to deceive the giea 
< 
204. 
fuminaries of philofophy (as, for inftance, 
Rouffeau and Voltaire) have been fuf- 
ficient to infure his fatety : for thofe.men, 
too, had died in the bofom of arifto- 
cracy. 
He was faved by the prefence of mind 
and the refolution of his exalted wite. 
Houdon had finifhed a marble ftatue of a 
female faint, which had, fome years pre- 
vious to the revolution, been befpoken of 
him for a convent in Paris. That faint 
was reprefented in a very fimple ftyle, 
without any myftical attributes, and re- 
fembled a ftatue of Philofophy, holding 
an open book in her hand. Madame 
Houdon turned this circumftance to ads 
vantase: knowing that her hufband was 
threatened, fhe repaired to the committee 
ef public fafety, under whofe iron rod 
all France bowed the neck. She there 
met Barrere, who inftantly reproached 
her that her hufband was a bad republi- 
can, fince he had not yet produced any 
patriotic Wes ‘¢ HouDON,” cae 
Extradés from the Port Folio of a Man of Letters. 
fhe calmly, 
[ Sept. 
<¢ has executed a ftatue of 
Philofophy : come and fee it in his work- 
fhop. Philofophy levelled the road tor 
the revolution: fhe therefore claims 
her ftation by the fide of Liberty in the 
Temple of the kaw,’’—Barrere co-m- 
cided with her idea. “ ’Fis a good 
thought :” faid he: *‘* I approve your 
motion, and will immediately communi- 
cate it to the committee.” Accordingly 
that eccentric mortal, who flattered the 
ruling party—who poffeffed no energy, no 
will ae his own—who was ever in con- 
tradition with himfelf, but who was 
neverthelefs fufceptible on fome laudable 
impreffions—fupported the propofition 
with eager zeal. The ftatue of the quon- 
dam faint, now fuddenly converted into 
the figure of Philofophy, was conveyed 
from HovpDoNn’s work- -inop, and placed 
in the outward hall of the Convention 
(now the Council of Antients), where it 
yet flands: and thus Houpow was 
faved. 

Ep 
MOLIERE. 
N Moliere’s comedy ‘ Le Medecin 
malgré lui,” Seanarelle {mgs.a ftanza. 
in praife of his bottle. The prefident 
Rofe being one day in company 
Moliere at a, large party, accufed him, 
with a ferious air, of plagiarifm, in 
having appropriated to himfelf this fan- 
ies aaa not having acknowledged the 
real author. Moliere ftrongly perfifted 
that 1t was his own; Rofe replied, that it 
was De tranflation of a Latin epi- 
gram, which was itfelf an imitation from 
the Greek. Moliere defied him to pro- 
duce this epigram: Rofe recited immedi- 
ately one that he had made. The latinity 
of it had fufficient of the ancient ftyle, 
teft connoifieurs in this 
kind of writing... Moliere was confound- 
ed; and his friend, after having enjoyed 
fe a moment his embar a avowed 
himfelf to be the author or the epigram. 
The following are the ftanza and the 
tranflation: 
Ow ils font doux, 
Bonteille jolie, 
Ow ils fo: nt doux 
Vos petits glou-gloux! 
Mais mon fort feroit bien des jaloux, 
Ml vous etiez toujours remplie 5 
Ah! bouteille m’ amie, 
Pourguoi vous vuldes vous? 
= 
Quan: dulcis, 
Amphora aneena, 
Quam dulces 
ow 
Sunt tue voces] 
with- 
- 
year 1642, 
man commoner of Trinity college 
~ coniider Ale affiftance. 
tracts from the Be ae af a Man of Letters. 
Dum fundis merum in Calices, 
Utinam femper effes plena! 
Ah! cara mea lagena, 
Vacua cur jaces ; 
A fimilar anecdote is related of Pope 
and Parnell, in the life of the latter; but 
as its fufficiently known, it need nee be 
ere related. S.E. 
JoHn AUBREY 
Was a native of Eafton Piers in Wilt- 
fhire, and was educated at the gram- 
mar-{chool, at Malmefbury. In the 
he was entered a gentle- 
S e- 
ford, and foon became acquainted with 
Anthony Wood, to wnofe compilations 
re{pecting that univelfity he afforded 
Tn 1646 | he was 
admitted a ftudent of the Middle Tem- 
ple; but being involved in fome law- 
fuits, in confequence of the death of 
his father, who had eftates in feveral 
counties, he left off the ftudy of the law 
as a profeffional man, but profecuted 
with confiderable ardour the ftudy of an- 
tiquities, In 1660, he went to Ireland, 
and three years after he fpent a fhort time 
in France. He was one of the earlieft 
members of the royal fociety. The ex- 
pentive ee in which he was in- 
volved, length reduced him e yen toa 
ftate of mdischee, The time of his death 
1s not exactly afcertained ; but it appears 
to have been in the year 1700, on the 
\ road, 
