full share of national spirit and capacity, cultivation. and character; and that therefore, we have the most ample and solid ground for cherishing sentiments of national pride. For the accomplishment of this, all party distinctions should be abolished, a confederacy should be formed, embodying the collective talent of the nation, and every local consideration merged in a noble resolve to become a band of Americans, and do signal justice to their country and themselves.

LITERARY RETIREMENT.

At my peaceful retreat at Laurentum, I neither hear nor speak any thing of which I have occasion to repent. There I live undisturbed by rumor, and free from the anxious solicitudes of hope or fear, conversing only with myself and my books. True and genuine life! pleasing and honorable repose! More, perhaps, to be desired than employments of any kind! Thou solemn sea and solitary shore, best and most retired scene for contemplation, with how many noble thoughts have ye inspired me! Snatch then my friend as I have, the first occasion of leaving the noisy town, with all its frivolous pursuits, and devote your days to study.

Nor has the enthusiastic Petrarch been less mindful of the influence of literature: but has described in a familiar allegory, those real benefactors of mankind, whose writings exalt the mind and purify the heart.

I have friends whose society is delightful to me; they are persons of all countries, and of all ages; distinguished in war, in council, and in letters. Some present in review before me the events of past ages; others recal to me the secrets of nature; these teach me how to live, and those how to die these dispel my melancholy by their mirth, and amuse me by their sallies of wit; and some there are who prepare my soul to suf fer every thing, to desire nothing, and to become thoroughly acquainted with itself. As a reward for such great services, they require only a corner of my

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little house, where they may be safely sheltered from their enemies. In fine, I carry them with me into the fields, the silence of which suits them better than the business and bustle of cities.

DECLENSION OF LITERARY TASTE.

I am not

There is a great fault in the world, as it respects the subject of taste in composition; a giddy instability, a light and fluttering vanity, a restless desire after novelty, an impatience, a disgust, a fastidious contempt of every thing that is old. I shall not be understood as censuring the progress of sound science. so infatuated an antiquarian, nor so poor a philanthropist, as to seek to retard the expansion of the human mind but lament the eternal oblivion into which our old authors, those giants of literature, are permitted to sink, while the world stands open-eyed and openmouthed, to catch every modern tinselled abortion, as it falls from the press.

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This insatiable thirst for novelty has had a very striking effect on the style of modern productions. The plain language of easy conversation will no longer do. The writer who contends for fame or even truth, is obliged to consult the reigning taste of the day. Hence, too often, in opposition to his own judgment, he is led to incumber his ideas with his gorgeous load of ornaments; and when he would present to the public a body of pure, substantial and useful thought, he finds himself constrained to incrust and bury its utility within a dazzling case, to convert a feast of reason to a concert of sounds; a rich intellectual boon into a mere bouquet of variegated pinks and blushing roses. In his turn he contributes to establish and spread wide the perversion of the public taste and thus on a principle resembling that of action and reaction, the author and the public reciprocate the injury, just as in the licentious reign of Charles II. the dramatist and the audience were to poison each others morals.

ADDISON'S SPECTATOR.

Is it not strange that such a work should have ever declined in the public estimation ? A style so sweet and simple; and yet so ornamented! A temper so benevolent, so cheerful, so exhilarating! A body of knowledge and of original thought, so immense and various! So strikingly just, so universally useful! What person, of any sex, temper, calling, or pursuit, can possibly converse with the Spectator, without being conscious of immediate improvement? To the spleen, he is a perpetual and never failing antidote, as he is to ignorance and immorality. No matter for the disposition of mind in which you take him up ; you smile at the wit, laugh at the drollery, feel your mind enlightened, your heart opened, softened and refined, and when you lay him down, you are sure to be in better humor, both with yourself and every body else. I have never mentioned the subject to a reader of the Spectator, who did not admit this to be the invariable process and in such a world of misfortunes, of cares and sorrows and guilt, as this is, what a prize would this collection be, if it were rightly estimated! Were I the sovereign of a nation which spoke the English language, and wished my subjects cheerful, virtuous and enlightened, I would furnish every poor family in my dominions, (and see that the rich furnish themselves,) with a copy of the Spectator; and ordain that the parents or children should read four or five numbers, aloud, every night in the year. For one of the peculiar perfections of the work is, that while it contains such a mass of ancient and modern learning, so much of profound wisdom and of beautiful composition, yet there is scarcely a number throughout the eight volumes which is not level to the meanest capacity. Another perfection is, that the Spectator will never become tiresome to any one, whose taste and whose heart remain uncorrupted.

I do not mean that this author should be read to the exclusion of others; much less that he should stand in the way of the generous pursuit of science, or ins terrupt the discharge of social or private duties.

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the counsels of the work itself have a directly reverse tendency. It furnishes a store of the clearest argument and of the most amiable and captivating exhortations, "to raise the genius and to mend the heart." I regret, only, that such a book should be thrown by, and almost forgotten, while the gilded blasphemies of infidels and "noon-tide" traces of pernicious theorists are hailed with rapture and echoed round the world. For such, I should be pleased to see the Spectator universally substituted; and, throwing out of the question its morality, its literary information, its sweetly Contagious serenity, and the pure and chaste beauties of its style; and considering it merely as a curiosity, as concentering the brilliant sports of the finest cluster of geniuses that ever graced the earth, it surely deserves perpetual attention, respect and consecration.

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THOMSON'S SEASONS.

Perhaps no poems have been read more generally, or with more pleasure, than the Seasons of Thomson. This was a natural conséquence of the objects which they present, and of the genius which they display. In descriptive poetry, or as a poetical painter, I do not know an equal to Thomson. The pictures of other poets, comparatively with his, often want precision, color and expression because they are more copies from books than originals; rather secondary descriptions, than transcripts made immediately from the living volume of nature. With her Thomson was intimately acquainted; and as his judgment, his sentiment, his taste, are equal to his diligent observation, the whole group of objects in his descriptions is always peculiarly striking, or affecting from their natural and happy relation to one another.Hence peculiarly in this poet, a little natural object apparently insignificant of itself, takes consequence from its association to others, and very much brightens and enforces the awful or beautiful assemblage. Thomson's poetry is still more nobly recommended

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to his readers, by a most amiable morality and religion; by a rational and sublime adoration of God;and by a tender, ardent, and universal love of man.His powers in exhibiting natural objects, often strongly inculcate his morality and religion; the painter and the sage are very fortunate auxiliaries to each othThe structure of his verse is, characteristically, his own true genius disdains all mechanical and servile imitation; that verse is always perspicuous, energetic-fully and clearly expressive of his ideas; -not so easy, always, and flowing in its close as we could wish. The favorite objects of his mind did not captivate his imagination alone; they actuated and marked his manners and his life. nevolent as well as a great man first class; he was an honor to to mankind.

He was a most behe was a poet of the Scotland, to Europe,

FEMALE EDUCATION.

A state of cultivated society is most propitious to the intellectual improvement and happiness of the female sex ; but with all the advantages of such a state, it has not generally occurred, that mankind have duly appreciated the advantages of female education, or been sufficiently sedulous in forming plans for their literary advancement.

The degrading opinion, however that the female mind is unworthy or incapable of literary ornament, or that its acquisition is incompatible with the relative duties of women, has been nearly exploded. It is considered an ungenerous sentiment, that would ascribe to them an inferiority in natural genius, or an incapacity for the reception of learning; and instead of the illiberal recommendation of household cares, as alone deserving their attention, it has been discovered that it is easy for them to reconcile the acquirement and enjoyment of the benefits of a good education, with the faithful discharge of every female duty.

It is a gratifying circumstance, that since the zeal for encouraging literature has ceased its objects in