[MAY,

on the president, and the latter returned the attention, and so intercourse was opeved.

There is no life of Whitefield, who might or might not be considered as a property of New England. He operated here with great effect, and died in our arms. kindly in a passage in the life of the good Dr. Appleton.

He is mentioned

"While Mr. Whitefield was in the zenith of his popularity, the president, and other instructers of the college bore their testimony against him on account of the uncharitable and slanderous reports he made of the state of that seminary. He addressed a letter in reply, which was answered by the professor of divinity. Many pastors of the churches in Massachusetts and Connecticut also testified against the errours and disorders which then prevailed. Dr. Appleton was censured for his moderation, which was then a very unfashionable virtue, and he was requested by many zealous members of his own church, and by some of his brethren in the ministry, to admit that wonderful preacher into his pulpit. He continued steadfast, however, in supporting the interest and honour of the college. Mr. Whitefield was sensible of his errour, when riper years had tempered the fervour of his youthful spirit, and with christian candour he publickly acknowledged his fault. When Harvard Hall was burnt in 1764, he solicited benefactions in England and Scotfand, and his kindness met with a grateful return. Every attention was paid him by the president and fellows of the university, on his last visit to America, and Dr. Appleton invited him to preach in his church. The scene was interesting: Mr. Whitefield was uncommonly affectionate in speaking of the aged divine in his prayer, and in his address to the people of his charge. His text was 1 Cor. iii. 11. Several ministers, who had always attended to Mr. Whitefield's preaching, observed, that he never displayed more eloquence, or delivered a more correct discourse."

We cannot be expected to criticise the respective articles in so multifarious a work. There is no species of work so easy to find fault with as a dictionary, and there is none which on account of the unavoidable number of its weak places, arising from the multitude and diversity of its subjects, may challenge so much allowance for its imperfections. If we speak of what the writer has not done, instead of what he has, we shall appear to know more than be, when we know nothing in comparison. Several of these lives might be more 'complete and less desultory. But how much must the biographer have read and remembered, to bring them to their present state. The sketches of Andross, Appleton, Balch, the Barnards, Belcher, Bernard, Belknap, Hubbard, Mather, Mayhew, Otis, Quincys, Shirley, Sewalls, and others, evince his knowledge of the good and bad great men, and respecta

ble men of our country, his spirit of observation, and his equity and candour. We recommend the work to all who wish to see in remote periods the springs of subsequent transactions, and be acquainted with the men and times which are past.

(To be continued.)

ARTICLE 13.

Fragments in Prose and Verse, by Miss Elizabeth Smith, lately deceased: With some account of her life and character, by H. M. Bowdler. Boston; Munroe and Francis, and Samuel H. Parker. 1810.

AMONG

MONG the many readers of the popular romance of “Coelebs," there are probably few, at least on this side the Atlantick, who have not inquired respecting that "Elizabeth Smith," whose name is there connected with the time-honoured celebrity of Mrs. Carter. This inquiry is answered in the publication before us. A narrative, which, though short, is not superficial, and which has all the recommendations of simplicity and sincerity, invites our attention to the character and productions of an individual, whose acquirements were, certainly, of no ordinary class. The interesting subject of this memoir appears to have been peculiarly formed by nature and education for the character of a persevering student. A feeble constitution, and extreme timidity, concurred with early pecuniary privations in confining to literary pursuits, exclusively, that activity of mind, which society might otherwise have required and exhausted. If, therefore, as a linguist, Miss Smith be probably unequalled among her sex, she is no less remarkable for the systematick manner in which all her studies were pursued. Independent of natural frivolity, or fashionable dissipation, many circumstances combine to render the reading of a female, for the most part, desultory. Among the weightiest may be numbered the claims of social, and the petty, but inexorable requisitions of domestick life. From the daily recurrence of these, regular study, however pleasant, is frequently impracticable. To the latter only of them was Miss S. exposed; and she appears, from her biography, to have fulfilled her relative obligations with exemplary exactness; to have been equally amiable and intelli

wisdom and consoling piety; especially of that patience, who, as described by the poet,

"In meek submission lifts the adoring eye

E'en to the storm that wrecks her !"

ARTICLE 14.

An Oration commemorative of the character and administration of Washington, delivered before the American Republican Society of Philadelphia, on the 22d day of February, 1810. By Charles Caldwell, M. D. Philadelphia; Fry and Kammerer. pp. 37. An Oration delivered before the Washington Benevolent Society,in the city of New York, &c. By Peter Augustus Jay, Esq. New York; C. S. Van Winkle. pp. 23...

THE ingratitude of republicks has in every age been a topick of complaint for moralists, and the historian of after times will stigmatize our memory with equal justice and greater severity. Whether it be, that in such a form of government no single man is allowed to be the greatest benefactor to the state, or that the many competitors for popular favour distract and divide the affections of the multitude, we shall not discuss, because it would be useless, nor determine, because it would be hazardous. A nation that rewards its great men may always command their services: the palace of Blenheim incited the rivals of Marlborough, and the honours of Nelson make his successors pant for an opportunity to renew the glories of Trafalgar. The death of Washington was indeed bewailed in this country with more honest grief than that of any other great man of any time; but those who were desirous of honouring his memory were unable to do it in a manner suitable to the nation and his deserts. Some, who had been overshadowed and straitened in their growth by the gigantick eminence of his popularity, immediately sprung up and waved their branches in the light and warmth of a sky before unknown. Their joy was decently restrained before the people, but they taught that people to forget their duty. The paltry process of subscription in one place, and the beggarly expedient of a lottery in another, are the only means adopted in this generation, by which their posterity will behold a monument to the father of his country.

A society exists in the two principal cities of the United States, by which the birth-day of Washington has been celebrated; and the orations delivered on that occasion are now before us. They are each worthy of the subject, but of very different style. Mr. Jay's is more easy, and sometimes careless, but perspicuous and forcible. Mr. Caldwell's is laboured and swelling, ambitious of antithesis, and glowing with epithets. Extravagant hyperboles and gorgeous decorations are often objected to the writers of New England; but in the instance before us the same faults must have shocked a classical audience at Philadelphia. We cannot extract a portion from either, without injustice to the rest.

A grammatical inaccuracy of Mr. C. is remarked in two instances, which we are more solicitous to condemn, because it was a fault long remarked in the Scotch, and the vulgarism is equally common among our brethren of the south. "If we take a retrospect of the policy pursued for the last eight years, we will [shall] discover not a vestige of his scrupulous, his holy regard for the preservation of the constitutional balance of our government." A Frenchman, who had fallen into the water, was near losing his life on account of his exclaiming : "I will be drowned, nobody shall save me." Should and would are often perverted in the same manner. The use of those

words can indeed hardly be determined by foreigners, but their perpetual recurrence in our native language renders the ignorance of their definite power and application more striking. We are every day warned by violation of the necessity of adhering to the laws of English grammar, and by men, whose education should make them as careful of their speech as of their morals. On that difficult part of etymology, our auxiliary verbs, some light may be obtained from a disquisition in Aikin's Athenaeum. Vol. ii. p. 250.

RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW.

ARTICLE 21.

The life and character of the Rev. Benjamin Colman, D. D. late pastor of a church in Boston, New England, who deceased August 29, 1747. By Ebenezer Turell, a. M. pastor of Medford.

Rev. ii. 19. I know thy-SERVICE.

.Non nobis nati sumus.

Boston, New England; printed and sold by Rogers & Fowle. 1749. pp. 238.

THE subject of this memoir was one of the most liberal, learned and useful men of his profession. By the dignity, rectitude, and suavity of his manners, he conciliated many who had been prejudiced against him, some of whom did all in their power to injure his reputation. This we learn, not so particularly from the work before us, as from the report of others who were conversant with him. He had different sentiments from his clerical brethren upon the discipline and order of congregational churches; he incurred the resentment of the physicians of the town for his exertions to introduce inoculation, when the smallpox spread in the year 1721.* His attachment to governour Dudley made him political enemies. But he lost nothing by the rage of democrats and fanaticks; he died in peace and harmony with the various denominations of Christians; and all classes of men strewed blessings on his memory.

Mr. Turell married the daughter of Dr. Colman. He was a worthy man, and popular preacher, very fond of appearing in print, and zealously engaged in the controversies upon certain points of divinity which agitated the country in those days. His account of the life and writings of his father in law is introduced with a preface written by several ministers of Boston, who make this apology for not passing an encomium upon the performance, "that they knew the author did not desire it;" by which they discover their politeness, though they might not convince others they were sincere. "The following sheets," say they," present us with the man of God, taken from our head, in which the reverend author

*He wrote a defence of the character and conduct of Dr. Boylston.