good arguments, every where claim, and are every where entitled to, attention and refpect, there is no country where fuch a Sermon might not have been liftened to both with profit and pleafure. Its fcope is to fhew, that as the people of America have been diftinguifhed by Providence, like the Ifraelites of old, by fignal bleffings, it is incumbent on men to fhew their gratitude for fuch unmerited mercies, by becoming, at length, no lefs diftinguifhed for their piety and goodness.

As a fpecimen of the author's ftyle and manner, we now fubjoin a few extracts from the Difcourfe.

"In fuch tumultuary times as the prefent, when fo great a part of the world is in a state of war, infubordination, and anarchy, and torn by bloody inteftine divifions, to be permitted to enjoy uninterrupted order and tranquility, is a bleffing which ought moft gratefully to be recognized. This is a bleffing, with which, under Di vine Providence, we have been favoured. A difference in political and religious opinions, indeed, unhappily, exifts among us. Party zeal and animofities have, in fome inftances, marred our happiness. Prejudices have too often blinded the eyes of the mind against the perception of truth. But, God be praifed! thefe differences have not yet been fuffered to raise fo high as to burst the bonds of civil fociety, and rage in civil war and bloodshed. Hitherto it has been a war of words;-of words, however, too often calculated to bring on a more ferious conteft, &c. &c." P. 9.

Some of the peculiarities of the American ftyle of writing are still more vifible in the following extracts:

"Our free conftitution has been endangered by our vices and demoraling principles. Vice is hoftile to freedom. A wicked people cannot long remain a free people. If, as a nation, we progress in impiety, demoralization, and licentioufnefs, for twenty years to come, as rapidly as we have for twenty years paft, this circumftance alone will be fufficient, without the aid of any other caufe, to fubvert our prefent form of government. In this cafe the people would not bear quietly as much freedom as we now enjoy. We know that men yield to the restraints of good government with increased obstinacy, as they advance in wickednefs. With difficulty, even now, are the wholefome laws of our country executed on the guilty." P. 12. The vices which he enumerates as particularly prevalent,

are:

rft. "A felfish spirit, or an infatiable order to get rich.”

2d. "The fpread of infidel and atheistical principles in all parts of the country."

3d. "The increafe of luxury, extravagance, and diffipation." 4th. A fpirit of infabordination to civil authority." And, 5th. "Foreign intrigue."

On all these points, what he fays proves him to be, in all cafes where his particular prejudices do not blind his judgement, an accurate obferver, and a careful reafoner. In a note in p. 21. he communicates to the public a curious declaration made at Boston, in 1797, by Volney.

"England, faid he, will be revolutionized: the fame fpirit will run through Italy and the German ftates, and all the enlightened parts of Europe and then (he added with the highefi exultation) Chriftianity will be put in the back ground. Already has it received its mortal blow. The Revolution (meaning, no doubt, to include its religious and moral, as well as political, effects) will go over the whole world. It does not depend on the continuance of power in the prefent hands at Paris. Its progrefs is irrefutible; and it will proceed, till it has changed the face of every fociety on earth!"

The following ftriking proof of the existence of illuminism in America is given as an indifputable fact in another note,

P. 22.

"In the northern parts of this State (Maffachufets) there has lately appeared, and fill exifts, under a licentious leader, a company of beings, who difcard the principles of religion, and the obligations of morality, trample on the bonds of matrimony, the feparate rights of property, and the laws of civil fociety; fpend the Sabbath in labour and diverfion, as fancy dictates, and the nights in riotous excefs and promifcuous concubinage, as lut impels. Their number confifts of about forty, fome of whom are perfons of reputable abilities, and once of decent characters. That a fociety of this defcription, which would difgrace the natives of Caffraria, fhould be found in this land of civilization and Gofpel light, is an evidence that the devil is at this time gone forth, having great influence as well as great wrath."

To this Sermon, confifting of 29 pages, there is added an Appendix of 50 more; full of curious, important, and interelting matter. Its object is, as the author ftates, to fubftantiate from facts feveral pofitions advanced in his difcourfe. For this purpose he adduces feveral original and undoubted authentic papers, as documents; many of which, as far as we know, have never before been pub ifhed; though abfolutely necefiary for every man to be acquainted with, who is folicit ous to come at an accurate knowledge of the true Hiftory of the Interference of France in the American Revolution: and as fuch, there can be no queftion they will be highly valued by the future impartial Hiftorian of that great event, fhould fuch an one ever arife.

Dr. Morfe confeifes himfelf to have been one of the many thousands of his countrymen, who have felt an honest esteem for, and a fincere gratitude to, France for the aid the afforded

them

them during the war (of which even this refpectable writer is fo inconfiftent with himself as to approve of, even whilft he difapproves of the very fame principles which, it can admit of no queftion, are at the bottom of the French revolt) with this. country; and who unfeignedly rejoiced with her at the commencement of her revolution, in the profpect of her enjoying the fweets of freedom, and the bleffings of an equal governBut he is not afhamed now to acknowledge (and thousands have done the fame) that his esteem, gratitude, and joy were the offspring of ignorance, fee p 31. This is ingenuous and manly: and whatever difcredit it may feem to throw on his difcernment and political fagacity, it certainly does great honour to his prefent candour.

In this country alfo, and in every country, there are thoufands whom it would become to make the fame honeft confeffion; and none more than the great feceding orator, the oracle of revolt and oppofition, who, weak like Dr More, or wicked like the now infamous revolters who were the objects of his extravagant panegyric, once called the French Revolution the greatest effort of human wifdom that had ever been manifested to the world. Shallow man! that thy name, now no longer huzzaed even by mobs, may not be handed down to pofterity, ftigmatifed as it affuredly will be with the odious charge, that he to whom it belonged, was not more capable of duping others, than eafy, himself, to be duped, condefcend to emulate the magnanimity of this Trans-Atlantic feceder; who has feceded from a body of desperate rebels, the most dreadfully wicked of any that Providence heretofore ever permitted to fcourge mankind.

Much as, upon the whole, we have been pleafed with this Difcourfe, we are not fo partial as to recommend it to our readers as a model either of correct or elegant compofition; or as being the refult of fuch found principles as alone can give profpects of permanancy to a ftate. We were no lefs pleafed, and (we may add) inftructed by his valuable book of American Geography; though we were, and are, far from fubfcribing to all his statements, and can defcry the heightened colouring of a party man in almost every page.

ART. XV. The Baviad and Maviad. By William Gifford, Efq. To which is prefixed, a Poetical Epiftle to the Author. By an American Gentleman. London, printed; Philadelphia, re-printed for William Cobbett. 1799.

THE

"HE merits of thefe fpirite! Satires, which were published long before the eftablishment of our Work, and which contributed effentially to correct the horrid depravity of tate which the frantic difciples of the Della Crufca School had introduced in this country, are fo well known that any expla nation of them would be a work of fuperogation. We have only then to exprefs our fatisfaction at the notice which they have attracted in America, and to quote, for the gratification of our readers, the elegant addrefs of an American bard, to the learned, worthy, and refpectable author.

"To WILLIAM GIFFORD, E6Q.

In thefe cold fhades, beneath these shifting skies,
Where Fancy fickens, and where Genius dies;
Where few and feeble are the Mufe's strains,
And no fine frenzy riots in the veins,
There ftill are found a few to whom belong
The fire of virtue, and the foul of fong;
Whofe kindling ardour ftill can wake the ftrings
When learning triumphs, and when Gifford fings
To thee the lowlieft Bard his tribute pays,
'His little wild-flower to thy wreath conveys;
Pleafed, if permitted round thy name to bloom,
To boast one effort rescued from the tomb.

While this delirious Age enchanted feems
With hectic Fancy!s defultory dreams;
While wearing faft is every trace
Of Grecian Vigour, and of Roman Grace,
With fond delight, we yet one Bard behold,
As Horace polish'd, and as Perfius bold,
Reclaim the Art, affert the Mufe divine,
And drive obtrufive Dulness from the fhrine.
Since that great day which faw the Tablet rife,
A thinking block, and whifper to the eyes,
No time has been that touch'd the Mufe fo near,
No Age when Learning had fo much to fear,
As now, love-lorn ladies light verfe frame.
And every Rebus-weaver talks of Fame.
When Truth in claffic majefty appear'd,
And Greece, on high, the Dome of Science rear'd,
Patience and Perfeverance, Care and Pain
Alone the fteep the rough afcent could gain:
None but the Great the fun-clad fummit found;
The weak were baffled, and the ftrong were crown'd.
The tardy Tranfcript's high-wrought Page confin'd
To one purfuit the undivided mind.

Ne

No Venal critic fatten'd on the Trade,

Books for delight, and not for fale were made;
Then fhone, fuperior, in the realms of thought,
The Chief who govern'd, and the Sage who taught;
The Drama then with deathlefs bays was wreath'd,
The Statue quicken'd, and the Canvafs breath'd.
The Poet, then, with unrefifted art,

Sway'd every impulfe of the captive heart.
Touch'd with a beam of Heaven's creative Mind,
His fpirit kindled, and his taste refin'd:
Inceffant toil inform'd his rifing youth;

Thought grew to Thought, and Truth attracted Truth,
Till, all complete, his perfect foul display'd
Some bloom of Genius that could never fade,
So the fage Oak, to Nature's mandate true,
Advanced bnt flow, and ftrengthen'd as he grew !
But when at length, (full many a feafon o'er,)
His head the bioffoms of high promife bore;
When ftedfaft were his roots, and found his heart,
He bade oblivion and decay depart;

And, S orm and Time defying, ftill remains
The never-dying glory of the plains.

Then, if fome thoughtlefs Bavius dared appear,
Short was his date, and limited his fphere;
He could but please the changeling mob a day,
Then, like his noxious labours, pafs away:
So, near a Foreft tall, fome worthless flower
Enjoys the triumphs of its gaudy hour,
Scatters its little poifon thro' the skies,
Then droops its empty, hated head, and dies.

Still, as from famed Ilyffus' claffic fhore,
To Mincius' Banks, the Mufe her Laurel bore,
The facred Plant to hands divine was given,.
And deathlefs Maro nurfed the boon of Heaven.
Exalted Bard! to hear thy gentler voice,
The Vallies liften, and their Swains rejoice;
But when, on fome wild Mountain's awful form,
We hear thy Spirit chaunting to the storm,
Of battling Chiefs, and Armies laid in gore,
We rage, we figh, we wonder and adore.
Thus Rome, with Greece, in rival splendour shone,
But claim'd immortal Satire for her own:

While Horace, pierced, full oft, the wanton breaft
With fportive cenfure, and refiftless jeft;

And that Etrurian, whofe indignant lay
Thy kindred Genius can fo well difplay,

With many a well-aim'd thought, and pointed line,
Drove the bold villain from his black defign.