the ideas of sound, of some matter resembling the chords or glasses which take a sound from the vibration of the air; and so of the rest. Were this doctrine any thing like the truth, we might reasonably expect to obtain a view of these ideas by a careful dissection of the brain; which, however, has not yet been found to be the case.

"What then, it may beasked, can be the cause of the very general reception of an hypothesis which is replete with so many inconsistencies and difficulties, insomuch that it rather obscures than enlightens the doctrine which it is brought to explain? This seems to be ascriba ble to a prejudice which is deeply rooted in the human mind, and has even been admitted, from remote antiquity, as a philosophical axiom, or self-evident principle, namely, that nothing can act, or be acted upon, but when and where it is present.' It seems a necessary consequence, from this principle, that when the mind perceives, either the objects of its perception must come into it, or it must go out of the body to these objects. The first of these opinions has generally been adopted as the most rational. We see,' says Malebranche, the sun, the stars, and an infinity of objects without us; and it is not at all likely that the soul sallies out of the body, and, as it were, takes a walk through the heavens to contemplate all these objects. Yet the author of the Antient Metaphysics has, among his other singularities, espoused this last opinion.

"The origin of this prejudice, that all action is the effect of contact, it is not difficult to as sign. This is the only manner in which we ourselves can act upon external objects; and it is the manner in which all our external senses

are acted upon by these objects, either immediately, or by the intervention of some known medium, such as the rays of light, the undulations of the air, or the effluvia of odoriferous bodies. Yet, after all, when we come to examine the matter a little more nearly, we no more understand how bodies act upon one another when in contact, than when at a distance; and we should never have found out, indepen, dently of actual experience, that motion is the effect of contact or impulse. Nay, if the system of Boscovich be true, there is no such thing as real contact in nature, nor is such a thing possible. Again, there are many natural phenomena, such as those of gravitation, magnetism, electricity, &c. which appear to be produced by the mu, tual action of bodies at a distance from one another. For though we have various hypotheses of intervening media, ethers, or effluvia, which are intended to explain these phenomena, all these are mere suppositions, destitute of the least shadow of proof. The inference is, that the maxim above stated is to be ranked among those vulgar prejudices which, though very gene. rally received, are without any real foundation in nature.

"If we seek for any other proof of the ideal theory, in the writings of those who have espoused it, than this generally received prejudice, we shall seek in vain. They all appear to assume the existence of ideas as a thing self evident, and of which, therefore, no proof will be expected. I presume,' say Mr. Locke, it will be granted me that there are such ideas in men's minds; every man is conscious of them in himself, and men's words and actions will satisfy him that they are in others.' It is evident,*

he

against, Racine at last came to a determination; the story of Esther presented itself, and all doubts fortunately vanished. It was not long before he carried to madame de Maintenon not only the plan of his piece, (for he was accustomed to sketch scene by scene in prose,) but the first act completely finished. She was enraptured with it, and, in spite of her great modesty, she could not help discovering in the character of Esther, and in some other trifling circumstances, very flattering compliments to herself. Even Vashti and Haman were striking portraits. As this bible piece was perfectly proper for the ladies of St. Cyr, so was the first representation got up with zeal; but only the principal courtiers, who accompanied Louis the XIVth to the chace, were allowed to be present. At supper the king could talk of nothing but Esther. Monseigneur, Monsieur, and all the princes would see it: the applause was uncommon, Esther's prayer was irresistible; all appeared great, excellently treated, worked up with dignity; even the great Condé wept. The third representation was dedicated to the pious, viz. to the Pere de la Chaise, some bishops, twelve or sixteen jesuits, together with madame de Miriamon, and her most elevated nuns. To day,' (said madame de Maintenon,) it shall only be played to the saints.' The saints applauded as highly as the children of the world, and heartily wished, that all tragedies resembled Esther.-In the end the king allowed all his courtiers to take a share in it; as was natural, they were in raptures. Madame de Maintenon was tormented on all sides for tickets of admission; there were more than two thousand applicants, and only two hundred

places. The king generally made a list, as he was on the road to Marli. For he went in first, with the list in one hand, and an uplifted Spanish cane in the other; thus he himself guarded the entrance, until the chosen number were assem-* bled.-It was also a very comic circumstance, that the young lovely actresses prayed their Veni Crea'or behind the curtain, to interest the Holy Ghost in their several parts. As the king and queen of England now expressed a wish to see Esther, it was got up with redoubled splendour, the actresses were decorated with diamonds, the orchestra consisted of the first mu sicians belonging to the king. Madame de Montespan and Louvois knew themselves under the name of Vashti and Haman, bit their lips and clapped. Their English majesties were delighted, that the minister, who had promoted their removal from the throne, should be represented as dazzled and deceived by hell. Louis' the XIVth, who, perhaps, had piety to thank for his great reputation, who at the same time was a little tyrannical, willingly knew himself in the pride of a Persian monarch, in his love for justice, as in the tenderness of his Esther. In short, every body was satisfied. Racine wished to dedicate his work to madame de Maintenon; but she entreated him not once to mention her name in the preface. Two-and-thirty years afterwards, the players, for the first time, brought Esther on the public stage, and it had only one repre sentation; probably because only the pure and innocent actresses of St. Cyr, with their angel voices, knew how to give a certain high interest to a play, which, as Voltaire says, represents an improbable, not an attractive incident: a foolish

king, who lived six months with his wife without knowing who she was, who, without the least pretence, ordered a whole nation to be slaughtered, and afterwards, even as mad

ly hung up his favourite.-The cold reception that Esther again experi enced in Paris in our days, appears to confirm the judgement of Voltaire."

LL nature eternally strug

and from the intermixture of things arise new things; as once the Ro mans, after a dreadful fire, out of many melted metals drew the Co rinthian bronze, which was valued as highly as gold. The same can almost be said of the good ton of the clubs, resources, copinos, and by what other names the assembling places are called where men form the different classes, meet to gether; where there arises a kind. of friction of every sort of mind and breeding, which also produces a new mind and breeding, a kind of middle ton, that passes better to the whole, than the ton of every single coterie would have done, before it was modified in this way.

"This property is what has been agreed to be called good ton, in whatever town it may reign, may it be Paris, London, or Querfurt; the name is nothing to the purpose; the thing remains the same for the whole physical and moral world.. It cannot absolutely be said, that the best possible ton is the ton of France, (at least not now,) or Italy, England, Germany, &c. &c. but that it is the most agreeable to each of these countries. Even as little can magistrates or soldiers, priests or men of letters, artists or men of elegant minds pretend to it; but the ton that the nearest accords with

all these stations is the best. Good

company, in which it should reign,

is, as it were, the store-house of a free disinterested commerce, in which every well-educated man takes a share, and where people only yield to each other, to be in the highest degree themselves distinguished. To be introduced into company no offence should be given to another; to please, it requires something more, still more to be distinguished; because in that case ambition raises emulation, and the emulation is more difficult to be gained over, than to be conquered.

"But a preliminary article in all society is, that it must be understood. Every coterie has, as before said, its own language, that with.. out its limits is not understood.

"This consequently must be avoided; for if a man will not talk so that all may understand him, it is an open usurpation on the equality before mentioned, and the exchange of words and thoughts has no longer liberty nor pleasantness. All words of art, science, scholastic or juridical expressions, are banished from good company; they must be translated or paraphrased, otherwise in the end conversation would be a kind of pick-nick, to which every one brought a dish, but so placed it, that none of the fellow. guests could come at it. Much better would it be to eat alone.

"Every seaman endeavours to make his best way to his port. In the open sea that certainly is invisible, the path is not traced out, but he reckons, estimates, makes observations, takes the northern latitude, sails courageously on, and fortunately reaches his destination. Even so it is with society. It has, like the sea, its storms, its currents, rocks, ebbs, floods, variableness, and faithfulness.

"On the question: is there a tribunal for good ton? yes and no may be answered; it holds its sittings ever and never; it assembles every where and no where; it consists of every body and nobody; it is called man. This short word man means the public, as if all its voices were formed into one.

"Amongst the decriers of politeness, for it has them, there are people who suppose, that a man must be coarse to be free-minded. From fear, it may be believed there are polite deceivers, who deceive rather downrightly. Politeness certainly also deceives, but it pleases, and conceals from man, that which in his eyes is a horrible monster to man himself, egotism. These are the real enemies of society, the opposition party, that from the first have crossed every thing good, and have never been tired of destroying the best which man with united powers could found. Alas, all is egotism, even passion and reason, even integrity is only a modest, and virtue a moderated egotism. Po liteness, it is true, can neither make it modest nor moderate it, but it veils it up, puts a mask before it, is the general mediatrix between every kind of pride. Benevolence and modesty will certainly never be imitated from her; but when she borrows language, features, organs, from virtue, she even then some,

times overcomes vice, as gild. ing protects from verdigrease. Through her alone, people of good ton are every where distinguished; who ever busy themselves with others, seldom with themselves, ever appear to acknowledge a su periority in others, and failings in themselves, in ton and manner, as it were appropriated to the other. So is politeness, as it were an untiformity of the mind with the body, which nature gives to no one, but company to every one.-The good ton is a middle ton between all tons, as beauty is a middle mould between all moulds. The perfection of both consists therein, that they are equally distant from the extremes. The most beautiful bodily form, for example, is in no country the fattest or leanest, neither the dropsy nor the consumption; so also is neither the best ton too familiar nor too ceremonious. Also in both lies (beauty and bon ten) something real and something con ventional. Custom, manners, tourneurs change, in every country, often in every town. The greatest beauty is that form which best agrees with the views of nature, but in detail, the opinions and tastes of people may always be different, and a Chinese may look upon the Germans as very ugly. So few as there are notes in music for false tones, as little can a man in company be accused of faults; these are against the good ton. Man can, as he every where does, sin by too much or too little, through ignorance as through pretension. But the first can only be reckoned singly, the second doubly. Too much elegance is, for the most part, more striking than too much simplicity. We forgive much sooner those who do not equal us, than those who will be better. A young

man