five, and ridiculous at fifty. There is a period in human life when thoughtleffhefs partakes of activity and candour; there is a period when it is the fad refult of an abortive understanding.

Nothing is more injurious than a confiderable name unaccompanied with confiderable qualifications; than high offices without ability to fill them; than an elevated rank without that dignity which should adorn it.

The mind of Clitophon is not only deftitute of useful information, but is crowded with falfe ideas; illufion there fills the place of truth; a vulgar credulity is the fubititute of religion.

He had a place at court which might have fixed the defires of his ambition if he had not poffeffed it. He made every facrifice to obtain another, which for his glory he ought to have abandoned, if it had ever been bestowed upon him. The fecret for Clitophon to be fomething was for him to do nothing; the fame moment that faw him active faw him contemptible.

The profeffion we have chofen must always determine the degree of ftrictness that ought to characterife our manners. We laugh at that action in one man which we execrate in another. Human fociety is fufficiently indulgent; but it forbids, under pain of contempt, a certain publicity in our relaxations.

Misfortunes that are occafioned by imprudence excite our pity; misfortunes that are caufed by intrigue may excite a momentary fenfibility, but quickly leave us cold and indifferent.

The life of Clitophon has been divided into three acts in the first we faw him flight and fuperficial; in the fecond, intriguing; in the third, icy and unfeeling. Amorous as a grenadier, oftenta tious as a farmer general, fpeculating as an adventurer, he found in his commerce with the fex mortification and contempt, in his dependents hypocritical knaves, and in his fpeculations ruinous law-fuits and the lofs of reputation.

It is the common-place and undifcriminated character that is equally callous to favours and to affronts; that receives in exactly the fame flyle the quack and the man of fcience; that amufes itself with vice, and employs virtue as its refource; that has a few slavish dependents, but never has a friend; that forgets in the arms of beauty the pangs of exile; whofe affability is cowardice; whofe generofity is oitentation; whofe religion is terror; who regards labour as the greatest of evils, and would prefer the baseft obfcurity to the efforts neceffary to restore an injured reputation.

Clitophon is for ever telling us that he is fick of mankind; yet mankind has done every thing for him, and what has he done for them? In the laft inftance they have fummoned him to the auguft affembly, that is the arbiter of our future destinies. Let Clitophon embrace the rights of the people and the cause of liberty; let him by difinterestednefs, by eloquence, and by courage, impofe upon his enemies an eternal filence refpecting the paft, and give his partifans a right to restore its reputation from its athes!

Let him reftore to the state that immenfe wealth which the poor must share if the ftate did not exert itself for the extirpation of poverty; and let him by a life of honourable fimplicity expiate the luxury of thirty years! [Let him difcard the hoary flatterers that furround him,

and

and that build their varying projects and their ambitious hopes upon his infatiable vanity and his unconquerable indolence!

Alas! there is a period in human life when the foul lofes all its elafticity. There is a decay in our moral, as well as in our natural faculties. All that remains is the memory, or at moft the tranfient glimmerings of capacity; and in those cruel moments we feel at once what we ought to do, and our inability to execute it. In the air of a court the man ufually ceases to exist as foon as he arrives at manhood, What remains for him to do? To be beneficent in his decay. Thanks be to nature, there is need neither of talents, nor effort, nor application, in order to do good!

Clitophon will devote his laft.moments to the exercise of religion. The readinefs of his faith in things fupernatural, the veneration with which he is impreffed for the marvellous *, fufficiently fhew the fate that awaits him. He must have a good fort of piety, full of fuperftition, as before a sprinkling of miracles, and the ufual promife of penetrating fuccefsfully into the darknefs of futurity; futurity, the scare-crow of feeble minds, whofe defire is to lofe nothing of this world, and to fecure the happiness of another,'

'The laft fentence feems rendered obfcure by an error of the tranflator or printer. The following of the Duke of Orleans every good man will hope is a juft portrait:

A youth of voluptuoufnefs did not promife to the cause of liberty fo zealous a defender and fo valuable an apoftle. There are faults that are lefs our own than thofe of the times in which we live. The clofe of the reign of Louis the Fifteenth held out an invitation to pleasure. Aufterity was out of place in a community where gratification reigned without control.Clemon yielded to the circumftances in which he was placed; the age dictated to him, and he obeyed it. He found that it deferves the name of calamity to be endowed in early youth with an infinuating character.

The defire of comparing two rival nations conducted Clemon repeatedly to the banks of the Thames. He defired to be thoroughly acquainted with the two countries in Europe which have reached the highest degree of civilifation; which are indeed full of defects, imperfect in their government, but decidedly fuperior to every one of their neighbours. He perceived that it is their emulation that gives nutriment to their industry, and that enables them always to equal, never to furpafs each other. He faw that the fituation of the individual was not more defirable in one country than in the other, and that, exclufively of the criminal jurifprudence, there was little that France need envy to Britain.

She has preceded us in the adoption of liberty, and it was doubtlefs with her that Clemon imbibed the generous principles that have electrified the nation. He profeffed them at a period when it was unknown what reception Frenchmen would give them, and when it

The author here alludes to his connexion with Count Cagliostro.

was

was impoffible to forefee that, victors over prejudice, they would facceed at their firit attempt in placing themfelves upon an equality with the nations that have divetted themselves the most flowly of the veftiges of tyranny. Let us recollect the documents that he fanctioned with his name, and that encouraged the bailliages to form their inftructions upon fo excellent a model!

I do not commend Clemon because he gained the affections of the people, but because he preferved their attachment. To the former it fufficed to awaken the partiality of the citizens for this popular branch of the Houfe of Bourbon; but to the latter there was requifite a conqueft over himfelf, and that of no common fpecies. Clemon has friends in fpite of his rank, because he is himself the friend of those whom he admits into his familiarity. His dependents are contented and happy; for when our fervices are unconitrained, our duties convert* into pleasures.

⚫ Clemon is generous; the people have derived from him fuccour and relief, men of letters have been benefited by his patronage; and the animofity of a few individuals, who were irritated by the lofs af an agreeable promenade †, has been well exchanged for the applauses of Europe. Foreigners of all countries are agreed that there is no edifice that prefents fuch a combination of wealth, conveniences, and delight. You may here find luxury and fimplicity, folitude and diffipation, the amusements of the open air and theatrical entertainments, the tranquillity of clubs, and the tumultuous fcenes of a coffee-houfe. Thefe different views of focial life have all of them their pleasures, perhaps all of them their utility.

It is fo much the more agreeable to praife Clemon in a certain refpect, because his country has not flattered him. He ferved it with the air of a man who was paying a debt. What is a campaign, what is the gain of a battle, in comparison of whatever may forward, may determine, may complete a revolution?

Wars depopulate a ftate; virtuous examples may alter its character; the courage of the heart may advance them to a degree of fplendour that the most brilliant conquefts could never beftow.

Clemon chofe a fingular method to conduct his children to the moral goal that he had marked out for them. It required no deep philofophy to infpire the attempt, and fuccefs has attended upon its execution. Why fhould not a woman of intellectual ability, of found knowledge, of fervent zeal, form the minds of young princes to the love of virtue, and unfold in them the talents that Nature implanted?

He forefaw the facrifices which his paper of inftructions would render it neceffary for him to make; and he has advanced a fum

[Themfelves] or become pleasures. This is a very remarkable error in the tranflator, because the verb is never ufed in a neutral fenfe in the English or French languages.

The allufion here made is to the gardens of the Palais Royal, which have been covered with buildings by the Duke d'Orleans, and constitute at present the molt beautiful fpot in the city of Paris. The neighbourhood was at firft diffatisfied with the lofs of their recreation, but have fince confidered it as a mall of a different form.

greatly

greatly beyond the tax that the neceffities of his country imposed upon

him.

It will hardly be believed that Clemon has not gained the unanimous fuffrage even of the party whofe boaft it is to have followed his principles. The cause of his moderation has escaped the eyes of the vulgar; and it has not been confidered that if he had been more ardent in his meafures, he would have had the air of labouring for himself, and not for the public cause. But do you know that Clemon? No: I know nothing; I believe nothing. If ever the dreaded light fhould force my eyes to fee differently, I shall curfe the moment in which I drew this portrait.'

We very much regret our limits will not allow us to give larger extracts of this valuable performance, the whole of which we have perufed with a degree of fatisfaction, though fometimes mixed with indignation. In the laft portrait the author pretends to give his own character. The only thing that should induce us to fuppofe he had any fuch intention is that the epithets are more feeble, and the language lefs intelligible, than in any other part of the book. But we may fairly conclude, first, that such a character as there described never could have produced fuch a work; and, fecondly, that no one but himself would have drawn fuch a portrait as is prefented of the Count de Mirabeau.

The tranflation has evident marks of hafte, but on the whole is not badly got up. We wish we could fay as much of the tranflator's introduction, in which he has fomehow unaccountably fancied that his author has aimed at impartiality, of which, in our opinion, it would be difficult to difcover the most diftant traits. He further expreffes a furprife that the Abbé Reynal should not be one of the National Affembly, when it is well known that, though warmly folicited, he excufed himself from that important truft on account of his years and infirmities. But what moft aftonishes us is, that the tranflator should seem to admit the Marquis de la Fayette among thofe who are altogether deftitute of ability; when, from our own perfonal knowledge, we can affert the imputation is as unjust as it is malicious and defigning.

ART. III. He would be a Soldier; a Comedy in Five Ats. A performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden. Written by Frederick Pilon. Dedicated to Mrs Montague. The Third Edition. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Robinfons. London, 1787.

Although an account of this comedy has already appeared in our Review, the reader perhaps will think there is little apology neceffary for the infertion of the prefent article when he is informed that it was written by the late Rev. Mr. Logan.

MR.

R. Pilon tells us, in his preface, that this comedy was prefented to Mr. Colman in the course of laft fummer, and returned because that gentleman did not like a line of it. To

render

render this polite decifion ftill more comfortable to the feelings of the writer, Mr. Colman added, he did not know what could be done with it, or in what shape it could be produced fo as to contribute to the entertainment of the public. By the advice of a friend Mr. Pilon fhewed his piece to Mr. Harris, who, equally to the furprise and the pleasure of the author, entertained a very different idea of the comedy, and brought it on the stage, where it was received with great applaufe. Complaints of authors againft managers, and of managers against authors, are neither new nor furprising. When we recollect that Cibber reprobrated the Beggar's Opera, and that Garrick rejected the tragedy of Douglas, we will not be inclined to believe in the infallibility of managers. But although their tafte and judgment were more unquestionable than is proved by experience, there are so many motives of intereft, ambition, and jealoufy, not to mention caprice, that may influence the breast of a theatrical dictator, that no author need be furprised or mortified at the rejection of his play.

This drama is partly a comedy of incidents, and partly of character. The incidents, though by no means uncommon on the theatre, are arranged and connected in fuch a manner as to create an intereft and have a happy effect on the stage. Nor are the characters ill delineated or fupported. Sir Oliver Oldftock and his lady, though they have not the merit of being originals, are excellent copies. Crevelt is well drawn. Caleb is the most diftinct and beft marked figure in the piece; but his character belongs to farce rather than to comedy.

As a fpecimen of this performance, we fhall present our readers with the laft fcene. Colonel Talbot, before his departure to India, had left his fon, by a private marriage, to the charge of Wilkins, an innkeeper. The youth went into the army at the age of twelve, and was no more heard of. On the return of Colonel Talbot, Wilkins, dreading the refentment of his patron, prefented his fon Caleb to the Colonel inftead of his His wife, from refentment, difcovered the mistake:

own.

Enter Crevelt, Mandeville, Charlotte, Harriet, Sir Oliver, Lady Oldstock, and Count.

Crev. Dear Sir, what is the matter? Obferving a confufion in the house immediately after you went in, we were alarmed for your fafety.

Col. Oh, Crevelt! I am the unhappieft of fathers; that creature whom you all fuppofe my fon, is not fo.

• Char. Good fortune be praised!

Col. He's fon to the fellow who keeps this houfe.-He fays my poor child ftrayed from him when a boy; but this tale is fo impro⚫ bable that I rather fear he has fallen a victim to this fellow's villany and avarice.

• Crev.