jealous miftrefs, who will not be fatisfied America, as an established and independent fociety, is yet young; and if we confider the various and important objects which, fince the union of the States, have demanded the vigilance and attention of the Government, and taxed the unwearied activity of the people, we fhall not be furprifed that authors there are few, and original publications not generally of very high excellence and eftimation. During the last few years of General Washington's Prefidency, that great man turned his thoughts towards the improvement of his countrymen in arts and fcience; we remember to have read an Address delivered by him at Philadelphia fo long ago as in the year 1794, wherein, after ftating to the Senate the flourishing ftate of the finances, he recommends a part of the unappropriated furplus of the public revenue to be employed in the establishment of schools and colleges. Many fchools and colleges are erected, but of fome it is faid that they are very infufficiently endowed, and of others, that the teachers are incompetent to the talk of tuition; ftill, however, The Congratulatory Addrefs above alluded to, was delivered to the Senate and House of Reprefentatives, December 6, 1794, on the fuppreffion of a ferious fedition, and we well remember a humane and exculpatory remark which was made on the occafion: the Prefident attributed the rebellion not fo much to difaffection on the part of the infurgents against the Conftitution but to their ignorance of its principles, he therefore recommends, in order to prevent the recurrence of infurrection, that the Senate fhould “provide by Law, as foon as conveniently may be, for the establishment of fchools throughout the State, in fuch a manner that the poor may be taught gratis." The Prefident of America had no reafon to dread the diffufion of knowledge among the lower claffes of fociety: the meafures of his adminiftration would ftand the fevereft fcrutiny, and he rather courted than brunk from the honorable ordeal. thefe fchools and colleges have had their effect, and there can be no doubt, but that, however defective in many particulats, they are daily contributing to diffuse a spirit of literary and scientific pursuit. We have hitherto devoted the pages of our Appendix to a Retrospect of Euro. pean Literature, but it will not be unacceptable, we prefume, if we communicate to our readers whatever information we may from half-year to half-year be enabled to collect relative to the progrefs of Letters in America. HISTORY. A work, which on the score of much excellence has a claim to notice, is "A Complete Hiftory of Connecticut, Civil and Ecclefiaftical, from the Emigration of its firft Planters from England, in 1630, to 1713, by BENJAMIN TRUMBULL, D. D." As a complete hiftory of America is only to be collected from the local history of its feveral States, contributions like the prefent towards fuch a general history are particularly valuable. The author has divided his work into chapters, the two firft of which contain details of the discoveries, fettlements, fituation, &c. of Connecticut. He then gives a curfory but interesting account of the Aborigines of the country, together with its animal and vegetable productions. Many fubfequent chapters are employed in enumerating the purchases of the first fettlers, their feveral wars with the Indians, their progrefs in the organization of a regular government, and their various improvements from 1630 to 1665, the period of union between Connecticut and New Haven. From this time is given the civil and political history of the State to the year 1713, with which the volume clofes; the ecclefiaftical history of Connecticut and New Haven, both antecedent and fubfequent to the union, very properly occupying diftinct chapters of the work. Dr. Trumbull in the preface to the publication informs his countrymen that he is now engaged in compiling a Hiftory of the United States" on a very extenfive plan, and we may allow them to anticipate from the prefent fpecimen, much impartiality, much minuteness of inveftigation, and much fidelity in the exhibition of facts. Mifs HANNAH ADAMS has published "A Summary Hiftory of New England, from the First Settlement at Plymouth, to the Acceptance of the Federal Conftitution." This work is profeffedly a mere fummary, a compilation from other au, thors and from fugitive political publica sions, the contents of which might many of them be loft but for so respectable a repofitory as the prefent. The author of the prefent work, in not arrogating to herself the honors of an original historian, has exonerated herself from a large fhare of refponfibility, and at the fame time has earned confiderable merit by the judicious ufe which she has made of the labor of others, in expanding or abridging their accounts as occafion demanded, and in mingling with them the fagacious and liberal reflections which her own strong understanding fuggested. "The Hiftory of Pennfylvania in North America, from the Original Inftitution and Settlement of that Province, &c. in 1681, till after the year 1742; with an Introduction refpecting the Life of William Penn, and the Society of Quakers, with the Rife of the Neighboring Colonies, &c. &c. &c. by Robert Proud." Mr. Proud is one of thofe valuable hiftoriaus, from whom future writers will draw their materials, and who will always be confulted for the accuracy of his narratives and the fidelity of his facts. His work has no claim to merit for elegant language, lucid arangement, or philofophical reflection: thefe, on the contrary, are defiderata much to be regretted; its excellence confifts in the minutenefs and abundance of its facts, which are laboriously drawn from original records and memorials, fcattered through many a public office and many a private library. Whether from a diffidence in his abilities, or a real preference to the mode of compilation here purfued we know not, but Mr. Proud, instead of relating facts in his own words and referring to the documents whence he drew them, has generally contented himself with giving as he found them, fcraps of Charters, Laws, and Treaties in their original tirefome and circuitous phrafeology. Mr. Proud is himfelf one of the people called Quakers; and that he should bow with deep veneration to the founder of Pennfylvania, or difplay an occafional bias to the religion which he adopts, and which has prevailed in fo profperous a state, ought to excite neither our animadverfion nor furprise. Dr. BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON has published a work which if it cannot with propriety be admitted into the clafs of hiftory, we know not where to arrange: in a finall octavo volume he has given us fome "New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Natives of America." Various have been and ftill are the opinions entertained by philofophers as to the ori : gin of the inhabitants of America; fome have fuppofed that the East and Weft Continents once joined, and numerous have been the conjectures as to the point of junction: others have, with more probability, fuppofed that accident or the reftlefs fpirit of enterprise in some Tartar families might tempt them to migrate to the nearest island, and proceed from one to another till they reached the coast of America. Dr. Barton, a very eminent naturalift, has it feems for feveral years devoted his attention to the prefent fubject his opinion is, that fimilitude of language forms the best ground for deciding on the affinity of nations. Dr. Robertfon (who in his history of America has incorporated a fhort difquifition on the probable origin of its population) justly we think obferves, that the refemblance of manners, or of religious rites, between two tribes is very infufficient to authorize a conclufion that they were originally connected or derived from the fame ftock." The character and occupations of the hunter in America," fays he, "must be little different from those of an Afiatic, who depends for fubfiftence on the chace. A tribe of favages on the banks of the Danube muft nearly resemble one upon the plains washed by the Miffiffippi. Inftead then of prefuming on this fimilarity, that there is any affinity between them, we should only conclude, that the difpofition and manners of men are formed by their situation, and arise from the state of society in which they live." Dr. Barton, though he seems to pay rather more attention than Dr. R. to thefe circumftances, yet as was before obferved, confiders fimilitude of language as the best criterion of affinity: he has therefore with great labor and perfeverance collected words from the Indian and Tartarian languages, and formed a catalogue of the dialects. The refult of his arduous refearch is an opinion, that all the natives of America except the Efquimaux are nearly akin to the natives of Siberia: this point he is folicitous to prove, and he thinks it is established by the fimilitude of their vocabularies. Dr. B. we understand is preparing for the prefs fome further illuftrations of the ancient ftate of America, which, from the prefent fpecimen of his acutenefs and ability, will be expected with impatience. The last article which we have to mention under the head of hiftory, is a very interesting " Defcription of the Settlement of the Genefee Country in the State of New York, in a series of Letters from a 40 G Gentleman to his Friend." The author of this description is Mr. CHARLES WILLIAMSON, a gentleman of high respectability, whole refidence in the country which he defcribes has given him an opportunity of being acquainted with every circum ftance relative to its fettlement and fituation. An attempt was made in 1789 by Mr. Phelps, to obtain a fettlement in the 'Genefee country; but little was effected till the year 1798, when an English gentleman having become the purchaser of the tract, vifited it in perfon, and projected a plan of fettlement which has been profecuted with vigor and fuccefs from that time to the prefent. The town of Bath, we are informed, comprehending a district of eight miles, contained in the year 1796 800 inhabitants, two fchools, one griftmill, and two faw-mills. A printing-office was established in the town, and a news-paper, entitled the " Baib Gazette," published weekly, which in fix months was taken by a thousand fubfcribers; another paper is alto published in the Genefee, entitled the "Ontario Gazette." The fame year a floop of forty tons was launched on the Genefee lake. The climate of the Genefee country is reprefented as remarkably genial and the foil peculiarly prolific: "thofe parching heats that on the fouth fide of the Alleghany mountains feem to dry up every particle of nourish ment from the plants, are never known," fays Mr. Williamfon, "in this country: in almost every inftance, a hot day is fucceeded by a plentiful thower, which preferves throughout the fummer a conftant verdure, and affords to us the finest paftures and meadows on the continent." The face of the country, is not, it seems, as has been erroneously reprefented, flat and level, full of fwamps and stagnant water, but on the contrary it abounds with gentle fwellings of the land, running moft frequently from north to fouth, the intermediate fpaces affording meadow-land, and generally a small stream of water. From the ignorance of the first fertlers, it was fuppofed that this fort of land was barren, and confequently but of little value: neceffity, however, drove fome of them to the cultivation of it, and a good crop difappointed their fears, and in "numberless inftances they have continued to reap plentiful crops every year for feveral years paft." This kind of land, fays the author, which fix years ago would not have fold for a quarter of a dollar an acre, is now reckoned cheap at ten dollars per acre. The very rapid progrels towards plenty and improvement, which is obfervable in the Genefee country, must be highly grateful to the feelings of every man who has a spark of philanthropy in his bofom : and we are indebted to Mr. Williamson for di"verting our thoughts from the complicated horrors and barbarities of war, to pleasing a subject of contemplation. BIOGRAPHY. Dr. JEREMY BELKNAP was a divine of confiderable eminence and refpectability on the other fide of the Atlantic; he wrote a hiftory of New Hampshire, and afterwards, indulging his tafte for ancient refearch, published a volume of " American Biography, or a Hiftorical Account of thole Perfons who have been diftinguished in America, as Adventurers, Divines, Warriors, Authors, and other remarkable Characters, comprehending a recital of the Events connected with their Lives and Actions." A fecond volume has lately made its appearance; the author had juft prepared it for the prefs when his labors were terminated by death. The firft volume of this work opens with a preliminary differtation on the "circumnavigation of Africa by the ancients, and its probable confequence, the population of fome part of America." This differtation is followed by a chronological detail of adventures and difcoveries made by the European natives in America, before the establishment of the Council of Plymouth in 1620. The body of the work contains the biographical fketch of thirty-one different perfonages, fome of whom do not feem entitled to have been placed on the lift from any peculiar publicity or eminence in their characters; ftill, however, the narrative of their lives has given birth to the relation of fome hiftorical events which makes the article at once amufing and inftructive. "Memoirs of Major General HEATH, containing Anecdotes, Details of Skir mishes, and other Military Events, during the American War, written by himfelf." Major General Heath understands the ufe of a fword better than he does the ufe of a pen: he may be a very good of ficer, but his pretenfions are very humble as an author. Notwithstanding the aumerous opportunities which a perfon who fuftained to high a rank during almost the whole of the American war enjoyed of relating many curious and interesting anecdotes to which he must have been an eyewitnefs, Major Gen. Heath has given us a mere diary of events from month to month, from day to day, without judgment and without difcrimination. The work more. over betrays many marks of egotism. Mr. ABIEL HOLMES, A. M. has pub. lifhed The Life of Ezra Stiles, D. D. L L. D. Prefident of Yale College, &c. &c." Prefident Stiles, a man fo diftinguished for his moral and intellectual acquirements, has here found a biographer in every refpect qualified for the task of recording his character. Mr. Holmes was clofely connected with the fubject of his biography, and had the additional advantage of poffefling the whole of his manufcripts: many materials are thus furnished for a more faithful delineation of his cha-racter than could have been collected by any other means; and the work is altogether valuable as exhibiting an interefting picture of piety and benevolence, of induftry, learning, and docility. DIVINITY. Mr. NATHAN STRONG, paftor of the North Prefbyterian church in Hartford, has published a volume of "Sermons on various Subjects, Doctrinal, Experimental, and Practical." They are not remarkable for originality of thought or purity of diction: they contain foine ftrong reafoning however in defence of the author's peculiar religious tenets, and breathe a fpirit of piety and goodness. The "Sermons of Dr. SAMUEL STANHOPE SMITH, Prefident of the College of New Jersey," are profeffedly decorated with all the flowers of oratory which the reverend writer could collect: the colors of fome are beautiful and delicate, of others flaring and obtrufive; the effect of the whole is a fort of gaudinefs which it is prefumed will not generally pleafe. The author has taken for his model in thefe compofitions the French preachers who flourished at the clofe of the laft and beginning of the prefent century; it would be flattery however, to fay, that he equals them in the pathos and fervor of his ftyle: there is fomething meretricious in the ornaments of the American preacher which injures their effect, and his animation feems as often to be the effect of study as to flow fpontaneously from the heart. It ought to be noticed, however, that these difcourfes are intended as a fort of experiment: those moral and religious truths which are of most importance to mankind, have by repetition become fo familiar to our ears, that it was thought neceffary, in order to fecure attention, to give them the grace of novelty, "and to add the decent and lawful embellishment of art to the fimplicity of the Gospel.' The fubjects which Dr. Smith has chofen are generally of high import, and though he does not often attempt profound reafoning, his matter is far from being deftitute of instruction and good fenfe. Dr. DWIGHT has exhibited "The Nature and Danger of Infidel Philosophy, in Two Difcourfes, addreffed to the Candidates for the Baccalaureate in Yale College." In thefe difcourfes the Dr. af pears to be moft fincerely interested in the temporal and eternal welfare of those to whom he addresses them, and of course they must have been received with gratitude and attention. Mr. J. M. MASON has addreffed fome "Letters on Frequent Communion" to the Members of the Affociate - Reformed Church of North America. It feems to have been the custom in most of thofe churches, with which the respectable author of this work has been connected, not to administer the Lord's Supper more than once, or at most twice in the year; and the administration is ufually preceded by a fast, and followed by a thankfgiving day. The object of Mr. Mason, in these fenfible letters, is to recommend a frequency of the Communion, and that the holy ceremony fhould not be encumbered with the appendages of a thanksgiving and a faft-day. "The Importance of Family Religion," has been illuftrated in a plain and fenfible "Sermon, by ALEX. PROUDFIT, A.M. Paftor of the Affociate Reformed Congregation in Salem, State of New York." A few other fingle Sermons have been published; one by Dr. THATCHER, delivered at the First Church of Boston, April 6th, 1798, at the interment of the Reverend Dr. Clarke, who was feized on the preceding Sunday with an apoplectic fit, as he was preaching to his Congregation. Two have alfo appeared, one by Mr. THORNTON KIRKLAND, and one by Dr. LINN, on the National Faft (May 9th, 1798,) appointed by the Prefident of the United States. Dr. LIVINGSTON and Dr. M'KNIGHT, each published the "Sermon" which he delivered to the New York Miffionary Society. To these are added a Charge given to the first Miffionary, Dr. Rodgers; the Inftructions to Miffionaries, and the Report of the Directors. This is altogether a most interefting publication: we know that the fociety who are now engaged in attempting to propagate the gospel among Indian favages, have neither for their object the fpirit of conqueft nor of gain; they are actuated by the most humane and difinterested motives, and the inftruction/which they give to the Miffionaries evinces much fagacity, caution, and philanthropy. 40 2 MISCEL MISCELLANIES. A fourth volume has been published of the "Tranfactions of the American Philofphical Society held at Philadelphia, for promoting useful Knowledge." We are truly happy to view the labors of this fociety, and to remark that, far from fainting, they every day grow ftronger and more arJent in the pursuit of knowledge. In the prefent volume are 76 effays on various fubjects, but chiefly on thofe of a phyfical and mathematical nature. Dr. BUSHNEL is the author of one (which it is to be feared will excite to much attention) "On the General Principles and Conftruction of a Submarine Veffel." The fole object of this invention is a warlike one! Several experiments have been tried with this fecret engine of deftruction, which give reafon to apprehend that it may be carried to a pitch of fatal improvement. "Ellays and Notes on Husbandry and Rural Affairs, by J. B. BORDLEY." The vaft extent of fertile foil which America contains, and the difficulty fo commonly lamented of procuring hands for cultivation, loudly call for attention to agricultural concerns: it is but within a few years that agriculture has been fudied in our own country, where the varieties of foil and climate prefent no difficulties comparable with thofe which muft arife from the infinite diversity of them on the continent of America, where the rude ftate of agriculture has been conftantly remarked by European travellers. Mr. Bordley has called the attention of his countrymen to this very important fubject; and though his volume prefents but little novelty to us who have advanced fo many fteps before our tranfatlantic brethren; yet muft it be confidered by them, as it really and intrinfically is, a very valuable work. The prefent publication confifts of essays, written at different times, and of various experiments which the author has made: there is of courfe but little arrangement, yet the whole bears evident marks of intelligence and good fense, The 4th of July is the anniversary of American Independence; that moft glorious event is commemorated throughout the United States with a degree of triumph, folemnity, and thanksgiving, highly appropriate to the occafion. It feeins, that in the various towns and villages an orator is folicited by the inhabitants to celebrate the atchievements and revive the unconquerable fpirit of their ancestors; thefe orations are afterwards many of them publifhed; and though they cannot be fupposed to embrace much collateral matter, or to differ very materially from each other, still the publication of them, as a teft of their reception by various and very numerous audiences, is grateful to the friends of freedom. It is to be remarked, that almost all the published orations endeavour to excite a strong jealousy against the ruling powers of France: they dwell particularly on the prefent condition of America in relation to that country, and with very few exceptions, breathe hatred of its politics, and contempt of its philofophy. It will be fufficient to enumerate a few of these. Dr. SAMUEL L. MITCHILL'S "Addrefs to the City of New York on the twenty-third anniversary of American Independence," is an admonitory discourse of much merit. The author enlarges to his audience on the characteristic traits of republican governments the virtues and the vices by which they are commonly diftinguished, and confequently recommends the encouragement of the former and the repreffion of the latter. Mr. LEWIS, a tutor of Yale College, has published an Oration on the fame patriotic festival; as have Mr. BROWN of Hartford, Mr. QUINCY of Bofton, Mr. DAGGET, of New Haven, Mr. LOVELL, jun. of Bofton, &c. &c. &c. To the facred memory of George Washington, the founder and the father of his country, many a tribute of eloquence has been paid: the emulation is honorable, who fhall beft defcribe the character and record the virtues of that great man, "over whofe tomb," it has been elegantly obferved, the spell of party is diffolved; the conflicts of oppofing politicians are fufpended, and the American people with one heart, and with all the ardor of filial affection and gratitude crowd around to do honor to his afhes." Governor MORRIS has published, at the request of the Corporation of the City of New York, the "Oration," which, also by their requeft, he delivered on the death of General Washington. The author, from his knowledge of numerous fcenes in which Washington was engaged, was well qualified to sketch the hero in various attitudes, and this may unquestionably be confidered as the moft animated and pelifhed compofition of any which have appeared. If it has any fault, it is the too obvious appearance of being labored: there is too much poetry for the folemn |