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POLITE LITERATURE.-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

SIR,

I SENT for your February number some cursory observations on Mr. Dugald Stewart, to demonstrate, that what is termed the sublime, has nothing to do with sublimity; for magnitude, profundity, expanse, a volcano, or a cataract, all produce the emotion commonly called astonishment. Sublimity is a substantive defining a quality only: a sublime object is a cause; and what is denominated the sublime is an effect.

This inadvertence to causes and effects has created much confusion, as very able writers have frequently classed both under the general head of passions. The baroness Stael, in her admirable treatise on the "influence of the passions upon the happiness of individuals and of nations," has a chapter on guilt; in which she terms the love of guilt a passion, "an excess to which all the other passions lead; but when they have carried a man to a certain pitch of enormity, the effect becomes a cause, and the guilt, which at first was only the means, becomes the end."

It were unprofitable to adduce arguments to prove, that the consciousness of criminality is totally distinct from a passion, according to the common acceptation of the phrase; the indulgence of some violent propensity, having caused a violation of right, creates the painful sensations which are attached to us by our Creator. It were as preposterous to call the circle, occasioned by undulations, a stone, as to term the perturbations of culpability a passion. Every sensation, from an impulse gratified, may cause another impulse; and I agree with the baroness when she observes, that "the traces of reasoning, which can be discovered through the chaos of a guilty man's sensations, consist in the dread of the dangers to which he is exposed by his crimes."

Mr. Cogan, in his "ethical treatise on the passions," enumeyates them in the following order:

1. Love, Hatred, Desire, Aversion.

2. Introductory emotions of Surprise, Wonder, and Astonish

ment.

3. Joy, &c.

4. Sorrow.

5. Fear.

6. Anger.

7. Desires.

And concludes with "Social Affections."

Surely joy and sorrow ought not to be classed among the impulses, as they result from gratification or disappointment, attainment or privation. A desire fulfilled occasions pleasurable emotions, which we term joy; and a desire frustrated causes the painful emotions of grief. It is to be regretted, that an improved nomenclature for physiology is not introduced. In chemistry much benefit has arisen by the application of appropriate names; and surely the important science of physiology merits the attention of your able correspondents. The sovereign, statesman, legislator, and teacher, ought to be acquainted with the nature of man, to promote his happiness.

The sanguinary conflicts, which have subverted empires and desolated countries, may be all deduced from man's ignorance of the desires, emotions, and sensations, implanted in him for his well being.

I have just thrown out a hint; upon which superior judgments may be induced to exercise their faculties: "The proper study of mankind is man."

ASIATICUS.

BIOGRAPHIE MODERNE.

We have received a copy of the Biographie Moderne, a French work, said to have been suppressed by the police of Pa ris, but recently translated in England. It will be superfluous to mention how very suspicious are most of the works of this class which affect to delineate the history and character of the rulers of France: but, as the present volumes are said to possess more authenticity than others of the same kind, we have selected some brief notices of a few prominent individuals.

The following is the account of the Prince of Ponte Corvo, now at the head of the government of Sweden.

BERNADOTTE, born at Pau, in Béarn. At the time of the revolution he was a sergeant in the regiment of royal marines, of which M. Merle d'Ambert was colonel. His activity, his talents, and his bravery, advanced him rapidly, and he was commander of a dem-brigade, when Kléber, having distinguished him, employed him in various expeditions, procured for him an appointment to be general of a brigade, and soon obtained for him the command of a di vision of the army of Sambre and Meuse, at the head of which he fought in the battle of Fleurus, 1794. On the 2d of July, 1795, he contributed to the passage of the Rhine, near Neuwied, and in the course of August took the city of Altorf. On the 22d, his division, posted in front of Newmarck, was repulsed, together with the whole army under general Jourdan, but in the retreat Bernadotte distinguished himself as commander of the advanced guard. In 1796 he joined the army of Italy, and shared in the glory of the Tagli amento expedition. Soon after he took Palma Nova, Lamina, Caporetto, &c. &c. A short time before the 18th Fructidor, Bernadotte, in the name of his division, signed an address against the party which was that day overcome. Not long before he had commanded the arrest of M. d'Entraigues, who was attached to the Russian legation at Venice, and in whose correspondence pa. pers were found, which served to point out the reasons for the measures which had been taken against a part of the members of the two councils. General Bonaparte afterwards sent him to Paris, to present to the directory the standards taken at Pischiera after the battle of Rivoli. About the end of September, 1797, he was appointed commandant of Marseilles, but preferred returning to the head of his division. On the 18th of January, 1798, he was sent on an embassy to Vienna, where he remained not long, for the inhabitants having joined to celebrate a festival to show their joy at the warlike preparations of their volunteers, designed to combat the French, who the preceding year had menaced their city, Bernadotte thinking this anniversary an insult to his country, on the same day gave a festival in his own palace in honour of the victories of the French arms, and planted on the outside the tri-coloured banner. The people of Vienna exasperated, strove to compel him to remove the banner, the palace was forced, and several guns were fired; shortly after Bernadotte quitted the country, but in his account spoke with respect of the emperor, throwing the whole blame on the baron de Thugut. On his arrival at Paris, he refused the command of the fifth military division, and also declined accepting of an embassy to the Hague, to which he had been appointed. For a long time, but without success, he endeavoured to obtain public reparation for the insult he had received at Vienna, and a formal testimony of approbation of his conduct. About the end of August, 1798, Bernadotte mar

ried the daughter of a merchant of Avignon, who, was settled at Genoa, named Clary. The young lady, sister-in-law to prince Joseph Bonaparte, had been originally betrothed to general Duphot, who was killed in a popular tumult at Rome. In 1799, Bernadotte being commander in chief of an army of reserve, bombarded Philisbourg, and drove from Franckfort the agents of Austria and the emigrants. After that petty revolution of the 19th of May, 1799, which expelled Merlin, Trielhard, and Lareveillière, from the directory, Bernadotte was appointed war minister, and in the midst of the misfortunes of the armies, and the depredations and confusion of a dismembered government, he acted with surprising energy in that department. The directory, taking alarm at his connexion with several democrats, he was superseded by Millet Mureau; and yet that party in vain urged him to declare himself, and to overturn the projects attributed to Sieyes. He quietly withdrew, and after the 18th Brumaire was appointed a state counsellor, and commander in chief of the western army. In several engagements he dispersed the remains of the Chouans, and on the 6th of June, 1800, prevented the English from landing at Quiberon. The year following he gave up the command to general Laborde; his health then gave way alarmingly, and he appeared sinking under a species of decline. He recovered, however, and rose higher and higher in the estimation of the first consul, who, on obtaining the imperial diadem, made him marshal of the empire. In June, 1804, he was nominated to the command of the army of Hanover, and a few months afterwards appointed chief of the 8th cohort of the legion of honour. In March, 1805, though absent, he was chosen president of the electoral college in the department of Vaucluse, and a few days after by that of the Hautes Pyrenées was elected candidate for the senate. At the same time the king of Prussia conferred on him the title of knight of the black and red eagles, and his example was followed by the elector of Bavaria, who sent him the badge of the grand order of St. Hubert. Marshal Bernadotte left Hanover with the chief part of his army, about the end of Sept. 1805, and on the 25th of the same month, after having traversed Hesse and the margraviate of Anspach, he reached Wartzburgh, where he joined the Bavarians who had just entered into alliance with France, and soon restored them to their capital, after which he went to the Iler, and thence against the Russians, subsequently to the important victory gained at Ulm.

LIFE OF MURAT,

THE PRESENT KING OF NAPLES.

MURAT, (a French general and prince,) born at Castres, served originally in the constitutional guard of Louis XVI., afterwards as an officer in the 12th regiment of horse chasseurs, of which he became lieutenant-colonel,

was cashiered in July, 1794, and restored about the beginning of October, 1795. At this period began his attachment to general Bonaparte, who made him his aid-de-camp; as such he attained the rank, first of chief, then of general of brigade, and invariably displayed great valour and great talent, particularly on the 17th of April, 1796, at the battle of Mondovi. Towards the end of the same month general Bonaparte having received proposals of peace from the court of Turin, sent Murat thither to open the negotiation, and af. terwards despatched him to Paris, where he and Junot delivered to government 21 banners, taken on different occasions from the Austro-Sardinians. On the 24th of May he returned to Turin, bearing despatches relative to the negotiations, and immediately rejoined the army. In June he attended the minister Faypoult to the doge of Genoa, to desire him to dismiss the imperial minister from the territories of the republic within forty-eight hours, and a few days after took the command of the advanced guard of general Vaubois' army, which was sent against Leghorn. On the 18th of July he directed the attack made by the left wing in the intrenched camp at Mantua; and on the 9th of September was commanded to pursue general Wurmser, who had been defeated, at the head of a body of chasseurs. On the 11th he undertook to cut off his retreat to Cerea, but after having routed several detachments of the enemy, he was himself repulsed by their superior numbers, and on the 13th, still continui g to attack, he received a wound. During the campaign of 1797, he displayed the same activity, and on the 14th of January, 1798, went to Monte Baldo at the head of a demi-brigade of light infantry, forced the Austrians who occupied the Corona, routed them after a very obstinate engagement, and obliged their cavalry to swim across the Adige. On the 24th of February he drove the enemy from their intrenchments of Foy, which were nevertheless valiantly defended. On the 16th of March he crossed the Tagli amento, at the head of his division, and on the 19th again distinguished him. self at the passage of the Lisonzo. In September general Bonaparte commissioned him to march with a column towards the confines of the Valteline, to accommodate the disputes between that country and the Grisons, or rather to take possession of it in the name of the Cisalpine republic, in consequence, at the end of the month, he declared that the faults of the Grisons and the wishes of the people had induced him to join the Valteline to the Cisalpine states. In November he preceded Bonaparte in his march through Switzerland and Alsace, hastening on to Rastadt to prepare for him a situation, of which he did not take possession. In March, 1798, he was sub-commander to Berthier at Rome, then marched against the insurgents of Marino, Albano, and Castello, of whom he killed a great number, and caused many prelates and monks, who were enemies to France, to be seized. He next attended Bonaparte to Egypt, served with such success as to merit the rank of general of division, and returning with him to Europe, was one of those who most ef

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