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high monarchical notions are generally expressed, that the author has been frequently accused as the advocate of arbitrary principles of government. We are informed in a Latin life of Barclay, that it was a favourite work of Cardinal Richelieu, and suggested to him many of his political expedients. Cowper, the poet, recommends Argenis to his correspondents, Mr Rose and Lady Hesketh, as the most amusing romance that ever was written. "It is," says he in a letter to the former, "interesting in a high degree-richer in incident than can be imagined-full of surprises which the reader never forestalls, and yet free from all entanglement and confusion. The style, too, appears to me to be such as would not dishonour Tacitus himself." The Latinity, however, of Barclay, has, on the other hand, been severely ridiculed in the celebrated Spanish work, Fra Gerundio. "There you have the Scotchman, John Barclay, who would not say exhortatio to escape the flames, but paraenesis, which signifies the same, but is a little more of the Greek; nor obedire, but decedere, which is of more abstruse signification, and is equivocal into the bargain."

Though the beautiful fiction of Telemachus be rather an epic poem in prose, than a romance, it

seems to have led the way to several political romances, or, at least, to have nourished a taste for this species of composition.

The Cyropædia of Xenophon, which may be considered perhaps as the origin of all political romance, seems more particularly to have suggested two works, which appeared in France about the commencement of the 18th century, Les Voyages de Cyrus and Le Repos de Cyrus. Of these the former work is by the Chevalier Ramsay, the friend of Fenelon, and tutor to the sons of the Pretender. The author has chosen, as the subject of his romance, that part of the life of Cyrus, which extends from the sixteenth to the fortieth year of his age, a period of which nothing is said in the Cyropædia. During this interval, Ramsay has made his hero travel according to fancy, and by this means takes occasion to describe the manners, religion, and policy, of the countries which are visited, as also some of the principal events in their history. The Persian prince wanders through Greece, Syria, and Egypt, and in the course of his journey enjoys long philosophical and political conversations with Zoroaster, Solon, and the prophet Daniel. What is said concerning the manners of the different nations, is fortified by pas

sages from the ancient philosophers and poets. The author exhibits considerable acquaintance with chronology and history, and enters profoundly into the fables of the antients, from which he attempts to show that the leading truths of religion are to be found in the mythological systems of all nations. His work, however, is rather a treatise intended to form the mind of a young prince than a fiction. The only romantic incident is the love of Cyrus for Cassandana, which occupies a considerable part of the first book, where the usual obstacles of the prohibition of parents, and a powerful rival, are interposed to the happiness of the lovers. In 1728, a satire on Ramsay's Cyrus, entitled La Nouvelle Cyropædie, ou Reflexions de Cyrus sur ses Voyages, was printed at Amsterdam. In this work, Cyrus, having become master of Asia, complains, in six evening conversations with his confident Araspes, of the pedantic and ridiculous part he is made to act in his travels. A serious criticism was written by the Pere Vinot, to which Ramsay made a suitable reply.

Le Repos de Cyrus embraces the same period of the life of the Persian prince as the work of Ramsay, and comprehends his journey into Me dia, his chase on the frontiers of Assyria, his wars

with the king of that country, and his return to Persia.

Most of the works which come under the class of political Romances, are but little interesting in their story, and mankind have long been satisfied of the folly of speculations concerning perfect systems of government. Indeed, in a history of fiction, there are only two kinds of compositions, which seem entitled to minute analysis; first, those which, though comparatively imperfect, have been the earliest models of a peculiar series of romances; and secondly, the most perfect production of the order to which it belongs-the patriarch, as it were, of the family, and most illustrious of the descendants. In many instances, however, the most distinguished work of the class is so well known and popular, that any detail concerning it might appear tiresome and superfluous. This is peculiarly the case with the Telemaque, which has been familiar to every one almost from childhood; and accordingly, it is more suitable to analyze the next most perfect specimen, which, in the class of political romances, happens not to be very generally known. In this view it may be proper to give some account of the romance of

SETHOS.

This work, which was first published in 1731, was written by the Abbé Terrasson, a Savant, who in his eloge, pronounced by D'Alembert, is represented as at the head of the practical philosophers of his age. "Calm, simple, and candid, he was so far," says D'Alembert, " from soliciting favours, that he did not know the names of the persons by: whom they were distributed. More a philosopher than Democritus, he did not even deign to laugh at the absurdities of his contemporaries; and equally indifferent about others and himself, he seemed to contemplate from the planet Saturn the Earth which we inhabit."

The author of Sethos feigns, in his preface, that his work is translated from the Greek MS. of a writer who probably lived in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. After bestowing due praise on the Telemaque, and perhaps more than due on the Voy

ages de Cyrus, he observes, that his romance does not merely contain, like these works, a course of education, but the practical application of its principles to the varied events of life. Another object of Terrasson was to exhibit whatever has been

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