fhould be glad to recover my firft effay on the truth of the miracle which ftopped the re-building of the Temple of Jerufalem. 3. In Giannone's Civil Hiftory of Naples, I obferved with a critical eye the progrefs and abufe of facerdotal power, and the revolutions of Italy in the darker ages. This various reading, which I now conducted with difcretion, was digefted, according to the precept and model of Mr. Locke, into a large common-place book; a practice, however, which I do not ftrenuoutly recommend. The action of the pen will doubtless imprint an idea on the mind as well as on the paper: but I much queftion whether the benefits of this laborious method are adequate to the waste of time; and I must agree with Dr. Johnfon, (Idler, No. 74,) that what is twice read, is commonly better remembered, than what is transcribed."

Account of Solomon Geffner, Author of

the Death of Abel, c. THIS very pleafing writer was born at Zurich, on the ift of April, 1730. In his youth, little expectations could be formed of him, as he then difplayed none of the talents for which he was afterwards diftinguished. His parents faw nothing to afford them much hope, though Simlar, a man of fome learning, affured his father, that the boy had talents which, though now hid, would fooner or later fhew themfelves, and elevate him far above his fchool-fellows. As he had made to little progrefs at Zurich, he was fent to Berg, and put under the care of a clergyman, where retirement and the picturefque fcenery around him laid the founda

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tion for the change of his character.
After a two year's refidence at
Berg, he returned home to his fa-
ther, who was a bookseller at Zu-
rich, and whofe fhop was resorted
to by fuch men of genius as were
then in that city; here his poetical
talents in fome flight degree dif
played themselves, though not in
fuch a manner as to prevent his
father from fending him to Berlin,
in the year 1749, to qualify him
for his own business. Here he was
employed in the bufinefs of the
fhop; but he foon became diffatis-
fied with his mode of life; he
eloped from his mafter and hired a
chamber for himself. To reduce
him to order, his parents, accord-
ing to the usual mode in such cases,
withheld every supply of money.
He refolved, however, to be inde-
pendent; fhut himself up in his
chamber; and, after fome weeks,
went to his friend Hempel, a cele-
brated artist, whom he requested
to return with him to his lodgings.
There he fhewed his apartments
covered with freth landfcapes, which
our poet had painted with fweet
oil, and by which he hoped to
make his fortune: The fhrugging
up of the fhoulders of his friend
concluded with an affurance, that
though his works were not likely
to be held in high estimation in
their prefent ftate, fome expecta-
tions might be raised from them,
if he continued the fame applica-
tion for ten years.

Luckily for our young artist his parents relented, and he was permitted to fpend his time as he liked at Berlin. Here he formed acquaintance with artifts and men of letters; Kraufe, Hempel, Ramler, Sulzer, were his companions; Ramler was his friend, from the

fineness

fineness of whofe ear and taste he to Zurich, and fired every breast derived the greatest advantages. With much diffidence he prefented to Ramler fome of his compofitions; but every verfe and every word were criticifed, and very few could pass through the fiery trial. The Swifs dialect, he found at laft, was the obftacle in his way, and the exertions requifite to fatisfy the delicacy of a German ear would be exceffive. Ramler advifed him to clothe his thoughts in harmonious profe; this counfel he followed, and the anecdote may be of ufe in Britain, where many a would-be poet is probably hammering at a verfe, which, from the circumftances of his birth and education, he can never make agreeable to the ear of taste.

From Berlin, Geffner went to Hamburgh, with letters of recommendation to Hagedorn; but he chofe to make himself acquainted with him at a coffee-houfe before the letters were delivered. A clofe intimacy followed, and he had the advantages of a literary fociety which Hamburgh at that time afforded. Thence he returned home, with his tafte much refined; and, fortunately for him he came back when his countrymen were in fome degree capable of enjoying his future works. Had he produced them twenty years before, his Daphnis would have been hiffed at as immoral; his Abel would have been preached againft as propha

with poetical ardour. He had fcarce left the place when Wieland came, and by both our poet was well received. After a few anonymous compofitions, he tried his genius on a fubject which was ftarted by the accidental perufal of the tranflations of Longus; and his Daphnis was improved by the remarks of his friend Hirzel, the author of the Ruftic Socrates. Daphnis appeared firft without a name in the year 1754, it was followed in 1756, by Inkle and Yarico; and Gefner's reputation was fpread in the fame year, over Germany and Switzerland, by his Paftorals, a tranflation of which into English, in 1762, was published by Dr. Kenrick. His brother poets acknowledged the merit of thefe light compofitions, as they were pleafed to call them; but conceived their author to be incapable of forming a grander plan, or aiming at the dignity of heroic poetry. To thefe critics he foon after oppofed his death of Abel.

In 1762, he collected his poems in four volumes; in which were fome new pieces that had never be fore made their appearance in public. In 1772, he produced his fecond volume of paftorals with fome letters on landscape painting. Thefe met with the most favourable reception in France, where they were tranflated and imitated; as they were alfo, though with lefs fuccefs, in Italy and England.

We fhall now confider Geffner as an artift: till his thirtieth year, painting was only an accidental amufement; but at that time he became acquainted with Heidegger, a man of tafte, whofe collection of paintings and engrav

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ings

ings was thus thrown open to him. The daughter made an impreflion on him, but the circumftances of the lovers were not favourable to an union, till through the activity and friendship of the burgomafters Heidegger and Hirzel, he was enabled to accomplish his withes. The question then became, how the married couple were to live? The pen is but a flender dependence any where, and fill let's in Switzerland. The poet had too much fpirit to be dependent on others; and he determined to purfue the arts no longer as an amufement, but as a means of procuring a livelihood.

Painting and engraving alternately filled that time which was not occupied with poetry; and in thefe arts, if he did not arrive at the greatest eminence, he was diftinguished by that fimplicity, that elegance, that fingularity, which are the characteristics of his poetry. His wife was not idle; befides the care of his house and the education of his children, for which no one was better qualified, the whole burthen of the fhop (for our poet was book feller as well as poet, engraver, and painter) was laid upon her shoulders.

In his manners, Geffner was chearful, lively, and at times playful; fond of his wife; fond of his ehildren. He had fmall pretentions to learning, yet he could read the latin poets in the original; and of the Greek, he preferred the latin tranflations to the French. In bis early years, he led either a folitary life, or confined himself fo men of tafte and literature: as he grew older, he accustomed himself to general converfation; and in his later years, his houfe was the

centre point of the men of the first rank for talents or fortune in Zurich. Here they met twice a week, and formed a conversazione of a kind seldom, if ever, to be met with in great cities, and very rarely in any place; the politics of England deftroy fuch meetings in London. Geffner with his friends enjoyed that fimplicity of manners which makes fociety agreeable; and in his rural refidence, in the fummer, a little way out of town, they brought back the memory almoft of the Golden Age.

He died of an apoplexy on the 2d of March, 1788; leaving a widow, three children, and a fifter behind. His youngest son was married to a daughter of his father's friend Wieland. His fellow citizens have erected a statue in memory of him on the banks of the Limmot, where it meets Sihl.

the

Some particulars of the Death of Condorcet, from Bottiger on the fate of Letters, c. in France.

AMONG the Girondi fts profcribed by Robespierre on the 31ft of of May, Condorcet was the very firft on the lift, and was obliged to fkulk in the most hidden corners to elude the perfecutions of the furions Jacobins. A lady, to whom he was known only by name, became, at the inftance of a common friend, his generous protectrefs; concealing him in her house at Paris, at the most imminent hazard, till the latter end of April 1794; when the apprehenfion of general domiciliary vifits so much increased, and the risk of expofing both himself and his patronefs became fo preff. ing on the mind of Condorcet, that he refolved to quit Paris.

Without

Without either paffport or civic card, he contrived, under the difguife of a provencal country woman, with a white cap on head, to fteal through the barriers his of Paris, and reached the plains of Mont Rouge in the diftrict of Bourg-la-Reine; where he hoped to have found an afylum in the country-houfe of a gentleman with whom he had once been intimate. This friend having, unfortunately, at that very time, gone to Paris, Condorcet was under the dreadful neceffity of wandering about in the fields and woods for three fucceffive days and nights, not venturing to enter any inn, unprovided with a civic card. Exhaufted by hunger, fatigue, and anguish, with a wound in his foot, he was fcarcely able to drag himself into a deferted quarry, where he purpofed to await the return of his friend. At length, having advanced towards the road fide, Condorcet faw him approach, was recognized, and received with open arms-but, as they both feared left Condorcet's frequent in quiries at his friend's houfe thould have raised fufpicions; and as, at any rate, it was not advisable for them to make their entrance together in the day time, they agreed that Condorcet fhould stay in the fields till dufk, and then be let in by a back door. It was then, however, that imprudence threw him off his guard. The forlorn exile, after having patiently borne hunger and thirft for three days together, without fo much as approaching an inn, now finds himlelf incapable of waiting a few hours longer, at the end of which all his fufferings were to fubfide in the bofom of friendship. Tranfported with this happy profpect, and

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foregoing all caution, which feemed to have become habitual to him, he entered an inn at Clamars and tire, his dirty cap and long beard, called for an ommelette. His athis pale meagre countenance, and the ravenous appetite with which he devoured the victuals, could not fail to excite the curiofity and fufpicion of the company. A member of the revolutionary committee, who happened to be prefent, taking it for granted that his woebegone figure could be no other than fome runaway from the Bicêtre, addreffed and queftioned him whence he came, whether he inquiries, Condorcet having loft could produce a pafiport, &c. which. all felf-command, were fo unfatisfactorily answered, that he was taken to the house of the committee having undergone a fecond interas a fufpected perfon. Thence, rogatory, during which he acquitted himself equally ill, he was conducted to Bourg-la-Reine; and, he gave very inconfiftent anfwers to the questions put to him by the municipality, it was inferred that this unknown perfon must have fome very important reasons for withing to continue undifcovered. Being fent to a temporary confinement till the matter fhould be cleared up, on the next morning he was found fenfelefs on the ground, without any marks of violence on his body; whence it was conjectured that he muft have poifoned himself. dorcet had, for fome time past, Indeed, Concarried about him the most deadly poifon; and, not long before his fatal exit, he owned to a friend that he had more than twenty times been tempted to make ufe of it, but was checked by motives of af

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fection