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fore enforced them by observations in prose? knows whether our addlepated descendants Was it in pity to our ignorance that he has may think the work worthy of a clavis or a subjoined these explanatory remarks? What commentary. would the ancients have said to this plan of an author's furnishing notes for his own composition ?"

"You appear," said my friend, "to have formed an erroneous opinion of the nature of the work. The notes are not to be considered as mere appendages to the poem: far from it -they are an integral, and indeed the principal, part of the composition. The verses may be considered as a cement which consolidates the discordant matter of the notes in a beautiful and harmonious whole. The poem may be considered as the spine with which the various bones of the animal are connected. The lines may-but I do not remember any thing else which would assist me in my illustrations. Did you never hear of a statue composed of different materials-ivory and gold?"

"I have heard of iron mixed with miry clay: I have heard of the following supposition,

Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam Jungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas Undique collatis membris, ut turpiter atrum Desinat in piscem mulier formosa supurne:

I have heard of centaurs;-but this literary monster bears resemblance to nothing in the regions of fancy, unless it be the Scylla of the poets, or Milton's Sin, who

Again: Every poet is desirous of producing a volume; and this, I assure you, is a matter of considerable difficulty, admitting the verses to be tolerable. But agreeably to this new plan, nothing more is necessary than to write a few jingling lines, and attach a sufficiency of matter, in the form of notes, to swell out the book to a respectable size. O that mine adversary had written a book!' was the excla. mation of Job when he reflected on the evils he had suffered through the injustice of men. Were Job now alive, he would think of some heavier curse for his enemies. The moderns have made so many improvements in bookmaking and other manufactures; they have adopted so many labor-saving schemes, that the production of a book is no longer a matter of difficulty.

Thirdly: In writing notes, a man has it in his power, with very little trouble, to make a great display of his reading and erudition. He brings forth the lumber from his literary wareroom, and astonishes the world with the depth of his researches. There is nothing however antiquated, puerile, or ridiculous, but may find. a place in the farrago of his book.

Fourthly: The attention of the reader being continually diverted from the verses which give a name to the performance, he will be apt to overlook those blemishes which a more cfi

seemed a woman to the waist, and fair, tical examination would undoubtedly have exBut ended foul in many a scaly fold posed: Voluminous and vast, a serpent armed With mortal sting: about her middle round A cry of hellhounds neverceasing barked With wide Cerberian mouths full loud, and rung A hideous peal.

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"Search the poets," said my friend, "no longer for an archetype: you will find nothing

like it in heaven above or in earth beneath."

Satira tota nostra est, was the boast of Quintilian and we with the utmost propriety may assert that this new species of composition is wholly our own. The ancients would have derided the idea, of a man's writing notes explanatory of his own composition, as the height of literary absurdity; but we

Fifthly In this species of composition, an author may not only acquire celebrity as a poet; but he may exhibit his talents as a writer of prose: he may acquire renown as a critic and philosopher.

Sixthly: Who has not heard of the obscurity of Pindar and Persius? Had these poets explained their obscurities in a series of notes, every note would have been a treasure to posterity. If it be admitted that a commentator should understand the subject of his remarks, permit me to ask, who can be able to enter so fully into the meaning of a writer, as the wri. ter himself?

Seventhly: May not an author of genius think it necessary to incase his poetical gems in substantial prose of his own to prevent their being eaten up by the commentating zeal' of succeeding annotators?

Nil intentatum nostri liquere poetæ― Lastly: Although I have asserted that this lame poetry, leaning on crutches of prose, is we have opened a new way to the temple of a modern invention, yet I have no doubt that fame. And you must acknowledge that the the first idea of this species of writing was scheme is attended with many advantages. taken from the satire of the Romans; or rather, In the first place, it may be observed that that it may boast the same origin with the notes add greatly to the dignity of a poem: a musa pedestris of Horace. Now this satire work must be important that attracts the at- was said to be derived from satira, cibi genus tention of a commentator. But if these anno- ex variis rebus conditum, Anglice, a HASH. tations be left to be written by posterity, we But the Romans always supposed that this are denied the happiness of participating in literary repast, however multifarious its in. the honors conferred on our book; and who gredients, must be served up in one poetical L

dish; whereas the moderns prefer bringing it to the public table in two half dishes; which practice, every one must acknowledge, adds greatly to the variety of the entertainment."

Thoughts.

Quo me cunque rapit tempestas deferor hospes. We cannot pretend to say what passes in the minds of civilized men; but a savage, if there be nothing to call forth the energies of his soul, sinks into a state of torpid existence, in which, although he is sensible of the evils of mortality, he feels no inclination to partake of those enjoyments which awaken the desires, and call forth the exertions of the inhabitants of the earth.

He is unable, of himself, to shake off this stupor of the faculties: it requires some unusual occurrence on the earth, some strange appearance in the heavens, or some violent commotion in the elements, to give a spring to the mind and break up the gloomy enchantment. Heavy black clouds rising in the west, and the loud rushing of winds in the mountains, the sudden rise of rivers and the noise of many waters, cannot revivify the mind; but they lull it to a state of pleasing repose and banish those feverish dreams which accompany this restless sleep, this inertness of soul. But when vivid flashes of lightning are suddenly followed by claps of thunder, louder and louder still"when

Ipse Pater, media nimborum in nocte, corusca Fulmina molitur dextra. Quo maxima motu Terra tremit: fugere fere; et mortalia corda Per gentes humilis stravit pavor. Ille flagranti Aut Atho, aut Rhodopen, aut alta Ceraunia, telo Dejicit

when he feels the rocking of an earthquake; when the foundations of the world are shaken then, he is startled into life, and enjoys the pleasures of existence.

This disease of the mind has sometimes been relieved, though not permanently cured, by a total eclipse of the sun, the eonflagration of a city, or the sight of two armies rushing to battle. Any thing is preferable to this painful inertia: better to be "chased as the chaff of the mountain before the wind, or the down of the thistle before the whirlwind!"

But nature pursues her calm unvarying round: she effects her sublime purposes with infinite ease, and seldom finds it necessary to have recourse to those stupendous exertions which excite the fears, awaken the wonder, and elevate the feelings of men. Her unceas ing operations are continued from eternity to eternity; and cannot be interrupted by the repinings of a fool or the ravings of a maniac. She is never in haste: she never employs nore force than is necessary for the completion of her designs. It is only when she meets with opposition from the chaotic tendency of things, or the stubborn inertia of matter, that she ar

rays herself in terrors and rises up in majesty to confound the opposers of her power.

It is little, therefore, that man, whose duration is for a moment, can expect to behold of the magnificent commotions of the universe; yet, of such infinite importance is he in his own estimation, that he would have nature turn actress and go through her principal parts merely to soothe his chagrin and dissipate the vapors that have risen into his brain. And when he experiences any uneasiness in his contemptible microcosm (which is said to be governed by laws in direct opposition to the laws of the universe) his heart swells, with rebellious indignation, against the eternal estab lishment of things; he looks down upon the earth with contempt and abhorrence; he looks upward with an air of defiance; and, in a moment of disappointed ambition, this redoubtable Sampson would take hold of the pillars of heaven and bury himself in the ruins of the universe!

Proud insect! thy rage proves the truth of the proverb, Inest et formica bilis: thy pleasures and thy pains, thy sorrows and thy joys, thy hatred and thy love, thy existence and thy non-existence, are of equal importance, in the empire of nature,with the troubles experienced by an ant in rolling her burthen.

Who talks of the dignity of human nature? He is the lord of nature: the Man himself! earth was created for his use, and the heavens for his amusement. Comets appear predicting revolutions in kingdoms, and armies are mar. shalled in the skies portending the destruction of cities.

We have extracted the following parable from the third book of Iddo, the Scer.

"In those days there stood an ant-hill in the valley of Hobah. And it came to pass, that on the first day of the week, in the sixth month, and on the sixth day of the month, the inhabitants of the ant-hill assembled together to hold a solemn feast in the presence of their god. The ants desisted from their labors,and having purified themselves according to the law of their fathers, they prepared to celebrate, with joy and gladness of heart, the anniversary which was kept in honor of the day when their empire was established in the valley of Hobah. But, lo! at the time of offering up the morning sacrifice, a whirlwind passed over the plain; and after the whirlwind, there were thunderings; and after the thunderings, there was an earthquake. And the ants were sore afraid, and prayed with a loud voice, and cast ashes on their heads, saying, Wo unto us, what have we done, that the anger of our god is kindled against us?

Then stood off Basha the son of Bama in the midst of the congregation, and spake unto the multitude, saying, Give ear, O ye pismires, to the words of my mouth, and lay up my counsels, in your hearts. Ye know that I have given my days to study, and my nights to contemplation; that I have observed the rising

and the setting of the sun, and the various ap that at the birth of common men, it would be a pearances of the moon; that I have discovered preposterous thing for the "front of heaven to the nature of the firmament, and considered the be full of fiery shapes" or for the earth to course of the stars. Therefore, O ye citizens tremble; but at our own nativity, we admit, of Hobah, and inhabitants of the ant-hill, attend there might be some few signs in heaven, 'to the dictates of wisdom. When your fathers some little commotions on earth, to mark us settled in this valley they were a little band, extraordinary. miserable and poor; but now ye are become as the sand on the sea shore, or as the stars of heaven, which cannot be numbered. But ye have waxed proud and have forgotten the precepts of the law. Know ye not that our fathers have told us that we should push our burthens before us, and not drag them after us according to the manner of the heathen? Yet notwithstanding this, O ye ants, I have seen you turn your hinder parts to the temple of our god, as ye ascended this holy mountain which was given to our fathers; therefore the heavens are troubled; therefore the sun has hidden his face; and the earth is shaken from her centre.

While he yet spake there came a wild beast from the forest of Lebanon, and trod down the hillock."

But we not only expect that the heavens should be disturbed by the revolutions of empires, we expect that the births and deaths and little misfortunes of mortals should be preceded by terrestrial portents and celestial prodigies. This disposition in human nature is finely ridiculed by Shakspeare.

Glendower. Sit, cousin Percy; sit good cousin
Hotspur :

For by that name as oft as Lancaster
Doth speak of you, his cheeks look pale; and, with
A rising sigh, he wisheth you in heaven.

Hotspur. And you in hell, as often as he hears
Owen Glendower spoke of.

Glend. I cannot blame him: at my nativity,
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
Of burning cressets; and at my birth
The frame and huge foundation of the earth
Shaked like a coward.

Hot. Why so it would have done
At the same season, if your mother's cat
Had kittened, though yourself had ne'er been

born.

Glend. I say the earth did shake when I was
born..

Hot. And I say the earth was not of my mind,
If you suppose, as fearing you, it shook.
Glend. The heavens were all on fire, the earth

did tremble.

Hot. O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire,

And not in fear of your nativity.

Glend. Cousin, of many men

I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
To tell you once again, that, at my birth,
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes;
The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
These signs have marked me extraordinary;
And all the courses of my life do show,
I am not in the roll of common men.

Where is the man who does not think, with Glendower, that he is not on "the roll of common men?" We can all readily admit

Who does not suppose that the order of nature might be interrupted to give him intimation of evils that may befal him? Who would not suppose a squadron of angels honorably employed in watching his motions and directing his steps? Who does not think himself worthy of being the peculiar favorite of heaven? Who does not conceive himself able to change the unchangeable mind by his prayers?'

But whither have we wandered? We have followed the train of our capricious thoughts and lost sight of the object we meant to pursue. It is true that we discarded method, in the beginning, and proposed to make an excursion through the fields of imagination; yet, it will probably be expected that we should preserve some order in our wanderings and not be continually changing our course in pursuit of every meteor that flits through the regions of fancy.

We intended to have taken a more extensive ramble: and we now see objects at a distance which we would willingly chase for a while, and then desert them for others; but as we are apprehensive that our readers would not choose to follow us in our fantastic flight from one corner of the world to another, we shall hasten to put an end to our excursion.

Savage Correspondence.

We have lately received a number of letters from our Muscogulgee friends, which afford us very little satisfaction.

The government of the United States has been assiduously attentive to the business of introducing the arts and improvements of civilized life among the tribes which compose our now declining but once potent confederacy. The arms of the warrior are exchanged for the axe and the hoe, the hammer and the shuttle. They no longer climb the proud mountains, or traverse the desert: no-they toil with the spade, and sweat at the anvil! Lands are appropriated; fields are marked out, and perma nent buildings are erected. A monopolizing avaricious accumulating spirit has appeared; sordidness, meanness, selfishness are triumph. ant; freedom and virtue have vanished forever.

Personal merit, love of country, and a thirst for glory, have been superseded by a swarm of civilized virtues: creeping caution, cringing servility, specious deception, sly prudence, and squint-eyed cunning. The line and the rule, the lock and the key have made their appear. ance-have made their appearance among Indians !-Shades of our fathers! spirits of heroes! look not down on your degenerate children!

Do some of our readers wish to observe that christianity will be introduced among the heathen; and that the loss of a savage freedom will be amply compensated by the glad tidings of salvation being published in our land? Yes: ye will make us such christians as ye yourselves are. Pretended disciples of Jesus! shall we gain by the change?

We have likewise received a series of letters from a Cherokee warrior: some of which we will venture to lay before the public.

In order to enable the reader to understand some allusions that are made in these letters, it will be necessary to observe that many years ago, our warriors took a number of Cherokee prisoners; among whom was a boy, who has since acquired the name of Chotahowee. We were at liberty to determine the fate of one captive and we made choice of Chotahowee; who honored us ever after with the appellation of father.

Chotahowce can express himself in English indifferently well these letters were dictated by him in that language, and written by a citizen of the United States who frequents the Indian towns for the purposes of trade.

In preparing these letters for the press, we have been solicitous to retain, whenever it was possible, the words of our correspendent; and where we have found it necessary to discard his expressions and substitute others, we have been particularly careful to preserve the meaning of the sentence.

In many instances it was altogether impossible to present to our civilized readers, at the same time, the original words and the meaning intended to be conveyed by them: the allusions to savage manners, customs and opinions; the extravagant metaphors, wild similitudes, and abrupt apostrophes, would have been wholly unintelligible.

We had some thoughts, at first, of civilizing the language of our friend; but we soon found that it could not be done without destroying that natural simplicity which is its greatest recommendation. And we have consequently endeavored to pursue that golden mean (every good is denominated golden among christians) which is so highly recommended by poets, philosophers and crítics.

We shall make no apology for the sentiments of our friend: our readers are in the practice of expressing their own opinions freely, and, consequently, will never be so inconsistent as to deny that privilege to others which they elaim for themselves. They find fault with our rudeness and barbarity; we blame the deceitful appearances they exhibit:

--et hane veniam petimusque damusque vicissim. We shall probably be blamed by posterity for not attaching some explanatory notes to the obscure and curious passages that may be found in these letters; but we will frankly declare that we thought it right to leave many ambiguous expressions merely for the purpose

of exercising the ingenuity of our contemporaries and affording employment to critics, com mentators, and book-makers, not yet in existence.

The clerical gentleman to whom our correspondent has given the appellation of Blackcont must be highly pleased with Chotahowee and Piomingo for taking notice of his apostolical labors. His thoughts, we apprehend, are not wholly engrossed by preparing the Indians for the world which is to come: if we be not misinformed, he intends to establish a little Jesuitical empire in the Cherokee nation. LETTER I,

From Chotahowee, a warrior of the Cherokee nation, to Piomingo, a headman and war

rior of the Muscogulgee confederacy. Father! I have prevailed upon Oseii John, a beloved white warrior, to put this speech upon paper and convey it to you.

and your country; Chotahowee is no longer Father! You have forgotten your friends remembered: shall I also be forgetful of you? When the sun shall forget to rise, when the wind shall forget to blow, when the Tennessee shall cease to flow from the mountains; then, will Chotahowee be forgetful of his friend; then, will he cease to remember Piomingo.

Father! I was painted black: I was bound to the stake; the fuel was prepared; and the flames were ready to devour me. I had made myself strong to suffer; but, you put forth your hand and preserved me. I became your son. I was happy. But the man of the sorrowful spirit came among us; he turned away your face from your friends, from your country, and from your son Chotahowee. You gave your ear to the wicked talks that were written in his books; and forgot the beloved speech of your fathers. I wept when I saw remained unstrung, and that your arrows conrifle became rusty, that your bow tinued to sleep in your quiver; I wept when I your face became strange to your son Chotasaw that your thoughts became deep; and howee.

that

your

Father! When the man of the sorrowful

spirit died, I was glad: I said Piomingo will no longer give his ear to the cursed talks that are written in the books; he will attend in the council, preside at the feasts, and listen to the beloved songs of his fathers. But the man of the sorrowful spirit had poisoned your mind; your countenance was sad; you departed in the night; and we knew not whither you had gone.

Father! I continued a long time with the Muscogulgee warriors; I procured a name by my abilities in hunting; and was honored with a crown for my success in war. After which, I departed, and came into the country of the Cherokees, to the beloved town of Chota,where I was born.

Father, lend me your ear! About sixty or seventy moons ago, there came among us

man dressed in black, with a book full of talks, He spoke to the people at first with a very smooth tongue, and said he had brought them good news from the great spirit who rides in the storm, and who thunders in the clouds that pass over our heads.

As we are always pleased to hear good news, and were not without hopes that he would make us some presents, we assembled at the townhouse to receive his talk and deliver our

answer.

But the man dressed in black with the book of talks in his hand, would not come into the townhouse: he said his good news were not for the chiefs and warriors only, but for all the beloved people belonging to the nation. He went into the public square, and mounted on a bench; but it was not sufficiently high to enable him to overlook the assembly. And he therefore desired some more elevated place on which he might stand. I sent my two friends, Bloody Bear and Red Jacket, to bring an empty hogshead from my house, which I conceived would answer the purpose of the man dressed in black.

As soon as the Cherokees of Chota got a sight of the hogshead they concluded that Blackcoat had brought them some rum; and, consequently, they flocked in froin every di

rection.

Blackcoat having ascended the hogshead with his book of talks in his hand, he told us many wonderful things which, he informed us, might be found in his book. He said the Great Spirit made the earth and the sun, and the moon and the stars; and all very good. He made a man and woman out of clay and he put them in a garden, and gave them a talk; but the man and the woman forgot the beloved talk, and gave ear to wicked spirits who led them astray. The Great Spirit was very angry, and drove away the man and the woman from the garden. After this men became very numerous and covered the earth. They became wicked,and learned the crooked ways of the spirit that is cursed. The Great Spirit sent beloved men, who gave them good talks; but they turned away their faces and persisted in evil. The Good Spirit sent a great and beloved chief, who did many wonderful things; who died, and was buried, and rose from the dead.

Father, attend to my words! Black coat made a speech very long and very curious; but we could not understand it. He told us of a place he called hell, full of fire and brim stone, which burns for ever and ever; and of a place he called heaven, a very fine place but his talk was crooked: and we could not believe it.

his speech. Then the headman of Chota arose and said,

"Brother Blackcoat! we take you by the hand. You have come a great distance to bring us good news. Your talk is very good : and we thank you. We have prepared you a lodging to which you may retire."

Father, farewell. May the Master of our life preserve you from danger. May he keep you from learning the crooked words of the smooth-tongued people, among whom you dwell. CHOTAHOWEE.

The State House Yard.

Do not expect, reader, that we are going to give an account of the proceedings in the Statehouse yard. No: we merely mean to inform you of some of those savage meditations which were occasioned by this assemblage of the people.

We sometimes walk in search of amusement, but, for the most part, are so unfortunate as to return without having found it. There is such a lamentable paucity of unexpected incident-such a universal sameness reigns throughout the city-that the mind becomes torpid for want of stimuli to keep it in motion. It is therefore our practice, if, in our peram. bulations, our ears be saluted by any species of uproar or noise, immediately to repair to the spot, hoping that some novel appearances, odd associations, or spirited oppositions, will be exhibited, which may contribute to our entertainment.

Well: we were moving up Chesnut street, apparently buried in contemplation, but, in reality, not thinking at all, when we were startled by the shouting of many voices in the public square.

We found a crowd, noisy and restless as the waves of the ocean, surrounding an elevated platform, on which several men were stationed: one of whom appeared to be reading certain resolutions, to which he seemed occasionally to require the assent of the multitude.

The man on the platform appeared to address himself to us as well as to the others; but as we could not hear the purport of the resolutions, we neither expressed our dissent nor approbation. We endeavored to approach the scaffold, in order to understand the nature of the subject which occupied the attention of the people. We unfortunately succeeded too well in our undertaking we advanced so far into the crowd that we found it almost impos sible to return; which we were much more anxious to do than we had been, a few mo ments before, to proceed. The sovereign peo ple paid no more respect to a Muscogulgee When the young men discovered that the chief than they did to each other. We were hogshead was empty, they arose and went jostled, without ceremony, first to one side and away; and when the chiefs perceived that then to the other; again we were wedged up Blackcoat had brought them no presents, they immovably, and found it impossible to advance turned away their ears from his talk. How or recede. Gentlemen, let me pass-Do be ever, we sat still and waited the conclusion of so obliging as to permit me to pass!" But

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