I'jgO. LITERARY INTELLIGENCER. 35 



ments which beautify and foften private foclety, are to be 

 diiTolved by this new conquering empire of light and reafon. 

 All the decent drapery of life is to be rudely torn off : all 

 the fuperadded ideas furnifhed from the wardrobe of a moral 

 Imagination, which the heart owns, and the underltanding 

 ratifies, as neceffary to cover the defefts of our naked ftiiver- 

 ing nature, and to raife it to dignity in our own efliraation, 

 are to be exploded as a ridiculous, abfurd, and antiquated 

 failiion. 



On this fcheme of things, a king Is but a man j a queen 

 is but a woman ; a woman is but an animal, and an animal 

 not of the higheft order. All homage paid to the fex in 

 general as fuch, and without diftinft views, is to be regard- 

 ed as romance and folly. Regicide, and paricide, and fa- 

 crllege, are but fi^llons of fuperftition, corrupting jurlfpru- 

 dence by deftroying its Simplicity. The murder of a king, 

 or a queen, or a bllhop, or a father, are only common ho- 

 micide ; and if the people are by any chance, or in any 

 way gainers by It, a fort of homicide much the moft pardon- 

 able, and Into which we ought not to make too fevere a 

 fcrutiny. 



LiTERARr Intelligence. 



Voltaire has writtten an eulogy on the age of Lewis the 

 fourteenth : nor can It be denied, that In regard to polite 

 literature and the belles lettres, France, during that period, 

 made a moft confpicuous figure in the republic of letters. 

 It is, however, highly probable, that in future ages the hl- 

 ftory of the eighteenth century wUl afford a more ample 

 field for the literary hiftorian, becaufe of the many impor- 

 tant difcoveries in all branches of fcience, and ufeful arts, 

 that have been made during that period. I'he field is too 

 ample to be entered on at prefent. Referving for a future 

 period fome detached accounts of the moft iitportant ob- 

 jecls that have occurred in it, we muft confine our views to 

 the communicating to our readers fome of the more recent 

 difcoveries ; for fcarce a day In this bufy period elapfcs, 

 without bringing fomething to light that was not known 

 before. 



