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ourselves we see no room for but one opinion; the effect will be highly beneficial both to Philadelphia and Baltimore; each city will receive an advantage from having an easy and quick intercourse between the two. It has been feared, that the trade of the Susquehanna, which now descends to Baltimore, will go up to Philadelphia through this canal. There is no ground for such a fear. That portion of produce now transported across the country from Columbia may possibly take this direction; but the mass of produce coming down the river to seek a market will continue to go to Baltimore as at present, for the plain reason, that the freight will be cheaper. From the mouth of the Susquehanna to Baltimore there is a direct sloop navigation down the Bay, but on the route to Philadelphia there will be the expense, trouble, and delay of transhipment at the entrance of the canal, and also the tolls for passing, and all this over and above the cost of taking the produce at once to Baltimore; nor is it to be admitted as possible, that the difference between the markets of the two cities will ever be such, as to warrant this sacrifice. In fact,

the canal will rather have a tendency to equalise the markets of the two places, and in this respect, if any advantage occurs on either side, it will be on that of Baltimore, as this port approximates more nearly the interior.

The legislature of Maryland has taken measures to ascertain the practicability of cutting a canal along the margin of the Susquehanna, to the bottom of the last fall on that river, and thence across the country to Baltimore. But the expense of the work threatens to be so formidable, as to forbid the hope that it will soon be executed. By some persons a preference is given to the plan of deepening the river, removing obstructions, and thus procuring a safe passage for boats; but this labor, we apprehend, will be little less effectual than that of the daughters of Danaus. The greater the number of obstructions removed, the faster the waters will run off, and expose yet new and more numerous intruders peering above the surface, or lurking beneath the waves.

A very accurate and complete survey has recently been made, not only of the harbor of Baltimore, but also of the Patapsco river to its outlet at North Point, and of the Bay itself as far down as Annapolis. This work was wholly executed under the immediate direction of Lewis Brantz, Esq. partly

fat, the expense of the city, and partly of several insurance companies, with the express purpose of facilitating the navigation of the river and harbor. And it gives us particular pleasure to have an opportunity here of acknowledging our obligation to this gentleman, for the essential aid he has rendered us in furnishing many of the commercial details, facts, and tables, which have been woven into this article. His long residence in the city, and his practical acquaintance with its commerce, qualify him to speak with confidence and accuracy on this subject. Mr Brantz's chart of the Patapsco is of great importance to those, who navigate that river. This chart, and his chart of the harbor, together with Mr Poppleton's map of the city, comprise a series of accurate and beautiful delineations, not surpassed by any attempts of the kind, which have come under our notice, and are equally creditable to the active spirit of the citizens, who fostered such undertakings, and to the skill and talents of the gentlemen, who executed them.

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Our remarks on the commercial history and advantages of Baltimore have run to so great a length, that no room is left for the observations we had contemplated on the internal features of the city, its topography, improvements, police, institutions, public buildings, means of education, benevolent associations, and other things, which contribute to show the character of a people. It may be said with confidence, however, that there has never been any deficiency of public spirit and generous enterprise in promoting all these objects, as far as the condition of a growing city required, or the habits and Soccupations of a commercial people would allow. In beautiful and finished specimens of architecture, Baltimore is unrivalled in this country; and the patriotism and liberality, that erected the two monuments, by which it is now adorned, deserve praise and emulation. The dates of all the principal improvements in the city, and a brief notice of them, may be found in Mr Griffith's work, to which we have already refered, and which, as its title purports, is strictly a book of annals. One of the best institutions, which has been established in the city for many years, is the Athenæum lately organised, and now in operation. An elegant and spacious building has been erected for the purpose, one hundred and seventeen VOL. XX. NO. 46.

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feet long, by eightyone wide, affording accommodations of a very superior kind for a library, reading rooms, and a musical saloon. A stronger indication of a desire to diffuse knowledge and encourage intellectual refinement and good taste, or a more honorable testimony of a spirit of literary improvement, could not have been given. It was a remark of Mr Hinkley in his Address on the occasion of laying the corner stone of this building, that intelligence and virtue are the strength and beauty of a republic, and every true patriot must rejoice to witness any new means for their advancement.' Nothing could be more just, or better expressed, and while the citizens of Baltimore exhibit such tokens of their patriotism, they will build monuments, more durable than marble or brass, of their love of country and freedom, of their respect for the wise who have planned, and the brave who have defended our political and civil institutions.

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ART. V.-Johann Gottfried von Herder's sämmtliche Werke.
Zur schönen Literatur und Kunst.
John G. Herder's complete Works, relating to Belles Lettres
and the Arts.

Or the men of letters in Germany, who contributed to elevate the reputation and improve the taste of their country, few were so distinguished for variety of attainments, industry, and the love of pure morality, as Herder. Without pos

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sessing great originality, he had still that power of genius, which gives life to acquisitions, and knew how to enrich and strengthen his mind by diligence in study and the faithful exertion of his faculties. The character of his mind was poetic; yet as nature had denied him the highest qualifications of the poet, and he was conscious of his own inability to tread firmly in the heaven of invention,' he contented himself with occupations suited to his capacities, taking the widest range through the literature of almost every age and nation, to which he could gain access, and returning from his excursions with noble spoils. He knew how to estimate the excellence of others; he could hold his mind aloof from the objects by which he was immediately surrounded, and enter upon the

study of a foreign work, as if he had been of the country, for which it was originally designed. Being possessed of great skill in the use of his own language, he was able to transfer into it the lighter graces no less than the severe lessons of foreign poets. To turn over some parts of his works is as to walk in a botanical garden, where the rare and precious plants of other countries, which thrive in climates the most distant and most different, are artificially yet safely collected, and planted without injury in soils suited to their natures. ancient songs of the Scots, the pleasing ballads of the olden times in England, the little poems, which have been revived in the recent popular selections from the early English writers, the tales and canzons of the French, the Spaniards, the Italians, are many of them to be found among his works, neatly and accurately translated into the German.

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But not only the beauties of the literature of the west, the finest sayings of Sadi and other oriental poets, the Greek convivial songs, the most blooming flowers from the Grecian Anthology, those odes of Horace, those poems of Persius and other Latin authors, which breathed a high moral spirit, are introduced in his pages, and either arranged in separate collections, or pleasantly interwoven amidst his criticisms, his moral reasonings, and his remarks on history and man. Indeed some of the volumes of his works may be compared to a fanciful piece of mosaic, composed of costly stones from all parts of the world, and if not always arranged in the very best taste, at least always rich in themselves, and well fitted to gratify the observer. He did more than translate. Wherever he found a beautiful idea, a just and happy image or allegory, he would seize upon it, and, giving it a form suited to his own taste, present it to the world anew. Deeply versed in biblical criticism, he often met amidst the rubbish of verbal commentators and allegorical expositors, many curious and instructive fables, narrations, proverbs, and comparisons. These he did not fail to select, to amplify and arrange, and thus put in currency again many a bright thought, which lay covered with the rust of learning, or buried under a mass of useless criticisms. He collected the ballads of the Spanish Cid, and formed of them a continued poern; he seized on ideas in the eastern as in the classic mythology, and wrought them into beautiful and instructive fictions; he se

lected from the writings of men, whose minds had an influence on their age, the thoughts which characterised them, and thus gathered a magazine of practical wisdom. In fa- 1 bles, dialogues, and familiar letters, in poems and allegories, imitated, translated, or original, he alike endeavored to please and to teach lessons of goodness. It may be said of Herder, that he passed his life in tranquil industry, possessed of a delicate perception of the beautiful, cherishing in himself and others a love of learning, creating as it were anew the thoughts of the wise and good, and always employed in disseminating a knowledge of what seemed to him the elements of virtue, and cherishing and promoting whatever can improve or adorn humanity.

And what is humanity? Herder would have answered, the best part of human nature; the sum of good affections, generous dispositions, and noble principles of action, by which man is capable of being moved and guided. This idea of humanity was one, which possessed his affections and his revérence. It was the favorite subject of his thoughts, and he delighted to believe and to gather proofs, that men are becoming more and more humane. Others have loved to revile mankind, in the bitter spirit of satire, with the vindictive temper of misanthropy, to speak evil, not of the manners of their own times only, but of human nature, and so to deny the best and most cheering part of the creed of philanthropy. Herder had no fondness for collecting examples of human folly or crime. He felt that the world is full of beauty and excellence, and that man is the fairest and most exalted part of the visible creation, and, being by the character of his mind opposed to that cold and distrustful selfishness, which will not confide in others, he loved to warm his heart with contemplating the examples of purity and disinterested virtue, of highminded patriotism and ardent devotedness to the welfare of mankind. And he, who is conversant with Herder's writings, will be disposed to think, that the world has been rich in such examples, and that men, who have been gifted beyond measure by a bountiful and gracious Providence, have almost always associated the light of virtue with the brilliancy of genius."

Herder was the son of a poor Prussian schoolmaster. He received his literary education in Königsberg, at a time,

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