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to make use of them, when the mind of the great man is happily tempered, and when he is well difpofed to be undeceived, and to receive information; the choice of thefe muft be confided to difcretion, who beft understands these matters, and is the best guide in such cases:

• Sola viri molles auditus, & tempora notas.

In the fecond place, you fhould never, in oppofition to the opinion of a great man, be stiff or pofitive in maintaining your own sentiments, because this is difficult to be done without giving offence. The philofopher Favorinus, answered wifely to fome, who blamed him for giving way in a dispute he had with the emperor Adrian, faying, it was proper and neceffary to give way to a man who commanded thirty legions.

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Thirdly, you may sweeten the bitter of truth, with a fpecies of engaging and modeft condefcenfion; which confifts, more in actions than in words, that is, by being obfequious, and expreffing by your geftures, a difpofition and defire to please; and these will have a notable effect in promoting attention to your advice, because they will create an opinion, that the inftruction is the offspring of generous fincerity, and not of pofitive pride. I would not however have it underftood, that the submission should be abject, or favour of meannefs of fpirit; but I had almoft faid, that with respect to fuperiors, fubmiffion is generally defended from the hazard of fuch an imputation. Dionifius, tyrant of Syracuse, having refused to grant a request which was made to him by Aristippus, of Cyrene, he proftrated himself at his feet and obtained what he asked. Some people reprehended the action, as beneath the dignity of a philofopher, to which Ariftippus anfwered; he that would be heard by Dionifius, muft apply his mouth to his feet, for there his ears are placed. The faying was pleasant, and I won't determine, whether or not the fubmiffion was exceffive.

• I repeat my affurance, that by using these precautions, the open honeft politician, will obtain a much higher degree of eftimation in the mind of a great man, than the fly contemplative one. When he arrives at convincing the person, who was before perfuaded he was able, that he is candid also, he ftands on fure ground. In confequence of his integrity, he may at times experience a few flights, but he will ftill continue to poffefs the confidence he has gained; as it happened ́to the duke of Alva, with Philip II. when he fent the duke to conquer Portugal. The king before he fet out, fhewed him the flight of refufing to let him wait on him to take his leave, and at the fame time confided to his management an enter

Prize of fuch importance. On the contrary, the flatterer, although he in his ordinary conversation and deportment, is al ways pleasant and entertaining, you will perceive, if his fuperior is a wary man, that fuch fort of talents, don't introduce him deep into his efteem. Many people make use of flatterers, as men who are feverish ufe water; and although it may feem obnoxious to them, they gargle their throats with it, but don't swallow it. Generally fpeaking, and to me the conclufion is infallible, that with an equal fhare of talents, the good, candid, faithful, grateful man, who is a lover of juftice and equity, will make a greater fortune, and with more certainty, than him who is void of thofe qualities, or poffeffed of oppofite ones.'

These Discourses are diftinguished by a strain of candid and unprejudiced reafoning, occafionally illuftrated with appofite anecdotes from history. The author's fentiments concur with the dictates of the moft liberal philofophy; and while he directs his arguments towards the refutation of error, he enforces the practice of virtue.

An Account of Some of the most romantic Parts of North Wales. 8vo. 2s. 6d. fewed. T. Davies.

THE principality of Wales is acknowledged by all who know the country, to contain many fublime and picturesque scenes of nature. Towering mountains and deep-funk valleys, awful precipices and foaming cataracts, seem to vye with each other in attracting the obfervation, and exciting the astonishment of the spectator; those are not however the only objects which afford gratification to the traveller. The country is interfperfed with a number of beautiful landfcapes, of a lefs magnificent, though not less romantic appearance; ornamented with elegant villas, and in many places enriched with the venerable ftructures of antiquity.

The author of this agreeable Excurfion is Mr. Cradock, a gentleman well known in the republic of letters.-For the entertainment of our readers, we shall present them with a part of his narrative.

'Nothing could be more delightful than the ride from Carnarvon to Bangor; to the right hand were Snowdon Hills, and to the left the River Menai, or more properly speaking, the Strait between the continent and the island of Anglefea.

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Bangor lies at the north end of the fame Frith, or arm of the fea, which is the paffage to Anglefea, where it has a harbour for boats. It was once fo large as to be called Bangor the Great, and was defended with a powerful caftle, built by Hugh Earl of Chefter, which has long fince been demolished. The

town

town is now of very little note, except for being the fee of bishop; the palace, is neat, but deplorably fituated; this is doubly mortifying in a country where every part of the neighbourhood is picturefque and pleafing; his lordship however has the happiness of being fo much beloved in his diocese, that it would have been almost treason there to have wished him a removal.

Between Bangor and Conway I paffed over the famous mountain called Penmaen Mawr-the road muft formerly have been very frightful, but a wall is now built to the fea-fide, to which it is faid the city of Dublin very largely contributed ;— to form this road it has already cost upwards of two thousand pounds, and it can be kept open only at a continual expence, for vaft fragments of rock are frequently falling forty fathom from above, which entirely block it up, till they are forced through the parapet into the fea, which lies perpendicularly full as deep below.

From hence the country opens opens into a plain, which extends as far as the river Conway, the eaftern limit of the county of Carnarvon. It rifes out of a lake of the fame name, and runs with a north-west course, receiving in the short space of twelve miles more than as many rivers, fo that at Aberconway, where it difchatges its waters into the Irifh fea, it is full a mile broad, and capable of bringing fhips of almost any fize up to the town; at prefent Conway bears only fome melancholy marks of what it once was, and to what a wretched state, by a total decay of trade, it is now reduced.

The caftle ftill remains one of the nobleft monuments of antiquity; it is built in the fame style with that of Carnarvon, but is far more regular. The outfide is the fame as in the time of Edward I. except one tower, and that was not demolished with either battering engines or cannons, but by the people of the place taking ftones from the foundation of it. Some remains of the principal rooms are ftill to be feen, the dimenfions of which have been accurately given by lord Lyttelton, and an elegant view of them in Antiquities by Mr. Grofe; but I had never feen the outfide of this moft venerable ruin to advantage had I not walked over fome polished ground about a quarter of a mile from it, which I believe belongs to a gentleman of Conway;→→ there you fee the caftle finely fheltered by an oak wood,—on one fide the chief of Rivers opening into the Irish fea, and on the other the mountains furrounding Penmaen, with a distant coun try most beautifully diverfified.-Art and nature cannot com. bine to form a more various and more delicious prospect.'

To a lively and agreeable defcription of the country, the author has occafionally added fome pertinent obfervations relative to British antiquities. He is likewife intitled to approbation for his endeavours to excite, in thofe who have leifure and convenience for the journey, a defire of visiting this fequeftered, and too much neglected part of our island.

The

The Hiftory of America. By William Robertfon, D. D. 2 vols. 410. 11. 16s. in boards. Cadell. [Continued from vol. xliii. p. 416.]

THE

HE author having delineated, with much accuracy and erudition, the caufes which led to the discovery of America, and the progress made by Columbus in that great undertaking, proceeds to prefent us with a view of all the wonders of the new world. This is the moft fplendid and interesting part of the author's fubject, and required a full display of his eminent abilities to do it juftice.

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America exhibits a great continent, remarkable for the gifts of nature with which it is replenished. The altitude of its mountains, the extent of its lakes, the immensity of its rivers, the fertility of its foil, and the richness of its mines, far furpafs all productions of a fimilar kind which are to be found in any other quarter of the globe. But of the many curious fpectacles furnished by America at the time of its discovery, the most curious were the fingular fituations in which it prefented the human race. Poets had fung, philofophers and politicians had fpeculated, concerning the fate of nature, the origin of fociety, and the fource of laws: but thefe fine theories were the work of imagination, unfupported by experience; it was referved to the difcoverers of America to fee thofe fpeculations realized. Thefe bold adventurers beheld a great part of mankind, in the infancy of fociety, living on the fpontaneous productions of nature, or, like other ravenous animals, procuring fubfiftence from the spoils of the chace. They obferved their first attempts to relinquish that miferable and infecure state in which force decides concerning right and wrong, and their feeble efforts towards political combinations for fecurity and protection. They difcovered even different ftages of rude, fociety. They found, to their unspeakable furprife, two great empires, the inhabitants of which, though ignorant of many of the most neceffary arts of life, had built cities, framed laws, established courts of juftice, and made confiderable progrefs in civilization. To paint these scenes with advantage, demanded a combination of qualities not often to be found in the poffeffion of any individual.

But the novelty, the variety, and the extent of the fubject by no means conftituted the capital difficulties the author had to furmount. The materials from which he was obliged to extract a great part of his information, were composed by writers who were neither politicians, hiftorians, nor philofophers. They are partial relations, published by the difcoverers themVOL. XLIV. July, 1777. E

felves,

felves, or by authors difpofed to adopt all their errors and exaggerations. The former, though refolute and enterprifing in action, generally poffeffed little capacity for obfervation, and were befides actuated by motives very different from thofe which would have prompted them to advance the knowledge of their fpecies. They wished to poffefs themselves of the gold of America, rather than to amufe or improve their minds by contemplating the characters and rude policy of its inhabitants. They laboured to excite the admiration of their countrymen, and to enhance the merit of their difcoveries by exaggerated accounts of the wonders they beheld, rather than to convey truth, and to content themselves with juft praife. The latter equally void of difcernment with the former, and prompted by national vanity, or a difpofition towards the marvellous, commonly adopted their accounts, however incredible, without fcruple or hesitation. Thus the hiftory of America, the most extraordinary and important portion of the hiftory of mankind, became a mafs of materials in which no order and little truth were to be difcerned. By careful comparison of these relations with one another, by attentive examination of the intelligence communicated by later and better informed travellers, and by the application of a fyftem of found political principles, Dr, Robertfon has been enabled to form a theory of American manners, confiftent, philofophical, and inftructive. He has traced the progrefs of civil fociety through its rudest stages, and marked with fagacity the efforts of man to supply his wants when deftitute of the articles of life. He has deduced the virtues and vices, the attachments and antipathies of the favage, from the particular fituation which he occupies and has demonstrated that even the conftitution and appearance of his body, and the political inftitutions of his tribe, are derived from the fame fource.

In the four books which furnish the fubject of the prefent article, the author arranges his materials in the following order. The first exhibits a picture of the rude and favage tribes which were scattered over the continent and iflands of America at the time of its difcovery; the fecond contains the hiftory of the conqueft of Mexico; the third that of Peru; and the fourth prefents us with a view of the civilization, government, manners, and arts of these famous American empires.

In treating of the manners of the favage Americans, Dr. Robertfon adopts an arrangement equally fimple and luminous. He confiders, 1. their bodily conftitution; 2. the qualities of their minds; 3. their domeftic ftate; 4. their political stateand inftitutions; 5. their fyftem of war and public fecurity;

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