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II. Twenty-six numbers will form a volume, the price of which to subscribers will be Two Dollars. Single numbers 10 Cents.

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III. It will be delivered to subscribers in Boston and the vi-: cinity on the day of publication, and to those at a distance by the earliest conveyance. None will be considered as subscribers but such as pay for one volume at the time of subcribing; and it will be sent to no persons living out of Boston, after his term of subscription has expired. That we may never disturb the good nature of our friends with a call for payment, nor experience the mortification of a refusal ourselves, the above article will be dispensed with in no case whatever. IV. With the last number of each volume will be given a title -page and index.

INTRODUCTION TO POLITICKS.

I would wish to act with those statesmen who would as far as is consistent with the dignity and safety of the country, by a timely concession and a rational departure from 100 rigid principles, prevent those calamities which result from authority without power, and expense without supplies. Pur. Lit.

A CAREFUL review of the several administrations of the Federal Government since the adoption of the constitution, would be much more likely to lead to a judicious estimate among honest men of the compartive merits and peculiar policy of each, than any other conceivable method, on the authority of which an opinion could be formed. The federal administrations under Washington and Adams pursued a course of policy evidently contrary to the path which Mr. Jefferson and his party have followed; and in order to bring the merits of their respective systems to the test, it will only be the particular principles of both as contrasted with each other, and the with ecessary to mention, effects which the promulgation of their doctrines have had, not only upon foreign nations, but our own domestick happiness.

The first very important difference of opinion which arose among the citizens of the United States after Washington accepted the office of President, resulted from the French revolution. Although that was an event, which began with the most atrocious crimes and continued 1 cruel and bloody to its termination in the present military despotism of Napoleon, and although it is now universally censured by all well disposed partizans in this country, yet it is an undoubted fact that the predominant party which now presides over the destinies of America first

originated in the disgraceful enthusiasm created by French licentiousness. They were so rapt in admiration at the conflagration of consuming despotism, that they could not discern the tumult which threatened the destruction of those who first kindled the flame. The influ ence of French principles which was early extended over every country in Europe, soon became evident in this; when shall we forget the machinations of French agents in fomenting rebellion, and the clamours of faction for a war with Great-Britain? At this crisis the proclamation of neutrality by Washington arrested the dangers which threatened us, by opposing to them the effectual rampart of his personal responsibility. Let those persons who were so loud in their resentments on that occasion, reflect on what our probable situation at this time would have been had their policy been pursued, by considering our present situation, under the adoption of measures of similar tendency, when we are so much better able to sustain the distress which follows them.

The discussions relative to the treaty with Great Britain, negotiated by Mr. Jay, formed the next most important distinction between the Federalists and Democrats. How fairly their opposition to the administration on that subject was pursued, how justly their charges of treachery were founded, and how solid were their objections to the instrument itself, may be tested by the impossibility of their obtaining so good a one themselves, even under the Fox administration; the panegyricks on Mr. Jay's integrity and personal influence, pronounced by Lord Grenville in the House of Commons; and by their mean crimination of Mr. Munroe's negotiation, to hide their own disgrace.

The establishment of a navy was a favourite scheme of the late presi dent Mr. Adams, and the violent opposition with which the present party assailed it, creates another striking difference in the opinions of the respective parties. The respect which was paid us abroad wherever our national flag was unfurled, the character of our President, and the practicability of all his measures, form a contrast to the present state of our national character and the personal influence of Mr. Jefferson, as gratifying to our feelings as partizans as it is overwhelming to our hopes as citizens. During the administration of the present government, from its systematick opposition to its predecessors, we have seen an obstinate perseverance in a trial of experiments in politicks, which none but the blindest theorists could presume would terminate in a fortunate result. We have seen a navy annihilated, philosophy, displace experience, impracticable measures proposed and adopted, and though evidently inefficacious, most pertinaciously adhered to, and tyranically enforced. In short, the same tendency which attracted the Jacobins of 1798, to republican France, are in full operation in 1809, towards the despotick governour of the same nation. And the

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same enmity which dictated a war with Great Britain in the early period of our national existence, now threatens to annihilate that existence in the pursuit of a policy not only absurd in theory, but in practice advantageous to our enemy and ruinous to ourselves. The various points of distinction which mark the federal and democratick adminis trations, would swell this paper to a greater bulk, than we can now suffer it to attain. We have not forgotten the judiciary, the impressment of seamen, the rule of 1756, the purchase of Louisiana, nor the influence of Virginia. But as those topicks will early call our attention, and as this address is principally to announce our political creed, we shall not discuss them at the present moment. The difference, however, which distinguishes one administration from the other is mainly this, the federal was a practical and the democratick is a theoretick system of policy. Under the benign influence of the first we were a prosperous and a happy people; our commerce flourished, our industry was successful, our character was respected, and our rights maintained ; under the pestiferous shade of theory and dignified retirement, negotiation has been so long protracted by ridiculous impediments, that commerce is destroyed, industry is inert and insensible, the national character is disgraced, and under the pretence of maintaining secondary rights, our very existence seems fast approaching to its decisive termination.

To oppose such doctrines will be a principal object in this paper; we call therefore on the satirists of the times to lend us their torches to light the wretches, which disgrace our national annals, to the verge of everlasting night; and their thongs to whip them into the infamy they merit.

INTRODUCTION TO POETRY.

THIS department, in every literary journal in the United States, has always been meagre of original stamina or support, particularly as respects satirical effusions. And as we shall have in view, the censure of the ridiculous, as well as the approbation of the dignified, we shall frequently have recourse to foreign store-houses for weapons to overthrow the adversaries of good sense. We therefore offer our readers an account of a German drama, of some celebrity; which from the taste in which it is conducted, will give as fair a specimen of our intentions in the Poetical Department, as the most laboured exposition of our own could possibly afford. We call on our poetical friends for similar and congenial attempts, to scourge the absurd taste which prevails in the poetry of the times.

Nathan the Wise, a dramatick poem, is a genuine German drama, written without any imitation of French or English, and admirably calculated to elucidate the native and peculiar taste of that ingenious people. They have borrowed so much of late from both these quarters, that it may reasonably be doubted, whether a relish for their own original and appropriate literature be altogether so common in this country as is usually imagined. This book, we think, will afford a very useful test for determining that important problem, and will enable the reader immediately to ascertain whether he has hitherto admired the true German genius itself, or only its imitation of French and English. A traveller may very erroneously suppose that he relishes German cookery, when he gormandizes on fricandeau or plumpudding at Vienna; but if he take delight in sour krout and wild-bear venison, he may rest assured that he is under no mistake as to the proficiency he has made, and that he has completely reconciled himself to the national taste of his entertainers. The work before us is as gen

uine sour krout as ever perfumed a feast in Westphalia.

The story, in point of absurdity, we think, is fairly entitled to bear away the palm from the celebrated German play in the poetry of the Antijacobin: the moral is no less comfortable; and the diction, though not altogether so lofty, is, upon the whole, entitled to equal admiration.

The scene is laid in Jerusalem in the time of the crusades; and the story turns chiefly upon the adventures of a young Templar, who had been made captive by the armies of the celebrated Saladin. This monarch, who is represented as a pattern of mildness and generosity, chuses to amuse himself one morning by seeing the heads of twenty persons struck off by his chief executioner, and witnesses the operation upon nineteen of them with singular complacency and satisfaction. Being struck, however, with a sort of resemblance which the twentieth seemed to bear to a favourite brother, who had disappeared many years before, he directs his life to be spared, and allows him to roam at large, in a starving condition, through all the streets of Jerusalem. In one of his evening rambles, this youth perceives the house of Nathan the Jew to be on fire; and gallantly going to the assistance of the city firemen, is the means of saving the Jew's daughter from the flames. The young Israelite very naturally falls in love with her preserver; but he, having a bad opinion of the whole nation, keeps out of the way of her gratitude, till Nathan finds him out, and wins the affection of this Christian champion in a moment, by assuring him that he is not a Jew, but only a sort of Deist, who has acquired a habit of going to the synagogue without meaning any thing. The Templar protests that he is himself of the very same faith; and, after vowing eternal riendship, he goes home with him and falls furiously in love with he daughter.

In the mean time, Saladin sends for the Jew to lend him money, and to ask him which of the three religions is the best, the Christian, * Jewish, or Mahometan. The learned Rabbi answers, that they are

all very good in their way; but that it is impossible to say, till the day of judgment, which is the best and then gratifying his royal pupil with heaps of gold, he leaves him enchanted with his wisdom and munificence. The Templar, without considering his vow of celibacy, now becomes very urgent to marry the daughter of Nathan; and some accidental obstacles being thrown in the way, it turns out, 1st, that this fair creature is not the Jew's daughter, but the daughter of a Christian Knight, who had confided her to his charge; 2d, that the gallant Templar is the son of the Saracen, prince who had disappeared from Saladin's court, and, wandering into Europe, had been seized with the caprice of becoming a Knight Templar, and fighting against his own beloved brother, under which character he had chosen, however inconsistently, to marry a German lady, and beget this young hero; and, 3d, that the same illustrious convert was also the father of the Jew's reputed daughter, and consequently, that these young lovers stand to each other in the relation of brother and sister. The most edifying part of the story is, that this discovery produces no sort of uneasiness or disturbance to the parties concerned; on the contrary, the young people seem quite delighted with the occurrence; and the author leaves them embracing their uncle the Sultan, in a paroxysm of filial and paternal affection. Such is the fable of Nathan the Wise.

We shall quote a line or two representing the doctrines of the author, which recommend as an antidote to religious intolerance, an absolute indifference or infidelity. When the Templar is reproaching the Jew with the prejudices and superstitions of his nation, he answers, "Nath. Despise my nation

We did not chuse a nation for ourselves.

Are we our nations? What's a nation then?

Were Jews and Christians such, ere they were men?

And have I found in thee one more, to whom

It is enough to be a man?

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Nathan, by God, thou hast. Thy hand; I blush

To have mistaken thee a single instant." P. 104.

This pious Knight makes a still clearer profession of his faith in a

dialogue with a Christian woman,

happened to say,

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-nor were this time

"Daya.
The first, when thro' an unexpected path
The Saviour drew his children on to him
Across the tangled maze of human life.
Vol. I.

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