PRÉVOST (Pierre). Notice de la Vie et des Ecrits de George Louis le Sage, de Genève, Membre de l'Académie et de l'Institut de Boulogne, &c. rédigé d'après ses notes. Genève, 1805, 1 vol. 8vo. "The biographical sketch here announced, has more than an ordinary claim to the attention of the reader. The subject of it is a philosopher, who, beside the peculiarities incident to genius, had several that belonged exclusively to himself. These he was careful to study and explain; and the notes which he has left behind him, seem to entitle him to the rare eulogy of having given an accurate and candid delineation of his own character. His biographer too, had the advantage of being intimately acquainted with the person whom he has undertaken to describe, and has been attentive to mark whatever appeared singular in the constitution or progress of his mind."-Edinburgh Review,vol. 10, p. 137. RETZ, See History. STAAL (Madame de). Mémoires de Madame de Staal (née Launai). Paris, 1755, 4 vols. 12mo. "If far beneath the magisterial dignity of d'Aguesseau; the lofty conflicts of Cardinal de Retz; the elegant literary career of Mr. Gibbon, or the learned ease of Huetius, it had been the lot of the Reminiscent, to move in a very low condition, yet to have seen, observed, and read much, and he had felt a wish to communicate his obscure adventures, and his reflections on them to the public, he could not have desired a better pen than that of Madame de Staal. Her memoirs are written with great purity of language, her wit sparkles in every page of them."-Butler's Reminisences, vol. 2, p. 31-8. "We may now take a peep at the female correspondents (Madame de Deffand's) in the first rank of whom we must place Madame de Staal, so well known to most of our readers by her charming Memoirs. This Lady was attached to the Court of the Duchess of Maine; and her letters, independent of the wit and penetration they display, are exceedingly interesting from the near and humiliating view they afford of the miserable ennui, the selfishness and paltry jealousies which brood in the atmosphere of a court."-Edinburgh Review, Vol. 15, p. 470. |