1 
2f 
The tide of the work is, “QO Feliz 
Independente do Mundo e da Fortuna ; ou 
Arte de Viver contente em quasquer Tra- 
balhos da Vida; pelo P. Theodoro d'Al- 
meida, do-congregacao de Oratorio, e.da 
Academia reas das Sciencias de Lisboa, da 
Sactedade de Londres, e da de Biscayo. 
Segunda FEdigao, Lisboa, 1786:” in 
three vols. 12mo. with plates. — The 
happy Man, independent of the World, 
aud of Fortune; or the Art ef living 
contented in all the Troubles of Life; by 
Father Theodore D’Almeida, of the Con- 
gregation of the Oratory, and of the 
Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon; 
of the Royal Societies of London and 
Biscay. Second Edition. Lisbon, 1786.” 
The motto, prefixed to the work, gives 
its design; a text of Scripture for this 
sermonising Romance.—“‘ Letatus sum 
én omnibus, guontam antecedebat me Sa- 
pientiu—quam sine invidia communicomIn- 
finitus enim thesaurus est.” ——Sapientia. 
‘Cap. vil. v. 12,13, 14. 
“ T rejoiced in them all (good things), 
because Wisdom goeth before—TI do 
cominunicate her liberally—For she is a 
treasure unto men that never fialeth.” 
A preliminary discourse, by a Pro- 
fessor of the University, is also prefixed, 
which, asis usual, raises the work very 
high. It seems to have been very warm- 
Fy received in Spain. This Essay dis- 
cusses a point, often discussed; Whether 
a work in prose, abounding with the cha- 
racteristics of poetry, 1s to be considered 
as an epic poem. From one of the 
sections, entitled “ On the Matter of 
this Poem,” I extract the following pas- 
sage, as it unfolds the plan and design of 
this singular work. 
“ Were it true what Boileau asserts, 
that the truths of religion and Christian 
morality, from theiy austerity, are not 
susceptible of the beauties cf poetry, 
this then would constitute the peculiar 
glory of our Portuguese Epic to have 
overcome this difficulty, by adorming the 
sterility of the subject, and animating the 
national genius; and, in a word, at 
once to have done honour to virtue, to 
poetry, and to his country. It is, in- 
deed, admirable, that from one short 
sentence -of the Scriptures, Wisdom, 
chap, vil. v. 12. Eefetus swum in omni- 
bus, §¢c- a profound doctrine, truly but 
extremely dry and austere to serve as a 
source of fancy, should, however, pro- 
duce in the imagination of father Al- 
meida a beautiful stream of innumerable 
beauties, precious to eloquence and poe- 
& 
Father D’ Almeida’s Ethical Romance: 
‘[Aug. i, 
try. Itseems that universal nature, and 
whatever it has of the beautiful and 
sublime in all its objects, all events that 
happen to human experience, and ail 
that can be painted in the most lively 
imagination, embellish this work. The 
graces of diction, and the figures of elo- 
quence; narratives and _ descriptions ; 
the most lively images; characters; de- 
licate pictures of the passions ; appro- 
priate compositions and a rich profu- 
sion of sentences; and several maxims 
of pure, and even profound, politics ; all 
these combined ui one work, may con- 
vince us, that if human happiness gould 
be produced by a poem, it would most 
certainly be found in the “ Feliz Inde- 
pendente.” 
This moral romance somewhat resem- 
bles, in its design, the Rasselas of John- 
son, and has been classed, by the Portu- 
guese, with the Telemachus of Fenelon, 
wham the author professes to have taken 
for his model. The greater part of the 
work is devoted to argumentative dis- 
cussions, more than, to the invention of 
pleasing incidents, and to the exhibition 
of dramatic character.—-The machinery 
is allegorical, and such personages as the 
Furies—Error, Sadness, &c. could not 
be deemed either very original, or very 
amusing. If we are to consider this 
work as one of the best, as it is one of 
the recent, productions of Portuguese 
literature, it will not rank high among 
“the brilliant productions of Europe. The 
imagination is never splendid ; the fi- 
gures are often Asiatic; the details are 
common-place, and the twenty-four 
books, which compose it, might have 
served, as another triumph of temper, 
for the *‘ Happy..Man, who can,’ ac- 
cording to its title, “live contented,” 
even while he gets through these twen- 
ty-four books! Yet, in despite of this 
tedium, which’ must be the faté of all 
‘works of fancy, in which argumentative 
disquisitions are substituted for a lively 
fable, it is very instructive for youth, 
and touches on a variety of useful topics; 
-and as Portuguese works of imagination 
are so extremely rare, this ethical ro- 
mance 1s not to be passed by without a 
due notice. I shall. give an extract or 
two as a specimen, 
The first book opens with Count Mo. 
ravia, and his sister the Empress Sophia, 
wandering on the banks of the vast river 
Niester. The Count, melancholy with 
perpetual disappointment in the pursuit 
of his pleasures, and the Empress, 
crowned - 
