himself to all circumftances, and to declare himself always in favour of those who could beft ferve him; whofe greateft boaft was, that he was illegitimately defcended from a great prince, and whose chief merit was, that other great princes derived illegitimately their existence from him. We could not avoid fmiling to fee the pains which are taken to hide fome parts moft evidently coming from other hands than thofe of M. d'Argenfon; and by which over-folicitude they are uniformly rendered more confpicuous. The author's gift of prophecy, too, is admirable; when, talking of publications not exifting at the time when these MSS. were fuppofed to be written, he informs us what they will be, and points out the merits and defects which they will poffefs. Without detaining our readers with further particulars, from which we have formed our judgment, we are of opinion that thefe effays are not written by M. d'Argenfon; but are compiled from different French authors, and now tranflated. We fay French authors; for every page points out their foreign extraction. Whether any part comes originally from notes of M. d'A. we muft remain in doubt; if any, probably the 33d and 34th effays are his; in which the characters of the ftatefmen, with whom he and his father were connected, are exemplified. With refpect to the remainder, we have met with parts taken from the Longueruana, and we fufpect that much more may be traced in the different collections of ana. The account of Čardinal Polignac and the Abbé de Rothelin, appears to be copied from the life of the former, publifhed in 1777, at Paris, by P. Faucher, Cordelier. We have not this book at hand to refer to, but the abridged hiftory extracted from it in the Nouveau Dictionnaire hiftorique bears an extraordinary fimilarity to the Effay in this volume. From what has been said, our readers will conclude, that they must not expect an equal degree of pleasure from every Effay here prefented to them. There are many, however, which they will read with advantage; and scarcely any without amusement. The anecdotes, which are numerous, are well chofen, and, generally, not ill-related; and the obfervations arifing from them are, for the moft part, to the purpofe. The Effays, indeed, in which are given the characters of some of the most eminent men of the French nation, form by far the most interefting part of the book: thofe on moral fubjects are light and flowery; their fprightline's entertains us, but they leave little or no impreffion on the mind. As a fpecimen, which will afford pleafure to our readers, we will extract the character and military fervices of the Duke of Vendome,' from the 30th Effay: • Character • Character and Military Services of the Duke of Vendome. The Duke of Vendome was born, like the great Condé, inspired with the fcience of war: he had the fame courage, the fame coolness in the midst of the greateft dangers, the fame juft and rapid coupd'ail; but thefe advantages were counterbalanced by great defects. I have never feen him perfonally, but I have had occafion to fpeak of him to fo many military men who had ferved under his command, that I am not deceived in what I have just faid of him. After having ferved as a volunteer under the great Condé, aз Colonel and a General officer under Marthal Luxembourg, the command of the army was given to him at the beginning of the war for the Spanish fucceffion. He was fent into Italy in 1702, and during three or four of the firft campaigns, he fupported the honour of the King's arms, and gained four battles, two of them before the defection of the Duke of Savoy, and two afterwards; yet he had to do with the famous Prince Eugene, who underftood the art of war better than any man of the age in which he lived; provided in the best manner for every thing which could happen; knew better than any body how to fubfift an army; and conducted it with wifdom, coolnefs, and reflection, into fuch fituations as were capable of rendering it the most ufeful. M. de Vendome was not fo profound in his defigns, made fewer reflections and combinations in preparing for his operations: he was too neglectful of detail; but in critical and decifive moments, he awoke, as it were from a trance; feemed to recall his whole genius; took measures equally wife and vigorous; and fhewed more heroifm and judgment than even the Prince Eugene would perhaps have done in a fimilar fituation. The French foldiers, whom he did not fubject to too fevere a difcipline, had fo much confidence in his meafures, that they would have rifked every thing to have withdrawn him from any difagreeable fituation into which he might have fallen. They feared nothing when they faw him at their head; and were perfuaded that to go into battle under his command was to be led on to glory. It is generally believed, that a perfidious policy recalled him from Piedmont, and fent him into Flanders; and that when there he had not time enough to repair the faults which the Marshal Villeroy had committed. He was afterwards fent into Spain, without any body to fecond him, without an army or any kind of fuccour; but his name and reputation, added to the former confidence of the French who had ferved under him fome years before, made up every deficiency: he reconducted PhiJip V. almoft driven from his poffeffions, to Madrid; purfued the enemies, forced them to evacuate Spain, and retire into Portugal. This was the fruit of the famous battle of Villa Viciofa, in 1710. Covered with glory (which feemed to feek him rather than he to run after it), with honours, which he thought himfelf, as he really was, fuperior to, and with riches which he neglected and defpifed, he died at Vinaros in Catalonia, of an indigeftion; a kind of death which appears little worthy of one of the greatest and most able Generals of the age, but which aniwered otherwife well enough to his private life; for it must be agreed that this made a great contrait with his military one. His character was mild and beneficent; he was a stranger to envy, hatred, and revenge; he prided himfulf in Rav. Nov. 1789. Da thus thus refembling Henry IV. He was neither haughty, vain, nor oftentatious; and fully perfuaded that nobody could have a defire to be wanting in respect to him: effectively, he never had reafon to think to the contrary. The princes of the blood only could difpute with him in France the fuperiority of rank, and he never had the leaft difference about it but with them; and even these were always terminated in the most honourable and becoming manner. Such was the Duke of Vendome, confidered in the most favourable light. Let us at prefent examine what he was, according to other Memoirs, perhaps as faithful, in a lefs advantageous point of view. He was of a middling fize, and had a vigorous conftitution; his figure and air were noble, his look and converfation graceful: he had great natural fenfe, which was but little cultivated; he was even profoundly ignorant in the art of war, which he had never ftudied or reflected upon; brave even to intrepidity, daring when he could get the better of his indolence; he was generally fuccefsful by what may be called an effect of his happy ftar; he knew as much of the world and the court as he did of war, and in the fame manner, by routine, and without any regular principles; notwithstanding this, he pleafed every body, though he was no courtier, except to the King alone; and he made all the rest perceive that he was the fon of Henry IV. and that he ought not to cede, except to the legitimate defcendants of that monarch. This kind of vanity pleafed Lewis XIV. who having, like his grandfather, natural children, wifhed to make them equal to the princes of the blood. The Duke af Vendome was not exceflively polite, and was referved with those whom he thought capable of oppofing him; but he affected to be familiar and popular with the loweft rank of officers, with the foldiers, and thofe of his fervants, whom he believed incapable of abufing his goodness. Obftinate and inacceffible to the counfels and reprefentations of thofe who would have been attended to by any other man; he suffered himself to be governed by fuch only as were extravagant in their praifes of him, and in their admiration and refpect for his perfon and qualities. As foon as it was perceived in the army that this was the means to obtain his confidence, there were found in the moft diftinguished military rank, men base enough to flatter his weakneffes, in hopes that he would put them in a fituation to make their fortunes. He carried, particularly in the decline of life, libertinifm, .flovenlinefs, and indolence to fo great an excels, that it is inconceivable thefe defects were not more prejudicial o him. In the midst of the court of Lewis XIV. fometimes gallant, fometimes a devotee, he made no fecret of his moft indecent and culpable pleasures; and Lewis XIV. dared not reproach him upon a kind of debauch, which, during the whole time of his reign, would have ruined any other fubject. Every thing, which the courts of Verfailles would have blushed at, was openly braved in the little court of Anet. Those who ferved under him in his Italian campaign have affured me, that he had by mere indolence miffed more than twenty times the finest opportunities of beating the enemy; and that he had by negligence as frequently expofed his army to be destroyed: but happily thofe who commanded the wings and in the rear were more attentive and vigilant. Every body has heard talk of the cool of the morning of M. de Vendome, an expreffion which is ftill made ufe of to defcribe a march made in the heat of the day: this comes from the custom M. de Vendome had, of announcing in the evening, that he would march very early the next morning; but when the moment indicated for departure arrived, he lay fo long in bed, that it was generally noon before he was in motion; the warmest climates and feafons made no difference in this refpect *.' M. de Vendome was fent the next year to fave Spain; and whofe prefence alone procured an army, which regained Philip V. his capital, beat the enemy at Villa Viciofa, and gave the young King the moft magnificent bed which was ever prepared for a fovereign, being compofed of the enfigns of his enemies; but it was only neceffary to excite the enthufiafm of the Spaniards, and of the French who were in Spain. The name of Vendome had this effect. His reputation, justly or unjustly merited, frightened Staremberg and Stanhope, and his daring character and determined bravery did the reft. Yet his end, which is fo brilliant in history, was melancholy and unhappy. After having paffed the year 1711, in triumphing over the enemies of Philip V. he had no fooner received at Madrid all the honours which this King could confer upon his liberator,-the title of Highnefs, the pre-eminence over all the Grandees of Spain,-in fhort, all the diftinctions formerly enjoyed by the famous Don Juan of Auftria, than he grew tired of this Spanish greatnefs; and leaving the court of Madrid, and the conduct of the army to his Lieutenant Generals, he retired to a burgh of Catalonia, called Vinaros; furrounded there by a small circle of flatterers and debauchers, he gave himfelf up to that kind of voluptuoufnefs which was so agreeable to him. He glutted himfelf with fifh, which he was extravagantly fond of; whether it were good or bad, well or ill dreffed, it was the fame thing to him; he drank thick bodied and heady wine; and at length brought on a kind of indigeftion, or rather an illness, the confequence of repeated indigeftions, which might undoubtedly have been cured by diet and exercife. His diforder was treated in quite a contrary manner; and he had very foon no hopes left of being reftored. The most honeft of his courtiers then abandoned him; others took his furniture and equipage; and it is afferted, that feeing, a few moments before he expired, fome of his under-valets ready to take away and divide his bed-clothes, he afked them as a favour to permit him to draw his laft breath in his bed. He was only fiftyeight years of age when he died. The Princefs des Urfins, who had at that time the greatest influence with the King of Spain, got orders for his body to be laid in the Royal Tomb of the Efcurial. The molt elegant funeral orations were delivered in honour of him, both in France and Spain. Thefe have ferved to deceive pofterity with refpect to his real character; and no hiftorian whom I have heard of, yet given himself the trouble to undeceive it.' has We are forry, from want of room, to be obliged to omit the author's account of the conduct of M. de Vendome at the battle of Oudenarde. We shall now take our leave of this publication; from which, on the whole, we have received much entertainment. With refpect to the tranflation, it is, like the original, unequal. It abounds with Gallicifms, which, in parts, render it almoft unintelligible; while, in general, it poffeffes confiderable cafe and fluency. The printing is very inaccurate. ART. III. The Ground and Credibility of the Chriftian Religion: in a Courfe of Sermons preached before the University of Oxford, at the Lecture founded by the Rev. John Bampton, M. A. late Canon of Salisbury. By the Rev. Richard Shepherd, D. D. F. R. S. Archdeacon of Bedford, and Chaplain to the Bishop of Durham. 8vo. pp. 3oz. 5s. 6d. Boards. L. Davis. 1788. IN thefe lectures, Dr. S. takes a much more extenfive field of difquifition than any of his predeceffors; and profefles to give a connected view of the evidences of natural and revealed religion. In his introductory difcourfe, he undertakes to diftinguish the excellence of Chriftianity from that variable rule of duty in the pretenfions of moral fitnefs held out by the Deift; and the Chriftianity of the Gofpel from that fpecies of it adopted by the Nazarenes and Ebionites, and by Socinus and his followers revived. He then demonftrates the exiftence of God; vindicates his Omnipotence in the fuperfedure of nature, and afferts his immateriality; treats of the Divine Superintendance difplayed in the natural and moral government of the world, and establishes the doctrine of a particular as well as general Providence ;illuftrates the univerfal obligation of religion, the ground and neceffity of the duty of prayer, and the connection between religion and the focial duties;-examines the competency of the light of nature to afcertain the duties of religion;-proves the poffibility of a revelation, lays down the characteristic marks neceffary to illuftrate it, and examines the pretenfions of the Jewith revelation; inquires into the general expectation of a Meffiah, and whether the prophetic writings of the Jews reprefent him as a temporal prince and conqueror, or fomething greater; and laftly, he examines the general scope and tenor of the fcriptures of the New Teftament refpecting the nature and character of Chrift. It is obvious, that within the compafs of eight difcourfes, nothing more than a very general view could poffibly be taken of the leading arguments on each of thefe topics; and that, in the execution of fo extenfive a plan, there was very little room for declamatory excurfions, or for rhetorical ornaments. Had the author only reafoned, his work might perhaps have been lefs popular, but it would have been more valuable. In the following pailge, which is one of the moft argumentative in the work, the |