http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/search?docsPerPage%3D100;f2-date%3D1805 Results for your query: docsPerPage=100;f2-date=1805 Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-00003.xml JOHN BLAIR LINN was descended from ancestors who originally came from the British islands. They appear to have been emigrants at an early period, and to have given their descendants as just a claim to the title of American, as the nature of things will allow any civilized inhabitant of the United States to acquire. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-00003.xml Tue, 01 Jan 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01003.xml THERE are many ways of judg- ing of the population and cultivation of any country. One of these is very frequently inferred from the other. As the food of men is gene- rally derived from the earth on which they live, we can form some general notion of the extent to which the ground is cultivated, by knowing the numbers it sustains, and so, con- versely, the number of consumers can sometimes be inferred from the quantity of product. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01003.xml Tue, 01 Jan 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01006.xml A TALE, agreeable to truth and nature, or, more properly speaking, agreeable to our own conceptions of truth and nature, may be long, but cannot be tedious. Cleopatra and Cassandra by no means referred to an ideal world; they referred to the manners and habits of the age in which they were written; names and general incidents only were taken from the age and history of Alexander and Cæsar. In that age, therefore, they were not tedious, but the more delighted was the reader the longer the banquet was pro- tracted. In after times, when taste and manners were changed, the tale became tedious, because it was deemed unnatural and absurd, and it would have been condemned as tedious, and treated with neglect, whether it filled ten pages or ten volumes. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01006.xml Tue, 01 Jan 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01013b.xml I believe the French have few works which they value so highly as the Henriade. The extravagant praises which have been lavished upon it by the king of Prussia, M. Marmontel, and Cocchi, have in- duced me to read it. I need scarcely add, how amply my trouble was compensated. What, asks the last of these panegyrists, can be more interesting than to see a rebellion stifled, the legitimate heir of a throne combating in support of his title, obliged even to besiege his rebellious capital, and yet displaying in all his actions the enterprize, the valour, the prudence, and the generosity of a hero. It is true, that in his poem Voltaire has taken some slight liber- ties with historical facts; but, not- withstanding these events are recent and notorious, still the ingenuity of the poet has given them such an appearance of probability, that their deviation from the strict line of truth ought not to be regarded by a reader accustomed to consider a poem only as an imitation of nature, and composed of ingenious fictions. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01013b.xml Tue, 01 Jan 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01019.xml I WANT a name for her, said my friend Mrs. M........, when asked the name of a little thing which she had ushered into existence a few weeks before. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01019.xml Tue, 01 Jan 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01022.xml ........WHEN we reach a new year's day, we reach an eminence in the journey of life, where we are natu- rally prompted to pause, from which we have an opportunity of seeing a large portion of the road we have passed, and are powerfully induced to cast our view forward in search of futurity. Each one who has attained this height looks back and looks forward on a scene, and with emotions, peculiar to himself. What are my emotions? what is the scene which I have passed, and what the prospects which futurity discloses to my anxious view? http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01022.xml Tue, 01 Jan 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01023.xml THE Miscellaneous Works of David Humphreys, Esq., Minister Extraordinary to the Court of Ma- drid, have been lately republished in New York. Most of the poetical pieces contained in this volume were written and published either during the American war, or shortly after its termination. Their merit, there- fore, has long ago been settled by the public opinion. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01023.xml Tue, 01 Jan 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01024.xml THE French revolution having now apparently drawn to a close, it may not be uninteresting to take a short view of the revolutionary epochas. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01024.xml Tue, 01 Jan 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01069.xml THE number of patients of the Philadelphia dispensary, from De- cember 1, 1803, to December 1, 1804, is 2,129 http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-01069.xml Tue, 01 Jan 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02083.xml ONE who is not strongly fortified in incredulity will sometimes be half persuaded to believe in the preten- sions of those who discover future or distant events, by other means than the ordinary ones of sight and hear- ing. A story shall be related, so directly, consistently, and circum- stantially, that one who has not formed an invincible opinion, a pri- ori, that it cannot be true, can scarcely refuse his assent. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02083.xml Fri, 01 Feb 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02085.xml A YOUNG lady being called up- on for a Latin motto to a wedding- ring, gave.... Felices nuptæ! moriar ni nubere dulce est. which may be rendered into humble English thus.... Let me die if I don't think it a fine thing to be married. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02085.xml Fri, 01 Feb 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02086.xml ——THE northern estate called C——, contains about twenty-five thousand acres, and consists of a roundish piece of land, jutting out into the Irish sea, connected, by a narrow peninsula, with the main land of ———shire. The won- ders wrought in this little territory, by the genius of the proprietor, are still more remarkable than those ef- fected in W——, because its condi- tion was far more desolate and for- lorn, when it came into his possession. Its general aspect was that of sterile mountains, whose summits were roughened with rocks, and whose sides were covered with bog and moss, and overrun with heath and fern. Scarcely a fruit or timber tree was any where to be seen….. Near the coast a species of negli- gent and slovenly cultivation took place. About ten thousand acres, or two-fifths of the whole, was di- vided into two hundred farms, each, on an average, consisting of fifty acres, and containing, on the whole, about fourteen hundred persons….. Four hamlets, or villages, composed of cottagers and petty tra... http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02086.xml Fri, 01 Feb 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02093.xml THE recession of part of the dis- trict of Columbia appears, at pre- sent, to be the chief topic of political conversation, and engrosses the at- tention of congress. The motives of politicians are generally behind the screen, and public orators are accustomed to make use of every argument, in favour of their motions, except the one which really influ- ences their own belief, and directs their own conduct. Thus it may be reasonably suspected, that those who recommend a recession desire a change in the seat of government. The extreme inconvenience of the present seat of government could not be imagined or forseen by those who formed the constitution, or by those who chose the banks of the Potowmack for this seat. If they had been imagined, they would have effectually prevented the clause in the constitution relative to a new metropolis. These inconveniences induce some of the members of con- gress to wish for removal, but a certain tenderness or veneration for what is called public faith hinder... http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02093.xml Fri, 01 Feb 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02097.xml I HAVE often heard it observed by travellers, that America contained nothing of the picturesque. This is very unaccountable. That part of the picturesque which arises from the elaborate arrangements of art, and especially from the architectural monuments of ancient times, it is true, we do not possess. No crum- bling walls are scattered over our vallies; no ivy-clad tower reposes on the brow of our hills. How much the imagination is inspired by these memorials of former gene- rations, with what solemn and en- nobling elevation they fill the mind, are easily conceived, and these ad- juncts are certainly wanting to the scenes of our country. Those who are accustomed to see nature con- stantly accompanied by ancient tur- rets or modern obelisks, by palaces and spires, by artificial lakes and water-falls, grow fastidious. The face of uncultivated nature, which contains no vestige of other times, nothing to hint of battles, sieges, or murder, is to them dreary, blank, and insipid. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02097.xml Fri, 01 Feb 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02101.xml I WAS lately in a company where the conversation turned upon the most eligible mode of dying. Vari- ous were the sentiments expressed upon this interesting subject. A lingering and natural death was ge- nerally preferred, because such a one afforded opportunity of peni- tence and reformation, and of ar- ranging all our private affairs. A violent death, if foreseen, possessed, indeed, most of these advantages, but then such a death is likely to be regarded with extreme reluctance; whereas it is the quality of disease to slacken the hold which the appe- tites and passions have of life, and to disrobe the terrestrial scene of most of its ordinary attractions. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02101.xml Fri, 01 Feb 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02102.xml AN equality of fortune seems to be generally thought a good thing in human society. Those who ob- ject to it, really object to it as im- practicable: not the end do they disapprove, but the means some- times employed or proposed to effect this end; and they disapprove these means, because they merely contri- bute to exasperate those evils which they are designed to lessen or re- move. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02102.xml Fri, 01 Feb 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02103.xml MR. AUSTIN is a politician. He is one of those who annex great importance to forms of go- vernment, and suppose most of the vices and virtues, evils and felicities of mankind to arise from their poli- tical condition. He is a friend to the democratic system, and thinks the American constitution not only best in itself, but to be best adminis- tered by those who hold the public offices, and bear legislative sway, at present. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02103.xml Fri, 01 Feb 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02108.xml THE folly and the fallacy of fame is an old theme of observation; but there are few instances of its absur- dity and injustice more memorable than in relation to the character of Richard the third. Happening to be unfortunate in battle, and a rival king and family stepping into his place, his character has been ma- ligned and mangled without mercy. One historian after another has re- peated the tale of his murders, per- juries, and usurpations; and what the grave historian relates to a few, the poet has rendered familiar to all mankind. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02108.xml Fri, 01 Feb 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02110.xml THE books which composed this little library were chiefly the voya- ges and travels of the missionaries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Added to these were some works upon political economy and legislation. Those writers who have amused themselves with re- ducing their ideas to practice, and drawing imaginary pictures of na- tions or republics, whose manners or government came up to their standard of excellence, were, all of whom I had ever heard, and some I had never heard of before, to be found in this collection. A transla- tion of Aristotle's republic, the poli- tical romances of sir Thomas Moore, Harrington, and Hume, appeared to have been much read, and Ludlow had not been sparing of his marginal comments. In these writers he appeared to find nothing but error and absurdity; and his notes were introduced for no other end than to point out groundless principles and false conclusions….. The style of these remarks was al- ready familiar to me. I saw no- thing new in them, or different from the ... http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02110.xml Fri, 01 Feb 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02116.xml In an essay, by Dr. Hawkesworth, in which he has happily imitated the style of his illustrious associate, he has no less successfully exposed the vulgar error, that the life of a student is a life of ease and indo- lence. There are few opinions more specious to the careless ob- server, and yet there is none more lamentably false. They who listen with rapture, in the short intervals of leisure which they enjoy from a laborious business, to the soft har- mony of Pope, or the majestic pe- riod of Johnson, imagine it the in- spiration of a willing muse. But that the fact is not so, the furrowed brow and the enfeebled frame of the student daily evince. Those happy expressions which sparkle as the effusions of the moment, are really produced by the most elabo- rate thought, and are not presented to the reader until they have under- gone an anxious and painful revi- sion. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02116.xml Fri, 01 Feb 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02120.xml Continued from page 86. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02120.xml Fri, 01 Feb 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02147.xml IN the region of the sea-coast, from Maine to Virginia, the season appears to have been not only much more severe than winters past, but proportionably colder, and more abounding in snow, than in the inte- rior parts of the country. The in- terior, truly, is covered with a good depth of snow, and the weather has been severer than common. But on and towards the sea coast, south- ward and eastward, the snow ap- pears in many places deeper than it is here, and uniformly of greater depth than it has been known to be there for many years: the cold is proportionable. Stages have been impeded in every direction; the na- vigable streams and harbours fro- zen, commerce on the coast at a stand; no employment for the poor; fuel extremely scarce and dear, with most of the other necessaries of life; the poor have suffered beyond all description, to whom, we are happy to learn, the hand of charity has been extended, in all the populous sea-port towns, with an unexampled liberality. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02147.xml Fri, 01 Feb 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02160.xml OF his many valuable correspon- dents, the editor has chiefly refrain- ed from any other kind of notice than is given by a prompt and ac- curate insertion of their communi- cations. This is the best proof he could give of his gratitude and ap- probation. Others, whose commu- nications have not been fully adapt- ed to the nature of his work, he has thought it most respectful and agree- able to their authors to pass over in silence. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-02160.xml Fri, 01 Feb 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03163.xml THERE is a chimney in an an- cient house in this city (Philadel- phia), in which a fire was kept continually burning for upwards of forty years. The old gentleman who attended this mysterious flame died a very few years ago, and seems not to have succeeded in dis- covering the grand secret of which he was in search. Indeed he al- ways attributed his ultimate failure to the necessity of withdrawing his attention from the momentous pro- cess for a whole day, in consequence of the confusion and panic occasion- ed by the entry of the British army into Philadelphia. He lived and died what they called a violent tory or anti-revolutionist. After this event his hostile zeal was more ar- dent than ever; for, says he, what was it deprived the world and me of this great discovery but the war? http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03163.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03165.xml THESE great natural exhibi- tions, evening and morning, have always been thought peculiarly sus- ceptible of poetical description and embellishment. As I turned over the pages of the Mantuan bard late- ly, it occurred to me to enquire how he had pictured the morning: for often as I have read this my favour- ite poet, I should not have been able to give any account of his poetry in this particular. I was surprised to perceive, that the morning did not appear to be a favourite object of attention with him, for I did not meet with it once in the Eclogues, and only once in the Georgics. In the Æneid, which, as a narrative conducted through many successive days, would naturally require the morning to be frequently introduced, it occurs, I believe, only eleven times, which is at the rate of less than once in each book. The par- ticular allusion or description ex- tends to the length of two lines only in two instances, and in three cases the same identical line is repeated. Three times does he repeat Titheni croceu... http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03165.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03167.xml WITH my peculiar taste, you will not wonder that the greatest objects of my curiosity in Rome were the Flavian amphitheatre and St. Peter's church. These are the greatest structures, in every point of view, which the world contains, and both evince the power and wealth of an imperial people. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03167.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03169.xml DR. WARTON, in his Essay on Pope, observes, that the dialogue in the Essay on Criticism, between the poet and the mad knight, is not taken from the Don Quixote of Cervantes, but from one that is commonly called a continuation of it, and which was, in fact, written after the publication of the first part, and before the second part appear- ed. For this reason, and some others, this performance, though in- ferior to the work of Cervantes, deserves more attention than is usually given to it. It is said to have been written by a person nam- ed Alonso Fernandes d'Avellanada; but this is supposed to be a fictitious name. This book was translated into French by Le Sage, a proof that he thought it not destitute of merit: there is likewise an En- glish version, by one Baker; and Cervantes himself alludes to it, se- veral times, in the second part of his own Don Quixote, particularly in chapters LIX and LXXII. One circumstance, indeed, renders this book a literary curiosity: the great probability that i... http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03169.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03170.xml IN relation to human purposes, this singular swamp justly deserves the expressive name commonly given to it, that of wilderness or dismal, no condition of the earth's surface being more wild and irre- claimable than this. It is scarcely possible to penetrate or pass through it. The foot, at every step, sinks not less than twelve or fifteen inches deep into the soil. The trees are generally small; they grow very thick together, and the undergrowth or shrubbery is so luxuriant, and composed of such tenacious, perplex- ing, and thorny wood, that the sight is bounded to a few feet, the flesh wounded and torn at every point, and a path only to be made by the incessant use of the hatchet. The stinging insects are likewise innu- merable, and extremely venomous, and the exhalations fatal to human life. On the whole, it would be dif- ficult to imagine a situation on this globe less suitable for human habita- tion and subsistence than an Ameri- can dismal. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03170.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03178.xml A FEW years ago, this would have been thought a most absurd, as well as impudent question. It would have been deemed an insult to the common understanding of every man born in Great Britain or America, to suppose this question susceptible of doubt or controversy. A revolution has certainly been ef- fected in many minds, with regard to this question, within the last fif- teen years. Many of those, who once considered the superiority of political freedom as a point alto- gether beyond dispute, and as sup- ported, not only by intuitive, self- evident truth, but by the loud and uniform attestation of experience, have now gone over to the opposite opinion. Many have, at least, found their convictions shaken, and if they have not entirely abjured their an- cient creed, begin, at least, to per- ceive that the truth of it is not quite as clear as they once imagined. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03178.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03181.xml THE scarcity of taste and of skill in the fine arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture, in the United States, is a subject of great wonder to travellers. It is a pa- radox of difficult, but surely not of impossible, solution, that a ci- vilized, peaceful, free, industrious, and opulent nation, of four or five millions of persons, sprung from one of the most enlightened nations of the globe, and maintaining incessant intercourse with every part of Eu- rope, should have so few monuments of these arts among them, either in public or private collections. There was not a single public collection of this kind in the United States till the establishment of one, a few years since, at New York; and it is well known with what slender encouragement and support the rich have honoured the New York in- stitution. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03181.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03187.xml There have been in Europe two great nautical schools, the Medi- terranean and the Baltic. In the first, a calm sea, the art of ship building was a continual improve- ment of the oar-raft, a coasting navigation, the practice of the mari- ners; and the port-customs, and the maritime terms and laws, all wear marks of this original charac- ter. In the second, a stormy sea, the art of ship-building was a gra- dual evolution of the sail-raft; an open navigation, from the earliest times, was preferred; and the usages, phraseology, the code of regulations, are all tinctured by a corresponding spirit. The common and statute law of sea matters handed down by tradition, and by the Rho- dian code from the ancients, was gradually modified into that system of regulations known by the name of “Il Consulato del Mare,” which received the papal sanction in 1075, was re-enacted in most of the sea ports of the Mediterranean, but not till 1162 at Marseilles, and was first printed at Barcelona in 1502. This work has been translate... http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03187.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03188a.xml GEOGRAPHICAL errors are more common in books than any other kind of errors. This is not surprising, when we reflect on the infinite variety and number of par- ticulars of which geography consists. On this account, a writer may be reasonably excused if, on some occa- sions, he should place an inland town on the sea-side, or remove a country a few hundred miles further from some other country than na- ture has done. But these errors will be entitled to less excuse, when we reflect on the extreme facility with which every man of books may make himself acquainted with most points of geographical knowledge, whenever he has occasion for this knowledge. Maps are generally at hand, or easily procured, and when we are not certain, it becomes us to take the trouble to enquire, especi- ally as that trouble is, in most cases, extremely small. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03188a.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03188b.xml CIVIL liberty, as distinguished from political, is the grand purpose for which civil society was formed, and government instituted. With respect to this, the Dutch had ad- vantages, before their revolution, which left them no room for com- plaint; and however imperfect their political constitution might be deem- ed, they actually enjoyed more free- dom than the inhabitants of most other countries. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03188b.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03192.xml THE caprices and revolutions in literary taste form a subject of curious speculation. How many works and how many authors owe their popularity to fashion! The popularity of truly meritorious works is entirely owing to fashion, for some time, at least, after their publication. Perhaps the endurance of this popularity may be admitted as the test of merit. That popular approbation is governed almost wholly by caprice or fashion is a truth well known to booksellers. The following anecdote will show how little we are able before hand to distinguish the public pulse with accuracy: http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03192.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03194.xml AMONG the whimsical ideas which have found harbour in the minds of the learned and ingenious, not the least remarkable, I think, is the hypothesis of a celebrated Welch antiquarian, that the society of quakers is only a continuation of the old bardic institution or reli- gion. In analyzing the principles of the ancient druidical religion, he is struck by the surprising coinci- dence between them and those of the amiable society of quakers. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03194.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03195.xml NOTHING is so terrible, to most men, as a literary wife. Indeed, nothing is so rare. Whatever a woman is, as to literature, science, or the arts, before marriage, she generally lays aside all her learning with her maiden state. Other avo- cations then engross her attention, and either her mind is not suffi- ciently capacious, or her taste suffi- ciently versatile, to enable her to divide her time between her old pursuits and her new. One of them must be neglected for the other, and the happiness of life is probably pro- moted by the preference usually given, in this dilemma, to the occu- pations of a nurse and housekeeper. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03195.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03198.xml ALL ideas of merit are said to be comparative. Hence it is, that to comprehend one who endeavours to convey an idea of places or per- sons, in general terms, we must be thoroughly acquainted with the his- tory of the describer. His judgment of what is great or little, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, is under the influence of his own experience.—— That is remarkably large, which exceeds in bulk any thing of the same kind he ever saw before, though to others it may be remark- ably little, for a similar reason. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03198.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03200.xml MRS. BARBAULD is generally known to us only as a poet and a writer of moral essays and tales. In like manner, Miss Burney appears before us merely as a writer of no- vels. To the honour of the sex, however, it is to be mentioned, that both these ladies have once been seduced into the paths of public and dignified eloquence. Two of the most eloquent productions of modern times claim these ladies for their authors. In 1793, Mrs. Barbauld, on occasion of a fast enjoined upon the nation, for the purpose of sup- plicating success to the war, recently engaged in with France, published a discourse, entitled Sins of the Go- vernment Sins of the Nation. In the same year, Miss Burney pub- lished an address to the British la- dies, in behalf of the emigrant French clergy. Both of these per- formances manifested a wisdom and eloquence, which no productions of the present age have exceeded. If I wanted to inspire a female with generous sentiments and a useful emulation, I should put these two pieces in her hands, rather ... http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03200.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03201.xml EVERY district in Great Britain, of any considerable extent, contains at least the vestiges of an ancient castle and abbey. The ruinous con- dition of these edifices is more ow- ing to the neglect and violence of men, than to the frailty of their structure or materials. The fero- cious avarice and barbarous tyranny of Henry VIII, in England, and the wild fury of a fanatical populace, in Scotland, were the causes of the destruction of abbeys; while the change of manners, which rendered a fortress no longer necessary to personal safety, has occasioned the ruin of castles. In some few instan- ces the abbey, though with a multi- tude of alterations, has become a private dwelling, and the castle, rendered sacred by the images of ancient grandeur and power, has, at an immense expense, been convert- ed to the same use. In general, however, both are reduced to their foundations, and are cherished mere- ly as mementos of past ages. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03201.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03205.xml ON Wednesday, Mr. D—— and myself on horseback, and my friend and A—— in a chaise, visited two lofty points in the neighbourhood of this city (Middletown), called Higby's mountain and Powder hill. The first is ascended by a winding and craggy road, leading through a forest of shrub-oaks and cedars. The opposite side is a steep and rugged cliff, the height of which it is difficult to ascertain. This cliff, whose descent is, in many places, perpendicular, forms a kind of wall, from the foot of which there stretches a scene of magnificent extent, and delicious variety. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03205.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03208a.xml IT may be very wise in most cases, and in some cases absolutely necessary, to shut up maniacs alone, in naked, gloomy, noisome cells, and to consign them to total inacti- vity. One, who is no physician, can hardly fail of condemning such modes of treatment. We know that these circumstances would make a sound man crazy. It is hard to be- lieve them capable of making a crazy man sound. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03208a.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03208b.xml IGNORANCE, they say, is the mother of credulity; but I think this maxim is a false one. It is the characteristic of human nature to discredit what is opposite to our own observation or experience.— Whether this observation and ex- perience be narrow or extensive, we are equally disposed to deny credit to that which contradicts it. Perhaps it is the natural conse- quence of enlarged knowledge to produce credulity, or a disposition to admit, if not the truth, yet, at least, the likelihood or possibility of facts, not enforced by the strongest testimony, though such facts do not coincide with our own experience. The more we know, the larger are the limits of possibility. Every new fact or appearance is, of course, not coincident with previous knowledge, and seems to allow us to conjecture the possibility or existence of things, as remote from the fact just known, as this fact is from what was previ- ously known. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03208b.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03210.xml I RETIRED accordingly to my apartment, and spent the prescribed hour in anxious and irresolute re- flections. They were no other than had hitherto occurred, but they oc- curred with more force than ever. Some fatal obstinacy, however, got possession of me, and I persisted in the resolution of concealing one thing. We become fondly attached to objects and pursuits, frequently for no conceivable reason but the pain and trouble they cost us. In proportion to the danger in which they involve us do we cherish them. Our darling potion is the poison that scorches our vitals. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03210.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03214.xml I AM much mistaken if the castle of C—— be not, in many respects, the most extraordinary monument of its kind to be found in Great Bri- tain, and perhaps in Europe. It is true, my acquaintance with build- ings of this sort is extremely limit- ed, and the model of this castle may be common in Italy and Germany, but these, the vestiges of which are scattered over the British islands, seem to be constructed on a plan widely different from this. You must indulge me in giving you some description of it, though I am aware no description, in such cases, can be very clear or satisfactory. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03214.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03225.xml THIS performance is one of the most useful and agreeable that could have been transplanted to our soil. The author is an old man, but he writes in an entertaining and per- suasive, and even in an elegant manner. The work is entirely free from technical obscurity, or sci- etific method. It is written to in- struct, and, for that purpose, endea- vours to engage the attention of that sex, whose interests he takes into his care. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03225.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03233.xml http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03233.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03240.xml Authors and publishers are requested to communicate notices of their works, post paid, and they will always be inserted, free of expence. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-03240.xml Fri, 01 Mar 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04256.xml I AM sorry to find that sensible and well meaning persons of both sexes have been influenced by the arguments or the authority of Mr. Godwin. I say of Godwin, for I have not seen the same sentiments in any other writer. He advises parents to give their sons a classical education, because, says he “they can never certainly foresee the fu- ture destination and propensities of their children.” This argument is very weak and inconclusive. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04256.xml Mon, 01 Apr 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04269.xml MADELINA, you wish me to draw your character. What a strange wish, to be preferred by a young lady to a young man, who has seldom seen you, at times and in situ- ations which admit of no disguise, and which draw forth all our secret foibles, and who, at best, has neither a sober nor impartial judgment. Still, however, I will do my best. If I blame you, your pride may rea- sonably impute it to my ignorance; if I praise, your modesty will natu- rally suggest some doubts of the sincerity of one, who sets a very high value on your good opinion, and who thinks your smiles cheaply bought, even at the price of some duplicity. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04269.xml Mon, 01 Apr 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04277.xml ONE of the most general and in- teresting subjects of curiosity and discussion, in England, at present, next to the menaced invasion, ap- pears to be the character and me- rits of a player, by name William Henry Betty, but who is more com- monly known by the name of Young Roscius. This title will sufficiently explain the popular opinion of his merit. The press has teemed with publications respecting him, and the ingenuity of biographers and mana- gers has contrived to extract from his affairs the materials of a heavy con- troversy, in which, however, we, in America, have no interest. Whe- ther we shall ever be favoured by a sight of this miracle of talents on this side the ocean is a doubtful point. Unless we go, or unless he comes, immediately, we shall miss the surprising spectacle. The ac- complishments of Betty, at the age of twelve or fourteen, are truly pro- digious; but the prodigy will disap- pear with that age. Betty, at the age of twenty-five or thirty, what- ever his ... http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04277.xml Mon, 01 Apr 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04281.xml DAINTIES are said to be dain- ties only when eaten rarely and sparingly. Sweets cloy, and good things grow stale, by repetition and excess. Some have maintained that these maxims hold good with regard to intellectual, as well as corporeal dainties, but, I suspect, the analogy is fallacious. The more we banquet upon poetry, painting, and music, the more is our appetite enlarged, and our relish improved. The deeper we go into these pursuits, the harder does it become to extri- cate ourselves from their allure- ments, and transfer our thoughts to other objects. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04281.xml Mon, 01 Apr 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04284.xml MATHEMATICIANS, in gene- ral, regard every other tract of hu- man pursuit as absolutely, or, at least, comparatively, futile and nu- gatory. If it were possible to light upon an impartial person, with un- questionable skill in the objects of his animadversion, I would submit the justice of this conclusion to him. I should even appeal to him whether the zeal of mathematicians arises from any other cause than the plea- sure which the understanding finds in the exercise of its own powers. Should he point out the various ap- plications of which mathematical truths are capable, to the ordinary comforts of society, to facilitating the measurement of land, the pas- sage of the ocean, the building of houses, and the like, I should not think my question satisfactorily an- swered: for, admitting the useful- ness of mathematics to this purpose, I am far from thinking that mathe- matical students owe their zeal to the contemplation of this purpose. On the contrary, I suspect that the ideas of abstract utility form no par... http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04284.xml Mon, 01 Apr 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04288.xml THE Castle of Otranto laid the foundation of a style of novel writing, which was carried to perfection by Mrs. Radcliff, and which may be called the terrific style. The great talents of Mrs. Radcliff made some atonement for the folly of this mode of composition, and gave some importance to exploded tables and childish fears, by the charms of sen- timent and description; but the mul- titude of her imitators seem to have thought that description and senti- ment were impertinent intruders, and by lowering the mind somewhat to its ordinary state, marred and counteracted those awful feelings, which true genius was properly em- ployed in raising. They endeavour to keep the reader in a constant state of tumult and horror, by the powerful engines of trap-doors, back stairs, black robes, and pale faces: but the solution of the enigma is ever too near at hand, to permit the indulgence of supernatural appear- ances. A well-written scene of a party at snap-dragon would exceed all the fearful images of these books. There ... http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04288.xml Mon, 01 Apr 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04290.xml A VOLCANO is surely the greatest of natural curiosities, be- cause it is one which bears the least resemblance to those objects which are daily and familiarly passing be- fore our eyes. If a volcano were always insulated in such a manner, that it should constitute nothing but a spectacle, the deprivation of it might be reasonably deemed a dis- advantage; but this, alas! is never the case. Its devastations extend commonly far beyond the limits of the sight; and even if a sea inter- vene between us and the flaming hill, the ground beneath us is often shaken, when the volcanic flame is only faintly seen in the dim horizon, emitting an uncertain ray, like the lamp of a beacon, seen remote. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04290.xml Mon, 01 Apr 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04293.xml THE executive power is vested in a governor, to reside in the ter- ritory, and hold his office three years, unless sooner removed by the president of the United States. He is commander in chief of the mili- tia; superintendant, ex officio, of Indian affairs; and appoints all offi- cers in the same, below the rank or general officers; has power to grant pardons for offences against the same, and reprieves for those against the United States, till the decision of the president is known. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04293.xml Mon, 01 Apr 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04294.xml VANITY is commonly judged of by external appearances: he who betrays his desire of applause most, who practices most assiduously the tricks and stratagems by which ap- probation can be gained, is deemed the vainest man; but this distinc- tion seems to be groundless. The difference between him who does this, and him who does it not, seems to imply, not a difference in their vanity, that is, in their desire of applause, but only in their judgment as to the best means of gaining the approbation they desire. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04294.xml Mon, 01 Apr 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04301.xml I AM a warm well-wisher to your work, and am sorry that it does not seem to have attained a popularity and circulation quite as extensive as I think it merits. I have been casting about a good deal to divine the cause of this, and being unwilling to impute it to any defi- ciency, either of real merit in your- self, or of penetration or munifi- cence in the public, I am inclined to ascribe it to the neglect of certain arts, by which the respect and at- tention of the world is much more certainly won than by any solid ex- cellence. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04301.xml Mon, 01 Apr 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04303.xml HUSBANDRY, the most import- ant of all arts, has been reduced to very simple principles, and been brought within a very narrow com- pass, by this nation. There is no art susceptible of greater variety in its operations than this, and none in which the western nations have ac- tually adopted a greater number and diversity of modes. This obviously arises from the dispersed and un- connected situation of the cultivators, and from their stupidity and igno- rance. The learned and curious have laid out their wealth and their curiosity on different objects, and the art of extracting human subsist- ence from the earth has been treat- ed with contempt and negligence. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04303.xml Mon, 01 Apr 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04310.xml THE author builds the reasonings and exhortations of these pages on the well-known counsel given to Job by his wife. After some judicious remarks on the conduct and charac- ter of Job, he proceeds to define the crime of suicide, in a much larger sense than is commonly assigned to it, and in such a sense as will greatly extend the application and utility of the lessons which these discourses convey. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04310.xml Mon, 01 Apr 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04318.xml THE design of republishing Col- lections of the Massachusetts Histo- rical Society, which had been relin- quished for want of encouragement, is resumed. The expence will be defrayed by the funds of the society, who will trust to the sale of the work for a reimbursement. It is intended to reprint, at present, the three first volumes only, which are out of print. The first numbers of this valuable work, which were ori- ginally published in the American Apollo, can now be found only in the library of the society, or in the few sets owned by the members. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04318.xml Mon, 01 Apr 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04320.xml THE author of the Elegiac Stan- zas is earnestly solicited to make this work the depository of his fu- gitive pieces. Many such must be lying in his port folio. Whatever resolutions his diffidence may adopt, with regard to the future, a muse so prompt and fertile as his will find it impossible to be wholly silent. She cannot open her lips but to awaken the respectful attention of a much greater number than he seems at present aware of, and her most careless and unlaboured effusions will be gratefully received. The editor extremely regrets that he cannot admit these stanzas into the present number. He is obliged to reserve them for the next. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-04320.xml Mon, 01 Apr 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05330.xml AUSTERE moralists are inclin- ed to consider drunkenness as a crime to be punished by human tribunals, but this system, if adopt- ed, would involve law-makers and judges in very great difficulties. They would find it impossible to form an adequate scale applicable to the offence. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05330.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05333.xml THE truest stimulus to literary efforts, in writing, it has been long ago observed, is necessity. The most ingenious and eloquent of mor- tals is silent, when relieved from the necessity of writing for bread. This has been a very prevalent opinion, and yet it is either groundless, or it admits of a considerable number of exceptions. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05333.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05335.xml The following fragment will require no other preface or commentary than an extract from the Vienna Gazette of June 14, 1784. “At Great Glogau, in Silesia, the attention of physi- cians, and of the people, has been excited by the case of a young man, whose behaviour indicates perfect health in all respects but one. He has a habit of rising in his sleep, and performing a great many actions with as much order and exactness as when awake. This habit for a long time showed itself in freaks and achieve- ments merely innocent, or, at least, only troublesome and inconvenient, till about six weeks ago. At that period a shocking event took place about three leagues from the town, and in the neighbourhood where the youth's family resides. A young lady, travelling with her father by night, was shot dead upon the road, by some person unknown. The offi- cers of justice took a good deal of pains to trace the author of the crime, and at length, by carefully comparing circumstances, a suspicion was fixed upon this youth. Afte... http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05335.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05347.xml A GREAT many grave treatises have been written on the law of na- tions, and the writers have probably fancied themselves usefully employ- ed while writing them. They have, indeed, contributed not a little to our entertainment and instruction, by collecting a great number of his- torical anecdotes. But nothing can be more preposterous that their at- tempt to extract from these anec- dotes a rule for the future govern- ment of nations in their mutual in- tercourse. Nothing can be more absurd than for a private person, in his closet, to lay down a law for the regulation of neighbouring and rival states. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05347.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05348.xml GEOMETRY, which, in its ori- ginal, was no more than the art of measuring the earth, has been very rarely applied to that purpose, in after times. Its votaries have been busily engaged in measuring sur- faces and figures, which can only exist in the imagination, such as circles, spheres, cones, and pyra- mids, of which, whatever applica- tions have been made to the men- suration of empyreal spaces, or ce- lestial bodies, there has seldom been any practical use made, in ascer- taining heights and distances upon the surface of the earth. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05348.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05359.xml MOST men are desirous of being thought learned; but there was a time, when learning was thought to reflect, not honour, but some degree of discredit on the female sex.— Strange caprice and perverseness of fashion! To spell badly was in- excusable in a man, but some ladies placed a kind of honour in mis-spell- ing; and there are illustrious wo- men on record, who thought it ne- cessary to their good name to coun- terfeit an ignorance which they had not, and knowingly to commit blun- ders in style and spelling, at which a school-boy of ten years old would have blushed. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05359.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05360.xml THERE are few men of the pre- sent age, to whose memory more love and admiration have been paid than to that of sir William Jones. There is a kind of competition among his survivors, which shall be most lavish of his veneration. While his erudition excites the astonish- ment of some, his poetical genius awakens the idolatry of others. The eloquent praise of a third set of ad- mirers is called forth by his legal and political pre-eminence; while a fourth bestows upon his head the honours due to the patriot and phi- lanthropist, the friend of his God and of mankind. His great literary reputation would atone for many social and moral defects; but sir William Jones was no less eminent for the integrity, purity, and mild- ness of his private manners, than for the extent and variety of his intel- lectual attainments. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05360.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05365.xml July, 1803. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05365.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05368.xml I HAVE contrived to read the greater part of the works of Cicero through, merely by taking up the volume, at any odd, unoccupied mo- ment, during the intervals, for in- stance, between my two dishes of coffee, or three pieces of bread, at breakfast. This morning I opened at the second Tusculan, and being somewhat in a sulky mood, by rea- son of some little domestic inconve- nience not worth relating, I failed to discover all that wisdom and elo- quence, of which I usually find a rich repast in these volumes. On the contrary, I really conceived a notion, from this dialogue, that Cice- ro, however great in other respects, was, upon the whole, both in theory and practice, but a poor philosopher. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05368.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05374.xml THE Hollanders, who are an in- dustrious, intelligent, and saving people, during the last century con- trived to make the productions of the fine arts subservient to com- merce. They justly observed, that fortunes acquired by trade and navi- gation soon give birth to a taste for, and love of, the fine arts; indeed almost a necessary consequence at- tached to the inheritance of wealth. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05374.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05375.xml BELSHAM has completed his History of Great Britain, from the Revolution, 1688, to the conclusion of the treaty of Amiens, 1802; and the eleventh and twelfth, or conclud- ing, volumes, will make their ap- pearance in a few days. This valua- ble publication will then constitute the only history of Great Britain, during the same important period, which has been the work of a single writer. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05375.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05385.xml TO encourage the promotion of literature generally, the children of all our citizens ought to be taught at the public expence. In this way, no inviduous distinctions of rich and poor would be exhibited, nor would the feelings of any be unnecessarily wounded. The existing law on the subject holds out those distinctions, which, it is presumed, is a princi- pal reason that so few have em- braced its provisions. When we consider the manner in which the greater part of our schools are con- ducted; the great body of our schoolmasters deficient in the first principles of the language they at- tempt to teach; our youth in immi- nent danger of acquiring erroneous habits; and, add to this, the time that must be wasted in acquiring a useful degree of education, it is pre- sumed that a general plan of educa- tion may be adopted, that will have a tendency to prevent those evils, and be supported at as little expence to the community as the present. Young men will find it their inte- rest to qualify themselves for the off... http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05385.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05389.xml http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05389.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05400a.xml P. J. DESAULT'S Treatise on Fractures, Luxations, and other Morbid Affections of the Bones, has just been translated by Dr. C. Cald- well, of Philadelphia. Desault was chief surgeon to the Hotel Dieu at Paris, and enjoyed the highest re- putation, and most extensive prac- tice. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05400a.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05400b.xml THE editor has received several favours, which came too late for the present month, the contents of each number, in order to insure punctua- lity in publication, being made up at a pretty early period in the month. Hence some valuable com- munications have been unavoidably deferred. The Visitor has been re- ceived, but at too late a period. In the same predicament are the “Re- marks on the Mock-bird and Night- ingale,” “Comparison between the Climate of Madras and Philadel- phia,” “On the Anti-christian Ten- dency of Classical Studies,” and several others. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-05400b.xml Wed, 01 May 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06403.xml GOLDSMITH appears to enjoy as large a share of critical venera- tion as any writer of his age. His laurels, indeed, grow brighter with time, and his power to instruct and amuse will probably increase as years roll on, and one generation follows another. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06403.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06404.xml THE ruling passion of Cicero was undoubtedly the love of fame. To this he was ready to sacrifice every other consideration. The images of future glory seem to have always occupied his fancy, and he wrote and spoke, doubtless, in some degree, for the sake of present and temporary purposes, but chiefly for the sake of a lasting reputation with posterity. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06404.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06405.xml THE attention of the public seems lately to have been pretty much excited by the uses of coal. This substance will, in no long time, become our only or principal fuel, and our diligence will, of course, be directed towards procuring a sup- ply of it from our own stores. The following symptoms by which we may judge of the presence of coal, and rules by which we may regu- late ourselves in search of that use- ful product, may not be unservice- able or unseasonable. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06405.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06409.xml AMONG instances of extraordi- nary strength, the following, which is well attested, seems to be one of the most remarkable: http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06409.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06413.xml EXPERIENCE does not seem to have settled the tokens and symp- toms by which we may infallibly judge of human genius or capacity. At what age, for example, may a man's productions in poetry afford us a criterion by which to judge of his ultimate attainments? It is true, if an old fellow of fifty begins to scribble verses which have no- thing but the rhyme or numbers, or not even these to recommend them, we may safely admonish him to for- bear, for that Nature never designed him for a poet; but if some acci- dent awaken and direct to poetry youthful ambition, by what means shall we ascertain how far the first attempt, supposing the first attempt to be unsuccessful, is a sample of the writer's genuine powers? Eve- ry poet must begin, whenever he begins, with writing badly. He cannot start up from his cradle a Pope or a Milton. A progress that terminates in excellence must yet begin with very rude and jejune at- tempts; and this beginning must be equally unpromising, whether it take place at the ag... http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06413.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06417.xml WE Americans who have never passed the ocean, and many of us, indeed, who have crossed it, are ut- ter strangers to the nightingale, except in description. In this way, indeed, there are few objects more familiar to us; since, in all the descriptive poets of the old world, from Virgil to Cowper, the nightin- gale is a perpetual theme of pane- gyric; and hence we have naturally imbibed a most profound veneration for this chief of natural musicians. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06417.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06419.xml OF late years, there has been a good deal said about Persian poetry, and several translations have been made from its volumes, from which many persons are inclined to infer, that this language is as well stored with genuine poetical treasure as any ancient or modern tongue of Europe. Whatever may be my taste, I have very strong poetical inclinations, and I have accordingly taken great pains to acquire as inti- mate an acquaintance with the Per- sian poetry, as my ignorance of the original language will permit. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06419.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06424.xml BY what title are we to distin- guish that species of composition, of which Dryden affords us examples in his Palamon and Arcite, and Pope in his Wife of Bath and his imita- tions of Donne? These poets take the substance, the sentiments, and images of certain ancient writers of their own country, and give them a language and numbers of their own. The dialect of the old poet is nearly unintelligible. His metre is rude or antiquated; some of his images quaint, unapt, and injudicious. All these disadvantages vanish under the modern pen, and the sterling gold, which, an obsolete and half- worn superscription, would scarcely allow to be current, becomes, by passing anew through the mint, a distinct, legible, and beautiful mo- dern coin, which every body ad- mires and covets. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06424.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06425.xml WARBURTON tries to persuade us, that Pope's Universal Prayer is only a paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer. I can see no foundation for this notion: of the fifty-two lines that compose it, only two, That mercy I to others show That mercy show to me, appear to bear any resemblance to the Lord's Prayer. Of the rest, the whole tenor and spirit, if not ad- verse, does, at least, bear no simili- tude to that eloquent, sublime, and simple invocation. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06425.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06428.xml WHETHER happiness or misery occupies the heaviest scale, in the balance of human experience, is a question that will never be univer- sally decided. The tribe of bene- volent philosophers fancy that the good greatly predominates, and draw inferences from the wonder-work- ing power of habit, not only to equa- lize the goods of every condition in human life, but almost to annihilate the evils. Wealth, they say, is ac- companied with its train of peculiar evils, and poverty by a numerous company of benefits, to which po- verty alone gives a claim. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06428.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06432.xml THE remarks made, in a former number, on the similies of Shakes- peare, has not met with the appro- bation of all your readers. Some objection was made by the critic to the terms made use of by Troilus, when, speaking of his efforts to dis- guise his uneasiness, he says, that “his sigh was buried in wrinkle of a smile.” http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06432.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06434.xml WHERE is a nation free and happy to be found? These terms are thought to be correlative. A nation is said by some to be happy only as it is free. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06434.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06441.xml WHEN great changes or disco- veries are effected, men find it diffi- cult to put themselves into that state, and recal to their imagina- tion that view of things which ex- isted previous to such changes or discoveries. The actual steps in that revolution being slow, succes- sive, and many, the mind proceeds to the distant goal without difficulty or surprise. We arrive at a cer- tain point without any extraordinary emotion, and all around us appears familiar and plain. And yet, pre- viously to our setting out upon our journey, had some power lifted us suddenly to a great height, and af- forded us a clear view of the point we were destined to reach, conceal- ing from us, at the same time, all the intermediate steps, we should feel raptures of delight and wonder, and nothing but prophetic assuran- ces could bring the attainment of such a point within the verge of possibility. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06441.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06449.xml IN consequence of the decision of Aristotle, many a servile critic has denied the rank and praise of poe- try to didactic compositions. Many will argue, that Aristotle was as much in the right as Plutarch, and that Castelvetro was wrong. The stagirite pretended not to lay down rules a priori, but, from the best examples before him, formed a code of laws to guide the taste of his own and future ages. His judgment on the ode was formed from the sublime numbers of Pindar, and his notions of the epic from the nervous harmony of Homer; but, in the times of Aristotle, there was no didactic poet who vied with these great founders of lyric and heroic composition. Hesiod was a mere chronologist, and Theocritus, with much suavity of style, was too defective in spirit and energy for one inspired by the muses. The poem of Empedocles, “On the Nature of Things, and the Four Elements,” is totally lost, but ap- pears to be the only one that could plead in favour of didactic subjects, when Aristotle wrote. The candid and poli... http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06449.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06451.xml THERE are few readers who have not heard of the man in the iron mask, and who have not felt their curiosity deeply interested in the solution of that famous mystery. The best account of this extraordi- nary personage has been published by Soulavie, in his memoirs of Riche- lieu. The solution he gives is wor- thy, in its importance and dignity, of the mystery to which it relates. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06451.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06471.xml MR. CARR, author of the Stran- ger in France, and other works, having, during the last summer, visited Denmark, Sweden, and Rus- sia, and made a circuit of the Baltic, intends to favour the world with an account of his travels, accompanied by various engravings from his own drawings. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06471.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06479.xml THERE has lately been publish- ed by T. and J. Swords, of New York, The Life of Samuel Johnson, D. D., the first president of King's College, in New York, containing many interesting anecdotes, a gene- ral view of the state of religion and learning in Connecticut, during the former part of the last century, &c., &c. By Thomas Bradbury Chand- ler, D. D., formerly rector of St. John's church, Elizabethtown, New Jersey. To which is added an ap- pendix, containing many original letters, never before published, from bishop Berkely, archbishop Secker, bishop Lowth, and others, to Dr. Johnson. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-06479.xml Sat, 01 Jun 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-07020.xml IMMENSE sums of money are sent to the West Indies for sugar. From experience, it has been found to be a wholesome and nutritious ar- ticle of diet. A species of the Ame- rican maple contains genuine sugar, and, if properly prepared, would, in every respect, equal, in all its qua- lities, the sugar obtained from the cane in the West Indies. For su- gar, like water, is of one original species only. Its variety depends upon its being more or less mixed with other matters, all of which may be separated by easy processes. The maple not only affords an ex- cellent sugar, but a pleasant molas- ses, and agreeable beer, a strong sound wine, and an excellent vinegar. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-07020.xml Mon, 01 Jul 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-07033.xml IT is stated, in a late number of the Moniteur, that of that official paper 3,000, of the Publiciste 2,900, of the Journal de Paris 2,800, of the Journal des Debats (which is most favourable to the ancient order of things) 6,000, of the Clef des Cabi- nets 11,000, of the Citoyen Francais 1,200, of the Journal des Defenseurs de la Patrie 1,000, of the Décade Philosophique 900, and of the Eng- lish newspaper called the Argus 720 copies are sold. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-07033.xml Mon, 01 Jul 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-07038.xml http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-07038.xml Mon, 01 Jul 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-07039.xml NEW ORLEANS has become of so much importance by its transfer to the United States, and by being the resort of so many adventurers from the Atlantic coast, that we may naturally feel some curiosity respecting its real condition. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-07039.xml Mon, 01 Jul 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-07045.xml WE say of any scheme or project which is futile and nugatory, and which we are inclined to stigmatize with our contempt, that it will end in smoke. Ex luci dare fumum was, I suppose, proverbial with the Romans. What then shall we think of the felicity or dignity of the fol- lowing passage of Thomson, in its close? http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-07045.xml Mon, 01 Jul 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-07066.xml MR. ARTHUR YOUNG intends in future to publish his valuable agricultural journal, the Annals of Agriculture, quarterly instead of monthly. The numbers will ap- pear on the first days of June, Sep- tember, December, and March, of every year, making one volume an- nually of original agricultural infor- mation, which must be invaluable to every practical farmer and man of landed property in the British em- pire. The monthly publications of this work already extend to forty- three volumes; and the whole forms a complete library of agricul- tural knowledge. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-07066.xml Mon, 01 Jul 1805 12:00:00 GMT http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-08090.xml THE plant was from Africa, and was brought from Abyssinia in the 14th century. Its properties were discovered by accident in feeding animals, and its use began in Ara- bia in the 15th century. The Ara- bians had it from Persia. It was first taken to prevent sleep, then for the head, and then for pleasure. It was at Marseilles in 1657, but not much used. It reached Paris about 1669. Since 1685, it has been freely used in London, but more gradually in Spain and Italy. To the Holland- ers Europe is indebted for the culti- vation of coffee. They carried it from Moka to Batavia, from Batavia to the gardens of Amsterdam. In 1714, Louis XIV received several plants from Amsterdam for the royal gar- den. Thence Desclieux carried some plants to Martinico, in 1728, though several had been carried thither in 1726. In 1722, it was cultivated in Cayenne, without liberty to export it, and thence was carried to Mar- tinico. It was early in Jamaica, and in 1740 at Cuba. http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/xtf3/view?docId=1805-08090.xml Thu, 01 Aug 1805 12:00:00 GMT