a fpecious argument. The patriotic and political defign of the Georgics is happily conceived; and any probable conjecture, which tends to raise the dignity of the poet and the poem, deferves to be adopted, without a rigid fcrutiny. Some dawnings of a philofophic fpirit enlighten the general remarks on the study of history and of man. I an. not difpleased with the inquiry into the origin and nature of the gods of polytheifm, which might deferve the illuftration of a riper judgment. Upon the whole, I may apply to the firft labour of my pen the speech of a far fuperior artist, when he furveyed the first productions of his pencil. After viewing fome portraits which he had painted in his youth, my friend Sir Joshua Reynolds acknowledged to me, that he was rather humbled than flattered by the comparison with his prefent works; and that after so much time and study, he had conceived his improvement to be much greater than he found it to have been.

At Laufanne I compofed the firft chapters of my Effay in French, the familiar language of my conversation and ftudies, in which it was easier for me to write than in my mother-tongue. After my return to England I continued the fame practice, without any affectation, or defign of repudiating (as Dr. Bentley would fay) my vernacular idiom. But I fhould have efcaped fome Anti-gallican clamour, had I been content with the more natural character of an Englifh author. I fhould have been more confiftent had I rejeeted Mallet's advice, of prefixing an English dedication to a French book; a confufion of tongues that feemed to accufe the ignorance of my patron. The ufe of a foreign dialect might be excufed by the hope of being employed as a negociator, by the defire of being generally understood on the continent; but my true motive was doubtlefs the ambition of new and fingular fame, an Englishman claiming a place among the writers of France. The Latin tongue had been confecrated by the fervice of the church, it was refined by the imitation of the ancients; and in the fifteenth and fixteenth ceuturies the fcholars of Europe enjoyed the advantage,

vantage, which they have gradually refigned, of converfing and writing in a common and learned idiom. As that idiom was no longer in any country the vulgar fpeech, they all stood on a level with each other; yet a citizen of old Rome might have smiled at the beft Latinity of the Germans and Britons and we may learn from the Ciceronianus of Erafmus, how difficult it was found to fteer a middle courfe between pedantry and barbarism. The Romans themselves had sometimes attempted a more perilous task, of writing in a living language, and appealing to the taste and judgment of the natives. The vanity of Tully was doubly interested in the Greek memoirs of his own confulfhip; and if he modeftly supposes that fome Latinifmns might be detected in his ftyle, he is confident of his own skill in the art of Isocrates and Aristotle; and he requests his friend Atticus to difperfe the copies of his work at Athens, and in the other cities of Greece, (ad Atticum, i. 19. ii. 1.) But it must not be forgotten, that from infancy to manhood Cicero and his contemporaries had read and declaimed, and compofed with equal diligence in both languages; and that he was not allowed to frequent a Latin fchool till he had imbibed the leffons of the Greek grammarians and rhetoricians. In modern times, the language of France has been diffused by the merit of her writers, the focial manners of the natives, the influence of the monarchy, and the exile of the proteftants. Several foreigners have seized the opportunity of Speaking to Europe in this common dialect, and Germany may plead the authority of Leibnitz and Frederic, of the firft of her philofophers, and the greatest of her kings. The juft pride and laudable prejudice of England has restrained this communication of idioms; and of all the nations on this fide of the Alps, my countrymen are the least practised, and leaft perfect in the exercise of the French tongue. By Sir William Temple and Lord Chesterfield it was only used on occafions of civility and bufinefs, and their printed letters will not be quoted as models of compofition. Lord Bolingbroke may have published in French a sketch of his

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Reflections on Exile: but his reputation now repofes on the addrefs of Voltaire, "Docte fermones utriufque linguæ ;" and by his English dedication to Queen Caroline, and his Effay on Epic Poetry, it fhould feem that Voltaire himself wifhed to deferve a return of the fame compliment. The exception of Count Hamilton cannot fairly be urged; though an Irishman by birth, he was educated in France from his childhood. Yet I am furprised that a long refidence in England, and the habits of domeftic converfation, did not affect the cafe and purity of his inimitable ftyle; and I re-. gret the omiffion of his English verses, which might have afforded an amufing object of comparison. I might therefore affume the primus ego in patriam, &c.; but with what fuccefs I have explored this untrodden path must be left to the decifion of my French readers. Dr. Maty, who might himself be queftioned as a foreigner, has fecured his retreat at my expence. Je ne crois pas que vous vous piquiez "d'être moins facile à reconnoitre pour un Anglois que "Lucullus pour un Romain." My friends at Paris have been more indulgent, they received me as a countryman, or at least as a provincial; but they were friends and Parifians*. The defects which Maty infinuates, "Ces traits "faillans, ces figures hardies, ce facrifice de la régle au "fentiment, et de la cadence à la force," are the faults of the youth, rather than of the stranger: and after the long and laborious exercife of my own language, I am conscious that my French ftyle has been ripened and improved.

I have already hinted, that the publication of my Effay was delayed till I had embraced the military profeffion. I shall now amufe myself with the recollection of an active fcene, which bears no affinity to any other period of my ftudious and focial life.

In

*The copious extracts which were given in the Journal Etranger by Mr. Suard, a judicious critic, muft fatisfy both the author and the public. I may here observe, that I have never seen in any literary review a tolerable account of my History. The manufacture of journals, at least on the continent, is miferably debafed.

In the outfet of a glorious war, the English people had been defended by the aid of German mercenaries. A national militia has been the cry of every patriot fince the Revolution; and this meafure, both in parliament and in the field, was fupported by the country gentlemen or Tories, who infenfibly transferred their loyalty to the houfe of Ha-. nover: in the language of Mr. Burke, they have changed the idol, but they have preferved the idolatry. In the act of offering our names and receiving our commiffions, as major and captain in the Hampshire regiment, (June 12th, 1759,) we had not fuppofed that we should be dragged away, my father from his farm, myfelf from my books, and condemned, during two years and a half, (May 10, 1760-December 23, 1762,) to a wandering life of military fervitude. But a weekly or monthly exercise of thirty thousand provincials would have left them ufelefs and ridiculous; and after the pretence of an invafion had vanifhed, the popularity of Mr. Pitt gave a fanction to the illegal step of keeping them till the end of the war under arms, in conftant pay and duty, and at a distance from their respective homes. When the King's order for our embodying came down, it was too late to retreat, and too foon to repent. The South battalion of the Hampshire militia was a small independent corps of four hundred and feventy-fix, officers and men, commanded by lieutenant-colonel Sir Thomas Worfley, who, after a prolix. and paffionate conteft, delivered us from the tyranny of the lord lieutenant, the Duke of Bolton. My proper ftation, as first captain, was at the head of my own, and afterwards of the grenadier company; but in the abfence, or even in the prefence, of the two field officers, I was entrusted by my friend and my father with the effective labour of dictating the orders, and exercifing the battalion. With the help of an original journal, I could write the hiftory of my bloodlefs and inglorious campaigns; but as these events have loft much of their importance in my own eyes, they fhall be dispatched in a few words. From Winchefter, the firft place of affembly, (June 4, 1760,) we were removed, at

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our own request, for the benefit of a foreign education. By the arbitrary, and often capricious, orders of the War-office, the battalion fucceffively marched to the pleafant and hofpitable Blandford (June 17); to Hilfea barracks, a feat of difeafe and difcord (September 1); to Cranbrook in the weald of Kent (December 11); to the fea-coaft of Dover (December 27); to Winchester camp (June 25, 1761); to the populous and diforderly town of Devizes (October 23); to Salisbury (February 28, 1762); to our beloved Blandford a fecond time (March 9); and finally, to the fashionable refort of Southampton (June 2); where the colours were fixed till our final diffolution (December 23). On the beach at Dover we had exercised in fight of the Gallic fhores. But the moft fplendid and ufeful fcene of our life was a four months encampment on Winchester Down, under the command of the Earl of Effingham. Our army confifted of the thirty-fourth regiment of foot and fix militia corps. The confcioufness of our defects was ftimulated by friendly emulation. We improved our time and opportunities in morning and evening field-days: and in the general reviews the South Hampshire were rather a credit than a difgrace to the line. In our fubfequent quarters of the Devizes and Blandford, we advanced with a quick step in our military studies; the ballot of the enfuing fummer renewed our vigour and youth; and had the militia fubfifted another year, we might have contefted the prize with the most perfect of our brethren.

The lofs of fo many bufy and idle hours was not compenfated by any elegant pleafure; and my temper was infenfibly foured by the fociety of our ruftic officers. In every state there exifts, however, a balance of good and evil. The habits of a fedentary life were usefully broken by the duties of an active profeffion: in the healthful exercife of the field I hunted with a battalion, instead of a pack; and at that time I was ready, at any hour of the day or night, to fly from quarters to London, from London to quarters, on the flightest call of private or regimental bufinefs. But my