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remembered with affection and reverence on earth;" and that

they" shall be had in everlasting remembrance before God, and the inhabitants of heaven." These positions are illustrated in a neat, perspicuous and striking manner. If there be a fault in this part of the discourse, it is, that neither of these principal heads is sufficiently expanded. Such a preacher had no reason to be afraid of fatiguing his hearers, by a more full discussion of subjects, so rich and interesting. After devoting a little more than three pages to the general doctrine of the text,

Mr. G. proceeds to "sketch the outlines of the history and character" of the venerable deceased. The execution of this portion of the discourse is unusually happy. It is particular, without being tedious; and every where sober and discriminating, without being vapid. It would be happy for the literary and ecclesiastical historian, if every distinguished man had found an equally faithful, able, and interesting biographer. We forbear to lay any part of this sketch before our readers, at present, because it is our intention in a future number to present an abridgment of the whole. We cannot omit, however, to transcribe a single paragraph, as an example of that tender, poetic simplicity, which we believe often distinguishes the compositions of this gentleman.

"My reverend father lived to a good old age. As I have heard him say, he lived to see two worl's die. He trod the path of life with those who have long since gone to rest. Your fathers knew him; and he helped to fit those for heaven whose aged dust now sleeps in that hallowed Vol. III. No. 9. DD d

ground. He baptised most of you, and will shortly meet those faces at with the sacramental water. the bar of God, which he covered When

I have heard him talk of the events of other times, and the well known characters with whom he acted on

the public stage, before I had exist

ence, and saw him alone amidst a younger race, I have often contemplated him as a venerable oak, which

blast.

once stood in the midst of the forest the ruthless axe of time has laid his companions low; and now he stands alone on the open plain, and every withered leaf trembles in the That trunk which seventy winters had in vain assailed, must fall at last, like the companions of his youth. He has fallen, and is gathered to his fathers! He no longer stands alone in the open plain; he is surrounded once more by the companions of his youth, and stands, we trust, transplanted and renewed among the trees in the paradise of God."

The addresses, to the surviving relatives of the deceased, and to the afflicted congregation over which he had so long presided, close this discourse. These, also, and especially the latter, are excellent. We present the following passage as a specimen :

"Yes, while his body lies insensible before you, his soul still lives in a conscious state. He loved you much; and in the abodes of bliss will, I doubt not, often think of you. Perhaps he may sometimes pass this way, to mark how you improve the instructions which he left among you, and whether you are coming after him to glory. I have a strong persuasion that his former family and flock will not be wholly excluded from his present cares. Perhaps he will sometimes visit our assemblies, to hear those truths repeated which he so often preached, and to observe their effects on you. Perhaps he may now be present! Sainted Spirit! hast thou come to witness our griefs? Do I see thee hovering over our assembly? O! if thou wouldst

speak to us now, thy doctrines would no longer be unheeded!- -Alas! he speaks no more! His ministry among us is then forever closed, and sealed up to the judgment of the great day. Nothing can be added to it, or taken from it. He has done what he had to do, and has returned to Him that sent him. But his ministry has not done with us. Think not, that, except tears and tender remembrance, you have nothing more to do with your deceased pastor. As the Lord liveth, you shall meet him again. When the dissolving heavens shall open, and disclose the Son of Man, coming in clouds to judge the world, your father, we trust, will be in his glorious train. And when the convulsions of that day shall burst the dormitories of a thousand generations, his sleeping body will rise! Then, he who baptised you, he who catechised you, he who warned and wept over you, shall stand with you in judgment. Then, all the scenes which have passed between you and him shall be examined, and an account taken how you improved his ministry in general, and each sermon in particular. Every hour that you sat under the sound of his voice, shall be found to have been big with life or death. The effects of improving or resisting his minis. try, shall be felt through every hour and moment of eternity! -Oh! did you consider this while your minister lived? Did you consider this while his agitated soul was pleading over you? Did you consider this while you were bearing his clay-cold body to the house of God? Did you consider, that you were attending one who must be a witness, either for or against you, in the day that shall de. cide the destinies of all men, and whose ministry must either help you to heaven, or sink you deeper in hell? I see some of vou tremble. the half has not been told you. If a review of his ministry be so overwhelming at present, what will it be in the day of judgment! If in the land of peace, wherein you trust, it has wearied you, then how will you do in the swelling of Fordan ?"

But

On the whole we consider this sermon as doing equal honour

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of a Congregational church in Worcester. Worcester, Thomas & Sturtevant, 8vo. pp. 552. 1807.

THIS publication "originated in the author's wish to place within reach of the great body of his countrymen, an authentic biography of General WASHING

TON."

When we consider of what importance it is, that the example of this illustrious man be presented to the view of American citizens of every class, in the present and in every future age,

and at the same time, how extensive is the plan, and how costly are the volumes, of the Life of Washington by Judge Marshall, we must allow this desire, and the Essay to which it has given rise, to be highly commendable. The plan of the work is," to notice no individual or event, further than was neces sary to display the principal character." The author professes to offer but little original matter. "The few facts, which have not before been published, were received immediately from confidential friends of General

WASHINGTON, or from gentle- authority, obtained attention, if

men who, in respectable official situations, were members of his family during his military command." The author contents himself with mentioning, in his Preface, his general authorities, without a distinct reference to them in the work itself. This procedure will be satisfactory to the readers for whom this volume is peculiarly designed; but we cannot suppress a wish, that for all the facts, not before published, however " few," the authorities had been expressly given, unless considerations of delicacy absolutely forbade. When a foreigner,t after a temporary residence in our country, has traduced the very subject of the present work, and, on his own

to

R. Parkinson, author of a Tour in America. This man came America from motives of speculation. He designed to take a farm under Gener. al Washington, to whom he was recommended by Sir J. Sinclair; but the terms proposed did not meet the sanguine expectations of the English agriculturist. Hinc ille lachrymæ. He went home, and abused the soil and the landlord, the country and its inhabitants. A scurrilous anecdote concerning General Washing, ton, in itself absolutely incredible, and certainly not admissible on such authority, is taken from Parkinson's Tour, and inserted in one of the English Reviews, to give it currency. The Reviewer himself notwithstanding concedes, that there 'many instances," in that work, "in which the rancour of disappointment is much more evident than liberality or good sense." What regard then has he shown to the obligation of truth, or to the dignity of criticism? We are glad to find, at another English tribunal, a more equitable verdict. See CRITICAL REVIEW for January, 1807, which begins the review of Parkinson's Tour thus: "This book is avowedly written for the purpose of vilifying America." The whole adjudication corresponds with this exordium.

are

not credence; it concerns us to substantiate every iota that we record, that we may effectually correct the mistakes of ignorance, and silence the calumnies of malevolence. We mean not the slightest insinuation of doubt, in regard to the authenticity of the additional articles, published in the volume now before us. Our knowledge of the author's character gives us perfect confidence in his own declaration, concerning the sources from which they were derived.

But we proceed to consider the execution of the work. This corresponds with the design and plan of the author. By excluding all matter foreign to the precise object, the volume gives a full exhibition of the MAN, whose character is professedly delineated. All is pure biography, the biography of WASHINGTON. We say not, there is no history; but there is none, save what takes its rise from him; centres in him; or terminates in him. When he is not the agent, he is the object; when we see not his person, we are conversant with his acts. Were we to call the work a portrait (and such it may justly be called,) we should say, it is one of full length, showing the individual distinct, prominent, entire. We say not, that no other figure is to be seen on the canvass; but there is none, that is not essential to the design; there is none, that does not serve

to set off and give impression to the principal.

To drop the

allusion, you are never presented with any character, or event, which allows you for a moment to forget the MAN, with whose

birth you begin the volume, until, at its close, you consign him to the tomb.

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The style of Mr. Bancroft is generally chaste. It is characterised for that "simplicity," at which he professedly aimed. Here are no pompous words, or laboured sentences. The reader is neither wearied with the stately swell of the Gibbonian period, nor disgusted with the coarse phraseology of vulgar dialect. While the unlettered portion of the community" will understand, the literati will seldom be offended. In the perusal, however, the remark which the spectator applied to one of his modest characters, occurred to us, that he wanted a dash of the coxcomb in him. A little more ornament, and a little more rotundity of period, would, we think, not only have been admisşible, consistently with the author's design, but have given an additional value to his work,

The author is happier in the selection, than in the arrangement of his words. The rule of Quinctilian ought never to be forgotten: "Non solum ut intelligere possit, sed ne omnino possit non intelligere curandum." This rule is repeatedly violated; sometimes by the remoteness of the relative from its antecedent, and sometimes by an unhappy collocation of words.

"If the necessary cooperation of G. Britain, to enable the colony to drive the enemy from the Ohio, were unattainable, which would prove a radical cure of the evil, he strongly recommended, that a regular force of two thousand men should be raised." p. 20." An anonymous paper was circulated, requesting a meeting at eleven o'clock, on the next day, at the

public building, of the general and field officers, of an officer from each company, &c." p. 296.- "As the General passed, unperceived by him, a youth by the aid of machinery let down upon his head a civic crown." p. 364.

"At Trenton, the ladies presented him with a tribute of gratitude for the protection which, twelve years before, he gave them, worthy of the taste and refinement of the sex." Ibid.-.." The

members of Congress, in opposition to the measures of administration, obtained the knowledge of the arrival of a son of the Marquis La Fayette." p. 466.

Strictures of less importance are suggested, for the consideration of the author, in case of a future revision of his work.

P. 39. "On which" acres, &c.-p. 335. "On both which," &c. The relative, in each of these passages, unnecessarily severed from its antecedent by a full period. p. 39. "The rights [rites of hospitality were liberally exercised."

P. 40. 66 Arrangement of military resources." 261. "embraced the inactive period." 268. "fruits of victory were on the side of the English." An incongruous mixture of metaphors.

P. 47. "The Welsh mountains in Cambridge" we have never been able to discover.

A suppression of the aspirate improperly intended, in the folin words beginning with h seems lowing examples:

P. 49. 99. 114. 66

den," "a mile and an half,” “an heavy an heavy bur.

cannonade."

72, 87, 14, 158, 256. "Works were

fung up," "The Americans had flung up a small redoubt.” "Entrenchments were flung up." "The American line was flung into disorder." "Arnold flung of the disguise.”

Should this term be flung out, another might advantageously be thrown in.

142. "His humane heart relucted." So do our ears.

are more substantially paid, by the pleasure we have derived

157. "Attacked [attack] the right from the perusal of this volume;

wing."

161. "The defences were beat [beaten] down."

161. Fifteen hundred men was [were] necessary."

197." He ordered the troops to lay [lie] on their arms."

229. “Thirteen foreign [sovereign]

states."

253. The purity of his own mind forbid" [forbade.]

404. There was that in his character which forbid, &c.

321. "He bid them a silent adieu." 256. "By order of his Sir Henry Clinton."

260. Note. "The settlers [suttlers] of the garrison."

268. Admiral de Turney" [Ternay]" D'Estanches" [Destouches.] 319. " Congress was not, &c. but they were.'

397. "Principle" [principal.] 450. "The office of Attorney General become vacant."

390. "The first diplomatic transactions of the President."

442. "General Washington had the firmness to loan his personal infiuence."

If the Saxon term loan is legitimate, as synonymous with lend; yet use has so restricted it to pecuniary objects, that we prefer some other word, in this connexion. On the memorable occasion, here referred to, and on many other occasions, the "personal influence" of WASHINGTON was of more importance to his country, than all her loans.

466. This young gentleman did not remain for a length of time in the Uni

ted States,"

Although we have endeavoured to separate the chaff from the wheat, yet we are better rewarded, than the ancient critic, who was sentenced to receive the chaff only for his pains. We

and had we aimed only to appreciate it, we should not have been thus minute in its examination.

On the whole, we are decided

in the opinion, that this biographical essay does great justice to the subject, and is calculated to be highly useful to the community. It proves Washington to be, what we were prepared to expect; in public life great; in private, estimable. At Mount Vernon he is mild and beneficent, methodical and diligent, attentive to agricultural improvements, and patriotic in encouraging the useful arts in camp, thoughtful and vigilant, cautious of danger, and provident to meet it, accommodating his plans to his means, and less anxious for personal glory, than for the safety and happiness of his country in battle, cool, yet determined, daring, yet prudent; in victory, moderate; in defeat, unsubdued at the head of the Republic, Republic, comprehensive, yet minute, equable, and impartial; prompt to concede the just claims of other nations, but resolute in vindicating the rights of his own; unawed by menaces, unseduced by flatteries; deliberate in determining, but, when determined, inflexible; attentive to the wishes of his countrymen, but not obsequious; respectful, but not servile; with a rare felicity combining the tenderness of a parent with the energy of a sovereign; and perpetually giving proofs of his claim to the august title of FATHER OF HIS COUN

TRY.

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