warned his followers not to foretell particularly, but universally, as one that seeth a thing afar off; but, not content with telling particularly, they alleged, in the very face of their fundamental position, that man possessed a power of altering his destiny, by affirming that his will was free, and that he had the power of choice and election, forgetting that the foreknowledge of an apprehended future evil, generated a motive which might lead to the adoption of the conduct by which it was avoided. The notion of the unalterability of the world, as the atheistical astrologers entertained it, is at once curious and absurd, and warranted inferences which they would not, perhaps, have readily admitted. Proceeding upon the supposition that there does exist such a concordance in the universe as they maintained, it is obvious, from the motions of the earth, and of the system to which she belongs, that no two astrological observations could be found in the course of many ages precisely similar: a general resemblance of effect is the utmost that could be obtained, until, in the progress of the various movements of the whole universe, the earth, in all respects, came again to the situation which she held, in relation to every other part, when the first observation was made. When she has done this, it must be allowed from the premises, that a new series of effects will commence, in every thing resembling the past. History having finished her tale, will begin to repeat it; and persons and events, under the same names, and in the same forms, as those of whom we have heard, will appear: yea, even fortune-tellers, as foolish as those who have rendered astrology ridiculous, will come again; and an essay, in no single phrase, point or circumstance, different from this, will, after the lapse of innumerable ages, be perused by such another being as thee, O Courteous Reader!

"The professors of alchymy have written the records of their processes, in a language of types and symbols, as inscru table as that of the priests of Anubis. Whether they did or did not possess the art of making gold, may be fairly questioned, until the knowledge of their secrets is complete, and their experiments have been renewed; but that no natural impediment exists to the attainment of the art, Mr. Davy has gone far to show. From the reported testimony of one of themselves, it would appear that the hope of making an immortalizing elixir was not seriously entertained by the alchymists. The utmost which they professed to make, was a cordial which should refresh and preserve the animal spirits, when the frame was not vitally impaired. Possibly, extricated from the cabalistic technical jargon which they used, their studies may VOL. I. New Series.

Y y

have been both rational and ingenious; at least an opinion of them ought not to be formed from the ridicule which ignorant pretenders so justly provoked. John Frederick Helvetius, doctor and practitioner of medicine at the Hague, in the year 1666, gives a curious account of a conversation which he had with an alchymist on the subject of the Stone and the Elixir, and which he introduces with a description of the alchymist's person, that, even in the bad translation before me, has the merit of being remarkably vivid and natural. The doctor inquired whether, by the use of that elixir which Elias affirmed was known to the alchymists, the pristine nature of man may be converted into a new one, the sad into cheerful? Not at all, Sir,' said the artist,' for so great power was never conferred on any medicament, that it could change the nature of Wine inebriating, taken by diverse individual men, in him who is drunk changeth not his nature, but only provokes, and deduceth into act what is naturally and potentially in him, but before was, as it were, dead. Even so is the operation of the universal medicine, which, by recreation of the vital spirits, excites sanity, for a time only suppressed, because it was naturally in him before; even as the heat of the sun changeth not herbs or flowers, but only provokes the same, and from the proper potential nature of them deduceth them into act only: for a man of a melancholy temper is again raised to exercise his own melancholy matters; and the jovial man, who was pleasant, is recreated in all his cheerful actions; and so, consequently, in all desperate diseases, it is a present or most excellent preservative.' Soon after he adds, But if any prolongation of life, by some philosophical medicament, could have been induced against the predestination of the omnipotent God, undoubtedly neither Hermes, Trismegistus, or Paracelsus, or Raymund Lully,* or Count Bernhard, and many more like illustrious possessors of this great mystery, would not have yielded to the common death of all mortals, but, perhaps, have protracted their life until this very day. Therefore, it would be the part of a fanatic and foolish man to affirm this, yea, of a most foolish man to believe and assent to the same, touching any one medicament in the things of nature. Presently the conversation changed to the transmutation of metals; and Helvetius affirms that Elias gave him a specimen of the philosopher's stone, with which he performed a successful experiment. Helvetius himself does not appear to have been an alchymist; he was unacquainted with the sub

Raymund Lully is said to have taught Edward III. the art of making gold. Sinclair, Hist. Revenue, p. 75. ed. 1785.

jects of which Elias spoke, and had written a book against Sir Kenelm Digby, who professed to make a sympathetic powder, which could cure wounds at a distance. In refuting the pretensions of Sir Kenelm, he had made use of some expressions relative to the pursuits of alchymy, which induced Elias to call on him.-Golden Calf, pp. 99, 100. ed. 1670. A good name for such a book! The Rosicrucians were a particular order of alchymists, and professed to be able to transmute the metals. The names of secret substances employed in the process were communicated to the members at their admission into the society; or, rather, the meaning of the symbolical language by which the materials were described was explained to them, and it was the use of that language which gave rise to the opinion, that the Rosicrucians held particular notions relative to spirits. They were, in fact, a society of experi mental philosophers, and used, according to the fashion of the age in which the society was founded, a cabalistic mode of expression, in order to enhance the merits of their knowledge, This society is still supposed to have some sort of an exist ence; but whether its members believe they possess the key to the symbolical language, and are able to convert common into precious metals, is not easy to be ascertained. I have met with a gentleman who said he was a Rosicrucian. There is a dictionary, in French, which says, that Ovid's Metamorphoses describe alchymical processes. I have not been able to meet with it.”

ON FEMALE LITERATURE, BY MADAME DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN..

[From the Universal Magazine.]

["Misfortune resembles the black mountain of Bember, situated at the extremity of the burning kingdom of Lahor: while we ascend it, we see before us only barren rocks; but no sooner do we reach the summit, than we perceive the heavens over our head, and the kingdom of Cachemire at our feet."The Indian Cottage; by Bernardin de St. Pierre.]

THE rank which women hold in society is still, in many respects, indeterminate; a desire to please draws forth their natural understanding, while reason advises them to remain unknown, and their success is as absolute as their failure.

I cannot but think that a period will arrive, when philosophical legislators will bestow a serious attention upon the education of women, upon the civil laws by which they are protected, the duties incumbent upon them, and the happiness which may be secured to them; but, in the present state of

things, they are placed neither in the order of nature, nor in the order of society; what some succeed in proves the destruction of others; their good qualities are sometimes prejudicial to them, while their faults befriend them: one moment they are every thing, the next, perhaps, they are nothing. Their destiny is, in some respects, similar to that of freedmen in a monarchy; if they attempt to acquire any ascendencya power which the laws have not given them, it is imputed to them as a crime; if they remain slaves, they are persecuted and oppressed.

Generally speaking, it would certainly be far better if women would devote themselves wholly to domestic virtues; but a strange caprice in the judgment of men with respect to women is, that they esteem a total inattention to essential duties more pardonable in a female, than the crime of attracting attention by distinguished talents; even an abasement of the heart is tolerated in favour of an inferior understanding, whilst the most unsullied integrity can scarcely obtain forgiveness for real superiority.

Let us lay open to view the divers causes of this eccentricity. I shall begin by considering what is the fate of literary women in a monarchy, and also what awaits them in a republic. My first object must be to characterize the principal differences which may arise from these two political situations in the destiny of such females as may aspire to literary fame and afterwards to consider at large, what degree of happiness those women who pretend to celebrity may reasonably expect from it.

In a monarchy they have ridicule to fear, and in a republic hatred.

It is to be expected from the nature of things, that in a monarchy, where a strict conformity to fashion and prejudice prevails, every extraordinary action, every attempt to move out of the sphere in which you are placed, must at first appear ridiculous. What is required of you by your situation in life, or by any peculiar circumstances in which you may be placed, meets with general approbation; but inventions that are not necessary, or to which you are not compelled, are even anticipated by the severest censure. The jealousy natural to all men is not to be appeased, unless you apologize (if I may so speak) for your success, by representing it as the result of necessity; but if you will not veil the reputation you have acquired under the pretence of amending your situation in life and promoting your welfare; if, in fact, you are sus→ pected of only wishing to distinguish yourself, you will inevi

tably become an annoyance to those whose ambition is directed to similar views.

Indeed, men may always disguise their self-love, and their desire of applause, under the mask or the reality of the most energetic and noble passions: but when women take up the pen; as their first motive is generally supposed to be a wish to display their abilities, the public is not easily persuaded to grant them its approbation, and, knowing this approbation to be essential to them, feels still more inclined to withhold it. In every situation of life it may be observed, that no sooner does a man perceive himself to be eminently necessary to you, than his conduct is changed into a cold reserve. Thus it is when a woman publishes any work; she puts herself so entirely in the power of opinion, that the dispensers of that opinion fail not to make her painfully sensible of her dependence. To these general causes, which are common to all countries, may be added various circumstances peculiar to the French monarchy. A spirit of knight-errantry which still existed, was in some instances an obstacle to the too assiduous cultivation of literature amongst men. This same spirit must also inspire increased disgust towards those women who suffered themselves to be so exclusively engaged by literary pursuits, as to divert their attention from their first interest, the sentiments of the heart. An honourable delicacy may occasion even men to feel some repugnance to submit to all those criticisms which public notice must draw upon them how much greater reason, therefore, have they to be displeased at seeing those beings whom it is their duty to protect, their wives, their sisters, or their daughters, expose themselves to the public judgment, and boldly render themselves the general topic of conversation?

Great talents, undoubtedly, would triumph over all these objections; but, nevertheless, a woman must find it extremely difficult to carry off with credit to herself the reputation of an authoress; to unite it with the independence of elevated rank, and to lose nothing, in consequence of such reputation, of that dignity, that grace, that ease, and those unaffected manners, which ought to characterize her habitual manners and conduct.

Women are readily allowed to sacrifice their domestic pursuits to fashion and dissipation, but every serious study is treated in them as pedantry; and if they do not from the first rise superior to the pleasantries levelled at them from all sides, those very pleasantries will in the end discourage genius, and check the course of well-grounded confidence and elevation of mind.