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der the patronage of the French Statues, a pantomimic dance, (BerGovernment.

It has been found by Dr. Nauche, at Paris, that a person perfectly blind may be made to perceive very lively and numerous flashes of light, by bringing one extremity of the voltaic pi e into communication with the hand or foot, and the other with the face, skin of the head, and even the neck. That reiterated applications of Galvanism, when they comprehend the half trunk, produce in the person subjected to them great agitation, many reveries, involuntary tears, increased secration of the saliva, an acid alkaline taste, a great secration of the urine, and increase of heat and transpiration, and of perspiration in the Galvanised parts. That the action of the Galvanic fluid may be increased by drawing it off by a sharp point.

Journey to Mont Blanc......M. Forneret, of Lausanne, and the Baron de Dortheren, have undertaken a new journey to Mont Blanc. After two day's travel, they arrived at the summit, when the tempestuous weather obliged them to sit rolled up together with their guides, for fear of being precipitated. The cold which they felt here was six degrees beneath the freezing point; the variety of the air, and the extreme pungency of the cold, lacerated their lungs in so cruel a manner, that they declared no motive should induce them ever to recommence so painful a journey.

lin-slander) is deserving of honourable mention. This ballet, the music to which was composed by Rhigini, was danced by the Court at Berlin, under the direction of Mr. Hirt, the celebrated antiquarian. Dædalus is here supposed, under the guidance of Minerva, to have animated whole groups of ancient heroes. There are ten of these groups; and the whole is represented by Hummel, an artist of distinguished merit, in twelve excellently-designed and coloured copperplates. In the commentary, which accompa nies the prints, Mr. Hirt introduces his fair readers dancing into a knowledge of the fairy-world of antiquity.

A method has been discovered and practised with success, by M. Bertrand, at Metz, of extracting a spirit from potatos. The process is as follows: Take 600 lbs. of potatos, and boil them in steam about three-quarters of an hour, till they will fall to pieces on being touched. The vessel in which they are boiled consists of a tub, somewhat inclined. In the lower part of it are two holes, one for the purpose of bringing in the steam produced in another vessel over a coal fire, and the other made to carry off occasionally the condensed water. After the potatos are boiled, they are crushed and diluted with hot water till they are of a liquid consistence; then add twenty-five pounds of ground malt, Iffiend, Manager of the Berlin and two quarts of wort; the mixtheatre, equally distinguished as an ture is to be stirred, covered with a actor and a dramatic-writer, has cloth, and kept to the temperature deserved well of the Stage, by pub. of 15° of Reaumur, or of 66° nearly lishing a series of tasteful theatri- of Fahrenheit. After fermentation, cal decorations and costumes. He and the exhalation of the carbonic is the Taima of the Germans. The acid, the matter sinks down, and second number of this work has is fit for distillation. By means of appeared, and, like the first, con- two stills, this mass may be rectitains eight well executed plates in fied in one day, and it will produce small folio, exhibiting scenes from about forty-four quarts of spirit, the most favourite German dramas. worth a guinea and a half, while No. 2. viz. Or ntes, the Parthian the whole cost, including coals and Ambassador (m the tragedy of Ro- labour, is about twenty-three shildogune) is drawn with striking lings and sixpence. The residuur fidelity, according to the antique. is good food for hogs. Another old work, Dedalus and his

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JOHN CONRAD & Co. PHILADELPHIA; M. & J. CONRAD & CO. BALTIMORE; RAPIN, CONRAD & Co. WASHINGTON CITY; SOMERVELL & CONRAD, PETERSBURG; BONSAL, CONRAD & CO. NORFOLK; BERNARD DORNIN, NEW-YORK; WHITING, BACHUS, & WHITING, ALBANY; SAMUEL PLEASANTS, RICHMOND; BEERES & HOWE, NEW-HAVEN; CROW & QUERY, CHARLESTON, S. C.

M. MAXWELL, PRINTER, No. 25, NORTH SECOND STREET.

1803.

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WE are often told that we may read an author's character in his works, and that of all modes of composition, letter writing is the most characteristic and descriptive. Are these assertions true? In what degree and respect are they true? It is plain enough that books and letters are sufficient, and indeed, the only proofs of a capacity for writing books and letters, but this seems to be all that they prove. They seem to let in but little light upon the actual deportment of the writer, upon his temper, his favourite pursuits, and his habits of talking and conversing.

I am led to these remarks by reading over the letters of my deceased friend W....... What a difference between his actual deportment and any notion of that deportment to be collected by a stranger, from his letters. His letters to me are as unreserved and confidential as letters can be, yet they form a picture totally the reverse of his conversation and his

conduct. He had no small portion of wit, and this power was in incessant exercise in company. He could very seldom be prevailed upon to discuss any subject soberly, to reason or to speculate, or to moralize, but his whole social life was one invariable effort to be witty, to excite laughter: some good thing was forever in his mouth, and like all men who are habitually witty, he was nine times out of ten, extremely trite and dull, yet this man, the moment he took up the pen to write a letter or essay, forgot all his mirth and jest, and became pensive, sentimental, and poetical. To hear him talk, one would think he never had a serious moment in his life.... He literally sung himself to sleep and awoke in a burst of laughter. To see the effusions of his pen, one would imagine that he was a stranger to smiles, that he was forever steeped in tears and wrapped in melancholy.

In this, there was nothing that deserved to be called affectation or

hypocrisy, since he corresponded only with these with whom he was occasionally in the habit of conversing; and his tongue regaled them with unceasing jests, with just as much facility as his pen saddened them with its austerity or melted them with its pathos.

His sonnets and letters talk almost altogether of love, and on this topic, no Petrarch was ever more refined, tender and pathetic. The youth was forever in love, and was all impassioned eloquence at the fect of an adored fair one; but his love was merely the exuberance of health and an ardent constitution. Consequently his devction was always bestowed upon the present object, and never stood in the way of the most licentious indulgences. After receiving a letter full of the most doleful eulogies of some divine but i efractory creature, and hinting at his resolutions to "shake off the yoke of inauspicious stars," I have hastened to his chambers to console him, and found him at a log-table, presiding with marks of infhite satisfaction, and keeping the motly crew that furrounded him in a constant war. Such was my friend, and such were his letters; his tongue and his pen, his actions and his written speculations were as opposite to each other as the poles.

Perhaps, indeed, this case may be deemed an exception to general rules. There is another remarkable instance, however, to the same effect in the letters lately published of the poet Cowper. They are almost all of them, to a certain degree, lively and witty. On one occasion, he appears conscious of this inconsistency and alludes with some surprize to the opposition between the sprightly tenor of his letters, and the dreadful gloom of his thoughts.

tainly meet with many instances of men who write and talk under the dominion of habits and feelings diametrically opposite to each other, and as a man's discourse is often at variance with his actions, so it oftener happens that his letters are at variance with both his actions and his discourse.

ON OWHYHEE MAN.

I have just been conversing with a captain who has spent all his life in long voyages. He has been regaling me with a very amusing account of his residence in Otaheite. The novelty and elegance of Cook's, or rather of Hawkesworth's description of this island, has given it the same kind of celebrity, which the same circumstances had previously conferred upon Tinian and Juan Fernandez. Eloquent and circumstantial as Hawkesworth's narration is, I confess myself much better pleased, and much more accurately informed by this talk with my friend the captain; he is very obligingly communicative, his descriptions are connected with the story of his personal adventures, and being at hand to answer all questions, his intelligence exactly meets my curiosity.

After a good deal of talk he told me he would shew me a curiosity, and immediately called "James Cook," into the cabin. A man immediately made his appearance, about thirty years of age, of a middle stature, and remarkably athletic in his make: he had a face full of smiles and good humour, and every air and motion bespoke those feelings that flow from exuberant health and a total exemption from care... His complexion was nearly the same with that of an American Indian, and his hair, face, and figure, led me to suppose when I first glanced my eye at him, that he was cne of our own aboriginals.

This man, the captain informed me, was a native of Owhyhee. He

A man may counterfeit sentiments and feelings with more success in letters than in discourse, and though it should seem that letters, when written without any motives to deceive, afford a pretty accurate criterion of character, yet we cer- sterdam.

Ship Commerce, Ray, from Am

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