That wife and good rulers will promote the cause of religion and lite rature. Such and the like inferences are drawn, after the preacher has illuftrated the doctrinal part of the difcourfe. They are fuch as will ever flow from the lips of the wile and good. Truth will prevail at last, whatever oppofition it may meet from the demons of vanity, the imps of impertinence, or enemies of all righteousness. The fermon concludes with certain addreffes which are ufual upon the occafion, which commonly difguft pure and chafte minds both in the delivery and reading. If they are common it anfwers no particular purpofe, nor can be confidered as a token of respect. Sometimes the compliments are by no means delicate. We give credit to Mr. K. for fomething handfome in his addrefs to Mr. Strong, which acquires its merit more from its being true than courteous. But if we take his addreffes in the group, they are far from being unexception able. But upon fuppofition that bad rulers thould hereafter get into the place of thofe who now deferve refpect-which is poffible even in good old Maffachufettshow would a minifter of religion addrefs them? How ought he to address them? Would not the better fort of clergymen refufe to preach upon the occafion? And if "like prielt like ruler," then what would be the reputation of Election Sermons ? The British Spy; or, Letters to a Member of the British Parliament, written during a Tour through the United States. By a young Englifbman of rank. Newburyport. Printed at the Repertory Office. 1804. pp. 104. WE had not perused many pages of this little volume, before we were convinced, that their author is a young man, and not an Englishman. The letters are, however, ingenioufly written, and evince a mind fitted for extensive literary and scientifick improvement. They first appeared in the Argus, a paper published in Richmond, Virginia, and are fuppofed to have been addreffed to 66 Mr. Sheridan." We cannot determine the applicability of thefe cenfures; though, in fpeculation, we fhould deem them juft, from that difparity of condition and neglect of education, by which the state of Virginia is diftinguished. In the queries, whether the debafing fenfe of inferiority which characterizes the poor and ignorant tenants of the rich," be a remnant of the colonial character," or whether it be natural for poverty and impotence, to look up with "veneration to wealth, property, and rank," we obferve a tautology; and though it may be faid, that the fituation of Richmond is beautiful and picturefque, yet the expreffion is by no means admiffible, that "Richmond occupies a very beautiful and and picturefque fituation." The fecond letter is a vindication" of the Abbe Raynal's opinion, that this continent was once covered by the ocean, from which it has gradually emerged." In fupport of this theory, feveral interefting facts are adduced, which, by many others, will be deemed corroborative of a very different and not lefs aftonishing event. For my own part, fays the author, while I believe the prefent mountains of America to have conftituted the original stamina of the continent, I believe, at the fame time, the western as well as the eastern country to be the effect of alluvion; produced too by the fame causes; the rotation of the earth, and the planetary attraction of the ocean. The conception of this will be eafy and fimple, if, inftead of confounding the mind, by a wide view of the whole continent as it now ftands, we carry back our imagination to the time of its birth, and fuppofe fome one of the highest pinnacles of the Blue Ridge to have juft emerged above the furface of the fea. Now ter current to the weft, which is, occa For while whether the rolling of the earth to the eaft give to the ocean, which floats loofely upon its bofom, an actual counfionally, further accelerated by the motion of the tides in that direction, or whether this be not the cafe, ftill to our newly emerged pinnacle, which is the waters of the deep, the confequences whirled by the earth's motion, through will be the fame as if there were this actual and strong current. the waters will be continually accumu→ lated on the eastern coaft of this pinnacoaft (protected as it would be, from cle, it is obvious that on the western the current, by the newly riven earth) the waters will always be comparatively low and calm. The fands, borne along by the ocean's current over the northern cle, will always have a tendency to and fouthern extremities of this pinnafettle in the calm behind it; and thus, by perpetual accumulations, from a weftern coaft, more rapidly perhaps than an eastern one; as we may fee in miniature by the capes and fhallows, fide, at the mouths of creeks, or below collected by the ftill water, on each rocks, in the rapids of a river. After this new born point of earth had gained fome degree of elevation, it is probable that fucceffive coafts of vegetation, according to Dr. Darwin's dying on the earth, paid an annual idea, fpringing up, then falling and tribute to the infant continent, while fuch rain as fell upon it, bore down a part of its fubstance and affifted perpetually in the enlargement of its area. It is curious that the arrangement of the mountains both in North and South America, as well as the shape of the two continents, combines to ftrengthen the prefent theory. For the mountains, as you will perceive on infpecting your maps, run, in chains, from north to fouth; thus oppofing the wideft poffible barrier to the fands, as they roll from eaft to weft. The shape of the continents is juft that which would naturally be expected from such an origin; that is, they lie along, collaterally, with the mountain. As far north as the country is well known, thefe ranges of mountains are obferved; and it is remarkable that as foon as the Cordilleras terminate in the fouth, the continent of South America ends; where they terminate in the north, the continent dwindles to a narrow ifthmus. However problematical this theory may be, no one will deny the ingenuity of its author. Of the third and fourth letters, the fubject is American eloquence; and the fentiments of the author are comprifed in thefe gen eral remarks. 1. That our orators "have not a fufficient fund of general knowledge. 2. They have not the habit of clofe and folid thinking. 3. They do not afpire at original ornaments." To this cenfure exceptions might be made; but we would gladly deny that the "remarks," even generally, are lefs just than fevere. The author is one of the few who have dared to pluck a leaf from the laurel crowns, which fill encircle the heads of Demofthenes and Cicero. It is true, fays he, that at fchool I learnt, like the reft of the world, to liip, "Cicero the orator." But when I grew up and began to judge for myfelf, I opened his volume again, and looked in vain for that fublimity of conception which fills and astonishes the mind, that fimple pathos which finds such a sweet welcome to every breaft, or that reftlefs enthusiasm of unaffected paffion, which takes the heart by ftorm. Demofthenes, indeed, deferves the diftinction of having more fire and lefs fmoke than Tully. But in the majestick march of the mind, in force of thought and fplendour of imagery, I think both the orators of Greece and Rome eclipfed by more than one perfon within his majesty's dominions. That a critick, who has fuch views of excellence, fhould pronounce "far the greatest proportion" of American eloquence to be "puerile rant," or "tedious and difgufting inanity," is in no degree furprising. We wonder The fifth letter was occafioned by a vifit to "the fite of the Indian town, Powhatan, the metropolis of the dominions of Pocahuntas' father." His defcription of the emotions excited in the minds of the untaught Indians, by the first arrival of the English, and the fubfequent cruelties endured by these once happy natives, is highly eloquent and interefting; but we are very doubtful of the efficacy of his project to obtain the forgiveness and affection of thofe, from whose fathers many parts of our country were moft unjustly taken. Were I prefident of the United States, I would glory in going to thefe Indians, throwing myfelf on my knees before them, and faying, "Indians, friends, brothers, O! forgive my countrymen ! If you can, O! come to our bofoms; be, indeed, our brothers; and fince there is room enough for us all, give as a home in your land, and let us be children of the fame affectionate family.”♦It is not true that magnanimity can never be loft on a nation which has produced an Alknomack, a Logan, and a Pocahuntas. Spirits of ancient Greece and Rome! where are ye now? In vain do we feek for a folitary evidence of exiftence among your degenerate fons ! "I myself," "the herself," "they themselves," "followed up," &c. are, at least, redundan cies of expreffion, which are frequently used by our author, and often inelegant. It is impoffible to peruse the fixth letter without frong emo tions of pleafure; and we are no lefs surprised than the author, that "fuch a genius, fo accomplished a scholar and fo divine an orator as James Waddell, fhould be permitted to languifh and die in ob fcurity, within eight miles of the metropolis of Virginia." If all were fuch preachers, the influence of religion would be more widely extended. It is the principal defign of the feventh letter to sketch the charafter of Mr. Edmund Randolph. Though he is one who "leads the van of the profeffion" in Virginia, we fhould not, from this outline, prepare to hear him with high expectations. We prefume that the first letters of this tour through the United States were written in Virginia; elfe the author would not have faid, I have met with few perfons of exalted intellect in this country, whofe powers have been directed to any other purfuit than the law. The eighth letter was directed from Jamestown, and written in an ancient church yard. In fuch a place, the mind naturally reverts to the paft and anticipates the future; and in recurring to "the bufy, bustling crowd which landed there two hundred years before," his fentiments are animated and affecting. Can publick fpirit, can national virtue be expected in a ftate, where education is not only neglected, but treated with contempt? They (the inhabitants of Virginia) have only one publick feminary of learning; a college at Williamsburg, about feven miles from this place, which was erected in the reign of our William and Mary, and bears their name. This college, in the faftidious folly and affectation of zepublicanifm, they have endowed with a few despicable fragments of furveyor's fees, &c.; converting a body of polite, fcientifick, and highly refpectable profeffors, into a fhop-board of contemptible, cabbaging taylors. And, then, instead of aiding and energizing the police of the college, by a few civil regulations, permitting their youth to run and riot in all the wildness of diffipation; while the venerable profeffors are forced to look on in the deep mortification of confcious impotence, and fee their care and zeal requited, by the ruin of their pupils and the destruction of their feminary. The fubject of the ninth letter is the power of genius; and throughout this letter the author feems to have felt the influence of this power. The remarks in the tenth letter, on the Spectator and on ftyle, are, in general, correct and judicious. On the latter especially, we fervently with that the fentiments of the author were more extenfively diffufed. The expreffion methinks, though ufed by fome good authors, is ungrammatical. There is as much authority for its ufe, as for that of the expreffion, thinks I. To the volume are annexed the characters of the Hon. James Munroe, and of Mr. John Marfhall, chief juftice of the United States. The former is portrayed as a living, an honourable and illuftrious monument of felf created eminence, worth, and greatnefs." The latter as 66 a man, who,without the aid of fancy, without the advantage of perfon, voice, attitude, or any of the ornaments of an orator, deferves to be confidered as one of the most eloquent men in the world." From this fpecimen of the talents of the British Spy, we form high expectations of the author. MONTHLY CATALOGUE OF NEW PUBLICATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES, rads, from the prefs of the Palmers. Philadelphia. A neat pocket edition of Dr. Watts' Pfalms and Hymns. Sacra Privata, or Private Meditations and Prayers, by Rev. Thomas Wilfon. Mr. Hilliard. Cambridge. Hiftory of the Wars, which arofe out of the French Revolution, with a review of the causes of that event, by Alexander Stephens, Efq. An improved edition of Webfter's Spelling Book. IN THE PRESS. Logan's Sermons. PUBLISHING BY SUBSCRIPTION. Orton's Expofition of the New Teftament, in 6 vols. at Charlestown. 8vo. American Annals, or a Chronological Hiftory of America, by Rev. Abiel Holmes, A. M. Journal of a Tour to the Territory N. W. of the Alleghany Mountains, in the fpring of 1803, by Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris. Elements of General Knowledge, by Henry Kett, at Bofton. A new Syftem of Modern Geography, illuftrated with 7 maps. By Benjamin Davis. Volney's View of the United States. Guide to DomeЛlick Happinefs, and the Refuge. 12mo. at New-Haven. |