rabs, a wild banditti who live in tents, and fupport themfelves by hunting and by plunder. The Morefcoes, unarmed, and incumbered with their wives and children, were often robbed by these barbarians, who came upon them in numerous bodies, amounting fometimes to five or fix thoufand men; and, as often as the Morefcoes attempted, with ftones and flings, their only arms, to make refiftanee, put great numbers of them to the fword. Still greater numbers perished of fatigue and hunger, joined to the inclemencies of the weather, from which they had no means of shelter, durring their tedious journey through the African defarts, to Moitagan, Algiers, and other places, where they hoped to be permitted to take up their refidence. Few of them ever arrived at these places. Of fix thousand, who fet out together from Conastal, a town in the neighbourhood of Oran, with an intention of going to Algiers, a fingle perfon only, of the name of Pedralvi, furvived the difafters to which they were expofed; and of the whole hundred and forty thoufand, who were at this time tranfported to Africa, there is ground to believe, from the concurring teftimony of perfons who had accefs to know the truth, that more than a hundred thousand men, women, and children, fuffered death in its most hideous forms, within a few months after their expulfion from Valentia *.” Those who endeavoured to defend themfelves at home, or to efcape by difperfing themfelves amongst the woods and rocks, met with no better fate. They were cut to pieces, without mercy or dif tinction fhewn either to age or fex. "Upwards of 3,000 perifhed," fays Dr.Watfon. "The number of thofe who had furrendered was 22,000, who were all foon after transported to Africa, except the children under feven years of age, whom the foldiers were permitted to fell for flaves." Such as lay hid had a price put upon their heads, and were hunted down by the foldiers like fo many wild beafts. Sully in his Memoirs fpeaks fomewhat at large of this tranfaction, and mentions the emiffaries Henry the Fourth of France fent into Spain to learn the true state and strength of the Morefcoes. The views which that monarch had with regard to Spain at that period would have been exceedingly gratified, could he have given the Morefcoes any effectual fuccour, or enabled them to contend with the Spaniards. But he found them, both from their local fituation in the country, (namely on the coaft, where they would have wanted a fleet to protect them) and from their peaceable habits of life, without forts or strong places in their poffeffion, incapable of that affiftance he would have wished to have given. What Sully fays touching this bufinefs is not noticed by Dr. Watfon; but whether from his not thinking it material, or that he had not finifhed all he would have faid on the fubject had he lived, we cannot tell. The expulfion of the Morefcoes took place the latter end of the year 1609. The two remaining books are the production of the editor. Fonfeca, Gonfalez Davila, p. 146. The first, after touching upon the views which Henry the Fourth of France entertained refpecting a general fettlement of Europe on the ruins of the house of Auftria his death-the fucceffion of his fon *—and the intermarriages + betwixt the two crowns of France and Spain, proceeds to treat of the war betwixt Charles Emanuel Duke of Savoy, and the court of Spain. The origin of this war was the Duke of Savoy's claiming the fovereignty of Montferrat upon the death of Francis Gonzaga Duke of Maatua, in 1612. The energy and conduct of Charles Emanuel during this war with the Spaniards, (which, after three years, terminated honourable for the duke in the treaty of Afti) is fet forth in an interefting manner by the editor, from whom we fhall beg leave to lay before our readers an extract, in which he has given the character of the Duke of Savoy in a marked and fpirited manner. "Charles Emanuel did not difgrace, but, on the contrary, added luftre to the dignity of his birth. Nature, which had formed this prince of a weakly conftitution of body, adorned his foul with a fplendid variety of talents and virtues; and thefe the parental care of Philibert, renowned for his victory over the French at St. Quintin, exalted and matured by a learned and liberal education. The writings of antiquity, fo full of heroic actions and rapid conquefts, nourished the natural ardour of his mind, and inspired an emulation of the ancient heroes of Italy. Together with that intrepidity of fpirit which delights in purfuing great defigns, he poffeffed in an eminent degree thofe qualities which are requifite in order to carry them into execution; political conduct, and military prowefs. His courage was not of that calm and equal kind which is connected with firmnefs of nerves, and which characterizes the warriors of the North. But, being derived from that vigour of imagination, and fenfibility of frame peculiar to fouthern climates, it was ardent and impetuous. His genius alfo, like that of the warmer climates, was fertile even to excefs, and prone to fubtlety and refinement. From a temper fo fanguine, and an imagination fo luxuriant, he derived an elasticity of spirit that rofe under misfortunes; whence, though fometimes defeated, and often difappointed, he was never difcouraged. His refources were endless: for there could not be a conjuncture in which the fuperiority of his genius could not find fome favourable opportunity of practising on the paffions, and managing the hopes, and fears, and follies of men. So various were his firatagems of policy and of war, that the moft penetrating of his cotemporaries profeffed themselves unable to form any probable conjecture concerning his defigns. Something, however, of the vaff unbounded characterized his cons dut, the ardour of his inventive genius engaging him not unfre *Lewis XIII. ↑ Elizabeth of France and the Prince of Spain, and Lewis XIII, and Anne of Auftria. quently quently in projects beyond his utmoft power to accomplish. Nor were the powers of his capacious mind wholly abforbed in fchemes of ambition. Whatever was elegant or great touched his foul, and he was prone to the pleasures of fociety and love. He was a friend to men of letters, a patron of all the arts, an enthufiaftic admirer and bountiful rewarder of merit of every kind. And the greatnefs of his mind was fo happily tempered with benignity and grace, that the engaging affability of his noble deportment alleviated in the breafts of his fubjects the hardships which they fuffered through his reftlefs ambition. On the whole, it is difficult to conceive that qualities fo oppofite should co-exift in the fame perfon: fo great boldness with fuch deep defign; fuch loftinefs of fpirit with fuch fweetnefs of demeanour; fuch ardour of mind with fo much fubtlety, and fuch profound diffimulation +." If any thing, the editor is perhaps too diffufe in his ftyle; and appears more fo when compared with Dr. Watson, who, while he is fufficiently copious as to his facts, is in his manner of relating them wonderfully plain and compressed. This book concludes with an account of the Spanish confpiracy against Venice; the chief inftruments of which were the Marquis of Bedmar, Marquis of Villa Franca, and the Duke d'Offuna. From what particular accident this moft extraordinary confpiracy failed, the hiftorians who have wrote upon it, are not at all agreed. But a fcheme, although ingenious and plaufible in the abftract, yet fo complex in its nature and operation as the plot in queftion, and requiring fuch a nice concurrence of circumftances, cannot be faid to have threatened the ftate of Venice with fuch imminent danger, as the writers of that day feem to be impreffed with. The laft book, after relating the fall of the Duke of Lerma, prime minifter of Spain, and the tragical end of his favourite the Count of Oliva, proceeds to give an account of the war which originated from the revolted Bohemians chufing Frederic, elector palatine of the Rhine, for their king, in preference to the houfe of Austria, and which may be faid to have finally terminated in the peace of Weftphalia. The book concludes with a very minute account of the death of Philip the Third. * Vastus animus immoderata, incredibilia, nimis alta femper cupiebat. Salluft. In this fingular character there is not a trait unfupported by the testimony of cotemporary hiftorians, who, all of them, mention this prince with an admiration which could not have been excited but by the most amazing talents. See Bellum Sabaudicum, &c. Alfonfo Lofchi; Battiftia Nani; Siri Memoire recondite; Le Mercure François; Hiftoire de la Regence de Marie de Medicis, &c. Sic. lic of letters, and has left him more than an ordinary reputation to fupport. The prefent work now under our confideration, and which is entitled, Differtations Moral and Critical, confifts of feparate and diftinct effays, which were delivered by Dr. Beattie in a courfe of lectures, given by him in his official character, as Profeffor of Moral Philofophy in the univerfity of Aberdeen. This Dr. Beattie premifes in his preface, in order to account for that degree of familiarity, and diffusenefs of manner and expreffion, which may here and there occur to the reader, and which in fome, but in fome only, of the effays, we must fay are certainly very obfervable. Perhaps no fubject requires, or becomes, a more cultivated ftyle, or a greater nicety of arrangement, than difquifitions of the nature of thefe in queftion: and when fuch a perfon, as the author of the Effay on Truth, gratifies the public with his labours, and upon fubjects, of which he is allowed to be, and is, in a particular manner the mafter, we wish and we expect to find fomething, as well in ftyle as in matter, as near perfection as the fubject to be difcuffed will allow of. For from the hands of no perfon has this fpecies of philofophical criticism ever come in fo favourable a fhape as from Dr. Beattie. Independent of the learning and taste with which fubjects of this nature are difcuffed by him, there is a benevolence, a philanthropy, and a strain of morality, which runs through all his works, which muft ever endear him to all honeft and wife men. But to return to the work before the difference between memory and imagination, and of memory and imagination refpectively. In treating of the difference between memoryand imagination, he confutes what has been fufficiently confuted before, the theory "that all our livelier ideas are referred to memory, and our fainter to imagination."-He next proceeds to the phænomena and laws of memory, and therein confiders the importance of an habitual attention. "The act of memory," he says, " is attention. Without this one reads and hears to no purpose. And we fhall be more or lefs profited by what we read or hear, as the fubjects we read or hear are more or lefs important.' The different powers and degrees of memory in different perfons are next confidered, and the methods of improving the natural state of that faculty by attention, recollection, writing, conver fation, &c.-he advifes at the same time, and gives direction with refpect to delivering fermons from memory. He concludes this fub. ject with remarks on the memory of brutes, and draws certain inferences therefrom refpecting the dignity of our nature. With regard to the real extent of memory in the brute creation it is difficult, nay, perhaps impoffible, to determine. Dr. Beattie himself, in this refpect, has left the fubject pretty much where he found it. That there is an inexpreffible diftance between the intellectual faculties of man and thofe of the brute creation, who can doubt? But to endeavour to afcertain the precife limits of thofe of either, is neither a very eafy, or very necef- fary enquiry.. The treatife on imagination un-.. doubtedly doubtedly difplays a great deal of learning and ability on the fubject on which it is written; but it is not arranged in a form fo regular and compreffed as perhaps becomes a fyftematic performance.-Had Dr. Beattie originally intended his labours for the public, we fhould probably, in this part of his work, have found a more fcrupulous at tention to method. After giving a general account of imagination, he proceeds to treat of the principles of the affociation of ideas, as connected with that faculty; these he refolves into refemblance, contrariety, nearness of fituation, the re lation of caufe and effect, and cuftom and habit. Speaking of the affociating principle of habit or cuftom, Dr. Beattie is led to investigate the origin of our ideas on beauty, upon this principle. Or, as he expreffes it himself, "from affociations founded in habit, many, or perhaps most, of thofe pleaning emotions are derived, which accompany the perception of what in things vifible is called Beauty thofe colours, figures, geftures, and motions, being for the most part accounted beautiful, which convey to the mind pleasurable ideas; and thofe ugly, or not beautiful, which impart fuggeftions of an oppofite or different nature." Thefe fources of beauty he illuftrates by a variety, of appofite examples. The chapter on Tafte flands next in order. To define this quality of the mind, Dr. Beattie enumerates thofe faculties and talents which must be united in the perfon who poffeffes it." To be a perfon of tafte," he fays, "it feems neceffary that one have, firft, a lively and correct imagination; fecondly, the power of diftinct ap. VOL. XXVI. prehenfion; thirdly, the capacity of being eafily, ftrongly, and agreeably affected, with fublimity, beauty, harmony, exact imitation, &c. fourthly, fympathy or fenfibility of heart; and, fifthly, judgment, or good fenfe, which is the principal thing, and may not very improperly be faid to comprehend all the reft." What is faid on this fubject under the fifth requifite to form good tafte, namely judgment, or good fenfe, we fhall beg leave to lay before our readers. "The last thing mentioned as neceffary to form good tafte, is judgment, or good fenfe; which is indeed the principal thing; and which fome would confider, as comprehending moft of the foregoing particulars. By judgment, I here understand fuch a conftitution of mind, as difpofes a man to attend to the reality of things, and quali fies him for knowing and discover. ing the truth. It is by means of this faculty, as applied in criticism, that we compare poetical imitations with natural objects, fo as to perceive in what they resemble, and in what they differ; that we eftimate the rectitude of fentiments, the probability of incidents, and whether fictitious characters be fimilar to thofe of real life, and confiftent with themselves, and whether any part of a compofition be unfuitable to the tendency of the whole. Hence too we difcern, with refpect to the plan of a work, whether it be fimple and natural, or confufed and unnatural; and whether the author has been care ful to make it, both in the general arrangement, and in the ftructure of each part, conformable to rule. "Left this fhould be misunderflood, I must repeat an observation, P which |