lemn marquis de Lamberti, down to the ingenious baron de Pollnitz. This illustrious count was descended from a very noble family in Austria, and his mother was a princess of the house of Holstein. He had a good person, strong natural parts, improved by a regular education, and still much more improved by long experience in a variety of great employments, which he discharged with a deserved reputation, and rose gradually to the elevated station of chancellor of the court, minister for foreign affairs, and knight of the order of the Golden Fleece, in the reign of the emperor Charles the Sixth. He had distinguished himself in the conduct of many perplexed negotiations; and it was to his consummate skill in politics we stand indebted for the famous Pragmatic Sanction, that has already made such a noise in Europe, embarrasses it at present, and the consequence of which will probably reach, and may perhaps again embarrass, ages that are still to come.

Baron de Pollnitz, with his usual care and circumspection, remarks, That he kept the noblest and most elegant table at Vienna." This, which to a common reader, it is likely, may appear no uncommon circumstance, might very probably have pleased that great minister inore than all the fine things he has said of him besides. With all his hining talents, and profound abilities, which had rendered him admired in so many different courts, the count was less zealous of his reputation in the cabinet, than of his honour in displaying the most splendid, and the most exquisite table, that perhaps was ever kept, in hat or any other capital.

His magnificence in this point
VOL. V.

would have been truly wonderful, if it had not been eclipsed by various excellencies of a superior kind. His skill was so great, that he was equally acquainted with Asiatic and Italian luxury. His olios exceeded those of Spain; his pastry was much more delicate than that of Naples; his Perigord pyes were truly brought from thence; his sausages were made at Bologna; his macaroni by the Grand Duke's cook and as for his wines, no country that produced a grape of any repute, but a sample of it, for the honour of its vineyards, was to be found at his allcapacious side-board. His kitchen was an epitome of the universe; for there were cooks in it of all nations; and in the adjacent numerous and spacious apartments, were to be found rarities collected from all the quarters of the globe. He had, in order to collect these, his agents for provisions in every country; the carriages on which they were laden came quicker and more regular than the posts, and those who were very well informed believed that the expenses of his entertainments ran higher than that for secret correspondence, though very possibly they might be rendered subservient and useful to each other.

In his general conversation, the count was cautious and circumspect; in his conferences with other ministers, reserved though very polite; but at his table all this statemachinery was laid aside. There,' to display his superior learning, he discoursed at large, and delivered the most curious as well as copious lectures on all his exotic and domestic delicacies. In these he shewed a true spirit of justice; no man was ever less a plagiary. This pillau.

D

he

he had from prince Eugene, who had it from the bashaw of Buda; the egg soup was made after the mode of the marchioness de Prie; the Roan ducks were stewed in the style of the cardinal du Bois; and the lampreys came ready dressed from a great minister in England. His dishes furnished him with a kind of chronology; his watersouchy was borrowed from marshal d'Auverquerque's table, when he was first in Holland; the pheasant tourt was a discovery he made in Spain, where he was so lucky as to pick up a man, who, as a purveyor, had been in the service of that prince of bon-vivans the duke de Vendosme: but he always allowed, that the grand school of cookery was the congress at Soissons, where the political conferences indeed proved ineffectual, but the entertainments of the several ministers were splendid beyond description. In a word, with a true Apician eloquence, he generously instructed all the novices in good living; and, as Solomon discoursed of every herb, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall; so he began with a champignion no bigger than a Dutchman's waistcoat-button, and ended with wild boar, the glory of the German forests!

On his public days, there was an half hour, and sometimes near a whole one, when he was altogether inaccessible; and with respect to his employment in those seasons, as is ever the case as to the privacies of prime ministers, there was a great variety of deep as well as different speculations. An inquisitive foreigner, however, resolved to be at the bottom, cost what it would; and by a gratification to one of his pages, which might have procured

a greater secret, he was let into this. In order to gratify his curiosity, he was placed in a closet, between the room where the count was, and the chamber of audience, where he had the satisfaction of beholding the fol lowing pleasant scene. The count, seated in his elbow-chair, gave the signal of his being ready for the important business, when, preceded by a page, with a cloth on his arm, and a drinking-glass, one of his principal domestics appeared, who presented a silver salver, with many little pieces of bread, elegantly disposed; he was immediately followed by the first cook, who, on another salver, had a number of small vessels filled with so many different kinds of gravy. His excellency then tucking his napkin into his cravat, first washed and gargled his mouth, and having wiped it, dipped a piece of bread into each kind of sauce, and having tasted with much deliberation, rinsing his palate (to avoid confusion) after every piece, at length with inexpressible sagacity decided as to the destination of them all. These grand instruments of luxury, with their attendants, then were dismissed, and the long-expected minister having fully discussed this interesting affair, found himself at liberty to discharge next the duties of his political function.

This is no malignant censure, but a gentle and genuine representation of this great man's ostentation, in what he chose to make his principal profession. If it was right, as possibly many may think it, then, though faintly drawn, this is to be considered as a panegyric: but, if wrong, it is no libel, but barely an admonitory exhortation to those, who, in every high station, may be a little tinged with this folly; and a short

exercise,

exercise, upon this proposition, that the science of eating, great as it may be, is after all no liberal science.

Authentic conversation between the king of Prussia and the ingenious Mr. Gellert, professor in Belles Lettres at Leipsick; extracted from a letter, dated Leipsick, January 27,

1761.

TH

THE 18th of October last, about three o'clock in the afternoon, while professor Gellert was sitting in his nightgown at his desk, much out of order, he heard somebody knock at his door." Pray, Sir, walk in.”---" Sir, your servant, my name is Quintus Icilius, and I am extremely glad to have the plea sure of forming an acquaintance with one so famous in the republic of letters. I am not, however, come here in my own name only, but in that of his Prussian majesty, who desires to see you, and has commanded me to conduct to him." you After some excusés, founded on his ill health, M. Gellert accompanied major Quintus, who introduced him into the apartment of his majesty, where the following conversation was carried on by the king and the two literati.

King. Are you professor Gellert ? Gellert. Yes, Sire. K. The English envoy has mentioned you to me as a person of eminent merit. From whence are you?

the French have judged worthy of a translation, and whom they call the La Fontaine of Germany.

K. This, Mr. Gellert, is, no doubt, a strong proof of your merit. Pray, have you read La Fontaine ?

G. Yes, Sire, but without imitating him. I have aimed at the merit of being original in my way.

But what is the reason that we have K. Here you are in the right. not in Germany a greater number of such good authors as you?

G. Your majesty seems prejudiced against the Germans. K. By no means!

G. Against the German writers at least.

K. That may be, and the truth is, I have not a very high opinion of them.

Whence comes it that

we find no good historians among

them?

G. He has not only continued it, but also performed this difficult task with the greatest success. One of the most eminent, professors in your majesty's dominions has declared this continuation equal in eloquence, and superior in point of exactness, to Bossuet's history.

K. What is the reason that we have no good German writers?

Major Quintus. Your majesty has before your eyes an excellent German writer, whose productions even

G. That author is extremely difficult to translate, and the French translations that have been given of him, are entirely destitute of merit.

K. This I acknowledge.
D 2

G. There

G. There are several causes that have contributed hitherto to prevent the Germans from becoming eminent in the different kinds of writing. While the arts and sciences flourished among the Greeks, the Romans were solely occupied in the pernicious art of war. May we not look upon this as the military age of Germany? May I not add to this, that they have not been animated by such patrons of learning as Augustus and Louis XIV.

K. And yet you have had two Augustus's in Saxony.

G. True, Sire, and we also have seen good beginnings in that country.

K. How can you expect that there should be one Augustus in Germany, divided as it is?

G. That, Sire, is not my meaning. I only wish that every prince would encourage, in his own dominions, men of true genius.

K. Were you never Saxony?

out of

G. I was once at Berlin. K. You ought to travel. G. Sire, I have no inclination to travelling, nor would my circumstances enable me to travel, had I ever so much inclination to it.

K. What kind of sickness are you troubled with? I suppose it is the malady of the learned.

G. Be it so; since your majesty does me the honour to give it that name. I could not, without the greatest vanity, have given it that appellation myself.

K. I have had this disease as well as you; and I think I can cure you. You have only to use exercise, ride every day, and take once a week a dose of rhubarb.

G. This remedy, Sire, might prove

to me worse than the disease. If the horse I use has more health and spirits than I myself have, I dare not ride him; and if he has less, I certainly should not receive much benefit from the use of him.

K. Why then don't you make use of a carriage?

G. I am not rich enough for that.

K. Aye, there it is that the shoe generally pinches the German literati. The times, indeed, are but bad at present.

G. Very bad, indeed, Sire. But if your majesty would be so generous as to give peace to Germany--

K. How can I do that? Have you not heard that I have against me three crowned heads?

G. My chief knowledge, Sire, lies in ancient history: I have studied much less that of modern

times.

K. Which do you prefer as an epic poet, Homer or Virgil?

G. Homer certainly, as an original genius, merits the preference.

K. Virgil, however, is a more polished writer.

G. We live in an age too remote from that of Homer to form an accurate judgement of the language and manners of that early period. I there fore depend upon the judgement of Quintilian, who gives Homer the preference.

K. We must not, however, pay, a slavish deference to the judgement of the ancients.

G. Neither do I follow it blindly. I only adopt it when antiquity throws such a mist over an object as prevents my seeing it with my own eyes, and, consequently, hinders me from judging for myself.

K. You have composed, I am told,