The population of England is 196-3 persons to the square mile; so that it is more populous than Old France; but much less so than the Usurped Countries, which consist of the Low Countries and portions of Italy, by far the best peopled portions in Europe.

A new application of mechanical power was lately made in St. James's Park. The pressing machine of that truly ingenious artist Mr. Bramah, was brought to act on a lever in such a manner that two of the largest trees in the Bird Cage Walk were torn out of the ground, with their roots to a considerable depth, in about ten minutes. The same trees could not have been felled, and their roots dug up to an equal depth, by two men in less than four days, and the waste of timber would have been equal to the value of the labour.

Dr. Morichim, of Gotha, has ascertained, by repeated experiments, that non-magnetised needles, when they have been exposed to the violet-colour rays of the sun, have exactly the same force of polar attraction as magnetic needles.

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Correspondance, Littéraire, Philosophique et Critique. Addressée à un Souverain d'Allemagne, depuis 1770, jusqu'à 1782. Par le Baron De Grimm, et par Diderot. 5 Tomes, 8vo. pp. 2250.

[From the Edinburgh Review, for July, 1813.]

THIS is certainly a very entertaining book-though little too bulky and the greater part of it not very important. We are glad to see it, however; not only because we are glad to see any thing entertaining, but also because it makes us acquainted with a person, of whom every one has heard a great deal, and most people hitherto known very little. There is no name which comes oftener across us, in the recent history of French literature, than that of Grimm; and none, perhaps, whose right to so much notoriety seemed to most people to stand upon such scanty titles. Coming from a foreign country, without rank, fortune, or exploits of any kind to recommend him, he contrived, one does not very well see how, to make himself conspicuous for forty years in the best company of Paris; and at the same time to acquire great influence and authority among literary men of all descriptions, without publishing any thing himself, but a few slight observations upon French and Italian music.

The volumes before us help, in part, to explain this enigma; and not only give proof of talents and accomplishments quite sufficient to justify the reputation the author enjoyed among his contemporaries, but also of such a degree of industry and exer tion, as entitle him, we think, to a reasonable reversion of fame from posterity. Before laying before our readers any part of this miscellaneous chronicle, we shall endeavour to give them a general idea of its construction-and to tell them all that we have been able to discover about its author.

Melchior Grimm was born at Ratisbon, in 1723, of very humble parentage; but being tolerably well educated, took to literature at a very early period. His first essays were made in his own country-and, as we understand, in his native languagewhere he composed several tragedies, which were hissed upon the stage, and unmercifully abused in the closet, by Lessing, and the other oracles of Teutonic criticism. He then came to Paris, as a sort of tutor to the children of M. de Schomberg, and was employed in the humble capacity of reader to the Duke of SaxeGotha, when he was first brought into notice by Rousseau, who was smitten with his enthusiasm for music, and made him known to Diderot, the Baron d'Holbach, and various other persons of e ninence in the literary world. His vivacity and various accomplishments soon made him generally acceptable; while his uni

form prudence and excellent good sense prevented him from ever losing any of the friends he had gained. Rousseau, indeed, chose to quarrel with him for sitting down one evening in a seat which he had previously fixed upon for himself; but with Voltaire, and d'Alembert, and all the rest of that illustrious society, both male and female, he continued always on the most cordial footing; and, while he is reproached with a certain degree of obsequiousness towards the rich and powerful, must be allowed to have used less flattery towards his literary associates than was usual in the intercourse of those jealous and artificial beings.

When the Duke of Saxe-Gotha left Paris, Grimm undertook to send him regularly an account of every thing remarkable that occurred in the literary, political, and scandalous chronicle of that great city: and acquitted himself in this delicate office so much to the satisfaction of his noble correspondent, that he nominated him, in 1776, his resident at the court of France, and raised him at the same time to the rank and dignity of a baron. The volumes before us are a part of the despatches of this literary plenipotentiary; and are certainly the most amusing state papers that have ever fallen under our observation.

The Baron de Grimm continued to exercise the functions of this philosophical diplomacy, till the gathering storm of the revolution drove both ministers and philosophers from the territories of the new republic. He then took refuge, of course, in the court of his master, where he resided till 1795, when Catharine of Russia, to whose shrine he had formerly made a pilgrimage from Paris, gave him the appointment of her minister at the court of Saxony-which he continued to hold till the end of the reign of the unfortunate Paul, when the partial loss of sight obliged him to withdraw altogether from business, and to return to the court of Saxe-Gotha, where he continued his studies in literature and the arts with unabated ardour, till he sunk at last under a load of years and infirmities in the end of 1807. He was of an uncomely and grotesque appearance-with huge projecting eyes and discordant features, which he rendered still more hideous, by daubing them profusely with white and with red paint-according to the most approved costume of petitsmaîtres in the year 1748, when he made his début at Paris.

The book embraces a period of about twelve years only, from 1770 to 1782, with a gap for 1775 and part of 1776. It is said in the title-page to be partly the work of Grimm, and partly that of Diderot-but the contributions of the latter are few, and comparatively of little importance. It is written balf in the style of a journal intended for the public, and half in that of private and confidential correspondence; and, notwithstanding the re

trenchments which the editor boasts of having made in the ma. nuscript, contains a vast miscellany of all sorts of intelligence; critiques upon all new publications, new operas, and new performers at the theatres; accounts of all the meetings and elections at the academies, and of the deaths and characters of all the eminent persons who demised in the period to which it extends; copies of the epigrams, and editions of the scandalous stories that occupied the idle population of Paris during the same period-interspersed with various original compositions, and brief and pithy dissertations upon the general subjects that are suggested by such an enumeration. Of these, the accounts of the operas and the actors are the most tedious, the critical and biographical sketches the most lively, and the general observations the most striking and important. The whole, however, is given with great vivacity and talent, and with a degree of freedom which trespasses occasionally upon the borders both of propriety and of good taste.

There is nothing indeed more exactly painted in these graphical volumes than the character of M. Grimm himself; and the beauty of it is, that as there is nothing either natural or pe culiar about it, it may stand for the character of all the wits and philosophers he frequented. He had more wit, perhaps, and more sound sense and information, than the greater part of the society in which he lived-but the leading traits belong to the whole class, and to all classes indeed, in similar situations, in every part of the world. Whenever there is a very large assem blage of persons who have no other occupation but to amuse themselves, there will infallibly be generated acuteness of intellect, refinement of manners, and good taste in conversation; and, with the same certainty, all profound thought, and all serious affection, will be discarded from their society. The multitude of persons and things that force themselves on the attention in such a scene, and the rapidity with which they succeed each other and pass away, prevent any one from making a deep or permanent impression; and the mind, having never been tasked to any course of application, and long habituated to this lively succession and variety of objects, comes at last to require the excitement of perpetual change, and to find a multiplicity of friends as indispensable as a multiplicity of amusements, Thus the characteristics of large and polished society come almost inevitably to be, wit and heartlessness-acuteness and perpetual derision. The same impatience of uniformity, and passion for variety which give so much grace to their conversation, by excluding all tediousness and pertinacious wrangling, make them incapable of dwelling for many minutes on the feelings and concerns of any one individual; while the constant pursuit of little

gratifications, and the weak dread of all uneasy sensations, render them equally averse from serious sympathy and deep thought. They speedily find out the shortest and most pleasant way to all truths, to which a short and a pleasant way can readily be discovered; and then lay it down as a maxim that no others are worth looking after-and, in the same way, they do such petty kindnesses, and indulge such light sympathies, as do not put them to any trouble, or encroach at all on their amusements while they make it a principle to wrap themselves up in those amusements from the assault of all more engrossing or importunate affections.

The turn for derision again arises naturally out of this order of things. When passion and enthusiasm, affection and serious occupation, have once been banished by a short-sighted voluptuousness, the sense of ridicule is almost the only lively sensation that remains; and the envied life of those who have nothing to do but to enjoy themselves, would be utterly listless and without interest, if they were not allowed to laugh at each other. Their quickness in perceiving ordinary follies, and illusions too, affords great encouragement to this laudable practice; and as none of them have so much passion or enthusiasm left as to be deeply wounded by the shafts of derision, they fall lightly, and without rankling, on the lesser vanities, which supply in them those master-springs of human action and feeling.

The whole style and tone of this publication affords the most striking illustration of these general remarks. From one end of it to the other, it is a display of the most complete heartlessness, and the most uninterrupted levity. It chronicles the deaths of half the author's acquaintance-and makes jests upon them all; and is much more serious in discussing the merits of an opera-dancer, than in considering the evidence for the being of a God, or the first foundations of morality. Nothing, indeed, can be more just or conclusive, than the remark that is forced from M. Grimm himself, upon the utter carelessness, and instant oblivion, that followed the death of one of the most distinguished, active, and amiable members of his coterie; "tant il est vrai que ce qui nous appellons la Societé, est ce qu'il y a de plus leger, de plus ingrat, et de plus frivole au monde!"

Holding this opinion very firmly ourselves, it will easily be believed that we are very far from envying the brilliant persons who composed, or gave the tone to this exquisite society;—and while we have a due admiration for the elegant pleasantry, correct taste, and gay acuteness, of which they furnish, perhaps, the only perfect models, we think it more desirable, on the whole, to be the spectators than the possessors of those accomplishVOL. II. 2D ED.

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