plain habit of her oder could vail the intelligence of her countenance or take from her manner that politeness, which is the effect of natural refinement. We ascended very many flights of stone steps, and were led through long sounding ailes" into a large a partment assigned for private devotion; the question passed through my mind. whether these Nuns enjoyed

"The eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind, "Each prayer accepted, and each wish re"sign'd."

Here sister Mary," remarked that it was us ful to abstract the heart from worldly cases, which disqualified it tor Sacred communion: and that it was

necessary we should be thus prepared for a higher destination. She further observed that a slight difference xistea between theirs and the Episcopalian Creed, particularly respecting some verbal ceremonial in their baptismal vows. She conceived it to be a work of supererogation for Sponsors to promise that the pomps ana va nities of this world" should be renounced by those, for whom they could not possibly be answerable. indeed sne thought a strictly conscienuous man could not assume this responsibility. Her good sense and pleasing conversa tion obtained the tullest assent of my judgment. Father 1 homasimpatienuy hurned us to the Embroidery room, the manufactory of artınca ifowers, and the "sleep room;" in which there were nity beus, enough in an concience, effectually to banish somnus from the premses: nany we went to the store where a

great variety of curious needlework, displayed the ingenuity of the sisterhood. Every article is rated beyond its value, a tax, willingly incurred, particularly when Miss Gin, presents green silk purses, and points to the rich embroidery on the work bags. Her mild and gracious manner could not fail to conchiate esteem; we should have been pleased with her company at our lougings, but she said our politeness musi be declined, as she never visited at the inn. There is a new Church lately erected, which does great credit to the skill and taste of the architect. A

1

edifice of magnificent structure ill accords with the plain buildings that surround it, and is still more opposite to the apparent simplicity of the congregation. But, we are told, the sin of Angels was ambition, no wonder then if we find it here. In the afternoon, we were conducted to the Seminary, our time was limited, father Thomas was solicitous that we should take the whole routine of education before the bell rang. If we had formed an opinion of scholastick proficiency, the senti ment must have been intuitive, as it was impossible for the understanding to operate, amidst such a whirl of engagements. This people have the art of attaching their pupils to their modes of lite, and of inspiring them with respect for their religious tenets. Several young ladies came to visit their friends at our lodgings. Every one re volted at the idea of leaving Bethele hem. They were lively and commu nicative, and we inquisitive. Maria

—, made us laugh though she was unconscious of the cause, one of her school companions had a very coarse figure and face, we asked if she had a good capacity, and were told that "she was clever, but had no sense;" but how was that discoverable?"oh very ea sily, she only learns writing, arithmetick, and geography; musick, and tambouring she cannot acquire." * And

Miss

from Carolina." what of her Maria? She has completed her education and is now going to Mrs. Rivardi, to be polished" She finished the portraiture by a sketch of herself, declaring that she was willing to relinquish parents, and home, and embrace the religion with the pleasant enjoyments of the institution: for it seems sectarian privileges had been considered, though natural affection made no part of her calculation. It would be very unreasonable not to be satisfied, when at every stage on our journey, civility seemed the order of the day," but there was here a dull monotony of which we quickly became satiated. Conversation excited very little interest, yet when intellectual pleasure languished, the eye roamed abroad, and many a rainbow hue, was

.

morning of the 28th, it was gloomy and wet, the rain was an additional motive to leave Bethlehem, we parted from Father Thomas, gay and good humoured as when we first met him. 36 miles riding brought us to North Wales, just as the shutters were closing on a dreary night, but the parlour scene was lightened by Friendship; and hospitality offered its warmest welcome. Childhood's mirthful retrospect, and the pensive shadows of maturer life now filled up the fleeting hour. The next day we came to the turnpike, and crossed Chesnut hill; every spot familiar and endeared by absence. To Germantown we gave a cordial salute. We have passed rapidly over 456 miles, and enjoyed a pleasant day's ride to Philadelphia, wherewith renovated health and grateful hearts, we rejoined our friends at home.

June 29th, 1807.

For The Port Folio.

Adieu.

The ensuing encomium on Classical Litérature, is so perfectly in unison with the excellent essay on that subject, in the front of our paper; that we cannot resist the temptation of transcribing it from the perspicuous pages of an elegant authour, who by the purity and sweetness of his style has clearly shown how much he has profited by the study of the Ancients.

Shakespeare's Play of Julius Cæsar, is founded on Plutarch's life of Brutus. The poet has adopted many of the incidents and speeches recorded by the historian, whom he had read in Sir Thomas North's Translation. But great judgment appears in the choice of the passages. Those events and sentiments that are either affecting in themselves, or contribute to the display of human characters and passions he has adopted: what seemed unsuitable to the drama, is omitted. By reading Plutarch and Sophocles in the original, together with the poeticks of Aristotle and Horace's epistle to the Pisos, Shakespeare might have made this tragedy better; but I cannot con

poet been capable of it, could have been the cause of making it worse. It is very probable that the instance of Shakspeare may have induced some persons to think unfavourably of the influence of learning upon genius; but a conclusion so important should never be inferred from one instance, especially when that is allowed to be extraordinary and almost supernatural. From the phenomena of so transcendent a genius we must not judge of human nature in general; no more than we are to take the rules of British agriculture from what is practised in the Summer islands. Nor let it be any. objection to the utility of Classical learning, that we often meet with men of excellent parts, whose faculties were never improved either by the doctrine or the dicipline of the schools. A practice which is not indispensably necessary, may yet be highly useful. We have heard of merchants, who could hardly write or read, superintending an extensive commerce, and acquiring great wealth and esteem by the most honourable means: yet who will say that writing and reading are not useful to the merchant? have been men eminent both for genius and for virtue, who in the beginning of life were almost totally neglected, yet who will say, that the care of parents and early habits of virtue and reflection are not of infinite importance to the human mind?

There

Milton was one of the most learned men this nation ever produced. But his great learning neither impaired his judgment nor checked his imagination. A richer vein of invention, as well as a more correct taste appears in the Paradise Lost, written when he was near sixty years of age, than in any of his earlier performances. Paradise regained and Sampson Agonistes, which were his last works, are not so full of imagery, nor admit so much fancy as many of his other pieces, but they discover a consummate judgment; and little is wanting to make each of them perfect in its kind. I am not offended. at that profusion of learning which

Lost, it gives a classical air to the poem: it refreshes the mind with new ideas; and there is something in the very sound of the names of places and persons whom he celebrates that is wonderfully pleasing to the ear. Admit all this to be no better than pedantick superfluity, yet will it follow that Milton's learning did him any harm upon the whole, provided it appears to have improved him in matters of higher importance. That it did so is undeniable. This poet is not more eminent for strength and sublimity of genius than for the art of his composition; which he owed partly to a fine taste in harmony, and partly to his accurate knowledge of the ancients. The style of his numbers has not often been imitated with success. It is not merely the want of rhyme, nor the diversified position of pauses, nor the drawing out of the sense from one line to another, far less is it the mixture of antiquated words and strange idioms that constitute the charm of Milton's versification; though many of his imitators when they copy him in these, or in some of these respects, think they have acquitted themselves very well. But one must study the best classick authours with as much critical skill as Milton did, before one can pretend to ival him in the art of harmonious writing. For, after all the rules that can be given, there is something in this art which cannot be acquired but by a careful study, of the ancient masters, particularly Homer, Demosthenes, Plato, Cicero and Virgil; every one of whom, or, at least, the two first and the last it would be easy to prove that Milton has imitated in the construction of his numbers. In a word, we have good reason to conclude that Milton's genius, instead of being overloaded or encumbered was greatly improved, enriched and refined by his learning. At least we are sure this was his own opinion. Never was there a more indefatigable student; and from the superabundance of classick allusions to be met with in every page of his poetry, we may guess how high

Spenser was learned in Latin and Greek as well as in Italian. But either the fashion of the times, or some deficiency in his own taste inclined him to prefer the modern to the ancient models. His genius was comprehensive and sublime, his style copious, his sense of harmony delicate and nothing seems to have been wanting to make him a poet of the highest rank, but a more intimate acquaintance with the classick authours. We may at least venture to say that if he had been a little more conversant in these, he would not in his Shepherd's Calendar have debased the tenderness of pastoral with the impure mixture of theological disputation; nor would he have been so intoxicated with the splendid faults of the Orlando Furioso;as to construct his Fairy queen on that Gothick model rather than according to the plan which Homer invented, and which Virgil and Tasso had so happily imitated. It is said to be on account of the purity of his style, and the variety of his invention and not for any thing admirable in his plan that the Italians in general prefer Ariosto to Tasso, and indeed we can hardly conceive how a taste so complex and so absurd, so heterogeneous in its parts and so extravagant as a whole should be more esteemed than a simple, probable, perspicuous and interesting fable. Yet Spenser gave the preference to the former; a fact so extraordinary, considering his abilities in other respects, that we cannot account for it, without supposing it to have been partly the effect of a bias contracted by long acquaintance. If so, have we not reason to think that if he had been but equally conversant with better patterns, his taste would have acquired a different and better direction.

Dryden's knowledge of foreign and ancient languages did not prevent his being a perfect master of his own. No authour ever had a more exquisite sense of the energy and beauty of English words; though it cannot be denied

original and his desire on all occasions to do honour to his mother tongue betrays him frequently into mean phrases and vulgar idioms His unhappy circumstances, or rather perhaps the fashion of his age, alike unfriendly to good morals and good writing did not permit him to avail himself of his great learning so much as might have been expected. The authour of Polymetis has proved him guilty of many mistakes in regard to the ancient mytho logy and I believe it will be allowed, by all his impartial readers, that a little more learning, or something of a more classical taste would have been of great use to him as it was to his illustrious imitator.

I know not whether any nation ever produced a more singular genius than Cowley, he abounds in tender thoughts beautiful lines and emphatical expressions. His wit is inexhaustible and his learning extensive; but his taste is generally barbarous, and seems to have been formed upon such models as Donne, Martial, and the worst parts of vid, nor is it possible to read his longer poems with pleasure, while we retain any relish for the simplicity of ancient composition. If this authour's ideas had been fewer, his conceits would have been less frequent ; so that in one respect learning may be said to have hurt his genius. Yet it does not appear that his Greek and Latin did him any harm; for his imitations of Anacreon are almost the only parts of him that are now remembered, or read. His Davideis, and his translations of Pindar are destitute of harmony, simplicity, and every other classical grace Had his inclinations led him to a frequent perusal of the most elegant authours of antiquity, his poems would certainly have been the better.

It was never said, nor thought that Swift, Pope, or Addison impaired their

The price of The Port Folio is S

Latin and Greek. On the contrary, we have reason to ascribe to their knowledge of these tongues that cles sical purity of style by which their wris tings are distinguished. All our most eminent philosophers and divines Bacon, Newton, Cudworth. Hooser ¦ Taylor. Averbury. Stillingfleet, were profoundly skilled in ancient literature and every rational admirer of Locke will acknowledge that if his learning had been equal to his good sense and manly spirit, his works would have been still more creditable to himself, and more useful to mankind.

In writings of wit and humour, one would be apt to think that there is no great occasion for the knowledge of ntiquity, it being the authour's chief aim and business to accommoriste himself to he manners of the present time and if study be detrimental to any faculty of the mind, we might suspect that suspect that a playful imagination, the parent of wit and humour, would be most likely to suffer by it. Yet the history of our first rate geniuses in this way. (Shakespeare always excepted) is a proof of the contrary. There is' more learning as well as more wit in Hudibras than in any book of the same size now extant. In the Tale o a the Tattler and the Spectator, the Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus, and in many parts of Fielding, we disco er at once a brilliant wit and a copious erudition.

A schoolmaster in a country village, who formerly acted as barber to the village, being in dispute with the rish clerk, on a point of grammar, “It is downright barbarism," said the clerk. "Barbarism!” replied the pedagogue; "Do you mean to it nie? A barber speaks as good nglish as a parish clerk any day.

speram in, to be paid in advance.