-no work, which is not in Hookham's well-stocked catalogue.

Another, and perhaps a better course, for female reading, would be, to peruse "Anquetil's Abridgment "of Ancient and Modern History," attending particularly to its geography, and making minutes of its chronology :-Or, if modern history only be the object, to peruse, but with particular attention, and with a proper map always in view, the "Tableau des Révolutions "de l'Europe, par M. Koch," now in 4 vols. 8vo.

Here the Reminiscent presumes to mention an observation made to him by a learned and intelligent friend, on the subject of pursuing the study of the learned languages too far. For some time after the Reminiscent quitted college, he continued smitten with the love of Greek and Roman lore. His friend remarked to him, that it was an idle pursuit: "You and I," he said, "are willing to think that we understand the French language, as well as we do our own: most gentlemen, "who have received a liberal education, do the same. "Yet, how little do any of us feel the beauties of French

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poetry? How little are we sensible of that indescri“bable charm of the verses of Raçine, of which every "Frenchman talks to us with so much rapture ?—Now, "if this be so, in the case of a language, which we hear spoken every day, and the writers in which are count"less, how much more must it be so in respect to a dead language, where the writers whom we possess, are so "few? The utmost knowledge, which, by the most "persevering application, we can obtain of the literary

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merit of their compositions, as far, at least, as respects "the beauties of their style, must be very limited." In this observation there seems to be good sense: one, of

an import somewhat similar, and leading to a similar conclusion, was made to the Reminiscent by Mr. Porson :-"The number of ancient writers," said that gentleman, "who have reached us, is so small, that we "cannot be judges of the expressions, or even of the "words appropriated to any particular style. Many, "suited to the general style of Livy, would not be suited "to that of Tacitus of this, we necessarily are, in a "great measure, insensible; and use them indiscrimi

nately. This must be wrong; when therefore we "write in the Latin language, our style should be most "unambitious; we should carefully avoid all fine words "and expressions; we should use the most obvious and "most simple diction; beyond this, we should not as'pire if we cannot present a resemblance, let us not "exhibit a caricature."

It was a remark of Boileau, that if the French had become a dead language, and few only of its approved writers had survived, a poet, who wished to describe a person gathering sand on the bank of a river, might mention him,

"Sur la rive du fleuve amassant de l'arène;" and justify the line, by producing, from approved authors, every word it contained. "But now," said Boileau, "the most ordinary writer knows that the expressions "rive dufleuve and amassant de l'arène, are insupportably "bad; and would write 'Sur le bord de la rivière and "amassant du sable.'"

XXXI. 6.

Suggestion of a Work on the Grand Manichean Conspiracy. HAVING, in a former page of this publication, suggested a plan of one literary work, the Reminiscent begs leave to close the present article by suggesting another.

It is known to every learned reader, that Manicheism was an attempt of Manes, a native of Persia, in the third century, to engraft upon the Gospel, the Persian system of the two principles; one, eternally and sovereignly good, the other, eternally and sovereignly evil. The soul, and whatever is derived from it, they considered to proceed from the former; the body, and whatever is derived from the body, to proceed from the latter. To the body, and therefore to the evil principle, they ascribed the great inequality of power and property among mankind.

After the death of Manes, his followers were miserably persecuted in each division of the Roman empire; and, in consequence of these persecutions, retreated to the pagan countries in the east.* They returned to Europe about the beginning of the ninth century, and during that, and the three following centuries, spread themselves under the various appellations of Paulicians, Albigenses, Popelicans, Bogards, Brethren of the Free Spirit, and Lollards, into several sects, equally hostile to church and state. Their theological errors have been a frequent topic of discussion: even this has not yet been exhausted; but little attention has been shown to their political tenets,-to that spirit of hostility to rank and authority, which burst out in the Jacquerie in France, and the Mutineries in Flanders, and which sug

* Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. v. c. 54:—perhaps the most interesting chapter in the work.

gested the questions asked by the English Lollards, under the celebrated John Ball,

"When Adam delved and Eve span,

Where was then the gentleman ?"

And, "why Adam had not obtained a patent of nobility "for all his descendants ?"-This evidently is the doctrine of liberty and equality, circulated with such tremendous effect in our own times. In those, of which we are speaking, it was as eloquently, though rudely propagated; and had the post and the post-roads then existed, would probably have made, with the same consequences, the tour of the world.*

The severities of the governments of Europe bent these agitators to the ground; but the spirit was unsubdued; it fermented in silence and obscurity, and gradually prepared the mind for the religious innovations which afterward took place. These, the doctrine of equality often accompanied; it is particularly discernible in Calvin and his primitive disciples. This, the eloquence of Bossuet,† and shrewdness of Bayle,‡ ably charged upon them. The principle was adopted in a limited or unlimited extent, by the French philosophers, and its ultimate results appeared in the revolution.

* A curious account of the Jacquerie, may be found in M. Naudét's "Conjuration d'Etienne Marçel contre l'Autorité Royale, 8vo. 1815."-The Reminiscent asked the celebrated Mallét du Pan, what was the principal cause of the French revolution?" It had," answered Mallét, " 100,000 causes; the post and the post-roads may be counted for 99,999." It is much to be wished that we had a selection from this gentleman's political writings: The Reminiscent suspects that no one has written on the subject of the French revolution quite so well. His predictions, always melancholy, but always verified by the event, procured for him the honourable ap-pellation of the French Cassandra.

† In his six "Avertissemens aux Protestans." In his "Avis aux Réfugiés."

Such is the subject which we presume to suggest; it must be admitted to be singularly important and interesting; a proper execution of it will require great previous knowledge, long application, extensive research, and, probably, some foreign travel.-But,

"Est quâdam prodire tenus, si non datur ultra ;"

HORACE

while we wait for the execution of this work, on the extensive plan we have suggested, it is much to be wished that some gentleman, properly qualified, would favour us with an outline of it: one of our literary journals would be a very proper place for its insertion.*

The late abbé Barruel, in his curious" Mémoires pour "servir à l'Histoire du Jacobinisme," professes to trace the German Illuminés, of whom the public have heard so much, through the Freemasons, Albigenses, and Knights-templars, to the Manicheans. The templar extraction of the Freemasons had been previously asserted by several German writers, but it seems to be completely disproved by the researches of the professors Moldenhawer and Münter. The abbé Barruel overdid the work, by supposing the foreign Masons and Illuminés to be the authors and principal factors of the French revolution. They co-operated in it; but, if there never had been a mason or an illuminé, the French revolution would have equally taken place. So long ago as during Cromwell's usurpation, Harrington, in his Oceana, no

*On this subject, Bossuet's "Variations," 1. 11. 14, and father Persons' "Three Conversions of England," part iii. c. 3, on one side, and Basnage's "Histoire des Eglises Réformées," and the "History of the Anabaptists or Memnonites," in Dr. Maclaine's translation of "Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History," vol. iv. p. 129, on the other, may be usefully consulted.

+ See Monthly Review, vol. xxv. p. 303. 501; vol. xxvii. p. 509.