Imatges de pàgina
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dulge his paffion, and provoke the emotion of that grief that was ready to devour him. In fhort, he retreated to the filent place I found him in, which was a part of his own eftate, and turned hermit. He built the little villa I faw by the water fide, and formed the ground into the natural garden I beheld. Le Blanc mentions it in his letters, as an extraordinary thing, and very justly prefers it to the laboured and expensive gardens at Chifwick, the work of the late Lord Burlington. Here Watfon laid in every thing he had a mind for, and filled his closet with books. He amufed

and kept himself Healthy by working in his garden, and when he had done abroad, went in to read. His principal study was the contemplation of the beft learning, which is the true christian; and from that he went to know what the Greeks and Romans have refolved and taught. In fome things, I found he was a learned agreeable man, and wondered greatly at his whim in turning hermit. I faid a great deal against it, as we fat over a bottle of claret; told him he might employ his time and talents more ufefully in the world, by mixing and converfing with his fellow-creatures, and by a mutual participation and conveyance of the common bleffings of nature and proG 3 vidence;

vidence; and as he was not forty yet, advised him to go over the Teefe, and make his addreffes to Mifs Cranmer or Mifs Vane, both of them being mott glorious girls, as I was told, and capable of adding greatly to the delights of philofophy. You

have not seen two finer creatures, foul and body, than they are, if I have been rightly informed; and I think, it would be a nobler and more religious act to get one of theme, in the ftate of holy wedlock, than to write the best book that was ever printed. For my own part, I had rather marry, and double- one of thefe dear creatures, than die with the character of a father of the deferts. But in vain did I remonftrate to this anchoret. Contemplation was become his Venus, from the hour he loft his Adelaïde; and he had lived fo very happy in his lone ftate for feven years paft, that he could not think of hazarding felicity by a change of life. He had all he defired. If at any time, any thing was wanting, Christopher the fisherman, who came to fee him once or twice a week, very quickly got him whatever he required. This was Watfon's anfwer to my advice, and feeing it was to no purpose to say any more, I wished my hermit health, and bid him adieu.

$ 9. Having, in the preceding article, mentioned the famous Abbé le Blanc, I think

A few remarks relat

ing to the Blanc, and

Abbé Le

bis letters.

I ought to fay fomething of him in this place, by adding a few remarks in relation to this extraordinary man. He was in England in the year 1735, and writ two volumes of letters in octavo, which were tranflated into English, and printed for Brindley in 1747. In this account of England, the French monk pretends to defcribe the natural and political conftitution of our country, and the temper and manners of the nation; but, as is evident from his epiftles, knew nothing at all of any of them.

Voltaire, however, (that wonderful compound of a man, half infidel, half papist; who feems to have no regard for chriftianity, and yet compliments popery, at the expence of his understanding (8); who

writes

(8) Voltaire's words are, And notwithstanding all the troubles and infamy which the church of Rome has had to encounter, he has always preferved a greater decency and gravity in her worship than any of the other churches; and has given proofs, that when in a ftate of freedom, and under due regulations, fhe was formed to give leffons to all others.Is not this facing the world, and contradicting truth with

G 4

vations on what this reverend man says of our religion and clergy.

Some obfer-vations on the Abbé Le

Blanc's fiftyeighth letter to the Prefident Bouhier, in which he mifreprefents and blackens

the reforma tion of England, and abufes the English cler

gy.

The fubftance of what this French monk reports, vol. II. from p. 64. to p. 75. in his letter to the President Boubier (9), is this:

1. That Cranmer, and the other doctors, who introduced the reformation into England, were downright enthufiafts, and compaffed their defigns by being feconded by thofe, who were animated by a fpirit of ir

religion, and by a greedy defire of seizing

of Monf. Bouhier, prefident of the French academy.

the

(9) Reader-Boubier, prefident of the French academy, (to whom Le Blanc infcribes his 58th letter) died in 1746. He was a scholar. L'Abbé de Olivet, (from whom he had the late fine edition of Cicero in feven volumes 4to) fpeaks of him in the following manner:- -Je me fuis prêté à ce nouveau travail, & d'autant plus volontiers, que M. le Préfident Bouhier a bien voulu le partager avec moi.-On fera, fans doute, charmé de voir Cicéron entre les mains d'un traducteur auffi digne de lui, que Cicéron luimême étoit digne d'avoir pour traducteur un favant du premier ordre. Tufc. tome 1. p. 13.And again;-Feu M. le Préfident Bouhier, le Varron de

notre

!

the poffeffions of the monks. It was the defire of a change established the reformation. The new doctors feduced the people; and the people having mistaken darknefs for light, quitted the road of truth, to walk in the ways of error.

2. As to morals, that this boafted reformation produced no change in that refpect; for the people are not purer than

notre fiecle, & l'homme le plus capable de bien rendre les vraies beautez d'un original Grec ou Latin, avoit tellement retouché fes deux Tufculanes, qu'on aura peine à les reconnoître dans cette nouvelle édition. Tufc. tome z. p. 1.

This is Oliver's account of Bouhier; and I have heard fome gentlemen who knew him, fay, that he was a very fine genius; but, they added, a popish bigot to the laft degree, and therefore Le Blanc chofe him as the fittest perfon of his acquaintance, to writean epiftle to, that abufed the reformation, and the English divines. Great is the prejudice of education! when fo bright a mind as Boubier's cannot fee the deformity of Popery, and the beauty of the reformation; but, on the contrary, with pleasure reads the defpicable defamation in Le Blanc's letter.

N. B. The two Tufculans, fo finely tranflated by Boubier, are the 3d, De ægritudine lenienda: and the 5th, Virtutem ad beatè vivendum feipfa effe contentam. De la vertu: Qu'elle fuffit pour vivre heureux.

-See likewife, M. Bouhier's curious and ufeful remarks on the three books, De Natura Deorum; the five Tufculans; Scipio's dream; and on the Catilinares, or three orations against Catiline. Thefe remarks are the third volume.

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