are considered as having added, by the institution and increase of libraries, to the glory of nations, and some of the most celebrated monarchs, by the foundation of learned societies and the establishment of learned libraries, have increased the glory of their reign, and the reputation of their era. The maintenance at publick expense of a society of learned men, and the riches of the Alexandrian library, have illustrated the age of the Ptolomies; and Louis XIVth, in rational estimation, has acquired a higher title to renown, by the creation or patronage of learned academies, and by the splendid augmentation of the royal library, than by the extent of his conquests and the brilliancy of his triumphs. It is a subject of high congratution to record the establishment

of an institution in the metropolis of New-England, which will be useful to various classes of our citizens; which will assist and facilitate the researches of the learned, attract and gratify the ingenuous curiosity of strangers. Let men of leisure and opulence patronise the arts and sciences among us; let us all love them, as intellectual men; let us encourage them,as good citizens. In proportion as we increase in wealth, our obligations increase to guard against the pernicious effects of luxury,by stimulating to a taste for intellectual enjoyment; the more we ought to perceive and urge the importance of maintaining the laws by manners, manners by opinion, and opinion by works, in which genius and taste unite to embellish the truth.

CAMBRIA

ZEMBO AND NILA.

AN AFRICAN TALE:

WHERE the beauteous Niger roll'd
Thro' the land of slaves and gold,
On the brink a tyger lay,
Slumbering thro' the sultry day;
Stately palms their branches spread,
Cool and verdant o'er his head;
Deeply murmuring in his ear,
Rippling ran the river clear;
While the sun, in noon of light,
Like an eagle in his flight,
Born upon the wings of time,
Tower'd in majesty sublime,
Earth and ocean, air and sky,
Basking in his boundless eye.

Soft as desert fountains flow, Sweet as ocean breezes blow, Came a lonely negro maid, Where the sleeping brute was laid. O what wild enchanting grace Sparkled o'er her dimpled face, While the moonlight of her eyes Glow'd and glanced with fond surprize, Bright thro' shadow beam'd her lips; She was beauty in eclipse, Sportive, innocent, and gay, All in nature's disarray, Unashamed as infancy, Dancing on the father's knee; Fearless as the babe at rest, Pillow'd on the mother's breast: But to crown her conquering charms, Pearly bracelets twined her arms, Brilliant plumes her temples graced, Flowery foliage wreath'd her waist; The startled nymph, with silent awe, The lovely dreadful monster saw, Mark'd the sleek enamell'd pride Of his variegated hide,

Marbled o'er with glossy dyes,
Like the peacock's spangled eyes:
Gently heaved the spotty chest
Of his broad tremendous breast;
Slumber smooth'd his hideous features,
Closed his eyes, terrifick meteors,
Hush'd the thunder of his jaws,
Sheathed the lightning of his claws;
Harmless, beautiful and mild,
Seem'd the savage grim and wild.

Nila's bosom o'er the sight
Swell'd from wonder to delight;
On the mossy bank reclining,
In her hands a garland twining,
Unaware of danger nigh,
All her soul was in her eye,
Till her tongue the silence break,
And, transported, thus she spake :
"Lovely stranger! void of fear,
Innocently slumbering here,
Rest, secure in thy repose,
From the rage of prowling foes
Never wanderer was betray'd
In this hospitable shade:

Calm refreshing dreams attend thee!
And the mighty gods defend thee!
From the lion's ravening jaws;
From the dread hyana's paws;
From the subtle panther's wiles,
Lurking where the shrubbery smiles;

From the snake, whose tainting breath
Scatters pestilence and death;
From the elephant, whose might
Crushes armies in the fight;
From the fangs of tigers ghaunt,
Cruellest of fiends that haunt
Forest, wilderness, or plain,
Grimly strewn with victims slain,

When, like whirlwind, flood, and fire,
Irresistible in ire,

Tygers-so my parents say-
Gorge alive their shrieking prey,
Then in frenzy of hot gore,
Fiercer, feller than before,
Still with quenchless thirst they burn,
Headlong still to slaughter turn.
Fiends like these the desert awe,
Fiends that Nila never saw;
On this silent solitude
Those destroyers ne'er intrude,
For my father keeps this grove,
Sacred to the gods above;
Nor beyond this shelter'd home,
Dare his daughter's footsteps roam.
Here then, charming stranger, rest,
Nila's friend, companion, guest;
With the sweetest herbs I'll feed thee,
To the purest fountains lead thee;
Here in gambols, wild and gay,
Let us sport our lives away,
And this blooming wreath shall be
Nila's pledge of love to thee,
While I crown thee thus with flowers
Prince of these sequester'd bowers.”

Light as the silvery shadows sail
O'er corn-fields waving to the gale,
The gentle waters safely bore
The panting Naiad to the shore.

Zembo from the grove emerging,
Ran to meet the rescued virgin;
Zembo, whose victorious bow
Laid the treacherous tyger low;
Zembo, swiftest in the race,
Matchless in the savage chase;
Tall and shapely as the palm,
A storm in war, in peace a calm;
Black as midnight without moon,
Bold and undisguised as noon :-
-Zembo long had wooed in vain,
But while Nila scorn'd his pain,
Love's insinuating dart

Slid so slily through her heart,
That the nymph, in all her pride,
Sigh'd-yet scarcely knew she sigh'd

Now she saw with transports sweet Gallant Zembo at her feet; Tho' her trembling lips were seal'd, Love her hidden soul reveal'd: Zembo read with glad surprize All the secrets of her eyes; Wild with joy his eager arms Sprang to clasp her modest charms; Startled, like the timid deer, Nila fled with lovely fear; He pursued the nimble maid To the broad palmetto shade; There the flowery wreaths she found Which the tyger's front had crown'd; These on Zembo's brow she twined, Whispering thus in accents kind: “Noble youth! accept, tho' small, This reward;-'tis Nila's all; If my hero claims a higher, Yonder, Zembo-lives my Sire."

Sheffield, Sept. 1807.

PLIN.

ARTICLE 62.

Letters concerning the constitution and order of the christian ministry, as deduced from scripture and primitive usage; addressed to the members of the United Presbyterian Churches in the city of New-York. By Samuel Miller, D. D. one of the pastors of said churches. New-York, Hopkins & Seymour. pp. 355.

12mo. 1807.

FOR what purpose the episco

pal controversy has lately been revived in this country, we confess ourselves utterly at a loss to determine. Whoever has been the aggressor, let him know that it is a most unnecessary and reprehensible violation of charity and peace. No man can be so absurd as to maintain seriously, at the present day, either the jus divinum, or the uninterrupted succession of any hierarchy on earth. It is also very generally agreed, except by a few of the most pertinacious of episcopal and presbyterian ecclesiasticks, that neither our Saviour, nor his apostles, have left on record any draught of church government, to be implicitly adopted in subsequent ages, as an unalterable model, a quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus. Especially is it

absurd to insist upon the peculiar claims of any one form of ministerial arrangement in a country like ours, where the indispensable restraints of secular government can hardly be tolerated, and much less the encroachments of any order of clergy, whether they advance under the covering of the tiara, the mitre, or the Scotch bonnet. Let a few uncharitable piscopalians deny, if they please, the right of presbyterian ordination, and frighten old women of both

sexes about the invalidity of ordi

nances, which are not administered by a regular priest; and let the presbyterian talk, if he choose, of the divine right of classes, and synods, and presbyteries, and general assemblies, and espy, in every page of the primitive writers, ruling elders, and teaching elders, and feeding elders, and kirk' sessions; what is all this to the humble, private, unassuming laick? Every christian is willing, while he can preserve the power of his religion, conscientiously to submit to any ecclesiastical arrangement, which circumstances render expedient. He is satisfied that, whereever church is not connected with state, pastors and people will always mutually adopt the least inconvenient form, though unsupported by the authority of unin