a bigot, had no injuries to avenge, their enthufiafm was at the height was never prefent at an execution, was never in love-yet he extended the moft horrid acts of cruelty to thoufands, who stood not in the way of his ambition, and continued them after his ambition was fatisfied, and his power quietly fub ritted to. Wicked politicians often ufe religion as a cover for crimes, without any fentiment of religion in their heart: this man evinced a contempt for religion, and directed his cruelty pecuMarly again thofe who fhowed a reveresce for Chriftianity. Enthusiasts are capable of criminal actions, without any fentiment of wickedness in their heart: though Robefpierre was thought an enthufiaft, this could not be faid of him. Could any human Creature, without the moft wicked of hearts during the fifteen dreadful, months his power lafted, exercife more acts of cruelty than any tyrant, ancient or modern, ever exercifed in the fame space of time? By his order, or with his approbation, many thou fands of men, women, and even children, of all ranks, were confined in loathfome prifons, treated with the moft fhocking barbarity, until they were, in troops of fifty in a day, dragged to execution. Many thoufands of inoffenfive peasants, who did not understand what the word revolution meant, were drowned in the Loire; numbers of the inhabitants of Lyons driven into enclofures, to be torn in pieces by grape-fhot; and many of his own most intimate ac. quaintance, not only thofe who were of a different party, and oppofed his horrid cruelty, but thofe who had long aided and fupported him in his plans of bloodshed and devaltation, he fent, on the first appearance of dif. approbation of his meafures, without remorse, to the guillotine; and what feems as fingular and unaccountable as all that has been enumerated, is, that a fpirited people, excited by enahufiafm for liberty, fhould, while have quietly fubmitted, for fifteen months, to the tyranny of an obscure, canting, capricious madman, though exercited with more wanton cruelty than had been ever difplayed by the moft defpotic of their monarchs. You may again accufe me of dwelling on a man of a wicked character; but remember you requested me to write of the French revolution, in paffing over that ground, without feeking characters of fuch diflike, as Falstaff fays of Worcester's rebellion - They lay in the way, and I find them. But, after all, I must confefs, that every fpecies of fingularity of character is attractive to me; and what character was ever fo horribly fingu lar as that of Robespierre? He feems to have relied fo entirely on the efficacy of terror, for confirm. ing his defpotifm and fecuring his power, that he was at little pains to fupprefs certain literary productions, which, by creating a flrong fympathy in favour of the oppreffed, tend to roufe indignation against the oppreffor perhaps he fell a facrifice, at last, to this fecurity. : Poetry is a very powerful inftrument of this nature. Even popular fongs, with but a very small portion of poetical merit, have been known to produce an important effect. Many fongs in honour of certain victims of Robespierre's cruelty, and elegies lamenting their fate, were circulated in Paris during his bloody reign. A poetry of a different kind, and more congenial with the fpirit of the French revolution, has lately been introduced into France from Germany. Several German plays have been tranflated, and were acted to crowded audiences, about this time, at Paris : they are a kind of tragi-comedies, in which men in defperate fituations, and of daring and wicked characters, are introduced fpeaking appropriate language. The hero declaims virtuoufly, and acts criminally: their drift is to show that murder, robbery, and other crimes, which in the vulgar opinion are committed by confummate villains only, may be committed by the molt benevolent, generous, and heroic people on earth. It appeared, from the applaufe, that this moral was relished by many of the audience. It muft, indeed, have been peculiarly flattering to thofe patriots who clear ed the prifons in September 1792. Some of the German ballads have also been tranflated; they are generally founded on nurfery-tales of apparitions, animated fkeletons, raw heads, and bloody bones. I have heard of one poetical romance that is very much admired; it records the adventures of a demon of the feminine gender, who, about three hundred years ago, was permitted to try her fortune in the capital of Bohe. mia, and to affume any fhape the pleafed. As the feduction of men was her object, the chose the form of a beautiful woman; and, according to the ballad, he was very fuccefsful. It was no unusual ftratagem of her's to tempt men to commit crimes, for which they were imprifoned; and then, conveying herfeif through the key hole, to tempt them to mortgage their foul to Satan, in order to obtain their liberty; which they no fooner did, than the roof of the prifon rifing to infernal mufic, the deluded mifcreant was conveyed feveral leagues thro' the air, and then dafhed against fome defert rock, or dropped into the fea and never more heard of. In this romance there is a pathe tic account of a rendezvous which she gave to one young man ; and, at the inftant in which he imagined that she. was yielding to his embraces, she was metamorphofed into a skeleton, and he found a parcel of naked bones in his arms. The author of the ballad declares, that to defcribe the furprise and difappointment of this young man is beyond his ability; but that all, to whom the fame adventure has happened, will have a just idea of them. He then proceeds to record, that this demon might have extended her feductions to a greater number than fhe did, had it not been for a fulphurous fmell, which the could not entirely divest herself of, and which fhe found it difficult to overcome, even for a fhort time, by all the perfumes and effences the used. On this account, however, much the pleased at first fight, none could endure a lafting attachment to her; until a young Scottish nobleman, in paffing through Prague on his way to Vienna, was fo fafcinated with her beauty, and fo little annoyed with her (mell, that he intended to have taken her into keeping, had not his valet, an old Highlander, who had travelled with his father, and was endowed with the fecond fight, affured his lordship, that, in fpite of her beauty, his mistress was a devil. This blafted her reputation fo effetually, that the was obliged to fly from Prague, and was never heard of fince till the publication of the ballad in question. ACCOUNT OF LUIGI TANSILLO. [From Roscoe's Translation of the Nurse, a Poem. UIGI Tanillo was a native of Nola, a very ancient city of the kingdom of Naples, and diftinguifhed as a Roman colony. His family was of high rank, and had been ho noured by many public employments. In what year he was born, it is not with certainty known; but that event is conjectured, with great probability, to have taken place about the the year 1510. The chief part of or the pine-apple, be the most exhis life was fpent in a military capa- quifite fruit? city, in the fervice of Don Piero di Toledo, Marquis of Villa Franca, and Viceroy of Naples; and of Don Garzia his fon, afterwards Viceroy of Sicily and Catalonia under Philip the Second; but the particulars of it have not been preferved to the prefent times fo minutely as his merits feem to have required.-A poet and a foldier, he lived a long, and probably a diverfified life; diverfified life; but although fome incidents refpecting it are of fufficient notoriety, the attempt to trace it through a regular narrative would now be of no avail. The refult of this union of occupations in Tanfillo, was exemplified in a want of due attention to his literary productions, few of which were published in his lifetime, and of the remainder fcarcely any one received thofe advantages of revifal and correction, without which works of taste must always appear to disadvantage. Notwithstanding thefe circumitances, his character as a poet ftood high even among the most eminent of his contemporaries. In the dialogue of Torquato Taffo, entitled Il Gonzago, that celebrated author enumerates Tanfillo amongst the few writers to whofe fonnets he gives the appellation of leggiadre, or elegant. The fame opinion has been confirm ed by fubfequent critics, cited by Zeno in his Giornale d'Italia, vol. xi. one of whom in particular has not hefitated to affert, that Tanfillo is a much better lyric poet than even Petrarca himself. It muft, however, be observed, that this kind of commendation, which is intended to clevate one diftinguished character at the expenfe of another, is of all praife the most equivocal. As every good author has his péculiar excellencies, fo he will have his peculiar admirers. What purpofe is anfwered by difputing whether the grape, the nectarine, The first production by which Tanfillo diftinguished himself was a poem in ottava rima, which injured his moral character as much as it increafed his reputation for talents and for wit. Perhaps no part of modern Europe has retained the customs of the ancients with fo little variation as the kingdom of Naples, and particularly the provinces of Appulia and Calabria, where the moft fingular, and even obfcene ceremonies are yet continued; the object in honour of whom they are performed being only changed from a heathen deity to a modern faint. That liberty, or rather licentioufnefs of fpeech, in which the Romans indulged their fervants at a particular period of the year, and to which Horace adverts in the feventh fatire of his fecond book, feems to have been transferred by the Neapolitans to a more cheerful feafon, and their Saturnalia may be faid to have been celebrated at the time of their vintage. At this time all refpect to rank, to fex, and even to decency, feems to be entirely dif carded, and the lowest of the peafantry, whilft engaged in the vintage, employ the moft abufive and licentious language, not only to their fellow labourers, but to any persons who may happen to be prefent on this occafion. No fooner is the vintage completed, than these frantic Bacchanals are restored to their fenfes, and all their obfcenity, folly, and abuse, is immediately forgotten. This extraordinary cultom is the fubject of the poem of Tanfillo, to which he therefore gave the title of Il Vendemmiatore, and in which he introduces one of thofe extravagant characters addreffing himfelf to his fellow labourers, not indeed with all the ribaldry which probably takes place on thefe occafions, but with much more freedom than a ftri&t regard to decency will allow. The licentioufnefs of this piece was, it is true, in fome de gree concealed, if not compenfated, by the wit and delicate humour with which it abounds; for, as a late no ble author has obferved, Indecency is far from conferring wit, but it does not deftroy it neither.' But the admiration which it excited did not prevent its producing a most unfavourable effect on the fortunes of the author, who feems during the remainder of his days feverely to have felt the confequences of his early imprudence, and to have endeavoured to make amends for it by a more regulated conduct, and by more ferious labours. Of all the productions of Tanfillo, the moft eltimable, as well in refpect of the fubject, as of the manner of execution, are his poems entitled La Balia, or the Nurse, and Il Podere, or the Country House; in the latter of which he gives directions for making a proper choice of country refidence, enlivening the barrennefs of his fubject with the happieft illuftrations and the moft fportive wit. These poems, after the death of their author, were long neglected, altho' feveral perfons have, at different times, given indications of their ex iftence. In particular the Venetian printer Barezzo Barezzi, who published in the year 1600 an edition of the Lagrime di San Piero, which is the beft edition now extant, promifed in his advertisement prefixed to that work, to give the public fome beautiful Capitoli of the fame author; which expreflion it is fuppofed could only relate to thefe poems, the former of which confifts of two, and the latter of three capitoli or cantos. Zeno alfo informs us, that many of the compofitions of Tanfillo un doubtedly lay buried in the Italian libraries, and adverts to a few of his poems, which had not then been in print. With respect to the poem, of which an English translation is now attempted, it may certainly be confidered as a fingular and interesting production. As the work of one of the brightest wits in that conftellation of genius which appeared in Italy in the fixteenth century, and which yet diffuses a permanent light over the horizon of literature, it is worth notice and confideration. Contemporary with Ariofto, with Bembo, with Cafa, and with the two Taffos, Tanfillo was not perhaps inferior to any writer of his time, in the fimplicity of his diction, the elegance of his tafte, or a strict adherence to nature and to truth. But independent of the merit which the poem may be prefumed to poffefs from the acknowledged character of the author, it will be found on examination to contain within itself fufficient claims to the approbation of the admirers of Italian poetry. The fubject is in a high degree interefting, and is treated in a manner peculiarly pointed and direct, yet without violating that decorum which is due to the public at large, and in particular to the fex to whom it is addreffed. To thofe who feel the laudable curiofity, and acknowledge the utility of comparing the manners of different ages, it will afford many ftriking indications of the fate of fociety at the period in which it was written, and will tend to fhow, that the ideas and feelings of mankind on all fubjects of general concern, are much lefs liable to variation from the diverfity of time and place, than is frequently fuppofed. Such is the coincidence between the ftate and manners in Italy in the Exteenth century, and in England in the eighteenth, that the tranflator, though intending to accommodate the poem to modern times, has feldom found it expedient to vary from the original in the flighteft degree; and if he has not wholly failed in his purpose, he thinks it will appear that it would be be difficult even in the prefent day to adduce arguments better calculated than thofe of the author, to correct the abufe which it was his purpofe to reform. It is not the tranflator's intention to affert, that a previous confideration of these circumftances led him to undertake the prefent verfion of the poem. The truth is, that having of late enjoyed a greater fhare of leifure than he has formerly experienced, he has employed fome part of it pleasantly to himfelf, if not usefully to others, in an occupation, which without requiring the exertion of original compofition, fatisfies the besoin d'agir, and by calming the reproaches, allays the irritation of to tal indolence. He must also be al lowed to obferve, that the hope of promoting in fome degree the laudable object which the author himself had in view, if it did not lead him 10 undertake the tranflation, operat. ed as a chief inducement to lay it before the public. That the character and manners of our countrymen, both in higher and lower life, affords but too much room for reform, is an affertion which may be made without incurring the imputation of morofenefs; but till we can decidedly point out those circumftances which give rife to this laxity, not to fay depravity of manners of the prefent day, it will be to no purpofe to adopt measures for their improvement. Of thefe caufes, the custom, ftill fo prevalent, of committing the children of the richer and middle ranks of fociety to be brought up by the poor, is, in the opinion of the tranflator, one of the most efficacious; and, like all other vicious inftitutions, its effects are injurious to all the parties who engage in it. The reafon generally affigned by medical men for promoting a cuftom which has of late received their almost universal sanction, is, that the mode of living which now prevails in the higher ranks, is fuch, as renders it impoffible for a woman to afford her infant thofe advantages which are indifpenfably neceffary to its exiftence and fupport. But is it poffible to conceive a feverer fatire againft the female fex than this affertion implies? Such, it feeins, is the rage for pleasure and amufement, that it must be gratified even by the facrifice of the most important duties of life, and by a practice which, if generally extended, would endanger the very existence of the human race. The affiftance of a nurse is not then intended as a benefit to the child, but as a licence to the mother to purfue her gratifications, without thofe reftraints which the performance of her own proper and indifpenfable duties would impote upon her, and by the due exercise of which he would find her health and her affections equally improved. · CHARACTER OF LORD KAMES, MR HUME, AND DR SMITH. From Smellie's Literary and Charallerifical Lives. Lord Kames. AS S a private and domeftic gentleman, Lord Kaimes was admired by both fexes. The vivacity of his wit and of his animal fpirits, even when advanced in years, rendered his company not only agreeable, but greatly folicited by the literati, and courted by ladies of the higheft rank and accomplishments. Instead of being jealous of rivals the characteriftic of little minds, Lord Kames foftered and encouraged every fymptom of merit that he could difcover in the fcholar, or in the loweft mechanic. Before he fucceeded to the estate of Blair Drummond, his fortune was fmall. Notwithstanding this circum ftance, |