CHARACTER OF PRINCE POTEMKIN.

[From the European Magazine.]

THE portrait drawn of Prince Potemkin by Count Segur, formerly French ambassador at the court of St. Petersburgh, who lived a long time in habits of intimacy with that extraordinary man, offers so many shades of contrast, as appears almost incredible to have centered in the same individual.

In his person were combined the most opposite defects and accomplishments of every description. He was avaricious. and ostentatious, despotic and popular, inflexible and beneficent, haughty and obliging, polite and confiding, licentious and superstitious, bold and timid, ambitious and indiscreet: lavish of his bounties to his relations, his mistresses, and his favourites; yet oftentimes obstinately refusing to pay either his household or his creditors; always attached to some female, and always unfaithful. Nothing could equal the vigour of his mind, or the indolence of his body. No dangers could appal his courage, no difficulties force him to abandon his projects; but the success of an enterprise never failed to disappoint him. He wearied the empire by the number of his dignities, and the extent of his power. He was fatigued with the burden of his own existence, envious of every thing that was not done by himself, and disgusted with all he did. To him rest was not grateful, nor occupation pleasing. Every thing with him was desultory; business, pleasure, temper, carriage. In company he looked embarrassed; his presence was a restraint wherever he went. He was morose to all who stood in awe of him, and affable to those who accosted him with familiarity.

Ever lavish of promises, seldom performing them, and never forgetting what he had heard or seen. None had read less than he; few were better informed. He had conversed with éminent men in all professions, in every science, in every art. None knew better how to draw forth and to appropriate to himself the knowledge of others. In conversation, he astonished alike the scholar, the artist, the mechanic, and the divine. His information was not deep, but extensive; he never dived into any subjects, but he spoke well of all.

"The inequality of his temper was productive of an indescribable singularity in his desires, in his conduct, and in his manner of life. At one time he formed the project of becoming Duke of Courland; at another, he thought of conferring on himself the crown of Poland. He frequently gave

intimations of an intention to make himself a bishop, or even a monk. He engaged in building a superb palace, and desired to sell it before it was finished. One day he would think of nothing but war, and only officers, Tartars, and Cossacks, were admitted to his presence. The next day he was busily employed in politics; he would partition the Ottoman empire, and set all the cabinets of Europe in motion. At other times he played the courtier; dressed in a magnificent suit, covered with ribands, the gift of every potentate: displaying diamonds of extraordinary magnitude and brilliancy, he was giving splendid entertainments without any motive.

"For whole months together, neglecting alike business and decorum, he would openly pass his evenings at the apartments. of a young female. Sometimes shut up in his room for successive weeks with his nieces and some intimate friends, he would lounge on a sofa without speaking; play at chess or at cards with his legs bare, his shirt collar unbuttoned, wrapped up in a morning gown, knitting his eyebrows, and looking like an unpolished and squalid Cossack.

"These singularities, though they frequently put Catharine out of humour, rendered him yet more interesting to her. In his youth he had pleased her by the ardour of his passion, by his valour, and by his masculine beauty at a more advanced period in life, he continued to charm her by flattering her pride, by calming her apprehensions, by confirming her power, by caressing her dreams of oriental empire, the expulsion of the barbarians, and the restoration of the Grecian republics."

Surely, were even the life of such a man not connected with the political and military transactions of a vast empire under the despotic sway of an ambitious princess, it would still be calculated to interest those who, thinking that "the most proper study for mankind is man," eagerly search for opportunities of becoming acquainted with human nature in its most capricious form.

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF CONFUCIUS.

[From the Monthly Magazine.]

[AMONG other literary gratifications which have resulted from the recent cultiva tion of oriental literature may be named the publication of the original text of the works of CONFUCIUS, and of a translation of the same by Mr. JAMES, MARSHMAN. Nor is it the least interesting fact attending the appearance of this workthat it was printed at SERAMPORE, in Bengal, at a printing-press set up by the ENGLISH MISSIONARIES. We treat it therefore as a foreign work, although printed in the English language, and presume we shall gratify our readers by presenting them with the prefatory memoirs of this great philosopher as they are read and received among his countrymen.]

THE See-khee says that Khoong-chee's proper name was Hyaou, and his literary name Choong-ni. His ancestors were originally of the Soong country; but his father, whose name was Sook-leong-gnit, was a mandarine of considerable rank in the kingdom of Loo. His mother's name was Gnansee. In the twenty-second year of Syong-koong, the sovereign of Loo, (the forty-seventh year of the cycle,) was Khoong-chee born, in Chhong-peng, a town in the district of Chhou, of which his father was mandarine. This, according to Du Halde, was in the reign of Ling-wong, (or vang, as he writes it,) the twenty-third emperor of the Chou (Tcheou) dynasty,. and 551 years before the christian era.

The paternal name of the sage was Khoong, and his proper name Hyaou, (or Haou-for the Chinese, through respect, forbear to pronounce the real name.) Chee, properly a son, is a term of respect originally applied, according to the imperial dictionary, to a man possessing real virtue; when added to quun, a ruler, &c. it forms the appellation quun-chee, which, according to the same authority, is applied to a man eminent or complete in virtue; and is translated "the honourable man." Hoo or Fhoo, lord, chief, &c. prefixed to chee, forms an appellative usually given to a teacher, and applied to Confucius by way of eminence. Khoong-fhoo-chee, therefore, or Con-fu-ci-us, is, literally, "The master, or teacher, Khoong.' As this title, incorporated with his paternal name, is now current among Europeans as the sage's proper name, Fhoo, or Hoo-chee, is sometimes rendered as a proper name where it occurs as an appellation of the sage, although it really means the great master or teacher. Khoong-chee is the sage's most common appellative.

When quite a child, Confucius was modest, grave, and courteous in his deportment, and delighted in imitating, in his puerile way, the ceremonies of worship used in the temples. VOL. I. New Series. X x

He was also exceedingly fond of inquiring into the nature of things; which inquisitive temper is said to have exposed him, on a certain occasion, to censure, when inquiring about the nature of things in his paternal temple. At the age of fifteen he gave himself up to more serious studies, making the maxims and examples of the ancient sages the constant subjects of his contemplation. He acknowledges, that in his youth he was reduced to great straits, and that this gave occasion for his acquiring skill in horsemanship, archery, and various other arts.

When he was little more than twenty, he was appointed to superintend the distribution of grain; and afterwards made superintendent of cattle, in which employments he acquitted himself with great reputation. After some time, however, he went into the Chou country, to profit from the instructions which Laou-chee-tou-kwun, an aged and celebrated teacher, then gave on manners and morals; and on his return to his own country, soon found himself surrounded by a great number of disciples.

Chee-koong, the son of Syong-koong, being compelled, in the twenty-fifth year of his reign, (and the twenty-first year of the cycle,) to fly to the Chhi country, because his own kingdom, Loo, was in a state of insurrection, Khoong-chee himself, who was now thirty-five years of age, left Loo, and went into the Chhi country, where he was employed by Kou-cheuchee, a mandarine of the second order; and at length introduced to Kung-koong, the petty sovereign of Chhi. This prince wished to bestow on Khoong-chee a place of high trust, but An-yun, his principal minister, dissuading him from it, he laid aside his design; yet Khoong-chee praises this minister, as a man truly virtuous, inasmuch as he was constant in his attachment to his friends. After an absence of more than seven years, Khoong-chee, in the first year of Tungkoong, and the thirty-ninth year of the cycle, returned to his own country, Loo. He was then in his forty-third year.

We may here begin the second period of the sage's life, which extends to his voluntary exile in the fifty-seventh year of his age, and embraces a period of thirteen years. During this time he had to contend with a wicked and powerful faction in his own country, over whom his virtue and wisdom at length completely triumphed, and placed him at the head of affairs, dispensing happiness around as a father and benefactor. Qui-see, the youngest of three brothers, and a mandarine of the same rank with the sage's father, had at this time usurped all authority; and, some time after, his minister, Yong-fhoo, raised an insurrection, set up for himself, and for

a considerable time managed affairs in the most unjust and oppressive manner. This Qui-sée, or, more properly, Quisuen-see, and his two elder brothers, Mung-suen-see, Sooksuen-see, formed the three houses whose pride the sage reprobates in the third book of the Lun-gnee. With the vanity, extravagance, and folly of these three brothers, the sage seems to have had perpetually to contend..

In this state of things, Khoong-chee declined all share in the management of public affairs; and, retiring into obscurity, employed himself in revising, correcting and arranging, the See, the Sew, and the Ly, three of the five king or classical books, held in the highest veneration by the Chinese, and by Du Halde, termed their "Livres Canoniques du premier Ordre." Disciples, however, flocked around him again in multitudes, whom he instructed with the utmost diligence and condescension. In the ninth year after his return, the thirtyseventh year of the cycle, and the fifty-first of his age, Koongsan-put-gneu, a mandarine of Pay, raised great disturbances in Loo; upon which Qui-see called the sage to assist him with his advice and talents. The philosopher felt a strong desire to lend him his aid in this time of distress, notwithstanding his past conduct; but Chee-loo, his disciple, opposed it so strongly, that he laid aside his design.

Soon after this, Tung-koong, the king of Loo, appointed Confucius mandarine of Choong-too, a small district; and, within a year, a reformation of manners was visible among the people in all the parts around. The sage was soon advanced to a higher station, and quickly after to one still superior. In the thirty-eighth year of the cycle he concluded a treaty of alliance with the chief of the Chhi country, who, in consequence, restored all the places he had taken from Loo.

In Tung-koong's fourteenth year, Confucius, who was now fifty-six years of age, accepted the office of chief minister of Loo, and discharged the various duties of his station with such ability, diligence, and impartiality, that, in three months, the affairs of Loo assumed a totally different aspect; peace and tranquillity were restored throughout the whole country, and every thing wore the appearance of prosperity and happi

ness.

The petty sovereign of the Chhi country, beholding the prosperous state of Loo, was filled with jealousy and envy; and, at length, collecting a number of dancing-girls, versed in all the arts of allurement, sent them into the country of Loo. The dissipated Qui-see, the ancient enemy of his country, and of the sage, gladly received them, and introduced them to the court; and feasting, excess, and riot, quickly turned the attention of both prince and people from the instructions of the