Ad Christum.

PARODIA XXIII. LIB 2.

Quo me, Christi, feram mali

SEBASTIAN LE PRESTRE, son of Urban Le Prestre, lord of Vaubon, was born the 1st of May, 1633. He first bore arms at the age of 17. His talents, and his extraordinary genius for fortification, immediately made him known, and covered him with eclat at the siege of St. Menehoud, in 1652. Vaubon had served till then under the Prince de Conde, General of the Spanish army, against France. Having been taken by a party of the French, Cardinal Mazarin endeavoured to engage him in the service of the King: "and he succeeded with very little trouble,” says Fontenelle, "with a man born the most faithful subject in the world." This year, also, Vaubon served as engineer at the second siege of St. Menehoud, which was retaken by the royal army. He was employed afterwards as engineer at the siege of Stenoi, in 1654; of Landrecies, in 1655; of Valenciennes, in 1656; and of Montmidi, in 1657, The year after he principally conducted the sieges of Gravelines, Ypres, and Oudenow. Cardinal Mazarin, who ne

ver

bestowed rewards undeservedly, gave him a considerable one, and accompanied it with praises, which, according to the character of Vaubon, were much more acceptable. After the peace of the Pyrenees, this young engineer was occupied either in demolishing or constructing fortresses. He had already acquired a number of new ideas in the art of fortification an art so necessary, and so little known before. He had already seen much, and with a very good eye; and be constantly augmented his experience by reading. When the war was kindled again, in 1667, he was the principal conductor of the sieges which the King carried on in person. He received at the siege of Douay a musket-shot in the cheek, but that did not make him apply less. He was occupied, in

in specus

Pressus mole gravi? Quibus

Antris ob maculam criminis occultar

Eternam meditans facem

Infernum effugere, et simplicium Stygis? &c. &c.

the fortresses of Franche-comté, Flanders, and Artois. The King gave him the command of the citadel of Lisle, which was about to be built, and was the first government of that kind in

COD

France. When the peace was cluded at Aix-la-Chapelle, his labours were not less than during the war. He went into Peidmont with Louvois, gave the Duke of Savoy designs for Verue, Verceil, and Turin, and received from that Prince his portrait, enriched with diamonds. The war of 1672 furnished him with new opportunities for displaying his genius. He conducted all the sieges at which the King was present It was at that of Maestricht, in 1673, that he first made use of a singular method for the attack of fortresses. He changed the aspect of that terrible and important post of war. He still continued his inventions, which were exceedingly numerous, and all tended to his principal point, the preservation of men. In 1677, Valenciennes was taken by assault, and the attack was made in broad day-light. This counsel was given by Vaubon, to prevent the soldiers from mistaking one another for the enemy, and that the night might not favour the pusillanimous. According to the ancient custom, attacks were always made during the night. Louvois and five of the French Marshals wished to preserve the old method; but Louis the XIVth, struck by the reasons of Vaubon, adopted the new. At the siege of Cambray, which followed that of Valencieunes, Vaubon did not concur in the opinion for attacking the half-moon of the citadel. Dumetz, a brave, but haughty and passionate man, persuaded the King to defer the attack no longer. It was then that Vaubon said to the King, "You may perhaps lose at this attack men who are of more value than the place." Dumetz carried his point; the halfmoon was attacked and taken: but the enemy recovered themselves with great spirit, retook it, and the King lost more than four hundred men and forty othcers. Vaubon two days afterwards attacked it in form, and forced it to surrender, without losing more than three men. The King promised another time to let him act according to his own opinion. The peace of Nimeguen removed the arduous task of taking fortresses, but gave him a great number to fortify. He planned the fort of Dunkirk, his master-piece. Strasburg and Cassel were afterwards his most considerable works. The war which recommenced in 1682, obtained for him the glory of taking Luxembourg, which

was thought impregnable. In 1688, he directed, under the orders of Monsieur, the sieges of Philipsbourg, Manheim, and Franckendahl. That Prince recompensed him for his services, by giving him four pieces of cannon, of his own choice, to place at his chateau a privilege unknown till then. His bad health having incapacitated him for business in 1690, he repaired the involuntary idleness which it had occasioned, by the capture of Mons in 1691, of Namur in 1692, by the siege of Charleroi, in 1693, by the defence of Lower Brittany against the designs of the English in 1694 and 1695, and afterwards by the siege of Ath in 1697. The succession to the throne of Spain having renewed the war, he went to Namur in 1703, where be received the baton of Marshal of France. About the conclusion of the year, he took Vieux-Brisack, which did not cost him more than three hundred men. This siege finished his brilliant career. The title of Marshal of France produced the inconveniences which he had foreseen: he remained useless, and his dignity was a charge to him. La Feuillade having been employed to reduce Turin, Vaubon offered to serve as a volunteer in his army. "I hope to take Turin in Cohorn's manner," boldly said this inexperienced young man, in refusing the assistance of that great man, who could alone assist him. The siege not having advanced, Louis the XIVth consulted Vaubon, who again offered his assist-. ance. "But, Marshal," said the King to him, "do you think that this employment is beneath your dignity?"

Sire," replied Vaubon, " my dignity consists in serving the state. I shall leave the baton of Marshal at the gate, and I shall perhaps assist the Duke de La Feuillade in taking the city. This virtuous man having been refused, for fear of disgusting the General, was sent to Dunkirk, and recovered, by his presence, the frightened minds of the citizens. He died. the year after, on the 30th of March 1707, of an inflammation of the chest, at the age of 74, after having superintended the repairs of three hundred ancient fortresses, and having constructed thirty-three new ones, having been present at one hundred and forty. spirited engagements, and having conducted fifty-three sicges.

A

For the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE.

AN ESSAY ON FREE-WILL.

S the will and affection being not disposed according to moral rectitude, argues not that moral rectitude is impossible, but undeniably proves the depravity of human nature; so dissension among mankind, concerning truth, argues not that there is no truth, but exposes the weakness and fallacy of human understanding. We can as little doubt the reality of moral rectitude and truth, as of our own existence and the existence of God; for moral duties and moral natures are inseparable.

Free-will makes a moral nature. God has endued mankind with free will, and a voluntary power in the exercise of many functions, but yet has limited them, perhaps more narrowly than some are willing to believe. He seems to have reserved a providential right over the most free faculties of soul and body, which he exerts occasionally, according to the good or bad use the creature makes of his freedom; or to promote those ends which his wisdom determiues to accomplish. Hence it frequently happens, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; no, nor the wisdom of salvation to men of the most extensive learning and quickest thought. A gracious influence of the Almighty Spirit is necessary to preserve the tone and vigour of the muscles, bones, and sinews, in the prosecution of their uses; and no less to direct and quicken the mind in discerning truths, especially truths that conduce to true virtue and happiness. In this state of apostacy there broods a dubious mist on the sacred way be tween us and happiness, which cannot be pierced by the acutest eye, without a due regard to God's glory. Making a good use of the freedom and faculties he has given already, conciliates God's favour, which infallibly guides the weakest soul to the knowledge of happiness and virtue; and the most vigorous understanding without that divine influence, is but like the gigantic strength of a madman, which aggravates his own misery, and hastens his own destruc tion. I am sorry to think the world has known so many examples of the kind last mentioned. Have we not known many, too many, reputed highly for wit and sagacity, who have been abandoned to their own foilies and impious de

vices; condemned to a reprobate mind; and so far lost, as even to deny their Creator? A truth which the weakest degree of reason never fails to find out. Has not a celebrated genius, by plausible sophistry and artfully blending falsehood with truth, seduced many into the error of his subtle and dangerous opinions?-We are told man is perfect, as he ought; so he is, considering that he is infected with original sin, and justly suffers the consequences of it: but he speaks not with relation to that; he means, man is absolutely perfect, as he ought to be created; for he says, that the degree of weakness we labour under is necessary to the order and welbeing of the universe; and that even pride is the root of virtue, and makes the greatest part of a whimsical something, which he calls happiness. That a just subordination of the creature is necessary to the order and welfare of the universe, nobody will deny; and consequently, one kind must be weaker than another, in a descending gradation from the greatest to the least; but this does not imply oppressive strength in one, nor miserable weakness in another, for then it would not be a just subordination: but weakness (which we may complain of without accusing Hea ven) is quite a different thing: the weakness we mean, is the inability of nature to fill the circle it is placed in; i. e. want of power to sustain its condition with pleasure, and to prosecute its true end and happiness without pain and error. This is emphatical weakness, so little necessary to the order of nature, that it is the very substance of disorder and confusion; it concludes all that we mean by natural evil; which indeed is a proper scourge for wanton impiety, but never can reasonably be thought necessary to the order and existence of the universe; as if it were not easy for God to make his creatures perfect and happy. Pride, when the word is used for zeal and reso. Jution in the observance of our duty, is a glorious temper; but pride, properly so called, and which is his meaning, did never in this world make any creature happy, but many miserable Indeed, for a while it may flatter imagination, like a dream; but, at the approach of truth, away vanishes the false enchanting vision, and leaves nothing behind but a keener sense of misery. Pride, like weakness in nature, was the original cause of all moral evil, and the

reason of natural evil is still the main spring of rebellion, and the detestable author of that bloodshed and devastation which nigh overwhelmed the world.—Now let us make a reflection. We are endued with freedom, which yet is subject to the government of Divine Providence, to whose merciful assistance we must also be indebted for the recovery of its rectitude, and the continuance of integrity. This assistance (as we understand from plain facts, and the testimony of holy scripture) is only granted on condition that we make a good use of the talents first committed to our charge, to the glory of the Giver. Then how careful should we be to do our best towards that end, which is the only way to obtain divine favour, which alone must perfect our weak and miserable nature, which perfection is true happiness. It is evident, the only road to happiness is to glorify God. The right and natural employment of reason is to execute the Divine will voluntarily; and the true happiness of a rational creature is to delight in that employment.

T. HILL.

To the Editor of the European Magazine.

SIR,

Iships fitted by govern

T is now nearly 45 years since any

ment to explore the northern regions. The last expedition for that particular purpose was on the 4th June, 1773, when the Hon. Commodore Phipps (the eldest son of Lord Mulgrave) in his Majesty's ship Racehorse, 350 tons burthen, accompanied by Captain Lutwych, in the Carcass sloop, burthen 300 tons, sailed on a voyage for making discoveries towards the North Pole, and to find out a north-east passage into the Pacific Ocean.

I do myself the pleasure of sending you a few extracts from an account of that voyage, whereby it does not appear that any thing particular happened till they arrived at Spitsbergen. On their way thither, they remarked-That the vicissitudes of heat and cold are more frequent in the northern, than in the more southerly latitudes, and that it often changes from temperate to extreme cold, and that very suddenly. Sometimes it was with difficulty they could keep any course, for the drifts of ice came so thick, as to whirl the ships Europ: Mag. Vol. LXXIII. Mar. 1818.

5.

about, as if in a whirl-pool, and that the clashing of the pieces of loose ice against each other on any extraordinary agitation of the waves, is attended with a roaring so loud, that a man who is near it can hardly hear the sound of his own voice. They mention that at midnight, when they were in 78° 18′ north lati tude, the sun was as bright as at noonday.

July 13th, 1773, they anchored in Smearingburgh Harbour, at Spitsbergen, where they remained five or six days, to take in fresh water. The country is stoney, and, as far as can be seen, full of mountains, precipices, and rocks; between these are hills of ice, generated, as it should seem, by the torrents that flow from the melting of the snow on the sides of those towering elevations, which being ouce congealed, are continually increased by the snow in winter, and the rain in summer, which often freezes as soon as it falls. By looking on these hills, a stranger may fancy a thousand different shapes of trees, castles, churches, ruins, ships, whales, monsters, and all the various forms that fill the universe. Of the ice-hills there are seven that more particularly attract the notice of a stranger; these are known by the name of the Seven Iceburgs, and are thought to be the highest of the kind in that country. When the

air is clear, and the sun shines full upon

these mountains, the prospect is inconceivably brilliant. They sometimes put on the bright glow of the evening rays of the setting sun, when reflected upon glass, at his going down; sometimes they appear of a bright blue, like sapphire, and sometimes like the variable colours of a prism, exceeding in lustre the richest gems in the world, disposed in shapes wonderful to behold, all glittering with a lustre that dazzles the eye, and fills the air with astonishing brightness.

The ice-bird at Spitsbergen is a very beautiful little bird, but very rare; he is in size and shape like a turtle-dove, but his plumage, when the sun shines upon him, is of a bright yellow, like the golden ring in the peacock's tail, and almost dazzles the eye to look upon it. Most of the birds are water-fowl, and seek their food in the sea. The other inhabitants of this forlorn country are white bears, deer, and foxes; how these creatures can subsist in the winter, when the whole earth is covered with snow, 2 F

and the sea locked up in ice, is hardly to be conceived. It has been said, indeed, that when the ocean is all frozen over, and no sustenance to be procured in this country, they travel southerly to the warmer climates, where food proper for them abounds in the immense forests of the northern continent; but whoever considers the vast distance between Spitsbergen, and the nearest parts of the northern continent, will be as much at a loss to account for the subsistence of these creatures in their journey, as in the desolate region where they undoubtedly remain. The bear is by far the best accommodated to the climate of which he is an inhabitant; he is equally at home on land and water, and hunts diligently for his prey in both; in summer he finds plenty of food from the refuse of the whales, sea-horses, and seals, which is thrown into the sea by the whalers, and cover the shores during the time of whaling; but the question will still recur, how the race of them subsisted before the whale fishery had existence, and before men found the way to this inhospitable shore. Disquisitions of this kind, as they are beyond the reach of human comprehension, serve only to raise our admiration of that omnipotent Being to whom nothing is impossible.

But the most wonderful thing of all is, how the deer can survive an eight months' famine. Like ours, they feed upon nothing that can be perceived, but the vegetables which the earth sponta neously produces; and, yet, for eight months in the year, the earth at Spitsbergen produces neither plant, herb, shrub, or blade of any kind of grass whatever. The means of their subsistence must, therefore, remain among the secrets of nature. Amphibious creatures abound the most about the sounds and bays of Spitsbergen, and they seem best adapted to endure the cli

mate.

The plants that are most common in Spitsbergen are, scurvy-grass and crowsfoot; there are, besides, small houseleak, and a plant with aloe-leaves, an herb like stone-crop, some small snakeweed, mouse-ear, wood-strawberry, periwinkle, and an herb peculiar to the country, which they call the rock-plant. The leaves of this plant are in shape like a man's tongue, about six feet long, of a dull yellow colour; the stalk is round and smooth, and of the same colour with the leaf; it rises tapering, and

smells like muscles. It is an aquatic, and rises in height in proportion to the depth of water in which it is found. There are other plants and herbs, but these are the chief. Of flowers, the white poppy seems the principal.

They found no springs of fresh water in Spitsbergen; but in the valleys, between the mountains, are many little rills caused by the rain and melting of the snow in summer; and from these rills the ships are supplied. Some are of opinion that this water is unwholesome, but they are more nice than wise, for the whaling people have drank it for ages, and have found no ill effects from the use of it. Ice taken up in the middie of these seas, and thawed, yields also good fresh water. The air about Spitsbergen is never free from icicles. If you look through the sun-beams transversely as you sit in the shade, or where you see the rays confined in a body, instead of dark motes, as are seen here, you see myriads of shining particles, that sparkle like diamonds; and, when the sun shines hot, as it sometimes does, so as to melt the tar in the seams of the ships, when they lie sheltered from the wind, these shining atoms seem to melt away, and descend like dew.

There is no difference between night and day in the appearance of the atmosphere about Spitsbergen, one being as light as the other, only when the sun is to the northward, you may look at him with the naked eye, as at the moon, without dazzling. The fogs here come on so suddenly, that from bright sunshine, you are presently involved in such obscurity, that you can hardly see from one end of the ship to the other.

It

After experiencing many difficulties, they did not proceed further than 80° 47' north latitude, where both ships were completely enclosed in the ice, on every side, as far as they could see. was now thought adviseable to make one desperate attempt to extricate the ships, by cutting a channel to the westward into the open sea. Their ice-saws, axes, sledges, poles, and the whole group of sea tools, were, in an instant, all employed in facilitating the work; but, after cutting through blocks of solid ice, from eight to fifteen feet deep, and coming to others of many fathoms, that exceeded the powers of man to separate, that was laid aside, as a hopeless project; and another, more promising, though not less laborious,