―472―

MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES OF LITERARY AND
PHILOSOPHICAL INTELLIGENCE.

DOMESTIC.

Miller's Retrospect of the
Eeighteenth Cenctury.

THE Rev. Mr. Miller, of this
city, has announced his in-
tention of committing to the press,
in a few weeks, a work under the
following title: “A Brief Retros-
pect of the Principal Revolutions
and Improvements in Learning,
Politics, Morals, and Religion, dur-
ing the eighteenth Century, espe-
cially in the United States of Ame-
rica; in a Sermon, the substance of
which was delivered January 1,
1801: to which is added, a large
body of Notes and Illustrations.”
This work, it is expected, will form
a large octavo volume of between
400 and 500 pages.

Bonnet's Work on Chris-
tianity.

It is proposed to publish an Ame-
rican edition of that scarce and in-
teresting work, entitled “Philoso-
phical Inquiries concerning the
Proofs of Christianity. By M.
Charles Bonnet, of Geneva, F. R. S.
Member of the Royal Academy of
Sciences at Paris, &c. &c. &c.
Translated from the French.” The
editors of this new impression of
Bonnet's work, we are informed,
have corrected and improved the
translation; and propose to add
some notes; and to elucidate cer-
tain subjects which require, at pre-
sent, more particular discussion
than was thought necessary when
M. Bonnet wrote.

Linn's “Powers of Genius.”

Proposals have appeared for pub-
lishing a poem, entitled “The

Powers of Genius. Accompanied
with Notes and Illustrations,” in
one elegant volume, duodecimo.
The comprehensiveness and dignity
of the theme should, of itself, in-
spire the adventurous poet. To
rehearse the praises, define the
limits, trace out the departments,
and discuss the tendencies and bear-
ings of the power which the artist
may call his own, seems no mean
or hackneyed undertaking. Pain-
ters have expatiated on painting,
and poets have discussed the laws
of poetry and criticism, but we re-
collect no performance consecrated
singly to them, which appears to
be selected by this poet.

American genius seems, hitherto,
to have acquired but few honours.
There is, perhaps, no single poem
of native growth, hitherto admitted
among popular and classical pro-
ductions. Pope and Dryden may
owe some of the homage that is paid
them to their antiquity; but, among
more recent and contemporary poets,
Goldsmith, Cowper, and Burns,
have no rivals in America. It is
nearly forty years since we have
been at least as numerous a nation
as the Scots or Irish, but we have
not yet produced a name dear and
familiar to poetical readers. This
is somewhat strange. It is not a
fortuitous deficiency; and there-
fore must, in its own nature, be
possible to be accounted for.

Every power of the mind is la-
tent, till circumstances conspire to
call it into action and notice. There
can be little doubt that every
church-yard, from Portsmouth to
Savannah, contains the reliques of
several Miltons, whom their destiny
has made “ingloriously mute.”

What property it is, in our sys-
tem of social life, that consigned
these possible Miltons to inglorious

―473―

silence and oblivion, would be well
worthy of the attention of inquisi-
tive minds. Some there are, and
among these, no doubt, may be
numbered all those among our
countrymen who have themselves
adventured in verse, who imagine
it proper, in the first place, to in-
vestigate the truth of the deficiency,
there being room to doubt whether
the disesteem in which our own
bards are wont to be held, be not
the mere fruit of prejudice or igno-
rance.

These ideas are naturally sug-
gested by every new proposal of a
poetical publication. Men who
have some attention to spare from
family and professional concerns,
and whose curiosity can enlarge its
views so far as to take in something
besides political occurrences, will
regard, with some attention, the
appearance of a new poem, and
will bring to the perusal a sort of
suspense, as to whether this be, or
be not, the long-looked for claimant
of poetical popularity.

The present performance is writ-
ten by Mr. J. B. Linn, with whose
former attempts, in this walk, the
world is not unacquainted.

Washington's Mausoleum.

Soon after the death of Wash-
ington, a scheme was proposed for
doing honour to his memory, by a
public monument. From the cir-
cumstances of the time, a final reso-
lution was postponed to a future
session of the Legislature. That
session has commenced at the city
of Washington; and, after a long,
warm, and disagreeable debate, the
proposition has been carried by a
very small majority in the House of
Representatives, for the erection of
a mausoleum to the memory of
Washington.

Those who have regard for the
honour of their country, will be
somewhat anxious as to what the

final determination of the Senate
may be on this resolution of the
House, and whether the huge struc-
ture, for which two hundred thou-
sand dollars are appropriated, will
really be commenced.

One is almost tempted to smile at
the whimsical conceptions of those
who can discover no better mode
of diffusing, exalting, and perpe-
tuating the glory of a patriot or
hero, than by a tomb or pyramid
of marble; who recommend this as
a method of gratifying the illustri-
ous shade, and of exciting, in the
nation at large, an emulation of
his virtuous actions.

We seem to have forgotten that,
among those mere visible blazoners
of reputation, by far the most dura-
ble and splendid that any imagina-
tion can suggest, is already conse-
crated to Washington, in founding
and naming after him, a new metro-
polis of these States. The city
itself is his monument; the dura-
tion of which will not depend upon
the cohesion and soundness of the
stones, bricks, and rafters of which
it may at any one time consist, but
be prolonged like the human body,
the substance of which is changing,
while the form and the identity re-
main. Every age will probably
add to its magnitude and grandeur.
In this state of things, such addi-
tional expedients as pyramids and
tombs, seem to be ridiculous and
puerile.

But if we must have monuments
of smaller compass, and more tran-
sitory duration, let us not revive
the folly so long exploded of the
stupid and slavish Egyptians, who
delighted in encumbering the earth
with pyramids and obelisks, that
reared their heads, from age to age,
without any conceivable benefit to
survivors. Let us rather imitate
the example of the Romans, who
showed their reverence for deceased
worth, by monuments, that were,

―474―

indeed, of brick and stone, but
were conducive, at the same time,
to some public advantage.

To facilitate commerce, forums
or market places were erected. To
alleviate the evils and discomforts
of a crowded population, distant
streams were led into cities by means
of canals and aqueducts: groves and
gardens were planted; porticos and
walls were built, where books and
pictures were collected, and, above
all, baths of a stupendous magni-
tude and costliness were planned,
and thus the most salubrious species
of luxury and relaxation made ac-
cessible to every citizen. These
monuments were not, strictly speak-
ing, the mere fruits of benevolence or
patriotism, but trophies to the glory
of the founder, or consecrated to
the memory of him whose name
was enscribed upon them.

Now, surely, these are far the most
eligible modes of testifying public
veneration. Let the trophy be of
brick or marble, if you will, but
throw them, I pray you, into a form
conducive, in some way, to the be-
nefit or pleasure of survivors.

An hundred thousand dollars will
enable us to raise a pile of a certain
magnitude: to draw together and
model into shape and unity a cer-
tain quantity of stone and cement.
What form shall we choose?

Shall it be a solid mass, of four
sides, terminating in a point, on one
side of which those who pass near
enough, and choose to scrutinize,
may read some such words as—
“To the memory of Washington?”
Or shall it be an edifice, consist-
ing of walls and roof, within which
some science, beneficial to the pub-
lic and the individual, may be learn-
ed, or deliberations on some depart-
ment of national or municipal go-
vernment be held; or a manufac-
tory where the instruments of war
may be produced; or as a charita-
ble institution, where poverty and
sickness may find refuge? Any of

these may be as visibly donated to
Washington, may constitute as con-
spicuous and tangible a trophy to
his glory, and contain as many em-
blems and inscriptions, as if the
same stone and morter had assumed
the shape of column, obelisk, pyra-
mid or statue.

If it were possible to consult the
spirit of Washington, there is little
doubt but that he would exclaim
against such specimens of idle and
barren ostentation, and ardently re-
commend a structure capable of
some public and useful application.
Could any scheme be more agreeable
to him than that of a national col-
lege, and a national library, estab-
lished on a liberal and permanent
footing?

New Female Charitable
Association.

We observe, with pleasure, that a
new society has lately been formed
in Philadelphia, for the relief of dis-
tressed women and children. The
members of this society are ladies,
who have commenced their opera-
tions with great spirit and success.
The constitution of this body is
similar to that of an association for
the same purpose in New-York, and
of an association that has subsisted for
some years in Philadelphia.

Some thousand dollars being
raised, during the last summer, for
the relief of the cities afflicted with
the yellow fever, and being unap-
plied to that purpose, a proposal
was made, at a late meeting of the
contributors, for giving five hun-
dred dollars to the old, and the same
sum to the new association of ladies.
This proposal was adopted, greatly
to the satisfaction of every benevo-
lent well wisher to the happiness of
the poor, and to the true dignity of
the female sex.

The unbounded practice of alms-
giving is far from being, itself, an
antidote to poverty and wretched-
ness. The affluent are able to extir-

―475―

pate, by means of their abundance,
all misery from among mankind,
and this end is not to be effected by
disbursing money, but only by dis-
bursing it judiciously. The most
difficult and least known of all arts
is that of using property to good
purposes.

How far these associations are cir-
cumspect and judicious in their mea-
sures, would be well worth inquir-
ing, and to make their proceedings,
and the effects already produced
public, would be a powerful stimu-
lus to others, and, probably, incul-
cate very useful lessons in the above
mentioned art.

Gentz's Comparison of the
French and American Re-
volutions.

There are subjects of comparison
which we are somewhat surprised
to have never seen regularly and
systematically compared during the
last ten years. Bickering politicians
have made ten thousand allusions
to them; some endeavouring to
point out and enforce the difference
between them, both in the princi-
ples and conduct of them; and others,
among whom may be ranked the
editors of a celebrated publication,
called the Anti-Jacobin, endeavour-
ing to confound them together.
With the latter every opposition to
established government is denomi-
nated treason and rebellion, and the
names of Cromwell, Washington,
Brissot, Mirabeau, Robespierre, and
Bonaparte, are indiscriminately put
down on the criminal and infamous
list of political assassins.

There may be said to be a third
party, by whom the English, Ame-
rican and French revolutions are
ascribed to the same justifiable and
meritorious causes; who weep a-
like over the failure of every scheme
for diffusing equality and freedom
among mankind, and who justify
the motives and movers of every
such revolution, while they deplore

the crimes and miseries in which the
folly or precipitation of the actors
have involved their fellow citizens.

Gentz is a political writer of Ber-
lin; and the performance now men-
tioned originally appeared, piece-
meal, in a periodical work publish-
ed in the Prussian capital. The
writer is of the first-mentioned sect,
and his purpose is to appropriate all
the praise of patriotism and philan-
thropy to the agents in the Ame-
rican revolution, while he leaves to
the authors of the French republic
no other portion than that of dis-
appointment and guilt.

The subject is highly curious
and interesting to American readers.
No doubt can be entertained of the
ability of the writer, and therefore
his discussions will scarcely be less
worthy of attention to the adversary
than to the advocate of the conclu-
sion which he recommends.

The translator is an American,
of great reputation, now in Europe,
and the publisher is Mr. Asbury
Dickins, to whom the property of
the work belongs.

American Edition of Rus-
sell's Modern Europe.

A very elegant octavo edition of
“The History of Modern Europe,
with an Account of the decline and
fall of the Roman Empire, &c.”
by D. Russell, is publishing in Phi-
ladelphia, by Messrs. Birch and Small,
from the press of Maxwell. For
beauty of typography and correct-
ness, this edition will excel that of
any historical work before publish-
ed in America. Three volumes have
already appeared, and the fourth
and fifth, which complete the work,
will shortly appear.

Washington Newspapers.

To mention newspapers among
literary articles may seem unwar-
rantable; but, in reality, these are
the only popular and legitimate off-
spring of American activity and

―476―

genius. The number of these pub-
lications rapidly increase with the
advancement of population; but the
removal of the seat of government
to the banks of the Patowmack has
occasioned a preternatural addition
of eight or ten Gazettes to the cata-
logue.

The eloquence and wisdom of
our legislators are detailed to us by
several hands, and every puny whip-
ster is enabled to sit in judgment on
the talents and adroitness of our go-
vernors.

New Biographical Diction-
ary.

James Hardie, A. M. of New-
York, has issued proposals for pub-
lishing “A New Universal Bio-
graphical Dictionary, and Ameri-
can Remembrancer of departed Me-
rit.” The work is intended to be
comprised in thirty-two numbers,
of sixty-four pages each, or four vo-
lumes octavo. This work will be
compiled from foreign biographi-
cal publications, as well as from
the materials which may be collect-
ed in America, and, if executed with
judgment and ability, cannot fail
to be interesting and instructive to
a great portion of readers.

Best's Dissertation upon
Oratory.

“A Dissertation upon Oratory,
and a Philological Inquiry into the
Beauties and Defects of the English
Language, with thoughts on preach-
ing and pulpit Eloquence,” by the
Rev. W. Best, A. M. has lately is-
sued from the press of T. B. Bowen,
of Charleston, South-Carolina. This
publication will be noticed in our
next Review.

New Edition of Jefferson's
Notes on Virginia.

M. L. and W. A. Davis, of New-
York, are engaged in printing an
edition of this work, in one volume
octavo, which will comprise the

“Appendix” lately published by
the author.

Hosack's Lectures.

“An Introductory Lecture on
Medical Education, delivered at
the Commencement of the Annual
Course of Lectures on Botany and
the Materia Medica, by David Ho-
sack, M. D. Professor of Botany
and the Materia Medica in Colum-
bia College,” is now in the press,
and will be shortly published by
T. and J. Swords.

Davis' New-Jersey Farmer.

Furman and Loudon have pub-
lished, in one small volume 18mo.
“The New-Jersey Farmer, by John
Davis.” This work will be noticed
in our next Review.

Falconer's “Ship-Wreck.”

James Oram is engaged in print-
ing an elegant edition of that cele-
brated Poem, in one volume 12mo.
with engravings.