' relucted' comes very reluctantly into the ranks. Lit' for lighted has hitherto never been admitted into good company, and we hope never will be. At the entry of Washington into Trenton the young ladies inchantingly sung' an ode; but we wish the newspaper style had been changed. In a second edition, to which we hope Mr. Bancroft's essay will soon come, he may easily correct such triling inaccuracies, as these, overcome at [by] the loss of ;' to [with] which the house concurred; the expectation that the war would this season terminate, as a dream passed away, The orthography of South-Carolina and New-York throughout the volume we dislike; and we believe the names of de Ternay and Destouches on page 268 are spelt wrong.

From either of these books the publick could not reasonably expect any information about projects or events, which may not be found in the valuable volumes of Chief Justice Marshall. In a note indeed Dr. Ramsay has informed us, we know not on what authority, that had Washington declined his appointment of commander in chief at the commencement of our war, that office was to have been conferred on general Ward of Massachusetts; and this is the only fact, which he could not have derived from Marshall. A very interesting relation is given by Mr. Bancroft of the kindness of Wash ington to the son of his old friend the Marquis La Fayette, which will undoubtedly be read with eagerness for its novelty and tenderness. We wish Judge Marshall had comprized in his last volume a circumstance, that so

well exhibits the prudence and benevolence of Washington.

ART. 68,

geological account of the United States, comprehending a short description of their animal, vegeteble, and mineral productions, ontiquities, and curiosities. By James Mease, M.D. member of the American philosophical soci ty, and corresponding member of the literary and philosophical st ciety of Manchester. Philadel phia, Birch & Small. 1807. 12mo, pp. 496.

BOOK-MAKING has of late years been practised with great succes in England; and it must be coll fessed, that in this country webw already made great progress in learning this valuable art. Some of the late, travels in England a said to have been composed with out the labour of journies, by the assistance of former tourists, in the snug elbow-chair of a circulate ing library. The work before us was undoubtedly made in some such place; but Mr. Mease has improved upon the plan, and by using the words of the original aw thors, has saved himself the trous ble of clothing their ideas in new language,which was before thought necessary. In future, any person wishing to become an author, need know nothing of the subject upon which he makes his book; he has only to take such works of his pre decessors as are nearest at hand and transcribe quantum sufficit. The work of Mr. Mease is composed of shreds from authors, who bave written upon North-America. It is a patch-work, where, though we

recognise the materials of authors who had once afforded us instruction and pleasure, yet we find them so cut up, arranged with so little judgment, and joined in so clumsy a manner, that we forget the delight we had derived from the originals.

The first hundred and eighteen pages, upon the internal structure, the climate, and the winds of the United States, are abridged, with a few little alterations and some small additions, from the English translation of Mr. Volney's work on these subjects. Mr. Mease does not inform us of this. He says, indeed, in his preface: In treating of the climate, the geology and winds of the United States, the divisions and remarks of Mr. Volney have been assumed as the basis.' But this does not imply the superstructure and the whole edifice. Nor does Mr. Mease lead us to conclude, that he has copied the work of Mr. V. either by changing the first person of the verb in the original for the neuter third person; as, it is remarked,' for ◄ I have remarked;" or by citing, among other authorities, Mr. V. himself, to support bis own text. A note, indeed, sometimes corrects the statement in the text, as if it was the work of some other person. We cannot give Mr. Mease much praise for this abridgment. He has inserted some of those absurd passages, which we only pardon in Vol ney for the excellence of the other parts of his work he has omitted some interesting details, and curtailed others. But as this part of the work will come under review, as the property of Mr. V. in some future number, we shall make no further remark upon it at present.

Mr. Mease next proceeds to

give a short account of each of the great lakes, which is principally taken from Morse's geography, and Mr. Morse's name is put at the bottom of the page. The account of lake Champlain however is transcribed from Williams' history of Vermont, but the name of Mr. W. is not mentioned.

From lakes Mr. Mease proceeds to rivers, of which he mentions but a small number. The account of these is taken from Morse, Belknap, and several others, but is quite cursory: At the end of this article he says: A further description of the rivers of the United States would be unnecessary, and not consistent with the nature of this work; especially too as they are so fully described in the excellent geography of Rev. Dr. Morse, whose work should be in the hands of every one who wishes to become accu rately acquainted with this coun try. This compliment, we sup pose, is meant to pay for the goods he has stolen from the Doctor..

The next chapter is upon the soil and vegetables of the United States. The first article is extremely superficial, and contains a short paragraph upon the soil of each state, mostly transcribed from Morse. He modestly allows, that the materials are principally from that gentleman. The other arti cle upon vegetables does not inform us of any considerable num ber of the plants that grow in this country; but it contains a tolerable description of a few of those that are mentioned. The account of grasses is full and satisfactory but we believe green-sward is not the only species that will root out clover the first year. The part upon oaks is from the valuable work of Michaux.

The next chapter is upon animals. Dr. Mease confines the meaning of this word to quadru peds. Of the first article we can say that he gives a tolerable account of the few quadrupeds that he mentions. In the other articles upon birds, fishes, insects, and reptiles, he treats but of a few of each kind, and of these in general superficially; though we would except the descriptions of the locust,rattle-snake, and some others.

The fifth chapter is upon minerals and fossils, and mineral springs. The first article, we think, ought to have been introduced in the former part of the work, upon the internal structure, &c. It is superficial, and is rather an account of particular minerals, found in particular places, than a general description of the minerals of the United States. The minerals of New-England are almost wholly neglected.

The last chapter includes natural curiosities, cataracts, cascades, caverns, Western antiquities, and bridges, Among the natural curiosities we find floating islands, and solid rivers. Kind reader, we are not speaking of Gulliver's trayels, but of a geological view of the United States, in which we are told that the most scrupulous attention has been exercised in ascertaining the accuracy of the facts and statements. The account of this solid river is so great a curiosity, that we shall insert it for the amusement of our readers, particularly of those who may live near its banks. Two hundred miles from the sound is a narrow,' (in Connecticut river) of five yards only, formed by two shelving mountains of solid rock, whose tops intercept the clouds. Through this chasm are compelled to pass all the waters,

which, in the time of the floods, bury the northern country. At the Upper Coos, the river then spreads twenty-four miles wide; and for five or six weeks,ships of war might sail over lands, that afterwards produce the greatest crops of hay and grain in all America. People, who can bear the sight, the groans, the tremblings, and surly motion of water, trees, and ice through this awful passage, view with astonishment one of the greatest phenomena in nature. Here water is consolidated without frost, by pressure, by swiftness between the pinching sturdy rocks, to such a degree of induration, than no iron crow can be forced into it; here iron, lead, and cork have one common weight; here, steady as time, and harder than marble, the stream passes irresistible, if not swift as lightning. The electrick fire rends trees in pieces with no greater ease, than does this mighty water. The passage is about four hundred yards in length, and of a zigzag form, with obtuse angles. This first appeared, we believe, in Peters' account of Connecticut, a romance written by a refugee in England, during the American war; and it seems was too marvellous a story, even for the faith of Dr. Morse, from whom the rest of this article, excepting the natur al bridge of Virginia, is transcrib ed. Cataracts and caves occupy the succeeding part of this chapter; then Western antiquities, from Harris' tour, and the whole concludes with a long account of the two bridges lately erected over the Schuylkill and Delaware.

We have thus given a short outline of Mr. Mease's book, and have in some parts pointed out the authors, from whose works Mr. M. has transcribed. We forbore from fatiguing the reader and ourselves

with pointing out the author of each particular paragraph. It will be sufficient to say, that we have found about three quarters of this book transcribed from Volney, Morse, Williams, and other writers upon North-America, in general literally, but sometimes the words a little altered. Had we taken the trouble to have examined, we have no doubt but we should have found the greater part of the remainder transcribed in the same manner. Yet, with all this assistance, Mr. Mease does not give even a tolerable idea of the United States. Excepting in that part which is taken from Volney, no general idea is given upon any subject. He mentions but a small number of the rivers of the United States, and refers to Morse for the remainder. In the same manner he describes grasses and oaks minutely, while the greater portion of the vegetable tribe are passed over without notice. His account of birds includes only eleven species; and under the head of reptiles, we find an account only of the rattle-snake. We should likewise from this book suppose NewEngland destitute of minerals, nor should we know, that there were more than two bridges in the union. To have given a correct general idea of the United States, would have required judgment and investigation; Mr. Mease has exercised neither, but has contented himself with giving whatever presented itself upon the subject of his work. He introduces sufficient original matter to let us know that he has strong American feelings. He would show, that our animals are larger, our soil more productive, and our country more salubrious, than those in Europe.

He would even attempt to prove, that the extreme variable

ness of our climate makes it more healthy. The account he introduces, attributing the superiour mildness of the English winter to the gulf-stream is certainly erroneous; for when that stream strikes the banks of Newfoundland, although the greater part may be turned off towards Europe, yet a part returns in an eddy along the shores of Maine and Massachusetts, and would produce a greaten effect upon our climate, than the larger body would upon the climate of England, (even supposing it reached that country) after having traversed the Atlantick.

The style must of course be as various as that of the authors, from whom Mr. Mease transcribes. We shall give one instance to show with how little ability he has put his work together. In speaking of the Monongahela, he says: At sixteen miles from its mouth is Youghigeny; this river is navigable with batteaux and barges to the foot of Laurel hill. This river is four hundred yards wide at its mouth. The transcription from Morse begins with this last sentence, and in his work applies to the Monongahela; but as it is introduced by Mr. Mease it is said of the Youghigeny. Morse says the Muskingum is one hundred and fifty yards wide at its mouth ; Mease in copying says two hundred and fifty. It would be needless to point out other errours. Whether Mr. Mease meant to deceive the publick by passing this off for an original work, we know not. On the one hand, he generally refers to the authors, from whom he has borrowed; on the other, he speaks of using them only as guides and authorities. He never uses double commas, but for short quotations, and frequently does not refer to the author from

whom he has transcribed. In passing sentence, we should not bring him in guilty of theft, but only of taking without leave; that is, if he was detected, we believe he could show, that he had inserted the author's name, and therefore only meant to borrow; if he escaped discovery, he would be very glad to enjoy the benefit of the theft. But allowing Mr. Mease the right of making use of any authors in the manner, that he has done those that we have mentioned, we can scarcely conceive of his having produced so miserable a book. A school-boy would have deserved whipping for not making a better. We can think of but one motive for its publication, and that is proit. If Mr. Mease finds the trade lucrative, and means to continue it, we would advise him in future not to prefix his name, lest the sale should be injured by a remembrance of the present work.

ART. 69.

A letter to Dr. David Ramsay, of Charleston, S. C. respecting the errours in Johnson's dictionary, and other lexicons. By Noah Webster, Esq. New-Haven, Ol. iver Steele & Co. 1807. pp. 28,

THIS letter is written in answer to one which the author received from Dr. Ramsay, in which the doctor remarks, that the prejudices against any American attempts to improve Dr. Johnson, are very strong in that city;' and it differs from the usual form of epistolary correspondence, in being transmitted through the medium of the press.'

Mr. W. is not surprised at the prejudices mentioned by his correspondent, since many, from those

of a similar kind, have been sacrificed for the supposed crime of philosophical heresy. He does not, however, institute an exact parallel between himself and Galileo, (whose case he cites) nor seem to aspire to any high order of martyrdom; but he affirms, that the man who is deterred, by opposition and calumny, from attacking what he knows to be funda mentally wrong, is no soldier in the field of literary combat.'

So much for the exordium: we now come to the principal subject of the letter; to the writer's re marks and statements, intended as a brief sketch of the errours and imperfections in Johnson's diction ary, and the lexicons of other languages, now used as classical books in our seminaries of learning.'

We regret that Mr. W. has commenced this part of his per formance with that indiscriminate and malignant abuse of Johnson's Dictionary, which originally issaed from the foul pen of Horne Tooke. Though he has qualined this stuff by expressions, wiich imply that he would not be thought quite to countenance the ungenerous calumny that he quotes, yet we cannot but infer that he is willing it should pass for something very near the truth.

Mr. W. has undoubtedly investigated with much industry, and entirely to his own satisfaction, the Teutonick languages, and the cir cumstances of the introduction into Great Britain of those dialects, whence many of our words were derived. But there is something singular, if we rightly understand him, in his charging Johnson with a most egregious errour, in sup» posing the Saxon language to have been introduced into Britain in the fifth century, after the Romans had abandoned the island; wheres