prefent Letters, is abundantly too long. The fifth Letter contains 237 pages, and the fixth no lefs than 360: this is enough to try the patience of every Reader, and there are few, we apprehend, even of those who are the greatest enemies to Voltaire, that will have a fufficient share of fortitude and refolution to carry them through fuch a length of criticism. Those who have, however, will find frequent occafion of applauding the Author's tafte, and the fpirit wherewith he defends a writer of fuch diftinguished merit as the great CORNEILLE. M. Clement appears to have carefully ftudied Corneille's writings, and in the letters now before us, he has pointed out, and very happily illuftrated, fome of the principal beauties of his best dramatic pieces. His zea!, indeed, for his Author's fame, and his indignation against M. Voltaire, have fometimes, it must be acknowledged, carried him too far, and drawn fome remarks from him that are unworthy of a candid and liberal critic. This, however, happens but feldom, and those who are converfant with Voltaire's writings, and have obferved the malignant and illiberal manner in which he frequently attacks the reputation of the moft eminent writers, and of Corneille in particular, will readily apologize for him, and make some allowances for a young and sprightly writer, who generously steps forth in defence of one of the greatest geniuses France can boast, against the greatest wit and most fashionable writer of the prefent times.

Voltaire, it is true, frequently commends Corneille, and fometimes expreffes his admiration of his genius in very strong terms; but, as M. Clement very juftly obferves, he is, in general, very referved and temperate in his commendations. It is easy, indeed, to obferve an air of envy and jealousy in the whole of his commentary: but we must refer our Readers to M. Clement's letters, where they will fee Voltaire's artful and infidious management in order to hurt Corneille's reputation fairly expofed, and placed in a clear and ftriking light.

The cenfures which Voltaire has paffed upon those great writers of the laft age, whom our Author has defended in his preceding letters, were, as he obferves, only occafional, bafardies en paffant, jettées à l'aventure; but with regard to Corneille, fays M. Clement to Voltaire, c'eft un corps d'ouvrage que vous éleven contre les ouvrages de Corneille. Vous vous êtes attaché à lui pour le miner fourdement, comme la rouille s'attache à l'aiér pour le ronger. Il est donc à propos de mettre plus de fuite et de travail dans cette réfutation que dans les autres. Je redoublerai mes efforts, pour n'être pas au-deffous de la carfe que j'embraffe. Je combats pur le plus grand Génie du dernier fiécie, contre le plus Bel-efprit du nôtre.

. Such are the reasons which our Author affigns for his long and elaborate defence of Corneille, and our Readers will allow

them

them what weight they think fit.-It may not be improper' to acquaint them, before we conclude this article, that M. de Voltaire has given the public a new and beautiful edition of Corneille's works, with many additional notes, in eight volumes, quarto.

ART. XII.

R.

Epiftolarum ab Eruditis Viris ad Alb. Hallerum fcriptarum, Pars I. Latina. Vol. I. II.-Letters from Men of Learning to Haller, 8vo. 2 Vols. Bern.

I'

N this collection, which contains about four hundred letters,. fuch of our Readers as are fond of the ftudies of botany, anatomy, medicine, &c. will find both entertainment and inftruction. It likewife contains fome interefting particulars which relate merely to literary hiftory, and the characters of eminent writers; but what there is of this fort, lies within a narrow compafs. As in almoft every collection of this kind, fo in the prefent, there are many trifling letters, which can be of no use, unless it be to fwell the fize of the work, and fill the pockets of the bookfelier.

There are no letters in the collection from Haller in answer to those received from his friends and correfponcents, for he tells us in the preface to his first volume, that he kept no copies of his letters.

The principal writers of the letters now before us are these following: Albinus, J. Gefnerus, J. Fred. Schreiber, Chrift. Fred. Hanel, T. Georgius Gmelin, J. Jacobus Scheuchzer, Carol. Linnæus, J. Jac. Dillenius, Nic. Rofen, Eberhard Rofen, Chrift. Gottlieb Ludwig, Paul Henr. Gerard Mochring, J. Philip. Burggrav, Emanuel Koenig, &c. &c.

These Latin letters, we are told, are to be followed by others, in French, German, English, and Italian.

ART. XIII.

R.

Bibliotheca Anatomica. Qua Scripta ad Anatomen et Phyfiologiam, facientia a rerum initiis recenfentur. Au&tore Alberto Van Haller, Sc. -Haller's Anatomical Library, &c. 4to. Vol. I. 1724.

THIS

HIS is the third volume of Haller's Bibliotheca Medicina et Hiftoriæ Naturalis, and is a valuable and ufeful monument of the Author's extenfive knowledge and unwearied induftry. He traces anatomy from its origin, through the feveral fteps of its progrefs, to the beginning of the prefent century; gives an account of the principal writers who have cultivated this ufeful fcience, and of the difcoveries and improvements they have feverally made; pointing out, as he proceeds, the

* See accounts of the first and fecond volumes, in our Appendixes' to our xlv, and xlvi. volumes,

particular advantages that may be derived from an attentive perufal of the writings of the most celebrated anatomifts, and refere ring to the different editions of their works.

In fo extensive an undertaking it is abfolutely impoffible to avoid errors; and omiffions are unavoidable: the wonder is, that there are fo few in the work before us, which, beside its obvious uses to anatomical and phyfiological ftudents, may ferve as a ftriking example to readers of every clafs, and students of every fcience, of the wonderful effects that may be produced by perfevering induftry and application.

ART. XIV.

Lettre a l'Auteur Anonyme, &c.-Letter to the anonymous Author of two pretended Extracts inferted in the Journal Des Sçavans, in the Months of November and December 1773, against the general Plan and Argument of the Monde Primitif, &c. of M. Court de Gebelin. 4to. Pamphlet, 66 pages. Paris. 1774.

THIS track was occan M. Gebelin's Primitive World and HIS tract was occafioned by the cenfure paffed by the lyfed. He complains that, in their criticifm, they have been too precipitate; too inattentive to candour. He lays down certain rules for the conduct of literary journalists, for which he is intitled to our thanks; more particularly as there is implied in thofe rules the strongest compliment to ourfelves; for they are, one and all of them, exemplified in our treatment of his works *. As to the difpute between M. Gebelin and our brother jour nalifts, fhould we take upon us to decide it, we might appear to affect the jurisdiction of a higher court. We bitious of equity than of fuperiority.

e are more am

See the third article of this Appendix, and also our two preceding Appendixes.

ART. XV.

Hiftoire Litteraire des Troubadours, &c.-The Literary Hiftory of the Troubadours, containing their Lives, Extracts from their Works, and several Particulars concerning the Manners, Cuftoms, and History of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. 12mo. 3 Vols. Paris. 1774.

L.

T HE names of M. de Sainte Palaie and Abbé Millot, are well known in the republic of letters; the former of these ingenious and able writers, at great expence, and with immense labour, collected materials for the curious work now before us, but did not live to methodize and prepare them for the prefs: that task was referved for Abbé Millot, and there are few, very few writers of the prefent age, who, in our opinion, are better qualified for fuch an undertaking. His tafte, his judgment, his love of virtue and of mankind, the elegance of his ftyle, and his

enlarged

In

enlarged and liberal views are well known to the Public. an advertisement prefixed to the work, he gives an account, to which we refer our Readers, of M. de Sainte Palaie's amaz ing industry in collecting materials for this Literary Hiflory of the Troubadours, and mentions, with great modefty, and in a manner that conveys a very favourable idea of his heart as well as of his genius, his own fhare in this hiftory, and his motives for undertaking it. He has likewife given a preliminary difcourfe, part of which we cannot deny ourselves the pleafure of laying before our Readers.

Very little, fays he, is known concerning the Troubadours, excepting their name; even the generality of men of letters form a very imperfect idea of them. They are fatisfied with knowing that these ancient Provençal poets flourished in the twelfth century, when Europe was funk in ignorance and barbarism; that they vifited the courts of princes and great men, the only theatres where their talents could be difplayed; that they were favourably received in thefe courts, cfpecially by the Jadies, to whom they confecrated their homage and their fong; in a word, that they were in France the fathers of modern poetry. But they are generally looked upon as mere adventurers as writers utterly void of knowledge or taste, whose infipid gallantry deferves to be buried in eternal oblivion, and whose works have nothing interefting, unless it be for those lovers of antiquity, who pafs their lives ufelefsly in fcraping off the ruft from the wretched Gothic monuments of ancient times.

The riches of our literature, abundantly fufficient to give univerfal fatisfaction, and to render us indifferent to lefs agreeable objects, contributed to the fupport of this prejudice. The lives of the Troubadours by Noftradamus, is a work equally dry and fuperficial. The greateft part of thefe poets are not fo much as mentioned in it. Befides, it is full of fables and grofs errors; contains only a few ill-digefted facts, and is utterly unfatisfactory in point of hiftory and criticism.

The ground work, however, was valuable. Sovereigns, grandees, knights, illuftrious ladies, monks, men of every condition, libertines and devotees, enthufiafts in love or fuperftition, panegyrifts and fatirifts, moralifts and debauchees, &c. formed the catalogue of the Troubadours. Many of them had memorable adventures, and many of them had a share in the principal events of the age they lived in, and celebrated them in their fongs, in a very interefting manner. Some of them exprefs all the raptures of love; others, all the transports of martial rage and fury; fome are the trumpeters of fanaticism, others paint the manners, and inveigh against the vices and diforders of the times; nay, there are those who even treat of phi

004

lofophy.

lofophy. Had Noftradamus only been converfant with part of M. de Sainte Palaie's manufcripts, mean as his talents were, he would at left have left us an inftructive and curious work.

I propofe, in this difcourfe, not to 1aife the importance of the fubject, but to prefent it in fuch a general point of view, as fhall make it more fully and clearly underflood. What was poetry before nations emerged from their original ftate of fimplicity? What progrefs had it made in the times of the Troubadours? What idea ought we to form of the manners of that age, and efpecially of that famous gallantry which was, in a manner, the life of fociety, and which inceffantly inspired the Troubadours? What were the great events that roufed their genius, and furnished materials for their compofitions? What are the principal characters of their feveral works? What influence had they, what influence had their language, upon modern literature? And lastly, what are the fources from which their history is drawn?-All these queftions appear to me to

merit fome examination.

Thefe are curious queftions, and would the bounds of our Appendix admit of it, we fhould have no occafion to apologize to our Readers for the length of the article, were we to infert what the ingenious Author fays on each of them; but we must content ourselves with giving a part inftead of the whole.

After fhewing briefly how poetry takes its rife, among barbarians, nay even among favages, from the fruitful energy of nature, he goes on as follows:

The tranfition from a state of ftupidity and barbarism to the cultivation of manners, of reafon, and of talents, is one of the fineft views that the hiftory of the human fpecies prefents to the eye of a curious obferver. Every thing ferments in the chaos. for a kind of new creation, and the objects which come out of it, though very far from perfection, have an original beauty, almoft as worthy of attention as perfection itself.

After a long feries of evils, into which error on the one hand, and anarchy on the other, had plunged the inhabitants of Europe, the ignorance of the tenth century, accompanied with the ravages of a deluge of robbers, crowned their calamities, and reduced them to a ftate of downright flupidity. In the following century, however, literature began to revive, and the minds of men were rouled from a fatal torpor. The pontificate of Gregory the Seventh, the commotions he excited, the violent conteit between the priesthood and the empire, which was continued by his fucceffors, produced powerful interests, and gave additional vigour and activity, while chivalry opened a career of heroifm, in which fome focial virtues were displayed in the midst of military atchievements.

To thefe different caufes may be added the crufades, which took their rife at the clofe of the fame century. A ftrange en

thufiafm