fen. He allowed no repofe to this right reverend, prelate during his fife; and, after his death, intimidated his fucceffor Henry to fuch a degree, that he gladly confented to furrender the grant.

Hartman the elder, of Kyburg, foon after this, fent a preffing meffage to Rudolph, to folicit his aid against the burghers of Winterthur, who, in a fudden infurrection, had attacked and nearly demolished his tower near their walls. Rudolph was haftening to his affiftance, when news were brought him that Hartman, the laft count of Kyburg and landgrave of Thurgau, had clofed his illuftrious line.

All

the nobles of the county of Kyburg, and from Baden, Thurgau, and the Gafter, who owed allegiance to this houfe; the magiftrates of the feveral towns and cities, and the heads of the many convents that had been founded or patronized either by his ancestors or by himfelf, met hereupon at a general affembly; and count Hartman was entombed with his fhield and helmet. Rudolph received the homage of the affembly, and pardoned the infult offered by the burghers of Winterthur. The houfe of Hapfburg had on no former occafion received fo great an acceffion of power and dominions; but Rudolph, while he was liftening to the congratulations of his friends and fubjects, was little aware what far greater honours were yet referved for him by his aufpicious deftiny.

Rudolph was high in ftature, and of a graceful figure and deportment: he was bald, his complec

tion pale, his nofe aquiline; his mien was grave, but fo engaging as to command the confidence of all those who approached him. Both at the time when, with feanty means, he performed eininent achievements, and when, in his exalted ftation, a multitude of public concerns claimed inceffant attention, he preferved a gay and tranquil mind, and a difpofition to facetious mirth. His manners were fimple and unaffuming: his diet was plain; and he was ftill more temperate in the ufe of fpirituous liquors. He once in the field appeafed his hunger with raw turnips: he ufually wore a plain blue coat; and his foldiers had often feen him darn his doublet with the fame hand that grafped his conquering fword in fourteen battles. It is recorded, that he ever preferved his conjugal fidelity to his confort Gertrude, who' bore him ten children. He enjoyed pleasures without being fubfervient to them; and hence did he never want either time for labour or relaxation, or in old age, health and vigour for powerful exertions.

Rudolph, in all his wars, treated the prelates, who were lefs tenacious of their fpiritual dignity than of their temporal concerns, not as preachers of the gospel of peace, but in a manner conformable to the law of arms: on the other hand, he is reported to have fliewn great deference to the clergy, and à zealous devotion to the facred rites. day while hunting, he met, near an overflowing brook, a parish prieft, who was bearing the hoft to a dying patient he compelled him mount his horfe; and expreffed

:

a

One

to

with fervour his lowly veneration for the fupreme Being, to whom he owed all his many bleflings, and the great profperity he enjoyed. His piety was highly extolled at Zuric when, at a folemn feftival, he exhibited to the affembled multitude many relics of the crucifixion. The new Auguftin hermits whom he established in this city, and many other religious orders on whom he conferred ample donatives, fpread the fame of his godlinefs throughout the land.

Account of the Emperor Rudolph's Death. From the fame.

N the eighteenth year. after the grace of God,' as he defcribed his exaltation, had raifed him from the huts of his ancestors to an imperial throne.' in the feventyfourth year of his age, was Rudolph first attacked with fymptoms of a dangerous malady. He was haftening to Spire to repofe, as he intimated, amidst the tombs of many preceding kings and emperors, when his fate met him at Gemertheim on the Rhine, a town of his own foundation. His hereditary dominions had been enlarged by the acquifition of Kyburg, Lenburg, Baden, Zoffingen, and feveral advocacies: but his greatest acceflions he owed to his victories over Ottocarus king of Bohemia, margrave of Moravia, and duke of Auftria, Stiria, Carinthia, and Carniolia, who had oppofed his election to the empire. Five years after he had reduced that power, the king, adorned with all the pomp of royalty, and furrounded by all the princes, whofe

*

concurrence was indispensable in all new regulations in the empire, fcated himfelf on his throne in the palace at Augfburg, and declared, that in order to enable his fons, Albert and Rudolph, to difplay the full extent of their inviolable loyalty and zeal for the glory of the empire, he had refolved to raise them to an eminent rank in the college of princes.' Hereupon, in the plenitude of his power, and with the confent of the electors, he invefted them, by the delivery of banners, with the dukedoms of Auftria, Stiria, the Windifmark, and Carniolia: he foon after granted them allo the margraviate of Burgau. To fuck eminence rofe a ingle count, of a race whofe very name had fcarce reached the contiguous countries. By the enlargement of his bounds to the farthermoft confines of Alface and Auftria, he in a manner hemmed in all Upper Germany, and kept in awe the French king, and many of the Slavian princes. His houfe, by his addrefs and wifdom, rofe to a power which gradually fubdued nations and countries, the very exiftence of which was then unknown. No race has fo often endangered the freedom of Europe: and its fplendid career, has never met with any check, but what it derived from its own neglect of that moderation, which had ever been the great art of Rudolph.

Parallel between the Literary Charac ters of Fontenelle and La. Motte; from Dr. Aikin's Tranflation f D'Alembert's Eulogies.

AGREEMENT

in

GREEMENT in temper, in caft of genius, and in principles, had formed that folid union between our two academicians which does fo much honour to their memory. Perhaps it may be interefting to examine in what thefe two writers, fo fimilar in various respects, differed in others. Both of them, replenished with judgement, knowledge, and good fenfe, conftantly display a fuperiority to prejudices, as well philofophical as literary; both attack them with that modest timidity under which the wife man will always fhield himself when combating received opinions; a timidity which their enemies termed hypocritical gentlenefs, because hatred gives to prudence the name of cunning, and to art that of falfehood. Both of them have carried too far their decided, though apparently moderate, revolt from the gods and laws of Parnaffus; but La Motte's free opinions feem more clofely connected with his perfonal intereft in fupporting them; and Fontenelle's, with the general intereft he took in the progrefs of reafon in all departments. In the writings of both are to be found that method which is fo fatiffactory to correct minds, and that artful ingenuity which gives fo much delight to delicate judges; but this laft quality in La Motte is more developed; in Fontenelle it leaves more to be gueffed by the reader. La Motte, without ever faying too much, forgets nothing that his fubject offers, dexterously makes use of the whole, and feems to fear that he fhould lofe fome of his advantages by too fubtle a concealment of his meaning: Fontenelle, without ever being obfcure, except to those who do not deferve that an author fhould

be clear, gives himself at the same time the pleafüre of refervation, and that of hoping to be thoroughly underftood by readers worthy of underftanding him. Both, too little fenfible of the charms of poetry and the magic of verfification, have fometimes become poets by the force of ability; but La Motte fomewhat more frequently than Fontenelle, though he has often the double defect of weakness and harfhnefs, while Fontenelle has only that of weakness: but the latter is almoft always lifeless in his verses; whereas La Motte fometimes infufes foul and intereft into his. Both were crowned with diftinction' at the lyric theatre; but Fontenelle was unfortunate on the French theatre, because he was abfolutely deftitute of that fenfibility which is indifpenfable to a tragic poet, and' of which nature had beftowed fome fparks on La Motte.

Fontenelle and La Motte have both written in profe with great clearnefs, elegance, and even fim-' plicity; but La Motte with a more natural, Fontenelle with a more ftudied fimplicity; for this quality' may be studied, and then it be comes manner, and ceafes to be a model. What renders Fontenelle a mannerist in his fimplicity is, that in order to prefent refined, or even grand ideas, under a more fimple form, he fometimes falls into the dangerous path of familiarity, which contrafts with and trenches upon the delicacy or grandeur of the thought; an incongruity the more. fenfible, as he feems to affect it: whereas the familiarity of la Motte (for he, too, fometimes defcends to it) is more fober and measured, more fuited to its fubject, and on a level with the things treated of. X 3 Fontenelle

Fontenelle was fuperior in extent of knowledge, with which he has had the art to adorn his writings, and which renders his philofophy 1 the more worthy of being recollect ed and quoted; but la Motte has made his reader fenfible that, in order to be equal in wealth and value to his friend, he only wanted, as Fontenelle himfelf faid, " eyes and ftudy." Both received from nature a flexibility of talent which fitted them for various kinds of writing; but they had the imprudence, or fecret vanity, to try their powers in too many. Thus they weakened their reputation by attempting to extend it too far; but, Fontenelle has folidly eftablifhed his glory by his immortal" Hiftory of the Academy of Sciences," and efpecially by thofe interesting eulogies, full of refined and profound fenfe, which infpire the nobleft emulation in rifing genius, and will tranfmit to pofterity the name of the author with that of the celebrated fociety whofe worthy organ he was, and of the great men whole equal he rendered himfelf in becoming their panegyrift,

To conclude the parallel of these two celebrated men, it will not be ufelefs, after having difplayed them in their works or in the fociety of thofe of their own clafs, to paint them as they were in common fociety, and especially amid thofe two claffes of it which demand the greateft caution in order to avoid giving offence the fometimes formidable clafs of the great, and the always troublefome clafs of fools, fo copioufly diffused among all the others. Fontenelle and la Motte, always referved, confequently always dignified, with the great, always on their guard before them without

66

ور

fhewing it, never difplaying more wit than was neceflary, to please them, without fhocking their felfconfequence, faye themselves," according to Montagne's expreffion, from undergoing effectual tyranny from them, by their care in not making them undergo talking tyranny." Sometimes, however, in this fociety, as in their ftyle, they gave way to a kind of familiarity; but with this difference, that la Motte's familiarity was more respectful and referved; Fontenelle's more eafy and free, yet always fo circumfpect as not to tempt any one to abufe it. Their conduct with fools was still more ftudied and cantious, as they, too well knew that this kind of men, internally and deeply jealous of the fplendor of thofe talents by which they are humiliated, never pardon perfons of fuperior understanding, but in proportion to the indulgence they experience from them, and the care taken to conceal this indulgence. Fontenelle and la Motte, when in companies not made for them, never gave way to abfence or difdain; they allowed the freest fcope to folly of every kind, without fuffering i to fear a check, or even to fufpect that it was observed. But Fontenelle, never forward to talk, even among his equals, was contented with liftening to those who were not worthy to hear him, and only ftudied to fhew them a femblance of approbation, which might prevent them from taking his filence for contempt or wearinefs; la Motte, more complaifant, or even more philofophical, recollecting the Spanish proverb, "that there is no fool from whom a wile man may not learn fomething," took pains fo difcover, in perfons the most void of parts, the favourable fide, either

for

for his own inftruction, or the confolation of their vanity. He put them upon topics with which they were the best acquainted, and thus, without affectation, procured them the pleasure of an outward difplay of all the little they poffeffed; whence he derived the double advantage, of not being wearied in their company, and of rendering them happy beyond their hopes. If they were fatisfied with Fontenelle, they were enchanted with la Motte. May this example of philofophical charity ferve as a lef fon to thofe ftern and untractable men of wit, whofe intolerant pride is not fatisfied without treating fools with humiliating difdain; while this unfeeling mode of teaching them what they are, ftill leaves them understanding enough to feek and to discover the means of revenge.

3

N the

ON

died fir R. S.

the year (in decency we muft fuppofe him dead, when we fum up his actions.) It is pity there is no perfon of abilities left, to give his character to the world, who drew fo many, fo finely! In a well-written life of him might be feen an epitome of mankind; and the motto of his firft Tatlers was as true of his example as of his writings. Surely, fo many follies, and fo much worth, were never blended together in any fingle perfon before. The laft he refolved fhould be the guide of his beha

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viour, though he always followed the former.

He was a coquette to virtuě; made continual advances, and feemed juft yielding up himself to the comely dame who courted him, as he once did Hercules: when, on a fudden, he would flounce off, flirt" back, and fink into the arms of pleafure. His foul, in his calm morning-hours, was truly great; and fome defign for public good, the improvement of knowledge, and the fecurity of liberty (which he always efteemed the manhood of the mind), was formed in his thoughts, and was the delight of his meditations: and it must be owned that England is ungrateful, if the doth not confefs, that the prefent happinefs the enjoys was more guarded to her by him, than by any thoufand other private men fhe can boast of. He had undaunted courage to oppofe all mankind, for the fake of what was right; but ftill, his inborn imprudences generally rendered that courage feebly useful to the world; and his inability to withstand fome evening's merriment ruined half his attempts.

But, notwithstanding the ridicule of fuch an allay in his patriot ambition, he went on, like others, through good and ill report; and fuffered himfelf to be laughed at and railed at, with all the indolence and infenfibility of a Stoic.

No bribes of riches or greatnefs could have tempted him to do a bafe action; though the neceffities into which his careleffinefs in the management of his fortune, and a thoughtlefs generofity, had thrown him, often compelled him to fubmit to bafenefs, almoft as low as thofe

Juv.