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The visit to the Museum of the French Monuments produces a remark which ought not to be, though it probably will be, disregarded; for how rarely does good sense combat superstition with success!

This exhibition is not yet completed, but, in its present condition, is very interesting. Some hints not altogether useless, may be collected from it. In England, our churches are charnel houses. The pews of the congregation are raised upon foundations of putrefaction. For six days and nights the temple of devotion is filled with the pestilent vapours of the dead, and on the seventh they are absorbed by the living. Surely it is high time to subdue 'prejudices, which endanger health without promoting piety. The Scotch never bury in their churches, and their burial places are upon the confines of their towns. The eye of adoration is filled with a pensive pleasure, in observing itself surrounded with the endeavours of taste and ingenuity, to lift the remembrance of the great and good beyond the grave, in that very spot where the frailty of our nature is so often inculcated.

Such a display, in such a place, is rational, suitable, and admo. nitory. The silent tomb becomes auxiliary to the eloquence of the pulpit. But the custom which converts the place of worship into a catacomb, can afford but a mistaken consolation to posthumous pride, and must, in some degree, contaminate the atmosphere which is contained within its walls.'

Quitting Paris, Mr. Carr travelled through Evreux, Caen, and St. Lo (which is said to be the cleanest and most charming romantic little town which he saw in France), to Cherbourg, and thence sailed for England. Cherbourg is represented as a poor dirty place:

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After having heard so much of its costly works and fortifications for the protection of its harbour, my surprise was not little, upon finding the place so miserable. It is defended by three great forts, which are erected upon rocks in the sea. The centre one is about three miles off from shore, and is garrisoned by 1200 men. distance, this fort looks like a vast floating battery. Upon a line with it, but divided by a distance sufficient for the admission of shipping, commences the celebrated, stupendous wall, which has been erected since the failure of the cones. It is just visible at low water. This surprising work is six miles in length, and three hundred French feet in breadth, and is composed of massy stones and masonry, which have been sunk for the purpose, and which are now cemented, by sea weed, their own weight and cohésion, into one immense mass of rock. Upon this wall a chain of forts is intended to be erected, as soon as the finances of government will admit of it. The expenses which have already been incurred, in constructing this wonderful fabric, have, it is said, exceeded two millions sterling. These costly protective barriers can only be considered as so many monuments, erected by the French to the superior genius and prowess of the British navy.'

REV. AUG. 1803.

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Some general remarks are added in the concluding chapter of this Tour, in which the author sufficiently developes his political principles:

From the magnitude of the present ruling establishment in France, and the judicious distribution of its powers, and confidence, the physical strength can scarcely be said to reside in the governed.

A great portion of the population participates in the character of the government. The bayonet is perpetually flashing before the eye. The remark may appear a little ludicrous, but in the capital almost every man who is not near-sighted is a soldier, and every soldier of the republic considers himself as a subordinate minister of state. In short the whole political fabric is a refined system of knight's service. Seven centuries are rolled back, and from the gloom of time behold the crested spirit of the Norman hero advance," with beaver up," and nod his sable plumes, in grim approval of the novel, gay, and gaudy feodality.

If such an expectation may be entertained, that time will replace the ancient family on the throne, I am far from believing that it can offer much consolation to the illustrious wanderer, who as yet, has only tasted of the name of sovereignty. If the old royalty is ever restored, it is my opinion, and I offer it with becoming deference, that, from personal hatred to the present titular monarch, and the dread of retaliation by a lineal revival of monarchy, the crown will be placed upon the brows of one of the collateral branches of the expatriated family. The prince de Condé is the only member of that august house, of whom the French speak with esteem, and appro bation.'

In reviewing the present condition of France, the liberal mind will contemplate many events with pleasure, and will suspend its final judgment, until wisdom, and genius shall repose from their labours, and shall proclaim to the people, "behold the work is done."

It has been observed, that in reviewing the late war, two of the precepts of the celebrated author of The Prince," will hereafter be enshrined in the judgments of politicians, and will be as closely adhered to, as they have been boldly disregarded by that great man, who, till lately, has long presided over the British councils. Machiavel has asserted, that no country ought to declare war with a nation which, at the time, is in a state of internal commotion; and that, in the prosecution of a war, the refugees of a belligerent power ought not to be confidentially trusted by the opposite nation which receives them. Upon violating the former, those heterogeneous parties, which, if leit to themselves, will always embarrass the opera tions of their government, become united by a common cause; and by offending against the latter clause of this cautionary code, a peril ous confidence is placed in the triumph of gratitude, and private pique, over that great love which nature plants and warmly cherishes in the breast of every man, for his country. In extenuation of a departure from these political maxims it may be urged, that the French excited the war, and that in the pursuit of it, they displayed a com

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pound spirit, which Machiavel might well think problematical, for whilst that country never averted its eye from the common enemy, it never ceased to groan under the inflictions of unremitting factions. Rather less can be said in palliation of the fatal confidence, which was placed by the English government in some of the French emigrants. I have mentioned these unhappy people in the aggregate, with the respect which I think they deserve. To be protected, and not to betray, was all that could in fairness, and with safety be expected from them; it was hazarding too much to put swords in their hands, and send them to their own shores to plunge them in the breasts of their own countrymen in such an enterprise

"The native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought."

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The brave have not frequently wept over such a victim as Sombreuil.' Writing in a moment of tranquillity, Mr. Carr concludes with observing that Peace is the gem with which Europe has embellished her fair but palpitating bosom;' and he then adds as a finale to his work, May disappointment and dishonour be the lot of that ambitious and impolitic being, who endeavours, or who wishes, to pluck it from her!' We devoutly say, Amen.

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From the preceding extracts, the author's style and manner, as well as his powers of entertainment, may be appreciated. The embellishments of his volume, for which we are indebted to his own pencil (modestly said to be untutored'), consist of views of Torr Abbey,-Southampton, -the Light-house at Havre, -the Paris Diligence,-a Woman of Caux,-Ruins of the Petit Trianon,-Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne,-the Museum of French Monuments,-Malmaison,--Caen,-Cherbourg.

We understand that Mr. Carr is a Devonshire gentleman, practising the Law.

ART. XIII. Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man: Translated from the German of John Godfrey Herder. By T. Churchill. 4to. 11. 11s. 6d. Boards. Johnson. 1800.

UR readers are intitled to some apology, or some reason, for OUR the late appearance of this article; and we can assure them that it has arisen only from one of those contingencies which will happen in all human affairs, not from any disregard of the work and its author. We have indeed too frequently stated our opinion of M. Herder's merits, to allow of the latter inference; and that opinion, together with the consideration of yet having an old proverb in our favour, induces us now to endeavour to atone for our unintentional delay.

Nearly one fourth part of this volume (the first five books) consists of lucubrations on cosmogony, geology, and natural

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history in general; and the perusal of it strongly suggested to us, that the principle of the division of labour is as important in the province of literature, as in any other department of human industry. In the infant state of letters, as in that of the arts, we find it too often disregarded, and much labour consequently wasted. It is no small matter for the literary adventurer to be able to determine accurately the real bounds of his enterprize, and to ascertain correctly where his subject commences, as well as where it terminates, that he may not uselessly consume his strength. What would be thought of a work on sculpture, which treated much at large of subterraneous geography; and which embraced numerous researches into the generation and position of the strata of the fossil, which forms the material of that fine art? In our judgment, not less does he confound what ought to be kept asunder, who unites to an examination of the grounds and principles of civil history, speculations on the original formation of our globe, the substances which constitute it, the vegetables which clothe and beautify it, and the animals which subsist on it ;-as well, if not with more propriety, we think, might be connected with it the outlines of anatomy and physiology. Yet the error into which M. Herder has fallen is by no means uncommon among his countrymen, who emancipate from it more slowly than might be expected from men who take such rapid strides towards pre-eminence in every branch of human knowlege. If, however, in this introductory part, which we regard as so entirely misplaced, no addition to science presents itself, it must be owned that hints occur of which more profound adepts and more laborious inquirers may avail themselves; and that we meet with practical inferences, and eloquent apostrophes, which will not prove unacceptable to readers in general.-We shall attend M. Herder in this extraneous inquiry, with as much conciseness as it will admit.

Some theologians may probably accuse the author of being unfriendly to theism, because he ascribes more effect to physical agency than divines have usually allotted. He does not directly so state it, but it would seem that he considered vegetables, animals, and even man, in their first formation, as resulting from natural processes, as effects arising out of the course of nature at a particular crisis: but he may say that this is by no means excluding a creator from the universe; for who endowed nature with these sublime generative powers, and who fixed the epoch at which they were to operate?

The cosmogony of M. Herder is built on a competent knowlege of facts disclosed by preceding writers, and shews a vividness of imagination and ingenuity which is requisite in a

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constructor of theories. He adopts the system which regards mountains as the buttresses of the habitable world, and which proportions the extent of the latter to the bulk of the former.

This hypothesis (he says) is confirmed by a simple inspection of a map of the World, which exhibits chains of mountains, not merely traversing the dry land, but evidently appearing to constitute the skeleton, on which the land was formed. In America the mountains run along the western coast through the Isthmus. They proceed obliquely, as does the land: where they penetrate more interiourly, the land grows wider, till they are lost in the unknown regions of New-Mexico. It is likely, that here they not only proceed higher up to mount Elias, but are also laterally connected with others, particularly the Blue Mountains, as in South America, where the land is broader, and the mountains run northward and eastward. Thus America, even according to its figure, is a stripe of earth pended to its mountains, and formed more level, or more steep, according to their declivity.

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The other three quarters of the Globe present a more complicated aspect, as their great outline forms in fact but one whole; yet it requires no great exertion to perceive, that the protuberant spine of Asia is the stem of the mountains, that spread over that quarter of the globe, over Europe, and probably over Africa, or at least its su periour part. Atlas is but a continuation of the Asiatic mountains, acquiring a greater height in the middle of the country, and in all likelihood connecting itself with the Mountains of the Moon, by means of the chains of mountains near the Nile. Whether these Mountains of the Moon be sufficiently high and broad, to be deemed actually one of the spines of the earth, futurity must determine. The extent of the country, and some imperfect accounts, give room for such a conjecture; but the proportionate paucity and smallness of those rivers of this quarter of the globe, with which we are acquainted, prevent us from determining them to be a true girdle of the earth, as the Ural of Asia, or the Cordilleras of America. But it is enough for our purpose, that in these regions also the land is evidently fashioned by the mountains. It is every where extended parallel to these ; and whereever the mountains spread and branch out, there also spreads the land. This remark is equally valid in the promontory, the island, and the peninsula the land stretches out its arms and limbs, wherever the skeleton of mountains is stretched out; it is, therefore, only a diver sified mass, formed on this skeleton in various ranges and layers, that ultimately became habitable.

Thus the production of the first mountains determined how the earth should exist as dry land. They seem as it were the ancient nuclei, or buttresses, of the earth, on which the air and water only deposited their burdens, till at length a place for vegetable organization was laid down, and spread out.'

From the premises above stated, he infers that

Asia was first habitable, as it possessed the highest and broadest chains of mountains, and on the ridge a plain, which the sea never reached. Here too, in all likelihood, was, in some happy valley, at

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