and passengers are at this present in a storm, and shriek out because their keel dashes against a rock or bulges under them; how many people there are that weep with want, and are mad with oppression, or are desperate by too quick a sense of constant infelicity; in all reason we should be glad to be out of the noise and participation of so many evils. This is a place of sorrows and tears, of great evils and constant calamity; let us remove from hence, at least in affections and preparations of mind.”—Holy Dying, c. i. § 5. p. 40. 8vo. edit. CICERO. The republication of the works of this illustrious orator, philosopher and patriot is one of the most laudable efforts. of the literary enterprise of America. Would not the publishers, Messrs. Wells and Lilly, do well to reprint the best English translations, as well as the original text, of that noble writer? To the great majority of our readers his sentiments can never be communicated, except through the medium of our vernacular tongue. Every thing that concerns that great man is interesting. His birth-place was Arpinum, a city anciently of the Samnites, now part of the kingdom of Naples. Its territory was rude and mountainous. The family seat was about three miles from the town, in a situation extremely pleasant, and surrounded with groves and shady walks. "But there cannot," says Middleton, in his life of Cicero, "be a better proof of the delightfulness of the place than that it is now possessed by a convent of monks, and called the villa of St. Dominic. Strange revolution! to see Cicero's porticos converted to monkish cloisters-the seat of the most refined reason, wit and learning, to a nursery of superstition and bigotry. What a pleasure must it give to these Dominican inquisitors to trample on the ruins of a man, whose writings, by spreading the light of reason and liberty through the world, have been one great instrument of obstructing their unwearied pains to enslave it!' vol. 1. p. 6. "It is not possible," observes the same excellent writer, "to excite an affection for Cicero, without instilling an affection, at the same time, for every thing laudable; since how much soever people may differ in their opinion of his conduct, yet all have con- stantly agreed in their judgment of his works, that there are none now remaining to us from the heathen world, which so beautifully display, and so forcibly recommend, all those generous principles that tend to exalt and perfect human nature, the love of virtue, liberty, our country, and of all mankind." Pref. p. 29. Servius Sulpicius, in his admirable consolatory letter to Cicero, on the death of his daughter Tullia, has these observations: "On my return from Asia, as I was sailing from Egina towards Megara, I began to contemplate the prospect of the countries around me. Egina was behind-Megara before me; Piræus on the right-Corinth on the left: all which towns, once famous and flourishing, now lie overturned, and buried in their ruins. Upon this sight, I could not but think presently within myself, alas! how do we poor mortals fret and vex ourselves, if any of our friends happen to die, or to be killed, whose life is yet so short, when the carcases of so many noble cities lie here exposed before me in one view." Perhaps this passage was in the recollection of Tasso, when he wrote the following beautiful lines on the fate of Carthage: Giace l'alta Cartago: a pena i segni De l'alte sue ruine il lido serba. Gierusalemme Liberata, c. 15. st. 20. FOR THE PORT FOLIO.-ON COMETS. MR. OLDSCHOOL-I send you my conjectures concerning comets; and if you do not consider them more absurd than some already published, I wish you to give them a place in your journal. On observing the comets which lately appeared, I was led to examine the different opinions and conjectures concerning them generally, some of which appeared very absurd, and none satisfactory. Sir Isaac Newton has computed the heat of the comet, which appeared in 1680, to be two thousand times greater than red-hot iron, and that at last it would fall into the sun, as fuel for it. However respectable his authority may be, I cannot agree with him; so well satisfied am I with the whole celestial system, which, in my opinion, is so completely organized and regulated, that the destruction of no one planet is necessary for the support of another. We find, in this globe, although changes have taken place, that there is no diminution of matter from the first creation; therefore we may reasonably conclude the sun requires no supply of any matter, but what is contained within itself. When I first discovered the last comet, I marked with a pencil, on a piece of paper, its relative situation with some of the fixed stars, and so at different periods, in order to find its course. After I had ascertained that, as well as the eye and my judgment enabled me, I was astonished to find, that what has been always called the tail, did not follow the course of the comet, which it ought to do, if it was as highly heated as sir Isaac Newton supposes, but always appeared in a direct line from the sun through the comet. This was noted by Appian of Ingolstadt, who stated that the tail of the comet which appeared in the year 1513 was always in an opposite direction to the sun. This, with my own observations, led me to consider how and from what cause the tail could appear in any other direction than behind the course of the comet, and more especially, as the comet, from its great heat, as stated by sir Isaac, must be so highly ignited, and its great velocity, as to throw off sparks or particles to form the tail, and should of course follow. The tail, however, does not follow, but appears in almost all directions from its course, according to its relative situation with the sun and us. I was therefore led to believe that all comets with tails-which I shall call streamersmust be composed of a transparent fluid, very probably water, and containing no more heat than it receives from the sun. The rays of the sun, operating on the surface of the comet, are concentrated; from which they diverge, and appear in an opposite direction to the sun, and form the streamers, which will be always in that direction, let the medium be what it may that the comet passes through. Dr. Hambleton is of opinion that the tail (streamers) is This opinion may have arisen from refraction, bent in a curve. The streamers of comets will but in reality it cannot be so. alter their appearance, and the appearance of their length, as they alter their angle from a strait line between us and the sun. When the comet is nearly in a line between us and the sun, the streamers will appear like a burr round the comet: as the comet recedes from the sun, and forms a right angle with us and the sun, the streamers will appear of their actual length. This may account for the different lengths of the streamers, as noticed by some writers on this subject. Comets which are said to appear without tails, and only on their approach towards the sun, I conjecture to be opaque bodies, and that they are discovered by the light of the sun, operating on the side next us, which enables it to be discovered. As it approaches, and after it has passed its perihelion, the dark side is next us, and therefore is invisible. Delaware County, September, 1816. J. H. ORIGINAL LETTER FROM GENERAL WASHINGTON. SIR-In answer to your letter of yesterday's date, containing the following queries "Is the department of inspector general necessary in the army, or is it not? "Has this department been conducted, during the course of five years, agreeable to your wishes, and have the consequences resulting from my exertions, as chief of the department, an-, swered your expectations?" I give it as my clear opinion, that it has been of the utmost utility, and continues to be of the greatest importance, for reasons too plain and obvious to stand in need of enumeration, but more especially for having established one uniform system of manœuvres and regulations, in an army composed of the troops of thirteen states, each having its local prejudices, and subject to constant interruptions and deviations, from the frequent changes and dissolutions it has undergone. It is equally just to declare, that the department under your auspices has been conducted with an intelligence, activity and zeal, not less beneficial to the public than honorable to yourself, and that I have had abundant reason to be satisfied with your abilities and attention to the duties of your office, during the four years you have been in the service. I have the honour to be sir, Your most obedient servant, Major Gen. Baron de Steuben. G. WASHINGTON. FOR THE PORT FOLIO.-PENN ON GOVERNMENT. No sooner, says a celebrated writer, had William Penn settled his government, but the natives of the country, instead of flying into the woods, cultivated by degrees a friendship with the peaceable quakers. They loved these strangers as much as they disliked some other pretended christians, who had conquered and ravaged this country. In a little time these savages, as they are called, delighted with their new neighbours, flocked in crowds to become his vassals. It was a singular spectacle to behold a people, in a strange land, among uncivilized men, without arms, for offence or preservation; a body of citizens, without any distinctions but that of public employments; and for neighbours to live together, without envy or jealousy. Montesquieu has saluted our lawgiver as the real Lycurgus; and the sagacity and wisdom of his frame of laws will demonstrate the justice of the eulogium. As the good people of this country are very frequently called upon to select persons for office, the following passages, from the introduction to our old code, are worthy of profound meditation, in all those parts where the rights of a freeman have not been surrendered to the venality of a caucus. |