neither merited the exaggerated praises of the one, nor the undistinguished censure of the other.

To all the charms of beauty, and the utmost ele, gance of external form, Mary added those accomplishments which render their impreffion irresistible. Polite, affable, infinuating, fprightly, and capable of speaking, and of writing with equal ease, and dignity. Sudden however, and violent in all her attachments; because her heart was warm and unfufpicious. Impatient of contradiction, because fhe had been accustomed from her infancy to be treated as a queen. No ftranger, on fome occafions, to diffimulation; which, in that perfidious court, where fhe received her education, was reckoned among the necellary arts of governments. Not infenfible to flattery, or unconfcious of that plea. fure, with which almost every woman beholds the influence of her own beauty. Formed with the quali ties, that we love, not with the talents that we admire; she was an agreeable woman, rather than an illuftrious queen. The vivacity of her fpirit, not fufficiently tempered with found judgment, and the warmth of her heart, which was not at all times under the restraint of difcretion, betrayed her both into errors, and into crimes. To fay that fhe was always unfortunate, will not account for that long, and almost uninterrupted fucceffion of calamities, which be fel her; we must likewife add, that she was often inprudent. Her passion for Darnly was rafh, youthful and exceffive. And though the sudden transition to the oppofite extreme, was the natural effect of her illrequited love, and of his ingratitude, infolence, and brutality; yet neither these, nor Bothwell's artful address, and important services, can justify her attachments to that nobleman. Even the manners of the age, licentious as they were, are no apology for this unhap

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unhappy paffion; nor can they induce us to look on that tragical and infamous scene, which followed upon it, with less abhorrence. Humanity will draw a veil over this part of character, which it cannot approve, and many, perhaps, prompt fome to impute her actions to her fituation, more than to her difpofition; and to lament the unhappiness of the former, rather than to accuse the perverfeness of the latter. Mary's sufferings exceed both in degree and in duration, those tragical diftreffes which fancy has feigned to excite for row, and commiseration; and while we furvey them, we are apt altogether, to forget her frailties, we think of her faults with lels indignation, and approve of our tears, as if they were fhed for a person who had attained much nearer to pure Virtue. With regard to the queen's person, a circumstance not to be omitted in writing the hiftory of a female reign, all contem porary authors agree in afcribing to Mary the utmost beauty of countenance and elegance of fhape, of which the human form is capable. Her hair was black, though, according to the fashion of that age, the fre quently wore borrowed locks, and of different colours. Her eyes were a dark grey, her complexion was exqui. fitely fine, and her hands and arms remarkably delicate, both as to fhape and colour. Her Stature was of an height, that role to the majestic. She danced, fhe walked, and rode with equal grace. Her tafte for music was juft, and fhe both fong, and played upon the lute with uncommon skill. Towards the end of her life, fhe began to grow fat; and her long confine, ment, and the coldness of the houses in which fhe was imprisoned, brought on a rheumatism which depri ved her of the ufe of her limbs. No man, fays Bran tome, ever beheld her person without admiration and love, or will read her history without sorrow.

Gibbon.

Edward Gibbon, Esq. geb. in der Grafschaft Hampshire, 1737; geff. 1793. Das musterhafte und in seiner Art einzige Werk, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Ges schichte der Abnahme und des Falls des römischen Reichs, dem dieser von Muße und dußern Glücksumftanden begünßigte Gelehrte, den größten und beften Theil seines Lebens widmete, sichert seinem Namen den bleibendßten Nachruhm. Die Wahl seines historischen Stoffs war ungemein glücklich; aber eben die große Fruchtbarkeit deffelben foderte auch einen vielbefassenden, mit ungewöhnlichen Gaben und Kenntnissen ausgerüsteten Gelft. Und so, wie der feinige alle Erfodernisse des Geschichtschreibers zur Sammlung, Prüfung und Verbindung der Materialien in sich vereinte, so bes faß er zugleich Geschmack, Gefühl und Reichthum der Sprache in einem vorzüglichen Grade, um seiner Schreibart Würde, Klars heit, Reiz und Lebhaftigkeit mitzutheflen, und seine Leser eben so sehr durch den Vortrag, als durch den Inhalt zu gewinnen und zu feffeln. Die Anordnung seines mit großer Sorgfalt und Genauig teit gewählten Stoffs ist leicht und übersehbar; seine eingewebten Betrachtungen sind neu, treffend und gründlich; und seine ganze Behandlungsart verrdth einen Mann von edelm, freimüthigem Sinne, gleich entfernt von entscheidender Anmaßlichkeit und von scheuer, engherziger Zurückhaltung. Seine Aeußerungen über die Entstehung und erste Verbreitung des Christenthums veranlassten mehrere Gegenschriften von Dr. Watson, Dr. Apthorpe, Dr. Chelsum, Dr. Randolph, Davis, u. a. m. Nur den leßtern würdigte er einer Beantwortung. Das hier ausgehobene neunte Kapitel beschreibt den Zustand Deutschlandes in den frühesten Zeiten.

The goverment and religion of Perfia have deferved fome notice from their connexion with the decline and fall of the Roman empire. We fhall occafionally mention the Scythian, or Sarmatian tribes, which, with their arms and horses, their flocks and herds, their wives and families, wandered over the immense plains, which spread themselves from the Cafpian Sea to the Viftula, from the confines of Perfia to thofe of Ger

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many. But the warlike Germans, who firft refifted, then invaded, and at lenght overturned, the western monarchy of Rome, will occupy a much more important place in this history and poffefs a stronger, and if we may use the expression, a more domestic claim to our attention, and regard. The most civilized nation of modern Europe issued from the woods of Germany, and in the rude inftitutions of those barbarians we may ftill diftinguifh the Original principles of our prefent laws and manners. In their primitive state of fimplicity and independence, the Germans were furveyed by the discerning eye, and delineated by the masterly pencil of Tacitus, the first of historians, who applied the science of philosophy to the study of facts. The expreffive concifeness of his defcriptions has deferved to exercise the diligence of inunmerable antiquarians, and to excite the genius and penetration of the philofophic hiftorians of our own times. The fubject, however various and important, has already been fo frequently, fo ably, and fo fuccefsfully difcuffed, that it is now grown familiar to the reader, and difficult to the writer. We fhall therefore content ourselves with observing, and indeed with repeating, some of the most important circumstances of climate, of manners, and of institution, which rendered the wild barbarians of Germany fuch formidable enemies to the Roman power.

Ancient Germany, excluding from its independent limits the province westward of the Rhine, which had fubmitted to the Roman yoke, extended itself over a third part of Europe. Almost the whole of modern Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Livonia, Pruffia, and the greater part of Poland, were peopled by the various tribes of one great nation, whose complexion, manners, and language denoted a common

origin,

origin, and preferved a striking refemblance. On the weft, ancient Germany was divided by the Rhine from the Gallic, and on the south, by the Danube, from the Illyrian provinces of the empire. A ridge of hills rifing from the Danube, and called the Carpathian Mountains, covered Germany on the fide of Dacia or Hungary.

The eastern frontier was faintly marked by the mutual feats of the Germans and the Sarmatians, and was often confounded by the mixture of warring and confederating tribes of the two nations. In the remote 'darkness of the north, the ancients imperfectly difcried a frozen ocean that lay beyond the Baltic sea, and beyond the Peninsula or islands of Scandinavia.

Some ingenious writers have fufpected that Europe was much colder formerly than it is at prefent; and the most ancient descriptions of the climate of Germany tend exceedingly to confirm their theory.

The general complaints of intense frost, and eternal winter, are perhaps little to be regarded, fince we have no method of reducing to the accurate standard of the thermometer the feelings, or expreffions of an orator, born in the happier regions of Greece or Asia. But I fhall felect two remarkable circumstances of a lefs equivocal nature. 1) The great rivers which covered the Roman provinces, the Rhine and the Danube, were frequently frozen over, and capable of supporting the most enormous weights. The barbarians who often chose that severe season for their inroads, transported, without apprehenfion or danger, their numerous armies, their cavalry and their heavy waggons, over a vast and solid bridge of ice. Modern ages have not presented an inftance of a like phaenomenon. 2) The rein deer, that useful animal, from whom the favage of the North derives the best comforts of his

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