DURING my residence here, I have found the literature of America very imperfectly known, even to the best-informed men in this country.As there seemed, however, to prevail a good deal of curiosity on the subject, the following list of standard works, which includes particularly those of a periodical nature, and the transactions of learned societies, may not be unacceptable to a number of your readers: Monthly Anthology; published at Bos- Medical Repository. 17 vols. 8vo. New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery. Boston. 5 vols. 8vo. 1812-16. Portfolio of Philadelphia; began in Theological Repository, 4 vols. 8vo. Christian Magazine, perhaps 10 vols. by Swords of New York. American Law Journal, by Hall, 6 or 8 vols. published in Balti more. Rush on the Mind, 1 vol. dvo. Memoirs, 1 vol. Galiup on the Epidemics of Vermont, 1815. Wistar's Anatomy, 2 vols. 8vo. 8vo. 11. F. Varieties, Historical and Literary. Singular Forgery. IN 1740, a person of the name of Fournier attempted a most singular forgery upon the Bishop of Winchester. He appealed to the Bishop from a sentence of the Dean of Jersey, under whom he was curate.The Bishop confirmed the sentence, but in the course of the transaction, was drawn into a correspondence with Fournier, which gave rise to the fraud. Fournier cut off that part of the back of the letter which was marked, Free B. Winchester;] he then erased the word Free and the mark at the end, and wrote on the blank paper above, an obligation to pay to himself the sum of £.8,800.The grounds on which he pretended to have obtained so large a promise were various. Sometimes the Bishop had given it as a compensation for the damage sustained in the proceedings relative to the Dean of Jersey; sometimes it was by way of security on a promise of preferment; and at last he asserted that the Bishop had given it in a fit of intoxication. It may be observed that Fournier never made any demand for the sum contained in the note, nor is it supposed ever meant to do so till after the prelate's death, when his heirs might have been unable to detect the imposition. He shewed the note, however, to some people about him, through whom the circumstance came to the ears of the Bishop, who immediately commenced a prosecution, when sentence was given agaist Four nier. Black Hole of Calcutta, One This dreadful scene of British suffering is no more. It was demolished, in 1812, along with the old fort, in which it was situated. A monument is, however, erected at the place, to commemorate the barbarity of the Nawab, and it forms the first object to a stranger arriving in Calcutta. A gentleman who visited it immediately before its demolition, says: It presented, on entering, the appearance of an oven, being long, dark, and narrow. window, if I recollect right, was the utmost, and this secured by bars.— The escape of even the small number who survived the horrid fate of the rest, is surprising, and can only be accounted for by the accident of their being near the window, and the night air, which in Bengal is commonly damp, allaying the fever which corsumed the rest. Perhaps, too, the pungent effluvia of the dead bodies which on all sides surrounded them, may have produced on the atmosphere, in some slight degree, the effects of vinegar; thus converting what at the moment must have appeared the most dreadful of evils into a security for those who outlived the night. On the Benefits arising from the Study of Languages. ONE of the principal circumstances upon which the present times have reason to congratulate themselves, is that change of intellectual character, by which mankind have been enabled to shake off the fetters of authority, and to listen only to the voice of reason. It is indeed self-evident, that truth is of all human acquisitions the most invaluable, and that it can be successfully pursued only when the mind is left to the free and unincumbered exercise of its native powers. The greatest good, however, is, when misapplied, productive of the greatest evil; and, however beneficial in itself, I am not quite certain whether to the abuse of this manumission of the faculties of man, we ought not to ascribe many of the defects attendant on the prevalent modes of thinking. To whatever pitch of refinement civilization may be carried, it is apparent, that the knowledge of the greatest portion of the world must be superficial rather than solid; and it is equally apparent, that upon men thus situated, the removal of any restraint by which they were obliged to rely upon the judgment of others, and the substitution of notions by which they are taught to confide wholly in themselves, must, instead of leading to the formation of sound and rational habits of enquiry, rather have the effect of generating presumption, false ideas, and erroneous conclusions. Among the innumerable evils which are thus produced, I am inclined to rank the various objections which have of late been made to the study of languages; a branch of education against which those who pride themselves upon a disregard of established opinions, have sometimes wantonly declaimed. It may be made a fair ground for dispute how far these attacks have heen considered just, even by their February 1817. authors. It may often happen, that a man of an impatient, fickle disposition, may be inclined to persuade himself, and to endeavour to persuade others, that, because he cannot submit to the drudgery of attaining different languages, they are really unworthy of attainment. The first advantage which I shall notice as resulting from an acquaintance with such studies, is the invigorating influence which they have over the understanding. To be convinced of the reality of this fact, it is only necessary to attend to the operations of the mind to be called forth in learning any language. In acquiring a knowledge of Latin, for instance, a person ought (if 1 may be allowed to borrow the words of Beattie) to be able to "shew, that he not only knows the general meaning, the import of the particular words, but also can refer each to its class, enumerate all its terminations, specifying every change of sense, however minute, that may be produced by a change of inflexion or arrangement; explain its several dependencies; distinguish the literal meaning from the figurative; one species of figure from another, and even the philosophical use of words from the idiomatical, and the vulgar from the elegant; recollecting occasionally other words and phrases that are synonymous, or contrary, or of different, though similar signification; and accounting for what he says, either from the reason of the thing, or by quoting a rule of art, or a classical authority;" a mode of proceeding which must no doubt operate differently according as it is more or less scrupulously observed, but by which, even when partially adopted, and, as far as possible, applied to other languages, it will not surely be denied, that the attention must be fixed, the judgment strengthened, and the memory improved. But, besides their utility in invigorating the understanding, foreign lan guages guages ought likewise to be studied, as they facilitate the attainment of our own tongue. In glancing at this part of the subject, I do not mean to insist upon the advantages of etymological researches, in opposition to usage, and the practice of the best models of English style. With respect to their mutual influence upon composition, the former must undoubtedly be ranked infinitely below the latter. But I believe it will be allowed by the most inveterate enemy of such enquiries, that, by tracing words to their originals, and by viewing them in all the different varieties of acceptation, in which they have been successively received, a much greater insight into the principles of our vernacular speech will be obtained than could have been expected from any other source. Another advantage to be derived from acquisitions of this nature arises from the intimate connection subsisting between the literature of other countries and the literature of this. They are, indeed, so interwoven with each other, that there is scarcely one celebrated work in the English language, whose pages do not teem with allusions to ancient and foreign writers. Their very phraseology is often introduced; sometimes for its beauty; sometimes for arguments connected with it. If unconversant with the original from which quotations are thus frequently made, we must be content to remain ignorant of many passages in our own writers, and consequently a great portion of our pleasure and our profit must be lost. Conversation, too, at least that kind of it which ought most highly to be prized, the conversation of the knowing and informed, turns so frequently upon books, and upon topics to which books relate, that without a tolerable knowledge of other languages besides our own, or unless endowed with very extraordinary powers indeed, we must either be debarred from the enjoyment of the benefits of cultivated society altogether, or be compelled to listen to that which we do not understand, and which can only mortify our feelings by impressing us with a sense of our own inferiority. In the enumeration just exhibited, it will be observed, I have not included the advantages to be derived from the study of the dead languages, by persons who wish to be of the learned professions, and from that of the liv ing ones, by those whose inclination, or whose way of life, render it necessary to travel into foreign parts. On this branch of the subject, indeed, it were useless to enlarge; for to persons of this description, such philological studies must be considered, not as a mere matter of choice, but as absolutely necessary. To all those, then, who wish to invigorate their understanding; to facilitate the attainment of their native tongue; to understand and relish many passages in the best English writers; to enjoy the benefits of learned conversation; to be upon a par with their antagonists in any dispute that may occur between them; to peruse the writers of other countries with advantage; to be of the learned professions; and to travel into foreign parts; 1 must be permitted to recommend the study of ancient and foreign languages, as the best, and in some instances, the only means, by which these objects may be accomplished. Paisley. ledged one Supreme Ruler, or more; the other denied this efficient principle, and had recourse to a multiplicity of deities of a subordinate character. These heterogeneous ideas were originally embraced, and warmly cherished, by the Hierophant, or great High Priest of the people, and promulgated to the nations. Deified mortals were the primary objects of their worship, and even material circumstances connected with the reproduction of man from the ground after the deluge. They also, with the former, regarded the Host of Heaven, as having corresponding influences over the various passions and affections of the human mind, and awarded divine honours to them accordingly. The whole of this system-which pervaded the western world for a series of ages-had a great admixture of Sabianism and Pagan superstition in it-as having no idea of a "great first cause," but as arraying the materialisms of their own imaginations in the garb of superstition, and bowing the knee to the powers of fire, air, and water. That the Druids worshipped a plurality of deities, we have the concurring testimony of our best historians, who all agree that their rituals were similar to those of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and consequently a mighty superstructure of Polytheism. "Molta de Deorum Immortalium vi ac potestate, et disputant et juventuti tradunt, Deum maxime colunt Mercarium, post hunc Apollinem, et Martem, et Jovem, et Minervam, de iis eandem ferè, quam reliquæ gentes, habeat opinionem," &c. We are further informed, both by Dionysis and Strabo, that the rituals of the Bacchanta were duly perform ed in these islands, and that Ceres and Proserpine had orgies and festivities • They dispute much concerning the force and power of the immortal gods, and instruct the youth in these principles, &c. Their opinions nearly coincide with those of ether nations. appropriated to them, similar to those of Samothrace. But how are we to reconcile the opposite opinions of twe such eminent writers on this subject as Cæsar and Tacitus?—the former asserting, "Germani multum differunt ab hoc consuetudine, enam neque habent Druides qui presint divinis rebus, neque sacrificiis student *." On the other hand, the same elegant author informs us, in a different passage, in treating of the Germans "Deorum numero Solos eos discunt, quos cernunt et quorum opibus aperti juventur; Solem Lunam et Vulcanum+"&c. But Mars was also worshipped by the Gauls as well as by the Germans; for Virgil says, "Gradivumque Patrem, Geticis qui præsidet arvis;" consequently the Druidic mythology must have prevailed both in Getica . e. Scythia, in Germany, and also in Gaul. As a coincidence too remarkable to be passed over, we find the words Man and Herth of the Saxons, changed by Tacitus into Munnus and Herthum; and Schedius de Diis Germanis expressly asserts, that the Scandinavian deity Teutates was the Roman Mercury, and Hessius Mars. This assertion is farther corroborated by what Lactantius says in the following words: "Hisum et Teutateum humano Cruore placabant ;" and also by Lucan in his Pharsalia "Et quibus immitis placatur sanguine diro Teutates, horrensque feris altaribus Hisus [[." We find in various other countries a similar mode of worship prevailing, and particularly that of adoring Hevns or Mercury, under the semblance of a square stone. Pharnutius De Nat. Deorum expressly mentions this circumstance, and says, that the Hęvai or Mercurial piles in Greece, were raised in honour of this mutilated deity, De Bell. Gall. Lib. VI. S. xxi. Lact. Lib. I. S. xxi. |