his country should endeavour to remove. Conspicuous among them, and frequently deplored, is that want of patronage, which leaves in cold neglect the exertions of ingenuity, and prefers to intellectual superiority more ignoble attainments. Genius is often the growth of the rude forest or the obscure glade. If it be not brought into a genial soil, and invigorated with the enlivening beams of attentive encouragement, it must wither upon its stalk, or give its glory to the wind. It was in the distinguished age in which Pollio and Mecenas lived, and the public eye was turned with fond regard upon all the concerns of letters, that Cicero spake, and Cæsar, and Livy, and Sallust wrote, and Virgil and Horace sang. It was in the celebrated days, when Richelieu with affection and liberality wooed letters to France, and Louis afterwards with prodigal caresses maintained and promoted them—when an academy of belles lettres sprang up under the auspices of royal bounty, and was presently followed by an academy of science, that Corneille and Moliere, Racine and Boileau flourised; and Paris became the most splendid resort of Genius and the Muses. What improvement of taste, and developement of learning were effected in Italy under the beneficence of the Medici; whose generous policy gave consequence to talents by bestowing employment and honour upon ingenious and learned men. In Great-Britain, if the patrons of learning have been partial, they have been numerous; and we find her happiest wits, and best scholars, either basking in the smiles of the court, or reposing in the shades of private munificence. It is with extreme reluctance we are compelled to own that our country has not yet been distinguished for a generous encouragement of letters and the arts. Her painters seek in foreign climes the animating rays of public favour. Her philologists and historians have not found the paths of their literary labours, the paths of ease and preferment. And her poets-Apollo blushes indignant, when he beholds them crouching through necessity to fortune in some inhospitable region; or contemplating in sadness, over forgotten productions, the poverty they might procure to themselves by frequent efforts of their genius.

It has been remarked, and we fear there is too much foundation for the remark, that the passion for wealth, and the ardour of political contention, which are perhaps the predominant traits in the character of our countrymen, have retarded the ascendency of genius, and obstructed the progress of letters. Wealth, which gives leisure and ease; which procures the finest models of art, and the best copies of ancient authors; which promotes the intercourse, and facilitates the researches of the learned, is unquestionably favourable to the interests of literature. But when it is the absorbing passion of a people, when it is pursued only for itself, and the extent of possessions is the measure both of merit and influence, there will be little emulation of superior attainments. The soul, intent upon the acquisition of sordid wealth, as the only means of power and distinction, will have for intellectual pursuits neither time nor regard.

"Fervet avaritia miseroque cupidine pectus."

In like manner, that open discussion of public measures, and equal access to public honours, which are the privileges of a free people, are not unfriendly to the developement of genius, and interests of learning. But there is a warmth of contention, in which the just claims of talents and wisdom are dis

regarded; and confidence, honour, and public employment are bestowed, not upon the sage and the hero, not upon the ingenious and learned, but upon the subtle leaders of the successful party, or the wretched minions of unprincipled power. In each of these cases there is a deadly chill upon the exertions of superior minds. The Muses in disgust retire to their groves, and their votaries. disheartened, hang up their harps upon the trees that are therein.

Shall we be pardoned the expression, if we further observe, that through the innovating spirit of the times the republic of letters may have its dignity and prosperity endangered by sliding inadvertently into a democracy? We have heard the time lamented as lost, which students, who would attain to legitimate honours, are compelled to spend in the retired walks of ancient learning. In this sagacious and prolific age, men have discovered better models than the Iliad and the Æneid, and better instructors than Cicero and Quinctilian. A Bloomfield has sung from his bench-and what is the advan. tage of a toilsome acquaintance with languages that are dead? The indian is eloquent by the force of nature-and where is the necessity of models and laws? Much to be deprecated is the spread of these wild sentiments, which, like the irruptions of the barbarians upon the civilized world, would overturn all that is great and beautiful in the walks of literature, and leave in their stead the barrenness of desolation, or the uncouth productions of ignorance and rudeLet it be remembered, that whatever there is of correct criticism and taste in the world is to be traced to the recovery of the classics from obscurity and corruption. In the study of these commenced the revival of letters and the liberation and improvement of the human mind. These masters of antiquity were conducted to the Castalian fount by the goddesses of the spring themselves. Let us discourse with them of the way; and not disdain to follow their steps, when we are witnesses of their immortality. It is with literature as with government. Neither is a subject of perpetual experiment. The principles of both are fixed. They spring from sources, and have relations, which are unchangeable and eternal. If men will despise the principles and rules which are founded in nature, if they will disregard the models which time has proved and hallowed, if they will be irregular in their literary appetites, and arrogant in their designs-what wonder if they should be often left by the justice of Olympus to delight themselves on the bosom of a cloud, and the world of letters should be overrun with Centaurs?

ness.

Ignorance, or corruption, in the very important tribunals of criticism, would unquestionably impede the progress and diminish the reputation of American literature. If those should be permitted to erect themselves into literary censors, whom the divinities of Helicon have not anointed, nor deep and thorough acquaintance with ancient authorities and established principles prepared; if indolence, friendship, or political partiality should pervert the judgment of our literary courts, and affix the seal of unqualified approbation to works of small or questionable merit; if proficients in the arts, and professors of learning, in giving their opinion upon the productions of the day, suffer their minds to be prejudiced by the clamour of the moment, and learn of the multitude what to admire, instead of teaching them what is admirable -- who can anticipate all the consequences? The public taste would be vitiated. There would be herds of imitators of the false excellencies, to which corrupt criticism had given currency. And instead of having our admiration excited,

and our attention fixed by distinct and splendid greatness, we should be obligated to turn away, wearied and confused, from the multifarious glitter of countless ephemeral productions.

Here let us be permitted to remark, the importance of an able and judicious management of periodical publications. These miscellanies may undoubtedly have a considerable influence upon the literature of a people. In the hands of such men as Addison and Johnson, Goldsmith and Steele, they confounded absurdity, and rectified opinion; they roused attention, and engaged it in the service of the Muses; and formed and refined the public taste. Very great, we are persuaded, would be the advantage to the literature of our country, if the meritorious editors of these works were enabled, by the generous patronage of the rich, and the liberal contributions of the learned, so to conduct them, that Minerva would not blush to find her image in the frontispiece; and the streams which are conveyed by them into the circles of the fashionable, and the closets of the studious, might be brought, under her direction, from the fountains of Ilyssus.

America, in the freedom of her government, the face of her territory, the native powers of her citizens, the toleration which subjects no reasonable efforts of the mind to penalty or dismay, and the rich capital of England's learning, which community of language enables her with facility to use as her own, has certainly opportunity and inducements to vie with any nation upon the earth in the pursuit of literary distinction. And let us not defraud her of her just praise. Above the meteors which flit in great numbers across her literary hemisphere, we may discern here and there a fixed star. It is with new and peculiar delight, that we behold the professional chair of Oratory and Rhetoric, in our beloved University, now filled by a gentleman,* whom, if he were not left upon Hybla in his infancy, the bees found in his youth, and having committed their treasures to his lips, left him to delight his country with his mellifluous eloquence, and, by his wisdom and example, to conduct her youth to literary glory. In such ornaments of her academic institutions; in her advancing age and opulence; in the increasing munificence and taste of her citizens; and in the multiplied number,† and growing respectability of her literary associations, our country, we trust, will find inducements to enulate, in her course, the splendour of Grecian and Roman renown. the transport of hope we would forget, to-day, all, presages of fearful hours, and dwell upon this delightful expectation. As yet, we trust, it is with our country but the morning of her appointed career. She will continue to rise and brighten-not, like the comet of other hemispheres, erratic in its course, baleful in its aspect, and threatening to unhinge the order and safety of the spheres-but, like the orb of day, moving on among the nations of the earth with steady progress and increasing splendour. In her wisdom and virtue will be "the greatness of her strength," and her literature will give radiance to her

**The Hon. John Quincy Adams.

In

† Among these, a distinguished rank will, in time, be taken and preserved by the 'Boston Athenæuman association lately formed, after the model of the Athenæun at Liverpool, for the promotion of literature, science and general knowledge. It has at its head the learned Chief Justice of the State; and from the character and views of many of its members, promises to be one. of the most useful and pleasant institutions of the enlightened metropolis which has given it birth.

beams. And when she shall have reached the meridian of her glory, that point from which a nation's prosperity begins to decline, may the God of heaven, who assigneth to the nations their time and their place, command with the voice, to which even the fixed laws of nature will bow, that she long stand still—a source of light, a centre of harmony, and a manifestation of His power and glory to the admiring world.

No. V.

EXTRACTS

From his Annual Addresses to the Convention of the Diocese.

1813. He thus concludes a very short address:-"This brief statement, brethren, is made, that the very useful canon, for providing for an accurate view of the state of the Church, from time to time, might not seem, at any time, to have been disregarded; and in the hope, humbly entertained. that future years may, through the blessing of God, exhibit a greater progress of prosperity in the affairs of the diocese."

1814. "Brethren of the Clergy and Laity of the Convention,-In the view which I am required, by an useful canon of the Church, to give you,' of the affairs of the diocese,' since the last meeting of the Convention, it will fall within the scope of the regulation to congratulate you on the degree of concord and Christian fellowship, with which our churches are blessed. It is hardly possible, that in any society, composed of many parts, and all the parts of frail and fallible beings, there should exist such an entire unity of opinion and community of feelings, as to produce always a perfectly harmonious co-operation towards the accomplishment of the same ends. As near an approach to this happy state, as is compatible with the condition and infirmities of man. is, through the good blessing of God, at present enjoyed by us in this diocese. In a degree, which it is gratifying to me to remark, as it has doubtless been pleasing to you to notice, the clergy of the diocese are kindly affectioned, one to another, with brotherly love; and their respective parishes being knit together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, are, it is humbly hoped, making some increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love. Thus far there is unity, and all will ever be concerned for the interests and feelings of all, if we be actuated by the genuine spirit of the religion of Jesus Christ."

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"Among the means, which would be most likely, under the blessing of God, to increase the prosperity of the diocese, are the services of missionaries. There are in the State many vacant parishes, and other places in which the Episcopal population seems too small for the support of the ministrations of the Church, but where are found many families, who, when they hear of the

faith and worship of their fathers, express a desire to have them re-established, and would, with happiness, and in all probability with improvement, welcome the occasional services of clergymen, who were not stationary among them. It comes within the design of this address to state, that the sending of missionaries is one object of the 'Protestant Episcopal Society for the Advancement of Christianity in South-Carolina;' and that the importance of this object may well claim for that institution the exertions of all the friends of the Church, that its funds may be more proportioned than they at present are, to the extent of its purposes, and the scope afforded by the exigencies of the diocese, for its pious designs. Among the fruits which might be expected from the labours of judicious missionaries, would probably be the repairing of the once goodly churches, which are now lying in ruins; an act, which, though the buildings should not be immediately used, would, in a Christian land, be a becoming expression of reverence for the Deity, and regard for whatever has relation to his name."

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"The purposes, brethren, for which this Convention is instituted, being solely of a religious character, and directed chiefly to the enlarging, strengthening, and adorning of the spiritual building in this part of the Saviour's kingdom, whatever will facilitate, in your several parishes, the repairing of the houses of worship, which are laid waste, and the obtaining and settling in the diocese of a greater number of clergymeu of piety, talents, and zeal, would be favourable to the furtherance of the objects for which we here assemble. In adverting to the situation of many of our parishes, the words of the Apostle present themselves forcibly to the mind-how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed; and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard; and how shall they hear without a preacher ? In the character of the Deity we worship, in the privilege of being called to a knowledge of the gospel of the Redeemer, in the felicity of participating of the order and liturgy of the Episcopal Church, in the hope set before us by our Master, and in the consciousness of our past deficiencies, what inducements may be found to do what we can in future for the house of our God, and for the offices thereof! If, while we are looking to the affairs of the diocese,' we call to mind the ties which bind us together, and whose cause it is that we have in hand, we shall, each one of us, adopt the language of the man after God's heart-for my brethren and companions' sake I will wish thee prosperity; yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek to do thee good."

1815, (February). In reviewing the affairs of the diocese in the year that has elapsed, since we were last assembled in Convention, it is a prominent and pleasing fact, that the Church of this diocese has, after an interval of many years, been again represented in the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal churches in the United States. As a member of this body, this diocese has a joint interest with the other dioceses in the common prosperity of the Church. And you will learn with pleasure, that the result of this interview of the different parts of the whole body, was a grateful persuasion, that the churches in this country were rising in their strength, and putting on their beautiful garments; and that there was ground to hope that the Lord God would dwell among them."

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"In the course of these visitations, it has been a source of much pleasure to observe, that the doctrines of the Church are, by those who take any lively