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tone, on which he was then employed, lay on it.

His example and his difcourfes convince me that he, who paffionately defires glory, is fure in the end to obtain it. The wifh must not be a momentary but an every day emotion. Buffon faid to me on this fubject a very ftriking thingone of thofe fpeeches which may be the cause of a great man hereafter: "Genius is only a greater aptitude to patience." Obferve, that patience must be applied to every thing patience in finding out one's line, patience in refifting the motives that divert, and patience in bear ing what would difcourage a common

man.

"I burn

is very orderly and exact.
(faid he to me) every thing which I
do not intend to ufe: not a paper will
be found at my death.”

4

I refume the account of his day. At nine, breaktaft is brought to him in the ftudy. It confifts of two glaffes of wine and a bit of bread. He writes for about two hours after breakfast and then returns to the house. He does not love to hurry over his dinner; during which he gives vent to all the gaieties and trifles which fuggeft themfelves while at table. He loves to talk fmuttily; and the effect of his jokes and laughter are heightened by the natural seriousness of his age and calmness of his character: but he is often fo coarfe as to compel the ladies to withdraw. He talks of himself with pleafure, and like a critic. He faid to me, "I learn every day to write; in my later works there is infinitely more perfection than in my former. I often have my works read to me, and this moftly puts me upon fome improvement. There are, however, paffages which I cannot improve." In this openness there is a fomething interefting, original, antique, attractive.

Speaking of Rouffeau, he faid, "I loved him much until I read his Confeffions, and then I ceased to esteem him. I cannot fancy the spirit of the man; an unusual process happened to me with refpect to him; after his death I loft my reverence for him."

I will mention fome facts of Buffon. He would fometimes return from the fuppers of Paris at two in the morning, when he was young. A boy was ordered to call him at five, however late he returned; and, in cafe of his lingering in bed, to drag him out on the floor. He used to work till fix at night. "I had at that time (said he) a mistress of whom I was very fond: but I would never allow myself to go to her till fix, even at the risk of finding her gone out." He thus diftributes his day. At five o'clock he rifes, dreffes, powders, dic-, tates letters, and regulates his houfehold matters. At fix he goes to the forefaid ftudy, which is a furlong distant from the house, at the extremity of the garden. There are gates to open and terraces to clim by the way. When not engaged in writing, he paces up and down the furrounding avenues. No one may intrude on his retreat. He often reads over what he has written, and then lays it by for a time. "It is im"faid he to me, portant, 66 never to be in a hurry review your compofitions His confidence is almost wholly enoften, and every time with a fresh eye, groffed by a Mademoiselle Bleffeau: a and you will always find that they can woman now forty years old, well-made, be mended." When he has made many who has been pretty, and has lived with corrections in a manufcript, he employs him about twenty years. She is very an amanuenfis to tranfcribe it, and then attentive to him, manages in the house, he corrects again. He told M. de and is hated by the fervants. Madame that the Etudes de la Nature de Buffon, who has long been dead, were written over eighteen times. He could not endure this woman.

S

This great man is very much of a goffip, and, for at least an hour in the day, will make his hair-dreffer and valets tell all the scandal of the village. He knows every minute event that furrounds him.

1

She

adored

adored her husband, and is faid to have been very jealous of him.

His works demonftrate materialism; yet they were printed at the royal prefs. My early volumes appeared, (faid he) at the fame time with the Spirit of Laws. We were teazed by the Sorbonne, both Montefquieu and I, and affailed by the critics. The prefident was quite furious: “What shall you anfwer?" faid he to me. 66 Nothing at all, prefident," replied I. He could not understand fuch cold bloodedness.

I was reading to Buffon one evening fome verfes of Thomas on the immortality of the foul." Pardieu, (faid he,) religion would be a noble prefent, if all that were true." He criticifed thefe lines feverely he is inexorable as to ftyle, and does not love poetry. "Never write verses, (faid he,) I could have made them as well as others: but I foon abandoned a courfe in which reafon marches in fetters: fhe has chains enough already, without looking about for new ones.'

"

Buffon willingly quits his grounds, and walks about the village with his fon among the peafantry. At thefe times he always appears in a laced coat. He is a flickler about drefs, and fcolds his fon for wearing a frock-coat. I was aware of this, and had taken care to arrive in an embroidered waistcoat and laced cloaths. My precaution fucceed ed wonderfully: he fhewed me repeatedly to his fon. "There's a GENTLE MAN for you!" He loves to be called Monfieur le Comte.

ftone, which fufpends his employments. While I was at his houfe he had acute pains, fhut himfelf up in his chamber, would fcarcely fee his fon, and not his fifter.

He admitted me repeatedly. His hair was always drest; and he retained his fine calm look. He complained mildly of his ill health, and bore his pangs with a fmile. He opened his whole foul to me : made me read to him the treatife on the loadstone, and, as he liftened, would reform the phrafes. Sometimes he would fend for a volume of his works, and requeft me to read aloud the finer efforts of ftyle; fuch as the foliloquy of the first man, the defcription of an Arabian defert in the article camel, and a still finer piece of painting (in his opinion) in the article Kamichi. Sometimes he would explain to me his fyftem of the formation of the univerfe, the genesis of beings, the internal moulds, &c. Sometimes he would recite whole pages of his compofitions; for he knows them almost all by art. He liftens gladly to objections, difcuffes them, and furrenders to them when his judgment is con vinced.

Of natural history and of ftyle he loves to talk, especially of the latter. No one better understands the theory of ftyle, unless it be Beccaria, who did not poffefs the practice. "The ftyle is the man, (faid he :) our poets have no ftyle; they are coerced by the rules of metre, which makes slaves of them.” How do you like Thomas? I asked. "Pretty well, (faid he,) but he is stiff After having rifen from dinner, he and bloated." And Rouffeau ?" His pays little attention either to his family flyle is better: but he has all the faults or his guefts. He fleeps for an hour in of bad education, interjection, exclahis room; then takes a walk alone; mation, interrogation for ever.' Faafter which he will perhaps come in and vour me with your leading ideas on converse, or fit at his defk and look o. style. They are recorded in my Difver papers that are brought for his opi- courfe at the Academy :-however, nion. He has lived thus these fifty two things form ftyle, invention and years. To fome one who expreffed expreffion. Invention depends on paaftonishment at his great reputation, he tience: contemplate your fubject long: replied," Have not I paffed fifty years it will gradually unrol and unfold-till at my desk?" At nine he goes to bed. a fort of electric fpark convulfes for a He is at prefent afflicted with the moment the brain, and spreads down

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to the very heart a glow of irritation.
Then are come the luxuries of genius,
the true hours for production and com-
pofition-hours fo delightful, that I
have spent twelve and fourteen fuccef
fively at my writing-defk, and ftill been
in a ftate of pleasure. It is for this
gratification, yet more than for glory,
that I have toiled. Glory comes if it
can, and mostly does come. This plea-
fure is
greater if you
confult no books:
I have never confulted authors, till I
had nothing left to fay of my own."

and was no mafter of ftyle." He thought higher of Leibnitz than of Bacon. He fpoke of Montefquieu's genius, but thought his ftyle too ftudied, and wanting evolution.

This, however, (faid he)

was a natural confequence of his frame
of body.
I knew him well; he was
almost blind, and very impatient. If
he had not clipt his ideas into short fen-
tences, he would have loft his period be-
fore the amanuenfis had taken it down."

He fpoke to me of the paflion for ftudy, and of the happinefs which it I asked him what is the beft method beftows. He told me that he had voof forming one's felf. He anfwered, luntarily fecluded himself from fociety; "Read only the capital works, read that at one time he courted the compathem repeatedly, and read thofe in e- ny of learned men, expecting to acquirevery department of tafte and fcience; much from their converfation, but he for the framers of fuch works are, as had discovered that little of value could Cicero fays, kin-fouls, and the views be fo gleaned, and that, in order to of one may always be applied with ad- pick up a phrafe, an evening was ill vantage in fome very different branch fquandered: that labour was become a by another. Be not afraid of the task. want to him, and he hoped to confeCapital works are fcarce. I know but crate to it much of the three or four five great geniuses-Newton, Bacon, years of life which probably remained Leibnitz, Montefquieu, and myfelf. New- to him; that he feared not death-that ton, (continued he,) may have difco- the hope of an immortal renown was the vered an important principle, but he most powerful of death-bed confolafpent his life in frivolous calculations, tions.

ANECDOTES OF PERSONS CONNECTED WITH THE
FRENCH REVOLUTION.
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 513.)

MARAT.
TERMED by Dumourier, the Medu-
fa's head of the Revolution, and whofe
brutal wishes, and barbarous actions,
have been eminently differviceable to
the cause of liberty throughout Europe,
was not, as is generally imagined, a
Frenchman. He was born at Neuf-
chatel, the fovereignty of which, ever
fince the diet of 1707, has appertained
to the house of Brandenburg. He was
therefore a Pruffian.

god! It has fince been removed to a more obfcure fituation, and his character is now juftly odious in France. To the Royalifts and Girondifts, this man was equally deteftable; and the former, as ufual, expreffed their joy, by means of puns, &c. immediately after his death. CHARLOTTE CORDET.

The daughter of a man, attached by a place to the court. The demoiselle Cordet was zealous for freedom; rich, young, beautiful-a woman-fhe was, It is well known that he was a cow- nevertheless, a republican. An enthuard, who "could fpeak daggers, but fiaft, but not a fanatic; fhe poffeffed the not use them," yet it is not of fuch ge- warmth of the one character, without neral notoriety, that his hideous coun- the extravagance of the other. At the tenance was the exact counterpart of place of execution, fhe uttered not a his heart. His body was placed in the fingle world. Her face ftill poffeffed French pantheon; for under the mo- an heroic calmnefs; and the feemed narchy of Robespierre, Marat was a confcious of future glory, and approach

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Vol. 58. ing happiness. Although filent, her erected by one of the most celebrated gefticulations were, however, eloquent- architects of that day; the marble busts ly impreffive; for the frequently placed and bas-reliefs, were cut by the chiffel her hand on her heart, and feemed to of Coufton; the statues, by Adam and fay, "I rejoice in having exterminated Falconet; the paintings are by Vanloo ; a monfter !" and as to the gardens, they were laid out by M. de Life, the Capability Brown of France.

Brutus and Cordet both equally struck for liberty, and, alas! neither of them was happy enough to fecure it; but the execution of Robespierre feems to have effected, for modern France, what the punishment of Antony, and the banishment of Octavius, could not perhaps have produced in degenerate Rome.

To this woman, Greece would have erected ftatues; Rome, temples. France may fome day infert her name in the calendar of her martyrs ;—the ancients would have placed her among their gods! Letter to her Father on the evening before her trial.

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My dear refpected Father, "Peace is about to reign in my dear native country, for Marat is no more! Be comforted, and bury my memory in, eternal oblivion. I am to be tried to-morrow, the 17th, at feven o'clock in the morning. I have lived long I have lived long enough, as I have achieved a glorious exploit. I put you under the protection of Barbaroux and his colleagues, in cafe you should be molefted. Let not my family blush at my fate; for remember, according to Voltaire,

"That crimes beget difgrace, and not the

fcaffold."

July 16. 1793.

C. CORDET.

MESDAMES. The aunts of Louis XVI. were the first of the royal family that took the alarm, and emigrated from France. Belle Vue, the villa, or rather palace, in which they refided, was one of the most beautiful in the kingdom, being built by their father, Louis XV. for one of his many miftreffes. It is fituated on a rifing ground, between Seve and Meudon, near the great road leading from Paris to Verfailles; the river Seine winds along the bottom of the hill, and, by its ferpentine courfe, feems as if defirous to linger in fo charming a neighbourhood. The building was

It was here that Pompadour, revelling in the wealth of plundered provinces, prefided over the revels of Comus, and endeavoured to vary the pleasures, and diffipate the fatiety of her royal lover. At one time, the would furprife him with a theatrical exhibition, in which fhe appeared as Venus, while he was the favourite Adonis of the drama: at another, by a kind of candlelight entertainment, on the recovery of his fon, in which an illuminated dolphin, by a happy pun, reprefented the heir-apparent of the monarchy; certain fiery monsters, his late difeafe; and an Apollo, with a torch in his hand, the god of phyfic, by whose intervention he was recovered.

On the acceffion of Louis XVI. the daughters of the former monarch were allowed to occupy this enchanting fpot, formerly the refidence of a father's miftrefs, and the fcene of their expensive gallantries. Unlike that father, in every thing but in good-nature, they were constantly at the feet of their confeffor, or their crucifix, and the spot which had fo often blufhed with the debauchery of its former, now edified the pious, by the devotion of the prefent owners.

At the approach of the ftorm, they repaired to the centre of catholicism for fhelter, and now share at Rome the benedictions of the Pope, the prayers of the Abbe Maruy, lately made a bishop, by Pius VI. and the palace of Cardinal Bernis, heretofore ambaffador from France to the Holy See.

a

Good, charitable, pious, perhaps to excefs, they, in character, exhibit clofe affinity to their amiable mother, the daughter of the unfortunate Staniflaus, king of Poland :-there is a family likenefs, even in their misfortunes! (To be continued.) ·

ON

ON THE NATURE AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE SUN
AND FIXED STARS.
CONCLUDED FROM PAGE 522.

August 26, 1792. I examined the fun with feveral powers, from go to 500. It appears evidently that the black 1pots are the opaque ground, or body of the fun; and that the luminous part is an atmosphere, which, being interrupted or broken, gives us a tranfient glimpfe of the fun itself. My feven-feet reflector, which is in high perfection, reprefents the fpots, as it always used to do, much depreffed below the furface of the luminous part.

September 9, 1792. I found one of the dark spots in the fun drawn pretty near the preceding edge. In its neighbourhood I faw a great number of elevated bright places, making various figures: I fhall call them faculæ, with Hevelius; but without affigning to this term any other meaning than what it will hereafter appear ought to be given to it. I fee these faculæ extended, on the preceding fide, over about one fixth part of the fun; but fo far from refembling torches, they appear to me like the fhrivelled elevations upon a dried apple, extended in length, and most of them are joined together, making waves, or waving lines.

By fome good views in the afternoon, I find that the rest of the surface of the fun does not contain any faculæ, except a few on the following, and equatoral part of the fun. Toward the north and fouth I fee no facule; there is all over the fun a great unevennefs in the furface, which has the appearance of a mixture of fmall points of an unequal light; but they are evidently an uns evennefs or roughness of high and low parts.

February 23, 1794. By an experiment I have juft now tried, I find it confirmed that the fun cannot be fo diftinctly viewed with a small aperture and faint darkening glaffes, as with a large aperture and stronger ones; this latter is the method I always use.

One of the black spots on the preced-
VOL. LVIIL

ing margin, which was greatly below the furface of the fun, had, next to it, a protuberant lump of fhining matter, a little brighter than the rest of the fun.

About all the spots, the fhining mat ter feems to have been disturbed; and is uneven, lumpy, and zig-zagged in an irregular manner.

I call the fpots black, not that they are entirely fo, but merely to distinguish them; for there is not one of them, to day, which is not partly, or entirely, covered over with whitish and unequally bright nebulofity, or cloudinefs. This, in many of them, comes near to an extinction of the fpot; and in others, feems to bring on a fubdivifion.

After ftating many fimilar obferva tions, regrading the appearance and difappearance of thefe fpots, the Doctor goes on as follows: It will now be easy to bring the refult of these observations into a very narrow compafs. That the fun has a very extenfive atmosphere cannot be doubted; and that this atmof phere confifts of various elaftic fluids, that are more or lefs lucid and tranfparent, and of which the lucid one is that which furnishes us with light, feems alfo to be fully established by all the phænomena of its fpots, of the faculæ, and of the lucid furface itself. There is no kind of variety in these appearances but what may be accounted for with the greatest facility, from the con-> tinual agitation which we may easily conceive must take place in the regions of fuch extenfive elastic fluids.

It will be neceffary, however, to be a little more particular, as to the manner in which I fuppofe the lucid fluid of the fun to be generated in its atmosphere. An analogy that may be drawn from the generation of clouds in our own atmosphere, feems to be a very proper one, and full of inftruction. Our clouds are probably decompofitions of fome of the elaftic fluids of the atmosphere it felf, when such natural causes, as in this 40

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