pp. 66, 67. inducing christian forbe arance, conde- with a sense of their respective obliga. scension, and charity, in the treatment tions, which will pervade every domes, of those, with whom we are destined tick transaction, alleviate every burden, to live and converse. Without it, and incrcase every joy. though we prescribe rules to ourselves, and say to the selfish and angry passions, ART. 70. “ hitherto shall ye come, but no fur A wreath for the Rev. Daniel Dow, ther," we may, notwithstanding, be transported beyond the bounds of mod. pastor of a church in Thompson, eration, and involved in the crimes and Connecticut ; on the publication miseries of unreasonable animosity : of his familiar letters in answer With it, religion is made the umpire of to the Rev. John Sherman's trea. our conduct, and the question comes tise of one God in one person only, home to our bosoms; how can we be unjust or censorious to those whom we &c. By A.O.F. Utica, Merrell are accustomed to commend to the guar. & Seward. 1806. 8vo. dian care and grace of God ? The many BY reverting to the nineteenth petitions, in which we have plead for mercy in their behalf, will react upon and twentieth articles of our Reour own hearts, and calling into exercise view for the current year, the the. our benevolent sensibilities, furnish the ological reader will readily disstrongest incentives to that affection. ate and conciliating deportment, which sial tract. cern the purport of this controver Its author, a warm beside its conformity to the gospel of Christ, and the attendant prospect of a friend of Mr. Sherman and of his future reward, is adapted to engage the unitarian sentiments, endeavours confidence and esteem of all within the to support them; presses on his sphere of its influence. Than this prac. antagonist the protestant rule of tice, what can more effectually ensure the perfection and sufficiency of a uniform and faithful discharge of the various duties, which result from the scripture ; and, it must be confessconjugal, parental, filial, fraternal, and ed, detects a number of errours, other intimate relations of human life. not to say absurdities, in the “ faIt sanctifics, cements, and endears the miliar letters." A. O. F. appears union between husband and wife. It to think that he is justified by the encourages and directs parents in the instruction and government of their example of the letter-writer in aphousehold. It heightens the gratitude, proaching him without any cere¿ility, and submission of children. It miony. He is sometimes serious excites and aids brethren to “dwell to. and sometimes ludicrous, but uni. gether in unity.” That family, whose formly severe ; so full of sarcasm heads and members bear each other in mind at their secret devotions; and, and personal reflections,and dealing frequently appearing before God in com his blows with so heavy a hand, as pany, jointly call upon his name for a makes us almost quake for the supply of their individual and collective lacerated feelings of the Rev. wants, must, of course, be impressed Daniel Dow. ON THE LITERARY CHARACTER OF DR. FRANKLIN. FRONA CELEBRATED ENGLISH PUBLICATION. Nothing, we think, can shew flourishing republick to collect more clearly the singular want of and publish the works of their onliterary enterprize or activity in ly philosopher. It is not even the States of America, than that very creditable to the liberal curiono one has yet been found in thalsity of the English publick, that there should have been no complete edition of the writings of Dr. Franklin, till the year 1806 and we should have been altogether unable to account for the imperfect and unsatisfactory manner in which the task has now been performed, if it had not been for a statement in the prefatory advertisement, which removes all blame from the editor, to attach it to a higher quarter. It is there stated, that recently after the death of the author, his grandson, to whom the whole of his papers had been bequeathed, made a voyage to London, for the purpose of preparing and disposing of a complete collection of all his published and unpublished writings, with memoirs of his life, brought down by himself to the year 1757, and continued to his death by his descendant. It was settled, that the work should be published in three quarto volumes, in England, Germany, and France; and a negociation was commenced with the booksellers, as to the terms of the purchase and publication. At this stage of the business, however, the proposals were suddenly withdrawn, and nothing more has been heard of the work in this its fair and natural market. "The proprietor, it seems, had found a bidder of a different description, in some emissary of government, whose object was to withhold the manuscripts from the world, not to benefit it by their publication; and they thus either passed into other hands, or the person to whom they were bequeathed received a remuneration for suppressing them." If this statement be correct, we have no hesitation in saying, that no emissary of Government was ever employed on a more miserable and unworthy service. It is ludicrous to talk of the danger of state, with regard to the war of disclosing, in 1795, any secrets of American independence; and as to any anecdotes or observations that might give offence to individuals, we think it should always be remembered, that publick funcpublick, that their character betionaries are the property of the longs to history and to posterity, discreditable to think of suppressand that it is equally absurd and ing any part of the evidence, by which their merits must be ultimately determined. whole of the works that have been But the suppressed, certainly did not relate to republican politicks. The history of the author's life, down to matter of offence; and a variety 1757, could not well contain any tions, which he is understood to of general remarks and speculahave left behind him, might have been permitted to see the light, though his diplomatick operations had been interdicted. The emissary of Government, however, probably took no care of these things; he was resolved to leave no rubs nor botches in his work; and, to stifle the dreaded revelation, he thought the best way was to strangle all the innocents in the vicinage. the most rational, perhaps, of all education; and he spent the great- er part of his life in a society where there was no relish, and no encouragement for literature. On an ordinary mind these circumstances would have produced their usual effects, of repressing all sort of intellectual ambition or activity, and perpetuating a generation of incurious mechanicks; but to an understanding like Franklin's, we cannot help considering them as peculiarly propitious, and imagine that we can trace back to them, distinctly, almost all the peculiarities of his intellectual character. Regular education, we think, is unfavourable to vigour or originality of understanding. Like civilization, it makes society more intelligent and agreeable; but it levels the distinctions of nature. It strengthens and assists the feeble; but it deprives the strong of his triumph, and casts down the hopes of the aspiring. It accomplishes this, not only by training up the mind in an habitual veneration for authorities, but, by leading us to bestow a disproportionate degree of attention upon studies that are only valuable as keys or instruments for the understanding, they come at last to be regarded as ultitimate objects of pursuit; and the means of education are absurdly mistaken for its end. How many powerful understandings have been lost in the Dialecticks of Aristotle! and of how much good philosophy are we daily defrauded, by the preposterous errour of taking a knowledge of prosody for useful learning! The mind of a man, who has escaped this training, will at least have fair play. Whatever other errours he may fall into, he will be safe at least from these infatuations. If he thinks proper, after he grows up, to study Greek, it will be for some better purpose, than to become acquainted with its dialects. His prejudices will be those of a man, and not of a schoolboy; and his speculations and conclusions will be independent of the maxims of tutors, and the oracles of literary patrons. The consequences of living in a refined and literary community are nearly of the same kind with those of a regular education. There are so many criticks to be satisfied so many qualifications to be established-so many rivals to encounter, and so much derision to be hazarded, that a young man is apt to be deterred from so perilous an enterprize, and led to seek for distinction in some safer line of exertion. He is discouraged by the fame and the perfection of certain models and favourites, who are always in the mouths of his judges, and, under them, his genius is rebuked,' and his originality repressed, till he sinks into a paltry copyist, or aims at distinction, by extravagance and affectation. In such a state of society, he feels that mediocrity has no chance of distinction; and what beginner can expect to rise at once into excellence? He imagines that mere good sense will attract no attention; and that the manner is of much more importance than the matter, in a candidate for publick admiration. In his attention to the manner, the matter is apt to be neglected; and, in his solicitude to please those who require elegance of diction, brilliancy of wit, or harmony of periods, he is in some danger of forgetting that strength of reason, and accuracy of observation, by which he first propose to recom mend himself. His attention, when extended to so many collateral objects, is no longer vigorous or collected, the stream divided into so many channels, ceases to flow either deep or strong;-he becomes an unsuc tessful pretender to fine writing, and is satisfied with the frivolous praise of elegance or vivacity. We are disposed to ascribe so much power to these obstructions to intellectual originality, that we cannot help fancying, that, if Franklin had been bred in a col lege, he would have contented himself with expounding the metres of Pindar, and mixing argument with his port in the common room; and that if Boston had abounded with men of letters, he would never had ventured to come forth from his printinghouse, or been driven back to it, at any rate, by the sneers of the criticks, after the first publication of his essays in the Busy Body. This will probably be thought, exaggerated; but it cannot be denied, we think, that the contrary circumstances in his history had a powerful effect in determining the character of his understanding, and in producing those peculiar habits of reasoning and investigation by which his writings are distinguished. He was encouraged to publish, because there was scarcely any one around him whom he could not easily excel. He wrote with great brevity, because he had not leisure for more voluminous compositions, and because he knew that the readers to whom he addressed himself were, for the most part, as busy as himself. For the same reason, he studied great perspicuity and simplicity of statement: his countrymen had no relish for fine writing, and could not easily be made to understand a deduction depending on a long or elaborate process of reasoning. He was forced, therefore, to concentrate what he had to say; and since he had no chance of being admired for the beauty of his composition, it was natural for him to aim at making an impres sion by the force and the clearness of his statements. His conclusions were often rash and inaccurate, from the same circumstances which rendered his productions.concise. Philosophy and speculation did not form the business of his life; nor did he dedicate himself to any particular study, with a view to exhaust and complete the investigation of it in all its parts, and under all its rela tions. He engaged in every inte. resting inquiry that suggested it. self to him, rather as the necessa⚫ ry exercise of a powerful and active mind, than as a task which he had bound himself to perform. He cast a quick and penetrating glance over the facts and the data that were presented to him; and drew his conclusions with a rapidity and precision that have not often been equalled; but he did not stop to examine the completeness of the data upon which he pro ceeded, nor to consider the ultimate effect or application of the princi ples to which he had been conducted. In all questions, therefore, where the facts upon which he was to determine, and the materi als from which his judgment was to be formed, were either few in number, or of such a nature as not to be overlooked, his reasonings are for the most part perfectly just and conclusive, and his decisions unexceptionably sound; but where the elements of the cal culation were more numerous and widely scattered, it appears to us that he has often been precipitate and that he has either been misled by a partial apprehension of the conditions of the problem, or has discovered only a portion of the truth which lay before him. In all physical inquiries; in almost all questions of particular and immediate policy; and in much of what relates to the practical wiss dom and the happiness of private Dr. Franklin, we think, has life, his views will be found to be never made use of the mathemat: admirable, and the reasoning by icks, in his investigation of the which they are supported most phenomena of nature; and though masterly and convincing. But upon this may render it surprising that subjects of general politicks, of ab- he has fallen into so few errours of stract morality, and political eco- importance, we conceive that it nomy, his notions appear to be helps in some measure to explain more unsatisfactory and incom- the unequalled perspicuity and viplete. He seems to have wanted vacity of his expositions. An alleisure, and perhaps inclination al- gebraist, who can work wonders so, to spread out before him the with letters, seldom condescends whole vast premises of these ex- to be much indebted to words, and tensive sciences, and scarcely to thinks himself entitled to make his have had patience to hunt for his sentences obscure, provided his conclusions through so wide and calculations be distinct. A writer intricate a region as that upon who has nothing but words to which they invited him to enter. make use of, must make all the He has been satisfied, therefore, on use he can of them : he cannot every occasion, with reasoning from afford to neglect the only chance a very limited view of the facts, he has of being understood. and often from a particular in We should now say something stance ; he has done all that saga. of the political writings of Dr. city and sound sense could do with Franklin, the productions which, such materials ; but it cannot ex. first raised him into publick office eite wonder, if he has sometimes and eminence, and which will be overlooked an essential part of the least read or attended to by posargument, and often advanced a terity. They may be divided into particular truth into the place of a two parts ; those which relate to general principle. He seldom the internal affairs and provincial reasoned upon these subjects at all, differences of the American colo. we believe, without having some nies, before their quarrel with the practical application of them im- mother country; and those which mediately in view; and as he be- relate to that quarrel and its congan the investigation rather to de- sequences. The former are no termine a particular case, than to longer in any degree interesting : establish a general maxim, so he and the editor has done wisely, we probably desisted as soon as he had think, in presenting his readers relieved himself of the present dif- with an abstract only of the longficulty. est of them ; this was published There are not many among the in 1759, under the title of an Histhorough bred scholars and phi- torical Review of the Constitution losophers of Europe, who can lay of Pennsylvania, and consisted of claim to distinction in more than upwards of 500 pages, composed one or two departments of science for the purpose of shewing, that the or literature. The uneducated political privileges reserved to the tradesman of America has left founder of the colony had been il-, writings, that call for our attention, legally and oppressively used. in natural philosophy,-in poli- The Canada pamphlet, written in ticks,in political economy-and 1760, for the purpose of pointing in general literature and morality: out the importance of retaining Vol. III. No. 12. 4M |