expreffing myself with ease in any language but my own; and out of my own country the higheft character I can ever acquire, is that of being a philofophic vagabond. When I confider myself in the country which was once fo formidable in war, and spread terror and defolation over the whole Roman empire, I can hardly account for the present wretchednefs and pufillanimity of its inhabitants; a prey to every invader; their cities plundered without an enemy; their magiftrates feeking redress by complaints, and not by vigour. Every thing confpires to raise my compaffion for their miferies, were not my thoughts too bufily engaged by my own. The whole kingdom is in a ftrange diforder; when our equipage, which confists of the prince and thirteen attendants, had arrived at fome towns, there were no conveniencies to be found, and we were obliged to have girls to conduct us to the next. I have feen a woman travel thus on horseback before us for thirty miles, and think herfelf highly paid, and make twenty reverences, upon receiving, with extafy, about two pence for her trouble. In general we were better ferved by the women than the men on those occafions. The men feemed directed by a low fordid intereft alone; they feemed mere machines, and all their thoughts were employed in the care of their horfes. If we gently defired them to make more fpeed, they took not the leaft notice; kind language was what they had by no means been used to. It was proper to speak to them in the tones of anger, and fometimes it was even neceffary to use blows, to excite them to their duty. How different thefe from the common people of England, whom a blow might induce to return the affront fevenfold! Thefe poor people, however, from being brought up to vile ufage, lofe all the refpect which they fhould have for themselves. They They have contracted an habit of regarding conftraint as the great rule of their duty. When they were treated with mildness, they no longer continued to perceive a fuperiority. They fancied themfelves our equals, and a continuance of our humanity might probably have rendered them infolent ; but the imperious tone, menaces, and blows, at once changed their fenfations and their ideas: their ears and fhoulders taught their fouls to fhrink back into fervitude, from which they had for fome moments fancied themselves difengaged. The enthusiasm of liberty an Englishman feels is never fo ftrong, as when prefented by fuch profpects as thefe. I muft own, in all my indigence, it is one of my comforts, (perhaps, indeed, it is my only boast) that I am of that happy country; though I fcorn to ftarve there; though I do not choose to lead a life of wretched dependance, or be an object for my former acquaintance to point at. While you enjoy all the eafe and elegance of prudence and virtue, your old friend wanders over the world, without a fingle anchor to hold by, or a friend except you to confide in *. Yours, &c. A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE LATE MR. MAUPERTUIS. MR. MAUPERTUIS, lately deceased, was the firft to whom the English philofophers owed their The fequel of this correfpondence to be continued occafionally. I fhall alter nothing either in the ftyle or fubftance of these letters, and the reader may depend on their being genuine. being particularly admired by the rest of Europe. The romantic fyftem of Des Cartes was adapted to the tafte of the fuperficial and the indolent; the foreign univerfities had embraced it with ardour, and fuch are feldom convinced of their errors 'till all others give up fuch falfe opinions as untenable. The philofophy of Newton, and the methaphyfics of Locke, appeared; but, like all new truths, they were at once received with oppofition and contempt. The English, it is true, ftudied, understood, and confequently admired them; it was very different on the Continent. Fontenelle, who feemed to prefide over the Republic of Letters, unwilling to acknowledge that all his life had been spent in erroneous philofophy, joined in the univerfal difapprobation, and the English philofophers feemed entirely unknown. Maupertuis, however, made them his ftudy; he thought he might oppofe the phyfics of his country, and yet ftill be a good citizen: he defended our countrymen, wrote in their favour, and at laft, as he had truth on his fide, carried his caufe. Almost all the learning of the English, 'till very lately, was conveyed in the language of France. The writings of Maupertuis fpread the reputation of his mafter Newton, and by an happy fortune have united his fame with that of our human prodigy. The firft of his performances, openly, in vindication of the Newtonian fyftem, is his treatife entituled, Sur la figure des Aftres, if I remember right; a work at once expreffive of a deep geometrical knowledge, and the moft happy manner of delivering abftrufe fcience with eafe. This met with violent oppofition from a people, though fond of novelty in every thing elfe, yet, however, in matters of fcience, attached to antient opinions with bigotry. As the old and obftinate fell away, the youth of France embraced the new opinions, and now feem more eager to defend Newton than even his countrymen. The The oddity of character which great men are fometimes remarkable for, Maupertuis was not entirely free from. If we can believe Voltaire, he once attempted to caftrate himself; but whether this be true or no, it is certain he was extremely whimfical. Though born to a large fortune, when employed in mathematical enquiries, he difregarded his perfon to fuch a degree, and loved retirement fo much, that he has been more than once put on the lift of modeft beggars by the curates of Paris, when he retired to fome private quarter of the town, in order to enjoy his meditations without interruption. The character given of him by one of Voltaire's antago nifts, if it can be depended upon, is much to his honour. You, fays this writer to Mr. Voltaire, you were entertained by the king of Pruffia as a buffoon, but Maupertuis as a philofopher. It is certain that the preference which this royal fcholar gave to Maupertuis was the caufe of Voltaire's difagreement with him. Voltaire could not bear to fee a man, whofe talents he had no great opinion of, preferred before him as prefident of the royal academy. His Micromegas was defigned to ridicule Maupertuis; and probably it has brought more difgrace on the author than the fubject. Whatever abfurdities men of letters have indulged, and how fantastical foever the modes of fcience have been, their anger is ftill more fubject to ridicule. THE THE BE E, No II. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1759. ON DRESS. FOREIGNERS obferve that there are no ladies in the world more beautiful, or more ill-dreffed, than thofe of England. Our country-women have been compared to thofe pictures, where the face is the work of a Raphael; but the draperies thrown out by fome empty pretender, deftitute of tafte, and entirely unacquainted with defign. If I were a poet, I might obferve, on this occafion, that fo much beauty fet off with all the advantages of dress would be too powerful an antagonist for the oppofite fex, and therefore it was wifely ordered, that our ladies fhould want tafte, left their admirers fhould entirely want reafon. Butto confefsa truth, I do not find they have a greater averfion to fine cloaths than the women of any other country whatfoever. I cannot fancy that a fhopkeeper's wife in Cheapfide has a greater tendernefs for the fortune of her husband than a citizen's wife in Paris; or that mifs in a boarding-fchool is more an œconomift in dress than mademoiselle in a nunnery. Although Paris may be accounted the foil in which almost every fashion takes its rife, its influence is never fo general there as with us. They ftudy there the happy method of uniting grace and fashion, and never excufe a woman for being aukwardly dreffed, by faying her cloaths are made in the mode. A French woman is a perfect architect in drefs; fhe 6 never, |