!

27ima namo sur to gre

a ftrong guard to Pola, in Iftria, where, foon afterwards, he put to death, either by the hand of the executioner, or by the more gentle operation of poffon. The Cæfar Licinius, a youth of amiable manners, was involved in the ruin of Crifpus: and the ftern jealousy of Conftantine was unmoved by the prayers and tears of his fa vourite fifter, pleading for the life of a fon, whofe rank was his only crime, and whofe lofs the did not long furvive. The story of thefe unhappy princes, the nature and evidence of their guilt, the forms of their trial, and the circumftances of their death, were buried in myfterious obfcurity; and the courtly bifhop, who has celebrated in an elaborate work the virtues and piety of his hero, observes a prudent filence on the fubject of thefe tragic events. Such haughty contempt for the opinion of mankind, whilft it imprints an indelible ftain on the memory of Conftantine, must remind us of the very different behaviour of one of the greatest monarchs of the prefent age. The Czar Peter, in the full poffeffion of defpotic power, fubs mitted to the judgment of Ruffia, of Europe, and of pofterity, the reasons which had compelled him to fubfcribe the condemnation of a criminal, or at least of a degenerate, son.

The innocence of Crifpus was fo univerfally acknowledged, that the modern Greeks, who adore the memory of their founder, are reduced to palliate the guilt of a parricide, which the common feels ings of human nature forbade them to juftify. "They pretend, that as foon as the afflicted father difcovered the falsehood of the accufation by which his credulity had been fo fatally milled, he pub lifhed to the world his repentance and remorse, that he mourned forty days, during which he abstained from the ufe of the bath, and all the ordinary comforts of life; and that, for the ting inftruction of pofterity, he erected a golden ftatue of Crifpus, with this me morable infcription: To MY SON WHOM I UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED. A tale fo moral and fo interefting would deferve to be fupported by lefs exceptionable authority but if we confult the more ancient and authentic writers, they will inform us, that the repentance of Con ftantine was manifefted only in acts of blood and revenge; and that' he atoned for the murder of an innocent fon, by the execution, per haps, of a guilty wife. They afcribe the misfortunes of Crifpus to the arts of his ftepmother Faufta, whofe implacable hatred, or whofe difappointed love, renewed in the palace of Conftantine the ancient tragedy of Hippolitus and of Phædra. Like the daughter of Minos,' the daughter of Maxiinian accufed her fon-in-law of an incestuous attempt on the chaftity of his father's wife; and eafily obtained, from the jealousy of the emperor, a fentence of death against a young prince, whom the confidered with reafon as the molt formidable rival of her own children. But Helena, the aged mother of Conftantine, Jamented and revenged the untimely fate of her grandfon Crifpus': nor was it long before a real or pretended discovery was made, that Faufta herfelf entertained a criminal connection with a flave belong ing to the Imperial ftables. Her condemnation and punishment were? the infant confequences of the charge; and the adulterefs was fuffo cated by the team of a bath, which, for that purpofe, had been i heated to an extraordinary degree. By fome it will perhaps be thought, that the remembrance of a conjugal union of twenty years,

3

and?

91 tuods baslennial to mantemot vd nestanesw Aired and donatori bahas

Julian. Orat. i. He feems to call her the mother of Crifpus She might affume that title by adoption. At leaff, he was not confidered as his mortal enemy. Julian compares the fortune of Faufta with that of Pary fatis,thel Perfian QueenlovA Roman would have more naturally recollected the fecond Agrippina: owl bas nemsliqEmoiqui fur le trone di Juisi mes ancêtres ;OVER STOM OWS bisiwaMoi, fille, femme, foeur et mere de vos maitreso eftinoo won 943 Mondda in Conftantins Jun. c. ad Caleem Eutrop edib has vercamp. The orator ftyles her the most divine and pious of Queenst fom Saturni aurea fæcula quis requirat plamuoj situen sat bas sds dgusunt bee gemmea, fede Noroniana, Sidon. Apollinare vis It is fomewhat fingular, that thefe fatirical lines fhould be attributeagh not to an obfcare libeller, or a disappointed patriot, butito Ablavius,q prime minifter and favourite of the Emperor. We may now perceived that the imprecations of the Roman people were dictated by humanity. as well as by fuperftition. Zofim. l. ii. P11951 18d 8979vostib ada llow AH At a .M 15d1 .3 .qqid¶illoori tar

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

(By our CORRESPONDENTS.)
FRANCE.

LES Hommes illuftres de la Marine François, &c. i. e. An Hiftorical Account of the illuftrious Naval Commanders and Officers of the French Marine, and of their memorable Exploits, together with their Portraits. By M. de GRAINCOURT, Painter to his Em. the Cardinal de Luynes. 4to. Paris. 1780.We mention this wretched catch-penny work, only to prevent our Readers from being taken in by a title that promises fomething, and fails egregioufly in the performance. An incorrect ftyle, confufed relations, and in many places a manifest perverfion of hiftorical truth, are the predominant characters of this Alimfy publication, which comes out in numbers. The portraits are not ill executed: which fhews that our Author, instead of affuming the pen, fhould have kept to his pencil.

II. Abregé de l'Hiftoire des Voyages, &c. i. e. An Abridg ment of the general Hiftory of Voyages, containing whatever is remarkable, useful, and well afcertained in the different Countries that have been visited by Travellers, the Manners of the Inhabitants, their Religion and Customs, their Arts and Sciences, their Commerce and Manufactures: the whole enriched with Maps and Copper-, plates. By M. DE LA HARPE, Member of the French Academy. 8vo. 21 Volumes. A general hiftory of voyages was undertaken by fome men of letters in England about the year 1745. It was tranflated into French by the laborious Abbé Prevot, and continued, by that tranflator, when the original authors abandoned the work at the 7th volume. The Abbé carried it on to 16 volumes. After his death Meffrs. Querlon and De Leyre, two able writers, added three new volumes; and two more have been fince published; fo that the compilement now confifts of 21 volumes in 4to. This work is unwieldy, and tedious ;-its materials are abundant, but ill-digefted; the facts and voyages are heaped together without method or choice, and the nautical journals and obfervations are full of the most tirefome and unneceffary repetitions. In a word, though the materials be abundant and valuable, the work is not proportionably interefting. It is this work, abridged, arranged on a new plan, enriched with moral reflections and lively defcriptions, and augmented with the voyages of Bougainville and the discoveries that render fo famous the names of Cook, Carteret, Biron, Wallis, Phipps, &c. that M. DE LA HARPE, well known in the literary world, has published in 21 volumes large octavo. The typographical merit of this Abridgment is very

great:

great and the drawings and maps are elegantly engraven.—As

to the Author's method, it is as follows:

The three firft

He has divided the work into Four Parts. contain the voyages to Africa, Afia, and America; and the last, those that have been made toward the Poles.

The First Part contains Six Books. In the 1ft, which may be confidered as an hiftorical Introduction, we have a fuccinct and entertaining account of the discoveries and conquefts of the Portuguese in the Eaft, until the period of their decline. In the 2d, we find the first expeditions of the English on the coafts of Africa, in the Indian Ocean, and on the Red Sea, the Adventures of Roberts, and a description of the Canaries and Islands of Cape Verd. In the 3d, we are carried into the continent of Africa from Senegal to Sierrra-Leona. In the 4th, we proceed towards Guinea, and find an elegant compilation of the accounts of feveral travellers, which is rather hiftorical than defcriptive, but contains very curious and interefting details, relative to the flave trade and the bloody victories of the King of Dahomay, whose name and conquefts are famous in Africa; the 5th and 6th Books contain a full defcription of the Guinea, Malaqueta, Ivory, Gold and Slave Coafts, and of the Kingdom of Benin, as alfo an account of the fettlements of the Portuguese at Congo, and thofe of the Dutch at the Cape of Good Hope.

The Second Part, with which the fourth volume begins, is divided into Seven Books. The ift contains the Voyages of Pyrard, Pinto, and Bontecoe, which are full of extraordinary adventures, and a Description of the Iflands of the Indian Ocean, from the Maldivian to the Philippine Ifles inclufively. The 2d and 3d carry the Reader into the continent of India, along the western and eastern banks of the Ganges, through the rich pro vinces of Indoftan, and the kingdoms of Cochinchina and Siam, The 4th exhibits an extenfive and circumftantial view of the vaft empire of China, the accounts of which, hitherto given by the Miffionaries, have produced fuch keen controverfies, rela tive to the religion, government, learning, and policy of that people. Tartary, Siberia, and Japan are described in the 5th, 6th, and 7th Books.

The Third Part, divided into Twelve Books, treats of Ame rica. The ift, 2d, and 3d, contain the discoveries of Columbus, the bold expedition of Vafco Nugnes, Pizarro, and Almagro, the hiftory of the conqueft of Mexico, with a description of its ancient government, and an account of the Spanish domination in that country. The 4th relates the conqueft of Peru, accompanied with a description of the ancient and modern state of that kingdom; and it concludes with the voyage of the French and Spanish Mathematicians to the mountains of Quito, to measure a degree of the meridian, and the return of M. de la Condamine

27

Condamine by the river of Amazonis. The description of South America from the Ifthmus of Panama to Brazil, inclufively, is continued in the 5th and 6th Books and here, among other things, we find a curious and circumftantial account of Guiana, a country little known by Europeans, and which is fuppofed to be as rich in gold mines as Peru.The 7th and 8th Books exhibit a view of North America, an account of the English Colonies on that continent, and of the Settlements the French had formerly there. The characters, manners, religion, and cuftoms of the favage tribes of North America, as also the natural hiftory of that country, are the fubjects treated in the 9th and Joth Books and the two laft contain an account of the voyages to the Antilles, and the fettlements and natural hiftory of these iflands, bubong ow¿ ¿ saa ni £uosd-attrić o Ligpas2 med The Fourth Part, in Six Books, begins with the voyage of Magellan, and the discovery of the Streights that bear his name; to which are added, all the voyages round the world, in the fame South-west courfe, including that of Anfon. The 2d Book takes in the voyages made for the difcovery of a North-eaft or North" weft paffage to the Eaft Indies, with all the curious and interesting details relative to that bold and adventurous undertaking, which does fuch honour to the courage, patience, and perfeverance of the English and Dutch navigators. The 3d, 4th, and 5th Books contain the hiftories and defcriptions of Iceland, Nova Zembla, Kamchatka, and Groenland. The 6th and last gives 4 compendious account of the latest voyages of the English navigators in the South Sea, and particularly that of the unfortu nate, and immortal Cook, who obferved or difcovered more unknown lands in that immenfe ocean, than all who went be fore him. quonda „pagnard och to elund also in mla We must obferve, that at the end of each of thefe Four Parts there is a natural hiftory of the countries it comprehends; that the plates, reprefenting the manners, customs, drefs, and cere monies of the Afiatics, Africans and Americans, are ele gantly executed and the work is concluded by an excellent Atlas in a quarto form, which contains 73 maps of the countries defcribed. Upon the whole, this is a very elegant, entertaining, and inftructive publication: the Abridgment is made with tafle and judgment, and the style is fuch as might naturally be expected from the pen of M. DE LA HARPE

III. Recherches Phyfiques fur le Feu: i. e. Philofophical Inquiries, concerning Fire. By M. MARAT, M. D. Phyfician to the Comte d'Artois's, Guards, &c. 8vo. with Cuts. Paris. 1780. The difficulty of examining fire in its pure and separate state, and abstracted from its combination with other bodies, has hitherto baffled all the attempts of philofophers to afcertain the nature of that element, its true principle, its manner of

acting,