inducing christian forbearance, condescension, and charity, in the treatment of those, with whom we are destined to live and converse. Without it, though we prescribe rules to ourselves, and say to the selfish and angry passions, "hitherto shall ye come, but no further," we may, notwithstanding, be transported beyond the bounds of moderation, and involved in the crimes and miseries of unreasonable animosity: With it, religion is made the umpire of our conduct, and the question comes home to our bosoms; how can we be unjust or censorious to those whom we are accustomed to commend to the guardian care and grace of God? The many petitions, in which we have plead for mercy in their behalf, will react upon our own hearts, and,calling into exercise our benevolent sensibilities, furnish the strongest incentives to that affectionate and conciliating deportment, which beside its conformity to the gospel of Christ, and the attendant prospect of a future reward, is adapted to engage the confidence and esteem of all within the sphere of its influence. Than this practice, what can more effectually ensure

& uniform and faithful discharge of the

various duties, which result from the conjugal, parental, filial, fraternal, and

other intimate relations of human life. It sanctifies, cements, and endears the union between husband and wife. It encourages and directs parents in the instruction and government of their household. It heightens the gratitude, docility, and submission of children. It excites and aids brethren to "dwell to

gether in unity." That family, whose

heads and members bear each other in mind at their secret devotions; and, frequently appearing before God in company, jointly call upon his name for a supply of their individual and collective wants, must, of course, be impressed

with a sense of their respective obliga tions, which will pervade every domes, tick transaction, alleviate every burden, and increase every joy. pp. 66, 67.

ART. 70.

A wreath for the Rev. Daniel Dow, pastor of a church in Thompson, Connecticut ; on the publication of his familiar letters in answer to the Rev. John Sherman's treatise of one God in one person only, &c. By A.0. F. Utica, Merrell & Seward. 1806. 8vo.

BY reverting to the nineteenth and twentieth articles of our Review for the current year, the theological reader will readily discern the purport of this controverfriend of Mr. Sherman and of his sial tract. Its author, a warm unitarian sentiments, endeavours to support them; presses on his antagonist the protestant rule of the perfection and sufficiency of scripture; and, it must be confessed, detects a number of errours, not to say absurdities, in the "familiar letters." A. O. F. appears to think that he is justified by the example of the letter-writer in ap proaching him without any ceremony. He is sometimes serious and sometimes ludicrous, but uniformly severe; so full of sarcasm and personal reflections,and dealing his blows with so heavy a hand, as makes us almost quake for the lacerated feelings of the Rev. Daniel Dow.

there should have been no complete edition of the writings of Dr. Franklin, till the year 1806 and we should have been altogether unable to account for the imperfect and unsatisfactory manner in which the task has now been performed, if it had not been for a statement in the prefatory advertisement, which removes all blame from the editor, to attach it to a higher quarter. It is there stated, that recently after the death of the author, his grandson, to whom the whole of his papers had been bequeathed, made a voyage to London, for the purpose of preparing and disposing of a complete collection of all his published and unpublished writings, with memoirs of his life, brought down by himself to the year 1757, and continued to his death by his descendant. It was settled, that the work should be published in three quarto volumes, in England, Germany, and France; and a negociation was commenced with the booksellers, as to the terms of the purchase and publication. At this stage of the business, however, the proposals were suddenly with drawn, and nothing more has been heard of the work in this its fair and natural market. "The proprietor, it seems, had found a bidder of a different description, in some emissary of government, whose object was to withhold the manuscripts from the world, not to beneft it by their publication; and they thus either passed into other hands, or the person to whom they were bequeathed received a remuneration for suppressing them.”

If this statement be correct, we have no hesitation in saying, that no emissary of Government was ever employed on a more miserable and unworthy service. It is ludicrous to talk of the danger of

disclosing, in 1795, any secrets of state, with regard to the war of American independence; and as to any anecdotes or observations that might give offence to individuals, we think it should always be remembered, that publick functionarics are the property of the publick, that their character be longs to history and to posterity, and that it is equally absurd and discreditable to think of suppressing any part of the evidence, by which their merits must be ultimately determined. But the whole of the works that have been suppressed, certainly did not relate to republican politicks. The history of the author's life, down to 1757, could not well contain any matter of offence; and a variety of general remarks and specula. tions, which he is understood to have left behind him, might have been permitted to see the light, though his diplomatick operations had been interdicted. The emissary of Government, however, probably took no care of these things; he was resolved' to leave no rubs nor botches in his work ;' and, to stifle the dreaded revelation, he thought the best way was to strangle all the innocents in the vicinage.

This self-taught American is the most rational, perhaps, of all philosophers. He never loses sight of common sense in any of his speculations; and when his philosophy does not consist entirely in its fair and vigorous applica tion, it is always regulated and controuled by it in its application and result. No individual, perhaps, ever possessed a juster understanding, or was so seldom ob structed in the use of it by indolence, enthusiasm, or authority.

Dr.Franklin received no regular education; and he spent the great

er part of his life in a society where there was no relish, and no encouragement for literature. On an ordinary mind these circumstances would have produced their usual effects, of repressing all sort of intellectual ambition or activity, and perpetuating a generation af incurious mechanicks; but to an understanding like Franklin's, we cannot help considering them as peculiarly propitious, and imagine that we can trace back to them, distinctly, almost all the peculiarities of his intellectual character. Regular education, we think, is unfavourable to vigour or origina lity of understanding. Like civilization, it makes society more intelligent and agreeable; but it levels the distinctions of nature. It strengthens and assists the feeble; but it deprives the strong of his triumph, and casts down the hopes of the aspiring. It accomplishes this, not only by training up the mind in an habitual veneration for authorities, but, by leading us to bestow a disproportionate degree of attention upon studies that are only valuable as keys or instruments for the understanding, they come at last to be regarded as ultitimate objects of pursuit; and the means of education are absurdly mistaken for its end. How many powerful understandings have been lost in the Dialecticks of Aristotle! and of how much good philosophy are we daily defrauded, by the preposterous errour of taking a know. ledge of prosody for useful learning! The mind of a man, who has escaped this training, will at least have fair play. Whatever other errours he may fall into, he will be safe at least from these infatuations. If he thinks proper, after he grows up, to study Greek, it will be for some better purpose, than to become acquainted with its dialects. His prejudices will be

those of a man, and not of a schoolboy; and his speculations and conclusions will be independent of the inaxims of tutors, and the oracles of literary patrons.

The consequences of living in a refined and literary community are nearly of the same kind with those of a regular education. There are so many criticks to be satisfied so many qualifications to be established-so many rivals to encounter, and so much derision to be hazarded, that a young man is apt to be deterred from so perilous an enterprize, and led to seek for distinction in some safer line of exertion. He is discouraged by the fame and the perfec tion of certain models and fa vourites, who are always in the mouths of his judges, and, ‹ under them, his genius is rebuked,' and his originality repressed, till he sinks into a paltry copyist, or aims at distinction, by extravagance and affectation. In such a state of society, he feels that mediocrity bas no chance of distinction; and what beginner can expect to rise at once into excellence? He imagines that mere good sense will attract no attention; and that the manner is of much more importance than the matter, in a candidate for publick admiration. In his attention to the manner, the matter is apt to be neglected; and, in his solicitude to please those who require elegance of diction, brilliancy of wit, or harmony of periods, he is in some danger of forgetting that strength of reason, and accuracy of observation, by which he first propose to recoinmend himself. His attention, when extended to so many collate ral objects, is no longer vigor ous or collected, the stream divided into so many channels, ceases to flow either deep or strong-he becomes an unsuc

He

This will probably be thought exaggerated; but it cannot be denied, we think, that the contrary circumstances in his history had a powerful effect in determining the character of his understanding, and in producing those peculiar habits of reasoning and investigation by which his writings are distinguished. He was encouraged to publish, because there was scarcely any one around him whom he could not easily excel. wrote with great brevity, because he had not leisure for more voluminous compositions, and because he knew that the readers to whom he addressed himself were, for the most part, as busy as himself. For the same reason, he studied great perspicuity and simplicity of statement: his countrymen had no relish for fine writing, and could not easily be made to understand a deduction depending on a long or elaborate process of reasoning. He was forced, therefore, to concentrate what he had to say; and since he had no chance of being admired for the beauty of his composition, it was natural for him to aim at making an impres

sion by the force and the clearness of his statements.

His conclusions were often rash and inaccurate, from the same circumstances which rendered his productions concise. Philosophy and speculation did not form the business of his life; nor did he dedicate himself to any particular study, with a view to exhaust and complete the investigation of it in all its parts, and under all its relations. He engaged in every interesting inquiry that suggested itself to him, rather as the necessary exercise of a powerful and active mind, than as a task which he had bound himself to perform. He cast a quick and penetrating glance over the facts and the data that were presented to him; and drew his conclusions with a rapidity and precision that have not often been equalled; but he did not stop to examine the completeness of the data upon which he proceeded, nor to consider the ultimate effect or application of the principles to which he had been conducted. In all questions, therefore, where the facts upon which he was to determine, and the materials from which his judgment was to be formed, were either few in number, or of such a nature as not to be overlooked, his reasonings are for the most part perfectly just and conclusive, and his decisions unexceptionably sound; but where the elements of the calculation were more numerous and widely scattered, it appears to us that he has often been precipitate and that he has either been misled by a partial apprehension of the conditions of the problem, or has discovered only a portion of the truth which lay before him. In all physical inquiries; in almost all questions of particular and immediate policy; and in much of what relates to the practical wis

dom and the happiness of private life, his views will be found to be admirable, and the reasoning by which they are supported most masterly and convincing. But upon subjects of general politicks, of abstract morality, and political economy, his notions appear to be more unsatisfactory and incomplete. He seems to have wanted feisure, and perhaps inclination also, to spread out before him the whole vast premises of these extensive sciences, and scarcely to have had patience to hunt for his conclusions through so wide and intricate a region as that upon which they invited him to enter. He has been satisfied, therefore, on every occasion, with reasoning from a very limited view of the facts, and often from a particular instance; he has done all that sagacity and sound sense could do with such materials; but it cannot excite wonder, if he has sometimes overlooked an essential part of the argument, and often advanced a particular truth into the place of a general principle. He seldom reasoned upon these subjects at all, we believe, without having some practical application of them immediately in view; and as he began the investigation rather to determine a particular case, than to establish a general maxim, so he probably desisted as soon as he had relieved himself of the present difficulty.

There are not many among the thorough bred scholars and philosophers of Europe, who can lay claim to distinction in more than one or two departments of science or literature. The uneducated tradesman of America has left writings, that call for our attention, in natural philosophy,-in politicks,-in political economy, and in general literature and morality. Vol. III. No. 12. 4 M

Dr. Franklin, we think, has never made use of the mathematicks, in his investigation of the phenomena of nature; and though this may render it surprising that he has fallen into so few errours of importance, we conceive that it helps in some measure to explain the unequalled perspicuity and vi vacity of his expositions. An algebraist, who can work wonders with letters, seldom condescends. to be much indebted to words, and thinks himself entitled to make his sentences obscure, provided his calculations be distinct. A writer who has nothing but words to make use of, must make all the use he can of them he cannot afford to neglect the only chance, he has of being understood.

We should now say something of the political writings of Dr. Franklin, the productions which first raised him into publick office and eminence, and which will be least read or attended to by posterity. They may be divided into two parts; those which relate to the internal affairs and provincial differences of the American colonies, before their quarrel with the mother country; and those which relate to that quarrel and its consequences. The former are no longer in any degree interesting: and the editor has done wisely, we think, in presenting his readers with an abstract only of the longest of them; this was published in 1759, under the title of an Historical Review of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, and consisted of upwards of 500 pages, composed for the purpose of shewing, that the political privileges reserved to the founder of the colony had been illegally and oppressively used.The Canada pamphlet, written in 1760, for the purpose of pointing out the importance of retaining