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a falfe erudition is layished to revive the hypothefes of the fabulous ages, and to oppofe them, with a laughable confidence, to facts efta. blished by historical monuments; and they are not afhamed of fetting the hypotheses above the facts, because the facts are in favour of religion, and the hypothefes in favour of atheism. Journalists, who call them felves philofophers and not Jacobins, denounce, as enemies to liberty, all thofe who believe in the neceffity of a religion, and who have the courage to profefs the religion of their fathers; they fend them back,

which, when he created man, gave him every thing (to ufe the expreffion of Voltaire), and without whom nothing that exifts can poffibly be accounted for. It was referved for an atheist of the prefent day to retort the reproach, and to call thofe ungrateful and baftard children who refufe to acknowledge nature for their mother. It was referved for a philofopher of the eighteenth century to be ignorant, that nature is an abstract term, which, in its most comprehenfive fenfe, can only fignify the totality of existing beings, and that confequently nature cannot produce any thing, not being itself a fub ftance, and only reprefenting to the mind the abftract idea of beings confidered in their univerfality, Thus, to render an abftration the common mother of all mankind, and to accufe men of being ungrateful to an abstraction, of being the baftards of an abstraction, betrays an excess of ignorance and folly, of which a mere Tyro in logic would be incapable. If M. Dupuis was ferious when he wrote this phrafe, we must conclude that atheists neceffarily become mad the moment they attempt to reafon on their fyftem; if not, it is clear that he acted like many other philofophers, who have faid to themfelves, Let us conftantly rifk whatever is moft abfurd in impiety. The impiety will cover the abfurdity in the eyes of fools, who conftitute the greatest part of fociety; and men of information will laugh, and be filent.' This mode of calculation, which for a long time was fpecious, may chance to be erroneous now. When folly has generated crimes, we ought to do more than defpife her."

The Monfieur Dupuis, whom the author here attacks, is, we fuppofe, the fame man who was formerly Royal Cenfor, and Member of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres. After the Revolu tion he took his feat in the National Convention, as member for the Department of the Seine and Oife. He has fince been appointed Profeffor to the Central Schools, and Member of the National Institute, in the department of Antiquities. He tranflated in 1774 thofe plays of Sophocles which had not been tranflated before; and in 1777 he published the Tranflation of a Greek work of Anthemius on Mechanical paradoxes, with notes. He has published fome other works, of different kinds, but that which has extorted the cenfures of M. de la Harpe appeared in 1795, in 4 vols. 40. and 12 Sro, and was entitled, "Original of all Worship, or Univerfal Religion."--Reviewer,

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with a most noble difdain, and a moft ingenious farcafm, to the fourteenth century. Paltry rhymfters, who wish to be witty, cannot conceive it poffible that any body should acknowledge a Providence, and reprefent fuch an idea as fo manifeftly ridiculous, that it needs. only be mentioned to be laughed at." (PP. 99-105.)

We are furprized that this tract has never been translated into English. The fame fource which affords the poifon fhould be made to fupply the antidote.

ART. IX. Lettres d'un Voyageur à L'Abbé Barruel, ou Nouveaux Documens pour fes Memoires, nouveaux Decouvertes faites en Allemagne, Anecdotes fur quelques grands Perfonnages de ce Pays, Chronique Scandaleufe, &c. i. e. Letters from a Traveller to the Abbé Barruel; or, New Documents for his Memoirs, new Difcoveries made in Germany, Anecdotes of fome great Perfonages in that Country, Scandalous Chronicle, &c. 8vo. Pp. 44. Price Is. Dulau, Deboffe. London.

1799.

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ETTERS from a traveller cannot but remind us of the ftrange privilege which travellers in general are reproached with affuming, whether juftly or not, it is not our province to decide. When ftrong and extraordinary facts appear fanctioned only by the authority of an anonymous writer, they certainly come in a queftionable thape, and great caution should be used in the talk of analysis and comparifon, before implicit credit be given them. We have exercised fuch caution in our examination of thefe Letters, but have not been able to decide what degree of credit is due to them. Some of the facts, however, do not reft on the ipfe dixit,of the author, and these are sufficiently curious to excite attention. We must obferve, however, before we proceed any farther, that the book has been fuppreffed by the author, on account of a most scandalous anecdote which it contains of the old King of Pruffia, Frederic the Great; and, indeed, if the whole of the Scandalous Chronicle had been omitted, we fhould have been much better pleased with the performance. The Letters, purged, no doubt, of all their excrefcences, and confiderably enlarged by the addition of a variety of important facts and documents, as we underftand, are to appear again early in the enfuing winter, in the form and fize of an octavo volume.

In his first Letter, dated June 1ft. 1799, the author tells us, that he was in Germany when the first volume of Barruel's Memoirs was published, but that, from the great pains taken

to

to prevent its circulation on the continent, he was unable to procure it till he returned to England not long fince. He then expreffes his extreme furprize on perufing it, at the great efforts made by the Abbé to develope the plan of an anti-chriftian confpiracy, when he had learned full as much tout autant) from a book published upwards of eighteen years ago. This book was the Private Life of Louis XV. which has ever been confidered as a moft contemptible libel, in which truth, morality, and religion are treated with equal contempt. He certainly quotes fome ftrong paffages which fupport his affertion; and fufficiently prove that the writer of that Life faw the views and exertions of the philofophifts in the same point of view as the Abbé. Whether the latter took any of his ideas and opinions from the former, we cannot pretend to fay, but the libellous attack of the biographer upon the Dukes D'Argenfon and De Choifeul, and the inferences drawn from the conduct of the latter, refpecting the fuppreffion of the Jefuits, would afford fome fanction to fuch a fuppofition.

In the fecond epiftle, we are told that the author, being at tea, at the house of a lady of quality at Weimar, on the 19th of Sept. 1795, the converfation turned on French politics, when the lady told him that, fo early as the beginning of Aug. 1789, fhe had received a letter from a correfpondent at Paris, in which the leading events of the revolution were foretold ;that the at first had thought that her correfpondent had loft his fenfes, but, fince the verification of his predictions, fhe had kept his letter as a curiofity. She gave the author a copy of it, which we shall tranflate for the gratification of our readers.

"I am not the only one who has fuffered by these changes; but the new state of things is fo flattering that paft misfortunes will foon be forgotten.

"The loan of 30 millions was proclaimed yesterday, and is already filled. This is a matter of fome importance to thofe who, like myself, have vested their property in French fecurities; for it proves that there is still money to be had. The conftitution will be ready next week; then troops will be ordered to march and put a stop to the fires. As foon as that shall be finifhed, the clergy will be attacked. Not only the property of the monks, but alfo that of the bishops and archbishops will be confifcated. When this bufinefs is fettled, the property of the nobles will be feized, and they will be made to fuffer feverely. All this being accomplished, a new and great revolution will be atchieved without any farther effort. I can, even now, announce it as certain. The chriftian religion will be abolished throughout France. The plan of a new worship is already drawn up; but it will not be proclaimed until all their riches fhall be taken from the clergy; for when they have not a fol loft they will not be able to

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make any farther refiftance. The whole of the new worship confifte of public amufements, harangues to be delivered on certain folennities, &c. in a word, it will be a kind of opera. This worship, at leaft, will be more amufing than the chriftian worship.

"The lawyers and attornies will alfo be blown up, and, from this moment, juftice will be adminiftered gratis. Law fuits will henceforth be carried on withont expence; the state will pay all.

"Every thing goes on as fast as poffible, and in two months from this time the whole bufinefs will be done."

This letter was written in German, and the original is fubjoined. Our readers may, perhaps, be inclined to ask, how a letter fo extraordinary could lay fo long concealed? and why the author himself, who appears to have a communicative dif pofition, fhould have kept it by him four years without communicating it to the public? The lady to whom the letter was addreifed, and from whom he received the copy, is stated to be the Baronefs de Sn, widow to the Grand Equerry of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar and Eifenach. But if he with to have it received as an authentic document, we advise him, by all means, to fubjoin not only the lady's name (about which, having thus plainly defignated her, there can be no delicacy) but alfo the name of her correfpondent. He applies the different parts of the letter to the fubfequent events of the revolution, and fhews that they perfectly correfpond.

The author's remarks on the ftate of Germany and of German literature, are extremely curious; but, in the interesting anecdotes which he relates, the names of the perfons concerned are wanting, as well as his own, to establish their authenticity. He obferves, that ever fince Frederic the Second firft introduced the principles of philofophifm into his dominions, they became fashionable throughout Germany; and hence ninety-nine out of every hundred German writers adopt the revolutionary jargon of the French; and if any man were to fet about feriously to prove to them that their principles were fatal to public manners, and to the peace of individuals and of empires, they would confider him "as a narrow-minded being, as a monk, as a barbarian." All Germany would laugh at a prince, who fhould patronize the arts and feiences and yet condemn philofophifm. Some princes fuffer their fubjects to broach democratical opinions fo long as they do not affect their conduct; fo that to excite ten thoufand to rebellion is no crime in the eyes of thefe modern Solons and Lycurgufes, except the perfon exciting them be an active rebel himself! Blind, ignorant, infatuated men, who thus tamely fuffer a gulph of deftruction to be prepared into which ye muft, fooner or later, inevitably fall!

The

The author obferves on this fubject that, "a French democrat foon becomes impatient of the yoke, and commits fome folly that betrays him; but the cold phlegmatic difpofition of the Germans, on the contrary, and the calmnefs of their imagination allow them to combine the moft daring opinions with the most fervile conduct; hence it is, that the great mafs of combustible matter, which has for so many years been collecting under the political edifice of Germany, has not yet damaged the fabric." Many of these princes, we are told, have been thus led to become members of the fect of the illuminati, though the leaders of that fect have taken care to let them no farther into the fecret than their immediate interest required.

Whoever dares to combat thefe principles are ftigmatized as blockheads, monks, and perfecutors, by the numerous, or rather, innumerable, horde of Jacobin fcribblers, with which Germany abounds. The author affirms that there are "upwards of 8,000 writers and fcribblers of all defcriptions, who continually direct and lay fiege to the public opinion in that unhappy country; that feven or eight thoufand new works, at leaft, fwell the annual catalogues, at the fair of Leipzig; and that, according to the calculations of a German writer, which he confiders as very moderate, and which I read over five or fix times before I could believe my eyes, there are about three millions of volumes, great and finall, upon all fubjects, circulated every year through Germany, ninety-nine in every hundred of which are produced by the fophifts, freemafons, illuminati, and the whole philofophical crew.'t The dangers to which Germany is expofed from this destructive army of fcribblers, appear to have made little impreffion on the princes of the empire, who have been unaccountably led to believe them innocuous.

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"Thus after the Chevalier Zimmerman had once more unmasked, in 1788, in his Defence of Frederic the Great,' the confpiracy of the illuminati, thoufands of publications inftantaneously appeared in juftification of the fect, in which he was, termed, a blockhead, grovelling in fuperftition, and an enemy to that knowledge which more enlightened men than himself wifhed to diffufe.' (Life of Zimmerman.)-It was by fimilar manoeuvres that Hofman was obliged, after the death of Leopold, to give up his Journal; that he was deprived of his appointment of profeffor, and compelled to quit his native country, Laftly, Sir, it is known that a fuit was inftituted

* See the Learned Germany' of the Aulic Counsellor Meufel,” An old expreffion of Linguet and the Abbé de Fontenay."

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