genial soil of England has never ceased to bear fruits and flowers worthy of the spring time of her literature, though often suppressed in their growth by foreign and false modes of culture. Our countrymen were therefore, in this respect, placed upon an equal footing with their British brethren. Originality of language is immaterial to the success of literary enterprise. The language of the mind is to be found in its own vigorous, overpowering thoughts and emotions. It matters not in what dialect they are poured forth. The forms of diction used by different nations, who write the same language, are no more necessarily alike, than those of different individuals; nor is the imitation of the classical models of English style more likely to have an unfavorable influence upon an American, than a British writer-upon a Franklin or a Frisbie, than upon a Burke or a Johnson. It is the faculty of true genius to assimilate with itself, and incorporate into its own intellectual nature, the elements produced by other minds. Thus the poetical powers of Dante and Milton were nourished, and sustained, and strengthened, by the ambrosial food of Virgil and Homer. In highly gifted and well regulated minds, the profound study and ardent admiration of such models produce merely the effects of that liberal imitation, which teaches them to think, speak, and write, as other great men would have thought, spoken, and written, when placed in the same circumstances. We shall therefore find ourselves compelled to attribute our literary poverty to the want of true intellectual courage and enterprise, to the want of that noble self reliance and consciousness of intellectual power, which has of late only been seen among us; rather than to the possession and full enjoyment of the literary riches, which have been showered upon us from the abundant sources of the parent country.' pp. 10-12. In regard to the influence of a uniform language of long standing on our literature, and intellectual progress, we have given our views in another part of the present number of our journal. We agree with the author, that a servile imitation of foreign models will never contribute to bring out American mind; we must think and write in our own way, and follow the promptings of a judgment matured in the school of manners and institutions purely American, and of an imagination kindled by the glowing features of nature peculiar to our own country, before we can arrive at a high degree of excellence, or form a literature and intellectual character, which shall distinguish us as a nation from the other enlightened nations. This can never be done by treading in the beaten track of an old language, nor by striving to imitate models constructed under circumstances in so many respects totally different from our own. Mr Wheaton next considers the disadvantages under which we labor, by reason of our small libraries, and slender endowments of seminaries of learning. These are evils to which we must submit for a long time; but they will be diminished every year; a taste for reading, for the luxuries of the mind, will create a demand for books and for the means of acquiring experimental science; and in proportion to this demand, and the increase of wealth, by which it may be supplied, libraries, museums, laboratories, and depositories of choice specimens of the arts, will be multiplied and enlarged. In pursuing his subject, Mr Wheaton takes a broad view of the ancient republics, and points out the connexion between the principles on which they were founded, and the rapid growth of the arts and sciences to which they gave encouragement. He traces analogies and causes sometimes farther than we can follow him, but his investigation indicates a wide research into the history of the illustrious periods of antiquity, as well as deep reflection on the nature, the moving springs, the enlightening spirit, and self preserving tendency of our own government. 7.-Address delivered before the Massachusetts Peace Society, at the Ninth Anniversary, December 25, 1824. BY JOHN WARE, M. D. Boston. 8vo. pp. 24. Office of Christian Register. 1825. THERE are few objects, which at first view appear more disproportioned to the means by which it is proposed to attain them, than the professed design of the Society before whom this address was delivered. It would seem the very height of chimerical enthusiasm to attempt, by the efforts of a few philanthropic individuals, to abolish the practice of war, a custom which may be traced back farther, perhaps, than any other in the history of the human race, which in all ages has engrossed so large a portion of the talents of individuals, and of the resources of nations, and which it has required the whole experience of the world, and eighteen centuries of Christianity, to bring to that degree of refinement with which it is now practised. Notwithstanding that often repeated truth, so consoling to the beginners of vast undertakings, that many great results are produced by apparently small causes, we should be inclined to look upon the existence of such a society as offering little encouragement indeed to the hopes of the philanthropist, did we think it were to be regarded as the only source, from which a change in the habits of the world might be expected to arise. It is an excellent thing doubtless, that all the arguments and reasonings, which can be adduced to show that war is no less unnecessary than pernicious, and all the speculations by which the practicability of abolishing it may be made probable, should be brought as often, and under as many forms as possible, before the public. But how few are affected by arguments, and how small a portion of the 456 Dr Ware's Address before the Peace Society. [April, public will ever hear them. If it depended upon reason, and truth, and religion merely to decide, war would long since have fallen into disuse; but men's passions and interests are too powerful for such restraints, and till these can be enlisted on the side of peace, we fear that all the efforts of peace societies will be ineffectual. But it is not to them alone, that the benevolent man may look for encouragement. Dr Ware, with singular discernment and good judgment, has described the character of the age, and the progress of political science and of free institutions, as operating very powerfully in aid of the reasonings of the wise, and the efforts of the good. He points out the essential difference in military ambition and warlike character, between arbitrary governments, and those which are established on liberal principles, between those where the passions of a few or of one individual may plunge nations in calamity, and those where the interests of the whole are the only objects to be consulted by their rulers. He then answers the objections drawn from the military character of the ancient republics, showing that in them the principles of freedom and of political rights were far from being understood, in the manner in which we now understand them. Nothing indeed appears to us more absurd, than the reference which is very frequently made to the character of what are called the republics of antiquity, to indicate what is likely to be that of the republican governments of modern times. One would think that the differences, sufficiently marked certainly, between the different popular governments of Greece, and between them and the Roman system, would have shewn how little reliance could be placed on any apparent analogy in their forms, or their operation. Yet neither these, nor the total want of analogy between the people of antiquity and the nations of our own time, in all imaginable circumstances, in habits, in knowledge, in situation, and whatever goes to form the character of a nation, have prevented the enemies of free institutions from prognosticating evils to those, who have adopted them. These sinister predictions remain as yet in a good degree unfulfilled, and if, as Dr Ware successfully contends, the effect of popular governments be to promote peace and the arts of peace, this will afford an additional reason for valuing, and a new motive for loving the free and happy country, which we are so fortunate as to call our own. The following extract will exhibit some of the author's views of the subject. 'From these dangers, governments founded upon liberal principles are in a great measure free. The permanent existence of a great military establishment is almost impossible. The people, always impatient under the load of taxation, often unreasonably so, will never permit themselves to be burdened with an apparatus so costly and so useless. Government needs no array of guards for its protection; it needs no extraneous support to give it dignity and authority in the eyes of its subjects, for it is in itself only a delegation of their power. Military men, as such, have no control, and little influence. They have no weight beyond that derived from their personal character, talents and services. The community in a free country are jealous of a standing army, jealous of military men, and justly so; for if it be ever destined, that by the course of internal revolution, arbitrary power shall set its foot upon their rights and trample their liberty in the dust, these are the instruments by which that purpose will be accomplished. 'Among nations whose governments are founded upon these principles, one class of wars would almost necessarily cease at once to exist, I mean those which have been entered into to settle claims of hereditary right. A slender acquaintance with history will show how long, how frequent, and how bloody have been the contests originating in this source. Questions of legitimate succession have been debated by fire and sword, from the most remote antiquity to which the records of history reach. Nations have been in arms to determine, by this last appeal, between the degrees of consanguinity of rival candidates to a vacant throne. Civil strife has raged for centuries, nay almost through its whole history, in one of the proudest nations of Europe, growing entirely out of the same cause. And in our own days, has not all the christian world been engaged in a contest, which, whatever might have been its objects at some periods of its continuance; and whatever might have been the motives of some of its abettors, originated in the defence of hereditary right, and terminated in the accomplishment of its object? The happy influence of such principles of government is well illustrated, in the spectacle presented by our own country, the only one in fact in which they have been fairly put to the test. The independent sovereignties of which it is composed, have, like distinct nations, conflicting claims and conflicting interests; jealousy, rivalry, heart burnings must exist; contentions arise upon points of great importance, where the passions become powerfully excited, and yet all parties are satisfied with an appeal to a judicial tribunal, whose decision is final. Upon far more trifling occasions the Grecian states have waged wars almost interminable. We have but to imagine each of our commonwealths transformed into a little kingdom, with its monarch, its train of hereditary nobles, its navy, its army, and the host of ambitious aspirants that surround a throne, and our hitherto peaceful continent would present only a scene of strife, turbulence, and bloodshed. We should then hear of nothing but the jealousy and rivalry of princes; of leagues and confedera tions; of the balance of power, and of wars waged to regulate it. Our rivers would serve, as they have in the old world, as barriers between natural enemies. Our lakes would become the theatre of stormy contention between rival nations. Our seaboard would exhibit the spectacle of hostile fleets engaged in scenes of blood and carnage. The picture drawn of the old world, would be realised in the new. Lands intersected by a narrow frith Abhor each other; Mountains interposed 8.-Digest of the Cases decided in the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. From March, 1816, to October, 1823, inclusive, as contained in the five last Volumes of Tyng's, and the first of Pickering's Reports. With the Names of the Cases, and a Table of the Titles and References. To which is added, a digested Index of the Names of the Cases in the Eighteen Volumes of Massachusetts Reports. BY THERON Metcalf. Boston, Richardson & Lord. 8vo. ALL those, who may be interested in knowing the contents of the six latest volumes of the Massachusetts Reports, will be pleased to learn, that their inquiries may be guided by the able and learned editor of Yelverton. A digest of these volumes is not likely, perhaps, very much to increase the already well earned reputation of Mr Metcalf, but we do not hesitate to say, that it will justify and confirm that reputation, and is, accordingly, a publication for which he is entitled to encouragement and thanks from the profession. It is a very easy thing to compile a volume, by copying, verbatim, the indexes of any number of volumes of reports, as Moore, Manning, Baylies, and many others have done, with an economy of labor and thinking on their part, but at the expense of great labor and inconvenience to lawyers, who are obliged to spend a great deal of time in handling volumes and turning leaves, either to find out that nothing is to be found, or in discovering what an author, who, like Comyns, has the skill and learning, and is willing to bestow the labor, requisite to the making of a digest, would present at the first glance to one consulting his work. Every page of this volume shows that the compiler has critically examined the cases referred to, and, in most instances, at least, has not only stated the points solemnly adjudicated, but also sifted out the dicta, sembles, and quæres; stating the propositions in such a |