‘aA critic so 
240 Memoirs of the Life and Wr iting of M. De St. Croir. April ‘, 
ished were in some degree ie eoemeens 
by the formation of the institute: and 
BM. Bitaubé was placed in the class of 
literature and fine arts; in which station 
‘he has read several dissertations on the 
first two books of Aristotle’s Politics, on 
the government of Sparta, on Pindar, 
and some other subjects of ancient lite- 
rature. 
A celebrated German poet (Goethe) 
had recently acquired great applause in 
his own country, by a poem in verse, 
consisting of ae cantos, to which Jatter 
he had (perhaps a little too ostentati- 
ously) given the names of the nine 
muses. Hermann and Dorothea,: the 
hero and heroine of the poem, are the 
son of an inn-keeper, and a young 
orphan-girl, whom the victories of the 
French army have forced, with the other 
inhabitants of their village, to flee from 
the left bank of the Rhine. M. Bitaubé, 
seduced by some imitations of the 
Homeric style and manners, became 
enthusiastic in praise of this poem did 
not hesitate to honour it with the ttle of 
Epic, and to compare the author with 
Homer; and afirmed that he himself had 
found more difficulties to encounter in 
translating the German work, than in his 
Hiad and Ody ‘sey. 
it will perhaps appear surprising that 
well acquainted with the 
beauties of these latter poems, should 
-not have perceived that the simplicity of 
“manners, 
‘tals, which they represent with so much 
and the almost domestic de- 
truth and interest, would probably have 
hac no charms He the Greeks, if Homer 
had employed his pen in_ recording 
only ordinary personages ; and that those 
artless delineations which prove attrac- 
tive in pastoral compositions, can only 
become pleasing in epics by the contrast 
between grandeur and simplicity, and 
by a consideration of the elevated cha- 
racters whom the poet. celebrates. 
Minerva may hetsall. be allcved to'bring 
forward her sparking car, yoke her fiery 
coursers with her divine hands, and give 
them their celestial pasture; and Achiiles 
or Hector may perform the same offices: 
these details, instead af degrading the re- 
spective personages, derive a dignity from 
them. But if, fasiead of the car of war,the 
object presented to our fancy isa coach; 
justead of superb coursers, mere dravght- 
horses ; and if the hero to whom they 
belong is only an inn-keeper or a pea- 
sant; will these details of rustic sim- 
plicity produce the same effect on the 
unagination? and can we, without con- 
-of the merit of the original, 
founding all the distinctions, and viola- 
ting the first principles, of taste, pretend 
to exalt to the rank of the epspee, and 
place on a.level with the Ihad and the 
Eneid, a work which, both in its mate- 
rials and its whole structure, is of so 
plebeian a class? It may certainly be 
believed that the principal charm of the 
German poem has been lost, in its prose 
translation into French; because such a 
subject requires the support of a tae 
style: but whatever idea may he formed 
it will be 
difficult to think that M. Bitaubé’s admi- 
ration of his author has not exceeded — 
even the limits allowed to translators. 
On the new organisation of the insti- 
tute, M. Bitaubé left the class of litera- 
ture and the fine arts, for that of history 
and ancient literature, where he had the 
pleasure of meeting many who had been 
his fellow-associates of the old academy 
of belles-lettres ; and he remained one of 
the most assiduous members of this class, 
till his death. ; 
Ever since his release from’ prison, 
every thing had seemed to concur to his 
happiness: he had recovered his estate, 
his friends, and his fortune; he had been 
included, without solicitation, among the 
men of letters who were first nominated 
meinbers of the legion of honour; and no 
unfortunate event had disturbed the 
tranguillity of his peaceable and studious 
life. But his greatest calamity was re- 
served for his old age; when death de- 
priced him of the respectable and he- 
loved wife who was its support and con- 
solation, and whose destiny had heen 
united to his above fifty years. It was 
easy-to foresee that M. Bitaubé could 
not long survive this dreadful separation : 
in fact hesunk under its effects, rather than 
those of age ana infirmity, on the 22nd of 
November, 1808; and within a single 
month the husband and wife were both 
consigned to the same tomb. 
’ 
MEMOIRS of the LIFE and WRITINGS Of 
the late M. pe St. CROEX. 
Wittram Emanuel Joseph Wilhelm 
de Clermont-Lodéve de Sainte Croix, 
was horn of a noble family, at Mormoiron, 
near Carpentras, in the Comtat Ve- 
naissin, on the 5th of January, 1746. 
Both his descent, and the example of 
-his immediate domestic connections, 
summoned him to a military career; and 
accordingly, as soon as he had finished 
his stadics under the Jesuits at Greno- 
le, he set out at the beginning ef his 
sixteenth year for the Windward Islands, 
with 
ee a a 
tee as 
