1799.) Proceedings of the National Infiitute, April 4th, 1799. 
cludes that the advantages of fuch an 
undertaking being public, and the incon- 
veniencies only perfonal, no room is left 
to hefitate. wee. 
In a memoir on the life and works of 
Plato, citizen DéLtisLE DESALES com- 
plains that the hiftory of that philofopher 
is disfigured in Apuleius, Diogenes Laer- 
tius, and other antients, by fables of little 
ingenuity. He confiders the author. of 
the Voyages of young Anacharfis as the 
only one among the moderns, who has 
{poken worthily of Plato, and who has 
not injudicioufly tranferibed anecdotes 
often improbable, judgments often calum- 
nious. Plato, at the court of Syracule, 
was called by his enemies the philofopher 
of princes; citizen Defales reftores to him 
the name of Prince of Philofophers. 
Citizen Defales has read alfo a memoir 
on national fovereignty, and thinks 
that, to treat this fubjeét properly, we 
fhould refer again to the epoch when 
Plato, in the groves of Academus, 
reafoned on the origin of civil fociety. 
This memoir contains a definition of fove- 
reignty, and an examen of its characters, 
of its atts, and of its guarantees. 
Citizen Mercrer has read three me- 
moirs; the firlt intitled, Con/iderations on 
Morals; the fecond, Views Political and 
Moral; and the third, dz hifforical Frag- 
enent on Cato the Cenfor. , 
One of the refults of the firt memoir, 
is that in order to decide, to conftrain 
events, man can do more by his character, 
by the energy of his will, than by his in- 
telleét or his talents, and even than by his 
Virtue. . , fo 
In commencing the fecond memoir, 
citizen Mercier aflumes, that politics, like 
all the feiences, muft repofe on the know- 
ledge of facts. He thinks man fhould 
Jearn to read in anterior revolutions the 
fucceffion of future events, and to recog- 
nife the moral phenomena, the: immutabi-. 
lity of which governs political chances. 
But, the hiftory of nations manifefts in 
them two inclinations which we ‘mutt 
reckon in the number of thofe conftant 
laws, the love of liberty and the love of 
repoie. On one part, citizen Mercier fees 
man as always attracted towards the re- 
publican forms, inviting them where they 
are not, ftriving toretain them, fometimes 
to exaggerate them where they are, and 
preferring them by inftinét to every other 
fpecies of government. On the other, he 
confiders mankind as a great peaceable 
animal, which has 'repofed for centuries 
vunder the law of izertia, and which, agi- 
tated from time to time by the ative paf- 
- 
REE 
-fions of fome individuals, falls again of va 
felf into the habitual calm which fuits it. 
It would be confoling to believe with the 
author, that hiftory offers more days of 
peace than days of war, and that the na- 
ture itfelf of men puts an inevitable term 
to their.perturbatory projeéts. The love 
of repofe, according to citizen Mercier’s 
conclufion, makes and maintains govern- 
ments. +h ee, 
The fragment on Cato the Cenfor isa 
portrait which does not appear flattered. 
We are in the habits of faying: Wife as 
Cato: citizen Mercier protefts againft this 
proverbial reputation. If he grants to 
Cato equity, firmnefs, and even genius, 
he rigoroully: condemns his rude familiar 
manners, and -above all repreaches him 
for that harfh and vain pedantry, which 
in {chools and academies is only ridicu- 
‘lous, but which in the magiftracy isavice | 
capable of injuring the caufe of virtue 
more than bad examples would.; The 
virtue which citizen Mercier prefers, is 
not that ferocious and mifanthropical vir- 
tue which is praétifed or difplayed. much 
lefs to acquire felf-fatisfaGtion, than the 
right of fhewing ourfelves diflatisfied with 
others. ‘The author has thrown into this 
memoir fome ideas on the cenforfhip, con- 
fidered as a. political inftitution ; he does 
not think it neceflary to be eftablithed 
amongft us; but, adds he, alléwing that 
this cenforfhip fhould appear neceflary, 
where fhould we find the cenfor? =. © 
In the courfe of the preceding quar- 
ters, citizen GREGOIRE’ had read to the 
clafs the firft parts of a work in which he 
details the condu& of different modern 
nations in regard to flaves, from the origin 
-of the trade to our days. Continuing this 
reading in the fittings of the laft month, 
the author has’ traced the jhiftory of Ne- 
groes and of the Slave Trade in the, 
United States of America. gl his hiftory 
is that of the generous efforts of many. 
focieties, and particularly of that of the 
Quakers ; of many philofophers, and ef- 
pecially Franklin, to reftore liberty to‘the 
Negroes, and above all to teach them to 
make a proper ule of it.. After fo many 
labours, and even after different laws en- 
aéted in favour of the Negroes, both by 
the congrefs and the feparate legifiatures, 
it is painful to learn that the number of 
flaves is yet:about 50,000 in the Northern 
States, and 650,000 inthe Southern. The 
author deplores bitterly this ftrugele of 
tyranny againft knowledge, of cupidity 
againft injuftice. : 
The intelleftual and moral qualities of 
the Negroes have been the objet of another 
4iV'a, me- 
