lieve) is, that, without any respect of climates, she reigns in all nascent societies of men, where the necessities of life force every one to think and act much for himself.*

CXVIII.

COUNT ALGAROTTI TO MR. GRAY.

un

Pisa, 24 Aprile, 1763. SONO stato lungo tempo in dubbio se dilettante quale io sono, dovea mandare alcune sue coserelle a un professore quale è V. S. Illusmo, a un arbitro di ogni poetica eleganza. Nè ci volea meno che l'autorità del valorissimo Sigr. How per persuadermi a ciò fare. V. S. Illmo accolga queste mie coserelle con quella medesima bontà con cui ha voluto accogliere quella lettera che

* One is led to think from this paragraph that the scepticism, which Mr. Gray had expressed before, concerning these works of Ossian, was now entirly removed. I know no way of accounting for this (as he had certainly received no stronger evidence of their authenticity) but from the turn of his studies at the time. He had of late much busied himself in antiquities, and consequently had imbibed too much of the spirit of a professed antiquarian; now we know, from a thousand instances, that no set of men are more willingly duped than these, especially by any thing that comes to them under the fascinating form of a new discovery.

dice pur poco delle tante cose, che fanno sentire alle anime armoniche di ammirabili suoi versi. Io saro per quanto io porrô, Præco laudum tuarum, e quella mia lettera si stamperà in un nuovo Giornale, che si fa in Venezia, intitolato la Minerva, perche sappia la Italia che la Inghilterra, ricca di un Omero di uno Archimede,† di un Demostene,‡ non manca del suo Pindaro. Al Sigr. How le non saprei dire quanti obblighi io abbia, ma si maggiore e certamente quello di avermi presentato alla sua Musa e di avermi procurato la occasione di poterla assicurare della perfetta ed altissima stima, con cui io ho l'honore di sottescrivermi,

De V. S. Illusmo

Devotis. &c.

ALGAROTTI.

CXIX.

TO DR. WHARTON.

Pembroke-Hall, August 5, 1763.

You may well wonder at my long taciturnity. I wonder too, and know not what cause to

* Milton.

+ Newton.

Mr. Pitt.

assign; for it is certain I think of you daily. I believe it is owing to the nothingness of my history; for except six weeks that I passed in town towards the end of the spring, and a little jaunt to Epsom and Box-hill, I have been here time out of mind, in a place where no events grow, though we preserve those of former days, by way of Hortus siccus, in our libraries.

I doubt you have not yet read Rousseau's Emile. Every body that has children should read it more than once: for though it abounds with his usual glorious absurdity, though his general scheme of education be an impracticable chimera, yet there are a thousand lights struck out, a thousand important truths better expressed than ever they were before, that may be of service to the wisest men. Particularly, I think he

has observed children with more attention, and knows their meaning and the working of their little passions better than any other writer. As to his religious discussions, which have alarmed the world, and engaged their thoughts more than any other part of his book, I set them all at naught, and wish they had been omitted.*

* That I may put together the rest of Mr. Gray's sentiments concerning this singular writer, I insert here an extract from a VOL. IV.

23

CXX.

TO MR. HOW.

Cambridge, Sept. 10, 1763.

I OUGHT long since to have made you my acknowledgments for the obliging testimonies of your esteem that you have conferred upon me; but count Algarotti's books* did not come to my hands till the end of July, and since that time I have been prevented by

letter of a later date, written to myself. "I have not read the Philosophic Dictionary. I can now stay with great patience for any thing that comes from Voltaire. They tell me it is frippery, and blasphemy, and wit. I could have forgiven myself if I had not read Rousseau's Lettres de la Montagne Always excepting the Contract Social, it is the dullest performance he ever published. It is a weak attempt to separate the miracles from the morality of the Gospel. The latter (he would have you think) he believes was sent from God; and the former he very explicitly takes for an imposture: this is in order to prove the cruelty and injustice of the state of Geneva in burning his Emile. The latter part of his book is to show the abuses that have crept into the constitution of his country, which point (if you are concerned about it) he makes out very well; and his intention in this is plainly to raise a tumult in the city, and to be revenged on the Petit Conseil, who condemned his writings to the flames."

* Three small treatises on painting, the opera, and the French academy for painters in Italy: they have been since collected in the Leghorn edition of his works.

illness from doing any of my duties. I have read them more than once, with increasing satisfaction; and should wish mankind had eyes to descry the genuine sources of their own pleasures, and judgment to know the extent that nature has prescribed to them : if this were the case, would be their interest to appoint count Algarotti their "arbiter elegantiarum." He is highly civil to our nation; but there is one point in which he does not do us justice: I am the more solicitous about it, because it relates to the only taste we can call our own; the only proof of our original talent in matters of pleasure, I mean our skill in gardening, or rather laying out grounds; and this is no small honour to us, since neither Italy nor France have ever had the least notion of it, nor yet do at all comprehend it when they see it. That the

Chinese have this beautiful art in high per⚫ fection, seems very probable from the Jesuits' Letters, and more from Chambers's little discourse, published some years ago ;* but it is very certain we copied nothing

*The author has since enlarged, and published it under the title of a Dissertation on Oriental Gardening; in which he has put it out of all doubt, that the Chinese and English tastes are totally dissimilar.