underwent the fame fate as al the other English convents in France. 25. Benedictine Nuns in Ghent. This abbey was eftablished in the year 1624 by lady Lucy Knatchball and three other profeffed nuns of the monaftery at Bruffels. The education of young perfons of their own fex made part of the employment of thefe religious women, till their flight out of the country on the approach of the French army in 1794. 26. Auguftine Nuns in Bruges. This priory of regular canoneffes of St. Auftin was erected in the year 1629, by Mrs. Frances Stanford and eight more profelled nuns of the English monaftery of the fame order in Louvain. The education of young ladies was part of their occupation. Their church, rebuilt by a lady Lucy Herbert, priorefs of the houfe, was beautiful but fmall. Thefe nuns fled, like all the rest, on the approach of the French in 1794. 27. Auguftine Nuns in Paris. This houfe was established in 28. Poor Clares at Rouen. This convent of religious women of the ftricteft reform of the order of St. Francis, by fome called Colletines, was begun in 1648, by Mrs. Mary Taylor and fourteen affociates, all profefled nuns of Gravelines, the mother-houfe of all the other convents of English Francifcan nuns. The life of thefe of Rouen was wholly contemplative; they did not interfere with the education of youth. They fubfifted, till crufhed by the French revolution in 1793. Benedictine Nuns in Paris. This monaftery was erected in the year 1651, by the endeavours of Mrs. Clementia Cary. After five feveral habitations in different parts of Paris, they at laft, in 1664, fixed themfelves in the Rue du Champ de l'Aloutte, Fauxbourg St. Marcel, where they remained till put an end to by the French revolution in 1793. This monaftery was under the congregation of St Benedict.. 30. Benedictine Nuns at Pontoife. Thefe religious women were ori 29. 1633, by lady Letitia Maria. Tredway, canonefs-regular of the noble abbey of Notre Dame de Beaulieu in Douay, and by the affiftance of Mr. Miles Carr, alias Pickney, proctor of Douay-college. It was governed by a priorefs, and the nuns were employed in the education of young ladies, be- 31. fides the religious duties incumbent on them as canonefles-regular. This community fubfifted till 1793, when the French revolution put an end to it. ginally a colony from the Englifh monaftery in Ghent, which, in 1652, went to Boulogne, in Picardy, Mrs. Catherine Wigmore being their firft abbels. In 1658 they removed from thence to Pontoife, where they fubfifted till the revolution in 1793. Poor Clares at Dunkirk. This convent was founded in the year 1652, by the endeavours of Anne Browne, niece to lord viscount Montague, who was a profeffed nun of Gravelines. She, with three others of the A 35. This little establishment was fame houfe, began the efta- 34. Dominican College in Louvain. blifhment, which fubfifted till the revolution of 1793. Their folitary contemplative life did not permit them to meddle with the education of youth. 32. Conceptionist Nuns in Paris. On the breaking up of the convent of Francifcan nuns at Nieuport in 1658, as was mentioned above, (No. 21) Angela Jerningham, and fix others of thofe nuns went to Paris, and, in 1660, they put themfelves under the rules of the order of the Conception, and along with their other religious duties educated young ladies. Mr. Vivier, a French clergyman, left an eftate of about 3COZ. fterling a year, to this convent, which fubfifted till the time of the French revolution in 1793. 33. Dominican Friers at Bornhem in Flanders. This convent was founded in the year 1658, by the baron of Bornhem. The first prior of it was Thomas Howard, of Arundel, afterwards cardinal Howard, to whom the establishment was principally owing. Thete religious afterwards kept a coufiderable college for the education of youth, which continued to flourish till the time of their flight, on account of the French invafion of the Low Countries, in 1794.. Befides this convent, the aforenamed cardinal Howard founded another in Rome for English Dominicans; but it was fuppreffed foon afterwards, for which reafon it is not enumerated here. Vid. Sanderi Flandria Illuftrata, Vol. III. p. 255, 256. 36. wholly deftined for the ftudies of the young religious of Bornhem in philofophy and divinity. On that account it enjoyed the privileges of the univerfity of Louvain. It fell of courfe with the mother-houfe in 1794. Poor Clares, al Aire, in Artoise. This community of contemplative women was eflablifhed about the year 1660, by fome nuns from Gravelines, under the direction of the English Recollects of Douay. It fell like the reft in 1793. Benedi&ine Nuns at Dunkirk. These religious ladies were established in 1662, by lady Mary Caryll (who was their firft abbefs) and eleven affociates, all profeffed nuns of the English monaftery at Ghert; but the establishment being made, five of these returned to Ghent, and two others of them went to Ipres to begin a like foundation there in 1665. This laft afterwards became wholly compofed of Irish Benedictine nuns, part of whom, in the reign of king James II. went over to Dublin; the reft remained at Ipres till the French invafion in 1794, when they fled. The English monaftery at Dunkirk had formerly confiderable funds, but a great part of them were loft in the Miffifippi bubble in 1720. The nuns, befides their regular duties, were employed in the educa tion of young ladies. 37. Dominican Nuns in Brufels. Thefe religions women were efta blished in 1690, in a large old houfe in Bruffels, called the Spel Spellekens, having a large garden annexed to it. About the year 1777 their houfe threatening ruin, they built, in the upper part of their garden, a handfome new convent and church. They were not originally employed in the education of young perfons of their fex; but the edicts of the emperor Jofeph II. in 1792, portending fuppreffion to all the convents of nuns that were not fo employed, thefe Dominicanelles got fome fcholars, and thereby remained unmolefted till their flight on the approach of the French to Bruffels, in June, 1794. 38. School at Efquerchin near Douay, This was founded about the middle of the prefent century, by the late honourable James Talbot, afterwards bishop. He deftined it for the education of boys in the lower fchools of the claffics, thereby to difbarthen the great college of Douay, to which he gave it, of that part of its charge; and alfo for the fake of greater falubrity and fpace for children in the country, than could be had in the other. This fchool fell of courfe with the college to which it belonged, at the time of the French revolution. 39. Difcalced Carmes at Tongres. This little establishment had been - made a few years ago with permiffion of the prince bifhop of Liege, by fome English Carmelite friers, profefled in foreign convents. It had hardly time to gain footing, when it was crushed by the French revolution in 1794. Not having been able to find the dates of the following 40. 41. religious eftablishments, I place them at the end of this lift. Benedictine Abbey of Lamfpring in Germany. This abbey is fituated in Lower Saxony, in the diocese of Hildefheim, about four leagues fouth of the city of that name. It is governed by a regular mitred abbot, who, like all the prelates of Germany, enjoys great privileges. I have not learned how it came into the hands of the English congregation of St. Benedict, to which it belongs. 42, Canonges of the Holy Sepulchre, in Liege. Thefe religious ladies flourished greatly under the direction of the late Jefuits, as, alfo in the education of young perfons of their own fex. The French invafion put an end to them in 1794. 43, 44. Carmelites, or Teresan Nuns at Antwerp, Lier, and Hoogstrate. The nuns of thefe three convents were entirely given up to a contemplative life. In 1789 a part of them went over to Maryland, to make a new eftablishment of their order; the reft fled from the French invasion in 1794. Thele, as far as I was ever able to learn, are all the English religious establishments that have been made on the continent of Europe fince the beginning of the reign of queen Elizabeth. Of all this number, I believe, there only now remain the three colleges of fecular clergy at Rome, Valladolid, and Lilbon, the Benedictine abbey of Lamfpring in Germany, with the nuns of Libon and Munich. A more A more extensive account of the foundation of many of thefe. houfes, and of the perfons who established them, may be had in Dodd's Church Hiftory of England, printed at Bruffels in 1737, 3 vol. in folio; in the Flandria Illuftrata of Sanderus, 3 vol. in folio; the Brabantia Illuf trata, 3 vol. in folio; and other fuch hiftories of the countries where any of thefe eftablishments were made. What I have said above of the origin, nature, and prefent fate of each, fuffices for the end I propofed to myself in this short account of them. MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. On the Science of Phyfiognomy, from Mr. Fufeli's Advertisement io Hunter's Tranflation of Lavater's · Effays on Phyfiognomy. IT T is not the intention of this prefatory addrefs, either to prove the claim of phyfiognomy to a place among the fciences, to demonftrate its utility, or to enlarge in its praifc. The immediate effect of form on every eye, the latent principle which is the bafis of that effect, and which inhabits every breaft, the influence derived from this impreffion on conduct and action, in every department of life, are felf-evident truths, and need as little to be proved as the exiftence of finell or tafte. If not all, at leaft the moft important part, of what can be faid on the fubject is given in the book; and to epitomize what the reader is going to contider in detail, or to attempt improving the author's argument and method, would be as futile as an attempt to "gild refined gold, or to paint the lily. The mistaken humanity of thofe who find cruelty lurking amid the refearches of the phyfiognomift, deferves our pity rather than an anfwer; it refutes itself; the general eye has given a tacit verdict before it pronounces one; it either conVOL. XLII, firms by proofs what we have felt, or by proofs corrects our feelings: in either cafe truth gains, and woe to him who without proof dares to contradict that on which all are agreed. Befides, when the great principle of human nature, that property which invisibly links every individual, from the moft genially favoured in organization, to the moft neglected or moft fcantily fupplied, to infinity, to the immenfe power that produced him, if perfectibility be taken into confideration, which allows no one to pronounce So far fhalt thou go, and no farther, all fears of petulant or noxious abufe of the science muft neceffarily vanish. If felf-love be a more than fufficient counterpoife to humility or defpondence, if vanity and hope never forfake their children, what danger can be apprehended from phyfiognomy? Its verdicts will be fhifted from face to face; and there will always be outlets or atoning lines fufficiently wide or foothing in the fatal angles of condemning claffes of faces, to let each individual culprit efcape, or ftand abfolved before his own tribunal. Men in their fears generally confound our Icience with pathology, diftinct from it though intimately connected: ΕΓ |