"The orator's breast must glow with the passion he describes, before he can excite its flame in the breasts of others." "Prius afficiamur ipsi, ut alios afficiamus." QUINTILIAN. "We must be affected ourselves, before we can affect others." The following passage from Milton's Paradise Lost, containing the address of the Almighty, to the heavenly powers, on the subject of man's redemption, should exemplify variety of tone, and force of emphasis: Say, heav'nly Pow'rs, where shall we find such love? Man's mortal crime, and just th' unjust to save? He ask'd, but all the heav'nly quire stood mute, And now without redemption all mankind Must have been lost, adjudg'd to Death and Hell Father, thy word is past, Man shall find grace; To visit all thy creatures, and to all Comes unprevented, unimplor'd, unsought? Can never seek, once dead in sins and lost; I offer; on me let thine anger fall; Account me Man; I for his sake will leave Freely put off, and for him lastly die Well pleas'd; on me let Death wreck all his rage; Under his gloomy pow'r I shall not long Lie vanquish'd; thou hast giv'n me to possess Though now to Death I yield, and am his due I through the ample air in triumph high Shall lead Hell captive maugre Hell, and show The Pow'rs of darkness bound. Thou at the sight- Then with the multitude of my redeem'd Glad to be offer'd, he attends the will Of his great Father. Admiration seiz'd All Heav'n, what this might mean, and whither tend Wond'ring. The following passage from Dr. Young's Night Thoughts, very forcibly exhibits both the emphatic and sentential pauses: The bell strikes One! We take no note of time But from its loss: to give it then a tongue Is wise in man. As if an angel spoke, I feel the solemn sound. If heard aright, It is the knell of my departed hours. Where are they? With the years beyond the flood. It is the signal that demands despatch: How much is to be done! My hopes and fears Poor pensioner on the bounties of an hour? How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, How passing wonder HE who made him such! A worm! a god!-I tremble at myself, Triumphantly distress'd! what joy! what dread! What can preserve my life? or what destroy? (To be continued.) POLITE LITERATURE-FOR THE PORT FOLIO. AMONG the literary publications of Paris, the Journal de l'Empire has deservedly a conspicuous place. Formerly, the Journal des Debats, it assumed, about four years since, its present title, when the change in the government left no longer any debates to report, and is now, though a daily newspaper, chiefly devoted to letters. The editor, Julien-Louis Geoffroy, an ancient abbot, of elegant education and acquirements, is assisted by many men of science; but the department peculiarly his own, is that of Polite Literature. In this, he is distinguished by a sound, classical, independent judgment, and a style of arch and careless raillery, which his enemies (for he is a critic) say is sometimes too ill-natured. The Journal de l'Empire, however, guides the public sentiment of Paris on subjects of taste, and resembles, perhaps more than any French Journal since his time, the Mercure of Marmon tel. We shall have frequent occasion to enrich the pages of The Port Folio from this brilliant Miscellany. The article this day selected is one of considerable interest, as it announces the results of an honourable projet to extend the limits of human knowledge. The flattering auspices under which it commenced excited very high expectations; but the friends of science have to regret that by the loss of the most distinguished persons on the expedition, the care of it devolved on its younger members. We are happy to find, however, that they have acquitted themselves so well, and that science has much to expect from their zeal and industry. The Review is written by Mr. Maite Brun, the author in conjunction with Mentel, of an extensive geographical work, and if we remember aright, a Dane by birth, but long since naturalized in French literature. A Voyage of Discovery to Australasia, performed by order of H. M. the Emperor and King, during the years 1800—4, published by an Imperial decree, by Mr. Peron, the Historical Atlas by Messrs. Lesueur and Petit, under the direction of Mr. Melbert. The Geographical Atlas by Mr. Freycinet. 2 vols. in 4to. and Atlas. 72 Francs. ALTHOUGH of this great work there has as yet appeared only the first volume of the account and the corresponding part of the Atlas, the friendship with which we are honoured by the editors enables us to give to the public a general and complete idea of this immortal monu-, ment of the courage of the French travellers and of Imperial munificence. Nine years since, Napoleon, after having reestablished public affairs, and laid the first foundations of a solid government, expressed the noble desire of seeing his reign marked by the completion of that long series of geographical discoveries which have made us acquainted with almost all the shores of the habitable world. On the proposal of the Institute, an expedition to New Holland and the Australasian countries in its neighbourhood, was resolved on, to obtain information with regard to those vast regions, which, by the right of prior discovery, belonged to the allies of France, the Dutch and the Spaniards—that part of the world where the Carterets, the Walles, and the Cooks, were ordered to seek a new Peru for the tyrants of the ocean, and in the bosom of which a flourishing colony established at an enormous expense already announced the pretensions and the hopes of England. To complete the discovery of these countries, to verify the observations of preceding travellers, and to become acquainted with all the physical and political advantages of this new world, the wisest plans were traced, the most luminous and precise instructions given, geographers and naturalists of the greatest zeal and talents were chosen and provided with ships, provisions, instruments, with every thing in short necessary to fulfil their glorious mission. Peaceable deputies from a great civilized nation to savage tribes, they carried to these deserted children of nature, the most useful presents. The common interest of all European nations in the sciences disarmed the enemies of France, and England opened to these travellers a free passage across her squadrons. All these circumstances seemed to promise to the expedition success the most brilliant and the most useful to science. But alas! the spirit of little personal intrigue, that malignant spirit born amid the ancient civil discords of France, strengthened under the influence of weak and corrupted courts, and become omnipotent under the reign of pretended liberty, that spirit which retards so many great and useful projects, had obtained a fatal ascendancy in the choice of the commander of this expedition. If we believe the authors of this account, these interesting travellers, who, at the call of Glory, rushed into a career so perilous, were confided to the folly of a chief who neglected all his instructions, who ran directly against the obstacles he was directed to avoid, who did not know how to take advantage of winds or currents, who even prevented the researches he ought to have favoured, and to complete the evil, sacrificed to a sordid avarice, or a guilty want of foresight, the health and the lives of all his companions. We are frightened at the picture drawn by the compiler of the voyage, of the sufferings which he shared with the other members of the expedition, sometimes struggling in feeble vessels against the fury of the elements to which the chief abandoned them, sometimes in a slower but more fatal contest with hunger, and thirst, and disease. While Captain Cook made the tour of the world without losing more than a single man, out of the twenty-three scientific travellers who composed the expedition to Australasia, only three have returned. The public believed almost generally that this voyage would produce no acquisition to science, when a Report to the Institute apprized them that (thanks to the indefatigable zeal of Messrs. Peron, Lesueur, Bailly, Freycinet, and some others) the harvest of discoveries in natural history and geography would be infinitely more abundant and interesting than circumstances permitted them to hope, and even that it would much surpass those produced by the most famous English travels. Soon after, from the midst of camps and the snows of Germany, the Emperor ordered the publication of a work which might preserve to posterity the fruits of this great enterprise. In the Imperial decree the name of the chief who had so badly conducted the expedition was not mentioned, nor is it in the whole course of the relation of the voyage. The work when complete will comprise, 1. The Historical Account of the Voyage by Mr. Peron, in 2 vols. in 4to., of which we have the first before us, and we know that the printing of the second is far advanced. 2. The History of the People of Australasia by the same author, which is an al |