5°02 
It is obvious that ina work of this fort 
much mutt be faid which has often been 
faid before: fo long as death has its fting, 
and the-grave its victory, materials will 
be ever fpringing up anew for the page of 
biography. We notice, accordingly, 1 
- the prefent volume, the lives of feveral 
celebrated charaéters which have never 
before been given to public perufal;’ we 
may alfo affert; without danger of con- 
tradiction, that biographical memoirs, of 
which the public were already in poffeffion, 
have here an additional value conferred 
on them by the interfperfion of many ju- 
dicious refle€tions from the writers. 
«¢ Memoirs of the Life.and Travels of © 
the late CHaRLES MacPuerson, efq. in 
Afia, Africa, and America; illuftrative 
‘ of Manners, Cuftoms, and Charaéters’; 
with a particular Inveltigation of the Na- 
ture, Treatment, and poffible Improve- 
ment of the Negroes in the Britith and 
French Weft India Iflands, written by 
himfelf, chiefly between the Years 1773 
and 1790.” This work being ufhered 
into the world as a piece of faithful bio- 
graphy, to be continued, fhould the {pe- 
cimen meet with encouragement, we can 
do no lefs than place it under the ‘prefent 
- divifion. There is very little doubt, how- 
ever, that ‘* the late Charles Macpherfon, 
efq.”’_has prefented the public with the 
fiGtion of his own brain: m fhort, he has 
written neither more nor lefs than a very 
interefting Novel, with many characters 
extremely well delineated, we doubt not, 
from life. The work, in moft refpeéts, 
is fo well executed, that the editor has our 
-good wifhes for that encouragement which 
may ftimulate him togive us a few ‘* more 
dying words” of the ‘* late Charles Mac- 
pherfon.”’ 
Mifs PLuMPTRE has tranflated, from 
the German of Kotzebue, ** A Sketch of 
his Life. and Literary Career; with the 
Journal of his Tour to Paris at the Clofe 
of the Year 1790," &c. This is, in 
many refpects, a very entertaining vo- 
lume, and, it does not appear that the 
writer has in any degree attempted to glofs 
over his follies or his frailties: that M. 
Kotzebue fhould be a very good play- 
wright is not to be wondered at; it has 
been. his principal, and we may, almoft 
add, his only occupation and amufement 
throuch life. What fhall we fay of a 
man who vifited Paris in the very heat of 
the Revolution, and could find nothing to 
notice in his journals but the Theatres. 
M. Kotzebue Jo& an affeétionate wife, 
whofe illnefs and death are defcribed in a 
pathetic manner: the fine feelings and 
‘ever to eftace. 
ANCLV OP Dect OF RADE LIC Lei el ULUT Cm £1087 ADL Ye aes 
acute fenfibility of the Dramatift would not ~ 
allow M. Kotzebue to perform the laft 
folemn duties of a hufband; in order to 
footh his tortured bofom, and {pare him- 
felf the pain of witneffing his wife in the 
agonies of death, he fled from his houle 
and family, and took refuge in the capital 
of France, in houfes of gaiety, diffipation, 
and zl-fame! Can any thing be more 
thoroughly difgufting’ and contemptible, 
haw thus—o.9 4 ya 
To bear about the mockeries of woe, 
¥n midnight revels and the public fhow ? 
To-fum up this odious bufinefs, M. 
Kotzebue, the whining, mournful, bro- — 
thel-hunter, has amufed himfelf and ef- 
fended his readers with a Differtation on 
the Courtezans of Paris! 
Ina fhilling pamphlet Mr. Davi Ir- 
vinG has given us ¢*The Life of Robert 
Fergufon, with a Critique on his Works :”” 
we are truly glad to fee this tribute, hows 
ever tardy, paid to the memory of unfor- 
tunate genius. The infanity of this poor 
young man has*been attributed, not with- 
out plaufibility, to the deep compunétion 
which he experienced for his profligate 
juvenilities! his body emaciated with 
difeafe, his mind agonized. with the ftings 
of remerfe, and haunted with the fpectres, 
which a guilty confcience raiféd, he funk. 
inte a fiate of religious defpondency 5, 
from which, however, he experienced 2 
temporary relief, till a violent contufion 
which he received on the head from a fall 
from a ftaircafe, feemed inftantly to affect 
his brain. Mr. Fergufon became at laft 
fo outrageous, that it was not without 
forne difficulty that two or three men could 
reitrain his violence: his afflicted mother, 
unable to afford him proper attendance in 
her own houfe, was obliged to have him 
removed to the public afylum, whither he 
was conveyed by a few intimate friends, 
who decoyed him into a chair, as if he 
had been about to pay an evening-vifit— 
«© When they reached the place of their ~ 
deftination all was wrapt in profound 
nlence. ‘The poor youth entered the dif- 
mal manfion.—He caft his eyes wildly 
round, and began to perceive his real 
ficuation” The difcovery awakened every 
feeling of his foul.—He raifed a hideous 
fhout, which being inftantly returned by~ 
the wretched inhabitants of every, ceil, - 
echoed along the vaulted roofs.’? We 
may believe his biographer, that his com- 
panions ftood aghaft at the dreadful fcene, 
and that the impreffion which it made 
upon their minds was too ftrong for time 
Hopes, however, were, 
after a time, entertained of his recovery: 
but 
