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CONTENTS OF No. I.

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SOUTHERN REVIEW.

NO. I.

FEBRUARY, 1828.

ART. I.-1. An Address on the Character and Objects of Science, and especially on the Influence of the Reformation on the Science and Literature, past, present and future, of Protestant Nations; delivered in the First Presbyterian Church, on Wednesday the 9th of May, being the Anniversary of the Literary and Philosophical Society of South-Carolina. By THOMAS S.

GRIMKE'. 8vo. Charleston. Miller. 1827.

2. An Address delivered before the South-Carolina Society, on the Occasion of Opening their Male Academy, on the 2d July, 1827. By WM. GEO. READ, Principal of the Same. 8vo. Charleston. Miller. 1827.

3. Inaugural Discourse, delivered in Trinity Church, Geneva, New-York, August 1st, 1827. By the Rev. JASPER ADAMS, President of Geneva College. Geneva. 1827.

WE Americans take nothing for granted-except, indeed, as it would appear from the tone of some recent publications-the immeasurable superiority of those who have lived to see this "Age of Reason" over all that have not been so fortunate. With this exception, however, (since we must needs consider it as such) all postulates are rigorously excluded from our most approved systems of logic-and when, in the fulness of time, those mathematicians shall rise up amongst us, who, according to a cheering prophecy of Mr. Grimké, are to throw into the shade, as intellectual beings, the Newtons and the La Places, no less than the Euclids and the Apollonius', we shall scarcely be satisfied with their improvements in Geometry, unless they begin by demonstrating its axioms. We take up all questions de novo, and treat every subject of general speculation and philosophy, no matter VOL. I.-NO. 1.

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how frequently and fully discussed, or how solemnly decided elsewhere, as what is called at the bar res integra, that is to say, as fair game for criticism and controversy. Besides this, we may be permitted to observe, while we are upon this topic, that the pleasant exhortation, mon ami, commence par le commencement, seems to have been made expressly for our use. We are for coming out on all occasions, not only with the truth, but the whole truth, and seem utterly unable to comprehend the reason of that peevish rule,

Nec reditum Diomedis ab interitu Meleagri,

Nec gemino bellum Trojanum orditur ab ævo.

For instance, it would not surprise us much if a member of Congress from one of the more enlightened, because less ancient and prejudiced States, should introduce a speech upon the Colonial Trade by a "brief" account of Columbus and his discoveries, as it is every day's experience to see even our leading politicians lay hold of the most casual and ordinary questions of commerce and finance, to spout whole volumes of the merest rudiments and generalities of political œconomy. There are some people, we dare say, in this censorious world who would be apt to consider all this as outrageously rational; but, perhaps, after all, it will not do in so new a country to adopt old ideas and assume established truths-and no one, we humbly conceive, can address the American public with effect, who is not himself patient enough to begin at the very beginning, and to accommodate his mode of discussion to this decided national predilection for elementary inquiry, and regular and exact demonstration according to the utmost rigour of the logical forms.

We have thought it advisable to premise thus much, at the very outset of our critical labors, by way of preventive apology, so to speak, for the manner in which we shall find ourselves constrained to examine many matters that are considered in other countries as quite settled. For instance, a formal discussion at this time of day, of the comparative merits of the Ancients and Moderns, and the advantages of a classical education, would be set down in England by the side of that notable argument to prove, that a general can do nothing without troops, of which, Cicero, if we mistake not, has somewhere made such honorable mention. But what might there very properly be rejected as supererogation, or even quizzed as downright twaddling, (to borrow a phrase from an English Magazine) may be imperiously called for by the state of public opinion on this side of the Atlantic. The Edinburgh Review, in an able and elaborate article on Cobbett's writings, dispatched his opinions upon the subject

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