WOE unto literature in these days of degeneracy! woe unto the Nine Mufes and their fuitors! how many epics have stood between the candle and candleftick? how many histories have been employed in twist tobacco? and how many philofophers have been made into thread papers, their arguments into paper kites, and their conclufions into threepenny crackers on a birth-day?-and yet with what patience and long-suffering they bear all these indignities. I tell thee, reader, and I tell thee truth, that fuch forbearance and patience ought to dictate to thee, that there is no hardship in the contempt of the worthlefs, and that he who, in his writings, has not faid against his confcience, nor violated the laws of rectitude, may bid defiance to the whole army of paftry cooks, trunkmakers, milliners, and venders of fnuff, tape, and tobacco.

[A few days after the appearance of the foregoing letter, the following was published.]

IN
no point has our boasted liberty made a more
rapid progrefs towards licentiousness, than in the
freedom of the press. A late correspondent remark-
ed," that a bad book ought as much to be guarded

against

against as a bad companion." There certainly is no thing more true, and yet the most dangerous books are daily published uncenfured; and a mean, ignorant, mercenary, or unprincipled publisher, may spread poifon daily more detrimental than arfenic. Some books, like men, acquire great reputation by fome brilliant points, while the general tendency, like the general character, is never investigated.

IN no inftance is this more remarkable than in the writings of the celebrated Rouffeau. The annals of literature never exhibited to the world a more paradoxical, whimsical, ingenious, eloquent, weak, and dangerous author.

THIS author's works have been much read, while few have examined the truth of his pictures, or analized the confiftency or tendency of his doctrines. In the preface to his novel, he says, " Chafte girls never read romances; and the girl who reads four pages of this is undone."

YET no books are more called for at Circulating Libraries than romances, and none more than his. With fuch fentiments he gives his book to the world, and then prefumes to write another upon education.

THE following fragment, which I lately met with, faid to be found among fome old MSS. it is believed, will convey, in a strong and true light,

what

what is faid of his writings, and may, perhaps, lead fome people to think when they read.

C...

I am, &c.

САТО.

A PROPHECY

Found in an Old Manuscript.

IN those days a ftrange perfon fhall appear in France, coming from the borders of a lake, and he fhall cry to the people, Behold I am poffeffed by the demon of enthusiasm; I have received the gift of incoherence; I am a philofopher, and a profeffor of paradoxes.

AND a multitude fhall follow him, and many shall believe in him.

AND he fhall fay to them, You are all knaves and fools; and your wives and daughters are debauched; and I will come and live among you. And he fhall abuse the natural gentleness of the people by his foul speeches.

AND he fhall cry aloud, " All men are virtuous in the country where I was born; but I will not live in the country where I was born."

AND

AND he fhall maintain, that arts and fciences neceffarily corrupt the manners; and he fhall write upon all arts and sciences.

AND he shall declare the theatre a fource of proftitution and corruption, and he fhall write operas and comedies.

AND he fhall affirm favages only are virtuous, though he has never lived among savages, but he fhall be worthy to live. among them.

AND he fhall fay to men, caft away your fine garments, and go naked, and he himself fhall wear laced cloaths when they are given him.

AND he fhall fay to the great," they are more defpicable than their fortunes;" but he shall frequent their houfes, and they fhall behold him as a curious animal brought from a ftrange land.

AND his occupation shall be to copy French mufic, and he fhall fay there is no French mufic.

AND he fhall declare romances destructive to morality, and he fhall write a romance, and, in his romance, the words fhall be virtuous, and the morals wicked; and his characters fhall be outrageous lovers and philofophers.

AND he fhall fay to the univerfe, "I am a favou

rite of fortune; I write and I receive love-letters :" and the universe shall see the letters he received were written by himself.

AND in his romance he shall teach the art of fuborning a maiden by philofophy; and fhe fhall learn from her lover to forget fhame, and become ridiculous, and write maxims.

AND fhe fhall give her lover the first kiss upon his lips, and fhall invite him to lie with her, and he fhall lie with her, and fhe fhall become big with metaphyfics, and her billet-doux fhall be homilies of philofophy.

AND he fhall teach her that parents have no authority in the choice of a husband, and he shall paint them barbarous and unnatural.

AND he fhall refuse wages from the father, because of the delicacy natural to men, and receive money underhand from the daughter, which he fhall prove to be exceedingly proper.

AND he fhall get drunk with an English Lord, who fhall infult him; and he fhall propose to fight with the English Lord; and his mistress, who has loft the honour of her own fex, fhall decide upon that of men; and she shall teach him, who taught her every thing, that he ought not to fight.