At that gloomy period of the French revolution, when virtue and talents were proscribed and persecu ted, the age, declining health, and long services of Barthelemy, could not save him from the suspicions and insults of the wretches then in power, On the 80th of August 1793, a warrant of apprehension wa. issued against him and his nephew ; and on the 2d of September the -,fficera of justice made intimation of this to the Abbe, who happened to be then at the house of Madame de Choiseul. With the greatest calmness, he immediately submitted to the order, and was conducted to the Magdelorettes, where he found his nephew before him. His imprisonment, however, was not of long duration ; for on the representation of his friend Madame de Choiseul, orders were issued for his liberation in the course of that very evening ; -and such was the singular composure of his mind, that when the warrant for his delivery arrived, he was found in the enjoyment of a profound repose. He was soon after offered the place of national librarian, by way of reparation, it should seem, for this unmerit ed aggression ; hut his increasing infirmities were a sufficient apology for his refusal.
His decay was gradual, but seems to have been ac celerated by the rigorous winter of 1795. After a short confinement, he expired on the 30th of April of that year, without any struggle, and apparently with out experiencing any pain. He retained his faculties to the last moment ; and only a few hours before his death was engaged in reading his favourite Horace, till his hands became so numbed that they could no longer support the book. Thus died, in the 80th year of his age, the Abbe Barthelemy, whose virtues, erudition, and fine taste, entitle him to be considered as a principal ornament of the age in which he lived. He is said, in his person and countenance, to have exhibited much of the noble and simple character of that antique which it was his chief delight to study ; and his bust, admirably sculptured by Houdon, has an expression that entitles it to stand by the side of that of Plato or Xenocrates.
The royal cabinet of medals was greatly enlarged and embellished under the superintendance of Barthe lemy. He confined his inquiries almost entirely to the coins of antiquity, considering modern medals as an object of very subordinate importance. He found in the cabinet about twenty thousand ancient medals, and left in it no less than forty thousand ; having, at different times, examined, as he declared to a friend, rot fewer than four hundred thousand ancient coins. A collection of miscellaneous pieces of the Abbe Bar thelemy appeared at Paris in 1798, in 2 vols. 8vo. ; in which we find, among other interesting perform ances, an elegant and classical tale, entitled earite and Polydore, of which the fable relates to that period of Grecian history, when the Athenians were subject ed to the cruel and disgraceful tribute of an annual supply of youths and virgins, to be devoured by the Minotaur of Crete. But by far the most important literary labour of Barthelemy was his Travels of the young Anacharsis in Greece, which, as we have said, was the employment of his leisure hours for thirty years. The young Anacharsis is a supposed son of the Scythian sage of the same name, and 13 represent ed as visiting Greece, in the year 363 B. C. in order
to make himself acquainted with the arts, the litera ture, andeminent characters of that celebrated coun try, at this the most brilliant era of its history. The young Scythian fixes his residence at Athens, whence he makes excursions, not only to the other Grecian cities, but also to Egypt, Asia Minor, Persia, and the islands of the ./Egean Sea. He becomes familiar with Plato, Aristippus, Epaminondas, and every other il lustrious character of the age ; and gives minute de tails of the prevailing systems of philosophy, forms of political administration, models of the fine arts, and every other particular that is likely to be interest ing in the internal economy of the Grecian states. The narrative of Anacharsis is addressed to Arsames and Pliedime, a Persian satrap and his lady, whose characters are meant as portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Choiseul ; and the authority of the most approved ancient writers is uniformly quoted for every fact and detail, that makes a conspicuous figure in the work. Thus, under the form of an ingenious fic tion, Barthelemy has contrived to produce a most in structive commentary on his favourite subject, the antiquities. of Greece ; and by the elegance of his style, the liveliness of his narrative, and the justness of his reflections, he has rendered his work attractive to the unlearned, as well as to the learned reader. An introductory discourse is prefixed, in which a rapid, but luminous, view is given of the previous periods of Grecian history ; and maps and engravings are an nexed, together with a variety of useful tables, in order to render the work completely illustrative of the geo graphy and antiquities of ancient Greece. The great estimation in which this work is held, has been pro ved by the variety of editions, as well as translations into different languages which it has undergone ; but it is perhaps to be regretted, after all, that the learn ed author has so completely fettered himself by the authority of ancient writers, that he has on no occa sion given the reins to his imagination, or assigned any fictitious adventures to his hero Anacharsis, by which the attention of the reader might be occasion ally relieved, and a greater appearance of reality con ferred upon the whole. The young Anacharsis is, in fact, a completely inanimate picture, and interests the reader in no other manner, than as the connecting vehicle, by which, whatever relates to the arts, so ence, or literature of ancient Greece, is digested into one harmonious whole. It was suggested, soon after the appearance of the travels of the young Anachar sis, that the hint of the work was taken from a book published at Cambridge, under the title of Athenian Letters, and consisting of the imaginary correspond ence of a set of Grecians, the supposed cotemporaries of Socrates, Pericles, and Plato. This, however, the Abbe Barthelemy expressly denied to M. Dutens ; assuring that gentleman that he had never heard of the Athenian Letters till after the publication of Isis work. Were it necessary to seek for a model that might have suggested this celebrated produbtion, we should have been more disposed to select the Travels of Gyros of the Chevalier Ramsey, than the Athenian Letters. (m)