some time succeeded in convincing Brancas that he was no beggar. The second story was this: M. de Brancas was one day sitting by the fireside reading with deep attention, when the gouvernante of his daughter coming in, he laid down his book, and took the child in his arms. He played

with her for some time, when his servant came to announce to him a visit of importance: immediately, forgetting that he had laid down his book, and that it was his daughter that he held, he threw her from him, and walked out of the room. Fortunately the gouvernante saved her life by receiving her in her arms.

1

HUETIANA.

[Pierre Daniel Huet, the author of this collection, was born at. Caen in 1630. Though his education was at first neglected, the native vigour of his mind enabled him to triumph over all obstacles, and by the assistance of his tutor, Mambrun, a Jesuit, and of Bochart, the Protestant Minister of Caen, he obtained a complete acquaintance with mathematics, and became a most accomplished classical scholar. In 1652, he accompanied Bochart to the Court of Christina Queen of Sweden, who wished to induce him to remain at Stockholm. This, however, he declined, and returning to France, published a variety of works, which raised him to a distinguished place in the republic of letters. He was appointed in 1678 to the Abbacy of Aunay, in Normandy; and in 1685, to the See of Soissons, which he afterwards exchanged for that of Avranches. He died in 1721, in his 91st year. His works on the Origin of Romance, and on the Navigation of the Ancients, are those by which he is best known to the foreign reader,

The Huetiana, which contains the detached thoughts and criticisms of this learned and amiable man, is of a graver cast than the most of the Ana. It contains few anecdotes or lively tales, such as those which form the staple of the Menagiana, but consists principally of a series of thoughts and criticisms on various topics of moral philosophy and literature, generally longer and more elaborate than the occasional articles which occur on such subjects in the other Ana. Some of the Bishop's opinions, as will be seen from our short selection, are singular enough, and some of his theories not a little visionary; but the book, notwithstanding D'Alembert's criticisms, is in general distinguished by the good sense of the articles it contains, and the very great clearness both of thought and language in which they are conveyed.]

LXXXI. MONTAIGNE.

The Essays of Montaigne are genuine Montaniana, that is to say, a Collection of the Thoughts of Montaigne without arrangement or

connexion. This circumstance has, perhaps, contributed as much as any to render them favourites 'with our nation, an enemy to the continued attention which long dissertations demand; and with the present age, which dislikes the application required in continuous and methodical treatises His freedom of thought, his variety of style, and his metaphorical expressions, have been the chief causes of this celebrity which he has enjoyed during the last century, and which he still possesses; for he is, as it were, the breviary of indolent and ignorant men of letters, anxious to acquire some slight acquaintance with the world, and some tincture of learning, You will scarcely find a country gentleman without his Montaigne on the chimney-piece. But this liberty, which has its advantages when used within bounds, becomes dangerous when it degenerates into license. Such is that of Montaigne, who has thought himself entitled to overstep all the laws of modesty and decorum. The source of this defect in Montaigne lies in his vanity and self-love. He thought his merit entitled him to dispense with rules,-to set an example, not to follow one. All his pretended frankness cannot prevent us from perceiving in him a secret vanity of his official situation, of the number of his servants, and of the reputation he had acquired. If we collect all the small hints and occasional touches which he has adroitly introduced into his works, we shall find him, on the whole, his own panegyrist. Scaliger might well say, what is it to me whether Montaigne likes white wine or red? Is it not, in fact, a mere mockery of his readers to amuse them with these petty details of his tastes, and his domestic trifles?

Scaliger, no doubt, did not talk thus without a little personal feeling in the matter. Montaigne had in his writings assigned to Justus Lipsius the first place in the Empire of Letters; though in this, as in other things, he showed the badness of his taste. When he advances any bold or dispu table proposition, he says, "I do not give it as a good one, but as mine;" a matter with which the reader has very little to do; for his object is to know, not what Michael de Montaigne thought, but what he should have thought, in order to think well. He declares, throughout his work, that he is anxious to paint himself as he is, to the public. Before adopting such a design, must he not have had a tolerable persuasion that the original of the portrait was one which deserved to be painted, looked at, studied, imitated by all the world? And could an idea like this spring from any other source than a plentiful supply of self-love?

His style is of a truly singular turn and original character. His lively imagination furnishes him with a profusion of images on every subject, which he groups into that abundance of agreeable metaphors, in which he is unequalled by any other writer. It is his favourite figure; a figure which, according to Aristotle, is the characteristic of a great mind.

LXXXII. VAMPYRES.

There is something evidently singular in the accounts we possess of the Brucolacs of the

* Phlegon de Mirabil. c. 1. Turquie Chretien; de la Croix, liv. 1, c. 25, pp. 116, et seq.; ex Leone Allatro, p. 118.; et Cassiano, p. 119; Etat de l'Eglise Grecque, ch. 25, pp. 78, et seq; Voyage au Levant, T. 2, ch. 21, p. 328.

E

Archipelago. We are told that those, who after a wicked life have died impenitent, appear in different places with the same forms which they bore when alive; that they attack the living, striking some and killing others; sometimes rendering useful services, but constantly causing terror and consternation. The Greeks believe that these bodies are delivered over to the power of the devil, who preserves and animates them, and employs them to torment mankind. Father Richard,* a Jesuit Missionary to these islands, about fifty years ago, published an account of the Island of Santerini, or St Irene, the Thera of the ancients, of which the famous Cyrene was a colony. He has a long chapter on the History of the Brucolacs. He tells us, that when the people are infested with these apparitions, they have the bodies disinterred, which are found entire and uncorrupt ed; that they burn or cut them in pieces, particularly the heart, after which the apparitions cease and the body decays. The word Brucolac comes from the modern Greek gounos, which signifies mud, and λáxxos, a ditch, because the tombs in which these bodies are placed are generally found full of mud. I do not at present inquire whether the facts there stated are true, or merely a popular error; but it is certain that they are related by so many authors of talent and credit, and by so many ocular witnesses, that we ought at least to decide with caution. It is certain also, that this idea, true or false, is extremely ancient, and that the classical authors are full of it. When the ancients had murdered a person fraudulently, or by

• Relation de Santerini du P. Richard, ch. 18, p. 282.