I say that he was fcarcely ever known to ftart a new topic himself, or to appear unprepared upon thofe topics that were introduced by others. Indeed his converfation was never more amufing than when he gave a loose to his genius upon the very few branches of knowledge of which he only poffeffed the outlines.

The opinions he formed of men, upon a flight ac. quaintance, were frequently erroneous; but the tendency of his nature inclined him much more to blind partiality than to ill-founded prejudice. The enlarged views of human affairs on which his mind habitually dwelt, left him neither time nor inclination to ftudy in detail the uninterefting peculiarities of ordinary characters; and accordingly though intimately acquainted with the capacities of the intellect and the workings of the heart, and accuftomed in the theories to mark with the most delicate hand the niceft fhades both of genius and of the paffions; yet in judging of individuals, it fometimes happened that his eftimates were in a furprifing degree wide of the truth.

The opinions too, which in the thoughtleffness and confidence of his focial hours, he was accuftomed to hazard on books and on queftions of fpeculation, were not uniformly fuch as might have been expected from the fuperiority of his understanding, and the fingular confiftency of his philofophical principles. They were liable to be influenced by accidental circumftances, and by the humour of the moment; and when retailed by thofe who only faw him occafionally, fuggefted falfe and contradictory ideas of his real fentiments. On thefe, however, as on most other occafions, there was always much truth, as well as ingenuity, in his remarks; and if the different opinions, which at different times he pronounced upon the fame fubject, have been all combined together, fo as to modify and limit each other, they would probably have afforded materials for a decifion equally comprehenfive and juft. But in the fociety of his friends, he had no difpofition to form thofe qua.

lified conclufions that we admire in his writings, and he generally contented himfelf with a bold and mafterly fketch of the object from the first point of view in which his temper or his fancy prefented it. Something of the fame kind might be remarked, when he attempted, in the flow of his fpirits, to delineate those characters which from long intimacy he might have been fuppofed to understand thoroughly. The picture was always lively and expreffive, and commonly a ftrong and amufing refemblance to the original, when viewed under one particular afpect; but feldom, perhaps, conveyed a juft and complete conception of it in all its dimenfions and proportions. In a word, it was the fault of his unpreme. ditated judgments to be too fyftematical, and too much

in extremes.

But in whatever way these trifling peculiarities in his manners may be explained, there can be no doubt that they were intimately connected with the genuine artleffness of his mind. In this amiable quality he often recalled to his friends the accounts that are given of good La Fontaine, a quality which in him derived a peculiar grace, from the fingularity of its combination with those powers of reafon and of eloquence, which in his political and moral writings have long engaged the admiration of all Europe.

A JOURNEY TO THE MOON.

(Concluded from page 29.)

WE fo much ing, and after wandering

E had spent fo much time at the gaming-table

about for a confiderable time, admiring the elegance and extent of the capital, "This day," faid the genius, "is the day appointed for the performance of public worship by the Ibolans; we will enter the church which is now before us.' This we did; the prayers were ended, and the minifter was beginning bis dif

courfe.

courfe. He delivered it from a little book, to which, like a child who had forgot his leffon, he was every in. ftant under the neceffity of recurring; the precepts were as excellent as his cold unanimated manner was difguft. ing; the auditors feemed to poffefs all the apathy of their teacher-many were fleeping, and the rest were bufily employed either in admiring their own drefs, or in gazing upon thofe around them: the difcourfe was finished in a very fhort time, and the people difplayed as much alacrity in quitting the church, as they had fhewn indifference to what they had heard within it."We furely have been mistaken," faid I to my conductor, when we were extricated from the crowd; "this cannot be one of the places of worfhip which the Ibolans frequent from principle? neither the minifter nor his auditors feem to have the smallest belief in the fublime and inspiring truths which we have just heard; I should rather fuppofe that they were compelled to attend, and that they wished to revenge themfelves by their contemptuous treatment of a doctrine which they difapprove." You are in an error," replied the genius, with a fmile, "but it is an error which I am not furprised at your falling into; yet thefe people came by choice, and they would be very much enraged at any perfon who fhould prefume to doubt the fincerity of their religious profeffions: their pastor receives an almost princely ftipend for the performance of his duty; but it is but feldom that he gratifies his flock by his appearance; he goes through his task by means of a deputy, to whom he fcarcely allows fufficient to keep his foul united to his body: the difcourfe which he read was not compofed by himfelf; that would have been too painful a drudgery; and, to obviate this inconvenience, he purchases a number of them from a perfon who manufactures them for the idle and unlearned of the profeffion. Are we to wonder that his auditors were fo inattentive, when he himself appeared fo little infpired in the inculcating and defending a fyftem of religion

religion which, if practifed in its native purity, might enable even mortality to perform actions almoft angelic: but think not that all who profefs this faith are like the one we have juft feen, far from it; there are many among them whofe faith, meeknefs, and charity, are undenied, and whofe lives are truly illuftrations of the beauty and fublimity of the precepts which they are appointed to explain and defend.”

We paffed the evening in the company of feveral very elegant perfons of both fexes: 1 expected to have found in their converfation knowledge devoid of pedantry, and wit uncontaminated by groffnefs; but I looked for thefe qualities in vain: the beauties of fome favourite animal, the decifion of fome large bet, and other matters of almoft equal importance, engaged the attention of the gentlemen: the ladies were as fully employed in defcanting upon the merits of a new drefs, in afcertaining the moft elegant cut for a bonnet, or in demolishing the reputations of those who prefumed to rival them in beauty or fplendour. We were told in confidence by one, that there would foon be a fracas between the Countefs of Z. and her husband; for that Lord K. had been feen to vifit the Countess at a very late hour, unknown to her husband. Another defired us not to pay the leaft attention to the intelligence we had juft received, for, to her knowledge, it had no bafis but the envy of its author, who was herfelf paffionately fond of Lord K. and therefore detefted the Countess of Z. A third informed us, that the two ladies who had juft converfed with us, were deemed great beauties, but, that for her part, fhe had the greatest contempt imaginable for the taste of the world; and, in fpite of all the praises lavished upon them, thought them two of the most odious creatures fhe had ever beheld. I fhould have been furprised at the extreme communicativeness of the affembly, had I not known the fupernatural powers of my conductor. 1 foon found that the perfonages prefent were unanimous only in one point,

which was in their hatred of some absent perfon, who feemed to be fet up as the mark for every one to empty the quiver of his malignity upon.-Fatigued and difappointed, we retired, after a very late fùpper. "Good heavens!" exclaimed I as we departed, "is this the fenfe, the brilliancy, and the elegance of the Ibolans?——. I have liftened with the utmost attention all night, and have not heard one obfervation worthy of remembrance. Frivolity and flander feem to be their favourite deities: I am very much afraid that the Ibolans know nothing more of wit than the name."-"You are mistaken," replied my genius; "they have fome of the most fplendid wits that ever exifted."-"I fhould be very happy to fee them," rejoined I; "but I fuppofe, to prevent their becoming common, they are only fhewn like relics at ftated times: it may very probably proceed from my extreme dulinefs, but I have hitherto been unable to difcover among them any indications of true and brilliant wit."

Silence had now taken poffeffion of the streets."Do you obferve those old and feeble men fast asleep in their boxes?" afked my conductor as we paffed by feveral of them ftationed at intervals" they are the guardians of the night; to their care the lives and properties of the good people of this metropolis are at this hour confided; you fee how well they perform their office." One of them, rubbing his eyes, now ftaggered into the ftreet, and in a deep hollow tone that might have feared a Sampfon, (had he been unacquainted with the quarter from whence it proceeded,) called “ past two o'clock."-"You fee too, how accurate he is,' continued my guide; "it is now paft four o'clock, but he calls the hour in which he went to fleep: are not thefe admirable fellows to watch over the fafety of their flumbering fellow-citizens?" The genius had fcarcely finished his fpeech, when a man with his dress in the utmost disorder, his hair loose to the wind, and a large VOL. IV.

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