Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

MONTHLY LIST

OF NEW PUBLICATIONS; OF WORKS IN THE PRESS; AND

NOTICES OF WORKS IN HAND.

Authors and Booksellers in the different parts of the Union are requested to send their communications (post paid) to the care of Mr. E. Sargeant, No. 39 Wall-street, New-York, by the 25th of each month-later than this they cannnot be inserted in the next succeeding month.

ORIGINAL WORKS.

War without Disguise, or the Frauds of Neutral Commerce a justification of belligerent Captures; with observations on the Answer to War in Disguise and Mr. Madison's Examination. Shewing that the true interest of America requires the rigid application of the British Rule of 156. New-York, Brisban and Brannan, price 621 Cents.

The Battle of the Eutau Springs, and evacuation of Charleston. on the glorious 14th of Dec. 1782. A national Drama in five acts, by William Goor. Charleston, S. C. J. Hoff.

The Political Farrago, or a Miscellaneous Review of Politics in the United States, from the administration of Washington to that of Mr. Jefferson, in 1806. By Peter Dobbins, Esq. R. C. U. S. A. Brattlebro, Vermont. Wm. Fessenden.

A Narrative of the Adventures of an American Navy Officer, who served during part of the American Revolution under the command of Com. John Paul Jones, Esq. By Nathaniel Fanning, late commander of Gun-Boat No. 2 in the American Navy.New-York, published for the widow of the author.

Transactions of the Society of Duchess County for the promotion of Agriculture; with select Essays on Rural Economy, chosen from various authors, and published by order of the Society, Vol. 1, No. 1. Poughkeepsie, Bowman, Parsons and Potter

The Life of General Washington; By John Marshall, chief justice of the United States, complete in 5 vols. 8vo. with an elegant Portrait and a variety of maps. Philad. C. P. Wayne. And for sale in New-York by E. Sargeant,

REPUBLICATIONS OF EUROPEAN WORKS.

The miseries of Human Life; on the Groans of Samuel Sensative and Timothy Testy with a few supplementary sighs by Mrs. Testy, 1 vol. 12mo. Boston, Belcher & Armstrong.

The wild Irish girl, a national Tale, by Miss Owenson, author of St. Clair, the Novice of St. Dominick, &c. &c. 1 vol. 12mo. price one Dollar and twenty-five cents. Philadelphia, T. S. Manning.

An account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, L. L. D. late professor of moral Philosophy and Logic, in the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen, Including many of his original Letters. By Wm. Forbes, of Pitsligo, Bart. One of the executors of Dr. Beattie. One vol. 8vo. price two dollars and fifty cents in boards. Philadelphia, S. F. Bradford, and in New-York, Brisban & Brannan. Memoirs of the life of Samuel Foote, Esq. by William Cooke Esq. 2 vols. 12mo. New-York, P. A. Mesier

Anquetil's Universal history, exhibiting the rise, decline, and revolutions of all the nations of the world from the creation to the present time, in nine vols 8vo. price two dollars per vol. is now publishing by C. P. Wayne. Philadelphia. Four volumes have been published, the fifth will soon be ready, and the whole work completed without delay. Subscriptions received in New-York by E. Sargeant.

WORKS ANNOUNCED.

Thomas Dobson, of Philadelphia, has issued proposals for publishing by subscription at five dollars in boards, an elegant 4to edition of the New-Testament, with Canne's Notes, to be printed on superfine Royal paper, with an elegant new type cast on purpose for the work, which will be put to press as soon as four hundred subscriptions are obtained, when the price will be raised to six dollars. If this undertaking meets with encouragement, Mr. Dobson proposes to publish the Old Testament in the same manner.

I. M. Dunham of Boston has issued proposals for publishing by subscription at two dollars a volume bound, Sermons by Hugh Blair, D. D. F. R. S. Late Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University of Edinburgh-In three volumes complete, from the twenty-fifth London Edition of five volumes-To which will be prefixed, the life of that venerable author.

Anthony Boucherie, of Philadelphia, proposes publishing by subscripton in two volumes 8vo. of about five hundred pages each price six dollars, the Merchants Unerring Guide to the East India and China trade; Drawn from the observations and notes of Pierre Blancard, an experienced merchant, and navigator in the Asiatic seas, by Anthony Boucherie.

William Andrews of Boston proposes to publish by subscription, the Works of William Paley, D. D. Archdeacon of Carlisle ; with a portrait of the author. In four vols. 8vo. at two dollars a volume.

John Wyeth of Harrisburgh, proposes to publish by subscription, the Moral and Religious Miscellany, or sixty-one Aphoretical Essays, on some of the most important Christian Doctrines and Virtues, by Hugh Knox, D. D. in St. Croix.

MONTHLY

REGISTER, MAGAZINE,

AND

REVIEW,

OF THE

UNITED STATES.

FIRST SECTION.

THE WANDERER. NO. VI.

ON THE UTILITY OF BLOCKHEADS.

"O dulness!-portion of the truly blest,
Calm, shelter'd haven of unvarying rest!
Thy sons ne'er madden in the fierce extremes
Of Fortune's polar frost, or torrid beams.
If, mantling high, she fills the golden cup,
With sober, selfish ease, they sip it up :
Conscious, that they the bounty well deserve,
They only wonder some folks do not starve.
The grave, sage hern, thus, easy, picks his frog.
And thinks the mallard a sad, worthless dog.
When disappointment snaps the clue of hope,
And through disastrous night they, darkling, grope,
With deaf endurance sluggishly, they bear;
And just conclude, that fools are fortune's care.
So heavy, passive to the tempest's shocks,
Strong, on the sign post, stands the stupid ox."

VOL. II.

1

"O ye, that live, a kin to fool,

Grave, tideless-blooded, calm and cool;

Your hearts are just a standing pool,

Your lives a dyke.

2 Y

2

No gleaming, sentimental traces
In your unletter'd, nameless faces:
In arioso trills and graces

Ye, never, stray :

But gravissimo, solemn bases

Ye hum away."

So far the poet of nature; who entertained, to the full, as profound a respect for block-heads, as I, myself, can possibly do, notwithstanding my strong predilection in favour of that very worthy and very numerous fraternity.

In that great game of calculation, called human life, the stake, played for by blockheads, is deep and important. By the generic term, block-heads, I do not mean those whom nature intended to be ideots, but who, by some unlucky mistake, are suffered to walk about at large in the community, and to pass for men. Although I am well aware, that idiots are cherished in Switzerland, and considered by the honest mountaineers as blessings of a very peculiar cast—which is undoubtedly true; but, then, only consider the far superior importance of block-heads; for they are cherished and encouraged every where-not only in Switzerland, where the people are so much enamoured of idiots, but, likewise, all over Europe, Asia, and Africa, and, not less, here on our great continent of America, which, to give it its due, doth treat this species of animals, called block-heads, with all imaginable reverence and esteem.

Neither do I mean the middle men-(the women are out of the question, in the present inquiry into the utility of blockheads)-by middle men I mean, those who stand mid-way between intellect and no intellect. The celebrated Mr. Harris, in his Hermes, and the egregious Lord Monboddo, in his Origin and Progress of Language, discourse, very largely, and very learnedly, concerning what they are pleased to call Zoophytes in language; which consist, if we may believe Lord Monboddo and Mr. Harris, of words, which have no signification, yet cannot be said to have no signification, but are, as it were,—(no doubt)—placed between signification and no signification, and therefore, must be Zoophytes.

I hope, that the reader understands all this profound reasoning;-if he does not, I cannot help it; for my own part, I freely confess, that it is to me altogether most comfortably unintelligible.

In like manner, then, I say, that there are very large bodies of men, whom no one, saving and except themselves, dares have the impudence to charge with being in the possession of any intellect and yet, of whom, we cannot well, with decency, publicly assert, that they have no intellect. These men, therefore, as Mr. Harris, and my Lord Monboddo, would sagaciously infer, stand mid-way between intellect and no intellect that is, they are middle men; the term, by which, henceforth, I desire, that all such beings may be known, and accordingly denominated.

:

At present, however, I do not intend to dissert either concerning these same middle men, or idiots; but to confine my attention, solely, to your wholesome, honest block-heads, who may be considered as fixtures in certain houses;—or, rather, as heir-looms, in certain families, descending from generation to generation, in one unbroken series of heavy perpetuity.For instance ;-but it is not my design, at present, to inquire, as Mrs. Slip-slop acutely observes, into particles.

I shall, therefore, first prove the utility of blockheads in matters relating to government.—Now, all the world knows, that in a republic, such as we have here in America, no aristocracy can, possibly, be allowed ;—for here, we are all equal; and, more particularly, say the Jacobins, who are a very numerous and powerful body of beings in this country,-all aristocracy of talent must be perpetually proscribed and destroyed; for we Jacobins always were, always are, and always will be equal to one another in dulness and ignorance; if you doubt this, look at the gun-boat system, and the nonimportation act;-if you doubt this, go and ask where are the statesmen and the warriors, the intelligent, the upright, the valiant, the honourable men, who by their wisdom in the cabinet, and by their prowess in the field, rescued America from the British yoke, and reared her into an independent nation?—and when you find that all those,

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »