494 
XN 
No farther feek her merits to difclofe, 
Or draw her frailties from the dread abode; 
There they alike in trembling hope repofe, 
The bofom of her Father and her God! 
The Life of Catherine the Second, Iate 
Emprefs of Ruffia, has employed the pen 
of many a catchpenny fcribbler: the only 
work of any merit which has hitherto 
appeared ‘on this fubject is tranilated in 
three o&tavo volumes from the French. 
During the reign of this moft extraordi- 
nary woman, the throne of Ruflia in- 
finuated the creeping fibres of its root 
into every court of Europe; and, im- 
bibing from each fome falutary juice, 
converted it immediately to nutrition: 
the growth of the plant was wonderful 
and alarming! Mr. Marx Nos e has 
degraded the dignity of a biographer in 
his “* Lives of the Englifh Regicides,”’ 
&c. Surely, had this gentleman been 
difpofed to vent his idle rage againft the 
French, he might have found fome me- 
thod’ lefs difcreditable to his own cha- 
raéter as an author, than that which he 
has adopted of converting the hiftory of 
a paft period into a vehicle of party po- 
itics; but the extreme folly and grofs 
illiberality of calumniating a Bradfhaw, 
a Ludlow, and a Sidney, unite to form a 
very efficacious antidote againft the poi- 
fon which his malighity had prepared. 
Mr. AsprRyY CONGREVE’s ** Memozrs 
of the late Mr. Gharles Macklin’? are en- 
tertaining, and it 1s probable authentic. 
Mr. ALmon, the author of thofe inte- 
refting ‘* Anecdotes,’ which appeared 
fome year or two fince, °¢ of the late Earl 
of Chatham,” has publifhed fome ¢* Bio- 
graphical, Lierary, and Political Anecdotes 
of feveral of the moft eminent Persons of 
the prefent Age.’ ‘Thefe fketches are of 
very unequal merit. A new edition has 
appeared, in fifteen volumes, of the 
<< General Biographical Didtionary.’ It 
is enriched by a few improvements, and a 
copious addition of new matter. Works 
of this fort are ufeful as references inthe 
reading of hiftory ; but where the bio- 
graphy of fome thoufand men is com- 
prefled into a few oftavo volumes, it 
muit neceflarily be meagre; and where 
the documents are many of them doubt. 
ful; it muft neceffarily merit but a 
cautious confidence. ‘The prefent, how- 
ever, is a uleful work. Not fo the 
“© Literary Memoirs of living Authors of 
Great Britain,” which are colleéted by a 
writer whofe tafte, judgment, and criti- 
cal acumen, are all of them incompetent 
to fo arduous a performance, and whote 
grofs purtiality and prejudice are dif- 
Half-yearly Retrofpect of Britifh Literature. 
graceful to it. A new edition has made 
its appearance of Pilkington’s “© Dic. 
tionary of Painters; to which is added 
a Supplement, the production of Dr. 
WoLcorT (more generally known, per= 
haps, by the name of Peter Pindar). 
This fupplement profefies to give anec- 
dotes of the lateft and moft celebrated 
artifts; naany names, however, of well- 
earned celebrity are omitted. To this 
work are added Remarks on the prefent 
State of Painting by the Royal Aca-. 
demician, Mr. Barry. The catalogue 
ef biographical works, we believe, is 
completed with the addition of Mr. 
Heron’s ‘** Account of the Life of Mu- 
ley Leixit, late Emperor cf Morocco.” 
The author of this trait, it feems—for 
“Mr. Heron tranflates. it from the 
French—was a fecret agent at the 
foorifh court, from the cabinet of 
Spain; againft which country Muley 
Leizit [Mula Al Yezid] harboured pe- 
culiar inveteracy, This agent, in con- 
junction with a military commander, 
named Ben Nafer, fomented a confpi- 
racy againft the tyrant, and by hisin-_ 
trigues at length accomplifhed his fall. 
It is evident, therefore, that our anony- 
mous biographer, however pure were the 
fources of his information, is not to be 
implicitly relied on. ‘The atrecious, the 
difgufting, the unnatural crimes, which 
are faid to conftitute almeft the fole an- 
nals of Mula Al Yezid’s reign, will not 
be credited, perhaps, in their full extent. 
Mr. Heron has judicioufly fubjoined 
to this hideous account, ‘* A fhort View 
of the Moorifh Hiftory from the earlieft 
Times to the Acceflion of Muley Leizit ; 
with a philofophical Inquiry imto the 
Cavfes which have hitherto retarded the 
Civilization of the Moors.” 
CLASSICAL LITERATURE. | 
The learned Prebendary of Durham, 
Mr. Bureess, has added to a republi- 
eation of Ariftotle’s ‘* Peplos” three In- 
{criptions, till now unpublifhed, from a 
manufcript in the Harlean Colleétion. 
The editor of this fall and infignificant 
original has fuffered an unpardonable 
abundance of typographical errors to 
creep into his text. We are indebted to 
a Britith fenator, Mr. DRUMMOND, for 
a tranflation of the ‘* Satires of Perfius.” 
This arduous tafk’is introduced by a 
prologue, wherein Mr. D. appears to 
much advantage as an original poet ; and 
by a very elegant preface, where the com- 
parative merits of the three Roman fa- 
tirifts, Horace, Juvenal, and Perfius, are 
{ketched with the hand of a mafter. The_ 
tranflations 
