he appeared determined to perform whatever could conduct him towards it. Attached to no being but himself, he never joined any party but to ferve his glory; he has been republican, con ventional, directorial, moderate. The proofs exist in the public documents: he is accufed of having been a terrorift; this is not proved; but it is proved, that he has fworn to all prin ciples, and that he has abjured them all.

"I have feen this man; in the midst of the greatest crowd and bustle, in all places and at all times, he appears to be alone and infulated. Nothing that surrounds him can reach him. He, alone, forms his world. Men are nothing to him; they are the means, himself is the end. His mouth is hideous when he fmiles on them; it is a smile of contempt, a fmile of pity, which cheers cowards in the terrible immovability of the rest of his features. This folitary fmile has been given to him by Heaven.

"I have feen this man; he is fimple in his private manners, in his taftes, and in bis wants. An uniform the leaft fhewy: a black hat, without any other ornament than the cockade-this is his drefs. His oftentatious fplendour is not for himself, but for others. He is a flave to it in order to reign over others; he is a borrowed character in the imperial mantle, as in the hat a la Henri IV. as he is in all coftumes; but it is better to be a borrowed character than not to have consequence-he has neither a tafte for the table, nor for women, nor for the fine arts; these tastes would level him with other men: he has only one, that of being above them.

"He fpeaks little, he fpeaks without felection, and with a kind of incorrectness. He gives little coherence to his ideas; he is fatisfied to fetch them by ftrong outlines. His words pronounced with a fharp voice are oracles; he does not occupy his attention by the form in which he gives them, provided the thought is weighty, ftrikes, and overturns. Thus frequently fomething common appears in the turn of phrafe he employs. He writes as he speaks. Flatterers have discovered in it the style of Montefquieu; this is comparing two men who have no points of refemblance. The public fpeeches of Bonaparte have been dry and cold. That which he addreffed to the directory, when he prefented the treaty of Campo Formio, was infignificant. On the 18th Brumaire, his inattention to the form of his thoughts had nearly changed the fortune of that day against him. Being in the court of the building in which the legislators were af fembled, Bonaparte would harrangue the foldiers, to fecure them for himself. Soldiers, (he faid) you will not abandon your General, who has fo often led you to victory? You will not lend your arms to the factious who are tearing the Republic? You will not uphold those who have occafioned the country to lofe the fruit of fo many triumphs ? To thefe apoftrophes, and feveral others, all expreffed negatively, the foldiers near him an

fwered

fwered by No! No! No!" which filled the air. These Noes, repeated by a thousand mouths, fpread farther among the ranks; and the diftant bodies, fuppofing that their comrades were repelling by their Noes, propofitions against their honour and their liberty, echoed alike their Noes with a tone of difapprobation ' and refufal. For fome moments an hesitation throughout the ranks was becoming a strong oppofition, and Bonaparte was near lofing the fruit of that day. It was then that his brother Lucien, by his prefence of mind, corrected the fault which had been committed by a want of attention to the form of expreffing himfelf. Lucien mounted his horfe, paffed among the ranks, and addressed to the foldiers the queftions his brother had asked; but in fuch a manner as to obtain an unanimous Yes. This Yes decided that day, and the future greatness of Bonaparte. After this critical moment, even in the hall of the council of Five Hundred he spoke without coherence and without dignity. His fpeeches from the throne-are fpeeches from the throne!

"I have feen this man, when he was the hope of humanityI have feen him, when he had preferred to be its fcourge. It is terror perfonified, which accomplishes the prediction of heads criminally exalted, that the revolution would make a circuit through the universe, and overturn all the thrones of kings.

"I have seen this man-I have seen him near; his head is a rare reunion of the most marked characteristics. Every portrait of Bonaparte will be known, even if it should not refemble him. In this they are like the portraits of Frederick the Great; he' admits of an overcharged likeness. It requires only lips-where. the contempt of men eternally refides-to be placed between the protuberance of fuch a chin and the concavity of fuch a tranfition from the nose to the upper lip. The full length, by Ifabey, reprefenting Bonaparte in the gardens of Malmaifon, while it embellishes the form, ftrongly expreffes the character of the ori ginal.

"I have ftudied the eye of Bonaparte; that eye fhuns infpection. A German obferver, with the hand of a master, has pointed out the difficulty of defcribing it. This eye is reprefented lively, fparkling, open, and deeply arched. Engravings, medals, and coin, reprefent it at fuch, but all flatter in approximating the countenance to the antique.

"This eye fuffers nothing to efcape of what is paffing within; it appears dull and fatigued by the efforts to which it has ferved as the organ. Eyes I have found none in thofe deep fockets; I found two places where thefe had once been. They are two craters, bearing the traces of the lava which has iffued from them, and announcing that frightful abyfs, whose borders they form. Perhaps at the moment the volcano groans in its receffes,

* Reichard's Briefe-über Paris.

1

and

and prepares death and deftruction, perhaps at the moment it is breaking out, and is about to annihilate all that is within its reach.

"How looked this eye when Bonaparte refolved on the deftruction of the throne of Naples, the degradation of Auftria, the extinction of the Germanic empire, the humiliation of Pruffia? How looked this eye when Bonaparte refolved on the exile of his benefactor Barras ?-the death of Moreau? How, when he ordered the young D'Enghien, juft entering the fuburbs of Paris, to be hurried away to Vincennes, and when Madame Bonaparte was drowned in tears at his knees? I fhould like to see this eye when it wants fleep.-Does it ever close ?-How fleeps Bona. parte?" P. 118.

As what is called the Annual Expofé of the French Empire, under the direction of Bonaparte himself, has lately reached this country, we earneftly recommend the above work by M. Faber to be perufed with it as a commentary. What is related in the above public inftrument of the national works, inftruction, finances, commerce, and the other articles there oftentatioufly fpecified, will then be seen in their real colours, and excite commiferation for a people fo deluded and oppreffed, and a just indignation against their unfeeling tyrant. The chapter on the Confcription, more particularly, might well be printed in a cheap form by itself, to fatisfy our countrymen how small are the facrifices which they are called upon to make, compared with their degraded and infulted neighbours.

ART. IX. The Religious World difplayed; or a View of the four grand Syftems of Religion, Judaifm, Paganism, Chrifti. anity, and Mahommedifm; and of the various exifting Deno minations, Sects, and Parties, in the Chriftian World. To which is fubjoined, a View of Atheism. In three Valumes. By the Rev. Robert Adam, B.A. Oxford; Minifter of the Epifcopal Congregation, Blackfriars Wynd, Edinburgh; and Chaplain to the Right Hon, the Earl of Kellie. 478, 453, and 504 pp. 11. 11s. 6d. Longman. 1809.

A WELL digefted and candid view of the principal reli

gions of mankind is a work, which many perfons must be defirous to poffefs, for reference or perufal, and the prefent is drawn up on a better plan than any we have yet feen, Smaller compilations of the fame kind have appeared before, particularly one which was produced in America, by

male

male writer, whose name was almost the fame with that of the present author. This was entitled, "A View of Reli gions. By Hannah Adams*:" and after paffing through several editions in America, was here republished, and noticed by us in our 27th vol. p. 437. But that was all comprifed in 500 duodecimo pages. The old work of Alexan der Rofs, though it had fome merit in its way, is now chiefly known by the reference made to it by the author of Hudibras.

That the author has drawn up his work with candour, and expects to displease thofe who with only to fee abuse of all opinions which they do not hold, is certainly much in his favour; for though we deteft that pretended candour which really means nothing but indifference, we agree completely in the opinion, that he who either cafts reflections, or thunders anathemas, against all who differ from him, does more harm to true religion, than he could poffibly do good by making converts. The methods which Mr. A. defcribes himfelf to have taken in forming his compilation, are fuch as deferve praife; and when he looks towards a fecond edition, chiefly for the fake of correcting the unintentional errors, which he may have committed in this, we cannot but unite in the wish.

"On the principle of Fleury," he fays, " that every one ought to be believed concerning his own doctrine, and the hiftory of his own fect, I have not only had recourfe to various works, wherein the practices of the feveral denominations, fects, and parties are detailed by themselves--but I have alfo invited to my affiftance living authors, or other learned and diftinguished characters of most denominations: and I am happy to fay, that there are very few inftances in which, on my stating the object and plan of the work, the invitation has not been very readily and chearfully accepted." P. xi.

Of these volumes, the firft, to page 87, treats of Judaism and Jews; to page 157, of Paganifm and Pagans; to page 215, of Chriftianity and Chriftians; to page 289, of Mohammedifm and Mohammedans. The author then proceeds to the grand divifions of chriftianity, which he thus ftates:1. The Greek and Eastern Churches, p. 291. 2. The Church of Rome, and Roman Catholics, vol. ii. p. 1-3. Proteftantifm, and Proteftants, p. 81. Thefe, with their

* Of Hannah Adams's work, the prefent author fpeaks well, and mentions that he avoided the word view, in the opening of his title, that he might not interfere with it.

fub

fubdivifions, fill the remainder of the fecond volume, and the whole of the third; with the exception of a small part the latter, in which the author treats of deism and deists, p. 449, and of atheism and atheifts, p. 484.

A better arrangement than this cannot easily be imagined; and as the author every where cites his authorities for what he writes, the reader always has it in his power to ascertain how far his report is worthy of credit. As it is difficult in fo great a variety of objects to make a felection of one part for a fpecimen, we will allow this author to fpeak of that which he perfonally knows beft, the episcopal church of Scotland, to which he belongs.

"DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES.-The church of Scotland had no regular confeffion of faith, nor any articles of religion in the beginning of our reformation; but in 1561, John Knox, affifted by fome other divines, drew up a confeffion of faith, which was adopted, and afterwards ratified in 1567; and it continued to be the universal standard of her doctrine, under all her forms, for upwards of 80 years.

"This fyftem, comprised in twenty-five articles *, differs little in effentials from the articles of moft other reformed churches; in every thing unconnected with popery is moderate, if not unexceptionable; and in thofe points, which are difputed among Proteftants, is certainly lefs dogmatical than that of the Weftminfter affembly, which fucceeded it, and which is now the legal ftandard in Scotland.

"It was indeed fo well received by all parties, that it was constantly subscribed, both by epifcopalians and prefbyterians, till 1645, when fome of the Scotch members of the Westminster affembly, who were violent in their tempers, and high in their notions, objected to it as favouring the Arminian scheme, but certainly without reafon. The Westminster Confeffion was in confequence adopted, and was ratified by the parliament of Scotland in 1649, but was rejected at the reftoration; though, when epifcopacy was re-established in 1662, it is fomething remarkable that nothing was faid concerning a fyftem of articles; and yet this neglect was never called in question till 1682, when the TeftA was propofed, and carried through Parliament by the influ ence of the Duke of York. It was then proposed in council, that a fyftem of faith fhould be fixed on, to afcertain the religion by law established; and after much debate, that of 1561, which was all along acknowledged by the episcopalians, though not formally

* See "Knox's Hiftory of the Reformation.”

F

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXVIII. JULY, 1811.

adopted