glory of God, are no better than vehicles for perfonal "malevolence. The misfortunes of the king his father

[James II.] had taught him fufficiently, that we are ex"pofed to the commiffion of the most important mistakes, "when we place too implicit a confidence even in those "perfons whole character is moft refpectable. When he was appointed commandant in Guienne, the reputation of his seriousness and severity terrified us; but fcarcely was he arrived among us, ere he was beloved by every body; and indeed there was no place where his great qualities were more fincerely admired.

16

46

46

66

66

"There never was exhibited a more confpicuous example "of the contempt we ought to entertain for money.--. His difburfements were all of them fo moderate, that they ought naturally to have placed him very much at his eafe "for he never incurred an ufelefs expence notwithstanding which he was always in arrears; because, in fpite of "his natural frugality, he expended a great deal. Wherever "he refided, all thofe poor English or Irish families, who were related, in the moft diftant manner, to the exiled family, had a kind of right to introduce themfelves. And "it deferves our obfervation, that this man, whose order "and difcipline at the head of an army were fo diftinguish"ed, whofe projects ware formed with fo much nicety and "exactnefs, became devoid of all this the moment the fubject of care was his perfonal intereft.—

66

66

6.6

"He was not one of thofe who fometimes inveigh against the authors of a difgrace, and at other times flatter "them;

font que des difputes perfonnelles. Les malheurs du Roi fon pere lui avoient appris qu'on s'expofe à faire de grandes fautes lorfqu'on a trop de crédulité pour les gens même dont le caractere eft le plus refpectable.... Lorfqu'il fut nommé Commandant en Guienne, la réputation de fon ferieux nous effraya: mais à peine y fut-il arrivé, qu'il y fut aimé de tout le monde, & qu'il n'y a pas de lieu où fes grandes qualités aient été plus admirées.

• Perfonne n'a donné un plus grand exemple du mépris que l'on doit faire de l'argent.... Il avoit une modeftie dans toutes fes dépenfes, qui auroit dû le rendre trés à fon aife; car il ne dépenfojt en aucune chofe frivole: cependant il étoit toujours arriéré, par ceque, malgré fa frugalité naturelle, il dépentoit beaucoup. Dans fes commandements, toutes les familles angloifes ou irlandoifes pauvres, qui avoient quelque relation avec quelq'un de fa maison, avoient une espece de droit de s'introduire chez lui; & il eft fingulier que cet homme, qui favoit mettre un fi grand ordre dans fon armée, qui avoit tant de juleffe dans fes projets, perdît tout cela quand il s'agiffoit de fes intérêts particuliers....

6

Il n'étoit point du nombre de ceux qui tantôt fe plaignent des auteurs d'une difgrace, tantôt cherchent à les flatter; il alloit à

celyi

"them; he went directly to the perfon against whom he "had a ground of complaint, opened to him the fentiments "of his heart, and then never uttered another word upon "the fubject.

"Never was there a more exact counterpart of the condi❝tion in which France found itself upon the death of M. "de Turenne. I recollect the moment in which the news "arrived the confternation was general. Both left a "grand defign imperfect; both left an army in imminent danger; both wound up their exiftence with a catastrophe "that interefts us very differently from a common death : "but poffeffed that modeft merit which we love to regret, and over which we love to weep.

66

"He left an amiable wife, who has spent the remainder "of her days in forrow; and children, who by their virtue, "compofe better than I the clogy of their father.

"M. le Marefchal de Berwick has written his Memoirs; and in this view, I may fay of him, what I said in the "Spirit of Laws, refpecting the Commentaries of Hanno : "This is a valuable remain of antiquity: the fame man who "executed the projects, defcribes them. There are no ambi"tious ornaments in his compofition. Great generals defcribe their actions in a plain and unaffuming ftyle, because they are more proud of what they have done, than of what they "write."

66

From this fpecimen, the reader will readily collect in how unfinished a state the performance was left. Indeed, from this cause, we are sometimes left in a degree of uncertainty refpecting the fenfe of the author. A mere outline, however, relating to a character so distinguished, and given us celui dont il avoit fujet de fe plaindre, lui difoit les fentiments de fon cœur, après quoi il ne difoit rien....

Jamais rien n'a mieux représenté cet état où l'on fait que fe trouva la France à la mort de M. de Turenne. Je me fouviens du moment où cette nouvelle arriva: la confternation fut générale. Tous deux ils avoient laiffé des deffeins interrompus; tous les deux une armée en péril; tous les deux finirent d'une mort qui intéreffe plus que les morts communes: tous les deux avoient ce mérite modefte pour le quel on aime à s'attendrir, & que l'on aime a regretter...

Il laifla une femme tendre, qui a paffe le refte de fa vie dans les regrets, & des enfants qui, par leur vertu, font mieux que moi l'éloge de leur pere.

་

à cet

la

M. le Maréchal de Berwick a écrit fes Mémoires; &, égard, ce que j'ai dit dans l'Efprit des Loix fur la relation d'HanC'est un beau morceau de l'antiquité que non, je puis le dire ici. relation d'Hannon: le même home qui a exécuté, a ecrit. Il ne met aucune oftentation dans fes récits: les grands Capitaines écrivent leurs actions avec fimplicité, parcequ'ils font plus glorieux de ce qu'ils ont fait que de “ce qu'ils ont dit.

by

by fo refpectable a writer, is not without its value. The celebrated ftatue, fo well known by the name of Michel Angelo's School, was not deprived of its value by the lofs of half its limbs. And to adopt an expreffion of our author, the hemiftichs left imperfect by the immortal Virgil, have yet frequently a Virgilian majesty.

R.

ART. XIV. Hiftoire de Ruffie tirée des Chroniques Originales, de Pieces Authentiques, & de Meilleurs Hiftoriens de la Nation, par Mr. Levefque. i. e. a History of Ruffia, extracted from Original Chronicles, Authentic Papers, and Hiftorians of the Nation. By Mr. Levefque.

WE

(Concluded from our Auguft Review.)

E have already faid that certain forefts were con、. fecrated to their fupreme divinity, but there were others that were themselves refpected as divinities in which the people were forbid to cut down wood, or kill, or enfnare the fmalleft animal. The leaft infringement of thefe religious prohibitions was confidered as the most horrible facrilege, and death was the inevitable fate of the culprit.

Thofe

"The floods as well as the forefts received the homage of the Sclavonians; they made vows and offered facrifices to the Don or Tanais and the greatest part of their ancient fongs begin with the word Dounai, which is the Ruffian name of the Danube. But fuperior to all this fpecies of deities was the Bog known to the ancients under the name of Hypanis. They approached its borders with a holy trembling, and when they laved water from its ftreams, they recoiled with dread, fearing left they had profaned the facred river. Lomonofof believes that it was from this river they took the name of that deity whom they call Bog. A veneration for the waters is common to all the Sclavonian nations. who inhabited the island of Rugen have confecrated the lake Stoudenets. It is fituated in the midst of a thick foreft where the foliage occafions obfcurity and fheds a venerable horror all around. Though the lake contained an extraordinary quantity of fish no one durft moleft them; fuperftition rendered the prodigal bounties of nature useless. They offered facrifices on its bank, proftrated themselves before its waves, and when they drew water for their neceffities did it with the moft fervent prayers. They celebrated the feafts of these waters with moft folemnity in the fpring at the time of the thaw, when after having been long hid from their fight they delgned again to fhew themfelves to their adorers. They threw men into the ftreams with great ceremony, and thofe who were feized with a fuperior zeal ran willingly to

drown

drown themfelves. Thus the Indians lie down to be crafh ed by the wheels of the chariot that fupports their idol.

"A defire to fee into futurity is a paffion natural to men, it is the ftrength of this paffion that ftill makes the art of divination common in the enlightened nations of Europe. The Sclavonians had various ways of divining future events, the one most in ufe was to tofs rings, or circles, called croujki, into the air, that were white on one fide and black on the other. The prefage was fortunate when the white fide fell uppermoft; but, the contrary, if the black prefented itself. If they threw two rings, and one difcovered the black fide, and the other the white, the fuccefs they concluded would be moderate. At other times they augured from the return of birds of paffage, and from the meeting of certain animals, the cries of which were not indifferent, but portended future good or ill. They confulted too the indulations of flame and fmoke, the course of waters, their floods and foam. But these errors of a barbarous people are no ways aftonishing, when we fee a polished nation in which the fpirit of philofophy has penetrated almoft to the lowest ranks, and which has produced a Defcartes, a Bayle, a Montefquieu, and a Voltaire, infected by this folly, where women of diftinguished birth and fortune follow a decrepid old woman who calls herfelf a forcerefs, into a garret, and there with a curious and ftupid eye, confult the white of an

egg beat up in a glafs, or the odd and accidental forms of melted lead precipitated into water.

"Such is the vanity of men that they efteem their bodies even after their death; hence the respect that has been paid by all nations to a disgusting corps; hence the art of preferving with perfumes and with falts, what reason and policy would confign to the earth. Hence the fear of violating a vile portion of matter, which is preparing to decompofe itself, and which merits not to be counted among the clafs of beings, until it has received a new organization, and hence funereal ceremonies which have been in almoft all nations incorporated with the rites of religion. The greatest part of the Sclavonians interred their dead. After they had depofited the body in a grave, they raised a small mount of earth round which they affembled to perform the trizna. This was a religious feaft and as fplendid a one as thofe times could furnifh, that is to fay, the strongest hydromel was there expended without measure. Sometimes to celebrate the death of a prince, or great man, they facrificed prifoners of war at their funeral feafts, fome of the Sclavonian people burnt the corps at the place of interment. The trizna was then firftcelebrated and the body afterwards burnt; the afhes and

bones

r

bones not entirely confumed were carefully collected, shut up in a vafe, and placed upon a column near the city. The feast of the trizna is not yet entirely forgot in Ruffia, they have few burials at which they do not diftribute, tea, coffee, wine, punch, and other liquors to the affiftants. The dead body is placed on a gilded coffin, doubly lined with filk and expofed to view, clean fhaved and powdered, dreffed in its richeft habits, with white gloves on its hands and holding a cross and a nofegay, while the affembly stand round and drink. If it is a woman her burial cloaths are usually

new.

“Of fuch abfurdities as we have described was the prevailing religion of the first fovereigns of Ruffia compofed, but there were particular people under their government who had gods peculiar to themselves, fuch was the powerful god Silny Bog, or Krepki Bog. This idol was made in the form of a man, in his right hand he held a lance, in his left a globe of filver and at his feet lay the heads of men and of lions. He was apparently the god of War. Such too was the gilded woman Zolotaia Baba, whom it seems her adorers confidered as the mother of the gods. She, like the Ifis of the Egyptians, held in her arms a child that they called her grandfon, her ftatue was gilded, whence her name was derived. She was faid to utter predictions. The people have generally fuppofed their divinities avaricious because their priefts were thus. It was forbidden to pass before the temple of the golden woman without leaving an offering, thofe who had nothing to give cut off a bit of their garment, proitrated themselves on the earth before her, and offered up their vows. There were a vaft number of mufical inftru ments in her temple, with which her attendants made a frightful noife.

The Sclavonians of Rugen held different opinions on theology, and therefore had different divinties. Sviatovid or Svetovid was the most revered, he was the god of the fun and of war, and his temple was on the island of Rugen, in the city of Acron built by the Sclavonians. There came every year great numbers of both fexes to offer him their prefents. His ftatue was amazingly large and made of hard wood with four faces, which apparently were types of the four seasons, that were fucceffively reconducted by the fun, or elfe the four cardinal points from which he diftributes light. This idol had no beard, his hair was curly after the manner of his worthippers, and his habits fhort; in his right hand he held a bow, and in his left a horn of metal; apon his thigh hung a long fword in a filver fcabbard, and at his fide lay a bridle and saddle of an extraordinary size;

he