bation proceeded; then nodding, in acquiescence, sat down. Presently, a fine looking, elderly lady, of matronly appearance, dressed in the most elegant simplicity, rose, and after a warm and impressive prayer, delivered extempore, an animated and edifying discourse, with a flow of elocution and grace of manner, which, had she been forty years younger, might have inflamed those passions she sought to allay.

There is one defect in the polity of the quakers, which will forever subject them to the tyranny of the times-They love peace so well, they will not even fight for their liberty. This known principle divests them of all political consequence, when those great political movements are agitated, which sometimes involve the deepest consequences to society— Otherwise, the quakers would gradually effect a revolution throughout the world.

Adieu.

LETTER XXXIH.

LONDON, JULY 9th.

Ir is the custom of some of the London booksellers to give weekly dinners to their literary, and other friends. Hence, you sometimes find at the same table, characters who would never have met together, except under the auspices of roast beef and Madeira wine. It was these which brought together "Jack Wilkes, and the venerable Samuel Johnson." A bookseller's dinner is doubly a treat to his guests. It offers an indirect, but agreeable compliment, by telling them, "Their own fame has enabled him to treat them so sumptuously."

The republic of letters is never more respectable, than on those occasions of good humour and liberal mirth, when all the arts and sciences find themselves encircled round the festive board. The man who is in the habit of associating with his enemy, will frequently finish by esteeming him. Mr. Malthus, who has written an Essay on the Principle of Population, a work of some fame, against the Political Justice, was lately seated, at a bookseller's dinner, next to Mr. Godwin.

I found myself yesterday at Mr. Johnson's, the bookseller, in St. Paul's Church Yard, where, among others, I was introduced to Fuseli the painter, and a Scotch gentleman, who is publishing, in Scotland, a new edition of Ossian with the original language.

The English don't say much till the first course is finished. But their manner of eating soon throws them into a gentle fever, which invites to sociability, when they have sufficient confidence in their company. Mr. Bonnycastle contributed not a little to the entertainment; though remarkably merry, I suspect he is a mathematician, for he observed, "The ball on the top of St. Paul's would appear ten times larger, if placed on the ground at the same distance." The difference of the medium of vision, was concluded to be the cause of this. But one of the company, who thought it much easier to be certain of a thing, than to ascertain its truth, proposed to Mr. Bonnycastle to go and measure its circumference, and then make the experiment.

Fuseli was the life of the entertainment. Ready on all occasions, his happy combination of language, joined to his emphatic manner, bordering hard on dogmatism, together with his deep insight into human nature, renders him an oracle wherever he goes. This is the same Fuseli to whom Lavater

dedicates his Aphorisms on Man. His first publication was a romantic essay on the principal works of John James Rousseau, written, as Mr. Johnson, the publisher, informs me, forty years since; and except his professional lectures,* from that time to the present, he has published nothing. Fuseli was

brought up in the family of Lavater, and caught from him not a little of the enthusiasm of his character. He spoke of him with reverence and affection, and seemed gratified with my marks of respect for the memory of that original sage. One of the company related an anecdote of Lavater, "That a Swiss lady had waited on him to request his opinion of her. Lavater observed her a considerable time, and promised he would send her a written character. The contents of the letter were, " Very pretty, very silly." I observed that, "pretty," had no relation to character, and if it had, Lavater's style of life was very remote from such trifling. Fuseli nodded assent, and said the author of the anecdote knew nothing of Lavater's character.

There must have been a conflict in the mind of Fuseli, between the painter and the author, but the painter got the ascendant, and claims a large portion of the sublimity of his character. Yet I am inclined to believe he sometimes regrets he has preferred the

* Fuseli is Professor of Painting in the Royal Academy.

temporary and confined fame of the brush, to the more durable and extensive expression of the pen; for his conversation discovers all the correctness of the scholar, with the enthusiasm of original sentiment. His profession has naturally led him to history, which he seems to have explored with the jealous eye of incredulity. The character of Julian was accidentally remarked on by one of the company: Julian, whom his enemies have attempted to depreciate with the name of Apostate, has always been a favourite of mine, on account of his justice, valour, constancy in adversity, and moderation in command. But Fuseli, I perceived, regarded Julian, with more than dislike, with abhorrence; and when I volunteered in his defence, and appealed to the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, he put me down by observing, " Ammianus Marcellinus, the historical authority of Gibbon, had drawn a very different character of Julian, from that exhibited in in the Decline and Fall; that the worst traits in his character had been concealed, and the best embel. lished by Gibbon, who, fond of Julian, was afraid of spoiling his hero by giving him his just character.” However, Gibbon is not the only historian who has delighted to celebrate the virtues, the wisdom, and the valour of Julian; and I am yet to be persuaded that Julian the Apostate was not a fine fellow, and worth all the holy Fathers who ever wore a tiara.