NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. No. C. JULY, 1838. ART. I. 1. The & atutes of Ohio and of the JVorth West- ern Territory, adopted or enacted from 1788 to 1833, inclusive ; together with thc Ordinance of 1787. Edit- ed by SALMON P. CHASE. Cincinnati: 183345. Three volumes, large octavo. 2. The Ohio Gazetteer and Travellers Guide; containing a Description of the several Towns, Townships, and Counties, with their Water Courses, Roads, Improvements, .lilineral Productions, & c. & c. First revised Edition. By WARREN JENKINS. Columbus: 1837. l2mo. pp. 546. A LITTLE after eleven oclock, on the night following our elections in this place, says a letter from Cincinnati, written in October, 1837, I was called to the door by a very vigorous rapping. It was some one in great haste to know the result of the days work, and who had mistaken our house for the one in which the votes were to be counted. After directing him aright, I threw the door open a little wider, that I might see what young patriot this was, that so keenly desired to know the state of parties. The light of the hall lamp fell full on his face. It was Hezekiah Flint, one of the first band of white men, that ever came to reside in the wilds of Ohio. Such facts are startling. In the stranger to Ohio history, VOL. XLVII.NO. C. I 2 F~fiy Years of Ohio. july, it requires an effort of imagination, to conceive of one of the founders of that great and populous State, as still an active arid strong man, out at midnight to learn the result of an election. But a few facts and a little thought do away the wonder ; for it was but fifty years, last April, since the first band of white residents entered what now forms the State of Ohio; and every one of the many men of seventy, yet vigor- ous and stirring, was entering into busy life, when the plain upon xvhich Cincinnati is built was sold for less than fifty silver dollars Nor is this growth surprising, except that it is without precedent. The causes fully explain the result. Land so cheap, and labor so high, that a days work would buy an acre ; titles direct from government; a climate temperate and healthful; and, above all, a national compact, forbidding slavery, securing civil and religious freedom, arid all those privileges that others had struggled for through ages of blood and turmoil, these were mighty inducements to the worn soldiers and impoverished yeomen of Massachusetts and New Jersey. Never, since the golden age of the poets, did that song, of which Mr. Butler makes mention in his History of Kentucky, the syren song of peace and of farming,~~ reach so many ears, and gladden so many hearts, as after Waynes treaty at Greenville in 1795. The Ohio seemed to be, literally, a land flowing with milk and honey. The farmer wrote home, of a soil richer to appearance than can possibly be made by art ; of plains and mead- ows, without the labor of hands, sufficient to support millions of cattle summer and winter ; of wheat lands, that will, II think, vie with the island of Sicily ; ~ and of bogs, from which might be gathered cranberries enough to make tarts for all New England; while the lawyer said, that, as he rode the circuit, his horses legs were dyed to the knee with the juice of the wild strawberry. At that time the dreadful fevers of 1807 and 1822 were not dreamed of; the administration of Washington had healed the divisions among the States ; th victory of Wayne had brought to terms the dreaded savages; and, as the dweller upon the barren shore of the Atlantic remembered these things, and the wonderful fact, in addition, that the inland garden to which he was invited was crossed Written in 17~6; Secret Jourreals of Congress, VoL IV. p. 322. 1838.] .Materials for their History. 8 in every direction by streams, even then counted on as af- fording means for free commercial intercourse, and that it pos- sessed, beside, nearly seven hundred miles of river and lake coast, the inducements for emigration became too strong to be resisted; the wagon was tinkered up at once, the harness patched anew, and a few weeks found the fortune-seeker looking down from the Chesnut Ridge, or Laurel Hill, upon the far-reaching forests of the West. But, should the inquirer turn from the bare fact of Ohios growth, and a view of the great causes which have produced it, and ask a detail of the operation of those causes, we are forced to tell him, that even the annals of that State are still to be compiled. A philosophical history caunot be yet looked for. The great movement which has begun at the West, the men of this day cannot see the scope or end of. They can but note down what passes before them from hour to hour, as the astronomers of old noted the motions of the sun and stars; in the hope that, by and by, a political Coper- nicus and Newton may come, who will reduce their seeming discords to harmony, and, amid apparent chaos, show order and beauty. Even the labor of collecting historical materials has but now begun. The first effort of importance was made by the Historical Society of the State last December, and that will avail nothing unless followed up by strong and per- severing action. Of individual effort nothing is worth notice except Mr. Chases three volumes, containing the whole body of statute law, beginning in 1788 and extending to 1833, prefaced by a sketch of the State history. This work may rank first among the materials for the future histo- rian, as the legislation of a democratic community is the best permanent exponent of its character; and, but for the com- piler of these volumes, portions of even the legislation of this young land would, probably, soon have been lost. It was absolutely impossible, says i\Jr. Chase, to procure a com- plete set of the territorial laws. Of the laws of 1792 but a single copy is known to have existed in the State. The State library contained none, and none remained among the rolls in the office of the Secretary ; * and those that have written mere local and partial sketches have done it too often carelessly, and have produced a strange confusion Chase, Statutes, Vol. 1. p. 5~ 4 Ftfty Years of Ohio. [July, respecting many recent facts, some of which we shall have occasion to mention further, by and by. Mr. Butler, whose general care and accuracy we have had occasion to praise heretofore, has made some blunders, through sheer heed- lessness in copying, as xvhere he quotes Sparkss ac- count of Gists journey down the Ohio in 1751, and substi- tutes Scioto for .Iiiliami, and .Novernber for February ; * and even Mr. Chase, by following Blunts Historical Sketch, (which, by the way, he refers to erroneously, as an Appendix to the .flmericau dunual Register of 18256, ~ it having been bound up with that volume, though published two years before, and to be had without it,) instead of consulting the Jour- nals of Congress, has been betrayed into one or two very erroneous statements ; while Messrs. Flint and Hall, the two writers whose beauty of description and ease of style will attract most readers, are peculiarly open to the charge of carelessness. One instance of this occurs xvith regard to La Salles second voyage to the Mississippi, in 1683, in which year that most persevering man went from Canada, down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, to the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Flint, speaking of this voyage, tells us, that La Salle on his way down, founded the towns of Kaskaskia and Cahokia, ~ left them in charge of Tonti, and then returned to Canada ; while Mr. Hall quotes a Monsieur Jontel, to show that he landed at the mouth of the Mississippi in 1683, and ascended that river. It From what source Mr. Flint drew his informa- tion we know not; but the writer referred to by Mr. Hall, (and whose name was Joutel not Jontel,) was the chronicler * Sparkss Writings of Washington, Vol. II. pp. 37, 480. Butlers His- tory, Introd. p. xxiv. The same error occurs in his Western Chronology. Statutes, Vol. I. pp. 10, 11, & c. t Holmes (linnals, Vol. 1. p 4~7) quotes ~merican State Papers,Vol. XI. p. 35, for the settlement ofKaskaskia, in 1703. The reference should be to Vol. Xli.; but the authority is of little weight; the assertion respecting the settle- ment of that town heing in a note to the American Secretary of State, from Onis, the Spanish minister; the historical blunders of which note are point- ed out in the reply (If Mr. Adams, referred to in the text. But there is no reason to think that La Salle ever heard of the places named by Mr. Flint. Neither Tonti, nor Joutel, who went up the Mississippi after La Salles death, mention them, and the place of which La Salle gave to the former the command was Fort St. Louis, upon the Illinois. Indian Wars of the West, p. 22. I Western Sketches, Vol. I. p. 141. This passage, and most of that divis- ion of the volume in which it occurs, are reprinted from the Illinois Alesga- zinc for 1831 2. 1838.1 .Materials frr their History. 5 of La Salles last voyage, which brought him to the main- land of America in February, 1685. Had these writers con- sulted even Holmess .flrtnals, (which were published before the works in which these errors occur,) they could not have made the mistakes in question ; but (and it is a curious fact) neither Flint, Hall, Holmes, nor Butler, refers, when speaking of La Salle, to the detailed account of that leaders adventures drawn up by the Chevalier Tonti, his lieutenant, and by him presented to the King of France ; which account was translated and published in London, in 1698, and the translation reprinted entire in the Collections of the New York Historical Society for 1814 ; and the main facts again republished, with other valuable matters relating to the West, in a note from J. Q. Adams to the Spanish minister, in the twelfth volume of American State Papers, in 1819. A still more glaring case of carelessness, and one that may well excite a smile, occurs in the first volume of Mr. Halls Sketches, (page 188,) where he enters into a learned discussion with regard to the probable reasons which governed those who planned the defences of old Fort Pitt; and concludes, that they must have been either led away by their military habits, in opposition to the dictates of pru- dence, or wished to awe the Indians by the show of unreal power ; all which argument is based upon the idea, that in those days there was little or no artillery west of the moun- tains. But Washingtons Journal, in 1753, speaks of eight pieces of cannon at the fort on French Creek, which he visited ; and Holmes could have informed Mr. Hall, that the fort, which the English had begun at the Fork of the Ohio, t was taken by the French, on the 17th of April 1754, with * All this passage is a reprint of part of the second of a series of Letters from the West, written by Mr. Hal] in 1520 for the Portfolio, and reprinted in a volume in London, 1825. We have no fault to find with Mr. Hall for reprinting his Magazine writings in his Sketches, as he has, in the Pref- ace stated the fact, that his volumes are compiled, not written anew. But we do think that one, who claims to be thought high authority, is blamable for reprinting periodical articles of an historical kind, in a permanent form, without revision and correction; particularly after having been so often ridi- culed for his disquisition upon the word chute (Letters from the West, p. 185); which he was very much puzzled by, though, apparently (see those Letters, p. 197, & c.) an adept in French. I Holmess./lnnels, (Vol. lip.53,) and Marshalls Life of Washington, (last edition, Vol. I. p.4,) speak of this fort, as on the southern branch of the Ohio, and as in possession of workmen employed by the Ohio Company; but Washingtons letters (Sparkss Writings of Washington,Vol. II. pp. 1, 6) show it to have been at the fork, and in possession of Virginia troops. 6 P~fty Years of Ohio. [July, eighteen pieces ; and that Braddocks advance, of twelve hundred men, carried to their field of defeat ten pieces while honest Frederic Post could have told him, that, on the 3d of December, 1758, after Forbes had taken Fort iDu Quesne, his party was greeted by its garrison with twelve great guns ~ * We mention these errors not from the mere love of fault- finding, the pleasures of which, however, neither critic nor gossip can dispute, but because we think entire accu- racy desirable, even in small matters, while it can yet be arrived at without long study. On this ground we shall no- tice whatever mistakes come in our way, and, where we err ourselves, trust that we may find a corrector in our turn. From what we have said, it must be evident, that, al- though the completion of the first half-century, since the settlement of Ohio, makes a notice of its progress natural and proper at this time, any thing like a complete view of that progress must be out of the question. Had we the materials, they could not properly be presented in a general sketch; and a critical examination could embrace, at any one time, in a work of this kind, but a small portion of the century and a half, elapsed since the first Europeans visited the Ohio valley. We shall, therefore, speak principally of the results, giving such details only as are least accessi- ble and most interesting. There were a few events, connected with Ohio, previous to the Revolution, which had a bearing upon her present condition. One was, the rejection by France, in 1755, of the offer, made by England, to give up all her claim to the territory west of a line drawn from the mouth of French Creek, f twenty leagues up that stream toward Lake Erie, and from the same point direct to the last mountains of Vir- ginia which descend toward the ocean. .f The Indians be- tween this line and the Mississippi xvere to be considered * Prouds History of Pennsylvania, Vol. II. Appendix. Fort Du Quesne was taken November 25th. I The spot where Franklin, Venango County, Pennsylvania, now stands. French Creek was in those times called by the French, Rivi~re awe Bceufs; and by the Enolish Beef River and Buffalo River. The Alleghany was called sometimes hy that name, sometimes Ohio; Wash- ington, in his Journal of 1753, uses both. French Creek was used by the French as their great thoroughfare to the Ohio. Secret .Journals of Congress, Vol . IV. p. 74. 1838.] Late Period of its ASettlement. 7 independent; but France was to retain Canada, and her settle- ments on the Illinois and Wabash. Had this offer been accept- ed, there is little doubt, from the ability always shown by the French in the management of the Indians, that their colonies would have been planted upon the Scioto, the Miami, and the Maumee; so that, even though the country had finally come under the control of the British colonists, it would have borne the marks of French manners, prejudices, and habits. Another event worthy of notice (we omit the war of 1756, as too well known to need comment,) was the proclamation of the King in 1763, after the treaty of Paris, forbidding his governors in America to grant any warrants of survey or patents for any lands beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic ocean from the west or northwest ; or upon any lands not ceded by the Indians.* The effect of this proclamation was to pre- vent all attempts to settle any part of what now forms the State of Ohio; which, had it been done by Virginia (within whose charter the Northwest Territory was thought to lie), would have been accompanied, probably, by the introduc- tion of slavery ; and at any rate by a tinge of monarchical feelings and ways of thought, that, in the twelve years which elapsed before the Revolution, might have obtained some foothold in that territory. In this manner, the soil of Ohio remained wholly un- touched by Europeans until the Revolution. And, during that struggle, it was preserved from settlement by the con- test which arose among the States with reference to the ownership of the vacant lands ; slavery being thus again prevented from entering its bounds, and the less worthy and moral kept back, until the settlers of Marietta and Cin- cinnati had given somewhat of a character to the popula- tion. Nor was this all; for, when Jeffersons proposal to exclude slavery from the Northwest Territory after 1800 was defeated, it was so by the favorers of slavery, all the free States voting for it; and yet it was to that defeat, that its total exclusion was owing, three years later. t Thus was the State, of which we write, reserved, apparently, until all was ripe, to try within her limits the experiment of dem * Land Laws, p. 84. See Old Journals, Vol. LV. p. 373. Danes Abridgment (Supple- ment), Vol. IV. Appendix, Note A. 8 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, ocratic institutions, originating under the most favorable cir- cumstances. The first men, that trod her soil as citizens, were soldiers of the Revolution; the companions and friends of Washington; and they went to a land which could, when they entered it, bear up, as it has been said, no other than freemen. The first step, that was taken towards settling the North- west Territory, was by the presentation of a memorial to Congress, from the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary army, entitled to land-bounties under the Resolves of Sep- tember 16th, 1776, and August 12th, 1780. * This me- morial was forwarded to General Washington by Rufus Putnam, upon the 16th of June, 1783; and by him was transmitted to the President of Congress, together with General Putnams letter, which gave at length his views respecting the settlement of the western country, and the location of military posts there. t But at that time the final grants of Virginia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts had not been made ; and the Federal lcgislature, upon the 29th of October, 1783, having under consideration a memorial from General Armand, resolved, that, much as they desired to fulfil their engagements to the officers of the army, they could not, at that time, assign to them any particular dis- trict. 4 We cannot enter into an examination of the protests, re- monstrances, and petitions, xvhich resulted in the cession, by all the States, of their vacant lands to the Union ; but Land Laws, p. 337. The letters relating to this petition were sent by Mr. Sparks to the Committee for the Celebration of the Settlement of Ohio, at Cincinnati, 1833, and were by them published, with the Oration of the day, & c. Land Laws, p. 339. Old Journals, Vol. IV. p. 304. The only account of the steps which led to the cessions of Virginia, & c. that is at all complete, is in Blunts Historical Sketch. The best state- ment of the grounds upon which Virginia and the other States claimed the West, is to be found in Secret Journals of Congress, Vol. III. p. 175. We may here notice an error in Blunts Sketch (p. 71.) which Mr. Chase has copied (p. 13.). After mentioning the Resolution passed by Congress upon the 30th of October, 1779, recommending Virginia to forbear from issuing warrants for unappropriated lands, Mr. Blunt says, Congress did not con- fine itself merely to remonstrances; but ordered Colonel Broadhead to be stationed in the western country, with a competent force to prevent intru- sions upon that territory. In the execution of these orders, that officer, in the month of October, 1779, being informed, that certain inhabitants of Vir- ginia had crossed the Ohio. he ordered them to be apprehended, & c. The date of the letter from Colonel Broadhead, informing Congress, that he had 1838.] First Steps towards a Settlement. 9 must content ourselves with the bare statement, that New York conveyed her claims to Congress on the 1st of March, 1781 ; that Virginia released hers upon the first of that month, three years later; xvhile Massachnsetts delayed till the 19th of April, 1785, and Connecticut till the 14th of September, 1786. Meanwhile, upon the 22d of October, 1784, the Five Nations had relinquished to the United States all their claims to the grounds west of Pennsylvania; and, upon the 21st of the following January, the Wyandots and Delawares, by the treaty of Fort Mcintosh (which post stood near the ground now occupied by Beaver, Pennsylvania), gave to the whites the whole south of what is now Ohio. t The Indian title being thus done away, and all the State claims but that of Connecticut given up, Congress, upon the 20th of May, 1785, passed their ordinance for the disposal of lands in the West. .j Under this ordinance, Thomas Hutch- expelled these Virginians from beyond the Ohio, is given in the Journals of Congress, and proves it to have been ~vritten four days before the passage of the Resolution, in consequence of which, Mr. Blunts account would lead us to think he was sent to the West ; in which sense Mr. Chase under- stood it; as he says, To enforce this recommendation (of October 30th) Colonel Broadhead was stationed in the Western country, & c. The facts were these; the General Assembly of Pennsylvania sent to Congress, early in 1779, a representation of the exposed state of their frontiers, then threatened by the Indians, acting under British incitement. This, upon the 25th of February, was sent to Washington; who, early in March, sent Colonel Broadhead to Pittsburg, as director of Indian affairs there. At that time the Delawares, who lived along the Ohio from the Muskingum towards Pittsbnrg, were divided; some, under White-eyes, being for peace, and others, under Pipe, for war. (See Thatchers Indian Biography, Vol. 11. p. 122.) Broadhead, called by them the Great Sun, more than once pre- vented a union of the whole nation against the Americans, by defending their property from the ravages of the frontier-men; and for this purpose acted as stated in his letter of October 26th; which says, expressly, that he turned the Virginians from the Indian lands, not the disputed territory. While acting to prevent the savages from being wronged by the whites, Broadhead offended many of the latter; but Congress agreed to support him, (Old Journals, Vol. III. p. 449.) and, when suits were brought against him, indemnified him, (Old Journals, Vol. IV. p. 153). For Washingtons letter, sending Broadhead to the XVest, see Sparkss Washington, Vol. VI. p. 205. In the Appendix to Vol. VIII. of that work are some remarks, by Mad- ison, on the opposition in Congress to the western claims of Virginia, & c. * Land Laws, p. 122. 1 Ibid. p. 148. t ibid. p. 349. It is worthy of remark, that the first ordinance reported to Congress, May 2Sth, 1784, proposed to divide the public lands into town- ships or hundreds of ten miles square, each divided again into a hun- dred parts; the plan next reported, April 26t1m, 1785, proposed townships seven miles square; and this, during the debate, was altered to six miles square, which was the size suggested by Putnam in 1783. VOL. XLVII.NO. c. 2 10 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, ins, Geographer of the United States, assisted by a sur- veyor from each State, proceeded to examine and divide the newly acquired territory. Among those, who at that time visited the region in question, was Colonel Benjamin Tupper. During the sum- mer and fall of 1785, this gentleman, acting as temporary surveyor for Massachusetts, made himself acquainted with the country about the Muskingum; and, being fairly carried away by its beauty and seeming fertility, was strongly instru- mental, it is believed, in causing its selection as the resting- place for the colony that went out nearly two years after- wards, under the patronage of the Ohio Company. Indeed, there is reason to think that Tuppers visit to the West was the immediate cause of the formation of that company; which resulted from a meeting of those entitled to land bounties, called through the newspapers by General Putnam and Colonel Tupper, in January, 1786. The meeting took place upon the 1st of March; the Ohio Company of Associates was organized; and the resolution taken, to collect a million dollars worth of certificates, and to em- ploy some one at the West, who should select a spot, for ~rhich they might definitely contract with Congress. Con- gress, on their part, showed a disposition to do all in their power to forward the settlement of the northwestern lands; and with that view, upon the 21st of April, 1787, passed a resolution, authorizing the sale of those surveyed townships, which might remain after the portion assigned the army had been drawn for, for public securities ; the sale to commence upon the 21st of the following September, and the price not to be less than one dollar per acre.* Before this public disposition of the lands commenced, however, it was the purpose of the Associates to make a separate contract for that part of the territory, which their agent in the West might select as most suitable. This agent was General Samuel Holden Parsons, who, as Indian commis- sioner, had, in the year 1786, visited the Ohio country as far down, at least, as the mouth of the Great Miami, where a treaty was concluded, on the 31st of January, with the Shawanoc nation. t This gentleman, in the spring of 1787, selected, after due examination, the same spot which had * Old Journals, Vol. IV. p. 739. 1 Ibid. p. 627. Land Laws, p. 258. 1838.1 First Steps towards a Settlement. 11 pleased Colonel Tupper, the valley of the Muskingum. At the mouth of this river he proposed to have the chief city, while the purchase was to stretch along the Ohio to the mouth of the Scioto,* so as to include the half of the rich valley that borders that stream. Many things acted as in- ducements to this selection; the beautiful scenery and rich soil upon the banks of the clear Elk-eye; t the protec- tion that would be afforded to the settlers by Fort Harmar, built in 1786, and then the frontier post; the near neighbour- hood of Western Virginia, from which men and food might be had in time of need ; the knowledge, that within the selected territory were coal, salt, and iron, ~ and (as strong an inducement as any) the expectation, then entertained, that through the Cuyahoga and Muskingum would be the commu- nication between the Ohio and Lake Erie, while the bulk of the Atlantic trade, it was thought, would pass the mountains from James River and the Potomac, and flow down the Kenhawa. One other thing is said to have influenced General Par- sons; this was the advice of sonie persons, that were supposed to be good judges, that he should not select the spot he did. The story is this, and, as our informant had it from General Rufus Putnam, we presume it to be correct. After General Parsons had examined the country immediately about the junction of the Muskingum with the Ohio, he proceeded up the valley of the former, that he might have a view of the interior. Having gone many miles, he met with one of the Zanes, four of which family were among the most noted of the frontier rangers. Zane was probably engaged in salt- * The Scioto was early famous for its rich bottoms; for forty miles on each side of it, says Dr. Franklin, in his albany Plan of Union, 1754, and quite up to its heads, is a body of all rich land; the finest spot of its big- ness in all North America. I The meaning of the Indian word Muskingum. t In the passage, part of which we have given, from Franklin, in 1754, he refers to the particular advantage of sea-coal in plenty, (even above ground,) in two places, which recommended the Scioto Valley. See Washingtons Correspondence, during 1785 6; particularly a let- ter to Knox (Sparkss Washington, Vol. IX. p. 110), in which he says, that the confluence of the Kenhawa and Ohio may in time be a more eligi- ble place than Pittsburg. Under the impression that it might be, the Ohio Company laid out, opposite to the Kenhawa, the town of Fairhaven; which is still but a small village, and will, probably, never be more. They founded Wheeling in 1770. See Sillimans Journal, Vol. XXX I. p. 3. 12 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, making at Salt Creek, which runs into the Muskingum, about ten miles below the present town of Zanesville. ~ Parsons, well knowing that the man he had chanced upon knew, from an acquaintance of fifteen years or more, the whole of what now forms the State of Ohio, asked his advice touching the location of the purchase which the Ohio Company proposed to make. Zane, having pondered the matter, and consulted with some of the old Delaware Indians that lived thereabout, recommended the General to choose either the Miami coun- try, or the valley of the Scioto, in preference to that which he xvas then examining. What it was that made Parsons doubt the good faith of the pioneer, we know not; but he came to the conclusion that Zane really preferred the Mus- kingum to any other point, and wished to purchase it himself when the sales should begin during the following September.~ This impression did away what little doubt still remained in his mind; and, returning to the east, he laid his proposal to contract with Congress for all the land along the Ohio, be- tween the seventh range of townships and the Scioto, and running back as might be afterwards agreed upon, before the directors of the Company of Associates. His choice being approved by them, be addressed a me- morial to the legislature of the confederation, asking them to empower the Board of Treasury to make the proposed con- tract. This memorial was reported upon on the 14th of July, the day after the passage of the well-known Ordinance of 1787 ; ~ and the report was passed~ and the Board authorized to make the contract, upon the 23d of that month. Infor- mation of this act of Congress having reached New York, Rufus Putnam and Manasseh Cutler, for themselves and their associates, wrote upon the 26th to the Board of Treas- ury, offering to accept the proposition of the report with some few variations, but providing that the company should receive no more land than they paid for. Three months * Sillimans Journal. Vol. XXXI. p. 84. This anecdote has been told, somewhat differently, in the .~qmerican Quarterly Review, for March, 1833, p. 100. Had the writer of that article looked at the contract made by the Ohio Company, he would not have said their choice was made when the first settlers were on their way to theWest; nor, had he thought a moment, would he have supposed Yankees so shift- less as to take any mans opinion pro or con, as conclusive in a matter of such importance. Old Journals, Vol. IV. p. 755. ~ Ibid. ./lppendiz, p. 17. Land Laws, p. 362. 1838.] Settlement of the Jlluskingum. 13 passed before the contract was finally concluded, * the in- denture bearing date October 27th; and, when the patents issued, in 1792, the million and a half of acres named in this contract were diminished to something over eleven hundred thousand ; the rise in continental certificates having pre- vented the Company from securing the sum they had ex- pected. In consequence of this non-performance, by the Associates, of their original plan, they lost the rich lands upon the Scioto, their western range of townships being the fifteenth. All being now ready for actual emigration, a plan of the city, which was to be built at the mouth of the Muskingum, was prepared in Boston; and, by a vote of the Company in November, one hundred settlers were to be sent forward at once ; being furnished with provisions while on the way to the new country, and taken into pay at four dollars per month, from their arrival at Pittsburg till the folloxving May. Each man was to provide himself with a good musket, bayonet, and cartridge-box; and if he had besides an axe and hoe, and the mechanic his needful tools, he was to be trans- ported free of cost. ~ Accordingly, in December, one party assembled at IDanvers, Massachusetts, and upon the 1st of January a second detachment left Hartford. Their route was the old road, nearly that followed by Braddock; and it was April before the united parties left the Youghiogany, and began to float doxvn toward their destined home; so that any who might have counted upon the wages which they were to receive after passing Pittsburg, and which were to be paid in land, must have found their farms but small, compared to their expectations. Upon the 7th of April, 1788, this little band of forty- seven persons landed, and encamped upon the spot where Marietta now stands ; and from that day Ohio dates her ex- istence. j The river, at whose mouth this first colony of the * These matters may be found at length in the Land Laws. The price of the land was to be one dollar per acre, subject to a deduction for bad lands, not to exceed 33 cents per acre throughout. One seventh of the purchase might he paid for by warrants for military bounties. I Careys Museum, 1787, Vol. II., (Jhronicle, page 14. Many of the facts which we state are derived from oral testimony, in tbe general accuracy of which we have full confidence; many others might be brought to light by examining the newspapers of the day. The measures taken by the Ohio Historical Society, at its last session, will make perma 14 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, new settlers placed itself, was noted, even then, as the scene of many interesting historical events. At the forks of the Muskingum, upon the 9th of November, 1764, Bouquet had received from the Indians two hundred and six persons who had been made captive during the short but bloody war of Pontiac.* Near that spot the first Protestant Christians that lived in Ohio, the Moravians, built their house of worship in 1772. f There dwelt the noble-spirited Logan ; 4: and the well-known peace chief of the liJelawares. Heckewelder labored upon its banks; there, upon the 16th of April, 1781, was born his daughter Maria, the first of the Buckeyes; fj and, in one year from that time, was enacted there the most disgraceful of all frontier acts, the murder of the Moravian Indiansif Upon these matters we cannot dwell; nor can we, in- deed, refer to more than a few events relative to the settle- ment made by Putnam and his companions. As this settle- ment was undertaken at a time when Jndian hostilities were much to be apprehended, the more remote savages having, the preceding fall, avowed their intention to oppose all attempts to civilize the northwestern wilderness, upon the ground that those, who had made the treaties of 1785 and 1786, were not authorized to do so, * * one of the most prominent objects of the settlers was the renewal of these treaties ; and the Indians were invited to meet the whites for that purpose in May, at a spot seventy or eighty miles up the Muskingum. Meanwhile, the governor, Arthur St. Clair, who had been appointed upon the 5th of the preceding nent the testimony of most of the early pioneers still living. See also some papers on the history of Ohio in the Western Monthly Magazine, for 183:3. * Bouquet published an account of his western expeditions of 1763 and 1764, in Philadelphia. The Indians gave up two hundred and six prisoners, and the Shawanese gave hostages for the delivery, in the spring, of a hundred more still in their hands. Holmes (annals, Vol. II. p. 131) says, Bouquet made peace with the savages; but he only agreed to the selection of emissaries to go and make peace with Sir William Johnson; he had no authority to make peace himself. t Doddridges Indian Wars, p. 257. * McClungs Sketches of Western s~drenture, p. 279. Thatchers Indian Biography, Vol. II. p. 122. jj Sillimans Journal, Vol. XXXI. p. 66. IT Ibid. p. 64. Doddridge, p. 248. The writer in Sillimans Journal says, Crawford was in this expedition; hut, from Doddridges account, we think this a mistake. ** Careys Museum, Vol. II. Chron. p. 2. 1838.] Settlement of the .Muskingum. 15 October, not having reached the West, it became necessary to erect a temporary government for their internal security for which purpose a set of laws was passed, and published by being nailed to a tree in the village, and Return Jonathan 1\leigs was appointed to administer them. It is a strong evidence of the good habits of the people of the colony, that, during three months, but one difference occurred, and that was compromised. * Indeed, a better set of men, altogether, could scarce have been selected for the purpose, than Put- nams little baud. Washington might well say, no colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has first commenced at the Muskingum. In- formation, property, and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a com- munity. t With the information which belonged to them xvas mingled a little of that pedantic love of ancient learning which tinged the better educated of those days. This showed itself in a meeting of the directors and agents held, July 2d, upon the banks of the Muskingum, for the purpose of naming the city which had just been laid out, and also the public squares. As yet the settlement had been called merely The iViuskin- gum, but the name Marietta was now formally given it, in honor of Marie Antoinette ; the square upon which the block-houses stood was christened Campus .Martius; the square No. 19, Capitolium; the square No. 61, Cecilia; and the great road through the covert way, Sacra Via.t Nor was the taste in English composition much more in accordance with that of our days, than the conceits just men- tioned. Of this we have evidence in an Oration, now before us, delivered upon the 4th of July, 1788, by James M. Yarnum, who, together with S. H. Parsons and John Arm- strong, had been appointed to the bench on the 16th of the previous October. ~ Western Monthly Magazine, 1833, Vol. I. p. 395. Sparkss Washington, Vol. iX. p. 384. t Careys Museum, Vol. lV. p. 390. In the fifth volume of that periodi- cal, page 284, is an account of the city of Athens, which the Spaniards at this time proposed to build at the mouth of the Missouri. On the very point where the rivers joined, was to be Fort Solon ; not for defence, how. ever, but for the retirement of the governor from the busy scenes of pub- lic employment! 16 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, The governor, as we have said, had not yet arrived, which fact gives occasion for the following passage. May he soon arrive! Thou gently-flowing Ohio, whose surface, as conscious of thy unequalled majesty, reflecteth no images but the grandeur of the impending Heaven, bear him, oh ! bear him safely to this anxious spot! And thou, beautifully-transparent Muskingum, swell at the moment of his approach, and reflect no objects but of pleasure and delight. But at the close of this first-fruit of Ohio literature, the Judge looked forward, xvith prophetic eye, to the fortunes of the just-entered wilderness; and, in these dim and seer- like terms, foretells the future. Religion and government commenced in those parts of the globe, where yonder glorious luminary first arose in his effulgent majesty. They have followed after him in his bril- liant course ; nor will they cease till they shall have accom- plished, in this vestern world, the consummation of all things. Religion inspires us with certain hope of eternal beatitude, and that it shall begin upon the earth, by an unreserved resti- tution to the common centre of existence. With what rapture and ecstasy, therefore, may we look forward to that all- important period when the universal desires of mankind shall be satisfied ! When this new Jerusalem shall form one august temple, unfolding its celestial gates to every corner of the globe ! When millions shall fly to it, as doves to their win- dows, elevating their hopes upoa the broad-spreading wings of millenial happiness ! Thea shall the dark shades of evil be erased from the moral picture, and the universal system appear in all its splendor ! Time itself, the era and the grave o fimper- fection, shall be ingulfed in the bosom of Eternity, and one blaze of Glory pervade the Universe It would appear that the Ohio listened to the prayer of the orator, for, upon the 9th, St. Clair arrived. The ordi- nance of 1787 provided two distinct grades of govern- ment for the northwest territory, under the first of which the whole power was in the hands of the Governor and the three judges, and this form xvas at once organized upon the Governors arrival. The first law, which was for regu- lating and establishing the militia, was published upon the This instrument is so well known, and so easy of access tha not thought it worth while to detail its provisions. , t we have 1838.1 Settlement of the 1llluskingum. 17 25th of July ; * and, the next day, appeared the governors proclamation, erecting all the country, that had been ceded by the Indians east of the Scioto river, into the County of Washington. t We have spoken of a proposal made to the Indians early in 1788, to hold a treaty with the whites in May, at a spot seventy or more miles up the Muskingum. The proposed meeting was delayed from time to time; but stores, presents, and other valuables xvere collected at the designated spot, to wait there until both nations were ready. Upon the 12th of July, however, a party of Chippewas attacked this post; and, though they were repulsed, and six of them made pris- oners by the Delaware Indians, who were friendly to the settlers, it xvas thought best to withdraw the stores to Fort Harmar, and there hold the treaty. ~ This was done, though the Indians could not be brought to conclusive action until the 9th of the following January, when the business was ended to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. The progress of the settlement, says a letter from the Muskingum, is sufficiently rapid for the first year. We are continually erecting houses, hut arrivals are faster than we can possibly provide convenient covering. Our first ball was opened about the middle of December, at which were fifteen ladies, as well accomplished in the manners of polite circles as any I have ever seen in the old States. I mention this to show the progress of society in this new world ; where I be- lieve we shall vie with, if not excel, the old States, in every accomplishment necessary to render life agreeable and happy. The emigration westward even at this time was very great; the commandant at Fort Harmar reporting four thou- sand five hundred persons as having passed that post between February and June, 1788; many of whom would have stopped on the purchase of the Associates, had they been ready to receive them. During the following year, and indeed until the Indians, who, in spite of treaties, had been committing small dep- redations all the time, stealing horses and sinking boats, went fairly and openly to war, the settlement on the Muskingum grew slowly, but steadily, and to good purpose. Chase, Vol. I. p. 92. t Careys Museum, Vol. IV. p.433. t Ibid. p. 203. Land Laws, p. 149. voL. xLvII.NO. c. 3 18 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, During the years from 1790 to 1795, it suffered severely, sometimes coming to the brink of destruction from famine and savage foes. But, when that war was ended, though its comparative sterility had become known, and thousands passed its barren hills scoffing, as they guided their keels to the richer regions about the Miami, its progress was of the most encouraging kind. The men, that stopped there, were those that were willing to work hard, and gain no more than independence after all; and the general character of the settlers about Marietta, from that time forward, afforded the best guaranty that the population of the Purchase would be industrious, persevering, and economical. On the rough knobs of Meigs, and Athens, and Washington, were laid the foundations of quite as much true wealth, as upon the fertile plains of the lower country ; for true wealth is as much in the habits of the tiller, as in the soil that is tilled. In later years, the Muskingum valley suffered very severe- ly from sickness ; and, xvhen the financial troubles of 1817 18 brought the richest citizens of Ohio to the verge of utter poverty, the poorer emi6rants from New England had cause enough to groan, and to lament that they had been persuaded to leave their homes. Marietta, says an epistle written about that time, I find a poor, muddy hole ; the mud here is more disagreeable than snow in Massachusetts. My advice to all my friends is not to come to this country. There is not one in a hundred but what is discontented; but they cannot get back, having spent all their property in getting here. It is the most broken country that I ever saw. Poor, lean pork at twelve cents ; salt, four cents ; poor, dry fish, twenty cents. The corn is miserable, and we cannot get it ground; we have to pound it. Those that have lanterns, grate it. Rum twentyfive cents a gill sugar thirty-seven cents a pound ; and no molasses! rVhis country has been the ruin of a great many poor people ; it has undone a great many poor souls for ever. The melancholy picture presented by this letter-writer was, even then, one half imagination. The idea of the corn being miserable, for instance, was, we presume, drawn from the shrivelled appearance of the southern and western corn, which, to a raw Massachusetts man, seems an evidence of worthlessness ; though we admit the lantern grating * to * Doddridge tells us, that this was in common use among the frontier settlers. 1838.] & ttlernent of the Jiluskingurn. 19 have been an evil, as also the absence of molasses ; and the mud of which our xvriter complains is a good objection to the whole Ohio valley to this day. At present the Ohio Companys purchase is but thinly settled, compared to other parts of the State; hut its popula- tion is, generally, of an excellent character. The expected communication through the Muskingum did not take place. That river is, at this time, undergoing improvements, that will make it as valuable for navigable purposes as it is now for its water-power; and along the Hockhocking valley also the State is constructing a canal. But the worldly xvell-being of that portion of Ohio, of which we have been speaking, is more in prospect than pos- session; and, much as has been said about the unlucky choice of the Associates, for their posterity and the world we believe that choice to have been an admirable one. We believe the day will come, when as perfect a union of knowledge and good habits with wealth, and the means of attaining xvealth, will be found in the purchase of the Company, as in any part of the State. The uplands of that region afford most ex- cellent xvheat lands ; ~ and the hill-sides, the best sheep pas- tures. Iron abounds in the immediate vicinity, and salt and coal extend through the whole district. Some of the salt- springs yield from two to four hundred bushels a day, and it is generally of excellent quality. The coal exists in un- known abundance, in veins from five to twelve feet in thick- ness; some above and some below the bottoms of the valleys.t We have here, therefore, all that can be wished of the means for acquiring comfort and wealth, and these means so placed as to demand toil and economy for their developement. This fact, united to the very admirable char- acter of the original settlers, and the slow gi-owth hitherto, leads us to think that General Parsons selection will, in the end, prove a very fortunate one. * For many sections, that were a few years since called barrens, and for which at tax-sales but from two to five cents an acre could be had, the pur- chasers are now paying to the original owners Congress price, as the land will bring from fifteen to twenty-five bushels of wheat to the acre. For a full account of the mineral wealth of the Purchase, see Dr. Hil- dreths excellent article in Sillimans Journal, Vol. XXIX. The State Geolo- gists (1S3S) state, that ~)rol)ably 12,000 square miles of Ohio are underlaid with coal, and 5000 with workable beds, aven ging six feet in thickness; each square mile of this thickness contains six millions of tons; and in England the annual consumption is but fifteen millions. 20 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, Having, in this brief manner, given an outline of the plant- ing of the first colony in Ohio, we next turn to the settlement of the Miami country, the most important, in immediate re- sults, of all the early settlements.* The region between the two Miamies of the Ohio ~ was early known to the whites as one of great fertility. In 1751, Christopher Gist, the agent of the old English Ohio Com- pany, went a hundred and fifty miles up the larger of those two streams ;] and in 1752 the English had made a fort, or trading station, among the Piankeshaws, a tribe of the Twig- twees, or Miamies, on what is now called Loramies Creek, forty-seven miles above Dayton; which post was attacked and taken by the French during that year. The Miami valleys were afterwards examined by Boone, during his cap- tivity among the Shawanese in 1778; fl and by the xvar par- ties, which Bowman and Clarke led against the Indian villages on the Little Miami and Mad River. But as the Shawanese were among the most inveterate enemies of the whites, and the unceasing plagues of the Kentucky settlers, no attempt was made to effect a lodgment near their towns until after the treaty made with them in January, 1786. During the spring of that year, Benjamin Stiles, of Redstone (now Brownsville), on the Monongahela, visited the newly ceded district, and, being much pleased with it, went to Phila- delphia for the purpose of interesting some of the leading men in its purchase and settlement. He was introduced to John Cleves Symmes, a representative in Congress from New Jer- sey. Mr. Symmes was so much interested by the accounts given him of the beauty and fertility of the Miami region, that he determined to visit it himself, which he did; though * In 1800 the population of the Miami country was 15,000, one third of that in the whole State; in 1790 it was two thirds of all in the State, viz. 2000; in 1810, more than one quarter, viz. 70,000. Beside the Great and Little Miami emptying into the Ohio, there were two rivers of that name which eniptied into the Lakes; one was the Mau- mee; the other, running into Lake Michigan, was, according to some, the Chicago, according to others, Fox River, arid, as a few think, the St. Jo- sephs. We may take occasion, in some future paper, to examine this ques- tion and others connected with it, Sparkss Washington, Vol. II., pp. 37, 480. Land Laws, p. 148. Sparkss Works of Franklin, Vol. IV. p. 71. Careys Aluseum, Vol. II. p. 324. IT Cincinnati Directory, for 1819, p. 16. The historical sketch in this vol- ume was compiled from the evidence of the first settlers then alive. 1838.] Settlement of the Miami Country. 21 at what period precisely we do not know. Finding the representations of his informant to fall short of, rather than exceed the truth, he applied himself, upon his return, to the task of interesting others in the proposed purchase ; and, on the 29th of August, 1787, wrote to the President of Con- gress, requesting that the Board of Treasury might he em- powered to contract with him and his associates for all the lands between the 1\Jiami rivers, and running as far north as the north line of the Ohio Companys purchase; the terms of the contract to he substantially the same as those to he made with Messrs. Sargent, Cutter, and Co. His peti- tion was referred to the Board, with authority to contract upon the 2d of the following October.* Upon the 26th of the next month Symmes issued a pam- phlet, addressed to the respectable public, stating the terms of this contract, and the scheme of sale which he pro- posed to adopt.t This was, to issue his xvarrants for not less than a quarter section (a hundred and sixty acres), which might he located anywhere, except, of course, upon reservations, and spots previously chosen. No section was to he divided, if the warrant held by the locator would cover the whole. The price was to he sixty-six cents and two thirds till May, 1788; then one dollar till November; and, after that time, was to he regulated by the demand for land. Every locator was bound to hegin improvements within two years, or forfeit one sixth of his purchase to whosoever would settle thereon and remain seven years. Military bounties might be taken in this as in the purchase of the Associates. For himself Symmes retained one township at the mouth of the Great Miami, at the junction of which stream with the Ohio he proposed to build his great city; to help the growth of which he offered each alternate lot to any one that would build a house and live therein three years. As Continental certificates were rising, in consequence of the great land purchases then making with them, and as difficulty was apprehended in procuring enough to make his first payment, Symmes was anxious to send forward settlers early, that the true value of his purchase might become known tract. * Land Laws, p. 372. See Land Laws for the terms, and final settlement of Symmes Con- 22 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, at the East. He bad, however, some difficulty in arranging with the Board of Treasury the boundaries of the first por- tion which he xvas to occupy.* In January, 1788, Matthias Denman, of New Jersey, took an interest in Symmes purchase, and located, among other tracts, the section and fractional section upon which Cincin- nati has been built.t Retaining one third of this particular locality, he sold another third to Robert Patterson, and the remainder to John Filson ; and the three, about August, 1788, agreed to lay out a town on the spot, which was de- signated as being opposite Licking River, to the mouth of which they proposed to have a road cut from Lexington, Kentucky, to be connected xvith the northern shore by a ferry. Mr. Filson, who had been a schoolmaster, was ap- pointed to name the town; and, in respect to its situation, and as if with a prophetic perception of the mixed race that were in after days to inhabit there, he named it Losantiville, which, being interpreted, means rule, the town, anti, opposite to, os, the mouth, L, of the Licking.~ TI~is may well put to the blush the Campus .lklartius of the Marietta scholars, and the Fort Solon of the Spaniards. What the connexion may have been, it is out of our power to say; but Mr. Filson was killed in about a month from this time by a single Indian, near the Great i\liami. IL\Jeanwhile, in July, Symmes got thirty people and eight four-horse wagons under way for the West. These reach- ed Limestone (now Maysville) in September, where they found Mr. Stiles with several persons, from Redstone. But the mind of the chief purchaser was full of trouble. He had not only been obliged to relinquish his first contract, which was expected to embrace two millions of acres, but had failed to conclude one for the single million which he now propos- ed taking. This arose from a difference between him and the government, he wishing to have the whole Ohio front between the Miamies, while the Board of Treasury wished to confine him to twenty miles upon the Ohio. This propo * Manuscript Letters of Symmes. Many facts relative to the settlement of Cincinnati we take from the depositions of Denroan, Patterson, Ludlow, and others, contained in the report of the chancery trial of City of Cincinnati vs. Joel Williams, in 1807. ~ Cincinnati Directory, for 1819, p. 18. Symrnes Letters. Pattcraons Deposition. 1838.1 & ttlement of the .llliarni Country. 23 sition, however, he would not for a long time agree to, as he had made sales along nearly the xvhole Ohio shore. ~ Leav- ing the bargain in this unsettled state, Congress considered itself released from its obligation to sell ; and, but for the re- presentations of some of his friends, our adventurer would have lost his bargain, his labor, and his money. Nor was this all. In February, 17SS, he had been appointed one of the judges of the Northwest Territory, in the place of Mr. Armstrong, xvho declined serving. This appointment gave offence to some; and others xvere envious of the great fortune which it was thought he would make. Some of his associates complained of him, also, probably because of his endangering the contract to xvhich they had become par- ties. With these murmurs and reproaches behind him, he saxv before him danger, delay, suffering, and, perhaps, ulti- mate failure and ruin; and, although hopeful by nature, appar- ently he felt discouraged and sad. However, a visit to his purchase, where he landed upon the 22d of September, revived his spirits ; and, upon his return to Maysville, he * It may be as well to give here a sketch of the changes made in Symmes contract. His first application was for all the country between the Miamies, running up to the nurth line of the Ohio Companys purchase, extended due west. On the 23d of Octoher, 1767, Congress resolved, that the Board of Treasury he authorized to contract with any one for tracts of not less than a million acres of Western lands, the front of which, on the Ohio, Wabash, and other rivers, should not exceed one third the depth. On the 15th of May, 1788, Dayton and Marsh, as Symmess agents, concluded a con- tract with the Commissioners of the Treasury for two millions of acres in two equal tracts. In July, Symmes concluded to take only one tract, hut differed with the Commissioners on the grounds stated in the text. After much negotiation, upon the 15th of October, 1768, Dayton and Marsh con- cluded a contract with government bearing date May 15th, for one milFon of acres, beginning twenty miles up the Ohio from the mouth of the Great Miami, and to run back for quantity between the 1~Iiami and a line drawn from the Ohio parallel to the general course of that river. In 1791, Symmes found this would throw his purchase too far back from the Ohio, and applied to Congress to let him have all between the Miamies, running back so as to include a million acres, which that body, on the 12th of April, 1792, agreed to do. When the lands between the Miamies were surveyed, however, it was found that the tract south of a line drawn from the head of the Little, due west to the Great Miami, would include less than 600,000 acres; but even this Symmes could not pay for, and, when his patent is- sued upon the 30th of September, 1794, it gave him and Isis associates but 248,540 acres, exclusive of reservations, which amounted to 63,142 acres. This tract was bounded by the Ohio, the two Miamies, and a due east and west line, run so as to comprehend the desired quantity. As Symrnes made no farther payments after this time, time rest of his purchase reverted to the United States, who gave those that had bought under Synimes ample pre- emption rights. See Land Laws, pp. 372 382, a seq. 24 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, wrote to Jonathan Dayton, of New-Jersey, who had be- come interested with him, that he thought some of the land near the Great Miami positively worth a silver dollar the acre, in its present state. But, though this view of the riches now almost within his grasp somewhat reassured Symmess mind, he had still enough to trouble him. The Indians were threatening; in Ken- tucky, he says, they are perpetually doing mischief; a man a week, I believe, falls by their hands ; but still govern- ment gave him little help toward defending himself; for, while three hundred men were stationed at Muskingum, he had but one ensign and seventeen men for the protection and defence of the Slaughter-house, as the Miami valley was called by tl1e dxvellers upon the ~ dark and bloody ground of Kentucke. And, when Captain Kearny and forty-five soldiers came to Maysville in December, they came without provisions, and but made bad worse. Nor did their coming answer any purpose; for, when a little band of settlers were ready to go, under their protection, to the mouth of the Miami, the grand city of Symmes that was to be, the ice stove their boats, their cattle were drowned, and their provisions lost, and so the settlement was prevented. But the fertile mind of a man like our adventurer could, even under these circumstances, find comfort in the anticipa- tion of what was to come. In the words of Return Jona- than Meigs, the first Ohio poet with whom we have any ac- quaintance, To him glad Fancy brightest prospects shows, Rejoicing Nature all around him glows; Where late the savage, hid in ambush, lay, Or roamed the uncoltured valleys for his prey, Her hardy gifts rough Industry extends, The groves bow down, the lofty forest bends; And see the spires of towns and cities rise, And domes and temples swell into the skies. * But alas! so far as his pet city was concerned, glad Fancy proved but a gay deceiver; for there came an amazing high freshet, and the Point, as it was, and still is called, was fifteen feet under water. But, before Symmes left Maysville, which was upon the 29th of January, 1789, two settlements had been made with- in his purchase. The first xvas by Mr. Stiles, the original * A Poeni delivered at Marietta, July 4th, 1789, slightly altered. 1838.] Settlement of the Little .Miiami. 25 projector of the xvhole plan; xvho, with other Redstone peo- ple, had located themselves at the mouth of the Little Miami, where the Indians had been led by yhe great fertility of the soil to make a partial clearing. To this point, on the 18th of November, came twenty-six persons, xvho built a block-house, named their town Columbia, and prepared for a winter of want and hard fighting. ~ But they were agreeably disappointed the Indians came to them, and, though the whites answered, as Symines says, in a blackguarding manner, the savages sued for peace. One, at whom a rifle was presented, took off his cap, trailed his gun, and held out his right hand ,by which pacific gestures he induced the Americans to consent to their entrance into the block-houses. In a few days this good understanding ripened into intimacy, the hunters fre- quently taking shelter for the night in the Indian camps and the red men and squaws spending whole days and nights at Columbia, regaling themselves with whiskey. This friendly demeanor on the part of the Indians was owing to the kind and just conduct of Symmes himself; xvho, dur- ing the preceding September, when examining the country about the Great Miami, had prevented some Kentuckians, who were in his company, from injuring a band of the savages that came witbin their power ; which proceeding, he says, the Kentuckians thought unpardonable. The Columbia settlement was, however, like that proposed at the Point, upon land that was under water during the high rise in January, 1789. But one house escaped the deluge. The soldiers were driven from the ground-floor of their block-house into the loft, and from the loft into the solitary boat xvbich the ice had spared them. This flood deserves to be commemorated in an epic; for, while it demonstrated the dangers to which the three chosen spots of all Ohio, Marietta, Columbia, and the Point, must be ever exposed, it also proved the safety, and led to the rapid settlement of Losantiville. The great recommen- dation of the spot upon xvhich Penman and his comrades proposed to build their ilYlosaic town, as it has been call- ed, appears to have been the fact that it lay opposite the VOL. XLVII.NO. C. 4 * Cincinnati Directory, for 1819, and Symmes Letters. The land at this point was so fertile that from nine acres were raised 963 bushels of Indian corn. 26 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, Licking ; the terms of iDenmans purchase having been, that his xvarrants were to he located, as nearly as possible, over against the mouth of that river; though the advantage of the noble and high plain at that point could not have escaped any eye. But the freshet of 1789 placed its superiority over other points more strongly in view than any thing else could have done. We have said, that Filson was killed in September, or early in October, 1788. As nothing had been paid upon his third of the plat of Losantiville, his heirs made no claim upon it, and it was transferred to Israel Ludlow, who had been Symmess surveyor. This gentleman, with Colonel Patter- son, one of the other proprietors, and xvell known in the Indian wars, with about fourteen others, left Maysville upon the 24th of December, 1788, to form a station and lay off a town opposite Licking. The river was filled with ice from shore to shore~; but, says Symmes, in May, 1789, perseverance triumphing over difficulty, they landed safe on a most delightful high bank of the Ohio, where they founded the town of Losantiville, which populates consider- ably. It is a curious fact, and one of many in Western history, that may well tend to shake our faith in the learned discus- sions as to dates and localities with which scholars noxv and then amuse the world, that the date of the settlement of Cin- cinnati is unknown, even though we have the testimony of the very men that made the settlement. Judge Symmes says, in one of his letters, On the 24th of December, 1788, Colonel Patterson, of Lexington, who is concerned with Mr. Denman in the section at the mouth of Licking river, sailed from Limestone, & c. Some, supposing it would take about two days to make the voyage, have dated the being of the Queen City of the West from December 26th. This is but guess-xvork, hoxvever; for, as the river was full of ice, it might have taken ten days to have gone the sixty-five miles from Maysville to the Licking. But, in the case in chan- cery to which xve have referred, we have the evidence of Patterson and Ludlow, that they landed opposite the Licking in the month of January, 1789; while William McMil- lan testifies, that he was one of those who formed the settle- ment of Cincinnati on the twenty-eighth day of December, 1788. As we know of nothing more conclusive on the 1838.] Settlement of Cincinnati. 27 subject than these statements, we must leave this question in the same darkness that we find it, and proceed to more cer- tain events. The settlers of Losantiville built a few log huts and block- houses, and proceeded to lay out the town; though they placed their dwellings in the most exposed situation, yet, says Symmes, they suffered nothing from the freshet. The Judge spent a little time with them, and then fell down to North Bend,* accompanied by the small army which had been allowed him for his protection. Here they built a camp, by setting txvo forks of saplings in the ground, a ridgepole across, and leaning boat-boards, which had been brought from Maysville, one end on the ground and the other against the ridge-pole; enclosing one end, and leaving the other open for a door, where the fire was built to keep out the cold, which was very intense. Finding his point to be so low, that a city could not be safely built there, unless, as he says, you raise her like Venice out of the waters, he surveyed the grounds between the north bend of the Ohio and the 1\Jiami; thinking a plan might be arranged so as to have the advantage of both rivers still, it being but a mile across the isthmus. He found the land, however, to be too hilly and broken, and was forced to content himself with a small town-plat reaching a mile and a half along the Ohio, of which he offered the alternate lots to settlers, of whom forty came within two months, and built themselves comfortable log cabins. But his longing for a city still continued; and, after much consideration, he determined in favor of a spot twelve miles up the Miami, and within half an hours ride from North Bend ; he preferred this to the Ohio shore, because he thought it better to concentrate the trade of the Miami val- ley, than to be one of many cities along the larger stream. The Miami was then considered navigable, and was for many years afterwards navi~ated by keel and flat boats; and, in Symmess estimation, the country about the river was supe- rior in point of soil, water, and timber, to any tract of equal dimensions to be found in the United States. The hope that a great city was to arise at this point, long continued to So called, from its being the most northerly bend of the Ohio below the mouth of the Kenhawa. 28 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, comfort the harassed mind of the projector; and when St. Clair informed him, that he was about to visit and organ- ize the Miami purchase, Symmes doubted much xvhether a new toxvn which he had laid out at South Bend, or Losanti- yule, would be best fitted for the county seat; but, as the former was more central, thought, that, if it were made the county town, it would probably take the lead of the present villa6e (Losantiville) until the city can be made somewhat considerable. But the mind of this persevering and just man, which bad never been at ease since he first embarked in the enterprise of reclaiming the wilderness, was to be still further tried. The Kentuckians, seeing that he, by his clemency, his mod- eration, and his firmness, still remained on good terms with the Indians, and that settlers were flocking to his lands, represented the boasted fertility of the soil as a lie, and the safety of the settlers as a delusion. Some even threatened to make it so, by destroying every Indian they could find in the Miami purchase. The soldiers that xvere with him were idle, disobliging, and burdensome. His surveyors and set- tlers xvere at times put to great shifts from want of bread. Continental certificates were rising, and his purchase was en- dangered by the difficulty of obtaining them. l\Iany, that had bought of him on speculation, threw up their contracts. Then came information, that the British were urging the Indians to xvar; and his expected recruits did not come. Next was actual warfare, and his settlers left him, fifty at one time. And, to complete his disquiet, his friends beyond the mountains wrote to him, that great attempts would be made to turn him from the bench; that he xvas universally disliked, almost hated, by the settlers, and that his eastern co-propri- etors were displeased by his management. The perils of warfare Symmes xvas prepared to meet. At the beginning he had said, Disasters I expect; if I can prevent a defeat, it is as much as I hope for the first year; We may talk of treaties as we please ; I am certain we must fight or leave the ground. And now that the day of trial was near by, he shrunk not. What xvill be the issue, he says, God only knows. I shall maintain the ground as long as I possibly can, ill prepared as we are. I can hut perish, as many a better man has done before me. But dislike and opposition, which his heart assured him he 1838.] Settlement of Cincinnati. 29 had not merited, he did not meet without suffering. While yet on his way to the West in the summer of 1788, he said of his accusers, that the only revenge he wished to have against them was, that they might have equal success in their views, attended with equal calumny and censure; for which he thought he had pretty good security, if they undertook to do business for many; and the bitterness, which he then tasted, was increased every year that he lived. It was not destined, however, that this frontier post of the West should perish. In June, a force of a hundred and forty men was sent to Cincinnati; and Fort Washington was com- menced, upon the spot since made classic by the Bazaar of Mistress Trollope. In December, this band was increased to four hundred and forty, by the arrival of General Harmar, who was about to march against the Indians of the Maumee and Wabash. At this time Losantiville contained eleven families and twenty-four bachelors, beside the garrison. In January, 1790, the governor and judges arrived at that village for the purpose of organizing the county; which Symmes, whom the governor complimented with the honor of naming it, called Hamilton, after the well-known Alex- ander, then Secretary of the Treasury. At this time, also, the name of Losantiville was abandoned, and Symmes and St. Clair adopted that of Cincinnati, or, as the former wrote it, Cincinnata, in honor of the order of the Cincinnati, and to denote the chief place of their residence. The name is a good one, but the place ill suited for the residence of those honorable knights, whose constitution could not even withstand the semi-aristocratic air of the seacoast. In the spring of 1790, various stations xvere formed and garrisoned in the neighbourhood of Cincinnati ; and Gen- eral Harmar began to prepare for his campaign against the old Miami village at the junction of the St. Josephs and St. Marys, though he was not able to leave till the following September. Of his march, his ill success, amounting to a vir- tual defeat, and the outburst of savage warfare that followed, we shall not speak, as they may be found in any history of those times~ The return of the troops, mournful as it was, had its ray of comfort, however, for our adventurer. It is impossible, he says, to describe the lands over which the army passed ; I am told that they are inviting, to a charm. But in 1791 came new troubles. It was found that it would 30 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, be very hard, if not impossible, for Symmes and his com- rades to pay for the million of acres, extending twenty miles only on the Ohio, as so much of it lay hack from that stream that he could not find purchasers. And this brought him into conflict, in some way, with St. Clair, a self-willed and arbi- trary man, who had, also, about this time, seen fit to pro- claim military law in a part of the town of Cincinnati an act xvhich the Judge thought bordered hard on tyran- ny. And when Symmes offered to accompany the gov- ernor in the expedition for which he was then preparing, his Excellency gave him an answer that led him to think his presence would be rather disagreeable than otherwise. Next came the fear, that Congress might open a land-office, and, by competing with, ruin him; and then the panic that resulted from St. Clairs defeat on the 4th of November, 1791. When the news of that event reached the settlers, they left their farms with scarce an exception; dismay went through the whole West ; and a savage xvarfare commenced, that for two years and eight months nearly equalled that of 1763. These things were all sources of great discomfort and loss to Symmes, who had, amid them all, but one cause for joy, and that a poor and unchristian one ; the general dislike that was brought upon his old foe, St. Clair, whose pride, no doubt, he was very glad to see humbled. We say nothing of the particulars of that generals de- feat, because they are well known. The effect was, as we have said, dreadful. It almost stopped emigration ; nor was confidence felt again until the decisive victory of Wayne, in August, 1794, which led to the treaty of Greenville in the same month of the year following. When the knoxvledge that peace had been made with the Indians became general, however, all Kentucky, as Symmes says, and the back parts of Virginia and Penn- sylvania ran mad with expectations of the laud-office open- ing in the West; they laugh me full in the face, when I ask them one dollar per acre for first-rate land, and tell me, they will soon have as good for thirty cents. Even his North Bend settlers left him, to push their fortunes in those interior valleys, of which the soldiers of St. Clair and Wayne gave such descriptions. The mere prospect of a treaty diminished the population of his young town one half, and its completion gave his hopes almost a death-blow. So 1838.] Settlement of Dayton. 31 uniformly unfortunate was this founder of the most thriving colony of the Ohio, that warfare and peace, prosperity and adversity, seemed equally to injure his interests ; and, to complete the picture, he was now at variance with his friend and adviser, iDayton. But we cannot follow any farther his individual fortunes. No man ever seemed in a surer path to wealth, influence, and honor, than Judge Symmes when he first began his western operations. He was a man of good sense and very general information ; just, kind, courageous, and persever- ing ; but he had still some faults, xvhich, co~5perating with that fatherly but inscrutable Providence which governs all our external fortunes, thwarted his projects, destroyed his most promising plans, and involved him in quarrels and lawsuits, so that at last he died poor and neglected. But the cloud that is still upon his memory will one day rise. It is clear that, in despite of his failings,, he was a true and high-minded man; and the future historian of Ohio will feel, as he exam- ines his character, that it is one upon which he may dwell with pride. From the conclusion of the treaty of Greenville, the rapid growth of the Miami valleys may be dated; for, after that time, but one great event occurred to embarrass the settlers of that region. This was the failure on the part of Symmes to pay for much of the land which he had sold. But even this difficulty was almost entirely removed by the pre~mption laws to which we have referred. The country lying about the junction of Mad River and the Miami, was one of the most valuable portions which were in this situation. Seven- teen days after Waynes treaty, that is, upon the 20th of August, 1795, this tract was purchased of Symmes by St. Clair, James Wilkinson, Jonathan Dayton, and Israel Ludlow, who, during the next month, sent surveyors to lay out their purchase; and, in November, Mr. Ludlow named and surveyed the town of Dayton, now one of the most flourishing in the State. The settlement of the new town began in the following April. When it was found, however, that this purchase would not be included in Symmes patents, the proprietors re- fused to accept the benefit of the pre~mption law, and aban- doned their contract; which was taken by Daniel C. Cooper, who realized a fortune from it. 32 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, From Cincinnati and Dayton, settlers spread in every direction. And it xvas not till the country was pretty well filled, that the towns began to grow; the population of Cin- cinnati increasing but two hundred persons from 1 SOO to 1805, while the whole region back receiv~ed about twenty- five thousand emigrants during that time. The great causes of the rapid advance of the Miami country were, its fertility, ease of access, healthful charac- ter, and uncommon amount of water-poxver. The l\Jus- kingum and Scioto valleys are not so broad as those of the Miamies ; and the uplands between these last-named streams being upon limestone, while those about the former are based on sandstone, are richer, as well as more level. But the superiority of the Miami country, in respect to water- power, was still more striking. Though as yet but poorly improved in proportion to its capabilities, it at this time moves a very great amount of machinery; as may be seen by the following statement, which we take from a letter written to us by an inhabitant of Dayton, the population of which in 1833 was but three thousand four hundred. We have within our corporation three cotton factories a carpet factory, four stories high, one hundred by forty feet, and now turning out one thousand yards of Ingrain and Vene- tian carpeting weekly ; a gun-barrel manufactory, four stories high, which sends its work through the whole Mississippi val- icy from Illinois to Louisiana; three large establishments for the making of machinery ; a large merchant flour mill ; a fulling mill ; a saw mill, with a lath factory, and machine for jointing, planing, and grooving hoards ; and an establishment for sawing stone All these works are driven by the water of Mad River; and we hope soon to see three times as much more in operation. A company has been formed and char- tered to bring the water of this river from a point three miles from town, and throw it into the canal (Miami), above all the works now in use. They will be able to use all the water of the river at one point, with a fall of seventeen feet. Mad River, above the town, affords mill-sites for many miles, at an average distance of about a mile apart. This writer also says, that, nine miles above Dayton on the Miami, the whole of that river may be applied, with a fall of from thirteen to sixteen feet. And, in addition to these streams, are four large creeks with falls; twelve locks 1838.1 Products of the Miami Country. 33 upon the canal; and several springs affording water enough for mills; in one case a single spring acts upon three suc- cessive xvheels of twenty-five feet each. With such advantages of situation and soil, the valleys of the Miami rivers must become thickly settled and highly cul- tivated. A canal already connects the interior with Cincin- nati, and in a few years, beyond a doubt, the whole region from that city to Lake Erie will be traversed by a canal and a railroad; while from Cincinnati, as a centre, will radiate, in addition to these, a most admirable Macadamized turnpike- road, (now in a great measure finished) ; a canal and a railroad to Indiana; three other McAdam turnpikes, already construct- ed in part, two to meet the National road in Ohio, and the third to reach the centre of Kentucky; and that giant railroad, which, crossing Kentucky, Tennessee, and South Carolina, with branches to North Carolina and Georgia, is to rival the Mississippi, and make the West and the South one, as the West and Southwest are already one. * The population of the region in question, though, like that of all very fertile countries, less generally hardworking than that of the more hilly tract purchased by the Ohio Company, is, to a very uncommon degree, industrious and sober. In the neighbourhood of Dayton great numbers of Germans are settled; and their steady, straight-forward, plodding habits exert a good influence over our more fickle and enterprising countrymen. Some idea of the nature and amount of the productions of the country lying back of Cincinnati may be had from the following return of articles received at that point by the Mi- ami canal, during the year ending December 1st, 1837. 89,000 bushels of corn, 75,000 barrels of flour, 22,000 pork, beside nearly three million pounds of bulk pork, and 1900 hogsheads of hams and shoulders, 54,000 barrels of whiskey, 249,000 pounds of butter, (printed in the canal report kegs.) * The Licking is also to be made navigable by slack-water improvements, now in progress. This river runs into the heart of Kentucky. VOL. XLVII.NO. c. 5 34 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, The exports of Cincinnati in 1826 amounted to but one million of dollars; in 1835 they were computed by an ac- curate observer at more than six millions. This includes, beside receipts by the canal and wagons, the produce in pork, lard, & c. of 162,000 hogs, driven to Cincinnati, and there killed; and also one hundred steam-engines, two hun- dred and forty cotton-gins, twenty sugar-mills, and a great va- riety of other manufactured articles of all kinds ; the results of more than fifty steam-factories at work in and about the city. This same writer gives the following calculation of the exports of 1836. Of Pork $3,000,000 Flour 600,000 Whiskey 750,000 Iron manufactures 2,000,000 Hats, books, & c 1,350,000 Sundries 400,000 $8,100,000 During that year, also, there were built in Cincinnati, thirty-five steamboats, costing $850,000. In illustration of the rapidity of the increase in the Miami valley, as compared with that of the Ohio Companys pur- chase, the following facts are worthy of attention. In 1834, the average value of lands * in Washington county, was, by tax appraisement, $1 ~23 per acre; in Meigs county, ~92; in Athens county, ~63; in Gallia county, 1 ~05. These are in the tract bought by the Associates. Let us now look at Symmess purchase. Hamilton county, $1000; Montgom- ery county, 4~53; Butler county, 604; Warren county, 511 Turning from the fortunes of the two main settlements made in Ohio before the final peace with the Indians, we come to the history of Galliopolis. j- And here we must confess our extreme deficiency of materials, although many of the original settlers are still residing in their city of the * This does not show the real value of the land, the appraised value being but about forty per cent. on the true value; but, for comparison, it answers as well as if it were nearer the truth. I Commonly written Gallipolis. 1838.1 Settlement of Gctllipolis. 35 French. And to this deficiency is added confusion, which we have in vain tried to do entirely away. In May or June, 1788, Joel Barlow left this country for Europe, authorized to dispose of a very large body of land in the West.* In 1790, this gentleman distributed propo- sals in Paris, for the sale of lands, at five shillings per acre, which promised, says Volney, a climate healthy and de- lightful; scarcely such a thing as frost in winter; a river called, by way of eminence, The Beautiful, abounding in fish of an enormous size; magnificent forests of a tree from which sugar flows, and a shrub xvhich yields candles; veni- son in abundance; without foxes, wolves, lions, or tigers no taxes to pay; no military enrolments; no quarters to find for soldiers. Purchasers became numerous, individuals and whole families disposed of their property; and, in the course of 1791, some embarked at Havre, others at Bordeaux, Nantes, or Rochelle, each with his title-deed in his pock- et. t Five hundred settlers, among whom were not a few carvers and gilders to his Majesty, coachmakers, friseurs and peruke-makers, ~ and other artisans and artistes equally well fitted for a backwoods life, arrived in the United States in 1791 92; and, acting without concert, travelling without knowledge of the language, customs, or roads, they at last managed to reach the spot designated for their residence, after expending nearly, or quite, the whole proceeds of their sales in France. They reached the spot designated ; but it was only to learn, that the persons whose title-deeds they held did not own one foot of land, and that they had parted with all their worldly goods merely to reach a wilderness, which they knew not how to cultivate, in the midst of a people of whose speech and ways they knew nothing, and at the very moment xvhen the Indians were carrying destruction to every white mans hearth. Without food, without land, with little money, no experience, and with want and danger closing around them, they were in a position, that none but French- men could be in without despair. Who brought them to this pass ? Volney says, the Scioto Sparkss Washington, Vol. IX. p. 386. View of the Climate and Soil of the United States, 4.c.Tbe sugar-tree was the maple, and the wax-bearing myrtle the shrub that yielded candles. f Brackenridges Recollections, p.42. 36 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, Company, which had bought of the Ohio Company; Mr. Hall says, in his Letters from the West (p. 137), a com- pany who had obtained a grant from the United States; and, in his Statistics of the West (p. 164), the Scioto Com- pany, which was formed from or by the Ohio Company, as a subordinate. Barlow, he says, was sent to Europe by the Ohio Company; and by them the lands in question were conveyed to the Scioto Company. Kilbourn says, the Scioto Land Company, which intended to buy of Congress all the tract between the westcrn boundary of the Ohio Com- panys purchase and the Scioto, directed the French settlers to Gallipolis, supposing it to be west of the Ohio Companys purchase, though it proved not to be. TFh Company, he tells us, failed to make their payments, and the whole pro- posed purchase remained with government. * The last we believe to be the true account. No other connexion existed, so far as we can learn, between the Ohio and Scioto companies than this, that some persons were stockholders in both; so that the want of good faith, charged by most writers on those of whom the French bought, can- not apply in any degree to the Ohio Company. Nor do we know that there was a want of faith at all; the lands were believed to be xvhat Barlow represented them. A contract with government was to have been regularly made, and funds (as we learn) were collected toward the payment. But the treasurer of the Company became bankrupt, and the funds were lost, how we knoxv not. The spot to which the I rench were directed was supposed to be xvithin the limits of the intended purchase; and, once there, the Company, which had failed, could do nothing for them. As we hold it to be good philosophy, as well as true charity, to choose of two sufficient causes that which involves the least moral guilt, we should ascribe that mingling of private and com- pany concerns, which seems to have ruined the latter, to want of care, and not want of honesty. But, whatever doubt there may be as to the causes of the suffering, there can be none as to the sufferers. The poor gilders, and carvers, and peruke-makers, who had followed a jack-a-lantern into the literally howling wilderness, found that their lives depended upon their labor. They must clear the Kilbourns Gazetteer, 1831. 1838.1 Settlement of Gallipolis. 37 ground, build their houses, and till their fields. Now the spot upon which they had been located by the Scioto Com- pany was covered in part with those immense button-xvood or sycamore trees, which are so frequent along the rivers of the West, and to remove xvhich is no small undertaking even for the American woodman. The coachmakers were wholly at a loss ; but at last, hoping to conquer by a coup-de-main, they tied ropes to the branches, and while one dozen pulled at them xvith might and main, another dozen went at the trunk with axes, hatchets, and every variety of edged tool, and by dint of perseverance and cheerfulness at length over- came the monster; though not without some hair-breadth escapes; for, when a mighty tree, that had been hacked on all sides, fell, it required a Frenchmans heels to avoid the sweep of the wide-spread branches. But, when they had felled the vast vegetable, they were little better off than be- fore; for they could not move or burn it. At last a good idea came to their aid ; and, while some chopped oil the limbs, others dug, by the side of the trunk, a great grave, into which, with many a heave, they rolled their fallen enemy. Their houses they did not build in the usual straggling American style, but made two rows or blocks of log cabins, each cabin being about sixteen feet square ; while at one end was a larger room, which was used as council-chamber and ball-room. In the way of cultivation they did little. The land was not theirs, and they had no motive to improve it; and, more- over, their coming was in the midst of the Indian war. Here and there a little vegetable garden was formed ; but their main supply of food they were forced to buy from boats on the river, by which means their remaining funds were sadly broken in upon. Five of their number were taken by the Indians ; food became scarce ; in the fall, a marsh behind the town sent up miasmata that produced fevers then winter came, and, despite Mr. Barlows promise, brought frost in plenty; and, by and by, they heard from beyond seas of the carnage that xvas desolating the fire-sides they had left. Never were men in a more mournful situation; but still, twice in the week, the whole colony came together, and to the sound of the violin danced off hunger and care. The savage scout that had been lurking all day in the thicket, 38 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, listened to the strange music, and, hastening to his fellows, told them, that the whites would be upon them, for he had seen them at their war-dance ; and the careful Connecticut man, as he guided his broad-horn in the shadow of the Vir- ginia shore, wondered what mischicf the red-varmint were at next ; or, if he knew the sound of the fiddle, shook his head, as he thought of the whiskey that must have been used to produce all that merriment. But French vivacity, though it could work wonders, could not pay for laud. Some of the Gallipolis settlers went to Detroit, others to Kaskaskia; a few bought their lands of the Ohio Company, who treated them with great liberality arid, in 1795, Congress, being informed of the circumstances, granted to the sufferers twenty-four thousand acres of land opposite Little Sandy River, to which, in 1798, twelve hundred acres more were added; which tract has been since known as French Grant. The influence of this settlement upon the State was unim- portant; but it forms a curious little episode in Ohio history, and affords a strange example of national character. Marietta and Cincinnati with their outposts, and Gallipolis, were the only settlements made in Ohio before Waynes treaty. After that event, the Scioto valley and the West- ern Reserve were rapidly peopled ; but we are unable to give any facts of value relating to their settlement. The tract between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers had been originally reserved by Virginia for her soldiers ; but, as she allowed locations to be made without having the ground pre- viously surveyed into regular portions, a great deal of over- lapping, or shingling of titles (as it is called in the West), has taken place; and the uncertainty and litigation, therefrom resulting, have diminished the value of a very excellent body of land ; the higher portions being among the best wheat lands in the West. The fertility of the Scioto valley is proverbial. For the cultivation of maize it is unsurpassed, and the stock-farms which border upon it are among the largest and best in the State. The valley itself is subject to that miasma which produces intermittent fevers; but this is yearly diminishing. East of the Scioto lies a broken country, through which, from the southwest to the northeast, passes the great iron deposite. There are several beds, and different kinds of 1838.] WesterrL Reserve. 39 ore, all of which dip toward the east. With the iron is asso- ciated bituminous coal; which, though of an ordinary quality in general, and in thin layers, answers for the steam-engines which are used at the furnaces. The amount of available ore in the counties of Jackson, Lawrence, and Scioto, it is estimated by the State geologist, will supply four hundred thousand tons a year for two thousand seven hundred years and these contain but a third or fourth of the whole deposite, though, from their proximity to the Ohio river, it has been little wrought but in them; there being in the txvo last-named counties fourteen or fifteen furnaces, producing an average of one thousand tons of pig metal a year. Nor can we omit the Buhrstone deposite, which, adjoining the iron, passes through the very midst of a country that will, in time, be yellow with wheat-fields ; and which, for milling purposes, there is reason to think will afford stone nearly or quite equal to the French, when the same skill is used in selecting the blocks. But that portion of Ohio, which at this time is most flour- ishing, all things considered, is the Western Reserve, or Connecticut Reserve. This district was retained by Con- necticut when she made her transfer to the United States, in 1786, though against the judgment of many of our wisest statesmen.* In 1800, however, the right of jurisdiction was relinquished by the State to the Union, and patents were issu- ed by the United States to the governor of Connecticut, for the use of those persons who had previously bought from her ; ~ by which means all difficulties were quieted. The Reserve included all the land north of the forty-first degree of north latitude, and extended west from Pennsylvania one hundred and twenty miles4 It is a level and fertile country ; and, though much of it was so wet, when covered with forests, that it was thought by many to be of little value, it has be- come dry as it has been opened to the sun, and presents at this time as fine an extent of arable and meadow land as can be seen anywhere; diversified, in the southern counties, by little lakes of crystal clearness; and, in point of cultivation, * Old Journals, Vol. IV., pp. 645 648. Sparkss Washington, Vol. IX. p. 178. I Land Laws, p. 104. The writer in Sillimans Journal, for October, 1836, p. 34, says, the Reserve is bounded south by the Ohio. As it is not marked on our maps, this might mislead sonic. 40 P~fty Years of Ohio. [July, fences, and buildings, no district in the West surpasses, if there be any that equals, the Reserve. This is in part owing to the habits of the original settlers, who were princi- pally from Connecticut and Aiassachusetts; and in part to the fact, that the ground has to be well cleared, ditched, and cultivated, in order that it may be productive. A soil that demands labor that it may be made to yield, and yields a large return when that is given, is the soil that xvill make its owners most independent; and that boasted fertility of the prairies, which requires little or no pains on the part of the farmer, however much it may suit maiis love of ease, is a misfortune, not a blessing. The Reserve is peculiarly fitted for grazing, and is fast becoming a great cheese and butter making region; some of the cheese made there, is not unlike the Stilton cheese of England. Vast numbers of cattle are also raised there for the market. In point of mineral wealth, this district is not wanting, as the great iron deposite crosses it, and the coal- beds reach its southern borders. And, in respect to water- power, it is, at one point, unsurpassed; the Cuyahoga fall- ing, at the new town called Cuyahoga Falls, two hundred and forty feet in two miles and a half; and affording from four to twenty thousand cubic feet of water per minute. * This point is destined, beyond doubt, to be one of immense importance. The Ohio Canal is within two miles; and the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal will pass directly through the town, connecting this point, by complete water communica- tion, with New York and New Orleans; and by canal and railroad, with Philadelphia. Every acre in its neighbourhood is capable of cultivation; and coal, lime, and freestone are found in the immediate vicinity. Of the people of the Reserve we have spoken. They are hard-working and sober. Not more than half the town- ships, it is said, assess any poor tax. The temperance reform has been more general here than in any other part of Ohio. Thousands have abandoned distilling, notwithstanding its pro- fits; and many farmers will not sell their corn for distillation. The young, also, are taught that industry and economy, which their fathers learned in New England. We have * Ohio Gazetteer, article, Cuyaleoga. Sillimans Journal, for October, 1836, p. 45. 1838.1 Territorial and State Governments. 41 known three Western Reserve boys leave home for Con- necticut to get their education, with fifteen dollars among them, and reach New Haven with twelve still in their pock- ets)@ But such journeys are no longer necessary, as the people of the Reserve are building colleges for themselves. The section of Ohio xvhich was last settled, was the north- west corner; that portion having been retained by the In- dians until 1819.f Since it came into the market, it has been rapidly filling up, the land being of an excellent quality, and well watered; and, when the Miami Canal shall be com- pleted to the Maumee, as it will be in a year or two, this will be a very thriving section. Here, also, is a great water- power, the Maumee falling from sixty to seventy feet in the eighteen miles above Perrysburg. Having thus glanced at the different portions of the State whose fiftieth birthday was commemorated last April, we will but ask our readers to bear with us a little longer, while we touch upon some points in which the State at large is concerned. The first form of Territorial government was organized in July, 1788; the governor, and most of the leading men of that day, being Federalists. In September, 1799, the legislature, which the people were at that time, under the Ordinance, entitled to elect, assembled at Cincinnati. This body very naturally possessed some of the democratic tem- per, then prevalent; and the free use, which the governor made of his veto power, caused some clashing between the representatives and himself. In November, 1802, Con- gress having passed an act authorizing the formation of a State government, a convention met at Chillicothe to form a constitution. This convention was very thoroughly Jef- fersonian ; and the result of its meeting was a thorough democratic constitution. Of the excellences and defects of this instrument, we have not time to speak; but they are those of a truly popular form of government. Neither can we say any thing, in detail, of the laws that have been passed * The Reserve boys cannot compete with the native Yankees, however; one of whom, a year or two since, being in the South of Ohio, and wishing to go home, bought him a cow, and, trudging at her heels with his book, lived on her milk and what he got in exchange for it, and sold her at an advance, when he reached his point of destination. Land Laws, p. 187, et seq. VOL. XLVII.NO. c. 6 42 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, by the State legislature. They have, in the main, evidenced the good sense and correct principles of the people. The great faults have been, haste in their preparation, continual change, and too much local legislation; all which have re- sulted from too great a love of making laws.* But there are three things xvhich have had, and will here- after have, so great an influence upon the fortunes of Ohio, that we cannot close without a reference to their history; we mean steam-boats, canals, and common schools. The idea of using steam in the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi occurred to Mr. James Rumsey, of Virginia, as early as the year 1782.t In 1784, his invention had been made known to Washington, who mentions it at the close of his letter to Governor Harrison, respecting inter- nal improvements, dated October 10th of that year ; and speaks of it more fully in a letter to Dr. Williamson, written upon the 15th of the following March4 Mr. Itumsey also obtained, in 1784, patents from two States; but his plan, which was essentially to pump up water at the head of the boat, and force it out again at the stern (xvhich pumping and forcing xvere to be done by an old-fashioned atmospheric steam engine), did not ever come into use, though the model of it worked well. From that time, until Fulton determined to try his steam- boats on the western waters, people contented themselves with arks, keels, and flats. In 1811 and 1812, Mr. Fulton caused to be built at Pittsburg the Orleans, of four hundred tons. She left that place in December, 1812, and, passing down the river, presented for the first time to the dwellers upon its banks the spectacle of a self-moving boat. But, though this did very well for a voyage down the stream, it was found to be even less available than the keel-boat for the passage against the stream ; and, from 1812 to 1816, it was thought hopeless to make a steam-boat that should stem the current and ascend the rapids of the Mississippi and Ohio. In 1816, however, Captain Henry M. Shreve (since famous * Ohio has now thirty-six volumes of general laws. In 1837, were print- ed one hundred and forty-four pages of general, and six hundred and seventy-eight of local laws. Cincinnati Directory, for 1819, p. 64. Sparkss Washington, Vol. IX. pp. 68, 104. Cincinnati Directory, for 1819, p. 55. 1838.] Steam-boats and Canals. 43 as the inventor of the snag-boats, or Uncle Sams tooth- pullers, as the river-men call them,) built at Wheeling the Washington, having one large boiler on her upper deck; and, though she was so unlucky as to burst this boiler while at Marietta on her way down, * sbe reached New Orleans in safety; and, returning to the Falls, first convinced the mer- chants and mariners of the West that such boats might su- persede the keels. But even after this many doubted ; and, when the first boat, the Vesta, was built at Cincinnati, in 1817, those best fitted to judge, scoffed at the idea, that she could bring freight up stream cheaper than the keel-boats Gentlemen, said the builder, a sanguine, and as they thought, mad man, you now pay five and six dollars a hundred from New Orleans ; but we shall some of us live to see steam doing the work for one half that. He and they have lived to see it reduced to one eighth. We need say nothing as to the immense influence which has been exerted upon the whole West by the use of steam- boats; their value is self-evident. At present, between six and seven hundred are plying upon the waters that discharge themselves through the i\lississippi. But, vast as must have been the effect of rapid and cheap carriage upon the great rivers and lakes, it would have done but little toward developing the resources of Ohio without those roads and canals which connect the interior with the coast. Long after steam-boats were in full operation, a wet fall and heavy roads made it so difficult to get produce to a market, that wheat-stacks rotted where they stood, or were r to the swine, as not being worth the threshing. given ove Now, the farmer in the interior may put his cheese or pork into the canal-boat, and, without touching land again, it passes to either extremity of the Union. The great New York canal was suggested by Gouverneur Morris, in 1777 ; t but, as early as 1774, Washington tells us, that he had thought of a system of improvements by which to connect the Altantic with the Ohio ; ~ which sys- tem, ten years later, he tried most perseveringly to induce Virginia to act upon with energy. In the letter to Governor * Sillimans Journal, for October, 1836. p. 1. The writer erroneously states the Washington to have been the first Western steam-boat. Sparkss Life of Morris, Vol. I. p. 497. t Sparkss Washington, Vol. IX. p. 31. 44 P~fty Years of Ohio. [July, Harrison, to which we referred a page or two back, he also suggests, that an examination be made as to the facilities for opening a communication, through the Cuyahoga, and Mus- kingum or Scioto, between lake Erie and the Ohio. Such a communication had been previously mentioned by Jeffer- son, in March, 1784 ; he even proposed a canal to connect the Cuyahoga and Big Beaver. * Three years later, Wash- ington attempted to interest the federal government in his views, and exerted himself, by all the means in his power, to learn the exact state of the country about the sources of the Muskingum and Cuyahoga. ~ After he was called to the presidency, his mind was employed on other subjects ; but the whites, that had meantime begun to people the West, used the course, which he had suggested, (as the Indians had done before them,) to carry goods from the Lake to the settlements on the Ohio; so that it was soon known defi- nitely, that upon the summit level were ponds, through which, in a wet season, a complete water connexion was formed between the Cuyahoga and Muskingum. From this time till 1817, the public mind underwent various changes; more and more persons becoming con- vinced that a canal between the heads of txvo rivers was far less desirable, in every point of view, than a complete canal communication from place to place, following the valleys of the rivers, and drawing water from them. In 1815, Dr. iDrake, of Cincinnati, proposed a canal from some point on the Great Miami to the city in which he re- sided ; j and in January, 1818, Mr., afterwards Governor Brown, writes thus, Experience, the best guide, has tested the infinite superiority of this mode of commercial intercourse over the best roads, or any navigation of the beds of small rivers. In comparing it xvith the latter, I believe you will find the concurrent testimony of the most skilful and experienced engineers of France and England, against the river, and in favor of the canal, for very numer- ous reasons. In accordance with these views, Mr. Brown made every inquiry respecting the feasibility of canals from the mouth of * Jeffersons Correspondence, Vol. II. p. 222. See Sparkss Washington, Vol. IX. pp. 214, 291, 303, at seq. Drakes Picture of Cinci nati, p. 224. Cincinnati Director!,, for 1819, p. 73. 1838.] Roads and Canals. 45 the Cuyahoga to the Ohio, and from Dayton to Cincinnati; and in 1820, being then executive of the State, laid his views before the legislature. * Four years were devoted to making surveys and estimates, and arousing people to the utility of the proposed measure ; and, in 1824, two lines were definitely determined on, the one beginning at the mouth of the Scioto River, crossing by the valley of the Licking to the upper Muskingum, and thence to the Lake ; the second connecting Cincinnati with the Lake, by the valleys of the Great Miami, Loramies Creek, the Auglaize, and the Maumee. The subject was now ready for legislative action, and in February, 1825, an act was passed, authorizing the construction of the route from the mouth of the Scioto, through to the Lake; and of the other, to Dayton. The only opposition to this act was by some of the land-owners in the eastern part of the State, and most of them were finally led to change their views. The first cost of the Miami Canal, which connects Cin- cinnati with the fertile country lying back, was about $900,000, it being a little more than sixty-seven miles long. During the year ending October 3 1st, 1837, this canal received in tolls & c., deducting contingent expenses, about $ 57,000. The Ohio Canal cost $ 4,244,539 ; its length being three hundred and thirty-three miles. During the year ending October 31st, 1837, the net income was something over $2S0,000.t The Miami Canal has been since extended thirty miles beyond Dayton; and, at this time, the whole line, with the exception of fifty-three miles, is under contract, to its Junc- tion xvitb the Wabash and Erie Canal, near Defiance. The Wabash and Erie Canal begins at the head of steam- boat navigation upon the great river of Indiana; and after passing into Ohio, extends about eighty-seven miles and then enters the Maumee. The whole line is under contract. The other State works noxv in progress, are the Walhond- ing Canal, which passes from the Ohio Canal up the Wal- bonding or Whitewomans River, and which will ultimately be extended up the various branches of that river into the Chase, Statutes, Vol. I. p. 44. This is the net income paid into the treasury, without deducting re- pairs, & c. See abstract of statistics, at the close of this article. 46 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, counties of Richiand, Knox, Holmes, and Wayne; the Hocking Canal, by which the Ohio Canal and Ohio River will be connected; the Muskingum River improvements, by which the Ohio Canal and Muskingum will be connected, and the latter be made navigable for steam-boats; the national road; and a side cut from the Miami Canal, of twenty miles. In addition to these public works, are two company canals connecting the Ohio Canal and Ohio River at different points; the one entering Pennsylvania and passing down the Big Beaver River, the other entering the Ohio just at the State line ; and also the Whitewater Canal, connecting Cincinnati with the great Indiana Canal, and so with the whole interior of that State. There are also in progress, two railroads from Sandusky, one to connect with the Miami Canal at Dayton, the other running into the centre of Huron County. But perhaps the best idea that we can give of the com- mercial facilities, natural and acquired, of Ohio, will be by the following statement, showing the number of counties bordering on the Ohio and Lake Erie, and also how many are crossed by a canal, railroad, or Macadamized road, now actually made or in progress. There are in Ohio seventy-five counties. * Upon the Ohio River lie . . . . . 14 and, of these, seven have through their interior either a canal, railroad, or Macadamized road. Upon the Lake, lie . . . . . . 7 and, of these, three have through their interior a railroad or canal. Canals, now made or making, pass through . 32 Railroads, now in progress, pass through . . 6 Macadamized roads, made or in progress, pass through 5 Of the seventy-five, remain unimproved by canal, railroad, or McAdam road, though most have turnpike roads, . . . . . . 11 75 And nowhere, among those yet mentioned, have we includ- ed ten canal, and forty-one railroad companies, which have as yet done nothing; though, in some of the largest, suffi * Not including a new county erected last winter, called Erie. 1838.1 Common & hools. 47 cient stock is taken to enable them to begin operations as soon as the money market is easier. Nor should we omit to mention, that by a law of 1836- 7, when one half of the stock of a turnpike-road, or two thirds of that of a canal, or railroad, is taken by individuals, and the object is approved of by those who have charge of the public works of the State, the governor is authorized to subscribe in the name of the State for the balance. Under this law, in January last, nine turnpike-roads, three railroads, and two canals had been approved of by the Board of Public Works; and, in February, the State had become interested with indi- viduals and companies to the amount of $1,054,31P10. The third of these improvements, which have produced, and will produce, the most permanent influence on Ohio, is the system of common schools. The Ordinance of 1787 provided, that, religion, morali- ty, and knoxvledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of educa- tion shall be for ever encouraged. In the previous Ordi- nance of 1785, regulating the sale of lands in the West, Section No. 16 of every township was reserved for the mainwnance of public schools within the said township. And the Constitution of Ohio, using the words of the Ordi- nance of 1787, says, that schools and the means of instruc- tion shall for ever be encouraged by legislative provision. In accordance with the feelings shoxvn in these several clauses, the governors of Ohio always mentioned the subject of education with great respect in their messages, but nothing was done to make it general. It was supposed, that people would not willingly be taxed to educate the children of their poor neighbours; not so much because they failed to perceive the necessity that exists for all to be educated, in order that the commonwealth may be safe and prosperous; but because a vast number, that lived in Ohio, still doubted whether Ohio would be their ultimate abiding-place. They came to the West to make money rather than to find a home, and did not care to help educate those whose want of education they might never feel. Such was the state of things until about the year 1816, at which time several persons in Cincinnati, who knew the benefits of a free-school system, united, and commenced a correspondence with different portions of the State. Their 48 Fifty Years of Ohio. [July, ideas being warmly responded to, by the dwellers in the Ohio Companys purchase, and the Western Reserve more particularly, committees of correspondence were appointed in the different sections, and various means were resorted to, to call the attention of the public to the subject; among the most efficient of which was the publication of an Education .illrnanac at Cincinnati. This work was edited by Nathan Guilford, a lawyer of that place, who had from the first taken a deep interest in the matter. For seven or eight years this gentleman and his associates labored silently and ceaselessly to diffuse their sentiments, before any attempt was made to bring the subject into the legislature. At length, in 1824, it having been ascertained, that a strong feeling existed in favor of a common-school system through the eastern and northeastern parts of the State, and it being also known that the western men, who were then bringing forward their canal schemes, wished to secure the assistance of their less immediately benefited fellow-citizens, it was thought to be a favorable time to bring the free-school proposition for- ward ; the understanding being, that, as neither the friends of canals, nor those of schools, were strong enough by them- selves to carry their project, each should assist the other. This understanding, which was rather implied than ex- pressed, has led some to say, that the free-school system was attained by log-rolling; which saying, though true in one sense, is not to be understood in the sense that refers to individual solicitation and promise. On this occasion Cin- cinnati sent to the Senate Mr. Guilford, whose avowed and main object in thus entering public life was to help on the ac- complishment of his favorite project, and to that he devoted himself during the session. Many thought his toil useless some of the leading men said, the measure was unconstitu- tional, unxvise, and against popular feeling entirely; but they proved false prophets, as it was carried by a very large vote, and became a popular measure. The Reverend Manasseh Cutler, one of the leading directors of the Ohio Company, stood by the side of the chief projec- tor of the school-law at the bar of the House of Representa- tives when the final vote was taken upon it; and, as the Speaker announced the result, the old man raised his hands and uttered the words of Simeon, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for 1838.] Common Schools. 49 mine eyes have seen thy salvation ! It was a touching and true tribute. Mr. Guilford, having brought about the particular good which he had in view, became a private citizen again, setting to the common political aspirants of the country an example well worthy their consideration. He still lives, and praise would here be misplaced; but no one can doubt, looking only to the object he effected, that his name will ever be remembered with those of the great benefactors of Ohio and the West. During the thirteen years, that have passed since free schools were first established, some changes have been made in the laws respecting them, one of the most important of which was the appointment, eighteen months since, of a Superintendent, whose business it is to collect all the infor- mation possible respecting the state of the public schools, of the school funds, and of the effects of the system, which he is to make public annually, in the form of a Report to the legislature; and, to assist in the diffusion of his knowledge, he is, by the school law of the past winter, to publish a journal every second month, devoted to education. The Super- intendent made his first Report last January, which Report was very favorable, inasmuch as it represents the people throughout the State to be very anxious to have such meas- ures taken, as shall render the means of general education more accessible than they have yet been made. The Report contains sixty-five pages, and exhibits at length the evils of the present arrangement, with suggestions for the future; which suggestions, having been embodied in an act, were, in the main, adopted with great unanimity by the legislature, much of whose time and attention last winter was given to the subject of education. The great evils have been a want of funds, and an injudicious division of those that the State possessed. The idea now brought forward is, to have, yearly, two hundred thousand dollars, at least, distributed through the State, according to the number of youth in each township, on such principles as will secure to each township an equal additional sum, to be raised by the town- ships respectively; by which plan every child in the State would have about eighty cents yearly. For the present state of the school funds, we refer our readers to the statisti- cal abstract, at the close of this article. VOL. XLVII.NO. c. 7 F~fly Years of Ohio. 50 [July, Another legislative step, which showed the feeling that exists on the subject of education, was the commission given to Professor Stowe, two years since, to examine the public schools of Europe, whither he was going to purchase a libra- ry for Lane Seminary. His Report was made to the legis- lature during the last winter, and is a very interesting one clear, condensed, and practical. This feeling has shown itself also by education conventions, and in the yearly meet- ing of teachers, which takes place at Cincinnati. Nor have High Schools and Colleges been disregarded by Ohio, though it is the general feeling that they, as the Super- intendent says, will, as a natural consequence, grow out of good common schools. In the Ohio Companys purchase two toxvnships were given by Congress for a university, and its place of location xvas called Athens. The present in- come from the lands owned by this institution is four thou- sand dollars. There are four professorships, and, during 1835 6, this College had from ninety-five to one hundred students ; during the present year there are but fifty-three. There is another college at Marietta, established in 1832, which is doing very well. In the Miami neighbourhood are, the Miami University, at Oxford, Butler county, chartered in 1809, endowed with one township of excellent land, and now containing about one hundred and sixty students ;the Cincinnati College, at Cincinnati, incorporated in 1819, but, for many years pre- vious to 1835, entirely quiescent; now, however, in full op- eration again, having, in March last, an Academical IDepart- ment with one hundred and eighty-two scholars, most of them youths in the primary and preparatory classes ; a law class of eighteen; and a medical class of one hundred and twenty-five ; with eighteen teachers ; the Woodward Col- lege and High School, at Cincinnati, well endowed, and hav- ing about one hundred and fifty students; and the Lane Sem- inary, about two miles from Cincinnati, xvhich is now a pure- ly theological seminary, of the Presbyterian sect. This in- stitution, in March last, contained forty-two students, and five teachers; it also possesses a library of ten thousand volumes, which is, for its size, one of the most complete in the United States. In the Western Reserve, we have the Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Portage county, with one hundred and 1838.1 High Schools and Colleges. 51 seven scholars, two years since; the Willoughby University, in Cuyahoga county, incorporated in 1834, and but partially organized; and the Oberlin Institute, in Lorraine county, in- corporated in 1834, and containing, in 1836, three hundred and ten students, ninety-two of whom were girls. Besides these, are Kenyon College, at Gambia, Knox coun- ty, an Episcopal Seminary, with one hundred thousand dol- lars worth of property, and educating more than two hundred students ; Franklin College, in Harrison county, chartered in 1825, from which, in 1837, graduated nine young men; and two Medical colleges, one at Worthington, Franklin county, and the other at Cincinnati, the latter being a State institution. * We may also mention, in this connexion, the State Insti- tution for the Deaf and Dumb; the ninth Annual Report of which, in 1837, shows that one hundred and twenty-seven persons have received instruction therein; that for the Blind, opened a year since, and containing eleven pupils, under the temporary arrangement which exists until the building, now erecting, is finished ; and the Lunatic Asylum, which, it is thought, will be in operation during the coming autumm; the building (of two hundred and ninety-five feet front, and capable of containing one hundred and twenty patients, each having a room, beside officers, and those patients tbat require strict confinement,) being nearly completed. We have thus, in a hasty and incomplete, but we trust, not wholly useless manner, presented an outline of the ag- ricultural, manufacturing, and commercial advantages of the State of Ohio ; together with the prospect sbe has for afford- ing to all her children an ample intellectual education. We will now only point to some of the more prominent influences, that will bear upon the individual spiritual well-being of her citizens ; that object for which government, civiliza- tion, and knowledge, all exist; and leave our readers to prophesy, each for himself, her future destiny. The necessity for industry on the part of the people of Ohio, to which we have already referred, we regard as an important element toward determining the spiritual character of that people. To this we now add, the climate, that permits labor, and, during most of the year, makes it grateful; the absence of slavery, which prevents the un * For most of these facts we are indebted to the Ohio Gazetteer, of 1837. 52 F~fly Years of Ohio. [July, natural prejudice against bodily labor, which that institution produces ; the division of the soil among its tillers; their free- hold tenure; the mixed character of the people, in respect to religious faith, social views, political and sectional pre- judices, which mixture tends to make men less bigoted, and more catholic in their spirit; the ease with which every community is approached by those from other portions, which forbids local habits and prejudices; political freedom; a con- tinual striving for social equality, which is, in substance, an antagonism to a reverence for mere wealth and professional knowledge, unsupported by ability and worth; and a general disposition not to reject religion, but to refuse to receive any form of religious faith on the mere word of a teacher. These, with almost universal comfort in physical matters, and very general wealth; and, also, universal information; and every form of Christianity; are, we believe, the influ- ences that Ohio contains within herself for the future devel- opement of her children. Whether they may be expected, considered xvith reference to the external influences that will also bear upon her, to produce something like a Christian State, socially, politically, and religiously, all may judge as well as we. But if they do not, if, on the contrary, they lead to worldliness, and anarchy, and irreligion, are we therefore to despair? Because this people is not fitted for freedom, is freedom, therefore, not fitted for man? We re- ject all such views. Through freedom alone can man be- come what he should be; and, though America may but prove, what other lands have proved, each in its time, that he is still unfitted to escape wholly from pupilage, we look forward with not only hope, but faith, to the day when so- ciety shall be, not a mass of warring parties, but a Christian brotherhood ; and we do this because, in the past, we see man ever advancing to this point. In conclusion we give the following statistical abstract. POPULATION OF OHIO. By the census of 1830, it was 937,903, of which number 9,568 were free blacks. Now estimated at more than a million and a half, by the best judges. LANDS. Ohio contains about twenty-five million acres. In 1831, the United States still owned five million acres; 1837, they owned not more than three million. Statistical .abstract. 53 1838.] In 1834, seventeen million acres were returned for taxation, at an average value (excluding town lots) of a little less than three dollars 1837, the returns from sixty-one counties (those from four- teen not being reported) gave about fourteen millions and a half of acres. The value of the whole real estate of Ohio (fifteen million acres and town lots) in 1836, was estimated at $ 67,800,000 The Committee on Finance (March, 1838,) think it should have been . . . . ~00,000,000 Or, if the estimate be on twenty-two million acres, ~35,000,000 STATE REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE. Receipts during the year ending Nov. 15th, 1836, p205,992244 1837, 301,54328 Expenses 1836, 208,927617 1837, 9274,071~40 Of the Receipts for 1837, Taxes on assessed property, (lands and houses, town lots, merchants capital, pleasure car riacres, horses, and cattle,) . . . . 214,20915 Tax on banks, insurance companies, and bridge companies, . . . . . . . 48,37807 Tax on lawyers and physicians, . . . 1910~59 Tax on pedlers, . . . . . . 108608 Former appropriations repaid, about . . 3000~00 Of the Expenses for 1837. The legislature cost, . . . . . 49,98855 Stationery, . . . . . . . 10,68809 State officers and judges, . . . . 23,070~53 Large sums were expended on the public asylums, & c. The rate of taxation varies in the different counties. In Hamilton county, in 1837, it was about eighteen mills on the dollar ; three and a quarter for State and canal purposes, and nearly six and a half for county purposes. In Trumbull county, it was between twelve and thirteen mills. The Finance Coin- inittee estimate, on the present assessment of property, an average, through the State, of from eleven and a half to four- teen mills. For expenses of State government, 2 mills. canals, . . . . 2 schools, . . . roads, . . . . 2 sundries, . . . 3 Towns and cities, . . . 2~. 54 I~fty Years of Ohio. [July, This is on an assessment, which makes the whole property of Ohio but $ 91,250,000. The Committee think a true esti- mate would make it $291,000,000. So that taxes are only nominally high, on the true valuation; one mill and a half being enough for all purposes. STATE DEBTS.JANUARY 1st, 1838. Borrowed at 5 per cent. . . . . . $ 550,000 CC 6 CC *4,670,000 CC from School Funds, at 6 per cent. . 1,067,005 Other debts, amounting to nearly . . . 149,000 It is estimated that the cost of the public works, now in hand, will, with the above and the State subscription to private works, cause the State debt, in three or four years, to be $ 13,500,000. CANALS. Ohio Canal; net tolls to October 31st, 1837, $282,407~28 Expended in repairs and new work, to De cember 1st, 1837, . . . . . 155,75155 Miami Canal; net tolls to October 31st. 1837, 54,30712 Expenses, including large purchases of land, to obtain water power, . . . . . 85,635~96 Expenditures during 1837, on other State works, 436,29855 In 1835, Canal interest and expenses came to . 309,89P47 Their whole revenue, deducting repairs, 155,77759 CC 1836, Expenses were . . . . . 294,463~30 Revenue was but . . . . 138,930~33 CC 1837, Expenses were . . . . . 409,54054 Revenue . . . . . 280,78253 For 1838, the estimated expenses are . . 435,65600 CC CC CC revenue is . . 373,686~00 The above statements refer to all the State works, except the Wabash and Erie, and the Dayton and Maumee Canals; the interest upon the cost of which may be paid, it is thought, without taxes, in consequence of the public lands oive United States toward their construction. b a by the As yet, the net revenue from tolls on the canals, has not been more than three per cent, on the cost; and, while new works are making, that for some time yield little, this de- ficiency wili continue. On the Ohio and Miami Canals, the receipts are rapidly ap- proaching the interest on their cost; in 1838, allowing less This is from the Report of the Finance Committee; the Auditors Special Report, February 8th, makes it $ 1,200,000 more. 55 1838.] Statistical .flbstract. than the annual increase for some years past, we may expect the tolls to be, net, . . . . . $360,000 Repairs and superintendence, . . . 80,000 280,000 355,000 $75,000 Net revenue, ~+ per cent. Interest on their cost, (say, $ 6,000,000,) To be made up by taxes, & c. The following table shows the increase of the exportation of some of the staples, by the Ohio Canal, northward, through Cleveland; and also of the tolls. Wheat, bushels, Corn, Coal, mineral, Flour, barrels, Pork, Lard, pounds, 1833. 386,760 74,913 49,131 98,302 22,758 498,724 1834. 1836. 464,756 392,281 84,924 167,539 13,496 636,409 1837. 548,697 280,374 184,646 207,593 43,613 1,555,536 333,868 2,653 95,634 105,326 33,884 825,648 Tolls received at Tolls received on whole Tolls received on Cleveland. line of the Ohio Canal. both Canals. In 1833, $ 51,83574 $ 136,09270 $ 186,56333 1834, 62,73035 159,97723 210,01822 1836, 60,58336 206,86491 257,97543 1837, 80,05126 292,83610 355,76950 N. B. This account of tolls is of each year to December 1st; and therefore differs, somewhat, from the returns to Noveu~ber 1st, previously given. The great rise from 1636 to 1637 is, in part, owing to an increase in the rate of tolls. ScHooLs. Number of School Districts in Ohio, more than . . 8,000 Children between four and t~venty-one years, more than . . . . 500 000 Children at school, nearly . . . 228,000 Public Schools, 4,336 ? . 6,511 Private ~ 175 ) Teachers, male and female, about . 8,000 Amount paid teachers yearly, public and private, $ 465,738 Number of Schoohhouses, . . . . 4,378 School Fnusds. School lands sold, and proceeds funded, and, ex cepting $6,800, paying 6 per cent. . $ 1,153,23956 Proceeds of lands sold and not paid in, . . 400,00000 Lands unsold, but generally paying rent, . . 880,00000 56 Milton. [July, Interest on funded proceeds, and receipts from unsold lands, . . . . . . $ 88,78614 Taxes for school purposes, . . . . 140,00000 Interest on surplus revenue, . . . . 100,36300 Subscription, & c. . . . . . . 109,78800 To be paid for tuition to public schools, 1837 8, $ 438,937 14 N. B. The school lands include, beside the section given for education by the Ordinance of 17S5, lands given in lieu thereof in the Virginia Reservation, in the Connecticut Reservation, and in the United States Military District; and also the Salt Lands. In addition to the above revenue, the legislature, during the past winter, gave to the School Fund the tax on banks, & c.; and the whole revenue for 183S9, will be more than $500,000. PENITENTIARY. Receipts from labor of convicts, for the year end ing November 30th, 1837, . . . $42,92096 Expenses of every kind during that year, . . 34,76844 Net profit, . . . . . . . . 8,15232 To which should be added, labor of convicts on the Penitentiary itselg . . . . . 4,40545 $ 12,55797 Number of prisoners December 1st, 1836, 314 ) Received during the year 1837, . . 145 Discharged (26), pardoned (24), died, & c. . . . 67 December 1st, 1837, . . . 392 In 1835, were received 150 new prisoners; in 1836, 112; in 1837, 145. Of the 145 convicted during the last year, IS were guilty of burglary; 18 of counterfeiting; 47 of grand larceny; 20 of horse stealing. From New York, were 32 of them; 23 from Pennsylvania; 21 from Ohio; 11 from Virginia; and 15 from the New England States. ART. II. The Poetical Works of JOHN MILTON. A new Edition. 2 vols. Svo. Boston: Hulliard, Gray, and Co. 1836. THE discovery of the lost work of Milton, the treatise Of the Christian Doctrine, in 1823, drew a sudden at- tention to his name. For a short time the literary journals were filled with disquisitions on his genius; new editions of his works, and new compilations of his life, were published.

56 Milton. [July, Interest on funded proceeds, and receipts from unsold lands, . . . . . . $ 88,78614 Taxes for school purposes, . . . . 140,00000 Interest on surplus revenue, . . . . 100,36300 Subscription, & c. . . . . . . 109,78800 To be paid for tuition to public schools, 1837 8, $ 438,937 14 N. B. The school lands include, beside the section given for education by the Ordinance of 17S5, lands given in lieu thereof in the Virginia Reservation, in the Connecticut Reservation, and in the United States Military District; and also the Salt Lands. In addition to the above revenue, the legislature, during the past winter, gave to the School Fund the tax on banks, & c.; and the whole revenue for 183S9, will be more than $500,000. PENITENTIARY. Receipts from labor of convicts, for the year end ing November 30th, 1837, . . . $42,92096 Expenses of every kind during that year, . . 34,76844 Net profit, . . . . . . . . 8,15232 To which should be added, labor of convicts on the Penitentiary itselg . . . . . 4,40545 $ 12,55797 Number of prisoners December 1st, 1836, 314 ) Received during the year 1837, . . 145 Discharged (26), pardoned (24), died, & c. . . . 67 December 1st, 1837, . . . 392 In 1835, were received 150 new prisoners; in 1836, 112; in 1837, 145. Of the 145 convicted during the last year, IS were guilty of burglary; 18 of counterfeiting; 47 of grand larceny; 20 of horse stealing. From New York, were 32 of them; 23 from Pennsylvania; 21 from Ohio; 11 from Virginia; and 15 from the New England States. ART. II. The Poetical Works of JOHN MILTON. A new Edition. 2 vols. Svo. Boston: Hulliard, Gray, and Co. 1836. THE discovery of the lost work of Milton, the treatise Of the Christian Doctrine, in 1823, drew a sudden at- tention to his name. For a short time the literary journals were filled with disquisitions on his genius; new editions of his works, and new compilations of his life, were published. 1838.] His Contemporaneous Fame. 57 But the new-found book having, in itself, less attraction than any other work of Milton, the curiosity of the public as quickly subsided, and left the poet to the enjoyment of his permanent fame, or to such increase or abatement of it only, as is incidental to a sublime genius, quite independent of the momentary challenge of universal attention to his claims. But, if the nexv and temporary renown of the poet is silent again, it is nevertheless true, that he has gained, in this age, some increase of permanent praise. The fame of a great man is not rigid and stony like his bust. It changes with time. It needs time to give it due perspective. It was very easy to remark an altered tone in the criticism when Milton re-appeared as an author, fifteen years ago, from any that had been bestowed on the same subject before. It implied merit indisputable and illustrious; yet so near to the modern mind as to he still alive and life-giving. The aspect of Mil- ton, to this generation, will he part of the history of the nineteenth century. There is no name in literature hetween his age and ours, that rises into any approach to his own. And as a mans fame, of course, characterizes those who give it, as much as him who receives it, the new criticism in- dicated a change in the public taste, and a change which the poet himself might claim to have wrought. The reputation of Milton had already undergone one or two revolutions long anterior to its recent aspects. In his lifetime, he was little, or not at all, known as a poet, but ob- tained great respect from his contemporaries as an accom- plished scholar, and a formidable controvertist. His poem fell unregarded among his countrymen. His prose writings, especially the Defence of the English People, seem to have been read with avidity. These tracts are remarkable compositions. They are earnest, spiritual, rich with allusion, sparkling xvith innumerable ornaments; but, as writings design- ed to gain a practical point, they fail. They are not eflec- tive, like similar productions of Swift and Burke; or, like what became, also, controversial tracts, several masterly speeches in the history of the American Congress. Milton seldom deigns a glance at the obstacles, that are to be over- come before that which he proposes can be done. There is no attempt to conciliate, no mediate, no preparatory course suggested, but, peremptory and impassioned, he demands, on the instant, an ideal justice. Therein they are discriminat- VOL. XLVII. NO. c. 8 58 Milton. [July, ed from modern writings, in which a regard to the actual is all but universal. Their rhetorical excellence must also suffer some deduc- tion. They have no perfectness. These writings are won- derful for the truth, the learning, the subtilty and pomp of the language ; but the whole is sacrificed to the particular. Eager to do fit justice to each thought, he does not subordi- nate it so as to project the main argument. He writes whilst he is heated; the piece shows all the rambles and re- sources of indignation ; but he has never integrated the parts of the argument in his mind. The reader is fatigued with admiration, but is not yet master of the subject. Two of his pieces may he excepted from this description, one for its faults, the other for its excellence. The IDe- fence of the People of England, on which his contempora- ry fame was founded, is, when divested of its pure Latinity, the worst of his works. Only its general aim, and a few el- evated passages, can save it. We could be well content, if the flames to xvhich it was condemned at Paris, at Toulouse, and at London, had utterly consumed it. The lover of bis genius will always regret, that he should not have taken coun- sel of his own lofty heart at this, as at other times, and have written from the deep convictions of love and right, which are the foundations of civil liberty. There is little poetry, or prophecy, in this mean and rihald scolding. To insult Salmasius, not to acquit England, is the main design. What under heaven bad Madame de Saumaise, or the manner of living of Saumaise, or Salmasius, or his blunders of gram- mar, or his niceties of diction, to do with the solemn ques- tion, whether Charles Stuart had been rightly slain ? Though it evinces learning and critical skill, yet, as an historical argu- ment, it cannot be valued with similar disquisitions of Rob- ertson and Hallam, and even less celebrated scholars. But, when he comes to speak of the reason of the thing, then he always recovers himself. The voice of the mob is silent, and Milton speaks. And the peroration, in which he im- plores his countrymen to refute this adversary by their great deeds, is in a just spirit. The other piece, is his Areopa- gitica, the discourse, addressed to the Parliament, in favor of removing the censorship of the press; the most splendid of his prose works. It is, as Luther said of one of Me- lancthons writings, alive, hath hands and feet, and not 1838.1 His Modern Fame and Influence. 59 like Erasmuss sentences, which were made, not grown. The weight of the thought is equalled by the vivacity of the expression, and it cheers as well as teaches. This tract is far the best known, and the most read of all, and is still a magazine of reasons for the freedom of the press. It is val- uable in history as an argument addressed to a government to produce a practical end, and plainly presupposes a very peculiar state of society. But deeply as that peculiar state of society, in which and for which iMilton wrote, has engraved itself in the remem- brance of the world, it shares the destiny which overtakes every thing local and personal in nature; and the accidental facts, on which a battle of principles was fought, have already passed, or are fast passing, into oblivion. We have lost all interest in Milton as the redoubted disputant of a sect ; but by his own innate worth this man has steadily risen in the worlds reverence, and occupies a more imposing place in the mind of men at this hour than ever before. It is the aspect, which he presents to this generation, that alone concerns us. Milton, the controvertist, has lost his popularity long ago ; and if we skip the pages of Paradise Lost ~ where God the Father argues like a school divine,~~ so did the next age to his own. But we are persuaded, he kindles a love and emulation in us, which he did not in fore- going generations. We think we have seen and heard criti- cism upon the poems, which the bard himself would have more valued than the recorded praise of IDryden, Addison, and Johnson, because it came nearer to the mark; was finer and closer appreciation; the praise of intimate knowledge and delight; and, of course, more welcome to the poet than the general and vague acknowledgment of his genius by those able, but unsympathizing critics. We think we have heard the recitation of his verses by genius, which found in them that which itself would say; recitation which told, in the diamond sharpness of every articulation, that now first was such perception and enjoyment possible ; the perception and enjoyment of all his varied rhythm, and his perfect fusion of the classic and the English styles. This is a poets right for every masterpiece of art goes on for some ages reconcil- ing the world unto itself, and despotically fashioning the public ear. The opposition to it, always greatest at first, continually decreases and at last ends; and a new race grows 60 Milton. [July, up in the taste and spirit of the work, with the utmost advan- tage for seeing intimately its poxver and beauty. But it xvould be great injustice to 1\Jilton to consider him as enjoying merely a critical reputation. It is the preroga- tive of this great man to stand at this hour foremost of all men in literary history, and so (shall we not say?) of all men, in the power to inspire. Virtue goes out of hind into others. Leaving out of view the pretensions of our contemporaries (always an incalculable influence), we think no man can be named, whose mind still acts on the cultivated intellect of England and America with an energy comparable to that of 1\Iilton. As a poet, Shakspeare undoubtedly transcends, and far surpasses him in his popularity with foreign nations; but Shakspeare is a voice merely; who and xvhat he xvas that sang, that sings, we know not. Milton stands erect, com- manding, still visible as a man among men, and reads the Jaws of the moral sentiment to the newborn race. There is something pleasing in the affection with which we can regard a man xvho died a hundred and sixty years ago in the other hemisphere, who, in respect to personal relations, is to us as the wind, yet by an influence purely spiritual makes us jealous for his fame as for that of a near friend. He is identified in the mind with all select and holy images, with the supreme interests of the human race. If hereby we attain any more precision, we proceed to say, that we think no man in these later ages, and few men ever, possessed so great a con- ception of the manly character. Better than any other he has discharged the office of every great man, namely, to raise the idea of Nian in the minds of his contemporaries and of posterity, to draw after nature a life of man, exhibiting such a composition of grace, of strength, and of virtue, as poet had not described nor hero lived. Human nature in these ages is indebted to him for its best portrait. Many philosophers in England, France, and Gerr~any, have formal- ly dedicated their study to this problem; and we think it im- possible to recall one in those countries, who communicates the same vibration of hope, of self-reverence, of piety, of delight in beauty, which the name of Milton awakens. Lord Bacon, who has written much and with prodigious ability on this science, shrinks and falters before the absolute and un- courtly Puritan. Bacons Essays are the portrait of an am- bitious and profound calculator, a great man of the vulgar 1838.] His .7Vatural Endowments. 61 sort. Of the upper world of mans being they speak few and faint words. The man of Locke is virtuous without enthusi- asm, and intelligent xvithout poetry. Addison, Pope, Hume, and Johnson, students, with very unlike temper and success, of the same subject, cannot, taken together, make any pre- tension to the amount, or the quality, of Miltons inspirations. The man of Lord Chesterfield is unworthy to touch his garments hem. Franklins man is a frugal, inoffensive, thrifty citizen, but savours of nothing heroic. The genius of France has not, even in her best days, yet culminated in any one head, not in Rousseau, not in Pascal, not in Fen- elon, into such perception of all the attributes of humanity, as to entitle it to any rivalry in these lists. In Germany, the greatest writers are still too recent to institute a compari- son; and yet we are tempted to say, that art and not life seems to be the end of their effort. But the idea of a purer existence than any he saw around him, to be realized in the life and conversation of men, inspired every act and every writing of John Milton. He defined the object of education to be, to fit a man to perform justly, skilfully, and mag- nanimously all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war. He declared, that he who would aspire to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem; that is, a composition and pattern of the best and honorablest things, not presuming to sing high praises of heroic men or famous cities, unless he have in himself the experience and the practice of all that which is praisewor- thy. Nor is there in literature a more noble outline of a wise external education, than that which he drew up, at the age of thirty-six, in his Letter to Samuel Hartlib. The mus- cles, the nerves, and the flesh, with which this skeleton is to be filled up and covered, exist in his works and must be sought there. For the delineation of this heroic image of man, Milton enjoyed singular advantages. Perfections of body and of mind are attributed to him by his biographers, that, if the anecdotes had come down from a greater distance of time, or had not been in part furnished or corroborated by political enemies, would lead us to suspect the portraits were ideal, like the Cyrus of Xenophon, the Telemachus of Fenelon, or the popular traditions of Alfred the Great. 62 .Milton. [July, Handsome to a proverb, he was called the lady of his college. Aubrey says, This harmonical and ingenuous soul dwelt in a beautiful and well proportioned hody. His man- ners and his carriage did him no injustice. Wood, his political opponent, relates, that his deportment was affable, his gait erect and manly, bespeaking courage and undaunted- ness. Auhrey adds a sharp trait, that he pronounced the letter Ii very hard, a certain sign of a satirical genius.~~ He had the senses of a Greek. His eye was quick, and he was accounted an excellent master of his rapier. His ear for music was so acute, that he was not only enthusiastic in his love, but a skilful performer himself; and his voice, we are told, was delicately sweet and harmonious. He insists that music shall make a part of a generous education. With these keen perceptions, he naturally received a love of nature, and a rare susceptihility to impressions from ex- ternal beauty. In the midst of London, he seems, like the creatures of the field and the forest, to have been tuned in concord with the order of the world; for, he helieved, his poetic vein only flowed from the autumnal to the vernal equi- nox; and, in his essay on Education, he doubts whether, in the fine days of spring, any study can be accomplished by young men. In those vernal seasons of the year, xvhen the air is calm and plea~ant, it were an injury and sullenness against nature, not to go out and see her riches and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth. His sensibility to impressions from beauty needs no proof from his history; it shines through every page. The form and the voice of Leonora Baroni seem to have captivated him in Rome, and to her he addressed his Italian sonnets and Latin epigrams. To these endowments it must be added, that his address and his conversation were worthy of his fame. His house was resorted to by men of wit, and foreigners came to England, we are told, to see the Lord Protector and Mr. Milton. In a letter to one of his foreign correspondents, Emeric Bigot, and in reply apparently to some compliment on his powers of conversation, he writes ; Many have been celebrated for their compositions, whose common conversa- tion and intercourse have betrayed no marks of sublimity or genius. But, as far as possible, I aim to show myself equal in thought and speech to what I have written, if I have written any thing well. 1838.1 His Educcttion. 63 These endowments received the benefit of a careful and happy discipline. His fathers care, seconded by his own endeavour, introduced him to a profound skill in all the treas- ures of the Latin, Greek, Hebrexv, and Italian tongues and, to enlarge and enliven his elegant learning, he was sent into Italy, where he beheld the remains of ancient art, and the rival works of Raphael, Michael Angelo, and Cor- reggio ; where, also, he received social and academical honors from the learned and the great. In Paris, he became acquainted with Grotius ; in Florence or Rome, with Gali- leo ; and probably no traveller ever entered that country of history with better right to its hospitality, none upon whom its influences could have fallen more congenially. Among the advantages of his foreign travel, Milton cer- tainly did not count it the least, that it contributed to forge and polish that great weapon of which he acquired such extraordinary mastery, his power of language. His lore of foreign tongues added daily to his consummate skill in the use of his own. No individual writer has been an equal benefactor of the English tongue by showing its capabilities. Very early in life he became conscious that he had more to say to his fellow-men than they had fit words to embody. At nineteen years, in a college exercise, he addresses his native language, saying to it, that it would be his choice to leave trifles for a grave argument, Such as may make thee search thy coffers round, Before thou clothe my fancy in fit sound Such where the deep transported mind may soar Above the wheeling poles, and at Heavens door Look in, and see each blissful deity, How he before the thuaderous throne doth lie. Michael Angelo calls him alone an artist, whose hands can execute what his mind has conceived. The world, no doubt, contains very many of that class of men whom Wordsworth denominates silent poets, whose minds teem with images which they want words to clothe. But Milton s mind seems to have no thought or emotion which refused to be recorded. His mastery of his native tongue was more than to use it as well as any other ; he cast it into new forms. He uttered in it things unheard before. Not imitat- ing, but rivalling Shakspeare, he scattered, in tones of pro- longed and delicate melody, his pastoral and romantic 64 .Milton. [July, fancies ; then, soaring into unattempted strains, he made it capable of an unknown majesty, and bent it to express every trait of beauty, every shade of thought ; and searched the kennel and jakes as xvell as the palaces of sound for the harsh discords of his polemic wrath. We may even apply to his performance on the instrument of language, his own description of music notes, with many a winding bout Of linked sweetness long drawn out, With wanton heed and giddy cunning, The melting voice through mazes running, Untwisting all the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony.~~ But, xvhilst ~\Iilton was conscious of possessing this intel- lectual voice, penetrating through ages, and propelling its melodious undulations forward through the coming world, he knew also, that this mastery of language was a secondary power, and he respected the mysterious source whence it had its spring ; namely, clear conceptions, and a devoted heart. For me, he said, in his Apology for Smectvm- nuus, although I cannot say, that I am utterly untrained in those rules which best rhetoricians have given, or un- acquainted with those examples which the prime authors of eloquence have written in any learned tongue, yet true eloquence I find to be none but the serious and bearty love of truth ; and that whose mind soever is fully pos- sessed xvith a fervent desire to know good things, and xvith the dearest charity to infuse the knowledge of them into others, when such a man would speak, his xvords, by what I can express, like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command, and in well-ordered files, as he would wish, fall aptly into their own places. But, as basis or fountain of his rare physical and intel- lectual accomplishments, the man Milton was just and de- vout. He is rightly dear to mankind, because in him, among so many perverse and partial men of genius, in him humanity rights itself; the old eternal goodness finds a home in his breast, and for once shows itself beautiful. His gifts are subordinated to his moral sentiments. And his virtues are so graceful, that they seem rather talents than labors. Among so many contrivances as the world has seen to make holiness ugly, in Milton, at least, it was so pure a flame, 1838.] His .Moral Greatness. 65 that the foremost impression his character makes, is that of elegance. The victories of the conscience in him are gained by the commanding charm, xvhich all the severe and restrictive virtues have for him. His virtues remind us of what Plutarch said of Timoleons victories, that they resem- bled Homers verses, they ran so easy and natural. His habits of living were austere. He was abstemious in diet, chaste, an early riser, and industrious. He tells us, in a Latin poem, that the lyrist may indulge in wine and in a freer life; but that he, who would write an epic to the nations, must eat beans and drink water. Yet in his severity is no grimace or effort. He serves from love, not from fear. He is innocent and exact, because his taste was so pure and delicate. He acknowledges to his friend IDiodati, at the age of twenty-one, that he is enamoured, if ever any was, of moral perfection. For, whatever the Deity may have bestowed upon me in other respects, he has certainly in- spired me, if any ever were inspired, with a passion for the good and fair. Nor did Ceres, according to the fable, ever seek her daughter Proserpine xvith such unceasing solicitude, as I have sought this ioi ~a~oi~ i~xv, this perfect model of the beautiful in all forms and appearances of things. When he was charged with loose habits of living, he de- clares, that a certain niceness of nature, an honest haughti- ness and self-esteem either of what I was or what I might be, and a modesty, kept me still above those low descents of mind, beneath which he must deject and plunge himself, that can agree~ to such degradation. His mind gave him, he said, that every free and gentle spirit, without that oath of chastity, ought to be born a knight; nor needed to expect the gilt spur, or the laying of a sword upon his shoulder, to stir him up, by his counsel and his arm, to secure and protect attempted innocence. He states these things, lie says, to show, that, though Christianity had been but slightly taught him, yet a certain reservedness of natural disposition and moral discipline, learned out of the noblest philosophy, was enough to keep him in disdain of far less incontinences than these, that had been charged on him. In like spirit, he replies to the sus- picious calumny respecting his morning haunts. Those morning haunts are where they should be, at home; not sleeping, or concocting the surfeits of an irregular feast, but voL. xLvIL.No. c. 9 66 Milton. [July, up and stirring, in winter, often ere the sound of any be]l awake men to labor or devotion ; in summer, as oft with the bird that first rouses, or not much tardier, to read good authors, or cause them to be read, till the attention be weary, or memory have its perfect fraught; then with useful and generous labors preserving the bodys health and hardiness, to render lightsome, clear, and not lumpish obedience to the mind, to the cause of religion, and our countrys liberty, when it shall require firm hearts in sound bodies to stand and cover their stations. These are the morning practices. This native honor never forsook him. It is the spirit of Comus, the loftiest song in the praise of chastity, that is in any language. It always sparkles in his eyes. It breathed itself over his decent form. It refined his amusements, which consisted in gardening, in exercise with the sword, and in playing on the organ. It engaged his interest in chivalry, in courtesy, in whatsoever savoured of generosity and nobleness. This magnanimity shines in all his life. He accepts a high impulse at every risk, and deliberately undertakes the de- fence of the English people, when advised by his physicians that he does it at the cost of sight. There is a forbearance even in his polemics. He opens the war and strikes the first blow. When he had cut down his opponents, he left the details of death and plunder to meaner partisans. He said, he had learned the prudence of the Roman soldier, not to stand breaking of legs, when the breath was quite out of the body. To this antique heroism, Milton added the genius of the Christian sanctity. Few men could b~ cited who have so well understood what is peculiar in the Christian ethics, and the precise aid it has brought to men, in being an emphatic affirmation of the omnipotence of spiritual laws, and, by way of marking the contrast to vulgar opinions, laying its chief stress on humility. The indifferency of a wise mind to what is called high and low, and the fact that true greatness is a perfect humility, are revelations of Christianity which Milton well understood. They give an inexhaustible truth to all his compositions. His firm grasp of this truth is his weapon against the prelates. He celebrates in the martyrs, the unresistible might of weakness. He told the bishops, that, instead of showing the reason of their lowly condition from divine example and command, they seek to prove their high 1S38.j his Social Position. 67 preeminence from human consent and authority. He ad- vises, that, in country places, rather than to trudge many miles to a church, public worship be maintained nearer home, as in a house or barn. For, notwithstanding the gaudy superstition of some still devoted ignorantly to tem- ples, we may be well assured, that he who disdained not to be born in a manger, disdains not to be preached in a barn. And the following passage, in the Reason of Church Government, indicates his own perception of the doc- trine of humility. Albeit, I must confess to be half in doubt whether I should bring it forth or no, it being so con- trary to the eye of the world, that I shall endanger either not to be regarded, or not to be understood. For, who is there, almost, that measures wisdom by simplicity, strength by suf- fering, dignity by lowliness ? Obeying this sentiment, Milton deserved the apostrophe of Wordsworth; Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, So didst thou travel on lifes common way In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on itself did lay. He laid on himself the lowliest duties. Johnson petulantly taunts Milton with great promise and small performance, in returning from Italy because his country was in danger, and then opening a private school. Milton, wiser, felt no absurdity in this conduct. He returned into his revolution- ized country, and assumed an honest and useful task, by which he might serve the state daily, whilst he launched from time to time his formidable bolts against the enemies of liberty. He felt the heats of that love which esteems no office mean. He compiled a logic for boys; he wrote a grammar; and devoted much of his time to the preparing of a Latin dictionary. But the religious sentiment warmed his writings and conduct with the highest affection of faith. The mem- orable covenant, which in his youth, in the second book of the Reason of Church Government, he makes with God and his reader, expressed the faith of his old age. For the first time since many ages, the invocations of the Eternal Spirit in the commencement of his books, are not poetic forms, but are thoughts, and so are still read with delight. His views of choice of profession, and choice in marriage, equally expect a divine leading. Thus chosen, by the felicity of his nature and of his breed- 68 Milton. [July, ing, for the clear perception of all that is graceful and all that is great in man, Milton was not less happy in his times. His birth fell upon the agitated years, when the discontents of the English Puritans were fast drawing to a head against the tyranny of the Stuarts. No period has surpassed that in the general activity of mind. It is said, that no opinion, no civil, religious, moral dogma can be produced, that was not broached in the fertile brain of that age. Questions that involve all social and personal rights were hasting to be de- cided by the sword, and were searched by eyes to which the love of freedom, civil and religious, lent new illumination. Milton, gentle, learned, delicately bred in all the elegancy of art aud learning, was set down in England in the stern, al- most fanatic, society of the Puritans. The part he took, the zeal of his fellowship, make us~ acquainted with the greatness of his spirit, as in tranquil times we could not have known it. Susceptible as Burke to the attractions of historical prescription, of royalty, of chivalry, of an ancient church illustrated by old martyrdoms and installed in cathe- drals, he threw himself, the flower of elegancy, on the side of the reeking conventicle, the side of humanity, but unlearned and unadorned. His muse was brave and humane, as well as sweet. He felt the dear love of native land and native language. The humanity, which warms his pages, begins as it should at home. He preferred his own English, so manlike he was, to the Latin, which contained all the treasures of his memory. My mother bore me, he said, a speaker of what God made mine own, and not a trans- lator. He told the Parliament, tbat the imprimaturs of Lambeth House had been writ in Latin; for that our English, the language of men ever famous and foremost in the achievements of liberty, will not easily find servile letters enow to spell such a dictatory presumption. At one time, he meditated writing a poem on the settlement of Britain ; and a history of England was one of the three main tasks which he proposed to himself. He proceeded in it no further than to the Conquest. He studied with care the character of his countrymen, and once in the History, and once again in the Reason of Church Government, he has re- corded his judgment of the English genius. Thus drawn into the great controversies of the times, in them he is never lost in a party. His private opinions and 1838.] Jilts Love of Liberty. (39 private conscience always distinguish him. That which drew him to the party was his love of liberty, ideal liberty this therefore he could not sacrifice to any party. Toland tells us, As he looked upon true and absolute freedom to be the greatest happiness of this life, whether to societies or single persons, so he thought constraint of any sort to be the utmost misery ; for wbich reason he used to tell those about him the entire satisfaction of his mind, that he had constantly employed his strength and faculties in the defence of liberty, and in direct opposition to slavery. Truly he was an apostle of freedom; of freedom in the house, in the state, in the church; freedom of speech, freedom of the press, yet in his own mind discriminated from savage license, because that which he desired was the liberty of the xvise man, containing itself in the limits of virtue. He pushed, as far as any in that democratic age, his ideas of civil liberty. He proposed to establish a republic, of which the federal power was weak and loosely defined, and the substantial power should remain with primary assemblies. He main- tained, that a natio*may try, judge, and slay their king, if he be a tyrant. He pushed as far his views of ecclesiastical liberty. He taught the doctrine of unlimited toleration. One of his tracts is writ to prove that no power on earth can compel in matters of religion. He maintained the doc- trine of literary liberty, denouncing the censorship of the press, and insisting that a book shall come into the world as freely as a man, so only it bear the name of author or printer, and be responsible for itself like a man. He maintained the doctrine of domestic liberty, or tbe liberty of divorce, on the ground that unfit disposition of mind was a better reason for the act of divorce, than infirmity of body, which was good ground in law. The tracts he wrote on these topics are, for the most part, as fresh and pertinent to-day, as they were then. The events which produced them, the practical issues to which they tend, are mere occasions for this philanthro- pist to blow his trumpet for human rights. Tbey are all varied applications of one principle, the liberty of the wise man. He sought absolute truth, not accommodating truth. His opinions on all subjects are formed for man as he ought to be, for a nation of Miltons. He would be divorced, when he finds in his consort unfit dispositioii; knowing that he should not abuse that liberty, because with his whole heart 4 70 Milton. [July, he abhors licentiousness and loves chastity. He defends the slaying of the king; because a king is a king no longer than he governs by the laws ; it would be right to kill Philip of Spain making an inroad into England, and what right the king of Spain hath to govern us at all, the same bath the king Charles to govern tyranically. He would remove hirelings out of the church, and support preachers by voluntary contributions ; requiring, that such only should preach, as have faith enough to accept so self-denying and precarious a mode of life, scorning to take thought for the aspects of prudence and expediency. The most devout man of his time, be frequented no church; probably from a disgust at the fierce spirit of the pulpits. And so, throughout all his actions and opinions, is he a consistent spiritualist, or believer in the omnipotence of spiritual laws. He wished that his writings should be communicated only to those who desired to see them. He thougbt nothing honest was low. He thought he could be famous only in proportion as be enjoy- ed the approbation of the good. He admonished his friend not to admire military prowess, or things in which force is of most avail. For it would not be matter of rational won- der, if the wethers of our country should be born with horns, that could batter down cities and towns. Learn to estimate great characters, not by the amount of animal strength, but by the habitual justice and temperance of their conduct. Was there not a fitness in the undertaking of sue ha per- son, to write a poem on the subject of Adam, the first man? By his sympathy with all nature; by the proportion of his powers; by great knowledge, and by religion, he would re- ascend to the height from which our nature is supposed to have descended. From a just knowledge of what man should be, he described what be was. He beholds him as be walked in Eden: His fair large front and eye sublime declared Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks Round from his parted forelock manly hung Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad. And the soul of this divine creature is excellent as his form. The tone of his thought and passion is as healthful, as even, and as vigorous, as befits the new and perfect model of a race of gods. 1838.] Relation of his Poetry to his Character. 71 The perception we have attributed to Milton, of a purer ideal of humanity, modifies his poetic genius. The man is paramount to the poet. His fancy is never transcendant, extravagant; but, as Bacons imagination was said to be the noblest that ever contented itself to minister to the understanding, so Miltons ministers to character. Miltons sublimest song, bursting into heaven with its peals of melodi- ous thunder, is the voice of Milton still. Indeed, throughout his poems, one may see under a thin veil, the opinions, the feelings, even the incidents of the poets life, still re- appearing. The sonnets are all occasional poems. LAlle- gro and Ii Penseroso are but a finer autobiography of his youthful fancies at Harefleld. The Comus is but a transcript, in charming numbers, of that philosophy of chas- tity, which, in the Apology for Smectymnuus, and in the Reason of Church Government, he declares to be his de- fence and religion. The Samson Agonistes is too broad an expression of his private griefs, to be mistaken, and is a version of the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce. The most affecting passages in Paradise Lost, are personal al- lusions ; and, when xve are fairly in Eden, Adam and Milton are often difficult to be separated. Again, in Paradise Re- gained, we have the most distinpt marks of the progress of the poets mind, in the revision and enlargement of his reli- gious opinions. This may be thought to abridge his praise as a poet. It is true of Homer and Shakspeare, that they do not appear in their poems; that those prodigious geniuses did cast themselves so totally into their song, that their indi- viduality vanishes, and the poet towers to the sky, whilst the man quite disappears. The fact is memorable. Shall we say, that, in our admiration and joy in these wonderful poems, we have even a feeling of regret, that the men knew not what they did ; that they were too passive in their great service were channels through which streams of thought flowed from a higher source, which they did not appropriate, did not blend with their own being. Like prophets, they seem but imper- fectly aware of the import of their own utterances. We hesitate to say such things, and say them only to the unpleas- ing dualism, when the man and the poet show like a double consciousness. Perhaps we speak to no fact, but to mere fables of an idle mendicant, Homer; and of a Shakspeare, content with a mean and jocular way of life. Be it how it 72 Milton. [July, may, the genius and office of Milton were different, namely, to ascend by the aids of his learning and his religion, by an equal perception, that is, of the past and the future, to a higher insight and more lively delineation of the heroic life of man. This was his poem; whereof all his indignant pamphlets, and all his soaring verses, are only single cantos or detached stanzas. It was plainly needful that his poetry should be a version of his own life, in order to give weight and solemnity to his thoughts; by which they might pene- trate and possess the imagination and the will of mankind. The creations of Shakspeare are cast into the world of thought, to no farther end than to delight. Their intrinsic beauty is their excuse for being. Milton, fired with dear- est charity to infuse the knowledge of good things into others, tasked his giant imagination, and exhausted the stores of his intellect, for an end beyond, namely, to teach. His own conviction it is, xvhich gives such authority to his strain. Jts reality is its force. If out of the heart it came, to the heart it must go. What schools and epochs of com- mon rhymers would it need to make a counterbalance to the severe oracles of his muse. In them is plainest taught and easiest learnt, What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so. The lover of Milton reads one sense in his prose and in his metrical compositions; and sometimes the muse soars highest in the former, because the thought is more sincere. Of his prose in general, not the style alone, but the argument also, is poetic; according to Lord Bacons definition of poetry, folloxving that of Aristotle, Poetry, not finding the actual world exactly conformed to its idea of good and fair, seeks to accommodate the shows of things to the desires of the mind, and to create an ideal world better than the world of experience. Such certainly is the explanation of Mil- tons tracts. Such is the apology to be entered for the plea for freedom of divorce; an essay, which, from the first until now, has brought a degree of obloquy on his name. It was a sally of the extravagant spirit of the time, overjoyed, as in the French revolution, with the sudden victories it had gained, and eager to carry on the standard of truth to new heights. It is to be regarded as a poem on one of the griefs of mans condition, namely, unfit marriage. And as many poems have been written upon unfit society, commending 1838.1 Political Economy. 73 solitude, yet have not been proceeded against, though their end was hostile to the state ; so should this receive that charity, which an angelic soul, suffering more keenly than others from the unavoidable evils of human life, is en- titled to. We have offered no apology for expanding to such length our commentary on the character of John Milton; who, in old age, in solitude, in neglect, and blind, wrote the Paradise Lost; a man whom labor or danger never deterred from whatever efforts a love of the supreme interests of man prompted. For are xve not the better; are not all men for- tified by the remembrance of the bravery, the purity, the temperance, the toil, the independence, and the angelic de- votion of this man, who, in a revolutionary age, taking coun- sel only of himself, endeavoured, in his writings and in his life, to carry out the life of man to new heights of spiritual grace and dignity, ~vithout any abatement of its strength ART. III. Principles of Political Economy. Part the First. Of the Laws of the Production and Distribution of Wealth. By HENRY C. CAREY, Author of an Essay on the Rate of Wages. Philadelphia Carey, Lea, and Blanchard. 1837. Svo. pp. xvi. 342. WHAT is political economy? It is now a late day to put this question, respecting a department of practice, in which men have been studying and acting from the formation of the primeval political community downwards; and a depart- ment of scientific speculation, on which a very considerable library of books has been written within the past century. And yet the question is not without its doubts and difficul- ties, as we readily find by opening the recent works, which differ widely in their definitions. In short, they are not agreed in what constitutes this science. We will therefore begin with a definition of our own, that may serve us in our remarks, if it has no other use. Political economy, then, we understand to be the science, that treats of the general causes, instruments, principles, and phenomena of the production, the accumulation, the ex- voL. XLvii.NO. c. 10

1838.1 Political Economy. 73 solitude, yet have not been proceeded against, though their end was hostile to the state ; so should this receive that charity, which an angelic soul, suffering more keenly than others from the unavoidable evils of human life, is en- titled to. We have offered no apology for expanding to such length our commentary on the character of John Milton; who, in old age, in solitude, in neglect, and blind, wrote the Paradise Lost; a man whom labor or danger never deterred from whatever efforts a love of the supreme interests of man prompted. For are xve not the better; are not all men for- tified by the remembrance of the bravery, the purity, the temperance, the toil, the independence, and the angelic de- votion of this man, who, in a revolutionary age, taking coun- sel only of himself, endeavoured, in his writings and in his life, to carry out the life of man to new heights of spiritual grace and dignity, ~vithout any abatement of its strength ART. III. Principles of Political Economy. Part the First. Of the Laws of the Production and Distribution of Wealth. By HENRY C. CAREY, Author of an Essay on the Rate of Wages. Philadelphia Carey, Lea, and Blanchard. 1837. Svo. pp. xvi. 342. WHAT is political economy? It is now a late day to put this question, respecting a department of practice, in which men have been studying and acting from the formation of the primeval political community downwards; and a depart- ment of scientific speculation, on which a very considerable library of books has been written within the past century. And yet the question is not without its doubts and difficul- ties, as we readily find by opening the recent works, which differ widely in their definitions. In short, they are not agreed in what constitutes this science. We will therefore begin with a definition of our own, that may serve us in our remarks, if it has no other use. Political economy, then, we understand to be the science, that treats of the general causes, instruments, principles, and phenomena of the production, the accumulation, the ex- voL. XLvii.NO. c. 10 74 Political Economy. [July, change, and the consumption of marketable things; that is, things which bear a price, and are customarily bought, sold, exchanged, and transferred, or delivered. These are the subjects treated of in books of political economy; and the problem proposed is one of great intricacy, as well as of great importance, namely, to explain why it is, that one na- tion has a greater proportional amount of marketable, that is, valuable, things than another; or, in other words, is richer; and how it happens that one is growing richer, and another becoming poorer. For we would fain persuade ourselves, that we can, by the help of this science, observe the opera- tions of the social throng, as we may those of a swarm of bees in a glass hive, and trace the connexion of the labors of each with the condition of all; and thus resolve the doubts that hang over the subject of national weal, and not only deduce the present condition of each community from its true causes, but clearly point out the courses that may lead to growth or decay. But the attempt to study the science with these views is at first disheartening; for we no sooner open a book upon the subject, than we find ourselves involved in disputes about its extent and appropriate topics; and then, as we proceed, we find ourselves perplexed with discussions concerning the meaning of words, or the investigations of metaphysical questions, sterile in results; and the great mov- ing causes of national abundance and want still remain in ob- scurity. Perhaps the subject is too vast and complicated to be embraced by the human mind, and must remain in its rudiments to the end of time, a field for dogmatism and spe- cious, inconsequential theories to the superficial, and for per- plexity to the scientific; a cloudy element, in which objects do not appear in distinct outlines and true magnitudes, which is too thick and viscid to move in, and in which any attempt at progress proves to be only a stationary struggle. If we are ever to make any advance, the first step seems to be, a more successful classification and division of subjects, by which the looseness and obscurity of language in this department of philosophy may be, in some degree, remedied. We will glance at the leading divisions of the subject; mention some very important branches of the science, which seem to have been neglected; and point out what appear to us to be errors in the ordinary mode of treating it. Every writer on economy is bound to give his readers an explanation of the word value; and, having explained it, to 1838.] Value and its Causes. 75 adhere rigidly to his explanation throughout his work, ex- cepting in cases where he gives notice of his deviation from it, by some qualifying epithet or explanatory clause. This seems to be a very plain method of proceeding, and scarce- ly to need enforcement by reasons; and yet we shall find, that a departure from it is one great cause why the study of this science is so little satisfactory. The same writer will sometimes use this word as synonymous with utility, some- times with cost, and sometimes with price; and it does in fact coincide with each of them in some respects, but it differs from each in others; and the use of it in its different senses, and the careless substitution of the others for it, and for each other, as synonymous, (for their signification is also quite diverse,) raise a mist in the writers own mind most proba- bly, and certainly in the readers; and then follow criticisms and verbal hair-splitting. And thus the science of political economy dwindles into a miserable logomachy ; and the reader, instead of making progress in the principles on which a nation is to be made great, and rich, and happy, finds him- self involved in grammatical subtilties and verbal disquisi- tions, as if the matter in hand were what Johnson calls the harmless drudgery of making a dictionary, and not the anal- ysis of the great moving causes whereby millions are brought into a state of well-being or ill-being. But, to returii to our definition of value; its proper meaning, in a treatise on political economy, we understand to be, the exchangeable efficacy of a thing; that is, its efficacy in procuring other things by exchange in the market. This signification is plain, and the ordinary one in commerce; and, if it had been scru- pulously adliered to, except when a departure from it was distinctly intimated, as by saying value in money, value in wheat, value in labor, or using some other additional epithet or phrase, political economy would ere this have been much better entitled to the rank of a science. The next subject, or rather a part of the same, is an in- vestigation of the causes of value, and of its enhancement and reduction, that is, its laws. And here we have a wide field for philosophical, speculative investigation, which must not be passed by, and which has interest, and may yield in- struction, as long as it remains unexhausted ; but our authors are wont to labor and dig in it long after it has become ex- hausted and yields no fruits. Here too we are presented with 76 Political Economy. L~ uly, a theory, perhaps two or three, hut certainly one, to wit, that value depends on labor, and that its degree is determined by the quantity and quality of labor ; so that, if the author painfully labors his chapter, it follows demonstratively that it is proportionably valuable, and so, if he of the antagonist the- ory labors no less painfully his demolition of this same struc- ture, his chapter of the ruins is equally valuable. This second does not, however, confine himself to demolition; he says, that value is compounded of rent and labor, as Smith asserts; or, as Say contends, the combined production of man cobper- ating with the agency of nature. 1\Jr. Carey holds, again, that productive land itself is only consolidated labor, being, like all other value, a condensed extract from human mind and mus- cles ; and therefore that rent is only the wages of the labor of some former year, or some former generation, and that effec- tive fertility and habitability are created by industry, and may be analyzed into that primordial and all-forming element. And here the author, having achieved his chapter of con- struction and demolition of theories on this subject, not with- out much oracular truism, grave triviality, and no-meaning- ness, after the manner of Maithus, or metaphysics of the Rialto, after that of Ricardo, usually stops, by way of grat- ulation of himself, and congratulation with his reader, on the retrospect of his curious and admirable diorama of all the workshops and fields of this world, not forgetting to point out the ruins of that other very respectable authors theory. Mr. Carey usually gives his reader a birds-eye retrospect, from his balloon at the end of each stage, of the where and whither of the zigzags and dark passages of the route gone over from the starting-point, where was the man upon a soli- tary island plucking fruit, down to his present stopping-place. Thereupon the said reader, if he have a happy aptitude to astonishment, sees divers of the laws of nature, as Mr. Carey calls his doctrines, as visible and distinct as the weights and wheels of the town clock in the church tower. He sees, deep down among the arcana mundi, not only thai. labor creates value, but that it alone creates value and meas- ures it, the two being always in the same precise proportion. He begins to apply his new knowledge practically, and finds it work admirably. He finds out thereby, that men by work- ing build houses, and grow corn, and dig iron ore, and make it into iron, and again this iron into steel ; and that even his 1838.] Value and its Causes. 77 goosequill, to write with, is only attainable by the labor of 1)lucking it, at least, if not that of feeding the goose besides; and that, if he xvorks at a given rate, he will bring more to pass in one hundred days than he can in fifty, a very useful piece of practical knowledge. And here he stops, perhaps, if he is a reader of easy faith, and prompt to be satisfied with knowledge. But, if he is one of the nil admirari school, who looks into things without being wonder-struck with spe- cious appearances, and is given to mathematical tests and prac- tical applications, he readily finds, that any two equally good laborers do not, in the same fifty days, produce the same marketable value ; nor the same laborer in any two succes- sive periods of that length ; and is apt to conclude, that, though this tbeory of value may be a bright constellation in the beaven of invention of a transcendental political econo- mist, it is, after all, of no great actual utility in navigation for its stars dance about in such a maze, and their light is so refracted and warped and criss-crossed by the media through which it comes to him in his sublunary world of affairs, that he cannot, by taking the most careful observation, find out where his ship is, or what land it is like to make. And why, in this stage of the authors inquiry, all this pro- found diving below the bottom into the mud? or soaring with theoretical sublimity, out of sight, among the clouds ? We have no quarry in the air, or pearl oyster in the depths, to consolidate our labor in by making it ours; but we are as yet merely making our preparations at our leisure, choosing our tackle and adjusting our furniture, which is ready sup- plied to hand. The whole business of the economist is so far merely making an extract from the dictionary, and noting the obvious results of the comparison of any two prices current. Value, then, being defined to be exehangeableness, how does it happen that a thing is exchangeable? How, but be- cause it is transferable, and somebody, incited by necessity, fancy, or whim, wants it? And he will pay us for it in pro- portion to the vehemence of his desire, unless he can get it of some one else at a certain rate, or produce it for himself at less sacrifice, by the time he wants it; either of which, if he can do, he is sure not to give any more for it than he can otherwise purchase or can produce it for, unless he is such an outrageous theoretical economist, that he will give us twice as much, merely because it has cost us twice as much labor or sacri 78 Political Economy. [July, fice of one kind or another, and he considers the value to consist in the cost. Now this is all so very plain, that no one would think of uttering such truisms, unless he had the apology, that it was merely preliminary, a sort of premises to sequents that may be worth expressing; and, therefore, like axioms in geometry, the obviousness of which is their essen- tial recommendation. Now these intuitive aphorisms are economical sublimities to small minds; and, by the frigid en- thusiasm of such, have been puffed out into so great an opaque magnitude, with a hazy penumbra of theories, and verbal, dialectic, and grammatical subtilties, as to overshadow and quite eclipse this delectable science of political economy, in- somuch that its gladsome light~~ is more dismal, than that of jurisprudence as beheld in Cokes Institutes. Value having been thus defined, and the reason given why people exchange what they have for what they want, if they can find it; and upon what terms, and to what extent they will go ; and all this in few words, and without gratulation or congratulation, as if the riddle of the Sphinx had been solved; the inquirer then comes to the examination of the phenomena of the markets; the phases, the waxings and wan- ings of the price current, from its bright rotundity at the full, in the brilliant sunshine of prosperity, and heyday of sanguineness and speculation, to the opposite extreme of obscuration of its entire disk, darkened by the shadow of its own immense bulk, at the gloomy time of glut, plethora, and dead stagnation, typified by zero in the price current. Here, then, the more serious business begins of developing scien- tific doctrines, bearing more immediately upon legislation and affairs, but yet not very intimately, the subjects being still of a somewhat introductory character, and the doctrines follow- ing mostly as corollaries from, or being illustrations of, the explanations already given of the causes of the origin of value or exchangeableness, and the general limits of the operation of those causes. Thus we have said, that value originates in the desire that others have to obtain the exchangeable article, and is limited by the intensity of that desire ; for a man will not so vehemently want a toothpic~, or walking-stick, as to give a good farm in exchange, though he cannot obtain it on any better terms. But when we come to more pressing wants, the value will be without any other limit than the means to buy; as we see in times of scarcity, when hungry 1838.] Value in Money. 79 iEsau sells his right of primogeniture for a supper, which he will have at any rate ; the only question being, at what most favorable rate it can be had,and, if Jacob be the only vendor in the market, his terms must be complied with, whatever they may be. But, if Jacob is only one of a throng of competitors offering the same article, the tables are turned, and Esan does not bargain until he has ascertained the lowest terms upon which either will part with his pottage, rather than take the chance of its spoiling on his hands. Thus any perishable articles, such as many edible ones are, fluctuate more suddenly, and to wider extremes, than those which are less perishable ; the vendors of the latter, if they cannot make satisfactory terms, being willing to take the chance of keeping them on hand, a month or a year longer ; and this the more readily, if confidence is strong, and credit easy, and enterprise rife, and each man in the community has the command, to a greater or less degree, of the money, goods, capital, in short, of the others. For, though indebtedness reciprocally accumulates and augments all around, and a network of obligations, to and from, in- volves the whole community, and the circumstances of each one are implicated in the success and honesty, and misfor- tunes and frauds, of some twenty or a hundred, or five hun- dred others, still each is easy and sanguine, and confident that he can disengage himself from the meshes if he chooses since, as demand is quick and steady, he can at any time, at a small sacrifice at least in his sales, dispose of his stock, collect his debts, and wind up his affairs with a fortune, or at least a competence. And, having this resort at the worst, lie is disposed to hold on for the best, and stand out for a high profit, until, by and by, a crash happens here and another there, and the network begins to tremble, and he begins to pull upon the strings, the ends of which he holds in his own hands; and they break, one after another; and he begins at the same time to feel himself drawn, more and more strongly, by those in the hands of others; and he at- tempts to loose them, but the knots will not yield, for they are fastened by a lock that is governed only by a golden key, which is not to be found; and he puts his goods and lands into the auctioneers crucible, for the wherewithal to fashion another, the same proceeding being resorted to by B, C, D, & c., to the end of the alphabet. The press to sell reduces 80 Political Economy. [July, prices, that is, value in money; not value in other commodi- ties, perhaps, (or even in labor, for that sinks in price, with or soon after the fall of its products,) since they may all fall in proportion. This is a variation of the general mass of vendi- ble things, of which the price current, or money price, having risen to a certain point, then descends, the market having its cycles of five or seven years perpetually recurring; and the causes of the variation are so multiform and occult, and so in- tertwined with the pursuits and Qnterprises and resources of people at a great distance from each other, and occupying dif- ferent quarters of the globe; and the markets are so influenced by the wars and legislation and progress of the arts and in- dustry of the home country and foreign countries, and so acted upon by financial operations ; that the vicissitudes and fluxes and refluxes of the price current, in the progress of this everlasting series of revolutions, are more perplexing and inscrutable than the motions of the celestial bodies; for these can be computed, demonstrated, and predicted; whereas, the most that science or old experience can do in regard to these commercial phenomena, is, to prognosticate as sailors do of the weather. This great current and sort of Gulf Stream of the markets is irregularly disturbed by eddies and cross-currents and counter-currents in the market value of particular articles, owing to local and temporary causes of greater or less extent and duration; as a scarcity or abundance, occasioned by the increase or diminution of the demand and consumption of the particular article throughout the commercial world ; or the extension of the demand to new regions; or the increase or diminution of the production, in consequence of the fruitful- ness or unfruitfulness of the seasons, in some particular thing; or the interruption of the communication for its distribution to particular places ; or the diversion of labor to or from some species of production; or the improvements and inven- tions that facilitate one or another branch of industry. And it so happens, that, while the general market value is rising, that of particular species of articles will be falling in money value; which is a diminution, in this case, of their actual value. that is, their effective exchangeableness. Mere changes in fashions and habits have often a great agency in these local, temporary, and particular fluctuations of the price current. Such are the general causes, which give rise to and inllu 1838.] Differences in Money Value. 81 ence value and its changes, the consideration and right un- derstanding of which are quite essential in the subsequent inquiries in this science. It is not, however, a part of the subject, which seems to present any great difficulty of analy- sis. The principal task of the writer is, a perspicuous state- ment and skilful presentation of all the topics in a connected view, assigning a just proportional importance to them. It is, in general, merely the exhibition of what will be obvious to the intelligent reader on a mere statement, without proof or argument. But the misfortune is, that the teacher of economy brings into this part of his treatise some theory of value in utility, value in exchange, value in labor or wheat, real value as distinguished from that of the market, the sub- stitution of cost for value, or, what is most disastrous, he enters the South American mines without Ariadnes clue, and there loses himself and his followers. In connexion with value is considered money value or price, which we have touched upon already, in speaking of the general fluxes and refluxes of the markets of the whole commercial world. And here an inquiry is started, which has puzzled writers and readers much, and as yet profited them little, namely, why, independently of temporary fluctu- ations, the general standard money prices of labor and its products should differ so much in successive distant periods, and also contemporaneously in different places. Why is it, that in Poland a man works a day with his team for a shilling, and without his team for fourpence, while in England he is paid two shillings, and in the United States four shillings, and in Egypt a penny? and why, in England, in 1495, was he paid three-pence halfpenny, and in 1832 two shillings? This has hitherto been an inquiry rather curious, than satisfactory or useful. Some of the economists have, as usual, cut the knot by a theory, which supposes, that the aggregate amount of circulating medium will always hear a given ratio to the aggregate sales, or money value of vendible commodities and so, plenty of circulating medium makes the high prices, and scarcity the low prices, and thus the whole thing is as plain as two and two for four; and then we have a good deal of statistics of the gold and silver mines. But no materials can be dug up from the mines, of which to construct this hypothesis, which is dubious and misty, unprovable and Linprofitable; and all the inferences and arguments deduced 82 Political Economy. [July, from it rest upon the unsubstantial basis of mere gratuitous supposition. Mr. Carey has a chapter on value, and after it one on Maithus, MCulloch, Senior, and others, on value; then, in the end of his book, a critical dissertation upon the same subject, in which, among other matter, the question is gravely discussed,* whether Mr. Mill is right in his position, that,if the wine which is put in the cellar is increased in value one tenth by being kept a year, one tenth more of labor may be correctly considered as having been expended upon it. Mr. Carey says, No. Such are the weighty problems solved by the economical calculus. In the chapter directly upon value, Mr. Carey, as we have seen, maintains, that labor is the sole cause of value, and considers himself as having established twelve conclusions in precisely that number of pages ; and among the rest, that the value of an article cannot exceed that of the labor required to reproduce it, a proposition not precisely true of the value of hay or corn in the spring time after a scarce year. The true proposition seems to be, that, if one can get a thing produced or made, by the time he wants it, for a shilling, he will not give two shillings for it ; but, if he cannot so procure it in time, if he wants it very much he will give the two shillings, if necessary. We cannot say, that Mr. Carey gives a very lucid view of value and its phenomena. The market having been perambulated, and the notions of value, price, and their phenomena having been settled, we come in sight of the long array of the agents and instruments and materials of production, men, beasts, lands, ploughs, ships, machines, stock, capital. Most of these are them- selves vendibles ; and, of the others, the use, services, or products are the subjects of agreements and appreciation. The two greatest, man and land, are each in some places vendible and in others not so, men being bought and sold in slave countries, and lands not being vendible in Egypt and some Asiatic countries, the government being the universal proprietor. Rent and wages are two leading subjects in this part of the inquiry, in regard to both of which the economists supply us with abundance of theories. And first, of land, the value of which Mr. Carey considers to be created by labor ; for he estimates that felling the forests, making the highways, bridges, fences, hedges, & c., Page 277. Page 19. 1838.1 Value of Land. 83 amount to more than the land is worth; and that all commu- nities make their land, as much as did the people of Malta who imported their soil from abroad. This is a part of the authors general theory, that labor is the cause of, and consti- tutes and measures, all value, a theory as sterile as most others in this theory-ridden science ; for what matters it, practically, except to a settler on new lands, whether the value of a piece of the Campagna originated in the labor of making the Appian Way, or in the creation of land itself by the Creator ? Here the land is an instrument of production, of a certain value in the land market, and yielding a certain rent, and paying a certain tax. Whether its value has been dug up from the earth, or rained down from the sky, pro- vided it is there, seems to us, we confess, to be of small im- port; it certainly cannot be made to bear very directly in the elucidation of the national condition, if true. For iftrue,it is too occult and remote a truth to be of practical application, except in the case of a first settler, and hardly in that case since, by this very theory, the great city of Granada aided in giving value to all the land in Spain; and the making of the Erie Canal, and construction of wharves and a breakwater at Buffalo, give an original value, or an additional value, to the lands in Michigan and Illinois. And so do many circum- stances give value to distant territory; the force and applica- bility of all which are not available in estimating the price of a given piece of wild land, which the purchaser computes, as the purchasers of other lands, by an estimate of the expense of labor, and amount of crops and of taxes; and we do not see any evidence of their being more liable to mistake in their computation than purchasers of other lands. The French population of Canada have acted on Mr. Careys theory of concentration, and stuck to their original settle- ments on the banks of the rivers ; but the result does not corroborate his theory. It may be said, that this is imputable to other circumstances, such as the character of the people, climate, government, arts, commerce, & c. Let one at- tempt to make an estimate of what would have been the arts, commerce, character of the population, & c., of the United States, had the inhabitants eschewed the forests. If he could make a satisfactory estimate of this description, that would be something whereon to stand in the argument; but, as this could not be done, and it would only be all conjecture, in 84 Political Economy. [July, support of a proposition that is mere theory, we cannot but think that this region is a part of the territory of the science of political economy, which ranks too low in the scale of fertility to yield rent. This theory is arrayed against that of Maithus, iXJCul- loch, Senior, and others, who celebrate the mysteries of soil number one, two, & c., instituted by Mr. Maithus in honor of Sleep, but, in that sleep, what dreams may come, puz- zles the will, as to going on, as it tends to night-mare ; for who, of mortal men, can read the soil series, any more than the geometrical and arithmetical population and food series of Mr. Maithus, bond fide, patiently, and with an honest and un- flinching resolution to be edified and made strong in faith, and not thereby incur night-mare ? If, therefore, one theory can be used to batter down the other, and finally both be blown up together, and converted into ruins, and rubbish, and in- teresting monuments, it is a consummation devoutly to be wished, by this hasty and impatient generation, which has not the leisure and fortitude to go through with wide spaces of diagrams, and long lines of arithmetic, and heap ponderous matters of fact, pile upon pile, Pelion upon Ossa, sky- high, to arrive at a sublime demonstration of the reasons of rent, which appears plainer at the outset, and without any metaphysics, than after making a mystery, and trying to solve or dissolve it. Improvements in transportation, in machinery, in agriculture, and all the useful arts and species of industry, and the effect of those improvements upon the national well- being, the condition of the laborers, and the value of given masses of capital, are interesting and useful inquiries ; and these Mr. Carey touches upon, though not distinctly, so as to give the reader his whole view at one time upon one point. But all this, instead of being furthered by any theory about soil, of fertility number one, two, & c., or about land being labor, is only thereby embarrassed. It is time, in short, that plain common sense, expressed in plain common language, should be brought into that part of political economy, which is as obvious, at least, to any common farmer or mechanic, as to the most transcendental Scotch economist; indeed, much more obvious. Mr. Carey mixes the subject of wages of common labor with this inquiry as to the origin and laws of the value of land, this subject having been connected with the said theory of 1838.] Excess of Population. Mr. Malthus touching the scale of fertility. And here Mr. Carey combats, with success, the notion supported by Mal- thus, et hoc genus omne, that, as population increases, there arises a necessity for extending cultivation over land yielding a diminished return, attended with a constant diminution in the wages of labor and the profits of capital. Mr. Carey, as usual, does not take hold of this theory and dispose of it in its place or out of its place, at once, but scatters it here and there in his volume. His theory is in favor of concentration, and dispersion is, he says, the evil to be guarded against. This is, hoxvever, as much a theory as the other, and so Mr. Carey denominates it, and Ireland, at least, is an example against it. This might be expected ; for it is a tre- mendous leap from Mr. Malthuss theory of a universal ex- cess of population, clean across the circumference of political economy, to this opposite one of Mr. Carey, that there can- not be such an excess in any country. What is the utility of framing theories, which are true and false according to the cir- cumstances? Concentration is best when it is favored by the laws, habits of the population, improved arts, and a general developement of physical and intellectual faculties and resour- ces ; otherwise it may be an evil. It does generally hap- pen, that the greatest concentration of population takes place under the circumstances, which render this very augmenta- tion a benefit, cobperating with a thousand other concurring causes to carry a nation forward. And thence, as might be expected, the statistical annals show, that usually in the same country, and xvith the same people, the condition of the labor- ing and other classes is the best, at the time when they most rapidly increase, and approach to the acme of numbers. So that Mr. Carey easily confutes Malthus out of the statistical records of Mr. Eden, and so far his argument is consolatory and cheering; but, being under the spell, and subject to the destiny, of this political economy, he must needs go directly in- to the opposite theory himself. The doctrine of perfectibility, that blazed out, with other meteors, at the time of the French revolution, insisted, that there was no limit to the possible, and practicable, and probable progress of society and the arts; and this is a much more grateful doctrine than the contrary one, that little or no progress has been made, or is possible ; that we are, at the best, only capable of change, and a revolution about a circle. But, without professing perfectibility, every Political Economy. [July, oue may say, that, as far as industry, arts, laws, and improve- ment of facilities and resources can keep pace with the aug- mentation of numbers, such augmentation is desirable, and we may well believe that they may be carried further than they yet have been. Whether the distance before us, therefore, is limit- ed or infinite, the practical result is the same for the present; and, as long as xve can see before us room for advancement, the practical inquiry for the legislator and philanthropist is, What circumstances promote the increase of population, and what are favorable and salutary causes of such increase ; and to what extent, or upon what conditions, is such augmentation desirable ? Mr. Maithus answers, that it is so to the extent of the means of subsistence. And this is a very true, and at the same time not a very bold answer; for we already supposed, that the population could not subsist without food. The most mate- rial question is, What general causes will augment the provis- ions? Mr. Malthus has no reply but to subdue the ungrate- ful number ten, which he represents to be little better than starvation. He is the very Heraclitus of political economy. Mr. Carey adopts the more cheerful, and at present prevailing view, that, xvhen we are reduced to hoe corn upon number ten, we xvork to better purpose, and are better fed and clad, than at Mr. Malthuss blessed number one, or any interme- diate number. Having disposed of lands, houses, rents, and all the phe- nornena of rude and high cultivation, roads, canals, and other avenues to a market, as affecting the economical condi- tion of the community, we next, in convenient order of dis- tribution, come to other species of capital, for land is one species. And we do not see the occasion of all the difficul- ty in defining capital; for what does it mean but those trans- ferable, deliverable things, which bear a market price ? A slave is capital, as he is transferable and deliverable ; but the capacity of a freeman to earn wages, though as good as cap- ital, since it affords income, is not capital; for, though he can agree to use this faculty for another, this is an agree- ment, but not the transfer or delivery of a thing. Wages are somewhat in the nature of rent and interest, being, like those, income. And here again we have a theory; some of the economists maintaining, that accumulation is advantageous, to an indefinite, or, if you l)lease, an infinite 1838.] JVational Character and Pursuits. 87 extent. But, as this doctrine cannot be practically appli- ed or tested, it is, like most of the theories in this science, a hinderance, rather than a help, to knowledge. It will be apparent, at first sight, that a large amount of the capital of some countries such as jewelry, pictures, and statues, does not bear directly on industry and production. Still they may, in case of need, be sent abroad, as the jewelry of the South American countries at the commencement of their revolution, to buy ships and other things necessary in war or industry. The species of capital, what it consists in, is quite a material consideration in the investigation of the na- tional condition. Are the buildings, for instance, frail, and liable to be blown down in storms, or durable? Are the ma- chines, and instruments of industry of all descriptions, clumsy or well constructed ? Interesting investigations lie under these inquiries, xvhich the economists have neglected. Again, not only the quantity and kinds of capital, but its distribution, whether in large masses or small snbdivisions, has a material bearing npon the national condition. It has been remarked, by Mr. Webster, on some occasion, that the new law of de- scent of property in France, substituting an equal division in place of the old law of primogeniture, was sufficient of it- self to work out a revolution in the entire social and econom- ical condition and mutual relations of the inhabitants. Connected xvith this subject is another of no less interest, namely ; Whether the capital, the pursuits, and condition of a country are such, that its industry and productive capabilities are liable to sudden reverses. It is a well-known principle in regard to the laws, that their steadiness, and the uniformity and integrity of their administration, are essential to the well- being of a people, and the steadiness of the national industry and productiveness is no less essential. Now most of these questions, and many others, no less decisive of the general condition, make no figure in books of political economy, and hardly appear there at all, but give place to the fine-spun theories and verbal distinctions, of which we have spoken. But the most elevated part of this science, and the most neglected, is that relating to the character and habits of the population of a country, and its political and social institu- tions, and literature, considered in all their phases, as bearing upon their economical condition. Everybody, economist or not, must perceive, that these are the living, animating S8 Political Economy. [July, principles, that generally determine the destiny of a people in matters of productiveness and xvealth; and yet they have hith- erto scarcely made their appearance in works of political economy. These topics do not come at all within the thir- ty-seven laws of nature which Mr. Carey deems him- self to have established in this, his First Part; and we do not see any particular provision for their introduction on a fu- ture occasion, in the hints given by him of the subjects of his subsequent part or parts. There are not wanting signs, from various quarters, that the higher subjects of the science will, ere long, find a place in the works that treat of it. But shall we, it has sometimes been asked, have discussions on ethics, the fine arts, and government, in a work on political economy? Undoubtedly we shall. We have discussions now on agriculture, capital, trade, navigation, and banking; not precisely such as agriculturists, traders, navigators, and bankers would give on their respective pursuits, but such as show, or are intended to show, the general circumstances in these several subjects, by which the national growth in wealth is checked and promoted. It is plain, that the productive faculties are no less affected by the religion, the morals, the social distinctions, the politi- cal, and the juridical administration ; why not then consider them ? not analytically and elaborately, as in works devoted especially to them, but in those aspects in which they have an economical influence. We have long chapters on what Smith denominates division of labor, by which he means separation or distribution of em- ployments; and this thing is exaggerated into an immense magnitude, as if it were the quiet, occult power, that bears civilized society forward to its stupendous achievements in industry. These extravagant notions are going out of date; but the exaggeration upon this topic, as upon many others, which properly belong to the science, serves but to distort it, and to convert a truth into a practical error; for it is as important a mistake to assign to a given cause fifty times its true effects, as to attribute a part of those effects to a cause with which they have no connexion. It overlays the subject with a dead weight, and gratuitously; since nothing is to be done in the matter by legislation or otherwise, however the fact may be ; for this distribution can be carried only to the extent of the limits assigned by density of population, facility 1838.] Defects in Economical Treatises. 89 of communication, accumulation of capital in masses, and the formation of extensive systems of production. The practicability of the distribution is incident to certain combi- nations of circumstances, and will be governed by those; and those combinations grow out of other causes, which the economist should seek out, and explain, and show the dis- tinction and multiplication of pursuits as being attendant upon them. This subject of division of labor would thus shrink into its proper dimensions, and give place for other topics, hitherto slightly mentioned, or wholly omitted. For example, the in- ventive faculty is far more active in one nation than another, and yet we find it mentioned by the economists only very superficially, and by many of them not at all. The mere prejudices, and habits of thinking, of a people, as to useful pursuits, have a more decisive influence upon productive capabilities, than all the causes mentioned by most of the economists put together. Witness the old prejudices of the French in regard to the degradation of the mercantile pro- fession, and the analogous prejudices of the people of Hun- dostan in regard to certain trades. A cause tbat operates so strongly ought to occupy the attention of the expounders of national prosperity and decline; yet we scarcely meet with it in their works. They discourse of the division of labor, the geometrical series, and what not, in preference. The legislation of a country has an irresistible influence upon the productive energies; and what do we find in the works of the economical doctors respecting it? Why, we find those of one side saying, Laissez nous faire, Let us alone, pass no law whatever, with the express purpose of furthering production, whether by bounties and rewards, taxes, or otherwise; and those on the other, saying, that you must fill the statute-book with laws and regulations of this description; and those of each side are equally sweeping, dogmatical, and absolute in their assertions and denials. These occupy the two extremes of the scale, one the boiling point of prohibition, the other the zero of free trade. Can any reflecting man imagine, that science consists in these extravagances ? Is it not evident to every man, that a vast proportion of the legislation and administration of the laws, and the police regulations, have a prodigious effect, direct and indirect, upon productive activity, though no professed VOL. XLVII.JNO. c. 12 90 .flnglo Saxon Literature. [July, regard is had to it ? Is it not admitted, also, that this hearing is always especially considered in selecting the subjects and mode of taxation, though the object be merely to raise reve- nue? This supposes, that something can be known and un- derstood of the effects of laws in this respect; and this is, in reality, assuming, that the subject may be reduced to scientific analysis and deduction, and that many questions can be set- tled and put to rest, and many rules clearly established. Upon this subject we shall find the British economists most meagre and unsatisfactory. Only the newest and greenest legislators think of looking into their works for principles. The invocation of their authority excites the smile of men experienced in affairs. Education is the nursery of national greatness and little- ness, in wealth, as well as in other things. It is touched upon by Smith, in treating of regular apprenticeships; but nowhere presented in its full proportions, by him or any other writer on economy. Such are the general topics belonging to this subject, and such the deficiencies, as it seems to us, in the writers upon it. But we do not despair of seeing it raised from its degra~ dation, and made more worthy to rank as a science. ART. IV. 1. .1/ Dictionary of the anglo-Saxon Lan- guage, containing the .Llccentuation; the Grammatical Inflections ; the Irregular Words referred to their Themes ; the Parallel Terms from the other Gothic Languages; the Meaning of the anglo-Saxon in En- glish and Latin; and copious English and Latin In- dexes, serving as a Dictionary of English and .fInglo- Saxon, as well as of Latin and ~Inglo- Saxon. With a Preface on the Germanic Tongues; a Map of Lan- guages, and the Essentials of ~lnglo- Saxon Grammar. By the Rev. J. BOSWORTH. London: 1837. Svo. pp. 868. 2. King ./Ilfreds .Llnglo- Saxon Version of Bo~Ithius, De Consolatione Philosophi& ; with an English Translation, and JVotes. By J. S. CARDALE. London: 1829. 8vo. pp. 425.

90 .flnglo Saxon Literature. [July, regard is had to it ? Is it not admitted, also, that this hearing is always especially considered in selecting the subjects and mode of taxation, though the object be merely to raise reve- nue? This supposes, that something can be known and un- derstood of the effects of laws in this respect; and this is, in reality, assuming, that the subject may be reduced to scientific analysis and deduction, and that many questions can be set- tled and put to rest, and many rules clearly established. Upon this subject we shall find the British economists most meagre and unsatisfactory. Only the newest and greenest legislators think of looking into their works for principles. The invocation of their authority excites the smile of men experienced in affairs. Education is the nursery of national greatness and little- ness, in wealth, as well as in other things. It is touched upon by Smith, in treating of regular apprenticeships; but nowhere presented in its full proportions, by him or any other writer on economy. Such are the general topics belonging to this subject, and such the deficiencies, as it seems to us, in the writers upon it. But we do not despair of seeing it raised from its degra~ dation, and made more worthy to rank as a science. ART. IV. 1. .1/ Dictionary of the anglo-Saxon Lan- guage, containing the .Llccentuation; the Grammatical Inflections ; the Irregular Words referred to their Themes ; the Parallel Terms from the other Gothic Languages; the Meaning of the anglo-Saxon in En- glish and Latin; and copious English and Latin In- dexes, serving as a Dictionary of English and .fInglo- Saxon, as well as of Latin and ~Inglo- Saxon. With a Preface on the Germanic Tongues; a Map of Lan- guages, and the Essentials of ~lnglo- Saxon Grammar. By the Rev. J. BOSWORTH. London: 1837. Svo. pp. 868. 2. King ./Ilfreds .Llnglo- Saxon Version of Bo~Ithius, De Consolatione Philosophi& ; with an English Translation, and JVotes. By J. S. CARDALE. London: 1829. 8vo. pp. 425. 1838.] flnglo- Saxon Literature. 91 3. ~nalecta .fInglo-Saxonica. .11 Selection, in Prose and Verse, from .flnglo- Saxon .Iuthors of various .~ges, with a Glossary. Designed chiefly as a First Book for Stu~ dents. By BENJAMIN THORPE. London: 1834. Svo. pp. 268. 4. Illustrations of .Ilnglo-Saxon Poetry. By JOHN Jo- SIAS CONYBEARE. London: 1826. 8vo. pp. 286. 5. The .Jlnglo-Saxon Poems of Beowulf, the Travellers Song, and the Battle of Finnesburgh, edited, together with a Glossary of the more Difficult Words, and an Historical Preface, by JOHN M. KEMBLE, Esq., M. A. London: 1833. l2mo. pp. 260. WE read in history, that it was the beauty of an ancient manuscript, which tempted King Alfred, when a boy at his mothers knee, to learn the letters of the Saxon tongue. A volume, which that monarch minstrel wrote in after years, now lies before us, so beautifully printed, that it might tempt any one to learn not only the letters of the Saxon language, but the language also. The monarch himself is looking from the ornamented initial letter of the first chapter. He is crowned and care-worn; having a beard, and long, flowing locks, and a face of majesty. He seems to have just utter- ed those remarkable words, with which his Preface closes And now he prays, and for God ~s name implores, every one of those whom it lists to read this book, that he would pray for him, and not blame him, if he more rightly understand it than he could; for every man must, according to the meas- ure of his understanding, and according to his leisure, speak that which he speaks, and do that which he does. We would fain hope, that the beauty of this and other Anglo-Saxon books may lead many to the study of that ex- cellent language. Through such gate-ways will they pass, it is true, into no gay palace of song; but among the dark chambers and mouldering walls of an old national literature, all weather-stained and in ruins. They will find, however, venerable names recorded on those walls; and inscriptions, worth the trouble of decyphering. To point out the most cu- rious and important of these, is our present purpose ; and according to the measure of our understanding, and accord- ing to our leisure, we speak that which we speak. If any of our readers are predestined to study the Anglo- Saxon tongue, they may thank their stars that they have been 92 anglo- Saxon Literature. [July, born thus late in the world. They will find their appointed task much easier now, than it would have been some three centuries ago, when IElfrics Homily on the Paschal Lamb, was, for the first time, imprinted at London, by John Day, dwelling over Aldersgate, beneath St. Martyns ; or even two centuries ago, when the same book was reprinted by John Haviland, for Henrie Seile, dwelling in Pauls Churchyard, at the signe of the Tygers head. Since those days the publication of Anglo-Saxon books has been constantly increasing; and, without any disparagement to Ju- nius, Hickes, Somner, Lye, Wilkins, and other early Sax- onists, we can truly say, that more has been done by Bos- worth, Cardale, Kemble, Thorpe, and others within the present century, nay, within the last fifteen years, to excite an interest in the Anglo-Saxon language and literature, and to facilitate their study, than had been before accomplished in all the many years which have elapsed since the days of John Day. We are far, however, from maintaining, that this would or could have been the case without the previous la- bors, the incessant toil, yes, we may well say, incessant toil, when we look at their huge folios ! of those most diligent and worthy scholars. * Long may the good they have done live after them; their errors only be interred with their bones. We bear in grateful memory their labors for the restoration of the Saxon speech; the study of which is profitable for doctrine and for reproof to those, who, having travelled in France and Italy, lisp, and wear strange suits, and disable all the benefits of their native tongue. At the head of this article, we have placed the titles of those works, which we deem most necessary for a student of the Anglo-Saxon. The publication of Dr. Bosworths Dictionary is likely to form an era in this study. In all dictionaries hitherto, Latin has been used to interpret An- glo-Saxon ; these works being intended for continental scholars also, and not for English alone. Doubtless, too, there was a little scholastic pride at the bottom of this. But, at length, we have the long-desired labor, well accomplished, an Anglo-Saxon and English Dictionary; a book which, we venture to say, will do more to advance the study of the Anglo-Saxon language, and, consequently, the full and per- For a chronological list of the chief works printed in Anglo.Saxon with a notk~e of Grammars and Dictionaries, see ]3osworths Dictionary, Preface, p. xviii. 1838.] singlo- Saxon Literature. 93 fect understanding of our own, than any work which has yet appeared. A most laborious task! A volume, upon which we lay our hands with great respect; for it contains more than seven years of a scholars life, dissolved, sublimated, over a slow fire, into words; or, as Baro Ubigerus, that ser~ vant of God in the kingdom of nature, would say, driven nine or ten times through the combustible fire into the ele- mentary air. The title-page of the work, which we have copied out fully, suffiqiently explains the plan followed by the author, in this noble contribution to the history of his native tongue. The long Preface gives a sketch of all the Teu- tonic and Scandinavian languages, with abundant illustra- tions. It is full of very valuable learning; and shows great diligence, and patient, long research. The Essentials of Anglo-Saxon Grammar, and the abstract of Rask and Grimm, afford the student all the knowledge of forms and inflections, which he will need at the outset. For more thorough study of grammar, he may be referred to a former work of Dr. Bosworth, and to Thorpes translation of Rask. * Much praise is due, likewise, to the other Anglo-Saxon scholars, whose works we have cited above. We shall have occasion to refer to them frequently, in the course of this ar- ticle; and always, with just praise. Our object, however, is not to review their books, properly speaking; but to make the best use of them we can, in drawing up a sketch of An- glo-Saxon literature. The best service we can render these scholars is, to show the Anglo-Saxon student on this side of the Atlantic, how much he stands in need of their works. The Anglo-Saxon language was the language of our Saxon forefathers in England, though they never gave it that name. They called it English. Thus King Alfred speaks of trans- lating from book-latin into English (of bee Ledene on Eng- usc;) Abbot IElfric was requested bylEthelward to translate the book of Genesis from Latin into English (anwendan of Ledene on Englisc tha hoc Genesis) ; and Bishop Leofric, speaking of the manuscript he gave to the Exeter Cathedral, calls it, a great English book (mycel .Englisc hoc.) In other words, it is the old Saxon, a Gothic tongue, as spoken and developed in England. That it was spoken and written * The Elements of Anglo.Saxon Grammar, with copious Notes, & c.; and a Grammatical Praxis. By the Rev. J. BOSWORTH. London. 1823. 8vo. ~q Grammar of the .lnglo-Sazon Tongue, with a Praxis. By ERASMUS RASE. Translated from the Danish, by B. THORPE. Copenhagen. 1830. 8vo. 94 .Ilnglo- Saxon Literature. [July, uniformly throughout the land, is not to be imagined, when we know that Jutes and Angles were in the country as well as Saxons. But that it was essentially the same language everywhere is not to he doubted, when we compare pure West Saxon texts with Northumbrian Glosses and Books of Durham. In Hickess Dano-Saxon Period we have no faith whatever, nor do we think any scholar has, at the pres- eat day. The Saxon kings reigned six hundred years; the Danish dynasty, twenty only. And w~ have not imagination enough to believe, that either the Danish boors, who were earthlings (yrthlingas) in the country, or the Danish soldiers, who, as history tells us, were dandies at the court of King Canute, could, in the brief space of twenty years, have so overlaid or interlarded the pure Anglo-Saxon with their pro- vincialisms, as to give it a new character, and thus form a new period in its history, as was afterwards done by the Normans. The truth is, the Dano-Saxon is a dialect of the lan- guage, not a period which was passed through in its history. We can lean upon old manuscripts and argue the point for hours together; but not at present. It will be sufficient to say, that, down to the time of the Norman Conquest, the language existed in the form of two principal dialects; name- ly, the Anglo-Saxon in the South; and the Dano-Saxon, or Northumhrian, in the North. After the Norman Con- quest, the language assumed a new form, which has been called, properly enough, Norman-Saxon and Semi-Saxon. This form of the language, ever flowing and filtering through the roots of national feeling, custom, and prejudice, prevailed about two hundred years; that is, from the middle of the eleventh to the middle of the thirteenth century; when the people woke up one morning and found themselves speaking English, as the word English is now understood. We may as well speak thus lightly, as more seriously. It is impossible to fix the landmarks of a language with any great precision ; but only floating beacons, here and there. Per- haps, however, it may be well, while upon this subject, to say more than we have yet said. We therefore subjoin, in a note, a very lucid and brief account of the language; per- haps the clearest and briefest that can be given. It is by Mr. Cardale. * * NOTE ON THE SAXON DIALECTS. HICKES, in c. 19. of the Anglo-Saxon Grammar in his Thesaurus, states, that there are three dialects of the Saxon language, distinguishable from 1838.] The ./lnglo-kSaxons. 95 It is oftentimes curious to consider the far-off beginnings of great events, and to study the aspect of the cloud no bigger than ones hand. The British peasant looked seaward from his harvest-field, and saw, with wondering eyes, the piratical schooner of a Saxon Viking, making for the mouth of the Thames. A few years, only a few years, after- ward, while the same peasant, driven from his homestead north or west, still lives to tell the story to his grandchildren, another race lords it over the land, speaking a different lan- guage and living under different laws. This important event in his history is more important in the worlds history. Thus began the reign of the Saxons in England; and the downfall of one nation, and the rise of another, seem to us at this distance only the catastrophe of a stage-play. The Saxons came into England about the middle of the fifth century. They were pagans; they were a wild and warlike people ; brave, rejoicing in sea-storms, and beautiful in person, with blue eyes and long, flowing hair. Their warriors wore their shields suspended from their necks by the pure and regular language of which he has already treated, namely, that found in the authors who flourished in the southern and western parts of Britain. These dialects he arranges, according to certain periods of his- tory, as follows; 1. The Britanno.Saxon, which, he says, was spoken by our ancestors, from their original invasion of Britain till the entrance of the Danes, being about 337 years. 2. The Dane-Saxon, which, he says, was used from the entrance of the Danes till the Norman invasion, being 274 years, and more especially in the northern parts of England and the south of Scotland. 3. The JVornianno-Dano-Saxon, spoken from the invasion by the Normans till the time of Hen. II., which towards the end of that time, he says, might be termed Semi-Saxon. Writers of considerable emi- nence appear to have considered this arrangement of the dialects as a complete history of the language, without adverting to the circumstance of Hickess distinguishing them all from the pure and regular language, which is the primary subject of his work. From this partial view, a notion has become current, that the Dano-Saxon dialect, previously to or during the reigns of the Canutes, became the general language of this country, and that our present language was formed by gradual alterations superin- duced upon the Dano-Saxon. This being taken for granted, it has appeared easy to decide upon the antiquity of some of the existing remains. Poems written in Dano-Saxon have been of course ascribed to the Dano-Saxon period; and Beowulf, and the poems of Caidmon, have been deprived of that high antiquity which a perusal of the writings themselves inclines us to attribute to them, and referred to a comparatively modern era. With all due respect for the learning of the author of the Thesaurus, it may be said, that he has introduced an unnecessary degree of complexity on the subject of the dialects. His first dialect, the Britanno-Saxon, may be fairly laid out of the question. The only indisputable specimen of it, according to his account, is what he calls, a fragment of the true Cied- mon, preserved in Alfreds version of Bede, a poem which has nothing 96 .fInglo Saxon Literature. [July, chains. Their horsemen were armed with iron sledge- hammers. Their priests rode upon mares, and carried into the battle-field an image of the god Irminsula; in figure like an armed man; his helmet crested with a cock; in his right hand a banner, emblazoned with a red rose; a bear, carved upon his breast; and, hanging from his shoulders, a shield, on which was a lion in a field of flowers. Not two centuries elapsed before this whole people was converted to Christianity. IElfric, in his homily on the birthday of St. Gregory, informs us, that this conversion was accomplished by the holy wishes of that good man, and the holy works of St. Augustine and other monks. St. Gregory beholding one day certain slaves set for sale in the market- place of Rome, who were men of fair conutenance and nobly-haired, and learning that they were heathens, and called Angles, heaved a long sigh, and said; Well-away! that men of so fair a hue should be snbjected to the swarthy devil! Rightly are they called Angles, for they have angels beauty; and therefore it is fit that they in heaven should be in language or style to distinguish it from the admitted productions of Al- fred. Dismissing the supposed Britanno-Saxon, as unworthy of considera- tion, the principal remains of the Saxon language may be arranged in two classes, viz, those which are written in pure .~1nglo- Saxon, and those which are written in Dano- Saxon. These, in fact, were the two great dialects of the language. The former was used (as Hickes observes) in the southern and western parts of England; and the latter in the northern parts of Eng- land and the south of Scotland. It is entirely a gratuitous supposition, to imagine, that either of these dialects commenced at a much later period than the other. Each was probably as old as the beginning of the heptar- chy. We know, that, among the various nations which composed it, the Saxons became predominant in the southern and western parts, and the Angles in the northern. As these nations were distinct in their original seats on the continent, so they arrived at different times, and brought with them different dialects. This variety of speech continued till the Norman conquest, and even afterwards. It is not affirmed that the dialects were absolutely invariable. Each would be more or less changed by time, and by intercourse with foreigners. The mutual connexion, also, which sub- sisted between the different nations of the heptarchy would necessarily lead to some intermixture. But we may with safety assert, that the two great dialects of the Saxon language continued substantially distinct as long as the language itself was in use, that the Dano-Saxon, in short, never superseded the Anglo-Saxon. In a formal dissertation on this subject, citations might be made from the Saxon laws from Ethelbert to Canute, from the Saxon Chronicle, from charters, and from works confessedly written after the Norman conqnest, to show, that, whatever changes took place in the dialect of the southern and western parts of Britain, it never lost its distinc- tive character, or became what can with any propriety be termed Dano- Saxon. After the Norman conquest, both the dialects were gradually cor- rupted, till they terminated in modern English. During this period of the 1838.1 .JInglo- & txon Literature. 97 companions of angels. As soon, therefore, as he under- took the popehood (papauhad underfeng), the monks were sent to their beloved work. In the Witena Gernot, or As- sembly of the Wise, convened by King Edwin of Northum- bria, to consider the propriety of receiving the Christian faith, a Saxon Ealdorman arose, and spake these noble words ; Thus seemeth to me, 0 king, this present life of man upon earth, compared with the time which is unknown to us ; even as if you were sitting at a feast, amid your Eal- dormen and Thegns in winter time. And the fire is lighted, and the hall xvarmed, and it rains, and snows, and storms without. Then cometh a sparrow, and flieth about the hall. It co~neth in at one door, and goeth out at another. While it is within, it is not touched by the winters storm ; but that is only for a moment, only for the least space. Out of the winter it cometh, to return again into the winter eftsoon. So also this life of man endureth for a little space. What goeth before it and what followeth after, we know not. Wherefore, if this new lore bring aught more certain and declension of the Saxon language, nothing was permanent; and whether we call the mixed and changeable language Normanno-Dano-Saxon, or Semi-Saxon, or leave it without any particular appellation, is not very important. An additional proof that the two great dialects were not con- secutive, but contemporary, might be drawn from early writings in English, and even from such as were composed long after the establishment of the Normans. We find traces of the pure Anglo-Saxon dialect in Robert of Gloucester, who wrote in the time of Edward the First, and whose works are now understood almost without the aid of a glossary; whereas the language of Robert Langland, who wrote nearly a century later, is more closely con- nected with the Dano-Saxon, and so different from modern English as to be sometimes almost unintelligible. Though these differences have been gradually wearing away, our provincial glossaries afford evidence, that, even at the present day, they are not entirely obliterated. Alfreds language is esteemed pure Anglo-Saxon; yet we find in his poetical compositions some words, which, according to Hickes, belong to the Dano-Saxon dialect. This may be readily accounted for. It is ex- tremely probable that the works of the poets who flourished in the north of England and the adjoining parts of Scotland, and who composed their poems in Dano-Saxon, were circulated, if not in writing, at least by itine- rant reciters, in all the nations of the heptarchy; that they were imitated by the southern poets; and that some particular words and phrases were at length considered as a sort of poetical language, and indispensable to that species of composition. Some words which occur in the poems of Alfred, as well as in Beowulf, Credmon, & c., are seldom or never met with in prose. Of Alfreds early attention to poetical recitations we have a remark- able testimony in Asser; Saxonica poemata die noctuque solers auditor relatu eliorum scepissime audiens, docibilis memoriter retinebat. Wises s9sser, p. 16. VOL. XLVII.No. c. 13 98 .LInglo ~Saxon Literature. [July, more advantageous, then is it worthy, that we should follow it. This brave man spake well; and how like an Amer- ican Indian ! * Thus the Anglo-Saxons became Christians. For the good of their souls they built monasteries and went on pil- grimages to Rome. The whole country, to use Malmes- burys phrase, was glorious and refulgent with relics. The priests sang psalms night and day ; and so great was the piety of St. Cuthbert, that, according to Bede, he forgot to take off his shoes for months together, sometimes the whole year round ; from which Mr. Turner infers, that he had no stockings. t They also copied the Evangelists, and illustrated them with illuminations ; in one of which St. John is represented in a pea-green dress with red stripes. They also drank ale out of buffalo horns and wooden-knobbed goblets. A Mercian king gave to the Monastery of Croy- land his great drinking-horn, that the elder monks might drink therefrom at festivals, and in their benedictions re- member sometimes the soul of the donor, Witlaf. They drank his health, with that of Christ, the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, and other saints. Malmesbury says, that excessive drinking was the common vice of all ranks of people. We know that King Hardicanute dicd in a revel; and King Ed- mund in a drunken brawl at Puckle church, being, with all his court, much overtaken by liquor, at the festival of St. Augustine. Thus did mankind go reeling through the Dark Ages ; quarrelling, drinking, hunting, hawking, singing psalms, wearing breeches, 4: grinding in mills, eating hot bread, rocked in cradles, buried in coffins, weak, suf * How much, too, like our Indian names are some of the Anglo-Saxon names, when translated. For example; lEthelwulf, The noble wolf; Ead- wulf, The prosperous wo~f; Ealdwulf The old wolf; Hundberht, The illus- trious hound; A3~alfheag, Tall as an elf; Dunstan., The mountain stone; Heahurg, The high tower. History of the ~nglo-Saxons, Vol. II. p. 61. Over the door of this pious Cuthberts cell should have been inscribed these two lines, from the Poem of the Phanix,in the Exeter Manuscript; Imn.r so halga stenc Wunath geond wyn lond. t In an old Anglo-Saxon dialogue, which we shall notice hereafter, a shoemaker says, that he makes slippers, shoes, and leather breeches, (swyftleras, sceos, and lether-hose.) 1838.] .J/n~g lo~ Saxor& Literature. 99 fering, sublime. Well might King Alfred exclaim, Maker of all creatures ! help now thy miserable mankind. Having already spoken somewhat of the language of this people, and as much of the people themselves as is neces- sary for our present uses, we now pass willingly to their literature. But a national literature is a subject, which we always approach with reverence. It is difficult to compre- hend fully the mind of a nation ; even when that nation still lives, and we can visit it, and its present history, and the lives of men we know, help us to a comment on the written text. But here the dead alone speak. Voices, half under- stood; fragments of song, ending abruptly, as if the poet had sung no farther, but died with these last words upon his lips; homilies, preached to congregations that have been asleep for many centuries ; lives of saints, who went to their reward, long before the world began to scoff at sainthood; and won- derful legends, once believed by men, and now, in this age of wise children, hardly credible enough for a nurses tale nothing entire, nothing wholly understood, and no farther comment or illustration, than may be drawn from an isolated fact, found in an old chronicle, or perchance a rude illumina- tion in an old manuscript ! Such is the literature we have now to consider. Such fragments, and mutilated remains, has the human mind left of itself, coming down through the times of old, step by step, and every step a century. Old men and venerable accompany us through the Past; and, pausing at the threshold of the Present, they put into our hands, at parting, such written records of themselves, as they have. We should receive these things with reverence. We should respect old age. This leaf, is it not blown about by the wind? Woe to it for its fate Alas! it is old. What an Anglo-Saxon glee-man was, we know from such commentaries as are mentioned above. King Edgar forbade the monks to be ale-poets (eala scopas) ; and one of his accusa- tions against the clergy of his day was, that they entertained glee-men in the monasteries, where they had dicing, dancing, and singing, till midnight. The illumination of an old man- uscript shows how a glee-man looked. lit is a frontispiece to the Psalms of David. The great psalmist sits upon his throne, with a harp in his hand, and his masters of sacred 100 ~Inglo- Saxon Literature. [July, song around him. Below stands the glee-man; throxving three balls and three knives alternately into the air, and catch- ing them as they fall, like a modern juggler. * But all the Anglo-Saxon poets were not glee-men. All the harpers were not hoppesteres, or dancers. The sceop, the crea- tor, the poet, rose, at times, to higher things. He sang the deeds of heroes; victorious odes; death-songs; epic po- ems ; or, sitting in cloisters, and afar from these things, put holy writ into Saxon chimes. Of such, our Lusty Juventus would not have said, Who knoweth where is eer a minstrel? By the masse, I would fayne go daunce a fit. Let us now leave these out-posts and advances, and ap- proach our theme at once. Indeed, we have delayed thus long only that we might approach it from the right point of view ; having first looked down upon it from the vantage ground, which the history, character, and customs of the nation present. We shall first speak of Anglo-Saxon poetry; afterwards, of Anglo- Saxon prose. The first thing, which strikes the reader of Anglo-Saxon poetry, is the structure of the verse; the short exclamatory lines, whose rhythm depends on alliteration in the emphatic syllables, and to which the general omission of the particles gives great energy and vivacity. Though alliteration pre- dominates in all Anglo-Saxon poetry, rhyme is not wholly wanting. It had line-rhymes and final rhymes; which being added to the alliteration, and brought so near together in the short, emphatic lines, produce a singular effect upon the ear. They ring like blows of hammers on an anvil. For exam- ple; Flah mali fliteth, The strong dart flitteth, Flan man liwiteth, The spear man whetteth, ~ The honest illuminators, having no ideas of foreign or ancient man- ners, saw not the absurdity of making the Jewish monarch a president over a company of Saxon glee-men. They had heard, no doubt, that those per- sons, whose names they found recorded in the hook of Psalms, were poets and musicians, and, therefore, naturally concluded, that they were glee. men; because they knew no others, who performed in that double capacity but the glee-men. They knew, also, that these facetious artists were great- ly venerated by persons of the highest rank, and their company requested by kings and princes, who richly rewarded them for the exercise of their talents, and, for this reason, conceived that they were proper companions for the royal psalmist. Strutts Sports and Pastimes, Book iii. ch. 3. 1838.] anglo- Saxon Poetry. 101 Burg sorg biteth, Care the city biteth, Bald aid thwiteth, Age the bold quelleth, Wra~c-fa~c writhath, Vengeance prevaileth, Wrath ath smiteth. Wrath a city assaileth.* Other peculiarities of Anglo-Saxon poetry, which cannot escape the readers attention, are its frequent inversions, its bold transitions, and abundant metaphors. These are the things, which render Anglo-Saxon poetry so much more difficult than Anglo-Saxon prose. But upon these points we need not enlarge. lit is enough to have thus alluded to them. The references in the note will show where they are fully discussed. We do not wish to go over a ground so often trodden, but come gladly to a consideration of the poetry itself. f * See Conybeares illustrations of .lnglo-Saceon Poetry. In the Introduc. tion, the subject of Anglo-Saxoa metre is fully discussed. The same sub- ject is treated of in the grammars of Bosworth and Rask. To these we re- fer our readers; and likewise, to Vol. XXXII1. of this Review, p. 335. Alliteration was used in English poetry as late as the fifteenth century. William Dunbar wrote in 1455. Here is a short passage from his poem of The Two Married Women and the Widow. See Sibbalds Chronicle of Scot- tish Poetry, Vol. I. p. 210; and Conybeare, Introduction, p. lxxii. While that the day did updawn and dew danked flowris, The morrow mild was and meek, the mavis did sing, And all removed the mist and the mead smelled; Silver showris down shook as the sheen cristal, And birds shouted in the shaw with their shrill notis; The golden glittering gleam so gladdend their heartis, They made a glorious glee among the green boughis. The soft south of the swyre, and sound of the streamis, The sweet savour of the sward and singing of fowlis, Might comfort any creature of the kin of Adam, And kindle again his courage though it were cold slokoed. We add here a short passage in which many of these peculiarities are found. It is from an Ode on the death of King Edgar. And tha wearth eac adreafed, And there was also driven deormod hnleth; the beloved hero, 102 ~~ngio-& txon Literature. [J uIy~ One of the oldest and most important remains of Anglo- Saxon literature is the epic poem of Beowuif. Its age is unknown; but it comes from a very distant and hoar antiqui- ty; somewhere between the seventh and tenth centuries. It is like a piece of ancient armour; rusty and battered, and yet strong. From within comes a voice sepulchral, as if the an- cient armour spoke, telling a simple, straight-forward narra- tive; with here and there the boastful speech of a rough, old Dane, reminding one of those made by the heroes of Homer. The style, likewise, is simple, perhaps we should say, austere. The bold metaphors, which character- ize nearly all the Anglo-Saxon poems we have read, are for the most part wanting in this. The author seems mainly bent upon telling us, hoxv his Sea-Goth slew the Grendel and the Fire-drake. He is too much in earnest to multiply epi- thets and gorgeous figures. At times he is tedious; at times obscure; and he, who undertakes to read the original, will find it no childs-play; particularly if he undertakes, at the same time, the Latin version of Grim. Johnson Thorkelin.* The poem begins with a description of King Hrothgar the Scylding, in his great hall of Heort, which re~choed with the sound of harp and song. But not far off, in the fens and marshes of Jutland, dwelt a grim and monstrous giant, called Grendel, a descendant of Cain. This trouble Oslac, of earde, Oslac, from the land, ofer ytha gewealc, over the weltering of waves, ofer ganotes b,ath, over the sea-birds bath, gamol-feax hnleth, the flaxen-haired hero, wis and word snotor, wise and word-prudent, ofer wntera getliring, over the throng of waters, ofer hwnles ,ethel, over the whales country, hama bereafod. of home bereaved. This Danish scholar published an edition of Beowulf in 1815, with the following title; De Danorurn Rebus Gestis Secul. 111. et IV. Poema Danicum Dialecto glo- Saxonicd. Es BibliothecA Cottoniana .AIu& si Britannici. Havnict3. MDCCCX V. He made an antiquarian tour in Eng- land, in 1786, and took a copy of the MS., which, with a translation and commentary, he had ready for publication in 1807; but the whole unfor- tunately perished in the bombardment of Copenhagen by the English. Nothing daunted, the laborious, werthy Dane began his work anew, and the result is the quarto bearing his name. We regret to say, that the work is very incorrect, both in the original text and in the translation. Mr. Kemble says of it, that not five lines can be found in succession, in which some gross fault, either in the transcript or the translation, does not betray the editors utter ignorance of the Anglo-Saxon language. Bec- wuif. Preface, p. xxx. 1838.] Beowuif. 103 some individual was in the habit of occasionally visiting the Scyldings palace by night, to see, as the author rather quaint- ly says, how the doughty Danes found themselves after their beer-carouse. * On his first visit he destroyed some thirty inmates, all asleep, with beer in their brains; and ever after- wards kept the whole land in fear of death. At length the fame of these evil deeds reached the ears of Beowulf, the Thane of Higelac, a famous Viking in those days, who had slain sea-monsters, and wore a wild-boar for his crest. Straightxvay he sailed with fifteen followers for the court of Heort; unarmed, in the great mend-hall, and at midnight, fought the Grendel, tore off one of his arms, and hung it up on the palace wall as a curiosity; the fiends fingers being armed with long nails, which the author calls the band-spurs of the heathen hero, (hwthenes hond-sporu hilde-rinces.) Re- treating to his cave, the grim ghost (grima gust) departed this life; whereat there was great carousing at Heort. But at night came the Grendels mother, and carried away one of the beer-drunken heroes of the ale-wassail, (beore druncne ofer eol-wcege.) Beowulf, with a great escort, pursued her to the fen-lands of the Grendel; plunged, all armed, into a dark-rolling and dreary river, that flowed from the monsters cavern; slew worms and dragons manifold; was dragged to the bottom by the old-wife; and seizing a magic sword, which lay among the treasures of that realm of wonders, with one fell blow, let her heathen soul out of its bone-house, (ban-hus.) Having thus freed the land from the giants, Beo- wulf, laden with gifts and treasures, departed homeward, as if nothing special had happened; and, after the death of King Higelac, ascended the throne of the Scylfings. Here the poem should end, and, we doubt not, did originally end. But, as it has come down to us, eleven more cantos follow, con- taining a new series of adventures. Beowulf has grown old. He has reigned fifty years; and now, in his gray old age, is troubled by the devastations of a monstrous Fire-drake, so that his metropolis is beleaguered, and he can no longer fly his hawks and merles in the open country. He resolves, at length, to fight with this Fire-drake ; and, with the help Hii hit Hring-Dene mfter beor-thege ge-hi~n hwfdon. (7anU ii. v. 222. 104 eflnglo Saxon Literature. [July, of his attendant, Wiglaf, overcomes him. The land is made rich by the treasures found in the dragons cave but Beo- wulf dies of his wounds. Thus departs Beowulf, the Sea-Goth; of the world-kings the mildest to men, the strongest of hand, the most clement to his people, the most desirous of glory. And thus closes the oldest epic in any modern language ; written in forty- three cantos and some six thousand lines. The outline, here given, is filled up with abundant episodes and warlike details. We have ale-revels, and giving of bracelets, and presents of mares, and songs of bards. The battles with the Grendel and the Fire-drake are minutely described ; as likewise are the dwellings and rich treasure-houses of these monsters. The fire-stream flows with lurid light; the dragon breathes out flame and pestilential breath ; the gigantic sword, forged by the Jutes of old, dissolves and thaws like an icicle in the heros grasp; and the swart raven tells the eagle how he far- ed with the fell wolf at the death-feast. Such is, in brief, the machinery of the poem. We subjoin the third canto entire, as a specimen of the work. The whole passage has a high epic character. Beo- wulf sets sail for Jutland. We can almost smell the brine, and hear the sea-breeze blow, and see the mainland stretch out its jutting promontories, tbose sea-noses (so3-na~ssas), as the poet calls them, into the blue waters of the solemn main. Thus then much care-worn the son of Healfden sorrowed evermore, nor might the prudent hero his woes avert. The war was too hard, too loath and longsome, that on the people came, dire wrath and grim, of night-woes the worst. This from home heard Higelacs Thane, good among the Goths, Grendels deeds. He was of mankind in might the strongest, at that day of this life, noble and stalwart. He bade him a sea-ship, a goodly one, prepare. Quoth he, the war-king, over the swans road, seek he would the mighty monarch, since he wanted men. For him that journey his prudent fellows, straight made ready, those that loved him. They excited their souls, the omen they beheld. Had the good-man of the Gothic people champions chosen, of those that keenest 1838.1 Beowulj. 105 he might find, some fifteen men. The sea-wood sought he. The warrior showed, sea-crafty man! the land-marks, and first ~vent forth. The ship was on the waves, boat under the cliffs. The barons ready to the prow mounted, the streams they whirled, the sea against the sands. The chieftains bore on the naked breast,* bright ornaments, war-gear, Goth-like. The men shoved off, men on their willing way, the bounden wood. Then went over the sea- hurried by the wind, [waves the ship with foamy neck, most like a sea-fowl, till about one hour of the second day, the curved prow had passed onward so that the sailors the land saw, the shore-cliffs shining, mountains steep, and broad sea-noses. Then was the sea-sailing of the Earl t at an end. Then up speedily the Weather people on the land went, the sea-bark moored, their mail-sarks shook, their war-weeds. God thanked they, that to them the sea-journey easy had been. Then from the wall beheld the warden of the Scyldings, he who the sea-cliffs had in his keeping, bear oer the balks the bright shields, the ~var-weapons speedily. Him the doubt disturbed in his minds thought, what these men might be. Went then to the shore on his steed riding the Thane of Hrothgar. Before the host he shook his wardens-staff in hand, in measured words demanded; What men are ye war-gear wearing, host in harness, who thus the brown keel over the water-street leading come hither over the sea I these boundaries as shore-warden hold that in the Land of the Danes nothing loathsome, with a ship-crew scathe us might.... Neer saw I mightier Earl upon earth than is your own, hero in harness. Not seldom this warrior * Thorkelin and Conybeare render this line, in sinum navis vacuum. We venture on a new reading, mindful of ancient costume, and how A painted vest prince Vortigern had on, Which from a naked Pict his grandsire won We do not give this as a translation of the unknown word Edletes, but to supply the blank. As this word has not been found elsewhere, may it not possibly be an error of transcription for Eorles? VOL. XLVII.NO. c. 14 106 anglo kSaxon Literature. [July, is in weapons distinguished ; farther fare. never his beauty belies him, Now ye dwellers afar-off! his peerless countenance! ye sailors of the sea Now would I fain listen to my your origin know one-fold thought. eer ye forth Quickest is best as false spies to make known into the Land of the Danes whence your coming may be. We fear, that many of our readers will see very little poe- try in all this ; for which we shall be very sorry. Perhaps what follows may please them more ; and seem more poeti- cal. Meanwhile we would inform them, that a new and very beautiful edition of Beowuif has been lately published by John M. Kemble, of Trinity College, Cambridge, * who, in his preface, exhorts the reader to judge this poem, not by the measure of our times and creeds, but those of the times which it describes ; as a rude, but very faithful picture of an age, wanting indeed in scientific knowl- edge, in mechanical expertness, even in refinement ; but brave, generous, and right-principled; assuring him of what 1 well know, that these echoes from the deserted temples of the past, if listened to in a sober and understanding spirit, bring with them matter both strengthening and purifying the heart. * The next work, to which we would call the attention of our readers is very remarkable, both in a philological and in a poetical point of view ; being written in a more ambi- tious style than Beowulf. It is Ca~dmons Paraphrase of Portions of Holy Writ. Ca~dmon was a monk in the Mm- ster of Whitby. He died in the year 680. The only ac- count we have of his life and xvritings is that given by the Venerable Bede in his Ecclesiastical History. The follow- ing translation of the passage is from Mr. Thorpes Preface, where the original Latin and King Alfreds Anglo-Saxon version are also given. * The title is placed at the head of this Artlcle. Grundtvig, a modern Danish poet, has paraphrased the Anglo-Saxon Beowuif, and produced a hrilliant heroic poem in ten cantos, of various metre. It was puhlished at Copenhagen, under the title; Bjowulfs Drape, Et Gotisk Helte~Digtfraforrige, ear- Tusinde af dngei-Sa isk paa Danske Rum, ved Nw. FRED. Say. GRLTNDTVIG. Kjo~henhavn. 1S20. 1838.1 (Jo3dmon. 107 In this Abbesss~ Minster ~ was a certain brother extraor- dinarily magnified and honored with a divine gift; for he was wont to make fitting songs which conduced to religion and piety ; so that whatever he learned through clerks of the holy writings, that he, after a little space, would usually adora with the greatest sweetness and feeling, and bring forth in the Eng- lish tongue ; and by his songs the minds of many men were often inflamed with contempt for the world, and with desire of heavenly life. And, moreover, many others after him, in the English nation, sought to make pious songs ; but yet none could do like to him, for he had not been taught from~men, nor through men, to learn the poetic art ; but he was divinely aided, and through Gods grace received the art of song. And he therefore never might make aught of leasing or of idle poems, but just those only which conduced to religion, and which it became his pious tongue to sing. The man was placed in worldly life until the time that he was of mature age, and had never learned any poem ; and he therefore ofien in convivial society, J1 when, for the sake of mirth, it was resolved that they all in turn should sing to the harp, when he saw the harp approaching him, then for shame he would rise from the assembly and go home to his house. When he so on a certain time did, that he left the house of the convivial meeting, and was gone out to the stall of the cattle, the care of which that night had been committed to him, when he there, at proper time, placed his limbs on the bed and slept, then stood some man by him, in a dream, and hailed and greeted him, and named him by his name, [saying,] Ca~dmon, sing me something. Then he answered and said, I cannot sing any thing, and therefore I went out from this convivial meeting, and retired hither, because I could not. Again he who was speaking with him said, Yet thou must sing to me. Said he, What shall I sing ? Said he, Sing me the origin of things. When he received this answer, then he began forthwith to sing, in praise of God the Creator, the verses and the words which he had never heard, the order of which is this Now must we praise glorious Father of men! the Guardian of heavens king- as of every wonder he, the Creators might, [dom, Lord eternal, and his minds thought; formed the beginning. t Literally Beership, see Leges hue apud Wilkins, p. 16; and Tacit. Germ.. 22, 23. 108 ~Inglo- Saxon Literature. [July, He first framed the Guardian of mankind, for the children of earth the eternal Lord, the heaven as a roof; afterwards produced holy Creator ! the earth for men, then mid-earth, Lord Almighty! Then he arose from sleep, and had fast in mind all that he sleeping had sung, and to those words forthwith joined many words of song worthy of God in the same measure. Then came he in the morning to the town-reeve, who was his superior, and said to him what gift he had received ; and he forthwith led him to the abbess, and told, and made that known to her. Then she bade all the most learned men and the learners to assemble, and in their presence bade him tell the dream, and sing the poem ; that, by the judgment of them all, it might be determined why or whence that was come. Then it seemed to them all, so as it was, that to him, from the Lord himself a heavenly gift had been given. Then they ex- pounded to him and said some holy history, and words of godly lore ; then bade him, if he could, to sing some of them, and turn them into the melody of song. When he had undertaken the thing, then went he home to his house, and came again in the morning, and sang and gave to them, adorned with the best poetry, what had been bidden him. Then began the abbess to make much of and love the grace of God in the man; and she then exhorted and instructed him to forsake worldly life and take to monkhood ; and he that well approved. And she received him into the minster with his goods, and asso- ciated him with the congregation of those servants of God, and caused him to be taught the series of the Holy History and Gospel ; and he all that he could learn by hearing meditated with himselg and, as a clean animal, ruminating, turned into the sweetest verse ; and his song and his verse were so win- some to hear, that his teachers themselves wrote and learned from his mouth. He first sang of earths creation, and of the origin of mankind, and all the history of Genesis, which is the first book of Moses, and then of the departure of the people of Israel from the Egyptians land, and of the entrance of the land of promise, and of many other histories of the canonical books of Holy Writ ; and of Christs incarnation, and of his passion, and of his ascension into heaven ; and of the coming of the Holy Ghost, and the doctrine of the Apostles ; and also of the terror of the doom to come, and the fear of hell-torment, and the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom, be made many poems ; and, in like manner, many others of the divine bene 1838.1 Cc~dmon. 109 fits and judgments he made ; in all which he earnestly took care to draw men from the love of sins and wicked deeds, and to excite to a love and desire of good deeds ; for he was a very pious man, and to regular disciplines humbly subjected and against those who in other wise would act, he was in- flamed with the heat of great zeal ; and he therefore with a fair end his life closed and ended. For when the time approached of his decease and depar- ture, then was he for fourteen days ere that oppressed and troubled with bodily infirmity ; yet so moderately, that, during all that time, he could both speak and walk. There was in the neighbourhood a house for infirm men, in which it was their custom to bring the infirm, and those who were on the point of departure, and there attend to them together. Then bade he his servant, on the eve of the night that he was going from the world, to prepare him a place in that house, that he might rest; whereupon the servant wondered why he this bade,for it seemed to him that his departure was not so near; yet he did as he said and commanded. And when he there went to bed, and in joyful mood was speaking some things, and joking together with those who were therein previously, then it was over midnight that he asked, whether they had the eucha- rist within. They answered, What need is to thee of the eucharist ? thy departure is not so near, now thou thus cheer- fully, and thus gladly, art speaking to us.~ Again he said, Bring me nevertheless the eucharist. When he had it in his hands, he asked, whether they had all a placid mind and kind, and without any ill-will towards him. Then they all answered, and said, that they knew of no ill-will towards him, but they all were very kindly disposed ; and they besought him in turn that he would be kindly disposed to them all. Then he answered and said, My beloved brethren, I am very kindly disposed to you and all Gods men. And he thus was strengthening himself with the heavenly viaticum, and prepar- ing himself an entrance into another life. Again he asked, How near it was to the hour that the brethren must rise and teach the people of God, and sing their nocturns ? They answered, It is not far to that. He said, It is well, let us await the hour. And then he prayed, and signed himself with Christs cross, and reclined his head on the bolster, and slept for a little space ; and so with stillness ended his life. And thus it was, that as he with pure and calm mind and tranquil devotion had served God, that he, in like manner, left the world with as calm a death, and went to his presence; and the tongue that had composed so many holy words in the Creators praise, he, then, in like manner, its last words 110 ./inglo- Saxon Literature. [July, closed in his praise, crossing himself~ and committing his soul into his hands. Thus it is seen that he was conscious of his own departure, from what we have now heard say.pp. xix xxix. Thus lived and died the Monk of Whitby. By some he is called the Father of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, because his name stands first in the history of Saxon song-craft ; by others, the Milton of our Forefathers; because he sang of Lucifer and the Loss of Paradise. The resemblance goes no farther than this ; he is a Milton in his theme only. The poem is divided into two books. The first is nearly complete, and contains a paraphrase of parts of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. The second is so mutilated as to be only a series of unconnected fragments. It contains scenes from the New Testament, and is chiefly occupied with Christs descent into the loxver regions ; a favorite theme in old times, and well known in the history of miracle- plays, as the ~ Harrowing of Hell. The author is a pious, prayerful monk ; an awful, reverend, and religious man. He has all the simplicity of a child. He calls his Creator the Blithe-heart King; the patriarchs, Earls; and their chil- dren, Noblemen. Abraham is a wise-heedy man, a guardian of bracelets, a mighty earl ; and his wife Sarah, a woman of elfin-beauty. The sons of Reuben are called Sea-Pirates. A laugher is a laughter-smith (hleahtor-smith) ; the Ethio- pians, a people brown with the hot coals of heaven, (brune leode hatum heofon-colum.) Striking poetic epithets and passages are not, however, wanting. They are sprinkled here and there throughout the narrative. The sky is called the roof of nations, the roof adorned xvith stars. After the overthrow of Pharaoh and his folk, he says, the blue air was with corruption tainted, and the bursting ocean whooped a bloody storm. Nebuchad- nezzar is described as a naked, unwilling wanderer, a won- drous wretch and weedless. Horrid ghosts, swart and sinful, Wide through windy halls Wail woful. And, in the sack of Sodom, we are told, how many a fearful, pale-faced damsel must trembling go into a strangers em- brace; and how fell the defenders of brides and bracelets, sick with wounds. Indeed, xvhenever the author has a battle to describe, and hosts of arm-bearing and war-faring men 1838.] Ccedmons Paraphrase of Scripture. 111 draw from their sheaths the ring-hilted sword of edges doughty (hring-mwled sweord ecgum dihtig), he enters into the matter with so much spirit, that one almost imagines he sees, looking from under that monkish cowl, the visage of no parish priest, but of a grim war-wolf, as the brave were called, in the days when Ca~dmon wrote. We will not, however, confine ourselves to such criticism as this, but extract here, as a specimen of Ca~dmons power, a part of the Flight of the Israelites, which is one of the best portions of the work. Loud was the shout of the host, the heavenly beacon rose each evening. Another stupendous won- der After the suns setting course, they beheld over the people, a flame to shine, a burning pillar; pale stood over the archers the clear beams, the bucklers shone. The shades prevailed; yet the falling nightly shad- ows might not near shroud the gloom. The heavenly candle burnt, the new night-ward must by compuLsion rest over the hosts, lest them horror of the waste, the hoar heath with its raging storms, should overwhelm, their souls fail. Had their harbinger fiery locks, pale beams a cry of dread resounded in the martial host, at the hot flame, that it in the waste would burn up the host, unless they zealously Moses obeyed. Shone the bright host, the shields gleamed the bucklered warriors saw in a straight course the sign over the bands, till that the sea-barrier, at the lands end, the peoples force withstood, suddenly, on their onward way. A camp arose ; they cast them weary down; approached with sustenance the bold sewers they their strength repaired, spread themselves about, after the trumpet sang, the sailors in the tents. Then was the fourth station, the shielded warriors rest, by the Red Sea. pp.l84l86. Then of his men the mind became despondent, after that they sa~v, from the south ways, the host of Pharaoh coming forth, ~ Literally, meat-thanes. 112 .IInglo- Saxon Literature. [July, moving over the holt, the band glittering. They prepared their arms, the war advanced, bucklers glittered, trumpets sang, standards rattled, they trod the nations frontier. Around them screamed the fowls of ~var, greedy of battle, dewy-feathered, over the bodies of the host, (the dark chooser of the slain;) * the wolves sung their horrid evensong, in hopes of food, the reckless beasts, threatening death to the vat- zant; * on the foes track flew the army-fowl. * CC The march-wards cried at midnight; flew the spirit of death ; * the people were hemmed in. At length of that host the proud thanes met mid the paths, * in bendings of the bounda- ries to them there the banner- king marched with the standard, the prince of men rode the marches with his band the warlike guardian of the people clasped his grim helm, the king, his visor. The banners glittered in hopes of battle; slaughter shook the proud. He bade his warlike band bear them boldly, the firm body. The enemy saw with hostile eyes the coming of the natives: about him moved fearless warriors. The hoar army wolves the battle hailed, thirsty for the brunt of war. pp. 187189. Ca~dmons Paraphrase was first published by Francis Ju- nius, in Amsterdam. t The text of Mr. Thorpes edition is founded on a careful collation of that of Junius with the Bodleian Manuscript. It has been printed with great beauty, under the superintendence of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Fac-simile engravings of the illuminations in the old manuscript accompany the work. ~ We must not pass from this subject without mentioning, * Conjectural reading f Ca~drnonis .Monac)~i Paraphrasis poetica Genesios ac pracipuarum Sacra Pagiiue Historiarum, abhinc annos MLXX ~nglo-Sazonice con- scripta, el nune primum edita a FRANCISCO JUN10. F. F. Amstalodami: 1655. Cadmons Aletrical Paraphrase of Parts of the Holy Scriptures, in Anglo- Saxon; with an English Translation, Notes, and a Verbal Index, by BENJA- MINTI-IORPE,F.S.A. London. 1832. 8vo. 1838.] Poetical Fragments. 113 that the authenticity of these remains has been called in question, or, perhaps we should say, denied by Hickes and others. They suppose the work to belong to as late a period as the tenth century, on account of its similarity in style and dialect to other poems of that age. Besides, the fragment of the ancient Ca~dmon, given by Bede, de- scribing the Creation, does not correspond exactly with the passage on the same subject in the Junian or Pseudo C~edmon; and, moreover, Hickes says he has detected so many Dano-Saxon words and phrases in it, that he cannot but think it was written by some Northymbrian (in the Saxon sense of the word), after the Danes had corrupted their lan- guage. * Mr. Thorpe replies very conclusively to all this; that the language of the poem is as pure Anglo-Saxon as that of Alfred himself; that the Danisms exist only in the im- agination of the learned author of the Thesaurus ; and that, if they were really to be found in the work under considera- tion, it would prove no more, than that the manuscript was a copy made by a Northumbrian scribe, at a period when the language had become corrupted. As to the passage in Bede, the original of Ciedmon was not given ; only a Latin transla- tion by Bede, which Alfred, in his version of the Venerable historian, has re-translated into Anglo-Saxon. Hence the difference between these lines and the opening lines of the poem. We confess our own opinion coincides with that of Mr. Thorpe. In its themes the poem corresponds exactly with that which Bede informs us Ca~dmon wrote ; and its claim to authenticity can hardly be destroyed by such objec- tions as have been brought against it. t Such are the two great narrative poems of the Anglo- Saxon tongue. Of a third, a short fragment remains. It is a mutilated thing; a mere torso. Judith of the Apocrypha is * Letter to Bishop .Micholson, in Thorpes Preface, p. ix. The creation of the world,seems to have been a favorite theme with Anglo-Saxon poets. In the poem of Beowzdf the bards at the court of Hrothgar are described as singing this high theme. Thasr w~es hearpan sweg swutol sang sc6pes sa~gde se the ciithe frum.sceaft fira feorran reccan cwasth tha4 se a~l-mihtiga eorthan worhte, etc. Canto I. v. 178. VOL. XLVII.NO. c. 15 114 .flnglo- & xon Literature. [July, the heroine. The part preserved describes the death of Holophernes in a fine, brilliant style, delighting the hearts of all Anglo-Saxon scholars. The original will be found in Mr. Thorpes .lnctlecta; and translations of some passages in Turners History. But a more important fragment, in our opinion, is that on the Death of Byrhtnoth, at the battle of Maldon. This, likewise, is in Thorpe ; and a prose translation is given by Conybeare in his Illustrations. It savors of rust and of antiquity. It smells of mortality ; like Old Hildebrand in German. What a fine passage is this, spoken by an aged vassal over the dead body of the hero, in the thickest of the fight Byrhtwold spoke ; he was an aged vassal; he raised his shield ; he brandished his ashen spear ; he full boldly ex- horted the warriors. Our spirit shall be the hardier, our heart shall be the keener, our soul shall be the greater, the more our forces diminish. Here lieth our chief all mangled; the brave one in the dust ; ever may he lament his shame that thinketh to fly from this play of weapons! Old am I in life, yet will I not stir hence ; but I think to lie by the side of my lord, by that much loved man ! Sborter than either of these fragments is a third on the Fight of Finsborough. Its chief value seems to be, tbat it relates to the same action, which formed the theme of one of Hrothgars bards in Beowuif. * Mr. Conybeare has given it a place in his xvork. In addition to these narrative poems and fragments, two others, founded on Lives of Saints, are mentioned, though they have never been published. They are the Life and Passion of $t. Juliana: and the Visions of the Hermit Guthiac. The very names pique our curiosity exceedingly. We are sure that in those Visions of the Hermit Guthlac lies hidden much strange lore. There is another narrative poem, which we must mention here on account of its subject, though of a much later date than the foregoing. It is the Chronicle of King Lear and his Daughters, in Norman-Saxon; not rhymed throughout, but with rhymes too often recurring to be accidental. As a poem, it has no merit, but shows that the story of Lear is very old; for, in speaking of the old Kings death and burial, it refers to a previous account, as the book telleth, (ase See Canto XVI. 1838.] Odes and Ballads. 115 the bock telleth.) Cordelia is married to Aganippus, king of France; and after his death reigns over England, though Maglaudus, king of Scotland, declares, that it is a muckle shame, that a queen should be king over the land. * Besides these long, elaborate poems, the Anglo-Saxons had their odes and ballads. Thus, when King Canute was sailing by the abbey of Ely, he heard the voices of the monks, chanting their vesper hymn. Whereupon he sang, in the best Anglo-Saxon he was master of, the following rhyme; Merry sang the monks in Ely, As King Canute was steering by. Row, ye knights, near the land, And hear we these monks song.t The best, and properly speaking perhaps, the only Anglo- Saxon odes we have, are those preserved in the Saxon Chronicle, in recording the events they celebrate. They are five in number. iLthelstans Victory at Brunanburh, A. D. 938; the Victories of Edmund ~tbeling, A. D. 942; the Coronation of King Edgar, A. D. 973; the Death of King Edgar, A. D. 975; and the Death of King Edward, A. D. 1065. The Battle of Brunanburh is already pretty well known by the numerous English versions, and attempts thereat, which have been given of it. Warton, Turner, and Ingram, have each translated it. Mr. ilenshall, likewise, in Elliss Speci- mens of English Poets, presented to the world an attempt at a translation ; and, perhaps, the most unsuccessful attempt ever made in any language. Last of all, Mr. Price ,inbis edition of Wartons History of English Poetry, has given what is generally considered the most accurate version, al- though the text is nearly hidden by a vast scaffolding of illus- trations, and almost every line propped up by a double col- umn of notes. ~\Ve consider this ode, as one of the most characteristic specimens of Anglo-Saxon poetry. What a striking picture is that of the lad with flaxen hair, mangled * For hit was swithe mochel same, and eke hit was mochel grame, that a cwene snide be king in thisse land. I Merie sungen the muneches binnen Ely, Tha Cnut ching reuther by; Roweth, cnihtes, noer the land, And here we thes muneches sang. 116 .iinglo- Saxon Literature. [July, with wounds; and of the seven earls of Anlaf, and the five young kings, lying on the battle-field, lulled asleep by the sword! Indeed, the whole ode is striking, bold, graphic. The furious onslaught; the cleaving of the wall of shields the hewing down of banners; the din of the fight; the hard hand-play; the retreat of the Northmen, in nailed ships, over the stormy sea; and the deserted dead, on the battle- ground, left to the swart raven, the war-hawk, and the wolf; all these images appeal strongly to the imagination. The bard has nobly described this victory of the illustrious war- smiths (wlartce ivig-smithas), the most signal victory since the coming of the Saxons into England; so say the books of the old wise men. We will copy this ode entire. For the others we refer our readers to Mr. Ingrams edition of the ./lnglo- Saxon Chronicle. A~thelstan the king, lord of earls, bracelet-giver of barons, and his brother eke, Eadmund the prince, very illustrious chieftain, combated in battle, with edges of swords, near Brunanburh. They clove the board-wall, hewed the high lindens, with relics of hammers (i. e. swords), the children of Edward. Such was to them (their na- tive nobility, from their ancestors, that they in battle oft, against every foe [loathed onel, the land preserved, board and homes, the enemy crushed. The Scottish people, and the mariners, fated fell. The field with warriors blood, since the sun up, on morrow-tide, mighty planet, glided over grounds, bright candle of God, of the eternal Lord till the noble creature, sank to her seat [settle]. There lay many a warrior, strewed by darts, northern man, shot over the shield. So Scottish eke, weary of war . The West-Saxons forth, the continuous day, in battalions, laid on the foot-steps, to the loathed race. They hewed the fugitives, hindwards exceedingly, with swords mill-sharp. The Mercians refused not, of the hard hand-play, to none of the men, of those who with Anlaf, over the ocean, in the ships bosom, sought our land. 1838.] Battle of Brunanburh. 117 fated to the fight. Five lay, on the battle-stead, young kings, soothed with swords. So seven eke, earls of Anlafs; numberless of the army, of sailors and Scots. There was chased away, the leader of the Northnien, compelled by need, to the ships prow, with a little band. The ship drove afloat, the king departed out, on the fallow flood, preserved his life. So there also the sapient one, by flight came, on his country north, Constantine, hoary warrior. He needed not to boast, of the commerce of swords. Here was his kindred troop, of friends destroyed [felled,] on the folk-stead, slain in battle and his son he left, on the slaughter-place, mangled with wounds, young in the fight. He needed not to boast, bairn blended-haired, of the bill-clashing, old deceiver nor Anlaf any more, with the relics of their armies, needed not to laugh, that they of warlike works, better men were, on the battle-stead, at the conflict of banners, the meeting of spears, the assembly of men, the interchange of weapons, of that which they on the slaughter-field, with Edwards, children played. The Northmen departed, in their nailed ships, gory relic of the darts, on over deep water, Dublin to seek, Ireland again, with a shamed mind. So too the brothers, both together, king and prince, sought their country, land of the West Saxons, of the war exulting. They left behind them, the corse to enjoy, the sallowy the swarth raven, the horned nibbed one; and the dusky eagle white behind [after], of the corse to enjoy, greedy war-hawk; and that gray beast [deer], the wolf on the wold. Nor was there a greater slaughter, on this island, ever yet, of folk felled, before this, by the swords edges, of that say to us in books, old historians, since eastward hither, Angles and Saxons, up came, 118 anglo Saxon Literature. [July, over the broad seas, overcame the Welsh, Britain sought, earls exceeding bold [keen], splendid war-smiths, obtained the earth. Warton, I., pp. lxxxvii ci. And here we would make due and honorable mention of the Poetic Calendar, and of King Alfreds Version of the .Metres of Bo~thius; both of which have been lately pub- lished, with an English translation and notes, by the Rev- erend Samuel Fox; * a gentleman whom we know not, but whom we honor for this phrase in one of his prefaces; When, however, we consider the difficulties which men, like Junius, Rawlinson, and Hickes, had to contend with, the errors, which they committed, ought to be forgotten in grate- ful admiration of what they actually accomplished. The Poetic Calendar is a chronicle of great events in the lives of saints, martyrs, and apostles, referred to the days on which they took place. At the end is a very remarkable ode, which we cannot choose but copy here. Mr. Foxs transla- tion we have never seen. We give Mr. Turners t though, had we made one for ourselves, we should have rendered some lines differently. The King shall hold the Kingdom; castles shall be seen afar, the work of the minds of giants, that are on this earth; the wonderful work of walistones. The wind is the swiftest in the sky; thunder is the loudest of noises great is the majesty of Christ fortune is the strongest winter is the coldest spring has most hoar-frost he is the longest cold summer sun is most beautiful the air is then hottest fierce harvest is the happiest * .Menologium, or the Poetical Calendar of the Anglo-Saxons. With an English Translation and .Afotes, by the Rev. Samuel Fox. 1830. Svo. King Alfreds Anglo-Saxon Version of the Metres of Boethius. With an English Translation and Xotes. London: 1835. 8vo. History of the Anglo-Saxons. Book XII. ch. 1. Ed. 1807. The original may he found in Hickes, Thesaurus. Vol. I. p. 203. 1838.] The Poetic Calendar. 119 it bringeth to men the tribute-fruits, that to them God sendeth. Truth is most deceiving treasures are most precious, gold, to every man and age is the wisest, sagacious from ancient days, from having before endured much. Woe is a wonderful burthen clouds roam about the young Etheling good companions shall animate to war, and to the giving of bracelets. Strength in the earl, the sword with the helm shall abide battle. The hawk in the sea-cliff shall live wild the wolf in the grove the eagle in the meadow; the boar in the wood, powerful with the strength of his tusk. The good man in his country will do justice. With the dart in the hand, the spear adorned with gold, the gem in the ring will stand pendent and curved. The stream in the waves will make a great flood. The mast in the keel will groan with the sail yards. The sword will be in the bosom, the lordly iron the dragon will rest on his hillock, crafty, proud with his ornaments the fish will in the water produce a progeny. The king will in the hall distribute bracelets. The bear will be on the heath old and terrible. The water will from the hill 120 .flnglo- Saxon Literature. [July, bring down7the~grey earth. The army will be together strong with the bravest. Fidelity in the earl wisdom in man! The woods will on the ground blow with fruit the mountains in the earth will stand green. God will he in heaven the judge of deeds. The door will be to the hall the mouth of the roomy mansion. The round will be on the shield, the fast fortress of the fingers. Fowl aloft will sport in the air salmon in the whirlpool will roll with the skate the shower in the heavens, mingled with wind, will come on the world. The thief will go out in dark weather. The Thyrs* will remain in the fen, alone in the land. A maiden with secret arts, a woman, her friend will seek, if she cannot in public grow up so that men may buy her with bracelets. The salt ocean will rage the clouds of the supreme Ruler, and the water floods about every land, will flow in expansive streams. Cattle in the earth will multiply and be reared. Stars will in the heavens shine brightly, as their Creator commanded them. God against evil; youth against age * A Thyrs was among the Northerns a giant, or wild mountain savage, a sort of evil-being, somewhat supernatural. 1838.] .Jliiinor Poems. 121 life against death, light against darkness, army against army, enemy against enemies, hate against hate, shall everywhere contend sin will steal on. Always will the prudent strive about this worlds labor to hang the thief; and compensate the more honest~ for the crime committed against mankind. The Creator alone knows whither the soul shall afterwards roam, and all the spirits that depart in God. After their death-day they will abide their judgment in their fathers bosom. Their future condition is hidden and secret. God alone knows it, the preserving father None again return hither to our houses, that any truth may reveal to man, about the nature of the Creator, or the peoples habitations of glory which he himself inhabits. From Alfreds poetic Version of the .Mietres of Ho~$thius, we have not room to quote. From his prose translation of the Roman Philosophers Consolations, we shall make some extracts hereafter. In addition to these narratives and odes and didactic Poems, there is a vast number of minor poems on various subjects, some of which have been published, though for tbe most part they still lie asleep in manuscripts ; hymns, alle- gories, doxologies, proverbs, enigmas, paraphrases of the Lords Prayer, poems on Death and the Day of Judgment, and the like. A great quantity of them is contained in the voL. XLvmI.No. c. 16 122 ~Inglo Saxon Literature. [July, celebrated Exeter Manuscript; a folio given by Bishop Leo- fric to the Cathedral of Exeter in the eleventh century, and called by the donor, a mycel Enisc boc be gehwylcum thingum on leothwisan geworht, gla great English book about every thing, composed in verse. A minute ac- count of the contents of this manuscript is given by Cony- beare in his Illustrations, with numerous extracts. Among these is the beginning of a very singular and striking poem, entitled, The Souls Complaint against the Body. The de- parted spirit is represented as returning, ghastly and shriek- ing, to find the body it had left. Cleopath thonne swa cearful caldan reorde, spriceth grimlice ga~st to than duste Drugu thu dreorga! to hwon dreahtest thu me Eorthan fylnes eal forweornast, lames gelicnes. Lyt thu gethotest to won thinne sawle-sith sith-than wurd sith-than heo of lichoman la~ded w~ere Crieth then, so care-worn with cold utterance, and speaketh grimly, the ghost to the dust; Dry dust ! thou dreary one! how little didst thou labor for me In the foulness of earth thou all wearest away like to the loam Little didst thou think how thy souls journey would be thereafter, when from the body it should be led forth. * But perhaps the most curious poem in the Exeter Manu- script is the Rhyming Poem, to which we have before alluded. It is published entire in the Introduction to Conybeares Illustrations. We have room for one short extract only. * The conception of this poem reminds us of that most appalling C~ Ode to a Dead Body, by Andrea de Basso, a priest of Ferrara; heginning Rise from the loathsome and devouring tomb, Give up thy body, woman without heart, Now that its worldly part Is over; and deaf, blind, and dumb To worms thou givest food, And, from thine altitude Shaken by deaths rude touch, Makest the grave thy couch. See Leigh Hunts very free and spirited translation. Poetical Works, p. 261. 1838.] Rhyming Poem. 123 Swa nu world wendeth; Wyrde sendeth, And hetes henteth Hielethe scyndeth, Wer cynge witeth, Wad gar sliteth, Flah mah fliteth, Elan man liwiteth, Burg sorg biteth; Bald aId thwiteth, Wra~c-ftec writhath, Wrath ath smiteth Sin-grynd sidath, Sa~cre [s~earo] fearo glideth, Groin torn gr~efeth, Gra~f1 hafath, Searo hwit solath Sumur bet colath, Fold fda fealleth, Feond-scire wealleth, Eorth mregen ealdath, Ellen colath. Me th~t wyrd gewad, And gehwyrt forgeaf Tha~t ic grofe gra{ And thint grimme gra~f Flean fla~sce ne ma~g; Thon flab hred da~g, Nid grapum nimeth Thon seo neah becymeth; Seo me ethles onfonn, And mec her beardes on conn. Thus now the world wend- eth; Fate sendeth [men to their doom], And feuds pursue them Chieftains oppress, War-kings go forth, The dart of slaughter pierc- eth, The violent arrow flieth, * The spear smiteth them, Sorrow devoureth the city The bold man in age decays, The season of vengeance tor- menteth him, And enmity easily assaileth him; The abyss of sin increaseth, Sudden treachery glideth in, Grim rage grieveth, Woe possesseth, Every possession is deceitful, Summers heat groweth cool, Many things fall to the ground, The portion of strife abound- eth, Earthly power groweth old, Courage groweth cold. This Fate wove for me, And as decreed assigned it, That I should grieve with this grief. And the grim grave Flesh may not flee Soon as the rapid day hath flown, Necessity seizeth in her grasp When she cometh nigh; She that hath taken me from my country, And here exerciseth me in hardship. pp. xxiii, xxiv. We shall offer our readers only one more poetical ex * The reader will perceive that our translation, on p. 100, differs a little from Mr. Conybeares, as here given. 124 .Jlnglo- & txou Literature. [July, tract. It is of a much later date than the others we have given, being in Norman-Saxon. It is taken from a manu- script volume of Homilies in the Bodleian Library. The subject is the Grave. It is Death that speaks. For thee was a house built Ere thou wert born, For thee was a mould meant, Ere thou of mother earnest. But it is not made ready, Nor its depth measured, Nor is it seen How long it shall be, Now I bring thee Where thou shalt be. Now I shall measure thee And the mould afterwards. Thy house is not Highly timbered, It is unhigh and low, When thou art therein, The heel-ways are low, The side-ways unhigh. The roof is built Thy breast full nigh, So thou shalt in mould Dwell full cold Dimly and dark. Doorless is that house And dark it is within There thou art fast detained, And Death hath the key. Loathsome is that earth-house, And grim within to dwell. There thou shalt dwell, And worms shall divide thee. Thus thou art laid And leavest thy friends Thou hast no friend, Who will come to thee Who will ever see How that house pleaseth thee Who will ever open For thee the door 1838. Jlnglo- Saxon Prose 125 And descend after thee, For soon thou art loathsome And hateful to see. * We now come to Anglo-Saxon Prose. At the very boundary of this portion of our subject, stand txvo great works, like landmarks. These are the Saxon Laws, pro- mulgated by the various kings, that ruled the land ; ~ and the Saxon Chronicle,]: in xvhich all great historic events, from the middle of the fifth to the middle of the twelfth century, are recorded by contemporary writers, mainly, it xvould seem, the monks of Winchester, Peterborough, and Canter- bury. To review these works, valuable and important as they are, comes not within our plan. If it did, we fear our readers would write at the end, as Gervase of Canterbury did at the end of his first Chronicle, Finito libro reddatur gratia Christo. To historians, therefore, and lawgivers, we leave these works. And, setting these aside, doubtless the most important remains of Anglo-Saxon Prose are the writings of King Alfred the Great. What a sublime old character was King Alfred! Alfred, the Truth-teller ! Thus the ancient historian surnamed him, as others were surnamid the Unready, Ironside, Harefoot. The principal events of his life are known to all men ; the nine battles fought in the first year of his reign; his flight to the marshes and forests of Somersetshire ; his poverty and suffering, wherein was fulfilled the prophecy of St. Neot, that he should be bruised like the ears of wheat ; his life with the swineherd, whose wife bade him turn the cakes, that they might not be burnt, for she saw daily that he was a * For the original text, see Conybeares Illustrations, page 271, and Thorpes Ilnalecta, page 142. t Leges .Llnglo-Saxonicce Ecclesiastic~e et Civiles; et .N~otas, versionem et glossarium adjecit David Wilkins. London: 1721. Folio. t The Saxon Chronicle, with an English Translation, and .Notes, Critical and Explanatory. By the Rev. J. INGRAM. London: 1823. 4to. The style of this Chronicle rises at times far above that of most monkish historians. For instance, in recording the death of William the Conqueror, the writer says; Sharp death, that passes by neither rich men nor poor, seized him also. Alas how false and how uncertain is this worlds weal! He that was before a rich king, and lord of many lands, had not then of all his land more than a space of seven feet! and he that was whilom en- shrouded in gold and gems, lay there covered with mould. AD. 1087. See, on this subject, Ancient History, English and French, exemplified in a Regular Dissection of the Saxon Chronicle, ~-c., wherein the principal Saxon Annalists are now (for the first time) identified. London; 1830. 8vo. 126 .~Qnglo- & txon Literature. [July, great eater ; * his successful rally ; his victories, and his future glorious reign; these things are known to all men. And not only these, which are events in his life, but also many more, which are traits in his character, and controlled events ; as, for example, that he was a wise and virtuous man ; a religions man ; a learned man for that age. Per- haps they know, even, how he measured time with his six horn lanterns; and, moreover, was an author and wrote many books. But of these hooks how few persons have read even a single line! And yet it is well worth ones while,if he wish to see all the cairn dignity of that great mans character, and how in him the scholar and the man outshone the king. For example, do we not know him better, and honor him more, when we hear from his own lips, as it were, such sentiments as these ? God has made all men equally noble in their original nature. True nobility is in the mind, not in the flesh. I wished to live honorably whilst I lived, and after my life, to leave to the men who were after me my memory in good works ! The chief writings of this Royal Author are his translations of Gregorys Pastoralis, or Herdsmans Book; Boi~thiuss Consolations of Philosophy, Bedes Ecclesiastical History; and the History of Orosius; known in manuscripts by the mysterious title of Hormesta. Of these works the most re- markable is the Bo& hius; so much of his own mind has Alfred infused into it. Properly speaking, it is not so much a translation as a gloss or paraphrase ; for the Saxon king, upon his throne, had a soul, which was near akin to that of the last of the Roman philosophers in his prison. He had suffered, and could sympathize with suffering human- ity. He adorned and carried out still farther the reflections of Bo~thius. He begins his task, however, with an apology, saying, Alfred, king, was translator of this book, and turned it from book-latin into English, as he most plainly and clearly could, amid the various and manifold worldly occupations, which often busied him in mind and body; and ends with a prayer, beseeching God, by the sign of the holy cross, and by the virginity of the blessed Mary, and by the obedi- ence of the blessed Michael, and by the love of all the saints * Wend thu thao hiafes, tha he ne forbeornen. fortham ic geseo del- ghamlice tha thu mnycel ete eart. Asser, Life of Alfred. ap. Turner. 1838.] .~lfreds Translation of Bo~Ithi us. 127 and their merits, that his mind might be made steadfast to the divine will and his own souls need. From this work we subjoin a few extracts. Observe now the sun, and also the other heavenly bodies. When the swarthy clouds come before them, they cannot give their light. So, also, the south wind sometimes with a great storm troubles the sea, which before, in serene weather, was transparent as glass to behold. When it, then, is so mingled with the billows, it is very quickly unpleasant, though it before was pleasant to look upon. So, also, is the brook, though it be strong in its right course, when a great rock, rolling down from the high mountain, falls into it, and divides it, and hinders it from its right course. In like manner, does the darkness of thy trouble now withstand my enlightened precepts. But, if thou art desirous, with right faith, to know the true light ; put away from thee the evil and vain joys, and also the vain sor- rows and the evil fear of this world ; that is, that thou lift not thyself up with arrogance, in thy health and in thy prosperity; nor, again, despair of good in any adversity. For the mind is ever bound with misery, if, of these two evils, either reigns. p. 23. When Wisdom had sung this lay he was silent, and the Mind then answered, and thus said ; 0 Reason, indeed thou knowest, that covetousness and the greatness of this earthly power never well pleased me, nor did I very much endeavour after this earthly authority. But I was nevertheless desirous of materials for the work which I was commanded to perform to the end that I might honorably and fitly steer and exercise the power which was committed to me. Moreover thou know- est that no man can show any craft, or exercise or steer any power, without tools and materials. That is, of every craft, the materials, without which man cannot exercise the craft. This then is a kings materials and his tools to reign with that he have his land well peopled. He must have prayer- men, and soldiers, and workmen. Thou knowest, that without these tools no king can show his craft. This is also his mate- rials, which he must have, besides the tools ; provision for the three classes. This is then their provision ; land to inhabit, and gifts, and weapons, and meat, and ale, and clothes, and whatsoever is necessary for the three classes. He cannot without these preserve the tools, nor without the tools work any of the things which he is commanded to perform. There- fore I was desirous of materials wherewith to exercise the * The reader will find passages from the translations of Bede and Oro- sius, in Thorpes tinalecta. An edition of Alfreds Orosius, with an Eng- lish translation by Dames Barrington, has been published. London: 1773. Svo. 128 Efinglo- & txon Literature. [July, power, that my talents and power might not be forgotten and concealed. For every craft and every power is soon grown old and passed in silence, if it he without wisdom; for no man can fulfil any craft without wisdom. Because whatsoever is done through folly, no one can ever reckon for craft. This is now especially to be said; that I wished to live honorably whilst I lived, and after my lffe to leave to the men who were after me my memory sn good works. pp. 91, 93. When Wisdom had made this speech, he began again to sing, and thus said; Whosoever desires fully to possess power, ought to labor first, that he have power over his own mind, and be not indecently subject to his vices. Also let him put away from his mind unbecoming solicitudes, and desist from complaints of his misfortunes. Though he reign over all the middle-earth, from eastward to westward, from India which is the southeast end of this middle-earth, to the island which we call Thule, which is at the north- west end of this middle-earth, where there is neither night in summer nor day in winter; though he rule even all this, he has not the more power, if he has not power over his mind, and if he does not guard himself aoainst have before spoken about. the vices, which we When Wisdom had sung this song, he began again to make a speech. and said ; Worthless and very false is the glory of this world! Concerning this a certain poet formerly sung. When he contemned this present life, he said; 0, glory of this world ! wherefore do erring men call thee, with false voice, glory, when thou art none ! For man more fre- quently has great renown, and great glory, and great honor, through the opinion of the unwise people, than he has through his deserts. But tell me now, what is more unme~t than this or why men may not rather be ashamed of themselves than rejoice, when they hear that any one belies them. Though men even rightly praise any one of the good, he ought not the sooner to rejoice immoderately at the peoples words. But at this he ought to rejoice, that they speak truth of him. Though he rejoice at this, that they spread his name, it is not the sooner so extensively spread as he persuades himself; for they cannot spread it over all the earth, though they may in some land ; for, though it be to one known, yet is it to another unknown. Though he in this land be celebrated, yet is he in another not celebrated. Therefore is the peoples favor to be held by every man for nothing ; since it comes not to every man according to his deserts, nor indeed remains always to any one. Consider, first, concerning noble birth. If any one 1838.] Jlpollonius of Tyre and Bible Translations. 129 boast of it, how vain and how useless is the boast; for every one knows that all men come from one father and from one mother. Or, again, concerning the peoples favor, and concerning their applause. I know not why we rejoice at it. Though they whom the vulgar applaud, be illustrious, yet are they more illustrious and more rightly to be applauded who are digni- fied by virtues. For no man is really the greater or the more praiseworthy, for the excellence of another, or for his virtue, if he himself has it not. Art thou ever the fairer for another mans fairness ? A man is full little the better though he have a good father, if he himself is incapable of any thing. Therefore I advise that thou rejoice in other mens good and their nobility ; but so far only, that thou ascribe it not to thyself as thy own. Because every mans good, and his nobility, is more in the mind than in the flesh. This only, indeed, I know of good in nobility ; that it shames many a man if he is worse than his ancestors were, and he therefore endeavours with all his power to imitate the manners of some one of the best, and his virtues. When Wisdom had finished this speech, he began to sing concerning the same, and said; Truly all men had like begin- ning, for they all came from one father and from one mother; they are all moreover born alike. That is no wonder, because one God is father of all creatures ; for he made them all and governs then all. He gives light to the sun, and to the moon, and places all the stars. He has created men on the earth, joined together the soul and the body by his power, and made all men equally noble in their original nature. Why do ye, then, without cause, lift yourselves up above other men, oa account of your birth ? when ye can find none unnoble, but all are equally noble, if ye are willing to remember the crea- tion, and the Creator, and moreover the birth of every one of you. But true nobility is in the mind, not in the flesh, as we have before said. But every man, who is altogether subject to vices, forsakes his Maker, arid his first origin, and his no- bility, and thence becomes degraded till he is unnoble. pp. 165171. Other remains of Anglo-Saxon prose exist in the Tale of .flpollonius of Tyre ; * the Bible-translations and Colloquies of Abbot IElfric ; Glosses of the Gospels, at the close of one of which, the conscientious scribe has written, Aldred, * The .t~n2o-Sazon Version of the Story of ~pollonius of Tyre, upon which is founded the Plaj of Pericles, 8{c. Weth a literal Translation. By BENJAMIN THORPE. London 18~4. L2mo. VOL. XLVIT.NO. c. 17 130 duglo- Saxon Literature. [July, an unworthy and most miserable priest, with the help of God and St. Cuthbert, overglossed it in English; and, finally, various miscellaneous treatises, among which the most curi- ous is a Dialogue between ~Saturn and Solomon. We can- not refrain from giving an extract from this very original and curious document, which bears upon it some of the darkest thumb-marks of the Middle Ages.* Here is related, how Saturn and Solomon contended about their Wisdom. * * * * * Tell me, whence was Adams name created I say unto thee, from four stars. Tell me, what were they called I tell thee, Arthox, Dux, Arotholem, Miasymbie. Tell me, from what matter was Adam, the first man, created? I tell thee, from eight pounds weight. Tell me, what were they I tell thee, the first was a pound of earth ; of that was his flesh made. The second was a pound of fire ; thence was his blood red and hot. rhe third was a pound of wind ; thence was breath given him. The fourth was a pound of cloud thence was given him the unsteadiness of his mind. The fifth was a pound of grease ; thence was given him fat and sinews. The sixth was a pound of [blosinena] ; thence was given him his own varieties. The seventh was a pound of dew ; thence had he sweat. The eighth was a pound of salt ; thence were his salt tears. Tell me, of what age was Adam when he was created I tell thee, he was thirty winters old. Tell me, how long was Adam made, in length I tell thee, he was six and ninety inches long. Tell me, how many winters lived Adam in this world I tell thee, he lived nine hundred and thirty winters, in toil and misery ; and afterwards he went to Hell, and there en- dured grim torments for five thousand two hundred and eight and twenty winters. * * * * * Tell me, what was the name of Noahs wife I tell thee, her name was Dalila. And what was Hams wife called She was called Jaitarecta. And what was the name of Japhets wife? * For the original, see Thorpe, linalecta, p. 95. 1838.] Dialogue between Saturn and Solomon. 131 I tell thee, her name was Catafiuvia ; and the other three were called Olla, Ollina, and Ollibana. * * * * * Tell me, what plant is best and holiest I tell thee, that plant is the lily, because it betokens Christ. Tell me, what bird is the holiest? I tell thee, the dove is the holiest, for it betokens the Holy Ghost. Tell me, whence cometh lightning I tell thee, it cometh from wind and from water. Tell me, what water is the holiest I tell thee, the river Jordan is the holiest, because Christ was baptized therein. * * * * ~ Tell me, what man first spake with a dog I tell thee, Saint Peter. Tell me, what man first ploughed the earth with a plough I tell thee, it was Ham, the son of Noah. Tell me, wherefore stones are barren I tell thee, because Abels blood fell upon a stone, when Cain his brother slew him with the jaw-bone of an ass. * * * * * Tell me, what made the sea salt I tell thee, the ten commandments that Moses collected in the old Law, the commandments of God. He threw the ten commandments into the sea, and he shed tears into the sea, and the sea became salt. * * * * * Tell me, what man first built a monastery I tell thee, Elms, and Elisha the prophet, and, after bap- tism, Paul and Anthony, the first anchorites. Tell me, what were the streams that watered Paradise I tell thee, they were four. The first was called Pison ; the second Geon; the third Tigris; the fourth Euphrates; that is, milk, and honey, and ale, and wine. rell me, why is the sun red at evening I tell thee, because he looks into Hell. Tell me, why shineth he so red in the morning I tell thee, because he doubteth whether he shall or shall not shine upon this earth, as he is commanded. Tell me, what four waters feed this earth I tell thee, they are snow, and rain, and hail, and dew Tell me, who first made letters I tell thee, Mercury the Giant. 132 .ilnglo- Saxon Literature. [July, Hardly less curious and infinitely more valuable, is a Col- loquy of IEUfric, composed for the purpose of teaching boys to speak Latin. The Saxon is an interlinear translation of the Latin, on the Hamiltonian system ! * In this Colloquy various laborers and handicraftsmen are introduced, plough- men, herdsmen, huntsmen, shoemakers, and others ; and each has his say, even to the blacksmith, who dwells in his smithy amid iron fire-sparks and the sound of beating sledge- hammers and blowing bellows, (isenne Jjirspcarcan, and swegincga beatendra slecgea, and blawendra byliga.) We translate the close of this Colloquy, to show our readers what a poor schoolboy had to suffer in the Middle Ages. They will hardly wonder, that Eregina Scot should have been put to death with penknives by his scholars. .Magister. Well, boy, what hast thou been doing to-day? Discipulus. A great many things have I been doing. Last night, whesm I heard the knell, I got out of my bed aad went into the church, and sang the [natin-song with the friars; after that we sang the hymn of All Saints, and the morning songs of praise; after these Prime, and the seven psalms, with the Litanies and the first mass; then the nine oclock service, and the mass for the day, aad after this we snag the service of mid-day, and ate, and drank, and slept, and got up again, and sang Nones, and now are here before thee, ready to hear what thou hast to say to us. Al. When will you sing Vespers or the Compline D. When it is time. Al. Hast thou had a whipping to day D. I have not, because I have behaved very warily. 311. And thy playmates D. Why dost thou ask me about them? I dare not tell thee our secrets. Each one of them knows whether he has been whipped or not. M. What dost thou eat every day D. I still eat flesh-meat, because I am a child, living un- der the rod. ~ Thus it begins; We cildra biddath the, eala Lareow, tha~t thu t~ce us spr~can D. .JVos pueri rogamus te, Magister, ut doceas nos loqui rilite, fortham ~snge1a~rede we syndon, and gewsemmodlice Latialiter recte, quia idiotw sumus, et corrupte we spr6cath. loquimur See Thorpes .qnaJecta, where the whole Colloquy is given. 1838.] Colloquy of JFilfric. 133 M. What else dost thou eat D. Greens and eggs, fish and cheese, butter and beans, and all clean things, with much thankfulness. Al. Exceedingly voracious art thou; for thou devourest every thing, that is set before thee. D. Not so very voracious either, for I dont eat all kinds of food at one meal. M. Howthen? D. Sometimes I eat one kind and sometimes another, with soberness, as becomes a monk, and not with voracity; for I am not a glutton. Al. And what dost thou drink D. Beer, when I can get it, and water when I cannot get beer. Al. Dost thou not drink wine? D. I am not rich enough to buy wine; and wine is not a drink for boys and ignorant people, but for old men and wise. Al. Where dost thou sleep D. In the dormitory, with the friars. Al. Who wakes thee for matins? D. Sometimes I hear the knell and get up; sometimes my master wakes me sternly with a rod. Al. 0, ye good children, and winsome learners ! (ge gode cildra, and tvynsurne leorneras.) Your teacher admonishes you to follow godly lore, and to behave yourselves decently every- where. Go obediently, when you hear the chapel bell, enter into the chapel, and bow suppliantly at the holy altars, and stand submissive, and sing with one accord, and pray for your sins, and then depart to the cloister or the school-room without levity. We think this picture of a monk-ling at his catechism is capital. Poor boy! who ate eggs and spinnage with much thankfulness, and sang penitential psalms at midnight with the friars! How stoutly he repels the charge of being voracious over-much! how cunningly insinuates, that he prefers beer to cold water ! And then the wise schoolmaster, how magis- terially he says, Well, boy, what hast thou been doing to- day ? and hast thou had a whipping to-day? and then slips in that joke, slyly and with due decorum; lEx- ceedingly voracious art thou; for thou devourest every thing that is set before thee ! and so dismisses the scare-crow monk, telling him to be a good boy, and keep his hands out of his pockets, and modestly look straight before him. We commend the picture to Cruikshank. 134 McKenney and Halls flistory [July, Here we close our sketch of Anglo-Saxon Literature, with the hope, that what we have written may stir up riper wits than ours to the perfection of this rough-hewn work. Since the first sheets of this article went to press, we have received, through the kindness of a friend, the second edition of Mr. Kembles Beowu~f with his English Trans- lation, Glossary, and Notes, forming a second volume. (Lon- don. 1837.) The translation is strong and faithful. I was bound, he says, to give word for word the original, in all its roughness. I might have made it smoother, but I pur- posely avoided doing so ; because, had the Saxon poet thought as we think, and expressed his thoughts as we ex- press our thoughts, I might have spared myself the trouble of editing and translating his poem.~~ Altogether, the work is one of great learning and labor, and places Mr. Kemble in the very highest rank of Saxon schol- ars. We recommend it to all readers of Saxon p oetry in this country. They will find it of inestimable value to them in their studies. ART. V. History of the Indian Tribes of .North el/mer- ica, with Biographical Sketches and anecdotes of the Principal Chiefs. Embellished with One Hundred and Twenty Portraits, from the Indian Gallery in the De- partment of State at Washington. By THOMAS L. Mc KENNEY, late of the Indian Department at Washington; and JAMES HALL, of Cincinnati. Vol. I. Philadel- phia; published by Edward C. Biddle. FoR many years it has been the custom of the Indians, re- siding within the territories of the United States, to send delegates to Washington for the purpose of making treaties respecting their lands, and transacting other affairs, in which they and the United States are mutually concerned. This custom has been encouraged by the government, as affording a favorable opportunity of communicating to the Indians just ideas of the condition, resources, and power of their civilized

134 McKenney and Halls flistory [July, Here we close our sketch of Anglo-Saxon Literature, with the hope, that what we have written may stir up riper wits than ours to the perfection of this rough-hewn work. Since the first sheets of this article went to press, we have received, through the kindness of a friend, the second edition of Mr. Kembles Beowu~f with his English Trans- lation, Glossary, and Notes, forming a second volume. (Lon- don. 1837.) The translation is strong and faithful. I was bound, he says, to give word for word the original, in all its roughness. I might have made it smoother, but I pur- posely avoided doing so ; because, had the Saxon poet thought as we think, and expressed his thoughts as we ex- press our thoughts, I might have spared myself the trouble of editing and translating his poem.~~ Altogether, the work is one of great learning and labor, and places Mr. Kemble in the very highest rank of Saxon schol- ars. We recommend it to all readers of Saxon p oetry in this country. They will find it of inestimable value to them in their studies. ART. V. History of the Indian Tribes of .North el/mer- ica, with Biographical Sketches and anecdotes of the Principal Chiefs. Embellished with One Hundred and Twenty Portraits, from the Indian Gallery in the De- partment of State at Washington. By THOMAS L. Mc KENNEY, late of the Indian Department at Washington; and JAMES HALL, of Cincinnati. Vol. I. Philadel- phia; published by Edward C. Biddle. FoR many years it has been the custom of the Indians, re- siding within the territories of the United States, to send delegates to Washington for the purpose of making treaties respecting their lands, and transacting other affairs, in which they and the United States are mutually concerned. This custom has been encouraged by the government, as affording a favorable opportunity of communicating to the Indians just ideas of the condition, resources, and power of their civilized 1838.] of the JVorth sFlmerican Indians. 135 neighbours, which, on account of their remote situation and ignorance of letters, they can learn only from actual ob- servation. The expenses of these embassies have generally been borne by the government; and every facility has been rendered to the Indians, which could contribute to enlarge their knowledge and promote their comfort during their jour- neys through the country. Among those, who have thus visited Washington and our principal cities within the last twenty years, have been the most renowned chiefs and warriors, and other personages of distinction, from nearly all the great tribes inhabiting the western and southern borders of the United States. Proud of their national manners, and disdaining to accommodate themselves to new and strange modes, farther than the neces- sity of circumstances required, they have generally appeared in their native costume, and adhered to the same habits of painting their faces and decorating their persons, which they practise at home; thus exhibiting not only the original features peculiar to their race, but all the outward character- istics of their savage state. As early as 1824 the practice was begun, of taking por- traits of the principal Indians, who came to the seat of gov- ernment, and of depositing them with the War Department. The project was approved and aided by the Executive, and, under the active management of Colonel McKenney, then Superintendent of Indian Affairs, the number rapidly in- creased, till a very interesting gallery was formed. They were chiefly painted by Mr. King, an artist of high repute in this branch of his profession, who, by his long residence in Washington, and frequent opportunities of studying the sub- jects of his pencil, has been remarkably successful in trans- ferring to his canvas the strong lineainents of the Indian countenance. Having this rare and curious collection before him, Colonel McKenney conceived the plan of making it more valuable to the world by publishing a series of engraved portraits, ex- actly copied and colored from these paintings, and accom- panied by biographical sketches and historical facts. This enterprise, the first of the kind that has been undertaken in this country, and indeed in any country on so comprehensive a scale, and with such a completeness of design, he has car- ried forward with a perseverance and success, that justly de 136 McKenney and Halls History [July, mand the admiration and praise of every one, who knows the difficulty of such a task, and properly estimates its impor- tance. The North American Indians are a strongly marked race of men, constituting a distinct class, and maintaining their identity as such, and their peculiarities in every vicissi- tude of existence, which neither circumstances nor time have conquered. Wasted by wars, consumed by want, driven by the iron arm of civilization from his native soil, and the places endeared to him by hallowed associations, the Indian is the same that he was when the white man first invaded his forests; unchanged and unchangeable in his nature, his habits, his physical constitution, and distinctive traits of intellect. If he has yielded too easily to the vices of his unwelcome neighbours, yet even these have not subdued his indomitable spirit, nor weakened his sense of dignity as a man, nor worn off the deep traces of his original character. Colonel McKenneys design, therefore, of collecting and presenting to the xvorld authentic memorials of this race, in a form to give them perpetuity, while the race itself is fast dwindling away, is as praiseworthy as it is arduous and diffi- cult in the execution. And, fortunately, no person living is better qualified for this task, both from the opportunities he has had of personal observation and inquiry, and from the genuine enthusiasm with which he has overcome, and con- tinues to overcome, the many obstacles that obstruct his pro- gress. In his official capacity, besides his frequent inter- course with the chiefs and warriors, who have visited the seat of government from time to time, he has travelled much among the Indians, holding treaties at their council fires, dis- cussing with them their political relations with the United States and with each other, and examining minutely into their social condition and manner of life ; thus accumulating a rich store of facts, which he is enabled to use to the greatest ad- vantage in illustrating this work.* With each portrait is con- nected a biographical sketch of the individual, whom it is intended to represent, drawn from original materials, and interspersed with anecdotes and narrations, many of which * In the year 1826, Colonel i~IcKenney made a tour to the Upper Lakes, of which he published an account, in a volume entitled, Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes, of the Chacacter ~nd Customs of the Chippeway In. dians, and of Incidents connected with the Treaty of Fond du Lac. A notice of this volume may be found in the North American Review, Vol. XXV. pp. 334 et seqq. 1838.] of the .Aorth .flmerican Indians. 137 are spirited and strikingly graphic. Eight numbers, consti- tuting the first volume, have already been published. Some of the first numbers of the work, in addition to the biographical sketches, contain a historical account of the va- rious tribes of Indians within the borders of the United States, and particularly of those situate to the eastward of the Mississippi River. This essay forms a rare and valuable contribution to Indian history. It describes the situation and extent of the territories, which the tribes respectively in- habit, their population, their affinities with each other, their forms of government, and their general and local customs, habits, and peculiarities. It is also valuable and curious, as affording an instructive comparison with what has been writ- ten by the early travellers, and showing how completely the Indians have preserved all their original features of character, modes of existence, and habits of thought and action. Colonel McKenney has also an accomplished coadjutor in Judge Hall, of Cincinnati, who is associated with him in the literary part .of the enterprise. Judge Halls well known grace and liveliness of style, and his knowledge of events in the West, and of the Indian character as unfolded in the wars of recent times, besides the advantage he derives from his proximity to the scenes he describes, enable him to make contributions, which will adorn and give additional value to the work. These biographies have an interest beyond the simple nar- ratives. They give us general views of Indian life and In- dian character, of no little importance. We see to what a point the aboriginal intellect has advanced, and what have been apparently the stern boundaries fixed by nature to its progress. The narrow circle of Indian ideas has remained essentially the same since their first intercourse with Eu- ropeans. The principle of advancement, which has been de- veloped in the earliest periods of all nations, who have carried forward the arts of civilization, has never shown itself among the children of the American forests. There have been of course individual exceptions to this remark ; but they are much fewer than xve should at first sight imagine. There seems to be an inherent antipathy to the forms of civilized life among them. The progress which the Cherokees are sup- posed to have made recently cannot as yet be considered as a departure from the general course of Indian affairs. The voL. xLvII.NO. c. 18 138 Mc Kenney and Halls History [July, labors of missionaries, of such men as Eliot and Brainerd, have caused a temporary change, and to a limited extent, in the aspect of Indian life. But where are now the villages they formed, the churches they gathered, the schools they opened for the red men ? And what permanent conse- quences have followed the toils and sufferings of the thou- sand other devoted men, who have spent lives and fortunes in the same holy cause ? They have refused to blend them- selves with their conquerors, as if there had been some natural repugnance between the white mans and the red mans blood. They have rejected the habits of civilized life, though, in some individual cases, they have proved themselves capable of adopting them. It seems as if they were born to be hunt- ers, and hunters they were determined to die. The Christian religion has made a temporary progress among some of the tribes, but time has alxvays removed the last traces of it from the savage mind ; as if the traditions of the Great Spirit, and the hunting-grounds of the departed warriors, had their origin in the natural feelings of the savage heart, and could never be replaced by a purer and sublimer faith. All other peo- ple, who have been overrun by a foreign race, have submitted to the common law of conquest, and intermingled with the conquering tribe; but the Indian has maintained his surly in- dependence, looking upon the allurements of civilization with scorn, the religion of the whites with abhorrence, and his own inevitable disasters with a mournful, but unbending, haughti- ness. Poets and novelists have given the rein to their imagina- tion, in descrihing the poetical life, and picturesque eloquence, of the Indians. The representations they have given are utter- ly false. There is nothing pleasing to the imagination in the dirty and smoky cabin of the Indian chief; there is nothing romantic in his custom of sleeping away the days of leisure from the perils of war or the adventures of the chase; there is not a particle of chivalry in the contempt with which he regards his squaw, and the unmanly cruelty by which he binds upon her burdens grievous to be borne. His whole life is surrounded by the dismal accompaniments of poverty, sen- suality, ignorance, and vice. In the arts, he has never learned to do more than supply his coarsest animal wants. His taste for ornaments cannot well be more despicable. He rings his nose, as farmers ring their pigs, to keep them out of mischief; he daubs his body over with hideous colors, 1838.1 of the North lirnerican Indians. 139 which give him the appearance of a devil; he puts horns upon his head, or sticks it all over with gaudy feathers ; and then he is a finished specimen of the Indian fine gentleman. In his amusements, his taste is equally refined with his taste in dress. His war dances and funeral dances are mere con- tortions, exhihiting every form of ungraceful bodily action and these are accompanied by a species of music consisting of a rude movement in time, and certain unmeaning howls, compared with which, the harking of wolves and the growl- ing of bears are melody itself. His warfare is a compound of cruelty and cowardice. His point of honor is, to entrap his enemy unawares, and with no danger to himself; his glory, on returning to his native village, he places in exhibiting the greatest possible number of scalps, torn bleeding from the heads of his murdered victims. His treatment of a captive enemy, is horrible heyond description. His highest enjoyment consists in taunting him with insults and reproaches in the midst of the fiercest death-agonies, which his diabolical skill enables him to invent. His sagacity is bounded to the discovery of a trail or track ; his wisdom consists in a few wise saws handed down from his ancestors, and treasured up by the old women of the village. When in council, he dresses these scanty ideas with a touch or two of forest rhetoric, and that is his eloquence, and his statesmanship. How can it be any thing more ? To what circle of experience, to what trea- suries of knowledge, can lie resort for the enlargement of his mind and the cultivation of eloquence ? What occasion has his simple life for any thing more copious in thought, and more polished in language? His religion is founded upon the simple conception of a Supreme Being, and that is always sublime; but what attributes belong to this conception of the Supreme Being, can easily be inferred from the Indians cus- toms and his conduct. How unworthy of a God, his notions of him are, it is unnecessary to illustrate for it is known to all. His views of another life are distinct enough, hut utterly insufficient to produce any exalting tendency in his conduct and character in this. They are low, gross, sensual. They have scarcely a glimmering of the light of imagination to redeem them from the most deplorable darkness. We have said, the circle of Indian knowledge is extremely narrow and confined, and the materials of his eloquence scanty. Still, he sometimes gives utterance to a brilliant thought, which would be applauded, coming from a cultivated McKenney and Halls History 140 [July, mind. Living in the midst of primeval forests, gazing upon the stars of heaven, witnessing the succession and touching phenomena of the passing seasons, his mind is sometimes filled with emotions of the beautiful and sublime, to which he gives utterance in bold and figurative language. A senti- ment imbued with natural feeling, an image borrowed from external objects, a comparison snatched from the tree, the bird, the mountain, the waterfall, occasionally impart to his discourse the air of poetry, and fill the mind of the hearer with delight. But the Indian makes no sustained efforts. His thoughts come out in single flashes; his eloquence is concen- trated in a single point. Logic, properly speaking, he has none. When he reasons, he reasons from analogy; his ar- guments are tropes ; his conclusions are metaphors in dis- guise. The summit of his philosophy is, to bear tortures un- moved. When among the monuments of civilization, his motto is, or would be, JVil admirari. Gazing, with immense multitudes, upon the balloon that ascended from the Battery in New York, he merely said, the man was a fool for his pains. In short, he looks with stupid insensibility upon all the mar- vels of art to which civilization has given birth. Some In- dians have been educated by the whites, not many; and what has been the consequence ? In nearly all instances, they have gone back to their savage customs, and utterly renounced the strange civilization thrust upon them. Many Indian names are mentioned, to be sure, in the annals of reclaimed barbarism; but most, if not all, of them belong to the half- breeds, to whom, we fancy, the greater part of Indian civili- zation has been and will be confined. What might have been done, had our treatment of them been such, as to recommend civilization and Christianity to their good-will, it is now too late to say. We have gone on wrong principles from the beginning. We have bought the Indian lands for a song, and made treaties, which we have constantly broken. We have regarded them as independent nations, and yet have taken them under our pupilage. We suffer them to remain under solemn guaranties, within our State territories, a separate race, with habits, manners, principles, utterly averse from our own; and, when the teeming population of the borders overruns their territories, we insist upon buying out their lands and driving them away. The whole proceeding of treaty-making with Indian tribes, turns out to be a solemn farce. If a white man kill an Indian, do we surrender him, on being demanded, 1838.] of the JVorth .ilmerican Indians. 141 to be dealt with according to Indian principles of justice? If an Indian kill a white man, do we not demand his surren- der, and persevere until we obtain it? In point of fact, the amount of the whole matter is simply this. We regard the Indians as independent nations, just far enough to subserve our own interests. We are willing to treat with them for their lands, and hold them to their concessions ; so far they are independent nations. But when we want more, we take another position; and, as they are not independent nations, and have no standing armies, and cannot enforce their rights and compel us to maintain our own stipulations, we proceed to wrong them, by force or fraud, into other treaties, with sim- ilar concessions, to be observed with a similar good faith. We get a few half-breeds on our side, we bribe a few recreant chiefs to make their mark on the parchment, and thus we have another treaty of concession to our avarice, solemnly guarantied by an independent Indian nation, with stipulations on our part, sanctioned by pledged national faith! What trouble we are in at the South ! We are marching our troops down upon the poor Cherokees, and commissioning our veteran generals to force that independent nation to quit the homes of their childhood, and tbe graves of their fathers, for unknown lands far off in the West. And we are doing it, by way of carrying into effect a treaty extorted by the most infamous means ; a treaty against which the Cherokee nation rise up almost in a mass, and will probably carry their resist- ance to bloodshed. But our regard to the faith of treaties is so delicate, that we persist in driving away, at the point of the bayonet, the plundered inheritors of the soil, careless of all the ties we break, all the lives we shorten, all the scenes of woe we cause. In fact, we started wrong at the outset, and we have probably gone wrong too far to retrace our steps. We ought to have offered the Indians all the rights of citi- zenship, on condition of submitting to our laxvs, and sup- porting our institutions ; and, if they refused, we might, with a clearer conscience, have let civilization take its course. The savage tribes, who held this continent by an uncertain occupancy, roaming over its vast regions as hunters, or in deadly warfare with each other, had no right, in the nature of things, to shut this half of the world against the introduction of civilized life. TTo say, that they had such a right, would involve the monstrous conclusion, 142 [July, McKenney and Halls History that this immense continent might be for ever closed, in obedience to principles sanctioned by the Providence of God, against intellectual culture and pure religion ; that it might and ought to be for ever filled with the most revolting barbarism, the most heathenish ignorance, the most degrading superstition. Such a conclusion, it is needless to say, is against the most manifest designs of Providence. But, even if this position were supported by principles of abstract right, it could not be maintained in point of fact. Men will not be controlled by unintelligible refinements and wire- drawn theories. The moment the new world was discov- ered, the doom of the savage races who inhabited it was sealed; they must either conform to the institutions of the Europeans, or disappear from the face of the earth. The ardent and uneasy spirits of the old world, driven by re- ligious zeal or discontent at home, could have been restrain- ed from throwing themselves upon the American shore, by no cobweb trammels of speculating civilians. Barbarism and civilization were set up, face to face, and one or the other must fall in the encounter. The history of two hun- dred years is a perpetual commentary upon this text. But our purpose was not to discuss the general subject of our Indian relations, so much as to bring together a few traits and anecdotes which these lives supply. We shall take them as we find them, without much regard to order or arrangement, with the single remark, that they will illustrate what we have just said about the peculiarities of the Indian character and intellect. The editor is entitled to our warm- est commendation for the abundant matter he has placed within our reach, to aid us in forming a just estimate of the Indian tribes. The series of Portraits is very properly intro- duced, by an admirable likeness of Red Jacket, the celebrat- ed Seneca war-chief. He was a man of remarkable abilities, measuring him by Indian standards. His policy, a policy sustained by uncommon perseverance and eloquence, was opposed to civilization in every form. He hated the mis- sionaries and cold water, and remained a dogged Indian to the last, adopting from the whites nothing but a love of strong drink. He fancied, that the Indians might still save themselves by adhering sternly to their own languages, reli- gion, and habits ; with all his boasted sagacity, he had not comprehension enough to see, that, in the battle of the Indian and the civilized man, the Indian must suffer a total rout, 1838.1 of the JVorth .ilmericart Indians. 143 and that the only way of saving himself was, to yield the point, and rival the invaders in their own arts. When it was proposed in council to establish a mission among his people, he replied, with no little shrewdness, Your talk is fair and good. But I propose this; Go, try your hand in the town of Buffalo, for one year. They need missionaries, if you can do what you say. If in that time you shall have done them any good, and made them any better, then we will let you come among our people. On the differences of In- dians and whites, he remarked, upon another occasion, that He had no doubt that Christianity was good for white people, but that the red men were of a different race, and required a different religion. He believed that Jesus Christ was a good man, and that the whites should all be sent to hell for killing him; but the red men, having no hand in his death, were clear of that crime. The Saviour was not sent to them, the atonement not made for them, nor the Bible given to them, and, therefore, the Christian religion was not intended for them. If the Great Spirit had intended they should be Christians, he would have made his revelation to them as well as to the whites ; and, not having made it, it was clearly his will that they should con- tinue in the faith of their fathers. No. 1. p. 11. This is a pretty fair specimen of Indian logic ; the whole force of it depends upon a sophism, which a common school- boy would be at no loss to refute. One of the most interesting portraits in the whole collec- tion, is that of Mohongo and her child. The face of the mother is marked by a regular, placid, and thoughtful beauty, far from common in aboriginal physiognomy; and both figures remind one of the Madonna and Child, the favorite subject of the Italian artists. This woman was one of a party of seven, decoyed from their homes by a crafty Frenchman, who carried them to Europe, by way of specu- lation. It is a lucky circumstance, that this shrewd trick was not played by a Yankee. If it had been, xve should never have heard the last of it. They visited Holland, Germany, and other parts of the continent; but, on their arrival at the capital of France, their deceiver was detected by his credi- tors; and the Indians found in Lafayette a kind friend, who immediately took measures to restore them to the United States. Speaking of the superior intelligence displayed in this interesting countenance, the writer says, Mohongo travelled in company with her husband. Con- 144 McKenney and Halls History [July, stantly in his society, sharing with him the perils, the vicissi- tudes, and the emotions incident to the novel scenes into which they were thrown, and released from the drudgery of menial occupation, she must have risen to something like the station of an equal. Perhaps, when circumstances of embarrassment, or perplexing objects of curiosity, were presented, the superior tact of the female niind became apparent, and her companion learned to place a higher estimation upon her character than is usually awarded by the Indian to the weaker sex. Escaped from servile labor, she had leisure to think. New objects were continually placed before her eyes; admiration and curi- osity were often awakened in her mind ; its latent faculties were excited, and that beautiful system of association, which forms the train of rational thought, became connected and de- veloped. Mohongo was no longer the drudge of a savage hunter, but his friend.No. I. p. 23. In the same number with our Indian Madonna, are the portrait and life of Push-ma-ta-ha, the famous Choctaw war- rior. The regimentals of an American general on this red officer, form a strange antithesis to all our notions of Indian costume. He made himself famous both in savage and civil- ized warfare, pretty much the same thing, and raised himself, from a humble station, to a distinguished rank. Among other peculiarities, he was an advocate of polygamy. To the question, whether he did not think the custom wrong, he replied; No. Is it not right that every woman should be married ? and how can that be, when there are more women than men, unless some men marry more than one? When our great father, the President, caused the Indians to be counted last year, it was found that the women were most numerous; and if one man could have but one wife, some woman would have no husband. No. I. p. 33. This argument was perfectly satisfactory to Push-ma-ta-ha. Being a reasonable man, however, he confined himself, with exemplary fidelity, to two wives. An unusual number of his speeches are preserved ; but the most striking one of all, is that addressed just before his death, in Washington, to his Indian friends. I shall die, but you will return to our brethren. As you go along the paths, you will see the flowers and hear the birds sing ; but Pushmataha will see them and hear them no more. When you shall come to your home, they will ask you, Where is Pushmataha? and you will say to them, He is no more. 1838.1 of the JVorth .1/merican Indians. 145 They ~vill hear the tidings, like the fall of a mighty oak in the stillness of the woods. No. I. p. 34. This simile is among the noblest ever conceived by orator or poet; at the same time, it could have come only from a son of the forest. One of the most remarkable Indians, that we have any knowledge of, was Tecumth6, of whom an interesting ac- count is given in connexion with his brother, the Prophet. This chieftain appears to have shown his superiority at a very early period of life, except on one occasion, when, being a youth of fifteen, he ran away from the enemy in battle, and brought a temporary cloud over his good name. But this did not long continue. His subsequent brilliant exploits restored him to an ascendency almost unrivalled in Indian annals. About the year 1806, he began his opera- tions for expelling the whites from the valley of the Missis- sippi. He proposed a general union of all the tribes for this purpose, travelled among them with unwearied perseverance, and urged them to lay aside their petty feuds, and wage a gen- eral warfare against the common enemy. His labors in this cause, the partial success that attended them, and his final overthrow, are matters of history. Tecumtht~ maintained a very plausible theory of Indian rights, and argued stoutly against the validity of treaties, ceding lands to the whites. It was in substance, that, as the Great Spirit had given them to all the Indians for hunting- grounds, and as each tribe bad a right to certain tracts of country while they occupied them and no longer, so that one might take possession when another moved away, no tribe had a right to alienate that of which they had only a temporary possession; and, consequently, treaties made with- out the consent of all the tribes were void. These proposi- tions he maintained with no little ingenuity and power. On one occasion, ridiculing the idea of selling a country, he ex- claimed, Sell a country ! why not sell the air, the clouds, and the great sea, as well as the earth ? IDid not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children ? The following anecdote is told of Wan-pa-shaw, a Sioux chief. A quarrel took place between the Winnebago In- dians and the inhabitants of a little village at Prairie du Chien, during the last war. The villagers immediately claimed the interposition of this chief, on account of his in- VOL. xLvII.No. c. 19 McKenney and Halls History 146 [July, fluence, not only over his own tribe, but among his neigh- bours. He responded to the request, and went immediately to the village, with but one attendant. Seeing him approach without his customary train of warriors, the villagers gave up all for lost. In reply to their expressions of alarm, he said nothing, but sent a message by his attendant, requiring the Winnebagos to meet him at an appointed time and place that day. The Winnebagos obeyed, and Waapashaw took his place among them. After a few minutes silence, he arose, assumed an attitude of great dignity, and gazed upon the chiefs with a threatening look. He plucked a hair from his head, held it up before them, and said, Winnebagos do you see this hair ? Look at it. You threaten to massa- cre the white people at the Prairie. They are your friends and mine. You wish to drink their blood. Is that your purpose? Dare to lay a finger upon one of them, and I will blow you from the face of the earth, as I now blow this hair with my breath, where none can find it. Having uttered this bold defiance, he turned upon his heel and left the council, without waiting for a reply. Nothing more was heard of Winnebago hostilities. Sequoyah, the inventor of the Cherokee Alphabet, is a most interesting personage, but would be still more so, were he a full-blooded Indian. He is the son of a white man and a half-breed woman, and this circumstance essentially detracts from the wonderful character of his discoveries in arts and letters. Still, his story is a pleasant one. Instead of join- ing the rude sports of Indian boys, while a child, he took great delight in exercising his ingenuity by various mechani- cal labors. He also assisted in the management of his mothers property, consisting of a farm, and cattle, and horses. In his intercourse with the whites, he became aware that they possessed an art, by which a name, im- pressed upon a hard substance, might be understood at a glance, by any one acquainted with the art. He request- ed an educated half-blood, named Charles Hicks, to write his name; which being done, he made a die, containing a fac-simile of the word, which he stamped upon all the articles fabricated by his mechanical ingenuity. From this he proceeded to the art of drawing, in which he made rapid progress, before he had an opportunity of seeing a picture or engraving. These accomplishments made the 1838.1 of the JVorth .Iilmerican Indians. 147 young man very popular among his associates, and particu- larly among the red ladies; but it was long before incessant adulation produced any evil effect upon his character. At length, however, he was prevailed upon to join his compan- ions, and share in the carouse, which had been supplied by his own industry. But he soon wearied of an idle and dissipated life, suddenly resolved to give up drinking, and learned the trade of a blacksmith by his own unaided efforts. In the year 1820, while on a visit to some friends in a Cherokee village, he listened to a conversation on the art of writing, which seems always to have been the subject of great curiosity among the Indians. Sequoyah remarked, that he did not regard the art as so very extraordinary, and believed he could invent a plan by which the red man might do the same thing. The com- pany were incredulous; but the matter had long been the sub- ject of his reflections, and he had come to the conclusion, that letters represented words or ideas, and being always uniform, would always convey the same meaning. His first plan was to invent signs for words; but upon trial he was speedily satisfied, that this would be too cumbrous and labo- rious, and soon conceived the plan of an alphabet, which should represent sounds, each character standing for a sylla- ble. He persevered in carrying out this invention, and attained his object by forming eighty-six characters. While thus employed, he incurred the ridicule of his neigh- bours, and was entreated to desist by his friends. The in- vention, however, was completely successful, and the Chero- kee dialect is now a written language ; a result entirely due to the extraordinary genius of Sequoyah. After teaching many to read and write, he left the Cherokee nation in 1822, on a visit to Arkansas, and introduced the art among the Che- rokees who had emigrated to that country; and, after his return home, a correspondence was opened, in the Cherokee lan- guage, between the two branches of the nation. In the autumn of 1823, the general council bestowed on him a silver medal in honor of his genius, and as an expression of grati- tude for his eminent public services. This extraordinary man is now with his countrymen west of the Mississippi. Whether he continues to cultivate aboriginal literature, we have not heard. It is to be hoped, the first attempts at In- dian epistolary writing, in an Indian language with Indian 148 Fashions in Dress. [July, characters, will not be lost. They would be objects of great curiosity to philologists. It would be easy, to go on collecting interesting anecdotes and traits from these well executed volumes, but per- haps we have already given enough to excite the attention of our readers to the work itself. The portraits are a noble monument of skill and art, and a most becoming tribute to the memory of the departing tribes. Their lineaments ought to be thus preserved from oblivion, so that, if the time should come, when the red men are only known by tradition and history, their successors may be able to form a lively idea of the races, with whom the first settlers had to contend for the soil of America. In closing our remarks, we cannot refrain from expressing our unfeigned thanks, as Americans, to the authors and con- ductors of this great enterprise ; second only to that of Au- dubon. It is a work in every respect honorable to the na- tion. As both the design, and the execution thus far, have merited the applause of the public, so we heartily wish it success to the end. We are glad to learn, moreover, that its circulation is not confined to one hemisphere, and that it is already attracting the attention of the curious and the en- lightened in various parts of Europe. Under the energetic management of Mr. James M. Campbell, the publisher in England, a large edition is sold in that country. As a proof of the patronage it receives, it is enough to state, that the entire work, the plates, coloring, and letter-press, are exe- cuted anew in London for the British market, and that there is encouragement for an extensive sale on the continent. ART. VI. .National ~Standard of Costumes. .d Lecture on the Changes of Fashion, delivered before the Ports- mouth Lyceum, by CHARLES W. BREWSTER. Ports- mouth. 1837. 8vo. pp. 15. THE subject of costumes is curious and interesting. Dress is an object of universal attention. It occupies no small por- tion of our time and thoughts ; it forms a distinct and impor~ tant trade, or, we should be more inclined to call it, profes~

148 Fashions in Dress. [July, characters, will not be lost. They would be objects of great curiosity to philologists. It would be easy, to go on collecting interesting anecdotes and traits from these well executed volumes, but per- haps we have already given enough to excite the attention of our readers to the work itself. The portraits are a noble monument of skill and art, and a most becoming tribute to the memory of the departing tribes. Their lineaments ought to be thus preserved from oblivion, so that, if the time should come, when the red men are only known by tradition and history, their successors may be able to form a lively idea of the races, with whom the first settlers had to contend for the soil of America. In closing our remarks, we cannot refrain from expressing our unfeigned thanks, as Americans, to the authors and con- ductors of this great enterprise ; second only to that of Au- dubon. It is a work in every respect honorable to the na- tion. As both the design, and the execution thus far, have merited the applause of the public, so we heartily wish it success to the end. We are glad to learn, moreover, that its circulation is not confined to one hemisphere, and that it is already attracting the attention of the curious and the en- lightened in various parts of Europe. Under the energetic management of Mr. James M. Campbell, the publisher in England, a large edition is sold in that country. As a proof of the patronage it receives, it is enough to state, that the entire work, the plates, coloring, and letter-press, are exe- cuted anew in London for the British market, and that there is encouragement for an extensive sale on the continent. ART. VI. .National ~Standard of Costumes. .d Lecture on the Changes of Fashion, delivered before the Ports- mouth Lyceum, by CHARLES W. BREWSTER. Ports- mouth. 1837. 8vo. pp. 15. THE subject of costumes is curious and interesting. Dress is an object of universal attention. It occupies no small por- tion of our time and thoughts ; it forms a distinct and impor~ tant trade, or, we should be more inclined to call it, profes~ 1838.] Fashions in Dress. 149 sion; it constitutes a very large branch of commerce. We should be somewhat at a loss to determine whether civilized or barbarous nations are most occupied by the cares of the toilet. Certainly a full-dressed savage makes a wonderful dis- play of art. His painted countenance and head, the nicely ad- justed colors, the tortured hair, the elaborate ornaments, the pouch and moccasin skilfully embroidered with variegated porcupines quills, the cloak of gorgeous feathers or cloth of bark, indicate plainly, that his attention has been directed with no little patience and contrivance to this all-important object. And we doubt not, that as much care is expended upon his toilet, as the votary of civilized fashion gives to his. We should be almost afraid to compute how large a por- tion of the time among civilized people is occupied, either in dressing, or in thinking about dress. Much less, probably, is so used in this country, than in others, where a stricter etiquette prevails ; but we still think we are within bounds in supposing, that one third of the waking hours of the commu- nity, including what is employed in making and repairing, is devoted to the subject of dress. Half-civilized nations, who show more sense in their cos- tumes than any others barbarous or refined, must, we imagine, be somewhat at a loss to account for their neighbours bestow- ing so much attention upon a subject, which for them is en- tirely settled. Where a man, or still more a woman, knows what colors and what forms of dress she is to use, being the same precisely that her ancestors have worn for centuries, and where the idea of fashion never dawned, there can be but little time wasted upon dress. We only wonder, what the fair inhabitants of such a country can find to supply the place of that deep interest, which the subject affords to the happier heirs of civilization. What a monstrous idea! we fancy some of our fair readers to exclaim ; a country where there is no such thing as fashion ! where one must dress like ones grandmother; where there is no difference between morning and evening dresses ; where there are no such things as walking dresses and carriage dresses, no distinctions of bonnets, and no change of forms ! What becomes of the spirit of a woman in such a stupid country ? What, then, are the causes of these differences in different countries ? Why do the Persians at this day, dress as the Persians did in the days of Cyrus the Great, while the forms 150 Fashions in Dress. [July, of English and French dresses have been constantly chang- ing since the time of the Roman conquests? Is there a deep philosophy of dress to account for this ? Is there any theory to explain why civilization makes changes in costume, or to account for each successive change ? These questions we do not pretend to answer. We will give our readers a slight sketch of some of the different re- markable costumes of ancient and modern times, and the various changes which have been made with the advance of civilization. Perhaps they may deduce some theory, to suit themselves, from the facts we shall present them. An ingenious observer might possibly discover in the cos- tumes of different nations, a harmony with the prevailing tastes and the general character of the people. There is certainly no way in which taste, whatever it is, displays itself more than in dress ; and, as far as nationality of costume ex- ists, there might perhaps be found a certain correspondence or identity in the taste in dress and in the fine arts. Thus the Egyptian costume would possess a character very differ- ent from that of Greece or Rome. The dress of one age would differ in style from that of another in the same coun- try. Each would be marked by the peculiar taste and the prevailing spirit of the time. The costume of a cavalier in the thirteenth or fourteenth century would be as different from that of a Roman in the days of Cicero, as a Gothic church is from a classic temple; and each costume, in point of taste, might be marked with the same spirit, that inspired the architecture of the different periods. Nothing can be more ungraceful than the costume of the Egyptians, as it is represented in their sculpture. In the Capitol at Rome, there is a collection of very ancient Egyp- tian statues. The dress consists of a cloth or mantle, wrap- ped closely round the body, so as to show the whole outline of the form, and descending in some to the knees, in others to the feet ; and bound so tight, as to fetter the limbs. The arms are left bare ; on the head is a small cap, shaped in some like a coronet, from each side of which descends a sort of wing or pendant, making the neck appear of the same breadth as the shoulders ; the whole costume, giving the liv- ing man, as near as possible, the look of a mummy. A re- presentation of a priest, in Denons work on Egypt, also shows very nearly the same costume. The cap and its gro 1838.] Fashions in Dress. 151 tesque wings are precisely like those in the statues ; and the dress consists of a tunic descending not quite to the knees, and fitting close to the body. Now there certainly is some resemblance in the stiff, graceless, and square form of this costume, to the equally stiff, graceless, and square architecture of Egypt. That people were certainly distinguished by bad taste, but there was a harmony in its badness ; their colossal structures and their gigantic statues, their sphinxes and their other monsters, all are marked with the same monstrous taste. There is a resemblance to these in the costume. We do not mean, that there is an imitation. The caps are not made in the shape of a pyramid or a sphinx, nor the vest in the form of any other structure. But there is in the costume a certain taste, which is obviously the same that gave birth to the architecture. It is essentially Egyptian, as strongly marked as the pyramid or obelisk, and could not be mistaken. The Asiatic dress is entirely different. The costume of the Parthians was a long flowing tunic or gown, reaching nearly to the andes, and gathered round the waist with a girdle. The sleeves, which reach to the wrists, were made tight, so as to show the form of the arm; the trowsers were loose and gathered at the ancle; and the cap was low, and shaped somewhat like a coronet. This dress, as represented in ancient paintings, resembles almost exactly the costume of the Persians at the present day. The dress of the Persian ambassador, whom we met in Paris a few years since, might have been thought a copy from the antique, so closely did it correspond to the representation of the ancient Parthian. rfhe Parthian sovereigns are represented on the coins, some- times bareheaded, with long bushy hair and profuse beards very elaborately curled, sometimes wearing a cap in the form of a truncated cone, inverted. The Medes and Persians generally wore a conical cap, sometimes truncated and much ornamented. The inhabitants of the countries bor- dering on the Black Sea and of the Archipelago, used the Phrygian cap, with the top bent forward, and long flaps de- scending to the shoulders. We have particularly mentioned these various head-dresses, to show that all antiquity boasted nothing in the way of head- gear so absurd as the hats of the present day. Of all the articles of dress which the present age abounds in, there is none which we contemplate or wear with so little compla 152 Fashions in Dress. [July, cency or patience as a hat. For the fashion of other parts of dress, we can see some reason ; but we are at a loss to discover the philosophy of this. It can hardly be called a covering for the head, as it only rests on the top, never cov- ering the ears. The tail cylinder of the crown rises up sev- eral inches above the head, leaving a large space, which, for all we can discover, is perfectly useless. Then the hat must bind the forehead closely; otherwise a breath of wind will take it off. In all truth, we do believe, that one great reason why Americans stoop so much, is, that, living in a country where high winds prevail, they are obliged to walk stooping half the time, to prevent the winds blowing their bats off. The most sensible head-gear which is worn in these days, is the cap which sailors call a southwester; fitting close to the head, and having a sort of cape which descends over the shoulders. But any kind of cap is better than a hat, which, we doubt not, is the invention of some unhappy wretch whose fair proportions nature had curtailed; and who endeavoured to make up for his deficiencies by a lofty head-dress. Fashion, however, dictates, that hats shall be genteel, and caps other- wise ; and who shall dare to dispute her decree ? The warlike dress of the Amazons, if we may believe the paintings upon antique vases, was very tasteful. It con- sisted of a tunic reaching not quite to the knee, and confined at the waist with a girdle. It came up round the throat and fitted close to the form above the waist. The sleeves were made tight and reached to the wrists. Over this tunic was worn a short cloak or mantle not longer than the tunic, fas- tened round the neck and floxving from thence. This gar- ment resembles very much the short Spanish cloak worn by cavaliers in the sixteenth century. Finally, thcse ladies, with extreme propriety, and in keeping with their character, wore pantaloons, which might be the envy of the greatest dandy in Broadway or Chesnut Street. They were made to fit close, showing the form of the leg completely; and, in addi- tion to their elegance, must have been extremely convenient. With the war dress, the Amazons wore a helmet, sometimes terminating in the beak of a griffin, the jagged crest of the animal forming the summit or back of the helmet. In peace these ladies condescended to put on the ordinary female costume. In general, the Asiatic costume forms a remarkable con- 1838.] Fashions in Dress. l5~3 trast to that of Egypt; the one, loose, flowing, and graceful; the other, so contrived as to fit close to the form, and yet to make it appear more awkward, without a single fold, square, dead-like. There is something very grand and imposing in loose and ample robes We attach the idea of princely mag- nificence to them, and man seems to acquire double grandeur when thus arrayed. The fact is, that this mortal must put on a dress in order to look respectably. One tailor is not enough to make a man. He is not completely made till he has had nine of them at work upon him. We come now to the classic costume, which we shall find to be completely in keeping with the taste displayed by the Greeks and Romans in other things. The first thing we no- tice with regard to the Greeks, is, the great care bestowed upon the arrangement of the hair. Writers on costumes distinguish the different ages, by the changes in the manner of arranging the hair. The earliest style was remarkable for primness, the hair being divided into symmetrical curls much in the corkscrew form ; and the dress was made to corre- spond with this by plaiting it into straight and stiff folds. The hair was dressed in the same way for men as for women. After a little time, it became the fashion to gather all the hair hanging down the back, by means of a riband, into a single hunch, leaving only two or three long slender ringlets hanging in front of the ears. At a later period, this bunch of hair hanging down behind, was gathered up and doubled into a club, while the side locks were allowed to descend as low as the breast. In the fourth era of Grecian barbarism, these long ringlets gradually shrunk away to a number of short curls about the ears, leaving the neck quite free. The hair and beard were arranged with extreme care, and were made to resemble the cells of a beehive, or a network of wire, the Greeks being very skilful in the use of the hot tongs. The dress of Greek females was a tunic or gown, reaching to the feet, and fitting round the neck, with sleeves reaching to the elbows. Over this, was a second garment, which was intended only as an additional protection to the upper part of the person. It was a square piece of stuff, folded double, so as to show only half of the original width, and was worn with the doubled part upwards, so as to display the embroidered edge more fully, hanging down. This garment was suspend- ed round the back and chest, passing under both arms. The VOL. XLVII.NO. c. 20 154 Fashions in Dress. [July, centre was brought directly under the left arm, so that the ends met and hung down under the right; and it was kept in place by two clasps or buttons which fastened together the front and back part over the shoulders. The outer garment was called the peplum, and was used more for occasions of ceremony than for ordinary convenience, as it was very long and ample, and, from the manner of putting it on, must have been inconvenient to the wearer. It was sometimes wound double round the body, first under the arms, and then over the shoulders, and was not fastened by any clasps or buttons, but was kept on by the intricacy of the folds. The peplum, and the pallium or mens outer garment, gave occasion to a great display of taste in the manner of wearing, as the various comhinations seem to he almost endless. Every variety which human ingenuity or fancy could devise in the manner of wearing this part of the dress, may be seen in the pictures on ancient vases; and it is supposed that the different degrees of grace, in the arrangement of this garment, indicated the de- gree of refinement in the wearer. At times, the mode of wearing it was made to indicate the state of mind of the in- dividual. Thus, it was drawn over the head by persons in deep affliction, or engaged in any solemn religious cere- mony. For both of these reasons it was represented as drawn over the head of Agamemnon in the celebrated clas- sical painting of the sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia. Fi- nally the peplum served as a protection to the head in stormy weather; though travellers provided themselves with a flat- broad-brimmed hat, which they called a petasus, tied under the chin like a bonnet. The dress of the Roman ladies was much like that worn by the Greeks. It consisted of the tunic, or stola, rcaching to the feet, with long sleeves worn next the skin; then the amiculum, formed of two square pieces of stuff fastened on the shoulders ; and, lastly, the palla, corresponding to the Grecian peplum, and very similar to the mens toga, except that it was more ample and was embroidered. The Roman ladies bestowed infinite pains upon the dressing of their hair. Like the Greeks, they used the curling tongs; and a number of antique busts, portraits of Roman ladies, in the Callery at Florence, display a degree of care, ingenuity, and skill in the coiffure, that would baffle the most accomplished hair-dresser of Paris at the present day. The hair was plaited, twisted, 1838.] Fashions in Dress. 155 or woven, into the most elaborate and exquisite forms. Cor- onets, wreaths, diadems, baskets of flowers, clusters of grapes, were all represented by the cunning hand of the Roman hair- dresser. When the natural color of the hair was not agree- able, it was stained, by means of a pomatum made of the dregs of vinegar and the oil of mastic. And when, after the conquest of Great Britain, the light golden hair of the Caledonian maidens gained the admiration of their conquer- ors, the ladies of Rome aspired to the same attraction by filling their hair with gold dust. They also used white and red paint for the face, besides a variety of washes and cos- metics. The Roman ladies were very fond of jewels, and carried their passion for them to such an excess, as to become occa- sionally the subject of legislation. The principal personal ornaments were ear-rings, necklaces, and finger rings. The ear-rings were of gold, pearls, and precious stones, and were sometimes of immense value. Necklaces were also set with gems, and very precious, and were worn by men as well as women; every school-boy will recollect the story of Man- lius Torquatus. In the manufacture of ornamental chains, the Roman or Greek jewellers displayed great skill. There was one kind of chain, in particular, wrought with such con- summate art, that modern jewellers have in vain attempted to imitate it. The links are so cunningly shaped and knit to- gether, that, when the chain is extended, it resembles a single bar of gold ; and yet it is perfectly flexible in every possible direction, like a small cord. Chains of this kind in the most perfect preservation have been found in Pompeii. Finger rings were of various forms and devices, commonly set with engraved gems, and used as seals. A remarkable mention of these is in Ciceros Oration against Catiline, in which he speaks of the impress of the ring of Lentulus in his inter- cepted letter. Among the ornaments discovered in Pompeii, is a breast-pin, to which is attached a Bacchanalian figure with a patera or goblet in one hand, and a glass in the other; hav- ing bats wings attached to his shoulders, and two belts of grapes passing across his body. Indeed, if we may judge from the symbols of ancient co- quetry, which that living tomb, Pompeii, has yielded up, the refinement of the toilet was as great with the Romans, as at the present day; and Popes lines are as descriptive of a 156 Fashions in Dress. Ejuly, morning scene in the chamber of a Roman belle, as of a modern fine lady. Unnumbered treasures ope at once, and here The various offerings of the world appear; From each she nicely culls with curious toil And decks the goddess with the glittering spoil. This casket Indias glowing gems unlocks, And all Arabia breathes from yonder box The tortoise here and elephant unite, Transformed to combs, the speckled and the white. Here files of pins extend their shining rows, Puffs, powders, patches. How the poor things managed without the Bibles and billets-doux, which should complete the line, is more than we know; perhaps some of our fair readers can suggest the substitute. The dress of the men consisted of the tunic, which reached nearly to the knees and had no sleeves. It was fas- tened by a girdle above the hips; and a strip of purple, on the right side of this garment in front, indicated, by its breadth, whether the wearer was of Senatorial or Equestrian rank. Over this, was worn the distinguishing garment of the Romans, the toga. It has been disputed by antiquaries, whether the form of this garment was round or square. Mr. Hope thinks it was semicircular. Beckmann says, that the Roman weavers made each piece of cloth just of the proper size for a toga, so that when it came from the loom it was ready for use, and probably had no seam. It was a loose robe or cloak, extending from the neck to the feet, closed below the breast, but open above, and without sleeves. It was ample, flowing, and graceful; and gave a dignified and majestic air to the wearer. The materials used by the Romans in the manufacture of their garments, were chiefly linen and wool. The toga was woollen, and generally white, though mourners wore it black. Silk began to be imported in the latter days of the republic, nor did the Romans at first understand the manufacture of it. Afterwards they began to weave it, intermixing woollen thread. The fabric thus formed, was called vestes Coa~, as it was invented in the island of Cos. It was very thin, like muslin or gauze, and is spoken of by Seneca as woven wind. The term bomb ycina, undoubtedly the origin of our 1838.] Fashions in Dress. 157 word bombctzine, derived from bomb yx, a silk-worm, was applied to this fabric. The Romans commonly went with the head bare or only covered with the toga, except at sacred rites and festivals, on journeys, and in war. At the Saturnalia, they wore the pileus, or woollen cap, which was never permitted to be worn by slaves. They probably assumed it particularly at this festival, as a mark of distinction, because slaves during the Saturnalia were allowed almost unlimited license, and needed something to admonish them of their real condition. Roman travellers, like Greek travellers, wore the petasus. There were various coverings for the feet. The calcei were somewhat like our shoes, and covered the foot entirely. They were provided with strings or lacings, which sometimes covered the ancle. Senators wore on the top of the calceus, a gold or silver crescent, as a mark of their order. The shoes of men were usually black; those of women were white, red, yellow, or of other colors. Buskins were also worn, covering only the sole of the foot and laced above. Soldiers wore boots reaching as high as the ancle. The legs were protected by bands of cloth, wound round them from the thigh downwards. The distinguishing marks, in the costume of the Greeks and Romans, were elegance, majesty, and grace. Their robes were loose and flowing. They were never intended to display the form, but to hang loosely around it, sug- gesting grace and beauty to the imagination, while they ac- tually concealed the work of nature. The dress of these nations had a good effect upon the art of sculpture. In their costume, form was of much more consequence than color; and it could therefore be perfectly represented by the marble. The sculptor at the present day is embarrassed in the repre- sentation of his hero. The modern costume, which, especial- ly with military men, depends as much for its effect on color as on form, and perhaps even more, cannot be adequately represented by marble ; and the artist must clothe his statue in some foreign or imaginary garb, which every one knows he never wore. The Greek sculptor, on the contrary, found in every man he met a model, which he might study to ad- vantage. And the immense variety of arrangement, which the ample robe allowed, must have constantly suggested to him some new idea with regard to the arrangement and flow 158 Fashions in Dress. [July, of drapery; a subject of sufficient importance to occupy one chapter in Flaxmans admirable volume of Lectures. We can now do no more than hint at the effect thus produced on one of the fine arts. At some future time, we may find oc- casion to resume the subject. We must hasten on to the dress of modern ages. The dress of the different Christian nations of Europe has not greatly varied in the same century; and the description of the costume of one nation may be taken as a specimen of all. We shall, therefore, give an account of some of the most re- markable costumes of England. The dress of the Anglo- Saxons consisted of shirts; tunics, both long and short; surcoats, or sleeved gowns; cloaks or mantles; conical or Phrygian bonnets; shoes open in the middle, or on each side, and stockings. The legs were protected by breeches reaching to the knee. The hair was parted on the middle of the head, and hung down on each side, and the forked beard was worn. Women of the same era wore under-tunics with sleeves ; upper-tunics like gowns; mantles or cloaks kerchiefs or hoods ; high-quartered shoes, and stockings. But our readers will form a better notion of the Saxon dress from the following description, than it is possible to convey by our dry details. We quote from Scotts picture of Cedric the Saxon. His dress was a tunic of forest green, furred at the throat and cuffs with what was called mm- ever; a kind of fur inferior in quality to ermine, and formed, it is believed, of the skin of the grey squirrel. His doublet hung unbuttoned over a close dress of scarlet, which sat tight to his body; he had breeches of the same, but they did not reach below the lower part of the thigh, leaving the knee exposed. His feet had sandals of the same fashion with the peasants, but of finer materials, and secured in front with golden clasps. Behind his seat was hung a scarlet cloth cloak, lined with fir, and a cap of the same materials richly em- hroidered, which completed the dress of the opulent land- holder when he chose to go forth. Such was the general outline of the costume worn in England from the beginning of the tenth century. Some changes became visible in the fourteenth century. The head-covering for men assumed a great variety of forms, some of them very fantastic. They might be seen in all the variety of wreathed, turban-shaped, flapped, rolled, skull- 1838.] Fashions in Dress. 159 capped, brimmed, with projecting ends, conical and cylin- drical with or without brims, night-capped, tied under the chin, sometimes tongued over the head, escalloped, or simple bandages round the bair, & c. Spencers were also worn, buttoning in front and without sleeves. The shoes were long-pointed, and were joinQd to the stocking so as to form but one garment; and were differently colored on each leg. The shirt, in the time of the Saxons and Normans, formed no ostensible part of the dress ; but, at a later period, when tunics became doublets or waistcoats, they were made more open upon the neck and bosom, so as to display the shirt collar, which was richly embroidered. In the fifteenth century, the costume became still more fanciful and grotesque. The doublets were cut and slashed, and nearly disjointed at the elbows, in order to show the fineness of the shirts. The dress of the two sexes could hardly be distinguished from each other; men wore petti- coats over their lower clothing; the doublets were laced in front like stays, over a stomacher; and the gowns were open in front to the girdle, and again from the girdle to the ground. The women wore gowns, enormous trains, and corsets over the other dress; and were particularly distinguished by two peculiarities, the horned and the steeple head-dresses; the for- mer consisting of two elevations like a mitre worn edgewise, the other having only one elevation, of a pyramidal or conical form, and very high. Addison dates the existence of these enormous head-dresses a century earlier, though they proba- bly appeared both in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He says, I do not remember in any part of my reading, that the head-dress aspired to so great an extravagance as in the fourteenth century; when it was built up in a couple of cones or spires, which stood so excessively high, on each side of the head, that a woman, who was but a pigmy with- out her head-dress, appeared like a Colossus upon putting it on. Monsieur Paradin says, that these old-fashioned fan- tanges rose an ell above the head; that they were pointed like steeples, and had long pieces of crape fastened to the tops of them, which were curiously fringed, and hung down their backs like streamers. In the sixteenth century, men wore gowns, boddices, close pantaloons, boots coming tip to the middle of the thigh, cloaks, slashed doublets, petticoat breeches, and the remark- 160 Fashions in Dress. [July, able trunk hose, which were breeches sitting close to the leg, and stuffed out enormously about the hips. The women appeared in long boddices, with or without skirts, and the famous farthingale, which was an immense hooped petticoat; they also invented a kind of doublet with high wings and puffed sleeves, a costume in full fashion in the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth. To give our readers a better notion of the costume of this period, we will again quote from Scott, who was extremely correct and minutely accurate in his de- scriptions. Whom, then, can we select, as a more worthy representative of the fashions of the sixteenth century, than that renowned cavalier Sir Piercie Shafton ? His first ap- pearance is thus described He has a crimson velvet bon- net, and long, brown hair falling down under it, and a beard on his upper lip, and his chin clean and close shaved, save a small patch on the point of it, and a sky-blue jerkin slashed, and lined with white satin, and trunk hose to suit. Again, in speaking of his wardrobe, Sir Piercie gives the following catalogue, which might drive a modern dandy to despair. My rich crimson silk doublet, slashed out and lined with cloth of gold, which I wore at the last revels, with baldric and trimmings to correspond; also two pair of black silk slops, with hanging garters of carnation silk; also the flesh-colored silken doublet with the trimmings of fur, in which I danced the salvage man at the Grays Inn mummery. There are four suits of as pure and elegant device as ever the fancy of a fair lady doated upon, every one having a treble and appro- priate change of ribbons, trimmings, and fringes, which, in case of need, may, as it were, renew each of them, and mul- tiply the four into twelve. There is also my sad-colored riding suit, and three cut-work shirts with falling bands, & c. Such were the wonders of the wardrobe in the sixteenth century. And here we leave the subject of costumes. The changes of dress since that time have been great. The subject is ample and amusing, as connected with politics, literature, and religion, as well as fashion, but we forbear to pursue it. We have already far exceeded the limits we first fixed for our article, and we might engage in speculations which would be thought foreign to the matter. 1838.] Holmess Prize Dissertations. 161 ART. VII. Boylston Prize Dissertations for the Years 1836 and 1837. By OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, M. D., Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and Member of the Soci~ti .Mi~dicale d Observation of Paris. Boston; Charles C. Little and James Brown. 1838. Svo. pp. 371. IN 1803, Ward Nicholas Boylston established a fund, affording an income of one hundred dollars a year, to be ex- pended in prizes for Medical Dissertations ; the fund to be managed by the Corporation of Harvard University, and the prizes to be awarded by a committee of physicians, appointed by the Corporation. At first three subjects were proposed in each year; and the premium awarded to the author of the best dissertation on each, was a gold medal of the value of thirty-three dollars. In 1815, the number of annual ques- tions was reduced, at the suggestion of the Committee, to two, and the value of the medal increased to fifty dollars; and so it continues to the present time. It would have been still better, if the whole sum had been appropriated to a single medal each year. The Committee, in 1815, recommended this change; but the founder did not assent to it. As it is, the Boylston medal has drawn out a considerable number of discussions, some of them of no small degree of merit. The questions proposed are such as the com- mittee judge to be best suited to lead to valuable discov- eries or important observations ; and entire impartiality in the adjudication of the premium is secured by having the names of the authors concealed until after the award is made, when the sealed packet, accompanying the successful dis- sertation, is alone opened. Unsuccessful authors are never known, unless they choose to avow themselves; and thus they are spared any mortification, which might otherwise add to the disappointment of their failure. The volume before us contains three Dissertations, for which the Boylston pre- miums were awarded to the author in 1836 and 1837. It affords a proof of his industry as well as of his talents, that the author should be successful in obtaining three prizes in two successive years, gaining in the latter year both that were offered. The first Dissertation is a History of Intermittent Fever, VOL. xLvII.No. c. 21

1838.] Holmess Prize Dissertations. 161 ART. VII. Boylston Prize Dissertations for the Years 1836 and 1837. By OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, M. D., Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and Member of the Soci~ti .Mi~dicale d Observation of Paris. Boston; Charles C. Little and James Brown. 1838. Svo. pp. 371. IN 1803, Ward Nicholas Boylston established a fund, affording an income of one hundred dollars a year, to be ex- pended in prizes for Medical Dissertations ; the fund to be managed by the Corporation of Harvard University, and the prizes to be awarded by a committee of physicians, appointed by the Corporation. At first three subjects were proposed in each year; and the premium awarded to the author of the best dissertation on each, was a gold medal of the value of thirty-three dollars. In 1815, the number of annual ques- tions was reduced, at the suggestion of the Committee, to two, and the value of the medal increased to fifty dollars; and so it continues to the present time. It would have been still better, if the whole sum had been appropriated to a single medal each year. The Committee, in 1815, recommended this change; but the founder did not assent to it. As it is, the Boylston medal has drawn out a considerable number of discussions, some of them of no small degree of merit. The questions proposed are such as the com- mittee judge to be best suited to lead to valuable discov- eries or important observations ; and entire impartiality in the adjudication of the premium is secured by having the names of the authors concealed until after the award is made, when the sealed packet, accompanying the successful dis- sertation, is alone opened. Unsuccessful authors are never known, unless they choose to avow themselves; and thus they are spared any mortification, which might otherwise add to the disappointment of their failure. The volume before us contains three Dissertations, for which the Boylston pre- miums were awarded to the author in 1836 and 1837. It affords a proof of his industry as well as of his talents, that the author should be successful in obtaining three prizes in two successive years, gaining in the latter year both that were offered. The first Dissertation is a History of Intermittent Fever, VOL. xLvII.No. c. 21 162 Holmess Prize Dissertations. [July, so far as it is known to have prevailed in New England, on the question, as proposed by the Committee; To what Extent, and in what Places, has Intermittent Fever been indigenous in New England? For many years past, the only cases of this disease, which have appeared among us, except in a few peculiar situations, have been evidently caused by exposure elsexvhere. There were some traditions, and some scattered notices, which seemed to imply that it was not always so; hut that, on the contrary, the early settlers of New England, had, in common with most pioneers in a new country, to en- counter this among the other difficulties of their enterprise. The inquiry, therefore, involved more of antiquarian re- search than of recent history. The materials for the investi- gation were few, and of the most miscellaneous character. The few physicians who accompanied the early Pilgrims, seem to have had too much else to do, to employ themselves in writing for the benefit, or to gratify the curiosity, of their successors. There were no medical journals to receive occasional communications ; and to make a medical hook was an undertaking in that day rarely accomplished, and in this new world not attempted till long after. What notices there are of the early diseases of New Eng- land, are to be found chiefly in the incidental mention of them in the letters and journals of the first settlers, as col- lected in biographical memoirs, and local histories ; and in the traditions, which, in some instances, have been hand- ed down and preserved by curious conservators of the sayings and doings of their ancestors. In these repositories of ancient occurrences Dr. Holmes has Inade a diligent search ; and he has succeeded in hringing together many facts, of which the record was scarcely known to exist, and in rescuing from oblivion others, of which the knowledge would soon have heen irretrievably lost. It may serve as an encouragement to the inhabitants of some of our new settlements to hope for healthier days, at least for their children, when their forests shall have more thoroughly decayed, to learn, that the same fever and ague, which now so seriously disturbs their comforts and enjoy- ments, once pervaded the most healthy parts of New Eng- land, from which it has wholly disappeared for more than a century. The justly celebrated Eliot contracted the disease in his missionary excursions to the Indians on the hills in 1838. Intermittent Fevers in JVew England. 163 Newton ; where no trace of it has been seen for several gen- erations. Since the early forests were cleared off, Intermittent fever has appeared in New England only in a very few situ- ations, in which some peculiar local cause has operated to produce it. An example of this kind occurred on the banks of the Connecticut River, in Hampshire county, Massachu- setts. A dam was carried across the river, in 1792, at South Hadley, to aid the operations of a canal, in conse- quence of which the low grounds on the borders of the river were partially overflowed. For several years after, fever and ague prevailed to a considerable extent in the neigh- bourhood; and so confidently was it attributed to the dam, that several of the sick persons recovered damages at law from the canal corporation, and ultimately the dam was re- moved by order of court, and the disease has rarely, if ever, originated there since. The valley of the Housatonic River, in Berkshire county, has been still more productive of intermittents. The de- tailed accounts of these, given by Dr. Holmes, belong rather to the members of his profession, interesting as they are to them, than to our readers in general. But we cannot forbear to quote an amusing example of successful confidence in an empirical remedy, from the letter of one of his correspon- dents, written at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. About forty years ago, writes Dr. Partridge, of Stock- bridge, a Mr. Smith, from the hills east in Connecticut, bought a farm, mostly tillage land, in the southwest part of Stockbridge, bounding east on the river, (xvest on a hill,) here raised some way above and below said farm; no stagnant water near, fogs rare (except in calm weather), and more rarely reaching his house, on rising ground, so as to bide the morning sun. His wife of a sedate disposition, quiet and slow of speech, not readily disturbed and rarely from home. After about two years (1802 I think), the occurrence took place. I lodged in Tyringham, say about ten miles southeast from borne ; in the morning rode a few miles northeast into Hay- cock Hollow, to see a patient, and return home down said vale through South Lee; between 9 and 10 A. M., I met said Mrs. Smith, riding southeast up said vale, as I supposed, out only on a visit, and passed with only a Good morning. I here was nine miles from home, and she nearly thirteen. The same day, at four oclock, P. M., four miles northwest from home, I 164 Holmess Prize Questions. [July, met Mrs. Smith again, three miles north from her home. I stopped to say, Where have you been to-day? You must have been a round-about way, to be returning on this road. She says, I do not know where I have been. A few days ago, the fever ague took me, and I was told, that if I would rise early in the morning, eat some crusts of bread and drink water, and take an horse, and crusts in my pocket, and ride all day, all the roads I could find which I never see before, and eat only crust and drink vater, I should lose the fever ague. Well, is this your fit day ? c Yes. Have you felt any ague ? No ; a little before I see you in the morn- ing, I might have a little chill ; but I did not regard it, the sun was so warm and pleasant. Any fever ? No; but may have drinked more water than common with my crusts, and felt pretty well all day, but now am some tired. Where have you been ? I do not know. After I saw you in the morning I rode on, and coming to the hills, turned and came back, took a road, went on north, till noon, or after, and turned about to find the way home, going right, I suppose Yes, farewell. Desiring to know the issue of the strange impression on her mind, with the exercise and diet, I soon after went and inquired as to the event, and found that she lost the ague and fever that day, and had no more of it. pp. 98, 99. The second Dissertation, On the Nature and Treatment of Neuralgia, gives scope to a different kind of investiga- tion. A young man, just entering upon the practical duties of his profession, cannot of course be expected to do much in the way of discovery, by original observations, in refer- ence to an obscure and not very frequent disease. All that is left for him to do is, to collect the best observations of others, and, by a skilful examination and comparison of them, to draw from them such a description of the disease, and of its character and treatment, as they afford the means for. This Dr. Holmes has done; and with such industry and ability, as to render his treatise highly valuable to the profession. The third Dissertation, On the Utility and Importance of Direct Exploration in Medical Practice, had been already published; and under rather peculiar circumstances. It ob- tained for its author the Boylston premium for 1836. Two other dissertations on the same subject, though not entitled to the prize as being the best, were thought by the Commit- tee worthy of notice; and, a liberal medical gentleman having furnished the means, they awarded a prize of the same pe 1838.] Direct Exploration in ..lkliedical Practice. 165 cuniary value to their authors. The three were then pub- lished, at the expense of the same gentleman, by the Massa- chusetts Medical Society, and distributed gratuitously, not only to all the Yellows of that Society, but also to every other regular physician in Massachusetts. To be distinguished as the successful one among such worthy compeers, is suffi- cient evidence of the value of this treatise in the estimation of those most competent to judge of it. Like the others it was written for the medical profession, and is chiefly interesting to them, rather than to our readers in general. It gives a survey of the affections in which direct exploration is applicable, the extent to which it is re- quired in consequence of the inadequacy of other means of investigation, and of the results to be obtained from the ex- amination. Most of our readers must have often seen, if they have happily been too much exempt from disease in the last few years to have felt, the physician tapping on the chest of his patient, and then applying his ear, and listening wistfully, as expecting some wise suggestion from within. To many of them, all this has seemed like mere trifling or quackery, while others have been ready enough to suppose that valua- ble information is gained by it; although few, we believe, out of the medical profession, have any very distinct notion of the nature of this information, or of the principles on which the means of obtaining it are founded. This knowledge we propose now to supply them; and, if their curiosity has been enough excited by seeing the process of thumping and listening (percussion and auscultation) to in- duce them to give us a hearing, we shall hope to make it all plain to them. We might do this chiefly in the words of our author. But, as we have already intimated, in writing for physicians, he has of course made use of the technical terms by which they avoid circumlocution and gain precision. We shall strive to make ourselves intelligible to the uninitiated, even though it may be at the expense of some more words, and of some loss of professional exactness. The language of auscultation has been more encumbered with technical phraseology than any department of medical science. The later French medical writers, from whom we have derived a large portion of our knowledge on this sub- ject, have shown a remarkable propensity to coin new words. Sometimes they doubtless obtain by this means a term, which 166 Holmess Prize Dissertations. [July, better expresses the qualities of the object they wish to de- signate. But, in many instances, the whole idea might be fully as well or better expressed by words already in use, and too often we get only new names for old ideas. The whole matter of auscultation has been peculiarly overbur- dened in this manner, by the use of nexv terms, coined with learned etymology from the Greek or Latin language; and we have no doubt, that a knowledge of its real utility has been greatly retarded by so much erudite phraseology. We do not mean to intimate, that the author of these Dissertations has exhibited any of this silly affectation. It is quite otherwise. He has merely used the language as he found it; and, writing for those to whom it is familiar, he had no reason to take any special pains to avoid or to explain it. The principal methods of direct exploration, and the only methods of which we propose to speak, are percussion and auscultation. The others, palpation, succussion, & c., are either used too unfrequently, or their mode of application is too obvious, to demand our attention at present. The principle, on which percussion is applied to the detec- tion of disease, is sufficiently plain. Indeed, it is often used in the common affairs of life. The carpenter strikes his hammer against the wall, to ascertain where to drive his nail in a sure place. The spiritdealer knocks upon the head of his cask, to learn the quantity of liquor contained in it. With precisely the same view, the physician thumps the chest of his patient, that he may judge of the state of the organs by the sound which is given forth. The chest is an enclosed cavity, containing, and in the natural state filled by, several organs of different degrees of density. Of course, the part corresponding to each organ gives a dull or a resonant sound, according as the organ is firm and solid, or light and porous. Much the greater por- tion of the chest is occupied by the lungs. They are of a light and spongy texture, partly filled with blood, and partly with air. The sound they emit is intermediate between that of an empty cavity, or one filled with air only, and a collec- tion of fluid, or a solid organ. In the neighbourhood of the lungs is the heart on one side, and the liver on the other, both solid organs; the latter, indeed, not strictly in the same cavity, but capable of pressing upon the others. If either of these is increased in size, so as to encroach upon the langs, 1838.1 Percussion and .1/uscultation. 167 the existence and the extent of the encroachment will be shown by a flat sound in the place of the natural resonance. If the membrane which lines the cavity of the chest be- comes inflamed, a fluid is gradually poured out into the cavity, compressing the lungs, and occupying their space and then a flat sound is the consequence. Or, the same space may be filled by air, introduced either by a wound, or as the effect of disease ; and then the sound on the other hand is unnaturally resonant. The structure of the lungs itself is also liable to be changed by disease. On the one hand it may be emphysematous, too much distended by air, when the sound is hollow. On the other hand, it may be rendered unnaturally solid, either by a pressure of blood, or by inflammation, or by the formation of tubercles; either of which will cause the sound to be dull or flat in proportion to the extent of the disease. It is not our purpose to go into particulars, and show how all the several affections are distinguished from each other. Such details belong to the physician, and must be studied by him with industry and care. The distinction is made partly by other considerations, and partly by differences in the per- cussion itself. We may give an example by way of illustra- tion, of the extent to which this mode of investigation may be carried. We have said, that fluid in the chest, congestion of the lungs, inflammation, and tubercles, all cause a flat sound. How shall we know one of these from the rest? The formation of tubercles is a slow process, and the disease they produce is chronic ; and it is attended by circum- stances quite unlike those which ordinarily accompany the others. For this reason there can generally be little ques- tion between them. But this is not all. Tubercles are almost always first deposited in the upper portions of the lungs, while inflammation as generally occupies the middle and lower portions. In any case, therefore, where the disease has not advanced so far as to leave no room for doubt, if the flatness be in the upper part of the chest, the presumption is strong in favor of the existence of tubereles ; if in the lower part, it is something else. In like manner, a crowded state of blood in the lungs is ascertained, chiefly by means other than those we are now considering. Between a collection of fluid in the chest, the result of acute inflammation of the lining membrane, and inflammation of the lung itself; that is, 168 Holmess Prize Dissertations. [July, between pleurisy and pneumonia, the distinction is not so easy. Both are acute diseases; and both give rise to many of the same symptoms. Indeed, so much alike are they in these respects, that it was formerly said to be impossible to distinguish them. Yet the importance of their effects is widely different. The one is a grave disease and often de- stroys life, the other is rarely fatal. And the treatment required by each is often very unlike. Here, too, we are by no means restricted to the use of percussion. Other modes of examination serve to explain, or correct, or confirm, as the case may be, the results of this. But we must show what this can do. We have seen that, in pleurisy, the flatness of sound is caused by a fluid poured out into the cavity of the chest, taking the place of a portion of the lung. The flatness is consequently complete so far as the fluid extends, and there stops abruptly. In inflammation of the lung the condensa- tion, and the consequent flatness, are complete only at the part most highly inflamed, and diminish by a more or less gentle gradation towards the healthy portions. This flatness, too, is constantly observed in the same place, whatever may be the position of the body, whereas in pleurisy every move- ment of the body causes the fluid to flow to the lowest part, and consequently changes the seat of the flat sound. These different circumstances are not always enough of themselves to establish a perfect diagnosis between the two diseases. But they go far towards it; and, taken in connexion with the results of the other principal mode of exploration, they rarely leave any just cause of doubt between them. In detecting diseases of the heart, percussion, regarded by itself alone, will do little more than to point out an enlarge- ment, without showing its precise character, or whether it be an enlargement of the heart itself, or a distention of the pen- cardium by a fluid. There are other means of making these distinctions, with a greater or less degree of certainty. The organs of the abdomen are less concealed from ob- servation, than those of the chest. The walls of the cavity are yielding, so that any considerable change in the size, or texture, or position, may be detected by pressure; a mode of examination now learnedly called palpation. Percussion is often useful, however, in diseases of these organs. It enables the physician to discover their precise condition with 1S38.1 Percussion. 169 greater accuracy, to detect with more certainty the nature and extent of any enlargement of an organ, or the existence of any morbid growth, or the accumulation of a fluid. From the almost constant use of percussion, in a large proportion of diseases, by most intelligent physicians, at the present day, and from the obvious principles upon which its proper application is founded, it would seem strange, that it should not have always been in use. But so it is. Until witbin the last few years, it was very little practised. Aven- brugger is said to have first introduced it as a new invention, in 1761. But his discovery excited very little notice until Corvisart called the attention of the profession to it, in 1808; and it did not come into general use until the publication of Laennec, in 1815. Since that time much has been written upon it, and much has been done to improve the art of prac- tising it successfully. At first, percussion was performed by striking with the ends of the fingers directly upon the part examined. But this is liable to serious objections. Besides that it sometimes gives pain, there is an uncertainty in the resonance, in con- sequence of the difference of texture in the several parts struck upon. The present practice is, therefore, always to interpose something to receive the blow. A variety of sub- stances have been used for this purpose. An ivory plate has been much commended and much used ; others prefer a piece of India rubber; and many use only a finger of the left hand. Fingers were made before forks, says the prov- erb. The circumstance, that the finger is always at hand, while any other pleximeter adds something to the already cumbersome apparatus of the physician, is much in its favor; though in general, that will practically be the best in the hands of any practitioner, which he is most accustomed to use. The degree of resonance on percussion is very consider- ably modified in different persons by the form and bodily condition of the patient. The chest of a thin, spare person, gives a much louder and clearer sound than one which is well clothed xvith fat and flesh. All this is easily taken into consideration by the physician, so that he is in little danger of mistaking an accumulation without the chest for disease within. A comparison between the two sides of the chest VOL. XLVII.NO.C. 22 170 Holmess Prize Dissertcttion8. [July, gives additional security against such a mistake. In some parts, it is true, the organs are different in the two sides; but to a considerable extent they correspond. It is also true, that the same state of disease may exist in the corresponding parts, so as to obscure the results of a comparison between them. But this is extremely rare. In general there is a marked difference in the sounds of the two sides in most cases of decided disease. To take advantage of this com- parison, it is of course necessary, that the practitioner be ac- curate in his knowledge of the anatomy of the parts, or he may confound the flatness produced by striking upon a solid organ for that of diseased structure. The practice of auscultation is founded upon principles of physical science equally well established. Sounds, which are caused by certain actions within the cavities of the body, are transmitted through the walls of the cavity, and are per- ceived when the ear is applied closely to the surface, or through the intervention of a proper instrument. These sounds are always alike under like circumstances, and are changed when the circumstances which caused them are changed. Hence the physician, if he render his ear familiar with the sounds caused by the internal actions of the body in a healthy state, will readily perceive a variation, when the part is diseased. What disease is indicated by any particular unnatural sound, he can learn only from repeated and exten- sive observations. But that there is a deviation from the natural state, he will perceive at once ; and the accumulated observations of all the physicians, whose attention has been directed to the subject, have now gone far to explain most of the deviations which have been noticed. These principles are chiefly available for practical pur- poses in reference to the actions of the lungs and the heart. The air in passing through the windpipe gives rise to a cer- tain sound, which in health is always nearly the same. This sound is modified in the smaller tubes (the bronchia) into which the windpipe divides, and again still more decidedly in the little air vesicles in which the bronchia terminate, and which occupy every part of the lungs. These several sounds are readily perceived and easily distinguished by a practised ear, applied to the corresponding part of the chest and neck. Hence we have tracheal, bronchial, and vesicular 1838.1 fluscultation. 171 respiration ; and if these are heard only in their appropriate places, and in a right degree of force, they indicate a healthy state of the parts. When a portion of the lung is diseased, the current of air in that part is either obstructed or its natural force changed, and of course the sound is modified. Hence, by applying the ear extensively over the chest, we are enabled to detect the existence, and the precise seat, and generally the nature, of the disease. In inflammation of the lungs, the air cells are for the time obliterated in the part affected. As there are no vesicles for the air to enter, there is no vesicular respira- tion. But we have, what would not at first view be antici- pated, bronchial respiration in its stead. In the healthy condition of the lungs, the porous character of the vesicular structure renders it a bad conductor of sound, so that the sound caused by the air in the bronchial tubes is not trans- mitted through them. But xvhen they are consolidated by disease, they become good conductors of sound; and, at the same time, the morbid condition of the parts gives a greater degree of intensity to the sound itself. Bronchial respiration, then, heard in the place of vesicular, always indicates inflammation? That would be a simplici- ty in the art of distinguishing diseases, which nature does not tolerate. But it always indicates a consolidation of the lung from some cause, and inflammation is one of the most fre- quent of the causes. Another, and unhappily a frequent cause, is the deposition of tubercles, in incipient consump- tion. As in regard to percussion, so in reference to auscul- tation, there are means of distinguishing between the several morbid affections, which give rise to phenomena in many respects similar. These it is the business of the physician to study, and they often exercise his ingenuity and industry not a little. But it would lead us too far to attempt to ex- plain them here. There are other morbid sounds in the respiration, besides those which arise from what xve may call the misplacement of such as are healthy. When the membrane which lines the air passages is inflamed, as in common cold or catarrh, its surface is at first unnaturally dry ; and in that state the current of air through the tubes gives rise to various sounds more or less musical, which are the different modifications of 172 Holmess Prize Dissertations. [July, the sonorous rdle.* At a later period the membrane becomes more than naturally moist, and the passages are crowded, and more or less obstructed, by an adhesive fluid. In this state, if the ear is applied to the chest, the air is heard bubbling through the mucus, aTid this is the mucous rdle. Inflamma- tion of the substance of the lung, in its earlier stage, before the air vesicles are obliterated, is accompanied by a still dif- ferent rdle, the crepitous. In the advanced stage of con- sumption, a cavity, sometimes more than one, is formed in the lungs, at first filled with purulent matter, which is after- wards discharged through an opening into a bronchial tube. The air as it rushes into, and out of, this cavity in every respiration gives rise to a peculiar hollow sound, which is the cavernous rdle. If the cavity is very large, and the opening into it from the bronchia small, the sound resembles that caused by blowing into the mouth of an empty bottle (am- phoric resonance). The same sound is produced when air escapes into the cavity of the chest, compressing the lung which is sometimes the result of an accidental injury, and sometimes of ulceration. The sounds of the voice give still farther aid in detecting and distinguishing the diseases of the lungs. In the healthy state of those organs, no peculiar sensation is communicated to the ear, unless it be applied over the windpipe, or over the larger bronchia at the root of the lungs. But where a portion of the lung is condensed, whether it be by inflamma- tion, or tubereles, or by the infiltration of a fluid into its substance, a resonance of the voice is transmitted to the ear at the corresponding part of the chest, resembling that from the bronchial tubes, and thence called bronchophony. When there is an empty cavity in the lungs, the sound is still more remarkable. The voice seems to enter the ear, as if the mouth of the speaker were applied closely to it. This speaking from the chest (pectoriloquy), when strongly * There is a good deal of difference of opinion as to the best term to designate these morbid sounds. Some writers use the English word rattle, and others the Latin rhonchus. We prefer to adopt the French rdle, used by Laennec. ~Vhere the thing to be expressed is new, it is better to adopt a new word, than to assign a new meaning to a word already in common use. As no new English word has been proposed, we can only do this by borrowing from a foreign language; and the French term was first intro- duced, and is more extensively used, and more agreeable to the ear than the Latin. 1838.] .1/uscultation. 173 marked, is a very decided characteristic of confirmed con- sumption, and sometimes gives evidence of a hopeless condi- tion of that deceptive disease, long before the symptoms have led the patient to feel any apprehension. Dr. Williams says of it, More than once has it occurred to me, that the very words, which in that delusive confidence with xvhich this malady enshrouds its victims, ridiculed my examination of the chest, roundly saying, that nothing ailed them there, have belied their meaning, and, coming from the breast, have told a far different tale. A modification of the voice, of a different character, is observed in some states of the chest in pleurisy. The voice comes to the ear through the walls of the chest, not in its clear natural tone, but in a vibrating, thrilling, squeaking sound; like the bleating of a goat (hcego- phony). Auscultation is applied to the investigation of the diseases of the heart as well as those of the lungs, although the actions of this organ are more obscure, and the phenomena which attend them are less understood. On applying the ear over the region of the heart, we perceive, in the first place, the impulse of the heart beating against the ribs; then we hear two distinct sounds, following each other at every pulsation, in regular succession. By habitual practice we learn to distinguish the natural force of the impulse, as well as its natural extent and limits, and the regular cadence or rhythm of the successive sounds, and to appreciate the differ- ence if either is changed by disease. The diagnosis of the particular diseases of the heart and large arteries is still in- volved in much obscurity. Considerable progress has been made in the knowledge of them within the last few years, and much may be hoped from the investigations which are con- stantly going on. As it is, we are in general able to distin- guish with confidence between the actual changes of structure in that organ, and the nervous, and sometimes imaginary affec- tions, which have often, in past times, been confounded with them. And, in many cases, if not in most, we can ascertain the particular character of the morbid affection, and give a tol- erably sure prognostication of its termination. There is here consolation in the fact, that some of these diseases, which were formerly classed together without any other distinction than diseases of the heart, and regarded alike with terror, 174 Holmess Prize Dissertations. [July, as surely fatal, excite very little alarm, now that their true character, and the means of distinguishing them, are better known. Enlargements of the heart, or its envelope, are easily de- tected by the greater extent over which the impulse and the sounds of its action are perceived, and hy the absence of the sound of respiration, in consequence of the encroachment of this organ upon the lungs, as well as by an enlargement of the correspouding part of the chest, and a change in the sound on percussion. But a knowledge of the general fact of au enlargement is not enough. We wish to know, whether it be a simple dilatation of the cavities of the heart, or the thickening of its muscular substance, or a distention of the pericardium by a fluid. And each of these has its appro- priate, characteristic marks, so as to leave little cause of douht between them. The membrane which covers the external surface of the heart, and that which lines its internal cavities, and occasionally also the muscular substance itself, are liable to inflammation; its numerous valves are exposed to various diseases ; and both its cavities and its orifices are subject to unnatural dilatation or contraction. Most of these changes can be detected with a greater or less degree of confidence during life, and some of them are capable of suc- cessful treatment. We shall not trouble our readers with a description of the different sounds heard in the several dis- eases, as we have done in regard to the lungs; partly because these sounds are less fully understood, and partly because we are afraid of wearying them with so many details. Let us now see how these two modes of exploration, per- cussion and auscultation, bear upon each other. We have thus far examined them only in their separate capacities. In their relations to each other, they do much to correct or con- firm the results obtained from either separately. In all dis- eases of the chest, besides the knowledge obtained from the symptoms, we have two distinct modes of observation. If the inferences draxvn from the sounds on percussion are con- firmed by applying the ear to the chest, and, in regard to the lungs, we have both the respiration and the voice to re- veal their secrets to us ; and especially if these inferences are in accordance with the symptoms, we may feel an assured confidence, that we have come to a just knowledge of the disease. 1838.J Percussion and fhtscultation. 175 A man has pain in the side, with difficulty of breathing, attended by more or less fever. All this may arise either from rheumatism in the muscles, or from pleurisy or inflam- mation of the lung; and the symptoms alone will not always tell which is the disease. If it be rheumatism, we are not likely to find any external sign of it, except perhaps some feebleness of respiration, on account of the difficulty of expanding and contracting the chest. If the disease be pleurisy, we shall have flatness on percussion, in the lower part of the side affected, changing its place if the patient changes his position, so as always to keep the lowest part; absence of all sound of respiration in that part, while the respiratory sound is louder than natural in the surrounding parts; and generally h~egophonic resonance of the voice. If it be inflammation of the lung, there is dulness on percussion, increasing, as the disease advances, to flatness, retaining the same place in all positions, not bounded abruptly by healthy resonance; crepi- tous r6le in the respiratory sounds, at first, followed by bronchial respiration and bronchophony. These several characteristics, however obscure they may seem in the de- scription to many of our readers, to an intelligent and expe- rienced observer will perfectly designate the character of the disease, so as to leave no doubt whatever in his mind. The disease may, indeed, be complicated, and then the evidences of its nature will be so too ; and so will be the treatment that it will require. A more interesting case is unhappily also much more fre- quent. A youth, just ripening into manhood, gradually loses his ruddy color and vigorous strength; he loses flesh, and occasionally a slight cough alarms the fears of his friends, though he himself thinks it nothing but a trifling cold. On examination, a slight dulness is observed at the apex of one lung, so slight as scarcely to be appreciated except by comparison with the opposite side. The respiratory sound is at first remarkably feeble at that part, or a little later there is bronchial respiration and bronchophony. These are sure indications, that the way is already prepared for consumption. Still there is hope, if a proper regimen can immediately be begun and persevered in ; for direct remedies can here do but little. Too often, either the patient is not alarmed early enough, or, in despite of every precaution or effort, the dis- ease advances. Bronchial respiration is followed by a muco 176 Holmess Prize Dissertations. [July, crepitous, and then by cavernous rdle, bronchophony by pectoriloquy, and so on till life is destroyed, each step of the destructive process being clearly revealed by the sounds elicited in successive examinations. But what avails it thus to trace the melancholy progress of a disease xvhich we have no power to arrest? There is some consolation in knowing the just amount of what we have to fear, however great that amount may be. And, if we have no remedies that are able to reach this formidable dis- ease, who shall say, that we shall never have them ? The first steps towards acquiring them must be taken in obtaining a full knowledge of the disease. We can now do something towards prolonging life and diminishing suffering. We can at least abstain from doing harm by vain attempts to effect what is impossible. Above all, by an early discovery of the disease, we may teach our patient to flee from the danger before it overtakes him. In very many cases, a careful ex- amination of the chest will detect unequivocal evidence of approaching consumption, long before the symptoms excite any considerable apprehension. At this early period much may be done to avert the danger. And if the attention of physicians and patients were more directed to this period, much more might doubtless be done to diminish the fatality of consumption than ever has been. If it be asked, on which we are the most to depend for the elucidation of disease, the investigation of symptoms, or an examination by physical signs, we answer, that there is no opposition whatever between them. The use of direct ex- ploration does not preclude a careful inquiry into the symp- toms of the case. On the contrary, it prompts to a more full investigation. In practical life, it certainly is true, that those physicians who most constantly make use of the benefits of exploration, are not only equally, but generally much more, thorough in their inquiries into all the circumstances of a pa- tients health, than those who neglect or ridicule it. This may be partly because those, who are the most zealous in their re- searches, are the most willing to take the trouble requisite to acquire a new method of investigation, when it promises adequate advantages. But this is not the whole of it. There is something so grateful in comparing the results of different modes of examination, that, were it a mere matter of specula 1838.] Voyages of the Zeni. 177 tive philosophy, the mind would necessarily be stimulated by the comparison. There are still some physicians, who laugh at the whole matter of direct exploration as either idle foolery, or empiri- cism. But they are those, who have never taken the pains to learn how to practise it; were there no more advantage in it than they know how to obtain from it, their ridicule might be better founded. Whether their ignorance be the effect of indo- lence or incompetence, it becomes us not to say. But, while they laugh, others will learn; and the time is not far distant, when the physician, who is unable to practise percussion and auscultation, will be held to be unfit for his profession. We have not written these remarks in the expectation of con- verting such men to our views. Nor, indeed, has it been our leading object to instruct the profession generally. Our aim has been, to give to unprofessional readers some notion of these new methods of examination. Neither our limits nor our plan admit of going fully into the details of the sub- ject. But we have hoped to do enough to show, that the means of acquiring an accurate knowledge of an extensive and highly important class of diseases are vastly improved by the introduction of this mode of examining them. ART. Viii. 1. JVordisk Tidsskr~ft for Oldkyndighed, ud- givet af det Kongelige .JVordiske Oldskrift- Seiskab. .Indet Bind. (Bemaerkninger over de Venetianerne Zeni tilskrevne Reiser i JVorden; af C. C. ZAHRTMANN, Capitainlieu- tenant.) Kiobenhavn: 1833. 2. The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of Lon- don. Volume the Fifth. (Remarks on the Voyages to the JVorthern Hemisphere, ascribed to the Zeni of Venice. By Captain C. C. ZAHRTMANN, R. N., Hydrographer to the Royal Dan- ish Navy; and communicated by him. Read 27 April, 1835.) London: 1835. RIvAL pretensions to the glory of having discovered the New World are fast springiug up, or beginning to be urged with VOL. XLvILNO. c. 23

1838.] Voyages of the Zeni. 177 tive philosophy, the mind would necessarily be stimulated by the comparison. There are still some physicians, who laugh at the whole matter of direct exploration as either idle foolery, or empiri- cism. But they are those, who have never taken the pains to learn how to practise it; were there no more advantage in it than they know how to obtain from it, their ridicule might be better founded. Whether their ignorance be the effect of indo- lence or incompetence, it becomes us not to say. But, while they laugh, others will learn; and the time is not far distant, when the physician, who is unable to practise percussion and auscultation, will be held to be unfit for his profession. We have not written these remarks in the expectation of con- verting such men to our views. Nor, indeed, has it been our leading object to instruct the profession generally. Our aim has been, to give to unprofessional readers some notion of these new methods of examination. Neither our limits nor our plan admit of going fully into the details of the sub- ject. But we have hoped to do enough to show, that the means of acquiring an accurate knowledge of an extensive and highly important class of diseases are vastly improved by the introduction of this mode of examining them. ART. Viii. 1. JVordisk Tidsskr~ft for Oldkyndighed, ud- givet af det Kongelige .JVordiske Oldskrift- Seiskab. .Indet Bind. (Bemaerkninger over de Venetianerne Zeni tilskrevne Reiser i JVorden; af C. C. ZAHRTMANN, Capitainlieu- tenant.) Kiobenhavn: 1833. 2. The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of Lon- don. Volume the Fifth. (Remarks on the Voyages to the JVorthern Hemisphere, ascribed to the Zeni of Venice. By Captain C. C. ZAHRTMANN, R. N., Hydrographer to the Royal Dan- ish Navy; and communicated by him. Read 27 April, 1835.) London: 1835. RIvAL pretensions to the glory of having discovered the New World are fast springiug up, or beginning to be urged with VOL. XLvILNO. c. 23 178 Voyages of the Zeni. [July, renewed vigor. In a late Number of this Journal we examined somewhat at length tbe apparently well-founded claims of the Scandinavian navigators, whose voyages were performed as early as the tenth century.* Between that period and the date of the first voyage of Columbus, if we may believe the accounts, the American coast was visited by the Arabians (of the Spanish Peninsula), the Welsh, the Venetians, the Portuguese, and by a native Pole in the seyvice of Denmark. Other rumored voyages were made within the same period, but they rest on more questionable authority. The Arabian expedition, it appears, was undertaken by a company consisting of eight persons, of the same family, called the .ilimagrurins, or, as commonly translated, the Wandering Brothers, who, having made provision for a long voyage, swore they would not return until they had pene- trated the farthest bounds of the DARK SEA, meaning the Atlantic, then vulgarly supposed to be enveloped in literal darkness. Sailing from Lisbon, these bold adventurers di- rected their course to the south and west, and, after many days, discovered an island inhabited by a people of lofty stature, a red skin, and long flowing hair, descending upon their shoulders. They were here told by the inhabitants, that persons from the island had sailed twenty days to the west without discovering land. Despairing of accomplishing the purpose of their voyage, the Arabian brothers retraced their course, and returned safely to Lisbon. The island they discovered is supposed by some writers to have been situated on the American coast; but the better opinion seems to be, that it was one of the Canary group, whose original population, the Guanches, were a pastoral race, not unlike the people described in the account of this voyage. The date of the voyage is not certainly known; but, as the Ara- bians were driven from Lisbon in 1147, it must have been prior to that period. t A brief account of the voyages of Madoc, a Welsh navi- gator, as related by Dr. Powel, the historian of Wales, is contained in Hakluyts invaluable collection, who says, that the land discovered by him (in 1170) must needs be some part of that country of which the Spaniards affirm themselves to be the first finders since Hannos time. See .Abrtk .irnerican Review, Vol. XLVI. pp. 161 203. Humboldt. Ezamen Gritique, Vol. IL p. 137~ 1838.] Reports of other Early Voyages. 179 Whereupon it is manifest, that the country was by Britons discovered long before Columbus led any Spaniards thither. * We do not learn, however, that the British government has ever rested its claim to any part of America on the strength of this discovery. The Venetian discoveries, to which our attention will be chiefly directed in the present article, are referred to the latter part of the fourteenth century; and Count Daru, in his admirable History of the Republic, states, that the library of St. Mark, at Venice, contains a map bearing the date of 1436, with the name of a Venetian geographer, or artist, on which is laid doxvn a large extent of land, five or six hundred leagues west of Gibraltar, under the name of Antillia. t According to the Portuguese writers, Newfoundland was discovered in 1463 by John Vas Cortereal, of Portugal, who gave it the name of Terra de .Baccalhaos (the Land of Cod Fish) ; but the evidence, on which the statement de- pends, is far from being conclusive, although recently Bar- row, and other English writers, have, without much examin- ation, given countenance to the story. An American writer, the author of the INlemoir of Sebastian Cabot, has shown pretty conclusively, by a rigid investigation of the subject, that there is little, if any, ground for the claim; in which opinion he is approved and followed by Baron Humboldt. The voyage of Szkolney (or, as the name is Latinized, Sciolvus), the Pole, to the coasts of Greenland and Labra- dor, is stated to have been performed in 1476 ; and we are informed, that a learned countryman of that navigator has re- cently vindicated his merits in an elaborate work, written in the Polish language, which is spoken of in terms of high commendation. ~ It is not our purpose, at the present time, to examine these various pretensions to the discovery of this continent, Voyages, & c. Vol. IJI. p. 1. Histoire de Venise, Vol. V. p. 625. Malte-Brun, referring to this matter, says, M Pinkerton croit que cette Antillia qui se trouve aussi sur dan- ciennes cartes Venitiennes, nest qoune cn~ation systernatique des g6o- graphes, qui simaginaient quil devait y avoir un continent oppos~ h celui de lancien monde, et destin6 a contre-balancer celni-ci. Mais je ne vois pas que M. Pinkerton donne aucune raison de son opinion. G~ograpIiie Universelle, p. viii. note. Humboldt, Ibid. Vol. II. p. 152. 180 Voyages of the Zeni. [July, as to their respective claims to consideration; but neverthe- less we are bound to say, that the subject, in our opinion, presents to the student of geographical history a fair ground for diligent inquiry, and impartial attention. We have already alluded to the Venetian voyages, on the strength of which the Republic contests the originality of the discoveries of Columbus, the son of a rival state. The claim, as stated by Count Daru, is, that two brothers of the family of Zeno, discovered Iceland, Greenland, Canada, Vir- ginia, and Mexico, towards the close of the fourteenth cen- tury. This, it will be hereafter seen, is too broad a state- ment of the matter; but it is sufficiently correct for the mo- ment. Whatever may be thought ultimately of the effort thus made to dim the glory of the great man who was, at least, the first to make the discovery of the new world prac- tically useful to the old, and however slight may seem the foundation for so sweeping an assumption, which has been advocated with great zeal and no small degree of learned re- search, within a few years, by one of the highest dignitaries of the Romish church, * the subject is certainly one of more than ordinary interest, and forms a curious chapter in the geographical annals of our continent. The political and commercial prei~minence of the Vene- tian Republic during the Middle Ages, until the discovery of a new route by sea to the Indies, is well known. Constan- tinople and the principal cities of Greece, were tributary to her power, and on the soil of Italy her superiority was dis- puted, but never shaken, by the fierce jealousies of rival states. The distant regions of the East poured their treas- ures into her lap, and her argosies with portly sail not only covered the Mediterranean, but extended their adven- turous voyages beyond the Pillars of Hercules, to the Atlantic coasts of Spain and Portugal, France, England, and the ports of Flanders, then the principal marts of the north of Europe. A dying glory smiles Oer the far times when many a subject land Looked to the winged Lions marble piles, Where VENICE sat in state, throned on her hundred isles. When we contrast the fallen and abject condition into which that far-famed republic has declined in modern times, with * Cardinal Zurla. 1838.1 Travels of the Poli. 181 the brilliant and commanding station she once filled, her commerce annihilated, her liberties the sport of arbitrary power, the palaces of her merchant princes and illustrious nobles tenantless, and the descendants of her proudest fami- lies perishing with want at home, or lingering out a wretched existence in exile abroad, the lesson of earthly vicissitude cannot fail to awaken the most profound emotion, and create the liveliest sympathy for her hapless fate. The merchants of Venice were the first to explore the realms of Eastern Asia, and reveal the existence of the rich possessions of the Tartar monarchs to admiring, but incredu- lous Europe. The visions of wealth, luxury, and magnifi- cence, that garnished the tales of the early travellers, were among the most active stimulants to that new spirit of enter- prise, which finally resulted in the discovery of the new world. Columbus himself caught from this source the in- spiration that led him on in the career of adventure, and crowned his hopes with a consummation of which he had not dreamed. But, strange as it may seem, he was never unde- ceived ; to the last moment of his life, he continued in the belief, that his discoveries had only opened a shorter route to those regions of Eastern Asia, Mangi and Cathay, which the Venetian travellers had visited by land, and whose ex- haustless riches they had so eloquently described. Among these merchant travellers, and the most celebrated of all, were the brothers Nicol6 and Maffeo Polo, or Paolo, and Marco, a son of Nicol6. The two former made their first journey into Tartary about the year 1255, and, after several years absence, returned to Italy as ambassadors from the Great Khan to the Pope. After remaining at home for a brief period, they again set out on a second journey to Asia, accompanied by Marco, whose description of their travels is now the oldest book of its class, and, although long regarded as only a bundle of fables, has been abundantly veri- fied in all important particulars by succeeding travellers. After an absence of more than twenty years, the Polos returned to Venice, in 1295 ; but, as no intelligence respecting them had reached their native city before their return, they had the mortification to find themselves entirely forgotten by all their old acquaintance and countrymen. They repaired to their own house, a noble palace in the street of St. Chrysostom, 182 Voyages of the Zeni. [July, and found it inhabited by several of their relatives, who were either unwilling, or unable, to recognise them. The dress of the travellers was coarse, and much worn, and in the Tartar fashion. They had, besides, partly forgotten their native tongue, intermingling with their conversation foreign words, and, in their general air and demeanor, had become assimi- lated to the people among whom they had sojourned for so long a period. It was not strange, therefore, that they should not have been recognised at once. The means these adventurous travellers took to revive the recollections of their kinsmen, and excite the respect of their countrymen, may be familiar to our readers, but the story is too good to lose by repetition. They invited all their rela- tions and old associates to a magnificent entertainment; when the guests arrived, what was their astonishment on finding the poor, despised travellers arrayed in rich garments of crimson satin, made in the Oriental fashion, which, before leading the way to a table loaded with luxuries, they exchanged for still richer robes of crimson damask. The surprise of the com- pany was without bounds, when, after dismissing the attend- ants, Marco produced the coarse Tartar dresses in which they had arrived; these he now cut open, and from their folds and linings took out so prodigious a quantity of rubies, sapphires, emeralds, carbuncles, and diamonds, that the guests, delighted with the beauty and splendor of these costly and magnificent gems, no longer hesitated to acknowl- edge their countrymen. When the fame of this wonderful banquet had spread throughout Venice, as it soon did, the travellers became at once the lions of the day. Crowds of persons, of all ranks, flocked to their palace, to see and congratulate them on their return, and listen to the story of their unsurpassed adventures. I\Iaffeo, the oldest of the party, was admitted to the honors of the magistracy, as a token of respect, and public marks of distinction were conferred upon them all. The noble youth of the city came almost daily to visit and converse with Marco, who was alxvays communicative, and ready to gratify their curiosity by his descriptions of what he had seen, in the distant regions they had visited. As he usually spoke in round numbers of the immense wealth of the Khan, or Emperor, of Tartary, they gave him the name of Marco .Millioni. In the time of Ramusio (about the 1838.] Lineage of the Zeni. 183 middle of the sixteenth century), the Polo palace was still J)ointed out in the street of St. Chrysostom.* Washington Irving, alluding to the effect produced on the public mind by the travels of these celebrated Venetians, as described by Marco Polo, says His splendid account of the extent, wealth, and popula- tioa of the Tartar territories filled every one with admiration. The possibility of bringing all those regions under the domin- ion of the church, and rendering the Grand Khan an obedient vassal to the holy chair, was for a long time a favorite topic among the enthusiastic missionaries of Christendom, and there were many saints-errant who undertook to effect the conver- sion of this magnificent infidel. Even at the distance of two centuries, when the enterprises for the discovery of the new route to India had set all the warm heads of Europe madding about these remote regions of the East, the conversion of the Great Khan became again a popular theme ; and it was too speculative and romantic an enterprise not to catch the vivid imagination of Columbus. In all his voyages, he will be found continually to be seeking after the territories of the Grand Khan; and even after his last expedition, when nearly worn out by age, hardships, and infirmities, he offered, in a letter to the Spanish monarchs, written from a bed of sickness, to conduct any missionary to the territories of the Tartar emper- or, who would undertake his conversion. ~ The story of the Zenos, (or Zeni, in the Italian plural,) who flourished a century after the Polos, is far less wonderful in its details, and, had it been published in their own age, xvould be entitled to no less credit. The family was one of high consideration in the Republic of Venice. Marino Zeno was the Venetian governor of Constantinople, in the year 1205 Riniero filled the office of Doge of his native city, from 1252 to 1268 ; and others of the family were elevated, from time to time, to various distinguished posts in the service of the state, both at home and abroad. The most brilliant in genius of all this noble race, and not less illustrious in his career than the rest, was Carlo Zeno, a brother of the nav- igators, whose valor and naval prowess, skilfully directed, saved the Republic in the famous war of Chiozza, which he brought to a close in the year 1380. Aided by powerful allies, and strengthened by the accession of large bodies of Nadgationi c Viaggi, Torn. II. I~refatione. Life and Voyages of columbus, Vol. II. p. 297. Appendix. 1 ~54 Voyages of the Zeni. [July, condottieri, or mercenary troops, the Genoese had taken and occupied Chiozza, a considerable town in the Venetian territory, built on the lagoons, like Venice, and assailable only from the sea. After a long and vigorous siege, con- ducted with great spirit by the Venetian forces, chiefly un- der the direction of Carlo Zeno, the place was reduced, and the enemy compelled to capitulate unconditionally. This event raised Carlo to the highest distinction in the Republic, and added fresh lustre to his name, already hon- orably known in the public service. The brothers of Carlo, who are stated hy the Venetian writers to have anticipated Columbus, and forestalled the Genoese in relation to the glory of original discovery, as the former had deprived them of the credit of naval superiority, xvere named Nicobi and Antonio, hoth younger than Carlo, under whom they are supposed to have served in the wars of the Republic. Their discoveries are referred to the period immediately succeeding the termination of the war of Chiozza, from 1380 to 1400 ; hut no account of them was published until the year 1558, more than a century and a half after they are supposed to have heen made. The work was then printed at Venice, it is helieved, under the direction of NicoR Zeno, called the Younger, who was well known for his scientific attainments, and may he presumed to have drawn up the ac- count from the materials in his possession. It was puhlished hy Marcolini, a noted bookseller at Venice, in an octavo volume, containing, also, the Travels of Caterino Zeno in Persia, an ambassador from the Venetian government to that country in 1473. The former is entitled, iDello Sco- primento dell isola Frislanda, Eslanda, Engrovelanda, Es- totilanda, et Icaria, fatto per due fratelli Zeni, M. Nicol6, il Cavaliere, e M. Antonio. (The Discovery of the Islands of Frisland, Iceland, Greenland, Estotiland, and Icaria, made by two brothers Zeni, the Chevalier Nicholas and Antonio.) Both works were added to the edition of the second volume of Ramusios collection of Voyages and Travels, published at Venice, in 1574. The narrative commences in the following manner; CC Or M. Nicol6 ii Cavaliere, come huorn di alto spirito, doppo Ia sudetta guerra Genovese di Chioggia, che diede tanto da far ai nostri maggiori, entr6 in grandissimo desiderio di veder ii mondo, e peregrinare, e farsi capace di varij costumi, e d~ Jin~ 1838.] ~7Vicol6 Zeno in Frisland. 185 gue de gli huomini, acci6 che con Je occasioni poi potesse meglio far servigio alla sua patria, e a se acquistar fama e ho- fore. La onde fatta e armata una nave delle sue proprie richezze che amplissime aveva, usci fuori de i nostri man, e passato 10 stretto Gibilterra navig~ alcuni di per 1 Oceano, sem- pre tenendosi verso la Tramontana con anirno di veder 1 In- ghilterra e Ia Fiandra, dove, assaltato in quel mare da una gran fortuna, molti di and6 traspontato dalle onde e da venti senza sapere, dove si fosse, quando finalmente scoprendo ter- ra, n~ potendo put neggersi contra quella fierissima burnasca, nuppe nell Isola Fnislanda, salvandosi gli huomini, e gran l)arte delle robbe, che erano sa la nave, e questo fu 1 anno imlie e trecento e ottanta. Qui concorrendo gi Isolani armati in gran numero assaltarono M. Nicol6, e i suoi, che tutti trava- gliati per la fontuna passata, non sapevano in die mondo si fos- sero, e per conseguente non erano atti a far un picciolo insul- to, non che a dilendersi gagliandamente, come ii pericolo lo portava contra tali nirnici; e in ogni modo sanebbono stati mal menati, se la buona ventura non faceva, che casualinente si fosse trovato ivi vicino un Prencipe con gente armata, ii quale inteso, che s era rotta pun all hora una gran nave nell Isola, conse al romore, e alle grida, che si facevano contra i nostni poveni maninani, e cacciati via quelli del paese, panl6 in Latino, e dimand6 che genti erano, e di dove venivano, e saputo che venivano d Italia, e die erano huomini del medesimo paese, fu preso di grandissima allegrezza. Onde, promettendo a cia- scuno che non niceverebbono alcun dispiacere, e che erano ye- nuti in luogo, nel quale sarebbono benissimo trattati, e meglio veduti, ii tolse tutti sopra Ia sua fede. Era costui gran Sig- nore, e possedeva alcune Isole dette Ponlanda, vicine a Fnis- landa da mezzo gionno, le piu nieche e popolate di tutte quelle panti, e si chiamava Zichmni; e oltra le dette picciole Isole signoreggiava fra terra la Duchen di Sorani posta dalla banda verso Scotia. After the termination of the wan of Chiozza, which gave our ancestors so much trouble, the Chevalier Nicol6, possess- ing an enterprising spirit, conceived a strong desire to see the world, and to acquaint himself by travel with the customs and languages of different nations; that, when occasion required, he might have it in his power to be of greater service to his coun- try, and acquire for him3elf honor and fame. He therefore caused a ship to be built, and having equipped her at his own expense, as he possessed an ample fortune, he sailed out of our seas beyond the straits of Gibraltar, and directed his course to the north for many days, with the intention of visiting Eng- land and Flanders. But, encountering a violent storm, he was vOL. XLvTT.NO. t. 24 18(1 Voyages of the Zeni. [July, tossed about upon the ocean by the winds and waves without knowing where he was, until he at length discovered land; and soon after, his ship, no longer able to withstand the fury of the tempest, was wrecked upon the island of Frisland. The crew were saved, together with most of the ships lading. This oc- curred in the year 1380. In the mean time, the inhabitants of the island, collecting in considerable numbers, made an attack upon the Chevalier and his men; who, being exhausted by the hardships they had endured, and not knowing in what part of the world they had been thrown, were unable to oppose the slightest resistance, much less to defend themselves with the spirit the occasion required. They would have been treated, without doubt, in the most barbarous manner, had it not fortu- nately happened, that a powerful chieftain, with an armed force, was in their neighbourhood, who, learning that a large ship had been cast away upon the island, and hearing the noise and shouts of the inhabitants as they rushed upon our poor mariners, hastened forward, and putting the islanders to flight, inquired of the Venetians in Latin, of what nation they were, and whence they had come. When informed that they were from Italy, and natives of that country, he was filled with joy and surprise. Whereupon, promising them all that they should be well treated, and that no wrong should be done to them, he welcomed them to the country, and pledged his faith for their protection. He was a great lord, and possessed certain islands called Porlanda, lying on the south of Frisland, the richest and most populous of all in that quarter. His name was Zichmni, and besides the small islands already mentioned, he ruled over the Duchy of Sorani, situated towards Scotland. We have given this extract from the original, with the lit- eral translation that accompanies it, for the purpose of afford- ing those of our readers who are not curious enough to hunt up the work itself, an opportunity of forming some opinion of the general character and style of the relation. It may he well to state here, that, at the period referred to in the fore- going account of the shipwreck of the Venetians, there flour- ished in that quarter, in the character of Earl of the Orkneys, a Scotish chieftain of the name of Sinclair, who is supposed by Reinhold Forster, and other writers, to have heen the powerful prince who came to the relief of the distressed ma- riners. The latter is subsequently described as a man of warlike genius, engaged in many enterprises, and generally successful, especially upon the sea. The preceding year he had encountered and vanquished the king of Norway, to whose 1838.] antonio Zcno in Frisland. 187 jurisdiction Frisland belonged, and he had now just landed on that island, for the purpose of adding it to his other conquests. Perceiving the Chevalier to possess judgment and understand- ing in relation to naval matters, Zichmni commissioned him to go with his men on board of his ships, and take the com- mand. The navy of this northern chief, or sea-king, consisted of thirteen vessels, two of which only were propelled with oars; of the others, one xvas a ship of considerable size, and the rest small barks. Sailing in a xvesterly direction, they took possession of several small islands, and, entering a bay called Sudero, they captured a number of fishing vessels, laden with salted fish, lying in the harbour of Sanestol. They soon after rejoined Zichmni, who, with his army, bad advanced victo- riously to a distant part of Frisland (an island somewhat larger than Ireland), until the inhabitants, coming in from all quarters, yielded the country into his hands. On learning hoxv much benefit had been derived to his fleet from the val- or and nautical skill and experience of the Venetians, who understood thoroughly the art of navigation, and had piloted the ships with entire safety among the islands, the chief sent for Nicol& , and after acknowledging his obligations for the important services he had rendered, conferred upon him the honor of knighthood, and distributed rich presents among his men. They soon after embarked for the principal town on the island, also named Frisland, situated upon one of the numerous gulfs that intersect the country. Immense quanti- ties of fish, it is stated, are taken in these waters, and carried, for a market, to Flanders, Britain, Norway, and Denmark, with which a profitable trade is carried on. Thus far, the writer of the account remarks, the facts it contains were derived from a letter xvritten by the Chevalier Nicol6, to his brother Antonio, in which he requests him to find means to join him in Frisland. Whereupon the latter, having also a taste for adventure, purchased a vessel, and, em- barking from Venice, succeeded in reaching Frisland, where he remained fourteen years. During this period, various en- terprises were undertaken by Zichmni, in xvhich one or both of the brothers were engaged. The first was against Estland, an island lying between Frisland and Norway, and subject to the latter. An attempt upon Iceland proved unsuccess- ftil; but several other small islands situated in the same seas, 188 Voyages of the Zeni. [July, which are enumerated by name, were subdued. Tbey were called, Talas, Broas, Iscant, Trans, Mimant, Damberc, and Bres. The Chevalier erected a fort on the island of Bres, and remained there until the following season, when he fitted out an expedition for the purpose of exploring the seas to the north. In the course of this voyage, he discovered En- groveland (Greenland), where he found a monastery of fri- ars, and a church dedicated to St. Thomas, situated near the base of a volcanic mountain. Here were numerous hot springs, which afforded the monks the means of rendering their condition comfortable, although surrounded by the ex- treme rigors of eternal frost and snow. The water from these springs was conducted into the apartments of the mo- nastery, and employed not only for cooking their food, but to diffuse warmth; and being introduced into their gardens, enabled them to cultivate a great variety of vegetables, fruits, and flowers. Tbeir houses were built of pumice-stone, or lava, which proved a substantial and durable material. They were of a circular shape, having on the ground-floor a diameter of twenty-five feet, and tapering upwards, with an aperture at the top for the admission of light and air. In the sum- mer, many vessels arrived there from the islands in the north- ern seas, from Norway, Suecia (Sweden), and, more than all, from Iceland. The inhabitants exchanged dried fish and peltry, for corn, woollen stuffs, and wood or timber. Their hoats are described as being in shape like a weavers shuttle, covered with skins, and rendered so impervious to water, that the boatmen may shut themselves within them, without fear from the violence of the waves. Such are some of the particulars related of Greenland, by the Chevalier Nicok, to whom the severity of the climate proved ultimately fatal. He contracted an illness in that country, from exposure to the cold, which terminated his life soon after his return to Fris- land. He left behind him in Venice, says the account, two sons, Giovanni, and Tomma, who also had two sons, namely, Nicol5, father of the famous Cardinal Zeno, and Pietro, from whom descended the other Zenos, that are liv- ing at this day. At the time of his brothers death, Antonio had been four years in the service of the powerful Zichmni, who refused to allow him liberty of returning to Venice, after that event, notwithstanding the most urgent entreaty on his part. His 1838.] Letter from ./lntonio to Carlo Zeno. 189 services xvere of too great importance to his patron, who had appointed him to the command of his ships, in place of the Chevalier. The remainder of the narrative purports to be derived from letters addressed by Antonio to his brother Carlo, in the course of which he gives the following account of the adventures of a fisherman in the west. According to the tale of this mariner, he had been one of a party who sailed from Frisland about twenty-six years be- fore, in four fishing boats. Being overtaken by a violent tem- pest, they were driven about the sea for many days, until the boat, containing himself and six companions, was cast upon an island called Estotiland, about one thousand miles from Fris- land. They were taken by the inhabitants, and carried to a fair and populous city, where the king sent for many interpre- ters to converse with them, but none that they could under- stand, until a man was found who had been likewise cast away upon the coast, and who spoke Latin. They remained several days upon the island, which was rich and fruitful, abounding with all kinds of metals, and especially gold. There was a high mountain in the centre, from which flowed four rivers, that watered the whole country. The inhabitants were intelli- gent, and acquainted with the mechanical arts of Europe. They cultivated grain, made beer, and lived in houses built of stone. There were Latin books in the kings library, though the inhabitants had no knowledge of that language. They had many cities and castles, and carried on a trade with Greenland for pitch, sulphur, and peltry. rrhough much given to naviga- tion, they were ignorant of the use of the compass, and, finding the Frislanders acquainted with it, held them in great es- teem; and the king sent them with twelve barks to visit a country to the south, called Drogeo. They had nearly per- ished in a storm, but were cast away upon the coast of that country. They found the people to be cannibals, and were on the point of being killed and devoured, but were spared on ac- count of their great skill in fishing. The fisherman described this Drogeo as being a country of vast extent, or rather a new world ; that the inhabitants were naked and barbarous ; but that, far to the southwest, there was a more civilized region, and temperate climate, where the inhabitants had a knowledge of gold and silver, lived in cities, erected splendid temples to idols, and sacrificed human vic- tims to them, which they afterwards devoured. After the fisherman had resided many years on this conti- nent, during which time he had passed from the service of one chieftain to another, and traversed various parts of it, certain Voyages of the Zeni. 190 [July, boats from Estotiland arrived on the coast. The fisherman went on board of them, acted as interpreter, and followed the trade between the main land and Estotiland for some time, until he became very rich ; he then fitted out a bark of his own, and, with the assistance of some of the people of the isl- and, made his way back, across the thousand intervening miles of ocean, and arrived safe in Frisland.~ This relation of the fisherman, who had returned greatly enriched by his adventures, determined Zichmni to send an expedition to the countries he had discovered in the west, which Antonio Zeno was to command. But, just before sailing, the fisherman, who was expected to accompany them as pilot, died ; but certain mariners, the companions of his return voyage from Estotiland, were taken in his place. The enterprise, however, proved unsuccessful; the only land they discovered, was an island, called Icaria, which is supposed to have been Newfoundland, from which they were repulsed by the natives, and, being afterwards driven upon the coast of Greenland, they effected their return in safety to frisland. It does not appear that any further attempt was made to find lEstotiland or ]I)rogeo. At another time, Antonio wrote again to his brother, but only a fragment of the letter was in existencewhen the work was published. Indeed, the whole account purports to have been put together from such imperfect portions of the cor- respondence as remained at that period. The editor, who is believed to have been a descendant of one of the naviga- tors, remarks, that the manuscripts originally came into his hands when he was a child, and, not knowing what they were, he tore them in pieces as if they had been of little value, a fate xvith which old papers too often meet. He afterwards collected such fragments as remained, being ap- prized of their contents, and disposed them in the best pos- sible order. The motives that led him to undertake the work, were of the most laudable character, as stated at the close, that the memory of so many good things might not be lost, and to satisfy the age, which had done so much in the way of discovery, and, being ever alive to the importance of new * The above abstract of the fishermans story we take from Irvings Co- lumbus, Vol. II. p. 273. Appendix. 1838.] Published .flccount of the Voyages. 191 relations, appreciated the discoveries made by the bold and sedulous exertions of our ancestors. * The appearance of this work so long after the date of the discoveries it describes, seems not to have detracted essen- tially from its credibility at the period when it was published. It was generally received as a valuable contribution to the geography of the New World, to which the attention of all Europe was then strongly directed; for, though Columbus and his companions had made fully known what the story of the fisherman had dimly shadoxved forth, the existence of rich countries in the southwest, it was otherwise with the north. After the utter extinction in Europe of all knowl- edge of the Scandinavian colonies, that had been planted at an extremely early period in Greenland, deep obscurity rest- ed upon these regions, which the publication of the discov- eries of the Zeni, as will hereafter appear, tended to dissipate. But the publication excited still greater interest on account of the priority of discovery, or at least of knowledge, in rela- tion to the New World, which it at once gave to the Vene- tians. The celebrated Flemish geographer, Ortelius, was the first to viexv it in this light. In the edition of his great work, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, published in 1570, a few years only after the appearance of the account of the Zeni, he says, that all the writers of his time ascribed the first discovery of the new world to Christopher Columbus, and that not unworthily; for by him it was in a manner first discovered, made known, and profitably communicated unto the Christian world. Howbeit, I find, that the north part thereof * * * was long ago found out by certain fishermen of the isle of Frisland, driven by tempest on the shore thereof; and was afterwards, about the year 1390, discover- ed anew by one Antonio Zeno, a gentleman of Venice. This, as remarked by Humboldt, was written almost in the lifetime of Bartholomew de las Casas, the celebrated contem- porary of Columbus and Cortez. He adds, Ce jugemeni est beaucoup trop s~v3re.t * The author of Memoir of Sebastian Cabot objects to the avowed motive of the editor, as if it were wrong to gratify the prevailing appetite of the public for such works. A strange idea for so acute a writer. Examen Critique, Vol. Il. p. 120. XVhat, then, shall he said of the follow- ing remarks, contained in the great geographical work of MentcUe. Malte 192 Voyages of the Zeni. [July, Hakluyt, whose famous collection of voyages was intended to contain every thing of an authentic character in relation to the New World, presented the entire account of the discov- eries of the Zeni, in his third volume, published in 1600, with the following note For the more credit and confirmation of the former His- tory of Messer Nicolas and Messer Antonio Zeni, (which for some few respects may perhaps be called in question,) I have here annexed the judgment of that famous cosmographer, Abraham Ortelius, or rather the yielding and submitting of his judgment thereunto ; who, in his Theatrurn Orbis, fol. 6. next before the map of .Mar del Zur, borro~veth proof and authority out of this relation, to show, that the northeast part of America called Estotiland, and in the original always affirmed to be an island, was, about the year 1390, discovered by the aforesaid Venetian gentleman, Messer dntonio Zeno, about 100 years before ever Christopher Columbus set sail for these western regions ; and that the northern seas were even then sailed by our European pilots, through the help of the loadstone ; with divers other particulars concerning the customs, religion, and wealth of the southern Americans, which are most evidently confirmed by all the late and modern Spanish histories of Nueva Espafia and Peru. Another well known collector and compiler of similar works, Samuel Purchas, published an account of these dis- coveries in his Pilgrims, with the following remarks This History I have thus inserted at large, which perhaps, not without cause in some things, may seem fabulous; not in the Zeni, which they writ, but in the relations which they re- ceived from others. Howsoever, the best geographers are beholded to these brethren for that little knowledge they have of those parts, of which none before had written, nor since have there been any great inland discoveries. * Notwithstanding, however, the inferences drawn by these eminent geographers, unfavorable to the originality of Colum- bus, from the voyages of the Venetian brothers, the work itself is unpretending in its character, and, although it was edited by one who had at heart the honor of his ancestors, as Brun, and others, Torn. XIV. p. 8, note En un mot, Colomb nest point do tout un genie transceiidant, une esp~ce de prophete, qui ait devind le nouveau monde; cest tout bonnement un navigateur instruit et coo- rageux, cest le Cook de son si~cle. Son niidrite idel est trop grand pour quil ait besoin dune gloire irnaginaireColumbus but the C~ook of his age! * Vol. III. p. 914. 1838.1 Chart of JVicol6 Zeno. 193 he avoxvs, in a passage already quoted, yet makes no claim for them to superiority of title as original discoverers. Says Humboldt, If, as Torfa~us pretends, in the preface to his work on Via- land, the book of the Zeni was a fiction, designed to obscure the glory of Columbus, the editor would have endeavoured, without doubt, to connect the Venetian discoveries in some way with those of the Genoese navigator, at least with the northern dis- coveries of Cabot or Gomez. He would have insisted on the priority of the expedition of the Zeni to the shores of the New World ; he would have said, that the later voyages to Florida and Mexico had proved how accurate was the statement of the fisherman of Frisland, in describing the new world of Drogeo, in relation to the wealth and civilization of the people (in America) situated towards the south and southwest. The naked details, the absence of recrimination or offensive re- marks, remove all suspicion of imposture ; but the extreme confusion, that prevails in the numerical data of distances and sailing days, shows the want of order in the arrangement of the matter, and the sad condition of the manuscripts, which the heirs of the navigators acknowledge had been torn in frag- ments, without their value being known to them. * Such was the undoubted credit which these discoveries enjoyed for a considerable period, that the chart accompany- ing them, purporting to have been originally drawn by the Chevalier Nicol6 Zeno, and transmitted with his letters to Venice, was extensively copied, in reference to the north, by the map-makers in Europe. Estotiland was assigned to that part of North America remaining unexplored on the north, and Frisland was an island of goodly dimensions in the sixtieth degree of north latitude, not far distant from Engrove- land. Sir Martin Frobisher, who sailed on his first voyage of discovery to the north, in 1576, and on the second the fol- lowing year, mentions in his journal, on both occasions, that he beheld the coast of Frisland, which the ice prevented his approaching. It was soon found, however, that this naviga- tor had mistaken Greenland for Frisland, and the coast of Labrador for Greenland, and that no island existed in those latitudes corresponding to the description of Frisland, unless it xvas Iceland itself. In other respects, the chart of Nicol6 Zeno wanted confirmation, and suspicions began to arise that Examen Critique, Vol. Ill. pp. 122, 123. VOL. XLVII.NO. C. .~25 194 Voyages of the Zeni. [July, all xvas not right. And when Hugo Grotius, in his treatise on the origin of the American people, traced their emigra- tion from the continent of Europe to Iceland and Frisland, and remarked, that the latter was in the vicinity of Greenland, or formed a part of it, his opponent, iDe Laet, the Dutch geographer, in his caustic annotations upon the unsatisfactory essay of his celebrated countryman and contemporary, de- clares, that the statements of the Zeni were justly regarded as of doubtful credit, for that nothing resembling their de- scriptions had heen found in those regions. (Qua~ autem Zenones illi Veneti prodiderunt suspecta~ fldei merito ha- bentur, neque hodie tale quid in illis regionibus deprehendi- tur, quale ipsi tradiderunt.)* In the course of time, the whole matter was denounced as a rank imposture, and all traces of the pretended discoveries, as laid down on the chart of Zeno, disappeared from the maps. Such seems to have become the settled conviction of the public mind on this subject, until the publication of Reinhold Forsters well-known work, the History of Discovery in the North, which appeared in 1784 ; a work of high repu- tation, containing an able vindication of the truth and authen- ticity of the voyages of the Zeni. This writer had enjoyed opportunities for acquiring practical experience as a navigator, having accompanied Captain Cook on his second voyage of discovery (17721775), which, united to uncommon attain- ments of a solid character, and a predilection for geographical studies, eminently fitted him for the investigation of such a question as the history of those voyages presented, and gave great weight to his opinion. He was soon after followed on the same side (to use a somewhat technical phrase) by H. P. Eggers, a Danish counsellor of state, in a memoir on ancient Greenland, read before a learned society at Copen- hagen, and afterwards published, in 1792. In this essay (which we have not seen) we are given to understand, that the author did not attempt a formal defence of the discoveries of the Zeni, but confined himself to the removal of some of the objections that had been made against the credibility of the story, and explained many things previously regarded as in- superable obstacles to its reception. He also obtained from J. de Laet Antwerpiani, A[otw ad Dissertatione?n Hugonis Grotii. & c. (Amsterdam. 1643.) p. 20. 1838.1 Different Views of their authenticity. 195 Venice a copy of the chart that had accompanied the original publication of the Discoveries, which he caused to be en- graved for his work.* But the most complete vindication of the Zeni, appears to have been made by Cardinal Zurla, (Vicar-General of the late Pope Leo the Twelfth,) himself a native of Venice, and distin- guished for his learning and scientific attainments. He pub- lished, in 1808, Dissertazione intorno ni Viaggi e Scoperte Settentrionali di Nicok e Antonio Frat. Zeni ; and again, in 1818, he pursued the subject in a general work upon the most illustrious Venetian travellers. Other eminent writers, within the present century, have espoused the same views of this interesting question, among whom may be men- tioned \Valckenaer, (author of G~ographie Moderne, 6 tomes,) Malte-Brun, the late Baron von Zach, and M. de la Roquette, one of the contributors to the Biographie Universelle, and author of the article in that work relating to the brothers Zeni. In England, Barrow, Hugh Murray, and others, maintain the same ground. The opposite view has, however, found of late a strenuous advocate among ourselves. The Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, a work of learning and talent, published a few years since, speaks of that memorable fraud, the pretended voyage of Nicholas and Antonio Zeno; in another passage, it applies the expression rank impos- ture to the account, and, again, speaks of a complex piece of roguery running through the several editions of Ramusio, with reference to the same unoffending narra * On the subject of this Chart, an error of some magnitude exists in the Appendix to Irvings Columbus, Vol. II. p. 275. The passage is as fol- lows ; M. Malte-Brun intimates, that the alleged discovery of Yin- land may have been known to Columbus when be made a voyage in the North Sea, in 1477, and that the map of Zeno, being in the national library at London, in a Danish work, at the time when Bartholomew Co- lumbus was in that city, employed in making maps, he may have known something of it, and have communicated it to his brother. The Danish work referred to by Malte-Brun, as containing a copy of the chart of the Zeni, is that of Eggers, which, as it was first published in 1792, could not well have been seen hy Bartholomew Columbus in the national library at London. Malte-Brun simply states, that a copy of Eggerss work, with the chLrt, was in the national (now the Royal) library at Paris, in his time. If there had been such an institution at London as the National Library, it would be difficult to understand, how a copy of Zenos chart could have been there in the time of Columbus, when the original was yet buried in the family archives at Venice, among the forgotten and neglected papers of the naviga- tors. G~ograpIrie Universelle,Tom. XIV. p. viii. note. ibid. Tom. II. p. 284 196 Voyages of the Zeni. [July, tive. These are serious charges, especially when they are made to hear, with concentrated force, on the head of the hapless bookseller, Marcolini, to whom the Memoir attn- hutes the authorship, or rather the forgery, of the work in question. But it must he home in mind, that the Memoir is a zealous vindication of the claims of Sebastian Cabot to the merit of having first discovered the American continent, and that, if the genuine character of the discoveries of the Zeni he admitted, there is an end to those claims. And if the Zeni are disposed of in this work with a very summary con- demnation, observing readers will not fail to he put upon their guard, when they rememher the freedom with which the same writer occasionally treats the lahors of llakluyt, Purchas, and others of the diligent and painful collectors of the worlds discovery and history. But let us examine for a moment the argument of the Memoir, and see what ground there is for the strictures to which we have referred. The gist of the matter is contained in the following passage from that work. The Dedication of this work [the Discoveries of the Zeni], as originally published by Marcolini, bears date IDe- cember, 15438. Ramusio died in July, 1557; and of course it is impossible that it could have been published by him, or that he could have marked it for insertion. It does not appear in the Ramusio of 1559, but was interpolated into the second vol- ume in 1574, seventeen years after his death. This circum- stance is decisive against its authenticity. Ramusio, a native of Venice, was not only a diligent and anxious collector of voya- gers, but, it appears by his work, was faniiliar with the family of the Zeni of that city, and he speaks with pride of the adven- turous Travels ofCaterino Zeno in Persia. Had the materials for such a narrative existed, he would have eagerly seized the op- portunity of embodying them, and it is plain, that the imposture dared not make its appearance in his lifetime. Yet, from the subsequent interpolation, this tract, by almost unanimous con- sent, has been considered to bear the high sanction of Ramu- sio 5 name. pp. 322, 323. So far as respects the impropriety of claiming the authority of Ramusio for the publication, there can be no doubt. He died, as stated, before the work appeared. But the Memoir~~ neglects to add, that the second volume of Ramusios collec- tion was not published until after his death, the first and third only having appeared in his lifetime. But the second volume 1838.] Ramusios Collection of Voyages. 197 was not without a responsible editor and publisher ; Tomaso Giunti, an intimate friend of Ramusio, performed the duties of both. His Preface to the volume bears date March 9th, 1559; and as the Preface to the Discoveries is dated the preceding December, only two or three months before, it is probable, that both works appeared at about the same time. The same editor, in a subsequent edition of the second volume of Ramusio, inserted the Discoveries, so that they came honestly enough into that work, although not placed there by Ramusio himself. It has been already stated, that the Travels of Caterino Zeno, the ambassador in Persia, were published in the same volume with the Discoveries; why was this work excluded from the first edition of Ramusios collection, if the latter had so great a desire to extend the fame of the Zeno family, as assumed in the Memoir? The apology Ramusio makes for the omission, is a singular one ; the work had been be- fore printed, and the worthy compiler says, he was once so fortunate as to obtain a copy of it, but that, by some chance, it had got mislaid. It is strange, that so diligent and anxious a collector, especially when animated by a par- ticular regard for the family whose fame would be promoted by the publication, could not have procured another copy of the book, or at least obtained the materials for some notice of the adventures of the noble knight, when the editor of the Discoveries was enabled, so soon after the death of Ramu- sio, to publish an account of them. But Ramusios alleged familiarity with, and great regard for, the family of the Zeni, is a gratuitous assumption on the part of the Memoir there is no evidence to sustain it. Giuntis edition of Ramusio, in 1574, contains not only the Discoveries of Nicol6 and Antonio, but the Travels of Caterino, so that a double interpolation was effected, which bears as strongly against the authenticity of the latter, as of the former, except that Ramusio mentions the Trav- els, and assigns a frivolous excuse for not publishing them. But these were not the only interpolations made in that edition of the second volume ; no less than three other works were inserted in it, which were not contained in the previous editions ; a most flagrant breach of honest editorship on the part of Tomaso Giunti, truly, and, accord- ing to the Memoir, enough to destroy all claims to authen 198 Voyages oJ the Zeni. [July, ticity those works might otherwise possess. However, the editor, between whom and Ramusio, as the former feel- ingly states in the Preface to the volume in question, there existed a strong and uninterrupted attachment of many years~ standing, (grartde amore continuamente per lungo spatio d anni,) might console himself under the charge of adulterating the work of his friend, by pointing to the title-page of the volume, where, as usual in such cases, the reader is fore- warned, that it is anew edition enlarged (ctccresciuto), of a work originally compiled (raccolto gii), by Giovanni Battista Ramusio; and, if this were not enough, he might re- fer the captious critic to the table of contents, in which the additions to the volume are distinctly set forth, so that, if he chose, on making the discovery, he might shut the book at once, and demand an uncorrupted copy, a Ramusio, a whole Ramusio, and nothing but Ramusio, under the pains and penalties against interpolation and imposture! But we pass from this. The Cabots, who were also a Venetian family,~ possess sufficient claims to the grateful re- membrance of posterity, without subtracting from the well- earned laurels of any of their countrymen; and, whatever may be thought of the pretensions of the noble brothers, it is evident enough, that they cannot be seriously affected by either the arguments, or the unceremonious language, of the Memoir in question. The most formidable assailant of the Venetian title to the discovery of the nexv world, is yet to be named. The Essay of Captain Zahrtmann, of the Danish Navy, originally pub- lished in the Transactions of the Royal Antiquarian Society at Copenhagen (in 1833), and subsequently communicated to the London Geographical Society, is by far the ablest at- tempt ever made, to shake the authority of the voyages of the Zeni. We must say, that our first impressions, after pe- rusing that masterly production, were so strong against even the possible truth of the account, that we well nigh resolved to abandon the matter as beyond all hope of surgery, with- out bestowing another thought upon it. The writer brings such a mass of prirnd facie proof to bear upon the subject, and discovers so many loose points and apparent inconsisten- cies in the story, that the argument comes upon one with the Sebastian, it appears, had his birth in England. 1838.] Strictures of Captain Zahrtmann. 199 force of demonstration. At the same time, the perfect free- dom of the paper from vituperative remark, and the admira- ble coolness, as well as skill, with which the operator dis- sects his victim, are far from diminishing the effect produced upon the mind. A more careful examination, however, of this elaborate effort from the pen of so profound a scholar has suggested several ideas that detract, to some extent, from the conclusive character of the argument, and leave a ray of hope to the sanguine admirers of Venetian prowess. The first position of Captain Zahrtmann is as follows That there never existed an island of Frisland, but that what has been represented by that name in the Chart of the Zeni, is the Ferro~ Islands. ( 1. Der bar aldrig existeret noget Frisland, men det, der under dette Naven er afbildet paa Zeniernes Kaart er Foeraerne.) The identity of Frisland with the Ferro~S islands seems to be generally admitted by the later writers, including those who defend the genuineness of the account. The name is supposed to be a southern corruption of Ferrisland, or Fer- ris islands, by which they were known to the Panes and English of the Middle Ages. This is a suggestion of Eggers, adopted by Malte-Brun. It was the opinion of Reinhold Forster, in which he was followed by Dr. Belkuap, the American historian,~ that the Frisland of the Zeni had dis- appeared from the surface of the ocean in one of those sub- marine, volcanic convulsions, that sometimes occur in the northern seas, especially upon the coast of Iceland. Other writers have maintained the same opinion. A leading Eng- lish Review, in describing an ancient artificial globe, the first ever made in England, has the following observations on this subject; On this sketch, we see with pleasure the IDrogeo and the Frisland of the two noble Venetians, the Zeni ; we observe the latter where it always was, and still is, at the southern extremity of Greenland, a little above the sixtieth par- allel of latitude, still holding its head above water, in spite of the volcanos and the earthquakes created by the Puke of Almadover and Delisle, the Abb~ Zurla and Signor Amo- retti, to overwhelm it in the ocean. ~ As these different hypotheses distinctly admit, that such a locality as Frisland * .american Biography, Vol. I. p. 67. I London Quarterly Review, Vol. XVI. p. 165. 200 Voyages of the Zeni. [July, once existed, we shall not stop to examine them at the pres- ent time. But there is on record one unquestionable recognition of the name of Frisland, that has not a little puzzled the disbe- lievers of the Zenonian discoveries, and is well worthy of the most weighty consideration under this head. We refer to the following passage from the Life of Columbus, writ- ten by his son, Fernando. In a memorial or annotation which he [Columbus] made, demonstrating and proving, by the experience of navigators, that all the five zones are habitable, he says; I navigated, in 1477, in the month of February, 100 leagues beyond the island of Thule, the southern part of which is distant from the equator 73 degrees, and not 63, as some will have it; neither does it lie within the line that includes the west of Ptolemy, but is much more westerly. And to this island, which is as large as England, the English go with their merchandise, especially those from Bristol. And at the time I ~vent there, the sea was not frozen, though the tides were so great, that in some places they rose 26 braccia, and fell as many. The truth is, that the Thule, which Ptolemy makes mention of, lies where he says, and this by the moderns is called FRISLAND. * It is a little singular, that Irving, in citing the above pas- sage,f should omit the last sentence, of which he takes no notice in his subsequent remarks upon the voyages of the Zeni. Captain Zahrtmann contends, that it refers to Iceland, which he supposes to have been known to the southern navi- gators under the name of Frisland. It is conceded, there- fore, that the name of Frisland was in use in the south of Europe, applied to an island in the northern seas, and was so employed by Columbus hiroself. This is an important point gained in favor of the account of the Venetian brothers. The question, as to its particular application, is one of subor- dinate importance, and need not detain us at the present time. The second position of Captain Zahrtmann is the follow- ing ; That the Chart of the Zeni has been compiled * London .qtlteneum, No. 514, (1837.) The above is declared to be a literal translation from the original edition of Fernandos biography of his father. L(fe of Columbus, Vol. I. p. 29. Irving translates braccia, fathoms; but the former measure only about twenty-three inches. 1838.] Strictures of Captain Zahrtrnann. 201 from hearsay information, and not by any seaman who had himself navigated in those seas for several years. (2. Dette kaart er sammendraget efter Sagn, men ei af nogen Soemand, der selv i Here Aar havde befaret dette farvand.) The criticisms of our author on the Chart of the Zeni are acute, and apparently in some respects well-founded. The date of 1380, which it bears, was unquestionably placed there by the editor, and is admitted by Cardinal Zurla to be a probable error. The voyage is to be dated, without doubt, eight or ten years later, as the Chevalier Nicohl was still at Venice in 1388, as appears from the annals of the Republic, when he was appointed to an office of considerable impor- tance. He is supposed by Captain Zahrtmann to have been at that period sixty years of age; but this is only conjecture, founded on the fact that he was the oldest son, and that his father was married in 1326 ; whence our author infers that Nicol5 was born in 1328. This may be a common course of things, but it is by no means invariable. The principal evidence that the Chart was a compilation of the sixteenth century, is derived from its agreement with the maps of that period in the peculiar location of the Or- cades, or Orkucys, on the coast of Norway, far distant from Scotland, and in the correctness with which Norway and Denmark are laid down, the proper position of which was never understood in the south of Europe ti