the fire of their field-pieces, which did us but little damage.

Having by this time discovered that the enemy were greatly superior in number, and that their design was to surround us, I ordered all our baggage to be removed silently to Burlington soon after dark; and at twelve 'clock, after renewing our fires, and leaving guards at the bridge in Trenton, and other passes on the same stream above, marched by a roundabout road to Princeton, where I knew they could not have much force left, and might have stores. One thing I was certain of, that it would avoid the appearance of a retreat (which it was of course, or to run the hazard of the whole army being cut off), whilst we might, by a fortunate stroke, withdraw General Howe from Trenton, and give some reputation to our arms. Happily, we succeeded. We found Princeton about sunrise, with only three regiments, and three troops of light horse in it, two of which were on their march to Trenton. These three regiments, especially the two first, made a gallant resistance, and in killed, wounded, and prisoners, must have lost five hundred men: upwards of one hundred of them were left dead on the field; and, with what I have with me, and what were taken in the pursuit and carried across the Delaware, there are near three hundred prisoners, fourteen of whom are officers, all British.

This piece of good fortune is counterbalanced by the loss of the brave and worthy General Mercer, Colonels Hazlet and Potter, Captain Neal of the artillery, Captain Fleming, who commanded the First Virginia Regiment, and four or five other valuable officers, who, with about twenty-five or thirty privates, were slain in the field. Our whole loss cannot be ascertained, as many who were in pursuit of the enemy (who were chased three or four miles) are not yet

come in.

The rear of the enemy's army, lying at Maidenhead (not more than five or six miles from Princeton), was up with us before our pursuit was over: but as I had the precaution to destroy the bridge over Stony Brook (about half a mile from the scene of action), they were so long retarded there as to give us time to move off in good order for this place. We took two brass field-pieces; but, for want of horses, could not bring them away. We also took some blankets, shoes, and a few other trifling articles, burned the hay, and destroyed such other things as the shortness of the time would admit of.

My original plan, when I set out for Trenton, was to have pushed on to Brunswick: but the harassed state of our troops (many of them having had no rest for two nights

and a day), and the danger of losing the advantage we had gained by aiming at too much, induced me, by the advice of my officers, to relinquish the attempt: but, in my judgment, six or eight hundred fresh troops, upon a forced march, would have destroyed all their stores and magazines, taken (as we have since learned) their military chest, containing seventy thousand pounds,-and put an end to the war. The enemy, from the best intelligence I have been able to get, were so much alarmed at the apprehension of this, that they marched immediately to Brunswick, without halting, except at the bridges (for I also took up those on Millstone, on the different routes to Brunswick), and got there before day.

From the best information I have received, General Howe has left no men either at Princeton or Trenton. The truth of this I am endeavouring to ascertain, that I may regulate my movements accordingly.

The militia are taking spirits, and, I am told, are coming in fast from this state: but I fear those from Philadelphia will scarcely submit to the hardships of a winter campaign much longer, especially as they very unluckily sent their blankets with their baggage to Burlington. I must do them the justice, however, to add, that they have undergone more fatigue and hardship than I expected militia (especially citizens) would have done at this inclement season. I am just moving to Morristown, where I shall endeavour to put them under the best cover I can :-hitherto we have been without any; and many of our poor soldiers quite barefoot, and ill clad in other respects.

I have the honour to be, &c., G. W.

RICHARD CUMBERLAND,

grandson of the famous Grecian, Doctor Richard Bentley, born 1732, died 1811, was author of the comedies of The West Indian, The Wheel of Fortune, The Jew, and The Fashionable Lover; Anecdotes of Eminent Painters in Spain, Lond., 1782, 2 vols. 12mo; The Observer, Lond., 1785, 2 vols. 8vo, 1786, 3 vols. cr. 8vo, 1788, 5 vols., 1790, 5 vols., 1796, 3 vols., and in The British Classics 1803, and in The British Essayists; the novels of Arundel, Lond., 1789, 2 vols. 12mo, Henry, Lond., 1795, 4 vols. 12mo, and John de Lancaster, 3 vols.; Calvary, or The Death of Christ, a Poem, Lond., 1792, 4to; A Poetical Version of Certain [50] Psalms, Tunbridge Wells, 1801, 8vo; Memoirs, Lond., 1806, 4to, Supplement, 1807, 4to, with Illustrative Notes by Henry Flanders, Phila., 1856, 8vo; The Exodiad, in twc

Parts, Lond., 1807-8, 4to (in conjunction with Sir J. B. Burges); Retrospection, a Poem, Lond., 1811, 4to, theological tracts, etc. See The Posthumous Dramatic Works of Richard Cumberland, edited by T. W. Jansen, Lond., 1813, 2 vols. 8vo.

"The Observer, though the sole labour of an individual, is yet rich in variety, both of subject and manner; in this respect, indeed, as well as in literary interest, and fertility of invention, it may be cissed with the Spectator and Adventurer."— DR. DRAKE: Essays, vol. v.

THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST.

With regard to the gospel account of Christ's miracles, I may be allowed, in general, to observe, that these forgeries of Porphyry and Jamblichus, in imitation of them, warrant a fair presumption that if these writers could have disproved the authority of the Evangelists, and controverted the matter of fact, they would not have resorted to so indecisive and circuitous a mode of opposing them as this which we are now examining: men of such learning as these writers would not have risked extravagant fictions merely to keep way with a history which they had more immediate means of refuting on the other hand, if their absurdity should lead any man to suppose that they forged these accounts by way of parody, and in ridicule of the gospels, the accounts themselves give the strongest evidence to the contrary, and it is clear beyond a doubt, that both Porphyry and Jamblichus mean to be credited in their histories of Pythagoras, as seriously as Philostratus does in his of Apollonius Tyaneus.

This will more fully appear by referring to the circumstances that occasioned these histories to be written.

Christ having performed his miracles openly and before so many witnesses, it is not found that the matter of fact was ever questioned by any who lived in that age; on the contrary, we see it was acknowledged by his most vigilant enemies, the Pharisees: they did not deny the miracle, but they ascribed it to the aid of the prince of the devils: so weak a subterfuge against the evidence of their own senses probably satisfied neither themselves nor others: if it had, this accusation of sorcery (being capital by the law, and also by that of the Romans) would have been heard of, when they were so much to seek for crimes, wherewith to charge him on his trial: if any man shall object, that this is arguing out of the gospels in favour of the gospels, I contend that this matter of fact does not rest solely on the gospel evidence, but also upon collateral historic proof: for this very argument of the Pharisees, and this only, is made use of by those

Jews whom Celsus brings in arguing against the Christian religion; and those Jews, on this very account, rank Christ with Pythagoras; and I challenge the cavillers against Christ's miracles either to controvert what is thus asserted, or to produce any other argument of Jewish origin, except this ascribed to the Pharisees by the gospel, either from Celsus, as above mentioned, or any other writer.

Celsus, it is well known, was a very learned man, and wrote in the time of Adrian, or something later; this was not above fifty years after the date of Christ's miracles. Celsus did not controvert the accounts of them who were witnesses of the miracles, or attempt to shew any inconsist ency or chicanery in the facts themselves : he takes up at second-hand the old Pharisaical argument of ascribing them to the power of the devil; in short, they were performed, he cannot deny it; there was no trick or artifice in the performance, he cannot discover any; the accounts of them are no forgeries, he cannot confute them; they are recent histories, and their authenticity too notorious to be called in question: he knows not how the miracles were performed, and therefore they were done by the invocation of the devil: he cannot patiently look on and see that learning, so long the glory of all civilized nations, and which he himself was to an eminent degree possessed of, now brought into disgrace by a new religion, professing to be a divine revelation, and originating from amongst the meanest and most odious of all the provincial nations, and propagated by disciples who were as much despised and hated by the Jews in general as the Jews were by all other people. Observer, No. 10.

THE ROMAN LIBRARIES.

Little attention was paid to literature by the Romans in the early and more martial ages: I read of no collections antecedent to those made by Æmilius, Paulus, and Lucullus, the latter of whom, being a man of great magnificence, allowed the learned men of his time to have free access to his library, but neither in his lifetime, nor at his death, made it public property. Cornelius Sylla, before his dictatorship, plundered Athens of a great collection of books, which had been accumulating from the time of the tyranny, and these he brought to Rome, but did not build or endow any library for public use. This was at last undertaken by Julius Cæsar upon an imperial scale not long before his death, and the learned M. Varro was employed to collect and arrange the books for the foundation of an ample lib

rary its completion, which was interrupted by the death of Julius and the civil wars subsequent thereto, was left for Augustus, who assigned a fund out of the Dalmatian booty for this purpose, which he put into the hands of the celebrated Asinius Pollio, who therewith founded a temple to liberty on Mount Aventine, and with the help of Sylla's and Varro's Collections, in addition to his own purchases, opened the first public library in Rome in an apartment annexed to the temple above mentioned. Two others were afterward instituted by the same emperor, which he called the Octavian and Palatine libraries; the first, so named in honour of his sister, was placed in the temple of Juno; the latter, as its title specifies, was in the imperial palace: these libraries were royally endowed with establishments of Greek and Latin librarians, of which C. Julius Hyginus, the grammarian,

was one.

The Emperor Tiberius added another library to the palace, and attached his new building to that front which looked towards the Via Sacra, in which quarter he himself resided. Vespasian endowed a public library in the temple of Peace. Trajan founded the famous Ulpian library in his new forum, from whence it was at last removed to the Collis Viminalis to furnish the baths of Dioclesian. The Capitoline library is supposed to have been founded by Domitian, and was consumed, together with the noble edifice to which it was attached, by a stroke of lightning in the time of Commodus. The Emperor Hadrian enriched his favourite villa with a superb collection of books, and lodged them in a temple dedicated to Hercules. These were, in succeeding times, so multiplied by the munificence and emulation of the several emperors, that in the reign of Constantine Rome contained no less than twenty-nine public libraries, of which the principal were the Palatine and the Ulpian. Though books were then collected at an immense expense, several private citizens of fortune made considerable libraries. Tyrannio, the grammarian, even in the time of Sylla was possessed of three thousand volumes: Epaphroditus, a grammarian also, had in later times collected thirty thousand of the most select and valuable books; but Sammonicus Serenus bequeathed to the Emperor Gordian a library containing no less than sixty-two thousand volumes. It was not always a love of literature that tempted people to these expenses, for Seneca complains of the vanity of the age in furnishing their banquetting rooms with books, not for use, but for show, and in a mere spirit of profusion. Their baths, both hot and cold, were always supplied with books to fill up

an idle hour amongst the other recreations of the place; in like manner their country houses and even public offices were provided for the use and amusement of their guests and clients.

The Roman libraries, in point of disposition, much resembled the present fashion observed in our public ones; for the books were not placed against the walls, but brought into the area of the room, in separate cells and compartments, where they were lodged in presses: the intervals between these compartments were richly orna mented with inlaid plates of glass and ivory and marble bass-relievos. In these compartments, which were furnished with desks and couches for the accommodation of readers, it was usual to place statues of learned men, one in each; and this we may observe is one of the few elegances which Rome was not indebted to Greece for, the first idea having been started by the accomplished Pollio, who in his library on Mount Aventine set up the statue of his illustrious contemporary Varro, even whilst he was living: it was usual also to ornament the press where any considerable author's works were contained, with his figure in brass or plaster of a smaller size.

There is one more circumstance attending these public libraries, which ought not to be omitted, as it marks the liberal spirit of their institution: it was usual to appropriate an adjoining building for the use and accommodation of students, where every thing was furnished at the emperor's cost: they were lodged, dieted, and attended by servants specially appointed, and supplied with every thing, under the eye of the chief librarian, that would be wanting whilst they were engaged in their studies, and had occasion to consult the books: this establishment was kept up in a very princely style at Alexandria in particular, where a college was endowed and a special fund appointed for its support, with a president and proper officers under him, for the entertainment of learned strangers, who resorted thither from various parts to consult those invaluable collections which that famous library contained in all branches of science.

Observer, No. 51.

SAMUEL HORSLEY, LL.D.,

born in London, 1733, became Prebendary of Gloucester, 1787, Bishop of St. David's 1788, of Rochester, 1793, and of St. Asaph's, 1802, and died 1806. He published several theological, philological, and mathematical works, a complete edition of the Works of

Sir Isaac Newton, Lond., 1779-85, 5 vols. 4to, and became widely known by his controversy with Dr. Priestley, who in An History of the Corruptions of Christianity, Birm., 1782, 2 vols. 8vo, contended that neither Trinitarianism nor Arianism, but Socinianism, was the unanimous faith of the first Christians. A collective edition of Horsley's Theological Works was published by Longman, Lond., 1845, 6 vols. 8vo. These contain his Biblical Criticism (Lond., 1820, 4 vols. 8vo, 2d edit., 1844, 2 vols. 8vo), 2 vols.; Psalms, Translated from the Hebrew (1815, 2 vols. 8vo), 4th edit., 1 vol.; Sermons (181015, 4 vols. 8vo, etc.), 2 vols.; Charges (1813, 8vo, etc.,), 1 vol.

all nations, among men of all ranks, callings, and conditions, should be the general badge and distinction of his disciples: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another." And this injunction of loving one another as he had loved them, he calls a new commandment: "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another."

It is commonly said, and sometimes strenuously insisted, as a circumstance in which the ethic of all religions falls short of the Christian, that the precept of universal benevolence, embracing all mankind, without distinction of party, sect, or nation, had never been heard of till it was inculcated

THE NEW COMMANDMENT.

In that memorable night when divine love and infernal malice had each their perfect work, the night when Jesus was betrayed into the hands of those who thirsted for his blood, and the mysterious scheme of man's redemption was brought to its accomplishment, Jesus, having finished the Paschal supper, and instituted those holy mysteries by which the thankful remembrance of his oblation of himself is continued in the church until his second coming, and the believer is nourished with the food of everlasting life, the body and blood of the crucified Redeemer;-when all this was finished, and nothing now remained of his great and painful undertaking but the last trying part of it, to be led like a sheep to the slaughter, and to make his life a sacrifice for sin,-in that trying hour, just before he retired to the garden, where the power of darkness was to be permitted to display on him its last and utmost effort, Jesus gave it solemnly in charge to the eleven apostles (the twelfth, the son of perdition, was already lost; he was gone to hasten the execution of his intended treason),-to the eleven, whose loyalty remained as yet unshaken, Jesus in that awful hour gave it solemnly in charge "to love one another, as he had loved them." And because the perverse wit of man is ever fertile in plausible evasions of the plainest duties, lest this command should be interpreted, in after-ages, as an injunction in which the apostles only were concerned, imposed upon them in their peculiar character of the governors of the church, our great Master, to obviate any such wilful misconstruction of his dying charge, declared it to be his pleasure and his meaning, that the exercise of mutual love, in all ages, and in

our Saviour. But this is a mistake. Were it not that experience and observation afford daily proof how easily a sound judgment is misled by the exuberance even of an honest zeal, we should be apt to say that this could be maintained by none who had ever read the Old Testament. The obligation indeed upon Christians to make the avowed enemies of Christianity the objects of their prayers and of their love, arises out of the peculiar nature of Christianity, considered as the work of reconciliation. Our Saviour too was the first who showed to what extent the specific duty of mutual forgiveness is included in the general command of mutual love; but the command itself, in its full extent, "That every man should love his neighbour as himself," we shall find, if we consult the Old Testament, to be just as old as any part of the religion of the Jews. The two maxims to which our Saviour refers the whole of the law and the prophets were maxims of the Mosaic law itself. Had it indeed been otherwise, our Saviour, when he alleged these maxims in answer to the lawyer's question, "Which is the chief commandment of the law?" would not have answered with that wonderful precision and discernment which on so many occasions put his adversaries to shame and silence.

Indeed had these maxims not been found in the law of Moses, it would still have been true of them that they contain everything which can be required of man as matter of general, indispensable duty; insomuch that nothing can become an act of duty to God or to our neighbour otherwise than as it is capable of being referred to the one or the other of these two general topics. They might be said therefore to be, in the nature of the thing, the supreme and chief of all commandments; being those to which all others are naturally and necessarily subordinate, and in which all others are contained as parts in the whole. All this would have been true though neither of these maxims had had a place in the law of Moses. But