He would be a Soldier. A Comedy, in Five Acts. As performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden. Written by Frederick Pilon. 8vo. Is. 6d. Robinsons. THIS play is chiefly grounded on an event not new to our ftage. Colonel Talbot leaves his fon, whofe birth was concealed because the marriage was clandeftine, to the care of Wilkins, from whom he eloped at twelve years of age, in confequence of an ardent paffion for a military life. In fact, he would be a foldier.' The colonel went to India; and, in his abfence, heard nothing of his fon. On his return, Wilkins, at the. inftigation of his wife, introduces his own fon to the colonel, as the perfon committed to his care. This incident, under a different direction, is introduced in mifs Lee's comedy, with good fuccefs. It it too meagre for a principal plot, though it fucceeds as an epifode; and perhaps would have made a very proper fubject for a farce, as it would then have admitted of that kind of humour which the deli cacy of comedy fhould reject. Mr. Pilon found that it would. not alone fill the scene; and has added two epifodes, which are neither interefting or entertaining. Colonel Talbot brings with him, from India, captain Crevelt, a young man of great merit, who, at the age of twenty-three, had arifen from the ranks to the command of a company. The vulgar impertinence of Caleb is well contrafted with the fpirited dignity and refined decorum of the manners of Crevelt; and colonel Talbot, who poffeffes the acute fenfibility of the man of fafhion and education, feels feverely the difadvantages of his own fon. As may be expected, Crevelt at laft appears to be the real fon of colonel Talbot, who had followed a ferjeant of the fame name to India, when he believed himself to be the offspring of Wilkins. The cataftrophe is unfolded with fome addrefs; but the conclufion is lame and impotent,' without fpirit or intereft. The language of this play is very unequal, and scarcely ever arifes to elegance, though, as a dramatic reprefentation, it is not without its merit. We fhall felect a fhort fpecimen, from the contraft which we mentioned, which is not only well conducted, but may be eafily separated from the rest. Enter Caleb, in Regimentals. • Ca. Here I am, father, in full feather. Col. What, fir, is your dancing mafter gone already? Ca. Blefs your heart! no master of any kind for me today; I never put on a new fuit of clothes in my life that I did not make holiday. Man, (afide to Col.) We had better, I think, in fome degree, give way to him: you cannot expect immediately to reform manners fo long confirmed by habit. Col Col. (afide.) I believe you're right, fo I'll try what effect indulgence may have on him. Well, it fhall be as you wou'd have it; this day fhall be devoted to pleasure and amufement: Crevelt, give me leave to introduce you to my fon. 'Crev. I don't know any circumftance of my life affects me more than the high honour I now enjoy. [Introducing himself. Ca. Why, look ye, young man, as my father defires it, I'll shake hands with you with all my heart: but I wou'd not make so free with every old foldier's fon. • Col. How dare you, fir, infult a man of his merit with language fo grofs ? Ca. Why, is'nt he an old foldier's, fon ?-pretty company truly to introduce me to! Crev, The humility of my birth I acknowledge, but muft tell you, this is the first time it ever brought a blush into my cheek-I am choaked with rage-Unufed to infult, I cannot receive it without indignation, even from the fon of colonel Talbot ! • Col. I infift upon your afking that gentleman's pardon. Ca. Why, is he a gentleman? • Col. A man of his worth, his honour and abilities, is a gentleman, though sprung in the lowest vale of fociety. Ca. Nay, if you fay he's a gentleman, I afk his pardon with all my heart; nothing fo common now-a-days as one gentleman's afking pardon of another; it makes up a quarrel in a trice.' Again, Ca. (frutting about.) So then, I am to be disinherited after all, and for an old foldier's fon too! Crev, What's that you fay, fir? Ca. Say, fir!Damme! he looks fo fierce, I do'nt know what to fay to him-thefe old foldier's fons are so used to cutting of throats, it's the devil to quarrel with them, Man, I am afhamed of you, coufin-If you proceed in this manner you must be lock'd up from all fociety, Ca. I'll beg his pardon again: I know that's all he wants Crev. I'll fpare you, fir, the mortification of defcending to fo humiliating an act; in refpect to your father, i overlook every thing you have hitherto faid-I now coolly behold all that had paft through a different medium; and rather feel for a youth, who, from his profpect of immenfe wealth, has been perhaps from his childhood furrounded with fycophants, who never let him know what it was to be acquainted with himself, and perfuaded him into an opinion, that wealth fupplies the abfence of every accomplishment and virtue. Ca. I don't rightly understand you, captain; but I fancy, (only you mince the matter), that you meant to fay I was much better fed than taught-Well, no matter Are we good friends again? Grev, Very good! · Ca. Ca. Then give me your hand. (afide). He, he, he! I can't help laughing, after all, to think of fuch a fellow's being a gentleman-But I fay, captain, they tell me you are a devil of a fellow for fighting now, do you fee me, as I am an officer as well as yourself, I'd be glad to know how you generally found yourself before you went into the field of battle. Crev. Much as I do at prefent. • Ca. What, no more frighten'd ? Crev. No, fir. Ca. Come, come; no tricks upon travellers, captain; do you think I'm fuch a fool as to believe you? • Crev. Sir! Ca. (terrify'd). Sir!He looks at me like a tiger-I'll afk him no more questions-he has half fright'ned me out of my commiffion already-eh! (looking out). Ecod, yonder I fee my father talking to two fine girls! I'll go have a peep at them; coufin Mandeville, good bye-captain your fervant (fifling a laugh); a gentleman truly! What a fine thing it is to be born one-it faves a world of trouble in learning.' FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. (Continued from p. 66.) HERE is an author on the continent whom we have not THE yet been able to introduce to our readers-M. Bailly. He has chiefly diftinguished himfelf by aftronomical and geogra phical defcriptions of this globe, and enquiries into the state of its inhabitants, in periods previous to tradition. His writings are ingenious, fometimes fanciful, but always entertaining and inftructive. He occurs to us at prefent, in confequence of a memoir, read to the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres, on the Chronology of the Indians. Europeans are astonished at the great antiquity of Indian traditions; and are eager to defpife the fiatics for their forward credulity, or to demonftrate the futility of their pretenfions. M. Bailly takes neither ftep: he endeavours to reconcile the Indian and the European accounts. The Indians divide the duration of the world into four ages: the first contains 1,728,000 years; the fecond 1,296,000; the third 864,000; the fourth is expected to laft 432,000 years; it is the era of our prefent exiftence. In the first appearance, this Chronology will frike the reader as an abfurdity; and M. Bailly, with the fame opinion, recurred to its authority. It is contained in the Bagavadam, or the Divine Hiftory, which the tranflator, Maridas Poullé, declares is a facred canonical work, of incontestible authority among the adorers of Vistnou. The Bagavadam contains the inftitutes of their religion, the facts, and chronology of their history. The facts and the inftitutes are mixed with the most abfurd fables; but this seems ra ther ther to fupport their antiquity; for fables contain the wisdom of the early ages of every country, and every early record of India carries this mark of a remote origin. This work is coposed of detached pieces of different ages; they are the inftructions of fucceffive patriarchs. The first leffons are short, for when writing is difficult, books increafe but flowly. There are fome details, however, in this divine hiftory, which feem authentic. The two first ages contain but few facts, and a few abfurd fables; but the third is filled by feventy-eight fucceffive generations, by the duration of two families of princes, whofe collateral branches are purfued with equal exactnefs. The facts are very fimple; and if they are fuppofed to be falfe, the national vanity can gain but little. There is fometimes a flight confufion, but it is furprifing that there is no more; and our author thinks that this confufion is a proof of the authenticity of these dynasties; fiction would have been more exact. In the fourth age the fums of the years are counted; and this period extends from the three thousand one hundred and fecond year before the Christian era, to about A. D. 1530; from this time, the æra of the permanent establishment of the Moguls in India, no reckoning has been kept, because they are under a complete fubjection. The aftronomical tables of the Bramins inform us, that we are now in the four thoufand eight hundred and eightyeighth year of this æra. There is fomething impofing in this high antiquity; and we are apt to believe a narration properly connected. M. Bailly feems to think that when we read the annals of a nation in its own language, equity requires us to confider them as the evidence of witneffes, who have written what they have feen; nor can we accufe any chronology of error, except when it contradicts one that is well established and allowed. The latter part of the Chronology of the Bagavadam does not contradict the knowlege we have of paft ages. There is fufficient room for thefe 4888 years, in our reckoning of the time elapfed from the creation of the world. Whatever may be the duration of this fourth period, its bounds are at present very reasonable. This feems to be true; and the former are very probably falfe, or a new measure of time was introduced between the third and the fourth period. The third æra is diftinguished by the defcription of fucceffive generations, and connected details. It certainly relates to times when the events were better known, and the remembrance of them more carefully preferved. This new mode of reckoning is not hypothetical. The Bagavadam tells us that 360 years of men make a divine year. It is probable then, that by years they meant days only; for if they had been really years, the epithet would have been added. The Indian year is the lunar one, and confiits of 354 days; and they have reductions and corrections to bring their nominal 360 to this lower number. Another fupport of the author's opinion is, that, in the third period, they reckon feventy-eight generations, very near its number of divine years, if we allow, as ufual, thirty years to a generation. The fourth age confifls of real folar years, afcertained by events, and the fum of the third age reduced in the way mentioned, added to the real years of the fourth age, will amount to 7287 years; a period not beyond the computations of many judicious chronologers: the two first ages are, in this way, fuppofed to be entirely fabulous. The Perfians have the fame epochs, the fame duration, and the fame divifions. They have alto a fabulous period of 2000 years, without the fupport of facts. If this be allowed, their chronology amounts to a period of 5500 years before the Chrif tian era. This is the date affigned alfo by Jofephus, from the Jewish records, and by the Egyptian chronicle, properly reduced in the manner pointed out in the hiftories of Egypt. The alronomical tables of India are alfo eftablifhed on an epoch, placed in the year 3102 before Chrift, the commencement of the fourth æra. M. Bailly tells us, if we compare by our tables the longitudes of the fun and moon for that inftant, they are found to be exact, and of course that the fourth is a true period. The Indians, therefore, at that time, fubfifted as a people, and poffeffed the knowlege of aftronomy as a fcience. Some other aftonomical arguments are added, which we omit, because they feem not to be fo well founded. It may be useful, however, to obferve, that our author tells us, in the Indian language, the fame word fignifies a year, a month, and a day. The chronology of the Indians then appears to M. Baily to be an authentic monument. No nation has a history which contains fuch connected details, which ries to fuch high antiquity, and whofe antiquity, properly confidered, is fo well eftablifhed. This, he thinks, they owe to their indolence and cowardice. Yielding to every conqueror, they have never been exterminated. Submitting, in peace, they have preferved their cuftoms and manners, their knowlege and their purfuits. Contented in themfelves, indifferent to the manners and the fciences of ftrangers, their ages have rolled on with little variety, and they are well fitted for chronologers, Among the focieties on the continent little known, but of increafing reputation, is the Oeconomical Society at Madrid. The Spanish nation is emerging from its indolence: they are be coming good chemifts, good philofophers, good phyficians, and good patriots. The Oeconomical Society is a truly patriotic inftitution; and we fhall give a fhort account of their last programma. The Society propofes, for the firft diftribution of the prizes in 1787, on the day of faint Ifidore, to reward with a prize of 2250 rials (a rial at Madrid is equal in value to about 6d.), the best memoir on the following queftion: What is the true Spirit of a Legiflation favourable to Agriculture, Induftry, Arts, and the Commerce of a great Kingdom?' The author is expected to apply his opinions to the different poffeffions of Spain, |