit appear fomewhat incompatible; for all this, they in him have been united. His plan was to make a public and oftentatious difplay of the fervices he did me, and to calumniate me in fecret, without feeming to be my enemy; and the last of thefe objects he has completely accomplished. You will have the explanation of this. In the mean time, he every where publishes that, having firt accepted the pention, I afterwards refufed it in terms of great incivility. I fend you a copy of the letter I wrote to the minif ter on the fubject, by which you will perceive the faifehood of his asfertion. I now return to what you yourself wrote to me concerning it. "When you were informed that the penfion had been offered me, you heard what was true; but the further affertion of my having refufed it was abfolutely falfe; for, on the contrary, without at that time entertaining the fmaileft doubt of the fincerity of M. Hume, I oppofed but one condition to my accepting it, which was the confent of my lord Marechal, which, confidering what had paffed at Neufchatel, it was incumbent upon me to obtain. Befide, this we had mutually agreed on before I left London: nothing further was necellary on the part of the court but to conclude the affair, of which, however, I had but little hopes; but neither at the time, nor before, nor fince, have I ever mentioned the matter to a living creature, excepting my lord Marechal, who certainly has not betrayed my fecret. It must neceffarily, therefore, have been published by M. Hume; and if so, how could M. Hume affert that I had refufed it, fince that affertion was falfe, and my intention even was not to refufe it? Does not this anticipation favour of his being well aware I fhould foon be compelled to give this refufal, and that to bring me to this was a part of his project, that he night avail himself of that refufal to bring things to the point at which they are? It appears to me of.importance to trace trace the series of caufes in all this, with a view to the undertaking I am engaged in; and if you should fucceed in penetrating, by means of your friend, to the source of what he writes to you, you will have rendered a great fervice both to me and to the thing itself. "The facts that take place in England with refpect to me, exceed, I affure you, every poffible ftretch of the imagination. The calumnies that are circulated forpafs all bounds, and this without my having afforded the smallest grounds for fuch atrocities, and without it be ing in the power of a fingle being to fay I have given him caufe for the fmaileft degree of perfonal ill-will. It now appears, that the project of M. Hume and his affociates is, to cut me off from all refources, and every kind of communication with the continent, and to make me perish here in grief and mifery. I hope they will be disappointed of fuccefs: two things, however, make me tremble. One is, that they are attempting every means to deprive me of the friendship of M. Davenport; and fhould they fucceed, I fhall be without an afylum in this country: the other, ftill more terrible, is that it is abfolutely neceffary for me to have a correfpondent in London, to receive and pay the postage of my letters to you, as well as to forward them. 1 at prefent fend them to a perfon unknown to me, but who, I am affured, is a man of probity. "If, through any accident, this man fhould fail me, I should no longer be able to fend my letters with the certainty of their fafety, and I fhoul have no means of writing to you. We will hope that this will not happen; but, my dear hofl, I am fo unfortunate! Nothing would be wanting to complete my mifery, if this privation fhould take place. "I do all in my power to remain ignorant of painful intelligence: I no longer read any newspaper; I reply to no letters, which, at length, cannot but reduce my correfpondents to the refource of fi lence. I fpeak only on the most indifferent fubjects to the only neighbour with whom I have any intercourfe, because he is the only one who speaks French. It has been imp ffible for me, confidering its caufe, to remain unmoved by the horrible revolution which, no doubt, has infected the remoteft parts of Europe; but my emotion has been of short duration : I have refumed my ferenity of temper, and I trust it will not again be interrupted; for I mistake if it would not be difficult for any unforeseen misfortune to befal me. Let not these difturbances give you, my dear hoft, any uneafinefs. I dare predict that the time will come when Europe will be ftrenuous in its respect toward the perfons who have honoured me in my adverfity." P. 217. Of the genuineness of thefe Letters, no doubt can exift; and to those who are fond of Rouffeau and his writings they will furnish a delightful regale. We have no fcruple in af firming, that popular as his works may be, his judgment was depraved, his principles corrupt, and his productions mifchievous. He entirely owes his fame to the bad paflions of mankind; his fubjects exhibited allurement to the licentious, Y BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXIV. SEPT. 1804. and and foothed the doubts of infidelity; but, though we may be fometimes pleafed with the vivacity of his fancy, and charmed with the eafe, elegance, and harmony of his ftyle, we shall never clafs him among the benefactors of literature, the chief object of which ought to be to correct the judgment, and amend the heart. BRITISH CATALOGUE. POETRY. ART. 17. A Poem. By 4to. 37 PP. That Nature gave to Robert Bloomfield the feelings and genius of a poet, has been acknowledged by thousands of readers; and we are pleafed to fee in the prefent Poem a new and ftrong proof of his pow ers. The fubject is the Jennerian difcovery of the vaccine inoculation, which he has enriched with all the treafures of fancy and pathos. The picture of a boy blinded by the fall-pox, hiftorical views of former ravages, and affecting narratives of private misfortune, all contribute to intereft the reader for the great difcovery, which is to put a final period to the ravages of fuch a peft. We would not give the poem fo improbable a commendation as to fay that it is faultlefs; but, that it contains beauties, which only a true genius for poetry could infufe, will be felt by every reader of taste. Let the following lines fpeak for themselves. "There dwelt, beneath a brook that creeps along, The exquifite beauty, feeling, and piety (a merit which elsewhere appears) of the laft of thefe couplets is beyond all praife. The death of the author's father, by the fmall-pox, follows, and other family afflictions of the fame kind. Among those who narrowly escaped was himself, then a child. Kind heart, who o'er the pictur'd feafons glow'd, Whole fmiles have crown'd the verfe, or tears have flow'd, Himfelf appeals-What if that child were HE!" It is impoffible not to be interested. Here alfo the death of poor "A ftranger youth, from the meridian sky, It fuits the languor of a gloomy day: away; He left his bamboo groves, his pleasant shore, He heard the wonders by the white men told; Plough'd the rough waves, and gain'd our northern clime, Dr. Jenner is doubtlefs a man to feel the merit of this tribute of true genius to his difcovery, and to estimate it among the higheft of his rewards. ART. 18. The Lewes Library Society. A Poem. By John Butten, Junr. of the Claffical and Commercial Academy, Cliff, Lerves. 410. 2s. 6d. Button. 1804. There appears to be a most respectable Book Society at Lewes, who are in poffeffion of a numerous and well-chofen library. Mr. Button, we prefume,. is a brother member, who celebrates the Society and their collection in easy and agreeable verfe. He first pays his tribute of refpect to the principal members, and afterwards diftinguishes the more celebrated authors and publications. He thus defcribes the Encyclopædia Britannica. "Pondrous and fquare, lo! twenty volumes lie, All in their various arts to them refer, The poet, painter, and philofopher; They to the fubtle ftatefman lend their aid, Y 2 They |