highly useful to many of the citi- Boston, Dec, 22, 1807. zens of this town.

1

THE WITHERED OAK.

TWAS Autumn-the sun now descending the sky,
In a robe of bright crimson and gold was array'd;
While the pale sickly moon, scarcely open'd her eye,
Just peep'a through the forest, and silver'd the glade.

The voice of the evening was heard in the trees-
Each chirper so merry was seeking his nest ;
The anthems of insects were mix,d with the breeze,
And nature look'd pleas'd-all her children were blest.

I,en the trees appear'd drest in their holiday cloaths,

And they wav'd their green arms, and they seem'd to rejoice,
While methought as I listened, at times there arose
From each oak's ivied branches a Deity's voice.

But ah! there was one that did not appear gay,

Nor wave his long branches-now verdant no more!
The bird as he views him soars silent away,
His genius is dead, and his honours are o'er.

Once green like the rest, strong and lovely he grew,
The warbler once dwelt in each well cover'd bough,
The breezes saluted his leaves as they flew;
Yes, he has been-but now !-alas! what is he now?

The rays of the morning still shine on the tree,
And evening still waters the trunk with her tears;
The wild-flow'r and wheat-sheaf around it we see,
But a winterly ruin this ever appears.

Oh ! say, is it age that has alter'd thy form,
(For care and affliction thou never hast known)
Or hast thou been struck by the pitiless storm,

* That thou thus seem'st to pine and to wither alone ?.

Thou art silent-the silence my fancy improve;
Come pause here awhile it is what thou may'st be!
Ah! oft in the heyday of pleasure and love
Old friend, I shall sigh as I think upon thee.

FOR

DECEMBER, 1807.

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Librum tuum legi & quam diligentissime potui annotavi, quæ commutanda, quæ eximenda, arbitrarer. Nam ego dicere verum assuevi. Neque ulli patientius reprehenduntur, quam qui maxime laudari merentur. PLIN.

ARTICLE 67.

The Life of George Washington, commander in chief of the armies of the United States of America throughout the war, which estashed their independence, and first president of the United States. By David Ramsay, M.D. author of the History of the

8vo. PP.

American Revolution. 376. New-York, printed by Hopkins & Seymour, for E. S. Thomas, Baltimore. 1807.. An Essay on the Life of George Washington, commander in chief of the American army through the revolutionary war, and the first president of the United States. By Aaron Bancroft, A. A. S. pastor of a Congregational church in Worcester. 8vo. pp. 552. Worcester, printed by Thomas & Sturtevant, 1807.

have within a few months issued The volumes now before us from our press, the authors hav ing waited to derive all possible shall for the erfection of their advantage from the work of Marabridgments. Of the utility of their plan no doubt can arise, for thousands in our country cannot purchase the costly volumes of the great biographer, to whom much information may be afforded by Ramsay and by Bancroft.

The first observation in comparing these two volumes, that will strike every one who reads them, is, that they might well exchange titles. The work, modestly called An Essay on the life of George Washington,' exhibits many proofs of profound research among the scattered fragments of our history, and much curious inquiry after anecdotes relating to its subject. The Life of George Washington,' by the historian of the American war, contains nothing new to one, who has read Marshall with careless rapidity, and who faintly remembers the im pression made on him in his pas

'He has not conceived that he was writing formen of erudition, but for the unlettered portion of the community; and he has for their benefit more particularly studied simplicity of style. Should he be so happy as to obtain their approbation, he will receive an ample Preface.

reward of his labour.'

Such is the safe manner of him, who, too diffident to aspire to the rank of a philosophical historian, contents himself with the faithful performance of the useful duties of an annalist. If therefore to an inhabitant of Europe, who shall inquire for the character of Washing with little curiosity to learn the private biography of the man, or the peculiar circumstances and events of little splendour, that attended the warriour,the volume of Ramsay be recommended, as a well written epitome; by every American, who searches with eager veneration for all the less observable qualities of the father of his country, to whom no situation, in which he stood, is uninteresting, no detail of facts, in which he was concerned, trivial, superiority will be allowed without hesitation to the abridgment of Mr. Bancroft.

An engraved head of Washing ton is prefixed to each of these volumes; in Ramsay's by Leney, in Bancroft's by Edwin. Neither is equal to the fine likeness by Ed-w win in Marshall's Washington; but that in Bancroft's, though perhaps more coarsely executed than the work of Leney, carries a strong

resemblance, which commendation we cannot afford to the other.

Dr. Ramsay has dedicated his book to the youth of the United States, in a sentence neat enough; but we see little use in this way of filling a page.

The two authors have divided their works into chapters, and, as if by preconcert, each has thirteen, of which the first in Ramsay's narrates the history of Washington in twenty pages to the commencement of our revolution : Mr. Bancroft has given the biography only till the year 1759 in thirty-seven pages. This may shew the greater satisfaction to be derived from the minuteness of Mr. Bancroft.

In the history of Chief Justice Marshall we are informed who was the father of Washington, as well as that he was his third son; who was his great-grandfather, and the time of his emigration from England; but we remain ignorant of the name of our hero's grandfather; and the defect is not supplied in the volumes before us.

As these works will soon be among the most usual books in the hands of our children, who acquire their style of expression from the most common authors, it is of importance to notice a few verbal errours, that might otherwise pass us uncensured. On the page of Dr. Ramsay few readers would expect to find such sentences as these: "On the next day a dreadful A revolutionscene took place. ary war of eight years duration, which issued in their establishment, as thirteen United States.' List for enlist is growing obsolete. On page 33d he informs us, that the British troops fell down to the Castle with the intention of proceeding up the river to attack

Dorchester heights. Query, was the historian ever in Boston? The phrase brought round a revolution' is very offensive to our ears. Brought about would be bad enough, but this seems to be brought round about. • Prodigious convoy' and ineffable delight are modes of expression inconsistent with the modesty of history; and majestick silence' suits only the romantick. Judgment was his forte' would be a mean expression to apply to any body, but it is highly improper to speak so vulgarly of the subject of our author's history. After a tedious hearing before a court, Lee was found guilty.' We hope no contempt is meant in these words, though it might be thought so. The word thereof' occurs frequently in Dr. Ramsay's volume, and in Wood's Conveyancing.' The son of general St. Clair will inform the Doctor,that his father's name was not Sinclair, and any school-boy in the country might have corrected the word.

• Citizens of the United States! While with grateful hearts you recollect the virtues of your Washington, carry your thoughts one step farther. On a review of his life, and of all the circumstances of the times in which he lived, you must be convinced, that a kind Providence in its beneficence raised him, and endowed him with extraordinary virtues, to be to you an instrument of great good. None but such a man could have carried you successfully through the revolutionary times which tried men's souls, and ended in the establishment of your indepen-1 dence. None but such a man could have braced up your government after it had become so contemptible, from the but such a man could have saved your imbecility of the federal system. None country from being plunged into war, either with the greatest naval power in Europe, or with that which is most formidable by land, in consequence of your animosity against the one, and your partiality in favour of the other." P. 337.

Of

If in so large a work by an American author more faults of grammar and expression are not discovered, than we have now marked, he deserves no small praise; and Dr. Ramsay may reThe clergy of this country are member, that many writers in our our best scholars, but they are country are not worth censuring. sometimes careless writers. He has done much heretofore, and this we have been once or twice his Life of Washington' has giv- satisfied in Mr. Bancroft's book. en him another claim to the grat- A pilot' is one, who steers a vesitude of his country. His style is sel, as a guide directs us on land. usually pure, and often elegant. For the use of that word, however, His remarks are judicious and Washington's journal may be quosometimes profound. From a quoted, but its authority cannot affix tation our readers may easily de cide for themselves.

a new meaning. Infilade' is not an English word, but enfilade is naturalized from the French.Of other words we cannot be so tender; and if necessitated' is

"Perhaps no man ever lived who was so often called upon to form a judg; ment in cases of real difficulty, and who so often formed a right one, En-authorized by the dictionary, no gaged in the busy scenes of life, he one will deny, that it is inelegant. Enew human nature, and the most Tedium' is not English; and