The _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1786 does not, however, contain any information about the authorship of _Gaudentio_; and the name of Dr. Swale appears to be unknown in literary history. At the same time, a positive entry of this sort, with respect to an obscure person, doubtless had some foundation. On the authority of this note, Dr. Swale is registered as the author of Gaudentio in the printed catalogue of the British Museum Library, whence it has passed into Watt's _Bibl. Brit._ Perhaps some of your correspondents, who are connected with Huntingdon, may be able to throw some light on Dr. Swale. Lastly, it should be added, that the writer of the article "Berkeley," in the _Biographic Universelle_, adverts to the fact that _Gaudentio di Lucca_ has been attributed to him: he proceeds, however, to say that-- "The author of a Life of Berkeley affirms that Berkeley is not the author of that book, which he supposes to have been written by a Catholic priest imprisoned in the Tower of London." I have been unable to trace the origin of this statement; nor do I know what is the _Life of Berkeley_, to which the writer in the _Biogr. Univ._ refers. The Life published under the direction of his family makes no allusion to Gaudentio, or to the belief that it was composed by Bishop Berkeley. The _Encyclopédie Méthodique_, div. "Econ. pol. et dipl." (Paris, 1784), tom. I. p. 89., mentions the following work:-- "La République des Philosophes, ou l'Histoire des Ajaoiens, relation d'un voyage du Chevalier S. van Doelvett en Orient en l'an 1674, qui contient la description du Gouvernement, de la Religion, et des Moeurs des Ajaoiens." It is stated that this romance, though composed a century before, had only been lately published. The editor attributed it to Fontenelle, but (as the writer in the _Encycl. Méth._ thinks) probably without reason. The title of Berkeley to the authorship of Gaudentio has doubtless no better foundation. L. [Dunlop, _Hist. Fiction_, iii. 491., speaks of this romance as "generally, and I believe on good grounds, supposed to be the work of the celebrated Berkeley;" adding, "we are told, in the life of this celebrated man, that Plato was his favourite author: and, indeed, of all English writers Berkeley has most successfully imitated the style and manner of that philosopher. It is not impossible, therefore, that the fanciful republic of the Grecian sage may have led Berkeley to write _Gaudentio di Lucca_, of which the principal object apparently is to describe a faultless and patriarchal form of governnent." The subject is a very curious one, and invites the further inquiry of our valued correspondent.--ED.] * * * * * ON A PASSAGE IN "THE TEMPEST."