materia tam grandi tam pene infinita tractanda, ea mihi constituta est lex, ut unius fere aut duarum ad plurimum linguarum concludar terininis ; quoniam ista jam olim a majoribus recepta est consuetudo ut quicquid intra hæc nostra scholarum spatia in medium proferatur, nisi accesserit Latini sermonis gratia, id omne quasi rude quiddam atque absonum aures feriat; neque ullius unquam lingua præterquam Græca admixtionem vel levissimam patiatur.' p. 3. In pursuance of this law there are no examples, but from the Latin and Greek poets; and in addition to their claims to attention as a critical treatise, we can most highly commend these lectures for the admirable selection they contain of beautiful passages from the ancient masters. In making this selection, Dr. Copleston has drawn, not from common second-hand sources, but from a most extensive personal acquaintance with the remains of ancient literature. We are particularly grateful to him, for his quotations from Apollonius, in the tenth lecture; and would refer to the passages which they may there find, all modern critics who may be disposed to maintain that classical literature has left us no images of tender, delicate, and heartfelt love.

We confess ourselves to have been, in no small degree, edified by the wholesome doctrines taught in these lectures, by the judicious criticism with which they are enforced, and the examples with which they are illustrated of acknowledged excellence, of excellence which has stood the test of twenty centuries, and of the loss of the language in which they are recorded. We have been too much hurried on, these last years, with the rapid, the intense succession of new forms of excellence. It is impossible for any but a most audacious critic not to feel a misgiving, whether a century hence,when all the local and contemporary pageantry with which these shining wonders have come out shall have passed away, and posterity like the Egyptian tribunal for the dead shall sit in judgment on their merit,-it is impossible not to feel a misgiving whether our testimonies of admiration may not be discredited, and our sentences of delight and rapture reversed. We have had too much good poetry, to feel sure that it is good; and the tide of popularity and fashion has set too deep and strong, not to wash away the land-marks of a sane and sober criticism. It is not in human nature and human genius, that this rapidity, this fertility, this porten

tous fecundity of excellence should produce nothing but ripe and wholesome fruits. It never happened before, that what was to stand for ages could be thrown off as carelessly and easily, we had almost said as mechanically, as the sheets on which it is printed are thrown off at the press. The everlasting laws of the mind will not be so violated and defied, Genius never meant and never will mean the power of working without means, without time, and without pause; nor was it ever given to mortal man to scribble off with a flying pen, what shall be read and be worthy to be read for ever. It is paying no compliment to the literature of the age, or the merit of an author to assert it. To maintain it, is to turn the high and venerable office of instructing and delighting the world into a fantastic legerdemain of effects without causes; and a popular six weeks' epic proves not so much the inspiration of the poet, as the treachery of the critic, and the good nature of the public. We are willing to appeal to the honest experience of our readers, for the justice of these remarks. We are confident that already these glittering wonders have begun to detrude each other from the reading desk of the judicious lovers of poetry. Nothing of this is said invidiously. We do think there are passages, and long and frequent passages, in the poems of Scott, and Byron, and Southey, which will be read while any thing English shall be read, which will be admired when London is a sheepwalk. But these passages are associated with a mass of what is merely popular, pleasing, agreeable to the present generation under the prevailing taste, nor can we honestly say that we think the age has produced one standard classical poem, with which it could boldly enter the lists of epic immortality.

The latinity of Dr. Copleston's lectures is easy and classical, and well sustains the character of the English school. We have been disposed to give the palm of latinity to the modern Italian scholars, and next to them to the Dutch. But we are not sure that such comparisons are made with safety, and the judgment of the critic fails from the same cause which affects the taste of the writer, the ringing of his own idiom in his ears. The modern writers of Latin fall into two errors, quite opposite in their nature, from this same source. On the one hand, some vernacular idioms and forms of speech will intrude themselves; and on the other hand, in

their zeal to escape from these, they run into an extravagant accumulation of Roman peculiarities, and not seldom into forms, which are no otherwise Latin, than that they are not English, nor German, nor Italian. We think the English Latin is marked by the first fault, and the German Latin by the second; the English is too easy and the German too hard. But we do not think Dr. Copleston's lectures obnoxious to this exception, and must confess that we much prefer his style of latinity, to the Centonic manner of the preface to Bellendenus. We think the following translation of an eloquent passage from Mr. Burke, will give our readers a pleasing and favourable specimen of the language of these lectures. It is from the speech on the Nabob of Arcot's debts.

I was going to awake your justice toward this unhappy part of our fellow citizens, by bringing before you some of the circumstances of this plague of hunger. Of all the calamities, which beset and waylay the life of man, this comes the nearest to our heart, and is that wherein the proudest of us all feels himself to be nothing more than he is; but I find myself unable to manage it with decorum: these details are of a species of horror so nauseous and disgusting; they are so degrading to the sufferers, and to the hearers; they are so humiliating to human nature itself, that on better thoughts, I find it more adviseable to throw a pall over this hideous object, and to leave it to your general concep tion.'

This is thus introduced and rendered by Dr. Copleston.

'Tanti autum esse judico in hoc re summi ac disertissimi viri auctoritatem, quem non multis abhinc annis morte abreptum respublica nostra doluit, ut verba ferme ipsa orationis, quam olim in frequenti senatu habuit, modo latine versa, apud vos recitandi veniam fidenter petam. Postquam enim ex rebus Indicis male administratis bellum sceleratissimum ista regione exarsisse dixerat, quo bello flagrante gens mitis et innocua oppressa malis ac propemodum extincta jacuisset; mox bellicos furores horrendam insuper ac fere inauditam famem insecutam esse monstravit. Quam quidem calamitatem, cum suo more, amplissimo sermone et variis eloquentiæ laminibus distinctam expossuisset, hunc tandem in modum orationis cursum inhibuisse fertur.

"Cogitabam equidem quo afflicti hujus populi magis vos moverent, aliqua ex peste communi deligere, quæ tanquam miserrimæ illius fortunæ exemplum attente inspiceretis. Quippe ex malis

omnibus, quæ in vitam hominum incidere solent, hoc procul dubio maxime sensum attingit humanum: neque est cujusquam tam indomita superbia, quin hoc eum quam sit natura debile atque infirmum fateri cogat. Atqui, ut verum fatear, rem ipsam honeste tractare nequeo. Tanta est et tam fœda hujusmodi malorum deformitas; adeo tetra fuere in patiendo, adeo in dicendo, turpia; tantopere ipsam hominis naturam a propria sede pellere ac detrudere videntur, ut rem omnem pallio quasi coopertam esse mallem, et quod ipse lingua effere non audeo, vos tacita modo mente cogitare.'

ART. II.-1. Memoir of the Internal Improvements contemplated by the Legislature of North Carolina; and on the Resources and Finances of that State. pp. 88. Raleigh, J. Gales,

1819.

2. Report of sundry surveys made by Hamilton Fulton, Esq. State Engineer; agreeably to certain instructions from Judge Murphy, chairman, &c. and submitted to the General Assembly of North Carolina at their session in 1819. pp. 70. Raleigh, T. Henderson.

3. The History of North Carolina; by Hugh Williamson, M. D. LL. D. 2 vols. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1812. T. Dobson.

FEW subjects, we suppose, can be more interesting to our readers, than those, which relate to our national improvements. While as a nation we are growing in wealth, in physical strength, and moral worth, we are laying a foundation for respectability and happiness, which will not easily be shaken. The strongest safeguard of the liberties of a people is intelligence; the best security of their morals is industry; the surest pledge of their future greatness is a wakeful spirit of enterprize, and a generous emulation. Under a government like ours, and in a country like the United States, every thing depends on manly, spirited, and well regulated exertion. It is the genius of our government to encourage enterprize of every sort, without interposing any more checks, than are essential to preserve its own stability, and secure to all an equality of rights and privileges.

Every state, and indeed the smallest community, enjoys the same national patronage and protection. There may be local and natural obstructions to improvement; but where

there are public spirit, enlightened zeal, and honourable ambition, it is idle to talk about obstacles,—every thing may be done that ought to be done. This remark will apply equally to individuals, corporate bodies, and state legislatures. If all these will dismiss narrow prejudices, and think that only to be private good, which promotes general utility, it will be impossible, that we shall not grow up rapidly into an enlightened, prosperous, and happy nation. If different states have contending interests, it is the part of wisdom to make mutual sacrifices for mutual benefits.

The most direct and powerful means of improvement rest in the states individually. The compass of each state is sufficiently narrow, and its legislative power sufficiently dif fused, to render a knowledge of its internal condition, wants, and resources easily attained. At the same time each enjoys full authority, under the constitutional compact, to adopt and put into execution such measures as it chooses for local improvements, and to employ for this purpose such resources as it can command. Many things should no doubt be left to individual enterprize; yet this may and ought to receive a salutary stimulus from well timed public encouragement.

Prudence and economy are estimable virtues even in states; but it is to be feared, that many legislators, who show no lack of wisdom in other things, have had their judgments strangely warped, and their conceptions unhappily obscured, by starting with wrong definitions, and making an incorrect use of terms, when they have been deliberating on public improvements. They have cried out prudence and economy, without once dreaming, that they were giving wrong names to certain qualities and affections, called short-sightedness, narrow policy, love of popularity and perhaps selfishness. If they would examine this point a little more, we believe they would at least arrive at the conviction, that to act with timidity is not always to act with discretion. They would learn, that the economy, which will save a farthing to a constituent on the next tax list, is not always that which will advance his ultimate prosperity; and that putting off a good purpose till a more convenient season shows no very strong disposition to do good at any season.

That is a miserable economy, which keeps us always in poverty. He is the truly economical man, who disposes of his means judiciously, but liberally, for beneficial purposes. New Series, No. 5.

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