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"Yes, within the peninsula of Boston, where the bold intrepid eloquence of an Adams and a Hancock once chafed the ears of British tyrants and flashed conviction on the mind of every trembling Felix ; where the etherial flame of patriotism first electerized the generous bosoms of Columbia's free-born sons; where the sacred altar of American freedom first smoked with holy incense to the God of battles ;→→ even there, has hydra faction burrowed deep its dark and serpentine domain; whence loathesome reptiles sally forth in all their envenomed forms of furious treason, to prey upon the fairest fruit of freedoms ver dant tree.'

We cannot but admire the true republican pathos and sentiment contained in the following sentence:

Though meek eyed charity drops the tear of compassion upon thé blindfold folly of deluded honesty; and speaks to benighted reason and misguided virtue, the language of conciliation, in accents as gentle and soothing as the balmy zephyrs of the vernal morn; yet stern, unbending justice, from this exalted throne of spotless purity, thunders denunciations dire on all the dark designs of plotting mischief, and of hell-born treason.'

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Our author then in the spirit of the party of which he seems so able a leader, invites them to feast and be merry, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.' He talks of reciprocating the generous flow of soul,' on the occasion, as well as the generous currents of convivial joy.' He tells his audience not to be parsimonious of life,' but to sacrifice it to Mr. Madison. As Junius says of Lord Granby, our author ⚫ seems like a drunken landlord, he deals out his promises as liberally as his liquor,' and we dare swear, did not suffer his guests to go home either sorrowful or sober.'

We have not room, (and if we had we should fear for the Federal cause) to quote all the energetick expressions of this redoubted champion. It may be only necessary to remark that it is in the same taste with those which we have already submitted to our readers; and are as to style, what the reasonings of the Chronicle are as to argument, something truly wonderful. We shall finish our remarks by offering the concluding sentence of this oration as a specimen of the best manner of the most formidable champion' whom we have yet observed in the lists of democracy.

'If civil war must ere long drench Columbia's fertile and verdant domain in the frantick blood of slaughtered kindred, we implore the God of battles, it may spend its fury before the hoary veterans of seventy-five, who yet live, shall pass beyond the stars. They have once conversed with England's thundering cannon; they have once dispersthe menial jackals that crouched around the British lion: and when the minority shall take up arms against the Constitutional Laws of the

majority, an attempt to wade to government and power through the innocent blood of their patriotick countrymen; when that Junto of Rebel Tories and their mortgaged hosts of servile minions, who are at this moment fanning the angry flame of civil discord, shall strike" their meditated blow of insurrection, the sleeping swords of war worn whigs and of their patriotick offspring shall leap from their scabbards and put the fiend-like foe to flight.'

EXTRAORDINARY GENIUS.

MESSRS. EDITORS,

THOUGH scribbling is not my profession, nor controversy my delight, yet I beg leave to trouble you with a few lines, for your next Ordeal. My object is to pay the tribute of my respect' to that anonymous though sagacious critick and elegant writer, who has occupied half of your two last papers, in reviewing the Rev. Mr. Carey's Sermon. I cannot find language sufficiently lofty to express the exakted opinion I entertain of his profound judgment and critical erudition. A production so replete with genuine wit, nice discrimination, classical allusion, and though last not least,' so luxuriantly speckled with inverted commas and apostrophes, I presume to say, has never before been seen in the tide of times,' and will never again be witnessed, ať least in our generation. Great geniuses are like comets, that are permitted to visit our ken of sight, but once in several centuries; and then excite universal admiration.

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I remember reading when I was a boy, a story of a great genius that appeared at Rome, in the reign of Augustus Cæsar. With respect to the birth, parentage, and education of this genius, we have to regret that history is silent. In consequence, however of the most diligent and laborious application, he had acquired an unheard of facility and accuracy of shooting peas from a pop-gun. Bore a hole of the exact size of a pea through a target, and this man at the amazing distance of three inches would shoot a pea through the hole, to the astonishment of the beholders. His fame spread through the vast Roman empire, and at last reached the ear of Augustus, who directed him to be brought into his presence. After witnessing his wonderful performance, the emperor dismissed him, and as a reward for his genius commanded fifteen of the most noble of the senators to present him with a whole bag full of peas!

I am, yours, &c.

TIMOTHY,

P.S. If the reviewer should find in this letter a reprehensible fancy for repetition, please to tell him, Messrs. Editors, that he has wisely said himself, that two epithets do not sound so well as four.'

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AMERICAN LITERATURE.

LIFE OF WASHINGTON.

THE disputes upon the deficiency of American genius, we fear, are not yet put to rest, by the appearance of any such splendid evidence of intellectual power, or any work of such uncommon merit, as to establish the affirmative of the argument. It remains a question, which time and experience, rather than reason and probability, must determine. Whatever may be said by the advocates of our countrymen, with regard to their natural talents, and the unreasonableness of expecting great evidences of intellect under the present state of society in Amer ica, before there exists wealth enough either for leisure or patronage; it seems apparent, on a close observation, that the inveterate habit of seeking and accumulating wealth, has extinguished the refined faculty of literary taste; and, instead of it, there has arisen a disposition to literary discouragement. This country is placed, in respect to England, very favourably, as regards the diffusion of general information; but adverse, as regards the productions of genius from herself. We have the advantages of receiving all the European refinements of excellen cies, without any of the aids to produce them. We have neither extensive libraries, nor taste, nor disposition to patronize literary exertions.

The late Mr. Ames, whose productions, replete with fancy and glowing with ardent thought, have the fairest chance to rescue the sinking reputation of his country, has left a discussion upon the subject of American Literature, in which he has ingeniously endeavoured to account for our backwardness in intellectual attainments. But whilst we admit that he evinces very clearly why genius is not now encour aged, we consider many of his reasonings as proofs that the disposition, now so hostile, is not likely to terminate more favourably hereafter. We may be destined to become the Boeotia of the modern world; though we have not yet attained even that degree of eminence, for, if we have many fogs, we have not produced a Plutarch.

In their account of Judge Marshall's Life of Washington, the Edin. burg Reviewers introduce some remarks; from which, as they have a tendency to elucidate the subject we are noticing, as well as to give a pretty fair estimate of the worth of that voluminous work, we shall offer a short extract. Speaking of the concluding part of the work, they proceed thus:

This last volume is loaded with speeches, which clumsily and indistinctly supply the place of comprehensive views of the subjects to which they relate. Many of these speeches display great commercial knowledge, and a forcible and keen style of argument. But we have

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never yet seen any specimens of American eloquence, that did not grievously sin against the canons of taste; and, indeed, oratory is not to be looked for in a country which has none of the kindred arts. The consideration which absorbs every other, in a country situated like America, is that of acquiring wealth. Every particle of intellect, therefore, is attracted to active occupation. Now, it is written in a wise old book, that learning cometh by opportunity of leisure, and that he that hath but little business shall become wise. When America, then, shall have reached that more advanced stage; when a greater accumulation of wealth shall have given leisure to a greater portion of her inhabitants-she will then nourish a class, new in her population, that of men of letters-then she will have orators, and poets, and historians; and then she will look back with other feelings, than we suspect she at present entertains, to the ludicrous proposition of her Congress, to declare herself the most enlightened nation on the globe.'

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• In these volumes, we have found a great many words and phrases which English criticism refuses to acknowledge. America has thrown off the yoke of the British nation; but she would do well, for some time, to take the laws of composition from the Addisons, the Swifts, and the Robertsons, of her ancient sovereign. In short, our previous impressions of American literature have by no means been weakened by the perusal of these books; and we think it pretty strong proof of the poverty of her literary attainments, that she has not yet been able to tell the story of her own revolution, and to pourtray the character of her hero and sage, in language worthy such subjects. These remarks, however, are not dictated by any paltry feelings of jealousy or pride. We glory in the diffusion of our language over a new world, where we hope it is yet destined to collect new triumphs; and in the brilliant perspective of American greatness, we see only pleasing images of associated prosperity and glory to the land in which we live.

This opinion in regard to American literature, of these eminent reviewers, is strongly supported by those of Mr. Ames, upon the subject. Thus he speaks of genius :

'Genius, it will be said, like a conflagration on the mountains, consumes its fuel in its flame. Not so-it is a spark of elemental fire that is unquenchable, the contemporary of this creation, and destined with the human soul to survive it. As well might the stars of heaven be said to expend their substance by their lustre. It is not to the intellectual world what the electrick fluid is to nature, diffused every where, yet almost every where hidden, capable by its own mysterious laws of action and by the very breath of applause, that like the unseen wind excites it, of producing effects that appear to transcend all power, except that of some supernatural agent riding in the whirlwind. In an hour of calm we suddenly hear its voice, and are moved with the general

agitation. It smites, astonishes, and confounds, and seems to kindle half the firmament.'

He then assigns as a reason, why the Americans do not seek reputation in the paths of literature, because they can much sooner gain it on the road to wealth. He speaks in the following terms of the love of fame:

"The passion that acts the strongest, when it acts at all, is fear; for, in its excess, it silences all reasoning, and all other passions. But that which acts with the greatest force, because it acts with the greatest constancy, is the desire of consideration. There are very few men who are greatly deceived with respect to their own measure of sense or abilities, or who are much dissatisfied on that account; but we scarcely see any who are quite at ease about the estimate that other people make of them. Hence it is, that the great business of mankind is to fortify or create claims to general regard. Wealth procures respect, and more wealth, would procure more respect. The man, who, like Midas, turns all he touches into gold, who is oppressed and almost buried in its superfluity, who lives to get, instead of getting to live, and at length belongs to his own estate and is its greatest incumbrance, still toils and contrives to accumulate wealth, not because he is deceived in regard to his wants, but because he knows and feels, that one of his wants, which is insatiable, is that respect which follows its possession. After engrossing all that the seas and mountains conceal, he would be still unsatisfied, and with some good reason, for of the treasures of esteem who can ever have enough? Who would mar or renounce one half his reputation in the world?"

It is not to be denied however, that this love of wealth will absorb, as Mons. Talleyrand observes, all the generous feelings, and will not only check the growth of the plant, but destroy the seed in the earth. Mr. Ames continues:

"Our citizens have not been accustomed to look on rank or titles, or on birth or office as capable of the least rivalship with wealth, mere wealth, in pretensions to respect. Of course the single passion that engrosses us, the only avenue to consideration and importance in our society, is the accumulation of property: our inclinations cling to gold, and are bedded in it as deeply as that precious ore in the mine. Covered as our genius is in this mineral crust, is it strange that it does not sparkle? Pressed down to earth, and with the weight of mountains on our heads, is it surprizing, that no sons of ether yet have spread their broad wings to the sky, like Jove's own eagle, to gaze undazzled at the sun, or to perch on the top of Olympus, and partake the banquet

of the gods !

'At present the nature of our government inclines all men to seek popularity, as the object next in point of value to wealth; but the ac

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