in filence. All are delivered up to the grave: All human things

are vain.

XII.

Thou Mother of the Sun that never fets, Parent of God, we beseech thee intercede with thy divine offspring, that he who hath departed hence, may enjoy repofe with the fouls of the juft. Unblemished Virgin, may he enjoy the eternal inheritance of heaven in the abodes of the righteous.- -Doxology.

• Words fuppofed to exprefs the fentiments of the deceased, spoken by the Chief Priest:

"Brethren, friends, kinfmen, and acquaintance! View me now, and lament. It was but yesterday that we converfed together; for the fearful hour of death hath furprised me. Come here all who tenderly loved or esteemed me, and with a laft embrace pronounce the last farewell. No longer fhall I fojourn among you: No longer bear a part in your difcourfe: I go to the Judge who hath no refpect of perfons. The mafter and the fervant, the fovereign and the subject, the rich and the poor, are here upon a level for according to their deeds fhall they be glorified or put to fhame. Therefore let me entreat and befeech you all, intercede with Jefus who is God, that I may not receive the punishment due to my guilt, but that he may establish me in the light of life."

The following additional Stanzas are used at the burial of a Priest; they appear to me more striking and more pathetic than the former.

I.

Be ftill be still let the departed reft in peace. Meditate this awful mystery. 'Tis an hour of terror! be itill! Let the fpirit depart in peace.. It begins the tremendous trial, and with much trembling deprecates the Almighty.

Whether have the fpirits of the deceafed departed? Or what is their lot? How I long to learn their condition. But 'tis a myftery which none can reveal. Like mortals do they remember their friends? Are they for ever unmindful of the mourners? of those who bewail their departure, and celebrate their obfequies with forrow.

III.

The flaves of ungoverned paffions enjoy no repofe in the grave; formidable accufers are there and there the books are opened. Where wilt thon look for fuccour, O man or who will maintain thy caufe; unless thy conduct in life was upright, unless thy bounty relieved the poor.

VI.

'Haft thou pitiéd the afflicted, O man? in death thou shalt be pitied. Haft thou confoled the orphan? the orphan will deliver thee. Haft thou clothed the naked? The naked will procure thee protection.

I could fend you tranflations of fome other parts of the funeral N 4

--cere

ceremony. have.

But you

will probably be fatisfied with what you

I mentioned that the funeral ceremony of the Princess Kurakin was performed in the Monaftery of St. Alexander Newfkey. This Saint was formerly a Sovereign of the Ruffias, and was canonized, not fo much for his Chriftian virtues, as for his military atchievements. His exploits, indeed, were in defence of his country against the Swedes or Finns, and are engraved on a magnificent filver fhrine within the monastery. In the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg, at leaft, he is fo highly revered, as to have become a formidable rival to St. Nicholas. Perhaps, it is becaufe his greateft actions were performed upon the banks of the Neva; and that the church and monaftery, confecrated to him, are very magnificent, and happen to be placed in a confpicuous fituation. The adjoining walks, woods, and garden, are extremely pleasant, and even ro

mantic.

P. S. I mentioned to you, that, after reciting the Hymn previous to the Laft Embrace, a Prieft put a fcroll of paper into the right hand of the deceased. This has fometimes been ludicrously reprefented as a palport to be delivered to St. Peter. The following however, has been given me* as an exact translation of the scroll above mentioned, and fhews the injustice of that account.

The Prayer, Hope, and Declaration of a Chriftian Soul in the Faith.

Every God glorifying, orthodox christian, having lived and honoured this hope, declares the following and when he is dead, whoever is willing, may pioufly put this declaration into the hand of the deceased when in the coffin.

"All-creative, Omnipotent God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, in Three Perfons, but one Godhead, substance, and effence: inceffantly praised by all creatures, who, by thy holy will, foreknowledge, immeafurable goodness, and inexpreffible wisdom, didit create all things vifible in the world; thou didit create alfo me thy fervant to glorify thee, O Lord my God! to fing thy holy name; gratefully to thank thee for all thy mercy, and to endeavour, by all virtues, to attain thy everlafttng kingdom. But O, Divine Trinity! I have finned against thee; have offended thy holiness; have broken thy commandments; and have not preferved, as I ought thy image and likeness exifting within me. I have defiled my foul and body by all manner of fins; and by wicked actions have moved thee to wrath. But though I have been dazzled with the vanities of the world, yet, O Lord! I have not caft myself wholly from thee, my Creator, my life, my joy, my salvation, and hope. And now, my life limited by thy power, I willingly refign. My foul feparates itself from my corruptible body; goes into immortality; and if it feem good unto thee, fhall with this body arise again; which I hope for from thy goodness and mercy, according to the faith of our holy religion, and because thou didst fuffer for our fal

* By the Reverend Dr. King author of a learned account of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Greek Church.

vation. Yet I am terrified with fear, left the torments of the wicked be inflicted upon me, for the fins which I have committed against thee. Wherefore, O Immortal King, and my God! with this my laft breath I pray unto thee, that thou wouldst forgive all the fins I have committed from my youth up to this time; for thou art my God and my Creator; I believe in thee; I hope in thee; by thy righteous judgment fave me, O Lord! and vouchfafe unto me thy kingdom. Thou who for us men became Jefus Chrift, to deliver us from fin; by thy power I was born, and brought up in the wifdom of the only holy Eaftern Church. And I pray thee, O Lord! confider not my fius; but grant me abfolution in prefence of the immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Free from doubt, I come unto thee, O God! and at the feparation of my foul into all space from the body, receive, O Lord! my fpirit into thy hands, and according to thy mercy, revive me in the evangelic beatitude, for ever and ever. Amen!'

The anecdotes in this volume are not all of equal importance; and intermixed with flighter fketches, we find fome effays on fubjects of high moment. Of this kind are the author's obfervations on the adminiftration of justice in Ruffia; and his inquiry into the caufes why duelling and the fingle combat have not been so usual in Ruffia as in other countries of Europe. We approve not equally his effay concerning the progrefs of the feudal fyftem in Ruffia. He contends that this fyftem was never fo extenfively establifhed in Ruffia as in France and England. But in fupporting this tenet, he goes into fpeculations inftead of reafoning from facts. And from the more ancient laws of the Ruffian empire it is demonftratively evident, that the great fabrick of the feudal tenures was fully known in that kingdom.. Indeed the modern writers who have written concerning fiefs have attended too little to these laws; and, perhaps, a very fplendid light might be thrown from them, upon a fyftem which is ftill involved in great darkness and obfcurity.

Amidst the praise we have beftowed upon Mr. Richardfon, we must not forget to obferve, that his performance has its defects as well as its beauties. His intermixture of poetry in his letters does not feem to us to be at all times either neceffary or proper; and as, the univerfity of Glafgow is rifing very much in reputation, the public has a title to expect that the productions of a member of fo celebrated a school fhould have the uniform and diftinguishing charm of grammatical purity, and of claffical elegance of expreffion. We difcern, notwithstanding, in the volume under our review, fome marks of inattention and careleffness; and perhaps, it is not a fufficient apology for thefe, that the work has affumed the epiftolary form.

Art.

ART. X. A Tour through the Western, Southern, and interior Provinces of France. By N. W. Wraxall, Efq. 12mo. 2s. 6d. few'd. Dilly.

T

HIS author is not remarkable for any profoundness of fentiment, or any fuperiority of genius. is His tour, notwithstanding is entertaining.

He does not dwell too minutely on the objects which prefented themselves to him; and he appears to have been abundantly active to gratify his curiofity. There is also a degree of vivacity in his manner which is not unbecoming in a traveller; and which correfponds in fome meafure, with the lightnefs of many of his remarks. To the indolent and idle his performance may prove an agreeable paftime. As a fpecimen of his merit we thall felect what he has written concerning Avignon, a city -rendered fo famous by the writings of Petrarch.

I-quitted Marseilles on the fixth of this month, and arrived at Avignon the evening of the enfuing day. It was impoffible for me not to dedicate fome time to the view of a city fo renowned in paft ages, the feat of the fovereign Pontiffs during more than half a century, the refidence of Petrarch, and the birth-place of Laura. I felt that pleafure which refults to every reflecting mind, from the confcioufnefs of being on a spot rendered famous by poetry, or genius, or great atchievements. I compared Avignon, as it now exifts, with the picture which Petrarch has drawn of it in his writings, and attempted to afcertain the fituation of his miftrefs's abode, which is yet pointed out by tradition in one of the fuburbs. I went to the church of the Cordeliers, where reft her remains. In a little dark chapel on the right hand, now difufed for religious ceremonies, damp, cold, and unwhole fome, beneath the arch which forms the entrance, and under a plain stone, lies that Laura who was once fo beautiful, and who can never die while her lover's fame and works furvive. Round the ftone are fome ancient Gothic characters covered with earth, and rendered illegible by time. You will perhaps recollect that Francis the firft, the most accomplished prince who ever reigned in France, and who eminently poffeffed the enthufiafm which ufually diftinguishes and characterises genius, caufed the tomb of Laura to be opened in his own prefence. A with to pervade the obfcurity in which Petrarch has affected to involve the name of his mistress, and the hiftory of his own unhappy paffion; added to a defire of ascertaining by fome inconteftible proof the burial-place of Laura, were the motives which influenced Francis to commit this feeming violation of the repofe of the dead. Some fmall human bones, fupposed to be her's, and a leaden box which contained a fcrowl of Italian verfes obfcurely alluding to Petrarch's attachment to her, were all which repaid the monarch's curiofity. It is needless to remind you, that Laura died of the plague which defolated the greater part of Europe in 1347 and the following year, and of which Boccace has drawn the most animated and distressful picture which can be held up to the human imagination,

It feems impoffible to recognize the fituation or adjacent country of Avignon as they appear at prefent, under the melancholy colours with which Petrarch has fhaded them. The fertile plain of the "Comtat Venaiffin" in which the city ftands, and the rich banks of the Rhone, are defcribed by him as a frightful defart, through which pours a river fwept by continual winds and tempefts. Ovid has given us the fame horrible idea of the coaft of the Black Sea, a climate incontestably one of the finest of the earth, and bleffed with an almoft perpetual fpring. The gloomy medium thro' which the two poets regarded every object, explains this extraordinary fact. The latter, only occupied with the painful recollection of the luxurious pleafures which reigned in the court of Auguftus, and from which he was for ever banished, was loft to every sense of joy or delight. Petrarch, an exile from Italy his native country, always cherishing the fond idea of revifiting Florence, and def piling the manners, while he detefted the city of Avignon, fet no bounds to his exclamations and complaints. Neither the diftinguished favour of feveral fucceeding popes with which he was honour'd, nor the confideration of its being the fpot which gave birth to his mistress Laura, could foften or diminish his antipathy to Avignon. For me, who viewed it impartially, and without prejudice, I confefs I was charmed with the fituation. The profpect from the fummit of the rock in the center of the city is of uncommon beauty. The "Vent de Bize," which blew in my face, was indeed extremely fevere, but I comforted myself, that tho' piercing, it was yet wholefome, and that if Louis the eleventh, when in a ftate of debility had ordered interceffions to Heaven to avert it, Auguftus, on the other hand, was fo well convinced of the falubrious and invigorating qualities of that wind, that he erected an altar to it, and ordered it to be placed among the Gods.

The Rhone itfelf is a noble object, rolling rapidly through meadows covered with olive trees, and divided into two confiderable channels oppofite to Avignon. Acrofs it, extend the ruinous and decayed arches of that bridge, against which Madame de Grignan was fo near being loft, and of which Madame de Sevigne makes terrified mention. It was demolished in 1699, by one of the inundations common to the Rhone. When entire, it was not less than a quarter of a mile in length; but being fo narrow as not to permit two carriages to pafs in any part, it had previofly become almost useless; and motives of policy prevent the conftruction of a new bridge, while Avignon belongs, as it ftill does, to the papal fee.- -On the farther fide of the Rhone, in Languedoc, ftands Ville Neuve, a confiderable town, with a magnificent monaftery of Benedictins on a rock, correfpondent to that on which is built the cathedral of Avignon. The high mountain of Ventoux, in the province of Dauphiné covered with fnow, and which Petrarch has defcribed, appears to the north; and the favage rocks of Vauclufe bound the view to the eastward, at the distance of fifteen miles. Beneath fpreads an extensive vale, water'd by feveral rivulets which lofe themselves in the Rhone, and which is cultivated with the utmost industry.

The city of Avignon is in general ill built, irregular, and de

void