vous envoier ce même ouvrage. Il s'en eft même fallu de peu que je ne fiffe encore plus, car j'avois eu peut étre la témérité d'entreprendre, une traduction de votre Théorie; mais comme je venois de terminer la premiere partie, j'ai vu paroître la traduction de M. l'Abbé Blavet, et j'ai été forcé de renoncer au plaifir que j'aurois eu de faire paffer dans ma langue un des meilleurs ouvrages de la vôtre. "Il auroit bien fallu, pour lors entreprendre une juftification de mon grandpère. Peut être n'aur it-il pas été difficile, premierement de l'excufer, en difant, qu'il avoit toujours vu les hommes à la Cour, et dans la guerre civile, deux theatres fur lequels ils font certainement plus mauvais qu'ailleurs; et enfuite de juftifier par la conduite perfonelle de l'auteur, les principes qui font certainement trop généralités dans fon ouvrage. Il a pris la partie pour le tout; et parceque les gens qu'il avoit eu le plus fous les yeux étoient animés par l'amour propre, il en a fait le mobile général de tous les hommes. Au rette, quoique fon ouvrage merite à certains égards d'être combattu, il eft cependant eftimable même pour le fond, et beaucoup pour la forme. "Permettez moi de vous demander, fi nous aurons bientôt une édition complette des œuvres de votre illuftre ami M. Hume? Nous Pavons fincérement regretté. Recevez, je vous fupplie, l'expreffion fincère de tous les fentimens d'eftime et d'attachement lefquels j'ai l'honneur d'être, Monfieur, votre très humble et très obeiffant ferviteur, "Le Duc de la ROCHEFOUCAULD." To refume the narrative-In 1776, Mr. S. returned from the continent, and after a feclufion of ten years produced, in 1776, his "Wealth of Nations." Two years after the publication of this work, he was advanced to an office of emolument, by the intereft of the Duke of Buccleugh; and, retiring to Edinburgh, died in July, 1790, of a chronic obftruction in his bowels, having previously destroyed all his papers, with the exception of thofe which conftitute the prefent volume. The three first of thefe eflays turn upon the principles which lead and direct philofophical enquiries; illuftrated, the first by the Hiftory of Aftronomy, the fecond by the Hiflory of ancient Phyfics, the third by the Hillory of ancient Logic and Metaphyfics. The object of thefe effays appears to be, to afcertain the genuine operation of natural phænomena upon the mind of man, and to trace out the path of real difcovery in the various and complicated diverfities of human fcience. The first is attempted in an ingenious analyfis of thofe affections, which are produced by fubjects of an extraordinary character. Our author's fentiments on this point will be beft apprehended from his own definitions. Wonder, furprife, and admiration, are words which, though often confounded, denote, in our language, fentiments that are indeed A a a BRIT. CRIT. VOL. VII. JUNE, 1796. allied, allied, but that are in fome refpects different alfo, and distinct from one another. What is new and fingular, excites that fentiment which, in friet propriety, is called Wonder; what is unexpected, Surprise; and what is great or beautiful, Admiration. "We wonder at a lextraordinary and uncommon objects, at all the rarer phænomena of nature, at meteors, comets, eclipfes, at fingular plants and animals, and at every thing, in fhort, with which we have before been either little or not at all acquainted; and we ftill wonder, though forewarned of what we are to fee. "We are furprised at those things which we have feen often, but which we leaft of all expected to meet with in the place where we find them; we are furprised at the fudden appearance of a friend, whom we have feen a thousand times, but whom we did not imagine we were to fee then. "We admire the beauty of a plain, or the greatnefs of a mountain, though we have feen both often before, and though nothing appears to us in either, but what we had expected with certainty to fee. "Whether this criticifm upon the precife meaning of these words be juft, is of little importance. I imagine it is juft, though I acknow. ledge, that the beft writers in our language have not always made ufe of them according to it. Milton, upon the appearance of Death to Satan, fays, that The Fiend what this might be admir'd, Adinir'd, not fear'd. But if this criticifm be juft, the proper expreffion fhould have been wander'd.-Dryden, upon the difcovery of Iphigenia fleeping, fays, that The fool of nature ftood with ftupid eyes And gaping mouth, that teftified furprife. But what Cimon must have felt upon this occafion could not fo much be Surprife, as Wonder and Admiration. All that I contend for is, that the fentiments excited by what is new, by what is unexpected, and by what is great and beautiful, are really different, however the words made ufe of to exprefs them may fometimes be confounded. Even the admiration which is excited by beauty, is quite different (as will appear more fully hereafter) from that which is infpired by greatnefs, though we have but one word to denote them. These fentiments, like all others when infpired by one and the fame object, mutually fupport and enliven one another: an object with which we are quite familiar, and which we fee every day, produces, though both great and beautiful, but a small effect upon us; becaufe our admiration is not fupported either by Wonder or by Surprife: and if we have heard a very accurate defcription of a monster, our Wonder will be the lefs when we fee it; because our previous knowledge of it will, in a great measure, prevent our Surprise. It is the defign of this Effay to confider particularly the nature and caufes of each of thefe fentiments, whofe influence is of far wider extent than we fhould be apt, upon a careless view, to imagine. L fhall begin with Surprife." P. 3. Од On thefe principles, Dr. S. proceeds to inveftigate the fpeci fic differences in thefe feveral affections, in order, as it should feem, to thow that true philofophy harmonifes thefe, and converts the uneafy anxieties of wonder and furprife, into the grateful fentiment of admiration. The Hiftory of Aftronomy, ancient Phyfics, &c. which follow, though imperfect, are fketches traced out by the hand of a matter. The profound obfervations with which they are enriched, and the elegant accuracy with which they are executed, ftrengthen the probability, that they feverally exifled in the mind of their author, as parts of a great and comprehenfive work for the elucidation of the principles of general fcience. The remainder of the volume confifts of fome unfinished fketches, in a style of equal elegance, upon the imitative arts, and the natural fenfes. An extract from the first of these will enable our readers to judge of their general merit. After fpeaking of the imitation of fentiment and paflions by mufic, the author thus ably and elegantly defends that imitation. "All this, it may, and it frequently has been faid, is unnatural nothing being more fo, than to fing when we are anxious to perfuade, or in carneit to exprefs any very ferious purpofe. But it hould be remembered, that to make a thing of one kind refemble another thing of a very different kind, is the very circumftance which, in all the Imitative Arts, constitutes the merits of imitation; and that to shape, and as it were to bend, the measure and the melody of mufic, fo as to imitate the tone and the language of counfel and converfation, the accent and the ftyle of emotion and pallion, is to make a thing of one kind refemble another thing of a very different kind. "The tone and the movements of mufic, though naturally very different from thofe of converfation and paffion, may, however, be fo managed as to feem to refemble them. On account of the great difparity between the imitating and the imitated object, the mind in this, as in the other cafes, cannot only be contented, but delighted, and even charmed and tranfported, with fuch an imperfect refemblance as can be had. Such imitative mufic, therefore, when fung to words which explain and determine its meaning, may frequently appear to be a very perfect imitation. It is upon this account, that even the incomplete mufic of a recitative feems to exprefs fometimes all the fedateness and compofure of ferious but calm difcourfe, and fometimes all the exquifite fenfibility of the most interefting paffion. The more complete mufic of an air is ftill fuperior, and, in the imitation of the more animated paffions, has one great advantage over every fort of difcourfe, whether profe or poetry, which is not fung to mufic. In a perfon who is either much depreffed by grief, or enlivened by joy, who is ftrongly affected either with love or hatred, with gratitude or refentment, with admiration or contempt, there is commonly one thought or idea which dwells upon his mind, which continually haunts him, which, when he has chaced it away, immediately returns upon Aaa z him. t him, and which in company makes him abfent and inattentive. He can think but of one object, and he cannot repeat to them that object fo frequently as it recurs upon him. He takes refuge in folitude, where he can with freedom either indulge the extafy or give way to the agony of the agreeable or difagreeable pathon which agitates him; and where he can repeat to himself, which he does fometimes mentally, and fometimes even aloud, and almost always in the fame words, the particular thought which either delights or diftreffes him. Neither profe nor poetry can venture to imitate thofe almost endless repetitions of paffion. They may defcribe them as I do now, but they dare not imitate them; they would become most infufferably tiresome if they did. The mufic of a paffionate air not only may, but frequently does, imitate them; and it never makes its way fo directly or fo irrefiftibly to the heart as when it does fo. It is upon this account that the words of an air, fecially of a paffionate one, though they are feldom very long, yet are fcarce ever fung ftraight on to the end, like thofe of a recitative; but are almost always broken into parts, which are tranfpofed and repeated again and again, according to the fancy or judgment of the compofer. It is by means of fuch repetitions only, that mufic can exert thole peculiar powers of imitation which distinguish it, and in which it excel all the other imitative arts. Poetry and eloquence, it has accordingly been often obferved, produce their effect always by a connected variety and fucceffion of different thoughts and ideas: but mufic frequently produces its effects by a repetition of the fame idea; and the fame fenfe expreffed in the fame, or nearly the fame, combination of founds, though at firft perhaps it may make fearce any impreffion upon us, yet, by being repeated again and again, it comes at latt gradually, and by little and little, to move, to agitate, and to transport us." P. 154. As pofilumous publications are, for the most part, defective, it is fcarcely to be confidered as an obiection to the prefent, that its most laboured parts are but unfinished draughts of fome great delign. The diligence of the editors cannot be too greatly commended for the advantageous manner in which they are brought forward; and the elegant criticisms of Mr. Stewart, on "the Theory of moral Sentiments," and "the Wealth of the Nations," which occupy two diftin& fections in the body of the Memoirs, give confiderable value to the prefent volume. In configning it to the public, we think it unneceff.ry to offer any further culogium. Those who are acquainted with the writings of Dr. Smith, will doubtless welcome this laft bequest of a man, in whom genius and philanthropy were happily united, and whofe ftudies appear to have been directed with equal fuccefs to fubjects of literary refinement, and questions of general utility. BRITISH ART. 1. Conversation, a didactic Poem, in three Parts. By William Cooke, Efq. 4to. 35. 6d. Edwards. 1796. The author has been very happy in his choice of a fubject; but his verfification is not always equally good with the following fpecimen: Again, when ARGUMENT, difpofed to play, Turns with commanding grace from grave to gay, Arrays the fubject in its happiest hue; But, fprung from Pride, and nurs'd by Learning's fpleen, When it infufes filence all around, And pays that filence with Contention's found; ART. 18. Poetic Trifles. Svo. 2s. 6d. Dilly. 1796. These feem to have been the amufements of a polifhed mind; but their publication will not add a great deal to the stock of real poetry. ART. 19. Trifles in Verfe, by John Johnson, A. M. formerly of Oriel College, Oxford. 8vo. 2s. Rivingtons. 1796. Thefe poems are really, what their title-page names them, trifles in verfe. ART. 20. Menfa Regum, or the Table of Kings. Second Edition. To which is now aaded, a Deffert of three Dijbes, exhibitory of the joint Characters of Peter and Tom. To the Royal Table are prefixia, xlempore Stanzas in the first Report of the auspicious Birth at CarltonHoufe. By Ifaac Mirror, Efq. of the Middle Temple. 4to. Is. 6d. Owen. 1796. Some manly and loyal fentiments expreffed in very spirited blank ART. |