‘of my own weakness. Like those love. It strikes an impression of who have surveyed the moon by awful reverence ; it is indeed that glasses, I can only tell of a new and love which is more properly a shining world above us, but not zeal than passion. It is the raprelate the riches and glories of the ture which anchorites find in prayplace.'..... Fortune has, indeed, er, when a beam of the Divinity but rendered justice to so much shines upon them ; that which excellence, in setting it so high to makes them despise all worldly publick view ; or rather Provi- objects; and yet it is all but condence has done justice to itself, in templation. They are seldom placing the most perfect workman- visited from above ; but a single ship of heaven, where it may be vision so transports them, that it admired by all beholders. Had makes up the happiness of their the sun and stars been seated low- lives.' .... But all my praises are er, their glory had not been com- but as a bull-rush cast upon a municated to all at once ; and the stream ; if they sink not, it is beCreator had wanted so much of his cause they are borne up by the praise, as he had made your con- current, which supports their dition more obscure ; but he has lightness ; but they are carried placed you so near a crown, that round again, and return on the you add a lustre to it by your eddy where they first began. I beauty. You are joined to a prince can proceed no farther than your who only could deserve you ; beauty,and even on that too I have whose conduct, courage, and suc- said so little, considering the cess in war, whose fidelity to his greatness of the subject, that, like royal brother, whose love for his him who would lodge a bowl upon country, whose constancy to his a precipice, either my praise falls friends, whose bounty to his ser- back by the weakness of the delivvants, whose justice to merit, ery, or stays not on the top, but whose inviolable truth, and whose rolls over, and is lost on the other magnanimity in all his actions, side.' seem to have been rewarded by heaven by the gift of you. You In a tea conversation, at the are never seen but you are blest ; house of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and I am sure you bless all those speaking of Percy's reliques of anwho see you.'.... Thus, madam, cient English poetry, Dr. Johnson in the midst of crowds, you reign ridiculed that kind of writing, by in solitude ; and are adored with addressing, extempore, the followthe deepest veneration, that of si- ing stanzas to the young lady that lence. It is true, you are above made the tea : all mortal wishes ; no man desires I pray thee, gentle Renny, dear, impossibilities, because they are That thou wilt give to me, beyond the reach of nature. To With cream and sugar tempered well, hope to be a god, is folly exalted Another dish of tea. into madness; but by the laws of Nor fear that I, my gentle maid, our creation, we are obliged to Shall long detain the cup, adore luim, and are permitted to Save drank the liquor up. love him at human distance. It is the nature of perfection to be Yet hear at last this mournful truth, attractive, but the excellency of Nor hear it with a frown, the object refines the nature of the As I call gulp ii durva, Vol. III. No. 1. When once unto the bottom I Thou canst not make the tea so fast. The King of Aztlan Vain all their kill!.. we drove before Heard and beheld, and in his noble heart fun once, Of fuch an hour, doth never hear the fform Howl round his home, but he remem⚫bers it, And thinks upon the fuffering mariner! And now the orient fky Glowed with the ruddy morning, when the Prince Came to the field. He lifted up his voice, And fhouted, Madoc! Madoc! They who heard The cry, aftonished, turned; and when The countenance his open helm difclofed the host Spread the miraculous joy,.. He lives! he lives! Slants o'er the moving many-coloured fea, Such their furpassing beauty; bells of gold Emboffed his glittering helmet, and where'er Their found was heard, there lay the prefs of war, And Death was bufiest there. Over the breast, And o'er the golden breastplate of the King, A feathery cuirafs, beautiful to eye, Light as the robe of peace, yet strong to fave ; For the fharp falchion's baffled edge would glide From its fmooth foftnefs. On his arny he held A buckler, overlaid with beaten gold. The unfastened club; which, when the Prince beheld, He thruft him off, and, drawing back, refumed The fword, which from his wrift fuf pended hung, And twice he fmote the king; twice from the quilt Of plumes the iron glides; and lo! the King, So well his foldiers watched their mon arch's need, Shakes in his hand a fpear, But now a cry Burst on the ear of Madoc, and he saw Through opening ranks, where Urien was conveyed, A The loud alarum-bell, heard far and wide. The King of Aztlan and the Ocean Chief. Faft, on the intervening buckler, fell The Azteca's ftone faulchion. Who hath watched The midnight lightnings of the fummer ftorm, That, with their aweful blaze, irradiate heaven, Then leave a blacker night? fo quick, fo fierce, Flashed Madoc's fword, which, like the And in the golden buckler, Madoc's fword Bit deep. Coanocotzin faw, and dropt whofe force, Driven by his father's arm, Tepollomi Had fallen fubdued,.. and fast and fierce he drove The maffy weight on Madoc. From his Quield, captive to his death. Grief, then, and fhame And rage infpired him. With a mighty blow He cleft Coanocotzin's helin; exposed The monarch ftood;..again the thun der-stroke Came on him, and he fell... The multi tude Forgetful of their country and them felves, Crowd round their dying King. Madoc, Still followed Urien, called upon his men, ་བ.. THE BOSTON REVIEW, FOR JANUARY, 1806. Librum tuum legi & quara diligentissime potui annotavi, quæ commutanda, quæ eximenda, ar bitrarer. Nam ego dicere verum assuevi. maxime laudari merentur.-Pliny. ARTICLE 1. Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Vol. I. 1785. 4to. pp. 568. It is honourable to Massachusetts, that in the year 1780, in the midst of the memorable war, which terminated in the establishment of the independence of the United States, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences was incorporated by her enlightened legislature. According to the act of incorporation, "The end and design of the institution of the academy is, to promote and encourage the knowledge of the antiquities of America, and of the natural history of the country; and to determine the uses to which the various natural productions of the country may be applied; to promote and encourage medical discoveries, mathematical disquisitions, philosophical inquiries and experiments; astronomical, meteorological and geographical observations; and, improvements in agriculture, arts, manufactures and commerce; and in fine, to cultivate every art and science, which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity and happines of a free, independent and virtuous people." In prosecuting the object of their institution, the Society has presented to the publick in this volume, the first fruits of their learned labours. The time, that has elapsed since the publication, will not, we hope, render a review of the contents useless nor uninter Neque ulli patientius reprehenduntur, quam qui esting. To the Memoirs is prefixed the act of incorporation; and also the statutes of the Academy, a list of members, and donors with their respective benefactions. Then follows A PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOURSE, publickly addressed to the Academy by their first President, the honourable JAMES BOWDOIN, Esq. on his first election to that office. The learned and excellent president, after some remarks on the social affections, and their operation in forming societies of various descriptions, observes, in the spirit of true philosophy, with respect to the American Philosophical 'Society, which had been previously formed, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, "it is hoped, that, as optic glasses, by collecting the solar rays, do assist and strengthen the corporeal sight, so the two societies, by concentring in a proper focus the scattered rays of science, may aid and invigorate the intellectual: benefiting by their productions, not only the communities, in which they are respectively instituted, but America and the world in general: both together resembling some copious river, whose branches, after refreshing the neighbouring region, unite their waters for the fertilizing a more extensive country.” He afterward takes a cursory view of the antiquities of America, and of natural history, two of the subjects, to which the inquiries of the Academy are particularly di rected by the act of incorporation' notices the benefits, which the publick has derived from Harvard College; pays a tribute of gratitude to the generous benefactors of that institution, and addresses to their disembodied spirits the effusions of a heart, strongly impressed with a view of the great and extensive good, arising from their donations. Looking forward to the end of a century from the declaration of independence, he gives a character of the Academy, to which he hopes it will then be entitled in the pages of some eminent American historian. The liberal spirit, that animates the society,appears in the following extract. "As the society is formed on the most liberal principles,and is of no sect or party in philosophy, it wide extends its arms to embrace the sons of science of every denomination,and wheresoever found; and with the warmth of fraternal affection invites them to a philosophical correspondence: and they may be assured, their communications will be esteemed a favour, and duly acknowledged by the Society." This discourse appears to flow from a mind, correct, reflecting, well informed; and from a heart, warm with benevolence, patriotism, love of science, and engaged in promoting the best interests of society. PART I. ASTRONOMICAL AND MATHEMATICAL PAPERS. I. A method of finding the altitude and longitude of the nonaCesimal degree of the ecliptic; with an appendix, containing calculations from corresponding astronomical observations, for determining the dif ference of meridians between Farvard-Hall, in the University of Cambridge, in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the royal observatories at ~`“eenwich and Paris, By the Rev. Joseph Willard, president of the University, and corresponding secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Previous knowledge of the altitude and longitude of the nonages imal degree of the ecliptick is requisite in determining the diurnal parallaxes of the heavenly bodies, belonging to the solar system, in latitude and longitude. Such parallaxes are necessarily used in deducing the longitude of places from corresponding observations of solar eclipses, as well as in various other astronomical calculations. The late learned and excellent president of our university has, in this memoir, given a method of finding the altitude and longitude of the nonagesimal degree, which he thinks is not only different from, but to him easier, if not shorter than any other, with which he was acquainted. The method is explained with perspicuity, and illustrated by an example and suitable figures; and may be easily understood by those, who are ac quainted with the stereographick projection of the sphere, and spherick trigonometry. In the appendix, rules are given for calculating the difference of meridians from corresponding ob servations of solar eclipses; and they are exemplified in determining the longitude of Cambridge from the celebrated royal observatories of Greenwich and Paris. Of the calculations by solar and lunar tables, in which Mayer's were used, it was deemed sufficient to publish merely the results, or particular elements, requisite in the subsequent parts of the process. The principles and ruics, stated in the appendix, are well exemplified. It was evidently the intention of the author to render this method of finding longituds |