the king with equal accuracy. The principal ftrokes of it cannot be miflaken. His virtues, if he can be faid to have poffeffed any, were thofe of policy and artifice: his vices, of difpofition and the heart. Even his understanding, though clear, fagacious, and difcerning, was frequently fo fine and fubtle, that it mifled him by its own cunning, and overfhot his purFofes. France however continued to rife in the fcale of empire. Charles VII. laid the foundation of this aggrandifement, by his expulfion of the English. Louis added Burgundy, Artois, and Provence to the crown. Only Bretagne remained, of the great fiefs, unannexed.

The malignant and unamiable character of Louis did not prevent him from fome gallantries. Hiftory has preferved the names of feveral fucceffive miftreffes to whom be was attached. Margaret de Saffenage is the most known and celebrated: fhe died before his acceffion to the crown: but we never find that any of them influenced the king, or affumed the leaft command over affairs of state. By his first wife, the princefs Margaret of Scotland, he had no illue; nor does it appear that he even confummated the marriage, or cohabited with her, on account of fome fecret defect in her perfon. His queen, Charlotte of Savoy, an amiable woman, only furvived him three months.

I have permitted my felf to run into a greater prolixity on this reign, than I generally intend-poffibly greater than was requifite. I mean to intereft, rather than inftru&t; and this end can only be attained by an enumeration of those feemingly trifling circumstances; which yet often difplay the picture of human nature with more fidelity, than the greater actions of the monarch, obfcured by the veil of policy.'

The Memoirs conclude with the death of Charles IX. whofe fucceffor, Henry III. being likewife of the family of Valois, ought to have had a place in the narrative, to complete the author's plan. For omitting this reign, however, Mr. Wraxall pleads as an apology, that languor of mind, which naturally refults from a continued application to one object; and he intimates an intention of hereafter refuming the subject, if what is now offered to the public fhould meet with their ap probation. But how far Mr. Wraxall is juftifiable in omitting a reign of fo much importance, which was included in his plan, we leave his readers to determine.

In regard to facts and characters, Mr. Wraxall appears to have adhered impartially to the information of hiftorians, Some anecdotes indeed are introduced which ftand upon doubtful authority, but they relate chiefly to tranfactions of the most fecret nature, and which could not therefore be fully authenticated. It is incumbent upon us to acknowledge, that the author has rendered the work interefting; and that though fometimes we meet with tranfient ftrokes of juvenility,

he

he yet discovers difcernment and reflection, and writes in fuch ftyle as is not derogatory to the rank of this species of compofition.

In the Tour through France we first join company with the author at Carenten in Low Normandy, the 26th of Auguft, 1775; where we are entertained with a particular ac count of Cherbourg, a place frequently mentioned in the English hiftory during the time of the Norman princes, Cherbourgh is allowed to be of high antiquity, as is confirmed by the coins of feveral Roman emperors dug up here at dif ferent periods; and according to tradition, the beautiful "Val-de-Saire," which lies at fome diftance. is faid to be a corruption of " Val-de-Ceres," fo called by the Romans in honour of that goddess, from the extraordinary fertility of the foil.

Next follows a particular account of the city of Coutances, and Granville, which pleafes not only by the apparent accuracy of the defcription, but by the hiftorical anecdotes with which it is enlivened. The author afterwards directs his courfe by St. Malo, Nantes, Rochelle, and Bourdeaux to the province of Bearn, where we find an entertaining account of the castle of Pau, the birth place of Henry IV.

The route which Mr. Wraxall afterwards takes is by Bayonne, Toulouse, Beziers, and Montpelier, to Marseilles. The profpect from Montpelier he acknowledges to be fuch as exceeds the power of defcription, though it must be owned that this is a talent in which our author is far from being defective. He remarks that Frejus, between Toulon and Antibes, where the emperor Auguftus laid up his gallies after the battle of Actium, is now an inland city; and likewife that Aigues-mortes, formerly a city of great commerce, and the place of an interview between Charles V. and Francis I. is at prefent half a league from the shore.

Proceeding by the way of Avignon, Mr. Wraxall vifits the celebrated Vauclufe, once the refidence of Petrarch, and which our author feems to have furveyed with the enthufiaftic veneration natural to a man of genius and tafte. His progre's is afterwards directed through Bourges in Berri, Blois, Tours, and Mans, to Rouen; where we take our leave of this traveller, after receiving pleasure from the liveliness of his defcriptions, ad propriety of his remarks, as well as from the from the numerous anecdotes which he has interspersed in the course of thefe Letters.

Gg. 4

An Apology for Chriftianity, in a series of Letters, addressed to Edward Gibbon, Efq. Auther of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." By R. Watson, D. D. Small 8vo. 21. White.

IT is to be lamented, that an author of fuperior abilities, when he is writing the hiftory of a particular period, in which he has occafion to fpeak of Chriftianity, fhould indulge himself in obfervations on that fubject, which muft neceffarily give pain to every intelligent and impartial reader.

Reflections, calculated to difparage a religion, which bears the most inconteftib'e marks of divinity, cannot poffibly arife from knowledge or from reafon; but either from infidelity, from falfe ideas, from a love of fpeculation, or an ambition to be thought fuperior to the common prejudices of mankind, and the weakness of a fuperftitious credulity.

We are concerned to find the ingenious author of the fiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, reprehenfible in this refpect. To the enquiry, by what means the Chriftian faith obtained so remarkable a victory over the eftablished religions of the earth, he rightly answers, by the evidence of the doctrine itfelf, and the ruling providence of its author. But afterwards, in affigning for this astonishing event five fecondary caufes, derived from the paffions of the human heart, and the general circumftances of mankind, he feems to fome to have infinuated, that Chriftianity, like other impoftures, might have made its way in the world, though its origin had been as human, as the means by which he fuppofes it was spread.

The author of the Apology does not attempt to fix the odium of this infinuation on Mr. Gibbon, but only endeavours to fhew, that the causes, which that writer produces, are either inadequate to the attainment of the end propofed; or that their efficiency was derived from other principles than those, which he has thought proper to mention.

The first caufe, afligned by the hiftorian, is, "the inflexible, and, if he may use the expreflion, the intolerant zeal of the Chriftians, derived, it is true, from the Jewish religion, but purified from the narrow and unfocial spirit, which, inftead of inviting, had deterred the gentiles from embracing the law of Mofes."

The apol gift acknowledges, that the zeal of the Chriftians was inflexible, as nothing could bend it into a feparation from the love of God, which was in Chrift Jefus; and that it was intolerant, as it denounced tribulation and anguish upon every foul of man' that did evil; yet as to the principle,

from

from which it was derived, he totally differs from the hiftorian; not deducing it from the Jewish religion, but from a full perfuafion of the truth of Christianity. That this was its real fource, he demonftrates from the conduct of St. Peter, when he upbraided the whole people of the Jews, in the very capital of Judea, with having delivered up Jefus, with having denied him in the prefence of Pilate, &c. and from the conduct of Peter and John, who, when they were summoned before the tribunal of the Jewish nation, and commanded to teach no more in the name of Jefus, boldly answered, that they could not but speak the things, which they had seen and beard. He adds it is a matter of real aftonishment to me, that any one, converfant with the history of the first propa gation of Chriftianity, acquainted with the oppofition it every where met with from the people of the Jews, and aware of the repugnancy, which must ever fubfift between its tenets and thofe of Judaism, fhould ever think of deriving the zeal of the primitive Chriftians from the Jewish religion.'

"The doârine of a future life, improved by every additional circumftance, which could give weight and efficacy to that important truth," is the fecond of the causes, to which the hiftorian attributes the quick increafe of Chriftianity.

The apologift replies: If we impartially confider the circumftances of the perfons, to whom the doctrine, not fimply of a future life, but of a future life accompanied with punishments, as well as rewards; not only of the immortality of the foul, but of the immortality of the foul accompanied with that of the refurrection, was delivered, I cannot be of opinion, that abftracted from the fupernatural teftimony, by which it was enforced, it could have met with any very extenfive reception amongst them.'

The hiftorian fuppofes, that the doctrines of Chrift's speedy appearance, of the Millennium, and of the general conflagration, were amongst thofe additional circumstances, which gave weight to that concerning a future ftate.

That this opinion, even in the times of the apoftles, had made its way into the chriftian church, the apologist readily admits: but, at the fame time, produces a proof, that the apoftles neither comforted themfelves, nor encouraged others, with the hope of feeing their Mafter coming again into the world.

It is evident, he fays, that St. John could not have any fuch expectation, fince, in the book of the Revelation, the future events of the chriftian church, which were not to take place, many of them, till a long feries of years after his death, and fome of which have not yet been accomplished, are there mi.

8

minutely described. He obferves, that St. Paul, in his fecond epiftle to the Theffalonians, defcribes a falling away, a great corruption of the Chriftian church, which was to happen before the day of the Lord; and that, in his first epistle to Timothy, he affures us, that, in fome diftant period, fome fhould apoftatize from the faith, giving heed to erroneous fpirits, &c. plainly alluding to the erroneous tenets of the church of Rome.

The author proceeds to fhew, that the expectation of the Millennium was not derived from the apoftles, nor ever generally received in the Chriftian church; and therefore could not give weight to the doctrine of a future ftate. The third circumftance, he says, the general conflagration, seems to be effectually included in the first, the fpeedy coming of Chrift.

The hiftorian efteems" the miraculous powers afcribed to the primitive church, as the third of the fecondary causes of the rapid growth of Christianity."

The apologist does not take upon him to affert, that all the miracles recorded in the hiftory of the primitive church, after the apoftolic age, were forgeries; it is foreign, he says. to the prefent purpofe to deliver any opinion upon that fubject; but he infifts, that fuch of them as were forgeries, muft, in that learned age, by their eafy detection, have rather impeded than accelerated the progrefs of Chriftianity; and nothing, he thinks, but the recent prevailing evidence of real, unqueftioned, apoftolical miracles, could have fecured the infant church from being deftroyed by thofe, which were falfely ascribed to it.

It is natural to imagine, that every fpecies of miracles, which heaven had enabled the first preachers to perform, would be counterfeited; either from mifguided zeal, or interefted cunning, either through the imbecility, or the iniquity of mankind. But we might just as reasonably conclude, that there never was any piety, charity, or chastity in the world, from feeing fuch a number of pretenders to thefe virtues, as that there never were any real miracles performed, from confidering the great store of those, which have been forged.

On this occafion, our author fuggefts fome very rational obfrvations on the credibility of miracles in general.

The hiftorian affigns 5. the virtues of the first Chriftians," as the fourth cau'e, which greatly conduced to the spreading of their religion; but then he fpoils the compliment he pays them, by reprefenting their virtues as proceeding either from their repentance, for having been the most abandoned finners, or from the defire of fupporting the reputation of the fociety, in which they were engaged.