the reason,-opposes absolutely the dogmas of the mechanico-corpuscular philosophy, first systematized by Des Cartes,-and recognizes an intimate communion betwixt the eternal and divine reason, and that emanation from it which is implanted and forms the most exalted part of the soul of man. It makes the essential truths of morality and religion to depend upon, and be intuitions of, this faculty of pure reason, and therefore not amenable to the bar of the lower or discursive faculty, which man shares, though in a higher degree, with the beasts that perish, viz. understanding, or as it is called by the Platonists opinion. It therefore does away, at one blow, with that much boasted system of scientific atheism, now so prevalent. The recognition, it says, of the principle of pure reason, is the foundation, at once, of all true philosophy, and of all true morality and religion.

It is this philosophy, the very essence, it will be seen, of sublimity, which in its practical bearings on human consciousness and action, Wordsworth has so beautifully unfolded. He sees in the mind of man, an essential principle of truth and holiness-a_ray, in fact, of the divinity ever breaking through the mists which human degeneracy and corruption have thrown around it, directing us to the contemplation of moral and eternal entities as our highest rational good, and constituting, when in active energy, the true happiness, perfection, and immortality of man. He sees in the beautiful forms of external nature a medium of communication betwixt divinity and humanity ;-he conceives them animated by the universal vivifying spirit, and constantly addressing themselves in the most expressive language, to the moral reason and affections of men,-and he considers that the true final causes of nature, are these relations which it holds to our immortal being. He sees in the natural law, or the conscience, an emanation from the same word which gave the written law, or the Scriptures, and considers christianity as the perfection of human

intelligence. And hence it is, that his poetry is so eminently and truly philosophical, so purifying, so elevating, and so fervently religious. To use the beautiful and eloquent language of Sir Walter Raleigh, -he teaches us "by the help of the spiritual part of our nature, to pierce through the impurity of our flesh, beholding the highest heavens, and thence bringing knowledge and object to the mind and soul,-to contemplate the ever-during glory and termless joy, prepared for those who retain the image and similitude of their creator, and preserve it undefiled unto their final apotheosis."

Come more; another Stanza;-Call you them Stanzas?

JAQ.-As You Like it-dct ii, Sce. 5.

After a Dance.

To my Partner.

I.

"Tis blythe when youth and beauty meet
By the viol wanton sounding,

To tread the dance with lightsome feet-
-Their hearts more lightly bounding.-

II.

As music gaily swells, to see

Each face responsive smiling,
Love's innocence and revelrie

The tedious hours beguiling,

III.

-'Tis sad when, hushed the minstrel's strain,
Guest after guest is parting,

Each form, that late so bright was seen,

The hall of mirth deserting.—

FRENCH LITERATURE.

No. II.

AUTHORS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

We observed, in our former paper, that the French language was not employed by men of talent in transmitting their observations and reflections to posterity, till towards the latter end of the sixteenth century.

The celebrated de Thou (whose history the English put such a high value upon, that by a solemn Act of Parliament, a company of booksellers who were preparing a very correct and splendid edition of it, were exempted, in that work, from the duties on paper and printing, which were then high in England) wrote in latin, not daring to make use of the idiom of his native country, which he then thought rude and rebellious. Ill would it have fared with the French language had all their authors esteemed it so lightly, and continued to follow the example which this learned historian had set them; happily this was not the case, as we find many French authors, who duly apprceiating the intrinsic value of their native tongue, gave their time and talent to the rescuing it from that obscurity to which it had, so undeservedly, been consigned. Balzac gave number and harmony to its prose, Voiture adorned it with the lighter graces of the epistolary style, whilst the indefatigable Vaugelas,* in his excellent translation of Quintus Curtius, fixed and purified it.

* Voiture being very intimate with Vaugelas, used frequently to banter him about his over nicety in his translation of Quintus Curtius, (which occupied him thirty years) telling him, that it would never be finished; that whilst he was polish

The limits to which we are obliged to confine our paper will not allow us to enlarge, at any length, upon the merits of those authors who flourished in France during the sixteenth century; we shall, therefore, content ourselves with casting a glance en passant at their several productions.

Rabelais, although both a priest and physician, was a most humourous writer, his chief talent consisted in satire, he attacked the king and the courtier indiscriminately, and although he lived in an age when the kings of France held despotic sway, he was never molested. His chief work, entitled Pentagruel is a surprising instance of genius, though it took him no more time in composing, than he generally employed in taking his meals. He died in 1553. The following singular epitaph was circulated the day after his death: Pluton prince du noir empire Où les tiens ne rient jamais; Reçois anjourdhui Rabelais,

Et vous aurez de quoi rire.t

Of quite a different stamp was the genius of the philosophic Montaigne, and far more difficult was the task he undertook. He wrote not to satirize the follies of the day, but to pourtray man as he is in every age, with all the frailties and imperfections to which he is liable. His essays, though neither written in a pure, precise, or noble style, breathe a spirit of truth and naiveté, a knowledge of mankind which few but him

ing one part, the daily alterations of the language would oblige him to pass the file over all the other, and applying to him Martial's epigram on a barber, who was so slow at shaving, that before he had finished the beard began to shoot out again. Eutrapelus tonsor dum circuit ora Luperci, Expungitque genas; altera barba subit.

+ Pluto, monarch of the gloomy realms, where laughter has never been heard, receive this day Rabelais into your kingdom, he will give eternal matter for laughter.