were the two greatest talkers I ever knew. A friend of the latter, who wished to amuse himself by bringing them together, invited the Abbé Gagliani to his house. The Abbé Gagliani began the conversation, engrossed it so thoroughly, and spoke with so much. volubility, that the Abbé Raynal could not find the least opening to introduce a word: upon which, turning towards his friend, he said in a low voice, "s'il crache, il est per"du."—If he stops to spit, he is undone.

Presumption has so much height and so little basis, that it is easy to overthrow it. Memoirs of Madame de Staël.

103. SINGULAR REMARK OF MR. WHITFIELD.

Mr. Whitfield was reproached with having set the hymns which were sung in his chapel, to airs which were known to belong to some profane songs. When he was remonstrated with upon this subject," would 66 you wish," said he, "that the Devil "should keep all the fine tunes to him"self?"

104. BEAUTIFUL DISTICH BY ALMATEO.

A very pretty girl, who was blind of the right eye, had a brother who was blind of the left eye. The following distich, by Amalteo, upon that circumstance, is worthy of the finest days of Latinity.

Blande puer! lumen quod habes concede sorori ;
Sic tu cœcus Amor, sic erit illa Venus.

105. THREE WONDERFUL GENERATIONS.

M. de la Musanchère, Bishop of Nantes, died at the age of eighty. His father was eighty-one when he came into the world; and his grandfather was eighty-four when his father was born; so that there were 245 years between the birth of his grandfather and his own death.

106. BON-MOT OF M. DE GOUVERNET.

M. de Gouvernet dining one day, in the year 1793, at London, with the Chevalière d'Eon, at the time when she was talking of going to France, to put herself at the head

of a legion, asked her if it would be a legion of fishwomen.

107. PROMPT REPARTEE OF a Swede.

During the time that the King of Sweden was at Paris, in 1771, a lady once said of him to a Swede : "Votre Roi est une " téte"—"Couronnée, Madame," replied he, interrupting her.

108. SYSTEM OF THE BEautiful.

Of all those who have treated on the Beautiful, Father André, a Jesuit, is the only one who has given clear ideas of it, and who has laid down certain principles for discerning it. Plato, among the au cients, discusses this subject in his dialogue of Hippias; but after telling us for a long time what the Beautiful is not, he leaves us in ignorance of what it is. Plu tarch and St. Augustin have laid down the principle which constitutes the Beautiful. The former in his discourse, περι τῇ ἀκούειν, says: τὸ μεν καλὸν ἐκ πολλῶν οἶον ἀριθμῶν εἰς ἕνα καιρὸν ἡκόντων, ὑπό συμμετρίας τινὸς καὶ ἁρμονίας

ἐπιτελεῖται: ITEMENTAL: (vide No. 77). It is variety reduced to unity by harmony and symmetry; and it is this idea which Father André has so well developed in his work. St. Augustin has also advanced, that omnis porrò pulchritudinis forma unitas est. Epist. 18. edit. P. P. Benedict. The expression of the latter is not so complete as that of Plutarch, but it tends to the same principle. Let us see, in a few words, how Father André has developed this idea of Plutarch.

He lays down several sorts of Beautiful: the moral Beautiful, the sensible or visible Beautiful, the musical Beautiful, and the Beautiful in works of the mind.

In the moral Beautiful, there are three sorts of the Beautiful.-The essential moral Beautiful, or the conformity of the heart with essential order, which is the law of all intelligences. The natural moral Beautiful, or the conformity of the heart with natural order, which is the general law of all human nature. The civil moral Beautiful, which is the common law of all men, united under the same body, either of city or state. This applies to every species of govern

ment; it is the will of all, united under one. In the conduct of an individual, as well as in the conduct of a state, every act should tend to the same end: it is, therefore, variety reduced to unity, that always constitutes the Beautiful.

Likewise, in the visible Beautiful, it is the agreement which results from the proportions which nature and art have established in their productions; an assemblage of parts, so well arranged by the aid of symmetry, that the whole may be embraced at one glance.

Also for the musical Beautiful, all the parts of a concert, the voices, the different instruments, ought to be so completely in accord, that they form a beautiful harmony, which the car may seize as a single sound.

By pursuing this ingenious principle we shall find, that it may be equally applied to a picture, a poem, a garden, a building, &c. Father André's Essay on this subject, is not so well known as it deserves: I will venture to say, however, that it is the best work for forming the taste. See No. 77.