and Afia; and Heaven, as if to increase my punishment, has prolonged my life beyond the common age of man. I fubmit to the will of Providence, without repining; all that I ask, and muft infift on, is, that you will leave me to my fate, and fhed a tear to the memory of one, whofe repentance and fufferings on this fide the grave, will, I truft, expiate his crime." Lord Stair, agitated by the recital, and melted by the forrows of his ancestor, foon departed, but returned the next day, with a defign to perfuade him to retire to the North, and, in the hofpitable manfion of his forefathers, pass the remainder of his life, in comfort and tranquility; but the old man had precipitately quitted the spot, without a poffibility of tracing his footsteps; and in spite of every ef fort, his fate remains a mystery to the prefent hour. Thefe circumstances, unfupported by cotemporary or referential evidence, and involved in a romantic cloud, will not bear the touchstone of criticifm and fcrupulous enquiry; yet the event it fpeaks of, which unhinged the form of government in thefe kingdoms, which fhed the best blood, and diffipated the fortunes of thoufands, has been a frequent fubject of ardent and interesting difcuffion. It was undoubtedly a fearful, a tremendous queftion; and I believe few ferious and well defigning men would wish to be placed in the fituation of those, whofe office it was to decide on the life or the death of the king. Si non periiffet periiffemus, were the words of a popular writer of that time; I fear the proceeding was dictated by the ftern law of political neceflity; and after as cool a confideration of the cir cumftance in all its afpects, as a man of warm feelings is capable of giving it, I am clearly of opinion, that if Charles the First had proved victorious in his contest with the people of England; inftead of having called in and re warded the mild virtues of a Brunfwick, we should at the prefent moment have been groaning under an abfolute monarchy; with our fetters rivetted by the merci. lefs bigotry of Laud, the affected franknefs, but disguised arbitrary principles of Clarendon and Straf ford. It was thought, fays a daring writer, a bold expreffion of Oliver Cromwell," that if he found himself oppofite the king in battle, he would discharge his piece into his bofom, as foon as any other man's.” "But I go farther," continues this fpirited author, "had I lived in those days, I would not have waited for chance to give me an opportunity of doing my duty. A king, whofe actions could justify rebellion, I would have fought through the ranks, and without the leaft perfonal enmity, have difcharged my piece into his bofom, rather than any other man's." Cromwell, at the moment he spoke, little thought he fhould hereafter, outftrip the unhappy Charles in fubverting the conftitution of his country, and merit a feverer fate. The commentator on his words, in the violence of animofity against kings, feems not to have treated the inroads of the ufurper, with his ufual acrimony and emphafis. LITERARY LITERARY MEN; their irri. and the pangs of real mifery, I tability, feclufion, and inapt nefs for performing the common duties of life, have been often remarked and frequently cenfured; yet fomething may be pleaded in excufe for indulging in purfuits, which, abforbing for a time all our faculties, offer an effectual, perhaps an innocent opiate, to mental inquietude. Pitied or defpifed by the merchant, the man of pleasure, the fportsman, or the difpatcher of three bottles, and buried in the fhades of rural retirement, or loft in the crouded capital; an author derives from paft evil, or present folly, inftruction, amufement, and employment; fondly imagining, that, at fome diftant period, tardy pofterity may be prevailed on to render the unavailing tribute of praise to that merit, which has been unnoticed by his cotempora ries. So wayward in conduct, fo averfe to all rule, By fools deem'd a madman, by wife men, a fool. Such reveries, with respect to the public, may be confidered as harmlefs; and if, like other dreams, they vanish into air, can only conduct a reclufe to oblivion, the common lot of millions. Literary productions will alfo naturally receive a tinge from our tempers, our affociates, and the great events of our lives; to these we are indebted for the midnight forrows of Young, the pathetic effufions of Hammond, the plaintive fonnets of Charlotte Smith, and the elegy of Gray, But while we make allowance for the keen fenfibility of genius, think it neither right or reasonable, that individuals degraded by vice and folly, fhould, on every emergency of diftrefs, rufh incontinently to the prefs, and pour themfelves out in high-wrought rant and tumid declamation, against fate, mankind, hard-hearted patrons, and a cruel world. Would fuch perfons reflect for a moment on their own imprudent conduct, they might difcover ample cause for all their failures. Neglecting this needful retrofpect, debilitated profufion, exhausted luxury, wild theorifts, mad politicians, and enthusiastic affectation, cloathing themselves in the dignified garb of struggling virtue and honourable poverty, at times over. whelm the town with volumes of felf-begotten mifchance, and reams of fictitious woe; heaven and earth are invoked to heal wounds which, with a little common fenfe, would never have been inflicted, and to foothe forrows, which a minute portion of prudent activity might effectually prevent, and speedily remedy. These mistakes it would be inhuman to cenfure feverely, but they ought not to escape notice; for vicious, or negligent failure, has no legal claim to that pity and affiftance which open-hearted honefty, perfonal merit, and induftrious application, ought ever to experience. We should, as long as it is in our power, apply our fhoulder to the wheel, rather than fit down, like the defpairing waggoner, with folded arms, throwing ourselves on the public, a helpless, cumberfome, and difhonorable load. and I close the prefent article with a reflection a reflection made at an early period of his career as a writer, by Sir William Jones, of whom his country and the world have been deprived, fince the first edition of this collection; and I earneftly recommend it to the confideration of every young man who feels the cacoethes fcribendi creeping on him." The profeffion of literature, by far the moft laborious of any, leads to no real benefit; poetry, science, and letters, when not made the fole business of life, may become its ornaments in prof. perity, its moft pleafing confolation in adverfity; but he who hopes, by mere learning and books, to raife a family, or acquire a comfortable retreat for old age, will find, when it is too late, that he has mistaken his path; that labours and ftudies of a far different kind are neceffary, and that unless he can affert his own independence in active life, it will avail him little, to be favored by the learned, efteemed by the eminent, or even to be recommended by kings." If thefe were the convictions of a man eminently qualified to decide on fuch a question, of one "Whose early genius, fpurning time's controul, "Had reach'd, ere others ftart, the distant goal;" what are the profpects of an unfortunate, but not unfrequent clafs of individuals, who, with the fedentary habits, improvident thoughtleffness, and other unpropitious tendencies of a literary reclufe, poffefs only common attainments, and powers not foaring above mediocrity? L OUIS XV. King of France. This fhort article is introVOL. II. duced for the fake of relating a transaction, creditable to a king, who would not fuffer his private feelings to conquer that love of public juftice, which ought ever to be paramount in the breaft of fovereigns. I feize the opportunity, in order to prove, notwithstanding what has been infinuated, that am as willing to do juftice to crowned heads, as to private indi viduals. God forbid I should ever be tempted to fupprefs one memorial, or one authentic document, in favour of the most arbitrary tyrant that ever reigned. A prince of the blood having difgraced himself by robbery and murder, in the ftreets of Paris, was taken into cuftody, and, after being tried by the parliament, a deputation waited on the King to inform him of the circumftance, but that they would not pronounce fentence 'till the royal pleasure was known. "And why not, gentlemen ?" "The unhappy Prince," replied the prefident, a patriot as well as a gentleman, for they may be united, even in France," the unhappy Prince has your Majefty's blood in his veins." "It is become putrid, and muft be let out," anfwered the King. Another of the deputies venturing to hint at pardoning the offence, his Majefty closed the bufinefs by faying, in an elevated voice, while mercy and juftice applauded his conduct, "Return, without delay, and pronounce your decree; for, on my hopes of falvation, and by the facred truft I hold from God, he fhould die, if he were my only fon." C The murderer was executed on a fcaffold a fcaffold, in the court of the Grand Chatelet, in the early part of the prefent century. LUDWIG, JOHN, a Saxon peafant, born at Codaude, a village near Drefden, of odious afpect and favage manners. Having, with difficulty, been taught to read and write at the parish school, he was, after many ineffectual efforts and fevere floggings, pronounced too ftupid for arithmetic, and difmiffed, with difgrace, to cow-keeping and ruftic drudgery. From this time, to the age of twenty, he neither touched a pen or perused a book, but affociating with low women, of infamous character, and abandoning himself to vicious exceffes, forgot the little he had acquired; his health was alfo very much impaired, and his apparent natural ftupidity confiderably increased, by debauchery and intemperance. At this period of his life, being accidentally witness to a difpute between two farmers, at a country wake, concerning a matter, on which he thought himself able to communicate information, he officiously interfered, and rudely gave his opinion. It has been faid, I believe, by Dr. Blair, that whatever a man clearly conceives, he can properly exprefs; yet Ludwig, although he faw the perfons he had interrupted were wrong, felt confused and abafhed, and entirely unable to deliver his fentiments in a manner fatisfactory to himself, or intelligible to others. He was, of course, laughed at and abufed, as an impertinent fool, and a filly clown, with other epithets too grofs to repeat, borrowed from the nature and tendency of his pleafures and companions. He who had for years perfevered in a course of brutal profligacy, who had refifted parental intreaty, the rod of the pedant, and the admonition of the pulpit, could not bear the keen farcafm of ridicule, and the cutting reproaches of contempt. Quitting a scene of merriment, focial glee, and intemperate pleasure, to minds like his, an almoft irrefiftible temptation, he retired to his cottage, and paffed a folitary, a fleepless night, in the anguifh of bitter repentance. But the trying interval was productive of falutary refolutions; he inftantly forfook the degrading fociety to which he had devoted himself, and induftriously followed a new occupation, the felling vegetables from door to door, for the fake of avoiding his old affociates. He purchased a bible with the first money he could fave, and applied every moment he could spare from labour and reft, to the recovery of reading and writing. His application was fuch, that during the following fevere winter, which confined him almoft wholly to his cottage, he read through the fcriptures five times, and filled three quires and a half of paper with referential notes and texts, quoted in the margin of his bible. His reformation of manners being obferved, he was appointed, as is the custom of Saxony, to receive the excife for a little diftrict, which adding three crowns a year to his income, enabled him to purchase a few books, the want of which had hitherto been an obftacle to his making further pro grefs grefs in acquirement. It was in confequence of this little appointment in gathering the revenue, that the defirable alteration in his conduct was first noticed by Mr. Hoffman, a commiffary, from whofe account I relate the circumftance. In his abject state of fenfuality, he had been occafionally employed in menial services by this gentleman, who faw, with pleafure, the change, encouraged him to perfevere, and gave him books. With thefe and other helps, he made himself master of arithmetic, vulgar and decimal fractions, geometry, and spherical trigonometry; and frequently gratified the little pride of his heart, or his refentment, on a Sunday morning, by putting puzzling queftions to his former mafter, whom he had fcorned to confult, from the remembrance of his feverity and stripes. On Mr. Hoffman's next official vifit to the village, he was highly interested and gratified, by the moral and intellectual improvements of Ludwig. On entering his cottage, a ruinous hovel, it prefented a fingular spectacle; the walls, which had been almost black with fmoke, were covered with propofitions and anagrams, written in chalk; the shelves, bench, and table, were occupied by a strange mixture of domestic utenfils, and mathematical and other inftruments, of fingular, but ingenious workmanship; having been obliged, from the state of his finances, to have recourse to his own mechanical contrivance for thefe helps. The commiffary was fo much pleased with his converfation, that he invited him to his houfe, at Drefden; and foon after, wishing to purchase a few books, he repaired to that city. With fear and trepidation he knocked at Mr. Hoffman's door, and the fervant, on feeing one whom, from his drefs, he thought a ploughman, was on the point of not admitting him, as a party of gentlemen, of learning and diftinction, were expected to dinner; but his mafter accidentally paffing, immediately recognized the reformed mathematician of Codaude, and kindly welcomed him. After dreffing him in a fuit of his own cloaths, he introduced him to the company, with whom he paffed the day. Ludwig was remarked for the propriety of his behaviour, joining in the various topics of converfation, and communicating much ufeful information on fubjects of mechanifm, calculation, and agriculture, Before they separated, Mr. Hoffman explained to his vifitors the fingular circumftances of the peafant's cafe. They made a handfome collection, with many promifes of providing for him, if he chofe to remove to Drefden; but he thankfully declined their offers, declaring, that the money in his pocket would make him the happieft man in Saxony; it would ferve to repair his habitation, procure a few neceffary books and inftruments, and enable him to pafs his life in a way, of all others, he preferred. The fubject of this article is ą ftriking example, and an impreffive proof, that the mental and moral faculties may be often and effectually rouzed to exertion, by incitements and modes eafily practifed and applied, by judgment C 2 and |