Awaking starts from slumbers insecure ; Views the bright casement of his window glare, And hears the brazen clamour in the air. Ascending columns point the fatal doom, And flashing, rend uncertain midnight's gloom. Along the streets tumultuous thunders fly, While waking watchmen join the dismal cry. All headlong rush, attracted by the blaze, And croud around to moralize and gaze. Some more benevolence, than judgment have, And, over anxious, ruin what they save; Part 'gainst the rest unconsciously con- And loud confusion mounts on wings of fire. But half attir'd, and wrapp'd in nightly dress, The shivering, houseless victims of dis tress A shelter seek; perhaps of all bereft, left: Yet with the blushes of another day, They scrape the ashes from the spot away; And aided by subscription's liberal hands, On the warm spot another mansion stands, Larger by far, more comely to the view, base, Charm'd by the magic thunders of the Though fiery torrents desolate the plain, The following lines on the fashionable style of poetry, reflect much credit on the writer: Sonnets and riddles celebrate the trees, And ballad-mongers charter every breeze. Long odes to monkies, squirrel elegies, And hymns harmonious, sweet, as infin- So freely flow, that poesy ere long song. Elegiac lays such taste and truth combine, The lap-dog lives and barks in every line. Each rebus-maker takes the poet's name, And every rhymer is the heir of fame. On the whole, there is much strength of imagery, and spirited versification in this little perform ance. Should the writer contin ue to pursue the same path, we doubt whether his own case would not prove an exception to the charge so often made against America, of being insensible and inattentive to genius of its own growth. It is the spirit of satire to deal out invectives without measure, and to heap penalties on the breach of laws, the very breach of which carries its own punishment along with it. Thus the insensibility to poetical and literary merit, so far as this insensibility is real, ought to entitle us to condolence and compassion, rather than to chiding and rebuke, since to want this faculty, is to want a source of very great pleasure; and since no man is enabled to acquire it by reproach and ridicule. which furnished an article in this place in the two last Anthologies, we make one more extract, rather for the amusement than the information of our readers.] THE news of American litera ture, which were communicated in our Review for last month, respected the recent publications, chiefly of Boston and New-York. We now insert some particulars of information concerning the state of letters at Philadelphia and Charleston. A novel, under the title of Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the year 1793, was lately published at Philadelphia. It engaged, in a considerable degree, the notice of the Philadelphia public. The author is described, in the title, as a native citizen of that capital. Perhaps, it is recommended, not so much by its merits in the character of a work of imagination, as by allusions to the politics or artificial manners of the times. Theological, or perhaps, atheistical speculation still employs, at times, the cogitations of the profound thinkers in Pennsylvania. A new work of this sort, named Letters on the Existence and Character of the Deity, has lately appeared at Philadelphia. The book itself we have not seen; but there seems to be a sort of religious indecency in the very title, which could hardly, as we should think, have fallen from an author that meant well to theism. A Mr. Proud has recently published at Philadelphia, a History of Pennsylvania, which might perhaps be reprinted in London, with both commercial and literary advantage. The political ribaldry of a Philadelphian news-writer of the name of Corbett, but assuming the fictitious name of Peter Porcupine appears to us to have received greatly too much encour agement from Britain. To em ploy such wretched instruments for any political purpose, is, certainly, just as if one should adopt the catcall, instead of the trumpet, as an instrument of martial music. We are, therefore, not ill pleased to announce, that Mr. Peter Porcupine has just been satirized in a piece, named the Porcupiniad, and published at Philadelphia, by Matthew Carey, a scribbler of his own kidney. Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton has delivered before the Philosophical Society at Philadelphia, an oration on the origin, the languages, and the physical structure, of the American Indians; which was highly admired by the hearers; and is to be speedily published. An agricultural work of con siderable value has been lately published at Charleston, under the title of Observations on the culture of Cotton, by Lewis Dupre, of Georgetown, South Carolina. The same distractions in the French West India Islands, which have contributed to make the produce of the British West Indies so remarkably valuable, during the progress of the present war, must, no doubt, have en couraged, in the southern territories of the American States, an unusual attention to the culture of those vegetables which were, before, more or less common to them with the West Indian isles. The common law of England is still, by the concession of the legislatures, and the custom of the courts, almost in full force in America. Yet, the course of government and jurisdiction, cannot but gradually create, in the United States, a practical law peculiar to themselves, and which must be a ramification from the law of England, as that of England is from the Feudal law, the parent of all the different forms of legislature and jurisprudence which subsist throughout Europe. For America, this peculiar jurisprudence begins to be formed by the successive acts of the legislatures, and more particularly by the recorded arguments and decisions of the courts. One of the most important publications that has been presented for sale at Philadelphia, within these last few months, is, Reports by a Mr. Dallas, of Cases which have been decided upon in the Supreme Court in the United States. In truth, there can be no publications more valuable than such reports as these. They are, at once, collections of precedents to guide the lawyer ; and to the philosopher and the historian, records the most interesting, of the state of industry, commerce, manners and opinions. In the perusal of the newspapers and other periodical publications of America, there is only one thing that strikes us very remarkably, as giving them, in this instance, a superiority to those of England. The American Advertisements are universally written with a simplicity, a clearness, a precision, a brevity, and by consequence, an elegance, which we in vain look for in the advertisement columns of an English, an Irish, or a Scottish newspaper. It is curious to remark, how that in every country the public diversions take their character from the peculiarities of trade and industry, and from the ordinary modes of life. We observe it mentioned, as an extraordinary interesting exhibition, which attracted general and eager attention; that a female harlequin, on the theatre, leaped through a hogshead of fire!! The publication of a new Weekly Magazine has been in the present year commenced at Philadelphia, by Ezekiel Forman. THE ORAN OTAN. PERE Carbasson brought up an oran otan, which became so fond of him, that wherever he went, it always seemed desirous of accompanying him: whenever, therefore, he had to perform the service of his church, he was always under the necessity of shutting it imal escaped, and followed the father up in a room. Once, however, the anto the church, where, silently mounting on the sounding board above the pulpit, he lay perfectly still till the serthe edge, and overlooking the preacher, mon commenced. He then crept to imitated all his gestures in so grotesque a manner that the whole congregation was unavoidably caused to laugh. The father, surprised and confounded at this ill-timed levity, severely reproved his audience for their inattention. The reproof failed in its effect, the congregation still laughed, and the preacher, in the warmth of his zeal, redoubled his vociferations and his actions: these the ape imitated so exactly, that the themselves, but burst out into a loud congregation could no longer retain and continued laughter. A friend of the preacher at length stepped up to him, and pointed out the cause of this improper conduct; and such was the arch demeanour of his animal, that it was with the utmost difficulty he could command the muscles of his counten ance, and keep himself apparently serious, while he ordered the servants of the church to take him away. Our fathers sought this land afar, Beneath the gentle smiles of peace, Lofty pæans strike the skies, ODE TO INDEPENDENCE. Written by WILLIAM BIGELOW, A. M. and sung by Mrs. Jones, at St. Peter's Church, in Salem, on Wednesday, 4th July, 1804. WHEN Britain gigantic, by justice unaw'd, Strode over the westerly main, With eyes darting fury, and hands bath'd in blood, Sought to rivet fell tyranny's chain; Then, arm'd with a shepherdess' sling and a stone, Rous'd youthful Columbia to meet her alone, Unmov'd by the sword, and the spear, and the shield, And thus to high heaven undaunted appeal'd : God of armies! hear my prayer ; |