and the affairs in which Aaron Burr was implicated,' the continuators proceed with the history from 1808 to the treaty of Ghent, in December, 1814. If the narration of facts be correct, the spirit of Ramsay is found wanting.' It was composed, perhaps, too near the time of the events which it records, to admit of a cool, philosophical recital. The original historian, however, had presented to his successours a fair model, which, if it were merely for the preservation of that uniformity and consistency, required by the Roman critick, they should have more closely imitated.

- servetur ad imum

Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet.'

A precept of the same well known author, to preserve a work in manuscript nine years, might, perhaps have been profitably observed;

Nonum prematur in annum,
Membranis intus positis.'

If it would not have essentially affected the body, it might have softened the spirit of the work.

The history of the origin of the war between the United States and Great Britain is drawn up too much in the style of an advocate. A sip of the waters of Lethe may, occasionally, be useful to historians, as well as to those who are accustomed to the waters of Helicon. To know what to forget, is often more difficult than to know what to remember. Dryden tells us,

Poets lose half the praise they would have got,
Were it but known what they discreetly blot.'

Why may not this be said, also, of prose writers? Much of the preliminary history of this war is discreetly obliterated.

The events of the war are recorded with apparent accuracy, but with a minuteness, disproportionate alike to the magnitude of the subject, and to the other parts of the work. The occurrences of two years and a half occupy about two hundred pages. It is a narrative, however, which, liable as it is to some exceptions from criticks and statesmen, exhibits the spirit of our soldiery, and especially the enterprise, skill, and valour of our seamen, in a light, well adapted to command the admiration, not of Britain only, but of all Europe. In its present form, it may better please soldiers and mariners, and

such citizens as love the sound of national glory; but we should prefer the succinct manner of Thucydides, of Sallust, and of Tacitus. A deeper tinge, too, of Ramsay's mildness and philanthropy would have heightened our estimate of the performance. The burning of an Indian town and village is mentioned without stricture; and an outrage, that excited universal horrour, is called a signal violation of the peace,' and an unfortunate occurrence.'

To whatever exceptions the war itself is liable, the results will, we hope, as our historians believe, prove ultimately favourable to neutral rights, and lessen, if not prevent, those evils, of which we have so long and so justly complained. The inflation of national pride, however, would be a serious and portentous evil. When we call to mind the ambition of former republicks, we deprecate the effects of this passion, should it be a characteristick of our own. We could have wished, that something similar to what we have observed of the pacifick spirit, principles, and counsels of the first of our historians, at the close of his part of the work, had appeared at the conclusion of the whole; but we find the reverse. The American eagle is exhibited, as ready to unclench her arrows, rather than as holding forth her olive branch. Believing, as we do, that war is the greatest enemy to liberty, we cannot but consider the pacifick policy, recommended by the venerable Ramsay, adapted to make a republick free, prosperous and happy. But sage historians seem destined, like Cassandra, not to be believed, until events prove the wisdom of their counsels, and the truth of their predictions. Troja fuit.

As a specimen of the style and manner of the Continuators of Ramsay, we give the following extract, relative to commodore Perry's victory.

"The ocean is the usual scene of naval conflict; but Perry and Barclay met on the bosom of Erie. Over its waves their two governments claimed common jurisdiction in the time of peace; and in war each aspired to its exclusive exercise. The commanders built and equipped their respective squadrons. Barclay had the advantage of time in the beginning, and the advantage of force, when the contest ceased to be a competition of artizans. He eagerly sought his rival, as early as informed of his departure from Erie, with full confidence in his advantages. His vessels had been trimmed, and his men seasoned, in a previous cruise around the lake; an advantage professional men would consider almost a guarantee of victory, against a squadron of equal force just out of Vol. VI. No. 3. 44

port. But the mind of commodore Perry overlooked the whole with a steady regard to the consequences; and, in the greatest extremity, enabled him so to combine manœuvre with force, as to wrest success from his opponent. No one can doubt that the issue of the memorable contest is to be ascribed to the superiour abilities of the American commander, and the skill and valour of his comrades.' pp. 249, 250.

There is a passage in the Continuation, which, to say nothing more, violates the dignity of history. The imagination, rioting in the glory of New Orleans, shrinks from a glance at its contrast in the tame surrender to the enemy of Eastport, Castine, and Machias.' It is altogether of a poetical cast, and must be so understood. But, as it is inserted in a historical work, it is proper to observe, that the writer appears to have known nothing of the geographical position of these villages, situated in an extreme part of the United States; of their proximity to the British settlements; of the depth of the waters by which they are accessible; of the smallness of their population; of their remoteness from the capital, and from every section, of Massachusetts Proper; of the impracticability of raising, on a sudden emergency, a sufficient number of troops to repel armed ships; and of the insignificancy of these places, compared with the capital of Louisiana. Had the enemy made a successful descent on the petty island of Ossabaw or St. Catherine's in Georgia, or at Montauk Point, the imagination might as easily have made out a contrast, and shrunk from the glance.

In the Continuation, we were sorry to find the word, fortune' frequently used, instead of Providence.' One instance, after a very handsome description of Perry's victory, is the more striking, when contrasted with his own official account, equally distinguished for its brevity, modesty, and piety. The style of the victor is, It has pleased the Almighty to give to the arms of the United States a signal victory over their enemies on this lake.' The style of the historian is, Whatever of good fortune presided over it, was on the side of the British squadron; and under its auspices, at one moment, commodore Barclay had good reason to expect the award of victory in his favour; but to the advantages of superiour force, greater numbers, and previous discipline, commodore Perry opposed energy, patriotism, valour, and enterprise. The verdict was signally in his favour. The palm was decreed to the arms of the United States.' Here the goddess Fortune has all the attributes

6

with which she was ever arrayed in heathen mythology, with the addition of others, that belonged to the Fatal Sisters. She 'presides over the issue of the battle; the British commodore fights under her auspices; she pronounces the verdict;' and, finally, she decrees the palm.' This is placing the reader, in good earnest, on classick ground. It had, however, been more classical, more laconick, and more intelligible to have said, at once, with Virgil,

Sic volvere Parcas.'

6

The frequent appeal to those passions, which are the origin of wars, is adapted to excite a love of military glory; but it does not accord with the spirit and character of the religion of the Prince of peace. When the reader meets with ́a proud day,' • a proud triumph,' and ' proudest hopes,' and is told that he will now be introduced to scenes,' where he will find results on which the American people may reflect with pride;' he will conclude, that the respectable divine, whose name stands at the head of the literary associates, sometimes nodded,' as well as Homer, if he were not, occasionally, even a sleeping partner.'

6

The style of Dr. Ramsay is justly characterised in the Memoir of his Life. The writer of it speaks the opinion of men well qualified to judge, when he says that as a historian Ramsay is faithful, judicious, and impartial; that his style is classical and chaste; and if occasionally tinctured by originality of idea, or singularity of expression, it is perfectly free from affected obscurity, or laboured ornament. Its energy of thought is tempered by its simplicity and beauty of style.'

Between this and the style of the Continuators we perceive a difference, while the predominant character of each is highly respectable. The one has more simplicity; the other has more force. That is distinguished for perspicuity; this, for animation. The language of the first is more pure; that of the last, more elevated. The construction in the one is more natural; in the other, more rhetorical. The one has fewer graces; the other has more faults. In the one, we seldom find occasion for verbal criticism; in the other, not unfrequently. Specimens of what appear to us faults in the style, are subjoined.

In the first volume, we object to eventuated, renitency, captivated, for captured, aforehand, knack, auxiliary aids; in the

third volume, in the Continuation, chiefly, we object to bring about, cast about, counted on, shoved against, resentment exasperated, suspicions afloat, deep stake, infuriated fanaticism, undertook responsibility, prodigal of heroism, progressed, dashed upon the retreating Indians, jaded [applied to men after a rapid march,] peppered [by grape shot,] patriotick apostolick administrator of the diocese of Louisiana.*

These blemishes are observed, not to detract a particle from the value of the work, but to encourage and promote that classical purity, which is justly required in literary productions, and for the want of which the severest strictures have been made in Europe, upon American publications. The faults of admired authors are apt to be imperceptibly copied.

'Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile.'

We wish to see our language cultivated, together with the arts and sciences, that America may have her classical historians, as well as her philosophers and poets. In the progress of improvement, however, we believe no time can be predicted, when the volumes before us will not be viewed as an ornament to our libraries, and an honour to our country.

ART. XII. Vegetable Materia Medica of the United States, or Medical Botany, containing a botanical, general and medical history of the medicinal plants indigenous to the United States. Illustrated by coloured engravings. By William P. C. Barton, M. D. &c. Professor of Botany in Pennsylvania University. No. 1. Philadelphia, M. Carey & Son, 1817. 4to. pp. 76, plates 6. American Medical Botany, being a collection of the native medicinal plants of the United States, containing their botanical history and chemical analysis, and properties and uses in Medicine, Diet and the Arts, with coloured engravings. By Jacob Bigelow, M. D. Rumford Professor and Lecturer on Materia Medica and Botany, in Harvard University. University Press, Hilliard & Metcalf, 1817. No. 1. royal 8vo. pp. 110, plates 10.

We have in previous numbers devoted some of the pages of this journal to notices of works on natural science, which

* We observe an errour in vol. i. p. 85, where Philip's war is mentioned as already related; but the relation is subsequent, pp. 256-8,