
166 Mrs. Webber on Mrs. Langhans’s Monument, ~ 
exad veverfe of all other ftates, ancient 
and modern,—all, all, arife from one 
fusple caufe: | 
fis government is the exad reverfe of moft 
ethers, becaufe itis ibe province of men of 
teiters; becauje it is the facred prerogative 
af MIND culy 5 while mol? others are aban- 
aoned ta caurt intrigues,—to the wickednefs 
aud ignorance of men of renk and property 
—ta tygers, fometunes celled warriors, 
fometimes flyled heroes—idiot favourites— 
Lereditary fiupidity—the yellow fever of 
corruption—brutal force and terror—and 
the cori of all plagues, perwere, ignorant, 
Projfgate minifters, who in China would 
62 burned, if they afpired to the loweft rank 
af Mandarins. Di 
eS a eee 
Zo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SER, ’ 
‘T has often been the misfortune of the 
writers of travels to deceive their rea- 
‘ders, by magnifying, in the livelinefs of 
their imagination, the objeéts they de- 
feribe; or to be themfelves deceived by 
the idle tales of the Ciceroni in Italy, and 
im other countries by thofe of the valets 
de place who generally accompany them. 
E have lately met with two inftances of the 
eirors into which the travellers were led 
by the univerfal love of mankind for the 
wonderful. Give me leave, Sir, to cor- 
re€t'them in your interefting Magazine. 
Pretending to know more than is com- 
_ moniy-known in England about the hif 
tory of the fo juftly famous Mrs. Lang- 
hans’smcnument, at Hindelbank, near 
Berne, Dr. SmirH* attributes its ori- 
gin to fome revengetul feelings in Mr. 
Nabl, the feulpter, who thought himfelf 
diferaced bythe painting and gilding the 
family of D’E----, had caufed to be 
daubed over the fuperb maufoleum he 
had ereSted to one of their relations in the 
fame church. “The learned Dr. will, I 
hope, give credit to a native of Berne, 
and niece of Mrs. Langhans, when fhe 
afferts, that he knows, and has written 
even more than what is commonly known 
in Switzerland, and in the farnily ef this 
lady. ‘Fhe anecdote with which he has 
amufed his readers is as fabulous, though 
not fo much fentimental,.as that of 
MAayeERt. 4 
He has feigned that the ftatuary, while 
he was occupied in erecting a fuperb mo- 


* Vol. iii. p. 176. ** Tour on the Continent 
in 2936 and 2787,” &c. 
+ “ Tableau Hiftorigue, Politique et -Pbilo- 
Agha de la Suiffe,” p. 22, lettre xx. de 
Renee! 
nument to vanity in a country villagés 
becgme patfiionately enamoured, of the 
curate’s wife, a beautiful woman in the 
prime of life, and that, a deeply. con- 
cerned witnefs of her untimely death, he 
thought of. immortalizing at once, his 
tendernefs and her deplorable fate. . 
Permit me, Sir, to contradiét thofe 
two ftories, equally founded on truth. 
‘Mrs. Langhans was truly beautiful, and 
ofthe moit amiable difpofition ; but the 
tender fympathy for the grief of an incon- 
{clable huiband, the unanimous prayers 
ot a flock by whom the curate and his 
wife were fincerely beloved, and who re- 
warded the labours of the artift, deter- 
mined, alone, Mr. Nabl, a Pruffian feulp- 
tor, to exert his great talents on this 
mournful oecafion. The love of truth, 
and the tender care for the facred memory 
of .a relation, much efteemed and re- 
fpected, prompt me to defire you to infert 
this letter in your Magazine. . 
I will not attempt a defcription of this 
monument, fo often given in many Eng- 
lifh beoks of travels, and known by 2 
fine French print, and an Enelifh one 
after it; botk, it muit be confefied, give 
avery inadequate idea of it. If, then, 
fome amateurs of arts, after the reading 
of this letter, and of the various accounts 
of travellers, would with’ to fee its ori- 
ginal model, made by the ftatwary him- 
felt, whichis in my poflefion, I would 
very willingly gratify their curiofity. 
Tam, Sir, your humble fervant, 
ELIZABETH WEBBER. 
No.8, Mount-fircet, Berkley-/quare, 
“Gate Dec orate 
SS ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
G. in anfwer to N.’squeftion re- 
e fpecting what is meant by ‘the 
‘© communion of faints,” has, after 2 
proteftant divine, given only a partial 
view of the fubject. This article of se 
ancient creed, referred by the tradition 
of the church to the apoftles themfelves, 
comprizes one of the leading degmata of 
the catholic religion: it does not merely 
exprefs, according to B. G.’s quotation 
from Archbifhop Secker, “‘ that eommu- 
nion of benevolence, kind offices, inftruc- 
tion, and edification, whieh fhould be 
among all good chriftians;”” but as 2 
point of the orthodox creed, acknowledged 
by the fathers of the church, further im- 
plies, that. the faithful on earth commu- 
nicateé, or are in communion with the 
angels, and izintsin heaven. It has in- 
deed been the general belief of Chriftians 
from, 
