the labour of above thirty years. He furnished all the materials of the Anacharsis, but Barthelemy's brother, who was employed in the king's library, was the redacteur of these materials.*

Our friends who are conversant with German literature, need not be informed by us, that Wieland wrote a work on this principle, called " Letters of Aristippus and his friends." He supposes Aristippus to have visited Greece in the time of Socrates. Barthelemy dwells more on history, geography, politics; Wieland on men, manners, and opinions. Barthelemy has more vivacity, Wieland more garrulity; Barthelemy more condensation, Wieland more completeness. Barthelemy aims at embellishment, Wieland at fidelity. A learned writer in the Philological Museum, (ii. p. 238) says " Barthelemy gives a striking display of his estrangement from every thing like a long acquaintance with the state of Greece at that period." And Bishop Thirlwall has justly observed, "Such works as Barthelemy's are chiefly interesting as showing the immense progress that philology has since made." The opinion of his predecessor is more favourable, who says" Barthelemy's work is a vast mine of information concerning the interesting people he describes; but for its very merit, it is important that its deficiencies should be exposed. Barthelemy had imbibed the political principles of the French philosophy, and was warm in the cause of ideal liberty; but though he passed much of his time in the house of a minister, the Duke of Choiseul, he seems to have been no politician: he certainly had no clear insight into the complicated politics of Greece. His fellow countryman Rollin, though no academician, shews a juster view of Grecian history," &c. Again, the same writer observes," Barthelemy is in general little careful to distinguish the different practices of distant ages, when the Grecian cities were in very different circumstances; and he quotes with far too much indifference the highest authorities and the lowest-Thucydides, Xenophon, Isocrates, and Hesychius, Isidore, Pollux, and Suidas."§ How Barthelemy's work was received in France, when it first appeared, may be best seen in Grimm's and Diderot's Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 433, &c. A short Biographical Account of Barthelemy may be found in Tweddell's Memoirs, p. 285, 4to. He died in the year 1794, in a quiet slumber, and the Horace he was reading, fell from his hand. As regards "Telemachus still stands alone,” we could indeed pass pleasantly enough many hours of a summer's day in recording what we have to say of our own, and what we could mention in the opinion of others, as to this celebrated work of a most interesting writer; but we shall content ourselves with observing that Voltaire says,"J'aimerai beaucoup mieux le roman de Telemaque, s'il n'etait pas tout en digressions et declamations." || Notwithstanding, however, this defect, which may be said scarcely to penetrate below the surface, if we go deeper we find much to applaud and even admire, both in the sagacity of the views of this illustrious man, and in the boldnesss with which they were announced particularly those connected with the subject, scarcely

* See some notice of him in the Malmesbury Correspondence, iii. 322.-Rev. + See on this work of Wieland, Taylor's Survey of German Poetry, p. ii. p. 491. -REV.

See Thirlwall's Greece, vol. i. p. 443.-REV.

$ See Mitford's History of Greece, vol. v. p. 2, and 302. See Voltaire's Correspondence Generale, tom. i. p. 99.

then studies, of political economy, of taxation, and of the importance of agriculture, and of the freedom of commerce. Of course there are grave defects and most imperfect knowledge to be found in a work which preceded Adam Smith by more than half a century. But the writer was far in advance of his age; and, as has been observed by one whose death all who knew him are now lamenting, "The maxims of government which the prelate presents are all of a mild and enlightened taste, and well fitted to contribute to the happiness of the community."* A French critic of much acuteness and eloquence has justly mentioned "Ce prelat immortel, Fenelon, qui parla du peuple à la cour, donna Telemaque à notre langue, reunit l'eloquence, la religion, et la philosophie; et fut simple à la fois dans son genie, dans sa pieté, et dans sa vertu.” One "decisive and distinguishing" mark of honour Fenelon received from the hands of his sovereign Louis XIV. who, at the death of the Duke of Burgundy, threw into the flames every scrap he could find of Fenelon's writing,-no slight testimony of his merit, and of their value.

PORTRAITS OF LORD AND LADY LE DESPENSER

IN THEIR CHANTRY CHAPEL IN TEWKESBURY CHURCH.

(With two Engravings.)

WE believe the earliest portraits which we have, in the ordinary form of moveable pictures, are two of King Richard the Second (one of which is at Wilton, and the other in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster), and a very rude but apparently original picture, which was sold at Strawberry Hill, representing Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland, the favourite of the same monarch,-all, therefore, some forty years later than the paintings to which we now direct attention. It is often a question (though opinion generally leans towards the affirmative) how far monumental effigies, sepulchral brasses, and figures in stained glass were portraits of the persons represented. Probably they partook more or less of resemblance, according to the skill of the artist employed, and if contemporary, they are at least trustworthy testimonies to general appearance and appropriate costume. Under this impression, we have considered the figures before us to be well worthy of

publication, the more so as sepulchral figures of our medieval reigns are generally in military costume, whereas we have here a great lord, and a knight of the garter, in the dress of the peaceful court.

Edward lord le Despenser was the grandson of Hugh sometimes called Earl of Gloucester, who, with his father Hugh Earl of Winchester, contributed so materially to the misfortunes of the latter years of King Edward the Second. The unpopularity of the family occasioned by those events had been subsequently softened, if not effaced, by the exemplary conduct and eminent services of Hugh le Despenser, lord of Glamorgan, the next head of the family: but he died childless, and on his decease, which occurred on the 8th Feb. 1348-9, his successor was his nephew Edward, then a boy of twelve years of age.

Edward was the son of Edward, the second son of the younger Hugh, by Anne daughter of Henry lord Ferrers.

See Professor Smyth on the French Revolution, vol. i. On the merits and the defects of Barthelemy's work we may also refer our readers to the Retrospective Review, vol. xii. p. 254, &c.-REV.

†They have hitherto only been copied, very incorrectly, in Lysons's Gloucestershire Antiquities.