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a light, we returned by a different paffage, not more than half the length of that by which we entered. I was detained, however, to obferve a chamber hollowed in the rock, containing a fquare table in the middle, furrounded by cushioned benches; four chandeliers illuminated with wax hung from the top of the vault, and the rock was wainscotted to the height of five feet. In this chamber the council of the mines meets twice a year; and there is a kitchen and cellar hewn in the rock, for the accommodation of the company who dine in it upon this occafion.'

A fmall quantity of gold and filver has occafionally been found in the mines near Fahlun. But the labour of extracting them gives to these precious metals a negative value. Our author faw a ducat of gold, which had been produced at the expence of four times its real worth. There is, however, a filver mine at Sahla of confiderable value, but relatively fmall, when compared with that of iron at Dannemora, which may be called the Peru of Sweden, fince its produce is the chief fupport of the trade in that country.

Though a journey through Sweden must be uncomfortable from the miferable ftate of the inns, which in fummer, for want of cleanliness, abound with every kind of vermin; yet the excellence of the public roads, and the order established for the conftant supply of horfes, render travelling very expeditious. In all the high, and even in the crofs-roads, we are told, poftmafters are appointed, who are alfo a kind of inn-keepers, having under their direction a certain number of peafants. In their turn, and in proportion to the value of their farms, thefe peasants are obliged to provide one or two fervants, with one, two, three, four, or more horses, which remain in waiting for twenty-four hours, and are then fucceeded by others. If any traveller arrives, they are paid for their time and trouble; if not, they lose both. These fervices are too rigorous, and too injurious to agriculture, not to be fometimes evaded; and we find that during harveft they are not very ftrictly exacted.

After investigating the internal commerce, the levied forces and national troops, and various other matters worthy of notice, the author gives an interesting description of Stockholm. The taste of Gustavus III. improved by his travels into France and Italy, has imported into that city the arts and pleasures of more genial climates. He has established an opera, a comedie Françoise, and a national theatre. Refpecting the laft, a little anecdote is related, which proves that the highest power and rank are obliged fometimes to fubmit to the impertinent caprice of favourite talents. The first actress in the national theatre,' fays our author, is a Danish woman, called Walter, the daughter of a ⚫ common failor, and educated at Copenhagen by a private

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perfon. She is handsome, and has many admirers, whom the delights herself with tormenting by a variety of caprices. very fingular inftance of her infolence is told here. Thinking < herself not fufficiently paid for her peformances, the petitioned ⚫ for an increase of falary, and one day spoke to the king about it with more spirit than usual. His majefty bid her be content with the prefent payments, and told her very positively they fhould never be increased. Very well; then I demand my difmiffion. You fhall neither be difmiffed nor better paid.'O! then I fhall make my efcape, fly from the country, and never fet my foot in it again. You may try, but will probably not find it very eafy to escape from the kingdom, < if I forbid it.'-A little while after, notwithstanding the watch • kept upon her, fhe did escape, and at the laft port wrote in the day-book, Sire, it is much eafier to escape from your king'dom than you fuppofe.' She defired this book might be fhewn to the king; and as a curiofity they fent it. She then went to Denmark, and fettled herself at Copenhagen, where the was known and received with great applaufe, when the king made her proposals to return. At first fhe treated them with difdain; but having at length obtained the fum demanded, she returned to Stockholm, to enjoy the triumph and congratulations that awaited her.'

Our author next gives an account of the Academy of Sciences, the Repofitory of Machines, the Obfervatory, the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, which fhews that the Swedes are advancing very rapidly in improvement.

Their humanity is not inferior to their tafte and knowledge. The charitable inftitutions established at Stockholm do them the highest honour. They have two houses for the reception of orphans, a foundling hofpital, and one for gratuitous inoculation. There are alfo two lying-in hofpitals. In these a certain number of women are received during their illness; and care is taken of thofe children whofe mothers are unable to nurse them. Besides these there is a college of medicine, whose general utility and benevolent defign deferve to be peculiarly noticed. Forty physicians, deputed by this college, and paid by the state, are fent into the different provinces to give attendance to the poor gratis.

Though our own country has many houfes of benevolence, whofe utility is equal to their splendour, yet there is one charitable foundation in which we are very much inferior to other nations. Our hofpital for foundlings is on a very limited scale, and little calculated to prevent thofe evils against which fuch an inftitution fhould provide. The murder of infants, and the selfdeftruction of an unhappy female illegally pregnant, are objects

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worthy of the notice of every well-regulated government. If an hofpital, fimilar to those at Paris and Stockholm, were supported by the parliament of England, to which the perfon who fhould bring an infant, instead of being rigorously queftioned, fhould receive a reward; the horrors of infanticide would no longer wound humanity: population, the fource of wealth and power, would be rapidly increased; and the expence which such an inftitution would coft government, would by its political effects be moft amply repaid.

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After a very fatisfactory defcription of Stockholm, the author endeavours to make his readers acquainted with Upfal, the capital of Upland, and the feat of a celebrated univerfity. Among other curious objects he paid particular attention to the ca thedral, which he represents as a noble building, and as containing the tombs of feveral Swedish monarchs. More anxious, perhaps, to pay a tribute of refpect to the remains of literary eminence than to thofe of regal dignity, our author inquired earneftly for the tomb of Linnæus. His conductor told him that no monument had been erected to that great man's memory, and that he was ignorant in what part of the cathedral he had been buried. At length, however; after a diligent fearch, upon a small stone, half hid by a bench, he discovered, Hic jacet Linnaus Profeffor.' Happily obferves this fenfible writer, his fame is already diffused by his works, and neither monument or epitaph is neceffary to prolong it. This confideration is however no excufe for a country which could treat the memory of its brightest ornament with fuch palpable neglect.

From Sweden our author, paffes to Denmark, and makes a comparison between these countries and their inhabitants. In Denmark, he fays, there are no rivers, and the whole country confifts of rifing hills, and open vallies, with a rich but ftony foil, and fome fmall lakes. In Sweden, on the contrary, the lakes and rivers are very large, and the eye perceives only mountains, rocks, vallies, and forefts. The Swedes are lively, laborious, and fufceptible of fudden attachments. The Danes, with an inclination to repofe, and a serious phlegmatic difpofition, are flower in forming friendships, but very conftant in preserving them. The women of both countries are handsome, amiable, and well-educated, having delicate, and, for the most part, fair complexions, blue eyes, and fine hair. The Swedish women are well made, have an animated air, expreffive countenance, and light figures; thofe of Denmark are duller, and inclined to become corpulent. The former feem more fufceptible of the defires, the latter of the tenderness, of love.

Befides a description of what fell under his immediate obfervation, our author gives an abridgment of the history of Sweden

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from the acceffion of Guftavus Vafa in 1523. To this is added an account of the life of the unfortunate Count Struenzee. From both these the reader may derive entertainment and inftruction; indeed, we venture to recommend the whole as a very useful work.

With refpect to the tranflation, if we except a few inaccuracies and gallicifms, it is clearly, if not elegantly, written. If Mr. Radcliffe fhould occupy himself with any future work in the French language, we would recommend to him to avoid fuch expreffions as thefe: under his orders, for, under his commandher bones lay, for lie-affifted at the public exercises, inftead of attended. Voiture and façade are alfo improperly used as English

words.

FOREIGN, LITERATUR E.

ART. XVI. Voyage de jeune Anacharfis en Grèce, dans le Milieu du Quatrième Siècle avant l'ère Vulgaire. 8vo. 7 vols.-There is alfo a Quarto Edition.

ART. XVI. Travels of a yoùng Anacharfis into Greece, &c. 8vo. 7 vols.

FOR this captivating work the world is indebted to the genius

and unwearied labours of the Abbé Barthelemy, with whofe name the friends of learning have long been acquainted. It has been his employment the greater part of his life; for two-andthirty years he has been exerting his powers, and bestowing uniform diligence to render it as complete a fyftem of Grecian learning as the nature of the plan he adopted would allow; that he has fucceeded in his undertaking, the univerfal fuffrages of his own nation display a noble and gratifying teftimony. No fooner was the book publicly announced, than the whole of the firft edition was fold off, and it was running rapidly through a fecond edition before the year was elapsed in which it first made its appearance.

The learned Abbé, fenfible of the power of fiction, by which he might as it were enchant and transport his reader from place to place, has thrown the work into the form of travels. However, the tour alone is ideal; all the fubjects it comprehends are the real facts of hiftory; and it is not poffible to confound them, even if the author had not beftowed fuch minute attention to authorities which he has referred to.

In order to give life to learning, and fet every thing in mo tion, he begins by making us acquainted with a child of his

own

own brain, with whom he engages us to travel; his tour the noblest and most delightful ever made upon the face of the earth. He gives him the name of the famous Anacharfis, the Scythian philofopher, informing us that he is his countryman and descendant. Young Anacharfis had from his earliest years been inspired with esteem for the Grecians, who had revered the virtues of his ancestor, and was in a great degree alienated from Scythia, whofe inhabitants, to a proverb, unaccustomed to fuperior merit, had paid no attention to that of their own philofopher, the only man among them who had ever deserved diftinction.

Thefe feelings were more and more excited by the converfation of a Grecian flave, whom he tells us he had purchased; for it is from the young Anacharfis himself that we have the detail of every thing; the author is no where seen in his own perfon, except in a short advertisement prefixed to the first volume, and in his notes and references to authorities. The flave whom the young Scythian had purchased was related to one of the principal families in Thebes; being a man of merit, he foon gained the affection of his mafter, a youth not eighteen, thirsting for knowledge, and in love with virtue. The descriptions that would naturally be detailed by the Grecian, could not fail to excite a defire of vifiting those delightful regions he had ever held in the highest eftimation. The more I knew him,' fays Anacharfis, the more I was fenfible of the fuperiority which ' enlightened nations poffefs over those that are not enlightened. 'Timagenes (the name of the Theban) at once delighted and humbled me by the charms of his converfation, and by the 'afcendency of his understanding. The hiftory of the Gre'cians, their manners, their governments, their arts and sciences, their feftivals, their public amufements, were the inexhaufti'ble fubject of our converfation. I asked him a thousand queftions; I listened to him with rapture; I was but just entered into my eighteenth year; my imagination added the livelieft 'colours to the fublimity of his pictures. I had feen nothing ' hitherto but tents, flocks, and deferts. No longer able to en'dure the wandering life I had led, or the profound ignorance ' in which I had lived, I refolved to forfake a climate where na( ture had scarcely provided for the wants of man, and a people 'that appeared to me to have no virtues, unless it be a virtue 'to be ignorant of fome vices.'

Glowing with thefe fentiments, and eager to put into execution the project he had formed, he begins by giving us an amiable proof of the nobleness of his heart. Timagenes had delighted and inftructed him, and he had bowed to the fuperior understanding of his flave; for fuch a man flavery was an unworthy ENG. REV. VOL. XV. FEB. 1790.

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