TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The following Articles, unavoidably deferred for want of room, will appear in the August Number. Lacretelle's Histoire de France, Stewart's Philosophy, Vol. II., Anster Fair, a Poem, Campbell's Travels in the Interior of Africa, Jamieson on the Construction of Maps, Park's Travels in Africa, Vol. II. Display, a Tale for Young People: with the conclusion of the Review of Laurence's Remarks upon Griesbach.

The Articles on Horsley on the Psalms, Kidd on the Trinity, Toulmin's History af Dissenters, Butler's Mathematics, Gibbons's Posthumous Works, Armageddon, Clarke on Daniel, &c. &c. will appear as soon as possible.

THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

FOR AUGUST, 1815.

Art. I. Histoire de France pendant le Dix-huitième Siècle; Par Charles Lacretelle, Membre de l'Institut et Professeur d'Histoire à l'Academie de Paris. Troisième Edition, revue et corrigée, 1812. Delaunay, Paris. [Bossange et Masson, Londres, 6 Tomes, pp. 2390, 31. brochés.]

History of France, during the Eighteenth Century. By Charles Lacretelle, Member of the Institute, and Professor of History to the Academy of Paris.

FROM the principle of association which, more or less, influences our opinions in every department of human knowledge, except, perhaps, in that of mathematical demonstration, we are apt to attribute a degree of merit to the classical writers of ancient history, which we deny to those who record the annals of the times in which we live. The lively interest which, from the earliest period of our education, we have been accustomed to associate with the acts of the heroes of Greece and Rome, insensibly influences the judgement of maturer years; and we transfer to the historical writers of antiquity the same enthusiastic attachment which we had previously conceived for the subjects of which they treat; and scarcely suffer the moderns to enter into comparison with them. Because their heroes are fabled to have exhibited mechanical force which is scarcely equalled by the powers even of our steam engines, we imagine that the mental energies of their writers were equally removed from the comparative mediocrity of the moderns; and because the inhabitants of Olympus are said to have mixed in their battles, we almost persuade ourselves that a species of diVOL. IV. N. S.

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vine afflatus-a protecting genius-distinguishes their writings from the humbler compositions of our own day.

Let us not be misunderstood. We by no means wish to depreciate the merit of those exquisite specimens of classical composition, (we speak more particularly now of historical works,) which, fortunately for the interests of literature, have escaped the wreck of time. As models of taste, as examples of elegant and beautiful composition, they will never cease to be read with enthusiasm, to be studied with diligence, to be meditated on with delight. But we do not belong to that class which maintains that, in this species of writing, the ancients have been unequalled ;--which looks merely to the rust of age, as the index to the scale of merit:- Miraturque nihil 6 quod non Libitina sacravit.' This honest confession may, possibly, appear to savour of stupidity to those, whom prejudice, or an exclusive attention to the dead languages, has Hot permitted to become acquainted with the elegant literature of their own times: but we have bound ourselves by no classical vow to yield the palm, in every instance, to the writers of antiquity, any more than to acknowledge that they were superior to us in the art of fattening sheep, or improving the breed of horses. In some departments of literature, we are ready to admit, that the ancients are unequalled; but we have no hesitation in maintaining that in historical composition they are decidedly inferior to the moderns.

If the interest which attaches to the subjects of historical composition, be taken into the comparison, the advantage is indubitably with the moderns. The fields of Cressy and Agincourt, excite a more powerful interest in the mind, than even the plain of Marathon; while the names of Marlborough, Eugene, Marshal Saxe, and Washington, are no less calculated to kindle the fire of military enthusiasm, than those of Leonidas, Scipio, and Brutus. It would be easy, indeed, from the annals of the last century, to point out a list of heroes, whose dazzling exploits have elevated them above all 'Greek, above all Roman fame.'

To say nothing, however, either respecting the subjects of history, or the talents with which heroic exploits have been recorded; there is one point of view in which the modern historian has infinitely the advantage over the writers of antiquity. History, with us, is a science of the most interesting and important description; with the classical writers, it had scarcely advanced beyond the limits of an embellished narrative. In fact, the difference to which we allude, is precisely that which exists between the art of sculpture and

the science of anatomy. Nothing can be more highly wrought than many of the exquisitely finished historic narratives of Herodotus and Thucydides, of Livy and Tacitus: but then, they are merely narrative. The chisel has been handled by a master; the proportions are just; the lines, strongly marked; the positions, graceful. We see nothing, however, of the interior organization; nor do we know any thing respecting the muscles, from which the whole receives its peculiar character, except from the general contour of the figure. On the contrary, the superiority of our modern writers chiefly appears in what we may call the anatomy of History. The interior of Courts and Cabinets is laid open to our view; and the various parts of the political system are minutely examined, and accurately pointed out. In short, History is now one of the most i portant branches of philosophy, and has received an additional value and interest, commensurate with the astonishing progress which has been made in the study of Political Economy,-a science in which the Ancients were mere sciolists.

These short remarks have been involuntarily extorted from us, on rising from the perusal of the important and interesting work before us, to which (though somewhat tardy in our notice) we can no longer forbear to call the attention of our readers. There are but few, if, indeed, any periods of the same duration, that present to us so many important and highly interesting events as the century which has just rolled by; and if to the intrinsic interest attached to these events, we add the consideration, that all of them bear, in a greater or a less degree, upon the extraordinary times in which we live, it is scarcely possible to imagine any series of facts, more calculated to fix the attention, or to improve the mind.

From the very extended nature of this work, and the vast variety of subjects which it embraces, it cannot be expected that we should pretend to give even an outline of the whole. Such an attempt (unless we were far to exceed the limits of a review) would involve a mere list of names and of persons, and a string of events. We shall rather endeavour to give our readers a fair specimen of the nature of M. Lacretelle's work, and to suggest, as we proceed, some few reflections which may shew the importance of studying this period of history.

The last moments of Louis XIV. very naturally introduce the history of this period, since the reign of this Monarch forms the link which connects the eighteenth with the preceding century. The peculiar character of the times, and