were refpected. He tells us that the legislative affembly če parted but little from the rules laid down by its predeceffors, fa long as it was untainted with the diforganizing fyftem: but, when emigrations began to multiply; when individuals, wifh. ing to put their fortunes in a place of fafety, crouded to procure bills of exchange on foreign countries, for affignats; then the depreciation went on rapidly. A wife government,' he adds, an affembly firmly ftedfaft to found principles, by removing the caufes of terror, would have put an end to the effects of it." It is evident that the emigrations, to which he alludes, were not merely thofe that were occafioned by a wifh in the emigrants to Pettore to the crown the unlimited power that had been wrefted from it, but fuch as were produced by a general apprehenfion that things were running on to a ftate, in which there would be little or no fecurity for property. Does not all this, then, tend to infinuate, at least, that the people had deftroyed the country and ruined its refources by pulling down the work of the conflituent aflembly, and demolishing the throne which it had erected on the bafis of a free conftitution? Is not this at least an indirect cenfure on those who abolished the limited monarchy, and endeavoured to raife on its ruins a democratic republic? We confefs that, furveying the political life of our author from the meeting of the conftituent aflembly, and reviewing the work before us, as well as the fpeeches which he delivered in that affembly, we are reduced to the neceffity of forming an opinion at once favourable to his abilities, and difreputable to his principles, with the fingle exception of thofe which he displayed in his conduct towards Geneva. How a man, who had laboured fo hard to eftablish a limited monarchy, as the foundation of true happiness to his country, could almoft in an inftant work fo fudden a change in himself, as to be able to confent to fight the battles of a republic built on the ruins of that monerchy, is what we are not able to comprehend. Paul, in his way to Damafcus, fuddenly became a profelyte to the religion which he was then perfecuting; the change, however, was miracu lous. We do not know that it was by miracle that our author, from being a steady adherent to a conftitutional monarchy on principle, was converted in an inftant into the supporter of a republic which had just triumphed over that monarchy. He had fworn to maintain a conftitution, one article of which fecured inviolability to the perfon of the king; and yet he could eafily bring himself to ferve under the orders of those who had dethroned and imprifoned that very king. He inveighs moft bitterly against the Jacobins; and yet by the Jacobins the king was pulled down; by them the conftitutional fabric was demo9 Fished; by them the monarchy was turned into a republic; in a word, from a miniftry of their creation he received his orders; and under the government of the Jacobins he confented to retain the command of an army, which, as well as himself, had sworn to maintain the inviolability of the hereditary reprefentative of the nation. Thus he contributed, as far as in him lay, to ftrengthen the hands of those who had overturned all his own labours in the conftituent affembly, and to enable them ftill more and more to scout the very idea of the king's inviolability, by calling for his trial and death. In his defence against the charges brought against him by his enemies, our author labours only to prove that he was faithful to his fecond employers, the founders of the republic; and we believe he was fo truly fo, that theirs were the laft hands in the world by which he ought to fall, for he ferved them and their caufe with a fidelity which was equalled only by the importance of his fervices: but we have feen no work in which he replies to the charge brought against him by another party, who will not allow themselves to be fecond to any body of men whatever in love of liberty and zeal for the happinefs of mankind; we mean the partizans of the conftitution of 1791. They call him an apoftate, falfe to his principles, to that conftitution which he had a hand in framing, to the chief magiftrate who had been placed at the head of it, and to the oaths by which he had bound himself to maintain and fupport him there. We do not fay that he may not be able to defend himself on thefe heads, but we think it a much more difficult task than he found in the conqueft of Savoy. In the publication before us, he fhews what fhould have been done to prevent the depreciation of affignats, and what ought now to be done to restore them to the true level of their value. He fays that they reprefent a real and fubftantial property; and as they fall, the value of the thing reprefented ought to rife in the fame proportion: but he forgets that the value not merely of paper, but of lands, will fall when, in the opinion of the public, the poffeffion of them becomes precarious. A fixed government, poffeffing the confidence of the people, would do more than all the minifters of finance in the world, towards raifing the value of lands; the idea of fecurity of property being generally extended and entertained, the eftates which form the fund for the redemption of affignats would rapidly rife in value; and fo would of course the paper which is the fign or reprefentative of thofe eftates, and we should then hear little more of its depreciation. As long, however, as even the thing reprefented thall be deemed a bad fecurity, or no fecurity at all, can there be cause for furprife that the thing which reprefents it should not ftand high in public eftimation? The The fubject of the work which we now difmifs is in its nature dull and dry, though of the greatest importance; we therefore thall not make any extracts from the pamphlet, only adding that it is diftinguifhed both by elegance and ability. We have been favoured with the perufal of, we believe, the only copy of this work that has found its way into England. ART. V. Paraboles de l'Evangile mifes en Vers François; i. e. Gof- AERE chance gave birth to this work. M was a miferable exile in Brabant, a good curate advised him to read the Babioles Litteraires. He was attracted by an article on parables + in this mifcellany, and induced to try his talent in that fort of compofition. He fhewed a fpecimen to the good curate, who was enchanted with it, and conjured him to proceed. He did proceed flowly and occafionally, and produced • Literary Trifles, a mifcellany in profe and verfe, published at Hamburgh in 1761, and faid to be the production of Baron de Bäbr. This article contains fo much good fenfe and juft criticifm, that we cannot help giving an abftract of it. "Why, (fays the author,) might not the golpel parables be made the fubject of poetry? A parable, being a fort of hiftory contrived to mark a moral truth, may be faid to have two parts, a body and a foul. The former is the narrative imagined, the latter the moral meaning, hidden under that narrative. Parables, then,-even thofe of the gospel,- are within the province of poefy, and require only to be treated by a mafter's hand, with refpect and decorum. When the Jefuit Du Cerceau compofed his comedy of the Prodigal Son, he was guilty of folly, becaufe Du Cerceau was not a poet, and because he mistook his fubject: but, fhould a Voltaire give us, not a comedy, but a living picture of the parable of the good Samaritan, e. g. what a choice morfel of fatiric mmorality would it not become under his pathetic pen ?—The apologue or fable has been justly admired for conveying moral inftruction: but the parable is undoubtedly a more effectual vehicle. In fables, the fiction pleafes only from a fort of tacit convention: in parables, by an air of truth or verifimilitude, that never fails to touch. No time can realize one of Efop's fables; but the parables of the gospel are realized in every age. Prodigal fons! pitilefs prie fts! unjuft ftewards! iniquitous judges! have ye any doubt of it?-When the prophet Nathan came to reproach David for the complicated crime of adultery and murder, he devised a parable fo like the truth, that the king was furprifed into indignation at the horrid deed. What fable, equally well invented, would have produced the fame effect? Were I a perfon of any weight in the republic of letters, I would addrefs myfelf to all the academies of Europe, and conjure them to promife their laurels, and their medals, to thofe who fhould best fucceed in the compofition of parables in verfe." at length the prefent work. It contains the parables of the Samaritan, the Vineyard, the Wedding feaft, the Good Shepherd, the Rich Man, the Unjuft Judge, the Prodigal Son, the Talents.The tenor of the work is this. The writer firft gives the text of each parable from the tranflation of Saçi or from that of Calmet, then his own poetical paraphrafe, and laftly a fhort moral meditation. Although the poetical part has certainly merit, it rifes not to that degree of excellence of which we think the subject capable. It is too diffufe, and too far removed from the fimplicity of the originals, to be perufed with pleasure after having read them.-Thofe of our readers who understand French will be able to judge from the following parable; which we give not, perhaps, as one of the beft, but as being the shorteft. • Un monarque puissant, aux noces de fon fils Etalant fa pompe royale, Fit à la cène nuptiale, Ses voifins, fes parens, fes plus chers favoris, Le coeur de ces ingrats ne connut pas le prix. Dit à fes ferviteurs; "allez favoir pourquoi Leur dit: " je ne faurais me rendre chez le roi "Mais voyez ma pofition; Je viens d'acheter un domaine, Et je vais de ce fonds prendre possession." au "De cing couples de bœufs que je vais eprouver." Et ne puis me trouver à ce Banquet royal." 66 Je punirai leur noire ingratitude; 66 Et puis qu'ils ont méconnu mes bontés, "De mon royaume ils feront rejettés; "D'autres feront l'objet de ma jollicitude.” The piece is infcribed to the memory of Louis XVI. and concludes with the laft will of that unfortunate monarch. ART. VI. C. M. WIELAND'S Sämmtliche Werke, i. e. The Works of WIELAND, complete. 8vo. 5 Vols. Leipfig, 1794. Imported by Remnant, Holborn. F that higher clafs of writers whofe popularity, incompreffible within the fcanty limits of one country, language, or age, is likely to affert a diffufive and permanent influence over the opinions of a refined portion of the whole European public, CHRISTOPHER MARTIN WIELAND of Biberach is one of the most remarkable and voluminous. Second only to Voltaire in the copioufness and variety of his effufions, he is admirable as a composer both in verfe and profe. He has excelled in epic and didactic poetry, and has appeared in the dramatic arena without difgrace. His varied difquifitions are admired for elegant erudition and philofophic penetration; his dialogues, for poetry of form and urbanity of manner; his novels, for the infight which they difplay and communicate into the most hidden receffes of the human heart. Few writers have fo uniformly walked within the precincts of the beautiful. He never swells into bombaft, he feldom mounts to fublimity, and, if he fometimes rifes by the gay profufion of his repeated descriptions, he never finks into a vulgar infipidity. Scenes of pathos he avoids either as unattainable by his powers, or as painful to his equanimity. Like the painter Albani, he delights to detain the imagination beneath groves redolent of a thoufand flowers, peopled with happy lovers facrificing to Cupid, or haunted by choirs of nymphs, whofe thin drapery is the fport of the zephyrs, and whole charms are the pursuit of fawns or the prize of rivergods. His obtrufive wit, rather dexterous than forcible, might gratify the delicacy of a Chefterfield: it aims at exciting a continual fmile, but it neither apes the bitter grin of Voltaire, nor provokes, like the humour of Swift, to open-mouthed Jaughter. Poffeffed of the whole mafs of antient and modern literature, WIELAND has diftilled from it the favourite ornaments of his compofitions, which are throughout more remarkable for felection than invention. He even delights in affifting the reader to trace his eternal allufions to their fource; in pointing out the narrator whofe fable he embellifhes, the ftylift whofe epithet he transplants, |