It has been observed, in reply, that to allow that impressions of the mother may affect her child is no more difficult to account for than those striking resemblances between them in form, countenance and disposition.

Those reasoners on this subject, who cannot relinquish their opinions because the nervous communication hath not yet been discovered, have been told, that this is no proof of its non-existence; their mode of arguing has been compared to that of an ingenious gentleman recorded in a former volume, who denied the circulation of the blood, because it was incompatible with the received notions and doctrines of Aristotle.

DIFFERENT VIEWS OF HUMAN NATURE.

“ ALL,” says a certain writer, "which can be done by a wise man (seeing that by nature he is appointed to act for the space of 30, 50, or 70 years, some ridiculous silly part in this fantastic theatre of misery, vice, and cor ruption), is either to lament with Heraclitus the iniquities of the world, or (which is the more cheerful, and therefore I do presume the more eligible, course) to laugh with Democritus at all the fools and knaves upon earth.' Montaigue preferred Democritus's humour to Heraclitus's; "not," says he, "because it is more pleasant to laugh than to weep, but because it is more scornful, and more expressive of contempt, than the other: for," adds he, "I think we can never be enough despised." Essais, I. 50.-To Brutus, courting him into the conspiracy against Cæsar, Statilius answered, that he was per fectly satisfied of the justness of the cause, but did not think mankind so considerable, as to deserve a wise man's concern:" agreeably to that of Theodorus, who "would not have a wise man run any risks for a company of fools."-Muretus seems to have entertained a sublimer idea of human importance; when, having fallen sick upon the road, and overhearing a consultation of physicians, who, supposing him an obscure person, agreed at length facere periculum in corpore vili, as they expressed it, he cried aloud, "What! will you presume to make experiments upon one, for whom Christ died ?" Meragiana.

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AN OLD PROVERB.

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The old English proverb, An ounce of mother wit is worth a pound of learning,' seems well exemplified in the following dialogue, translated from the German :

How large is the moon which we now see in the heavens? said Hans, the son of the clergyman, to the farmer's son, Frederick, as they were walking together on a fine summer's evening.

"Frederick. As large as a baking-dish.

"Hans.-Ha! ha! ha! As large as a baking-dish? No, Frederick, it is full as large as a whole country. "Frederick.-What do you tell me? as large as a whole country? How do you know it is so large? "Hans.-My tutor told me so.

"While they were talking, Augustus, another boy, came by; and Haus ran laughing up to him, and said, Only hear, Augustus! Frederick says the moon is no larger than a baking-dish.

"No? replied Augustus. The moon must be at least as big as our barn. When my father has taken me with him into the city, I have observed that the globe on the top of the dome of the cathedral seems like a very little ball; and yet it will contain three sacks of corn, and the moon must be a great deal higher than the dome.

"Now which of these three little philosophers was the most intelligent?-I must give it in favour of the last; though Hans was most in the right, through the instruction of his master. But it is much more honourable to come even at all near the truth, by one's own reasoning, than to give implicit faith to the hypothesis of another."

MONSIEUR TRERET

WAS a learned Frenchman, under the regal government, who, on some unfounded pretence, was taken out of his bed, at two o'clock in the morning, and carried to the Bastile.

After a confinement of several weeks, and in perfect ignorance of the cause of his imprisonment, the Lieute nant of Police at last called to take his examination "Will you have the goodness," said Treret, as that officer entered his rooni, "will you have the goodness to tell me, for what crime I am shut up in this place ?” The Lieutenant replied with great coolness, " I think you have a great deal of curiosity."

REVIEW OF BOOKS.

PROBATQUE CULPATQUE.

History of the Female Sex; comprising a View of the Habits, Manners, and Influence of Women, among all Nations, from the earliest Ages to the present Time, translated from the German of C. Meiners, Counsellor of State to His Britannic Majesty, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Gottingen. By Frederick Shoberl. 4 Vols. 12mo. 11. 10s. Colburn. 1808.

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M.

Tis woman that seduces all mankind." What Gay has ludicrously and ironically observed in the Beggar's Opera is here exemplified with a solemnity which will not much recommend the author to the favourable opinion of the Ladies; for he seems more inclined to exhibit the frailties, follies, and vices, which have marked the career of several distinguished women, rather than those amiable and delicate traits, which with all their imperfections we are disposed to think are the predominant and distinguished characteristics of the female sex. Meiners takes a wide and extensive range, beginning with the state of women among the Heathen nations of Siberia and the Aborigines of America; then ainong the Negroes of America; the Inhabitants of Mangolia, the South of Asia, and the Islands of the East Indies and South Sea; the Eastern nations in general; the Sclavonic nations of Europe; the Celtic nations, during the times preceding the age of chivalry; the antient Greeks and Romans; and so through the nations of Europe, down to the era of the French Revolution.

In the course of this History some curious facts and many amusing and interesting anecdotes are collected, but they are, compared with the entire contents of the four Volumes, as grains of wheat in a bundle of chaff; and consequently, scarce worth the trouble of searching for them. The Volume which treats of the age of Louis XIV. of France will be perused with the greatest degree of satisfaction; and from this part of the work we shall make one extract, which will serve to shew the VOL. IV.

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vast influence which some of the favourites of that King had over the affairs of State, and the dreadful effects, both moral and political, which must ensue, when women of bad character and dispositions are allowed to interfere with the sovereign authority.

"The love of pleasure, pomp, and profusion, which the King excited, and rendered either habitual or indispensably necessary; the consequent, speedy, and almost general impoverishment of the nobility; the eagerness after favour, places, and pensions, resulting from urgent necessities and pressing embarrassments; and the desire of making and advancing fortunes, were still more powerful causes of the universal corruption of morals. Men of rank, and even Princes, cringed before the King, before his ministers and his mistresses, before their minions and the favourites of the latter; and this example, set by husbands and fathers, was followed by their wives and daughters. The women began to live in a low familiarity with men of business. Those who could not aspire to the comptroller, or the farmers-general, insinuated themselves into the good graces of their agents and clerks. They delivered in new projects, and proposed fresh taxes. They sold their patronage; they sold their virtue; they sold the marrow of the people. The labouring part of the nation was oppressed by the lovely part *. Those who possessed power made use of it for the pose of plunder, or to sell to others the liberty of robbing and cheating with impunity. Such as durst not, or would not, have recourse to these expedients, sought to raise themselves in the world by advantageous marriages. Men of the highest rank courted the daughters of opulent financiers, or of favourites, by whose recommendation they hoped to obtain large dowries, lucrative places or pensions t. The blood of the French nobility became depraved; the distinctions of rank were almost abolished, and wealth was the only standard by which the worth and

*Mem. de Maintenon, II. p. 114.

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For a niece of Madame de Maintenon, even a Prince of the house of Lorraine, and the son of the Duke de Noailles, durst not offer themselves as suitors. The latter obtained her hand, and Mademoiselle d'Aubigny was the commencement of the prodigious fortune which the house of Noailles in the sequel acquired. Mem. de Maintenon, IV. p 250.

consequence of persons and families was estimated. Among the whole court, small indeed was the number of beautiful women, who would not have offered, or have been ready on the slightest intimation, to sacrifice their own honour, and that of their families, to the happiness of being the mistress of the King. There was, in fact, not a family at the Court of Louis XIV. but what built the hope of honours and fortune on the beauty of their daughters, and encouraged the latter to make it their study to gain the affections of the King *.

"The same wants and desires which originated in the avidity for favour, places, and pensions, were increased and still more generally diffused by the passion for play. The King, as I have already related in another place, prohibited the most ruinous games of hazard in the capital, upon pain of death; but at the same time tolerated them at court. He played himself; the Queen, the Princes, and the Princesses, were passionately attached to play. The courtiers followed their illustrious examples, and played so high, that a person sometimes lost one hundred thousand pistoles in an evening. Gentlemen and ladies of the highest rank kept gaminghouses or banks, which were so many lures for the avarice of men ; so many abysses that engulphed the fortunes of families; so many rocks on which the happiness, honour, and virtue of natives and foreigners were wrecked. From these places emissaries were sent out to discover such persons as had been left a rich inheritance, or had received a considerable present, or had gained an important law-suit, or had won a large sum at play, or 'who were willing to stake upon a card the momes with which they were entrusted. Numberless were the instances of persons who totally ruined themselves by gaming, and had no other excuse to make, than that they could not live without play."

This was the case with Mademoiselle de la Mothe;-Hist. Amour. des Gaules. II. p. 24, and afterwards with Mademoiselle de Fontages, as well as many others.