vour,' in the periodical works of the day. The style of our author is very ambitious of figure, and ornament of every description; and his diction both poetical and prosaick is uncommonly lofty. The followlowing extracts from Morning, an Ode,' will afford some specimen. Aurora, hail! Illume each rural bower,

Each dale, each silent grove and vocal glade;
Behold the starry spheres retire,

The ruddy morn its charms display;

And distant, in the spotless skies,

Behold yon orient orb arise,

Phoebus, the glorious PRESIDENT of day!

Those, who are pleased with this, will be also pleased to hear how transient are the charms of this President;

Alas, how transient are thy charms,

A moment only in our arms,

Then left in tears, thy flight to grieve:
While scarce a SUN illumes our noon,
And scarce a solitary MOON
Appears to gild the gloom of eve!

Here is introduced a most rapturous effusion.

Emerg'd from scenes of INFANT strife,
The fire of YOUTH begins to rage,
Impetuous, passionate, and vain ;

We storm the barriers which impede our course,
And moving onward with resistless force,

O'er MANHOOD's variegated plain,

Reach the meridian altitude of AGE.

Once past the torrid NOON OF LIFE,

We soar swift as the eagle's flight

Down time's declivity, with gasping breath,
Drink the Lethiferous DEW of DEATH;

Then sink in the chaotick gloom of endless night.

Here the metaphors relating to life are variously multiplied in the same sentence. The fire of youth, scenes of infant strife, manhood's variegated plain, the torrid noon of life, and Lethiferous dew of death, are nothing, to soaring! swift as the eagle's flight, down! time's declivity; and then sinking in the chaotick gloom of endless night.

We have various pieces which evince the politicks of our author at that period; we find in An Address to Thomas Paine, citizen of the World,' the following lines which we cannot help quoting as very applicable to the subject.

'Favour'd of Heaven! Belov'd by all mankind,'

and,

'The muses greet thee, and the world approves.'

In addition to this we discover in 'The American's prayer for FRANCE,' these remarkable lines :

Grant, mighty ruler of the world,
That France may yet enjoy repose;
And not be to destruction hurl'd,

But triumph o'er her numerous foes.
Lord, in her cabinet preside!

In thee her warriors firmly trust,
In thee her chosen sons confide,

Her heroes brave, her rulers just?

The praise bestowed on France, is so uncommonly just, that we cannot be surprised to find 'an Ode to Equality!' opening with these lines, All hail, divine EQUALITY,

Benignant daughter of the sky;

Sister and friend of Godlike liberty.

Yes, Godlike liberty, whom he has just before spoken of as

Enchanting nymph, sweet liberty?

His prose is not less ambitious than his rhyme. He remarks that the umbrage' of the trees along the banks of the river Ohio has 'delectable effect, and is extremely refreshing to passengers in a hot season; but that in some places the trees have fallen into the stream, which he says very sagely,' ought to be prohibited by law.' He then bursts forth in the following sublime description.

}

• All is serene and cloudless. Suddenly some fleeting clouds cast a gloomy shade over the obscure mantle of the sky. The rumbling thunder is heard at a distance. The livid lightning gleams through the circumambient air. The wind rises. The shower descends. The gale is in our favour, and the oars-men exert all their strength, and we descend with velocity. We turn a point of land, and it immediately recedes from our view, enveloped in an impenetrable veil of mist and vapour. Our canvass canopy but feebly resists the fury of the torrent, which threatens our frail vessel with destructive inundation.

At length the storm subsides. Sheets of mist arise on every side from the borders of the river. The clouds dissipate. Again we behold the cheering rays of Phoebus. Again the skies are serene and the air cool and fragrant. Again the feathered warblers chant their melodious notes on every spray.?

The eloquence of this passage will serve as an example of the merits of his lofty style. But in a subsequent part of the volume, he indulges in the reflection of what will be said of him in succeeding ages; and

very comfortably pronounces his own character, as he thinks it will be estimated by Prince Posterity.'

After remarking that Horace was vain of his literary efforts,' that Cicero was as much distinguished for vanity as eloquence; and that Addison had given a sketch of the fine things he imagined would be said of him, in after ages, our author thus proceeds, surely I need not blush to imitate such illustrious examples. I imagine then, that posterity will give me the following character :' p. 238.

'Young Elliot possessed several of the eccentricities, and a few of the useful qualities of genius. But his genius was far from being of the most exalted kind. Nature perhaps intended him for a poet; he had not in his composition, scarce a particle of what constitutes a philosopher. Nature had given him strong appetites for sensual pleasures; but he early learned to restrain his inclinations, within the bounds ́ marked out by reason and morality.'

This, it is to be observed, is all to be discovered in his writings; but he goes on to admit, that,

'He had violent passions and prejudices. In manners he was far from being polished. In conversation he was sometimes irritable and dogmatick. In friendship he was warm and sincere,' &c.

'In his youth' among other things,' he was infected with the itchof writing. He collected and published his lucubrations, and never afterwards resumed his pen.'

In this instance posterity must be a liar, since we understand the lucubrations of Mr. Elliot now dignify the columns of a southern paper called the Freeman's Journal. Our author then proceeds:

'Some passages in his writings are yet read with pleasure,' (veracity again) and the rest have sunk into oblivion, and they did not deserve a better fate.' (No falsehood here, however.) He frequently declared, he would rather go to prison for speaking his sentiments, than to Congress for dissembling them.' Mr. Elliot is now in Congress; the insinuation here was prophetick

We shall terminate our remarks with the conclusion of his character, as thus drawn by himself:

'Had he been the arbiter of his own fortune, he would have preferred a decent competency in the silent solitude of rural life, to all the splendour of nobility, and all the pomp of office. He early bid adieu to what the world calls pleasure. The few hours he was not obliged to devote to business, were spent in the study of the classick authors, and the politicks of the times. He lived and died a christian and a republican.'

ADVERSARIA.

Quid est, quod negligenter scribamus adversaria ?...Cic.

Hume and Finley

ARE names oddly coupled; yet the closing circumstances of their lives strongly invited the contrast. If the Ordeal has exposed the lame logick of the Christian's Magazine, the candid reader of the whole account will, however, see the point of the writer. A portion of honour was impliedly conceded to the skeptick for his calmness, or his death would not have been opposed to that of the christian: yet that this little honour should finally be wrested from him by Dr. Mason was hardly fair. To me, a plain-spoken christian, incapable of drawing such fine pictures as Dr. Mason, and fearing to treat the subject of religion with flippancy, the path of propriety seems to lie between the conduct of the two celebrated men. No christian would wish for the skepticism of Hume; none dares thus trifle with futurity: and every rational christian cannot help being somewhat disgusted with the vanity and extravagance of Dr. Finley. In the death of this man, we hear almost the ravings of fanaticism; in that of the deist, the sullen, cheerless monotony of the stoick. Dr. Mason says 'no infidel dies a triumphant death.' Infidelity loses nothing by this fact. Extatick feelings and expressions suit not with the sober sadness of a dying hour: there is nothing in them of natural reason, or religion. The death of Jesus Christ, showed as much of honour as of consolation. Hume affected to contemn death; Finley to triumph over it: the humble christian does neither. The exit of the first, betrays the pride of a philosopher; of the last, the pride of a saint: an enemy of all pride whatever, I would wish living and dying to cherish the temper of unostentatious penitence. Nevertheless I would rather emulate the assurance of Samuel Finley, than be frozen with the rigours of David Hume. Most of all would I desire to die like my master, who had no will but God's, and who, expiring, said, 'Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.'

Examples of Elegant Metaphor, from a late Speech.

"WHAT then is to be done? States, towns and individuals have their favourite projects. The Union have theirs. Thus jarring (how jarring?) are we with augmented resentments to rush together in ruinous collisions? Are we with mutual hatred to rend asunder the bands which have united us? To throw from our vitals the very shield which protects them ?"

This throwing from our vitals one would think were the consequence of a dose of medicine; but no, it is about a shield. The throwing a shield, and the protecting of our vitals with a shield, are figures of rhetorick suitable to the rest of a gubernatorial speech, and it must be confessed are as novel as the unfledged principles which it contains.

Could our citizens dictate a measure to Congress, and force its adoption, then we should have prostrated the government, and have trampled under our feet, (what, the government we had prostrated? no,) the last reserve of national power. Could the opposition prevail, a part coerce the whole, our rights and our strength would be scattered to the winds. As a nation we should perish,' (then the next assertion is pretty clear) as freemen be lost. Our palladium, our ark, our national bulwarks would be shattered, and (this term was necessary to prepare the mind for their being afterwards) broken to atoms. Then might we single-handed meet the crisis; and buffetting the destruction threatened from the deep, conflict with the clouds above, which in angry collisions are ready to break on our heads.' Wonderful people we should be, not only to buffet, that is, fight with destruction, which one would suppose would naturally destroy us, but more; conflict with the clouds, which we are told for a wonder are above us,' clouds too s angry that they are not only already in collision, but mark! are now ready to break on our heads.' This figure, however, seems to include something so remarkable, that the author of the speech thinks best to say immediately, but this can never be,' and we most assuredly agree with him. No, it can never be ; ' Americans will rally round the national constitution, cling to their government, and should it be driven to the edge of a precipice, keep their hold in the extremity (of what? why,) its exit, and sink with it into an awful abyss.' Yes, tumble down with the extremity, into the dark profound;' which term we imagine is very descriptive of the speech itself.

Now for Grammar.

Is the preventative* against all these, and worse calamities now to be abandoned; and these and worse ones to be invoked to afflict us ?" No tautology here.

Poplar Trees.

WHEREAS the publick roads of this commonwealth are destitute of POPLAR trees; and whereas the planting them along their borders would, according to my speech, not only give ornament to the country,' but answer in lieu of taverns, and give comfort and refreshment

* Preventative; let the author seek for the word in Johnson or Walker.