connection, abundant attestation,, other. Unless this is done, in our and general belief, &c." can "be dis-enquiries for his "abundant attestaproved by disagreements of wri-tion contiguous" to the "achievement" ters respecting subordinate circum- of the fact, we retrace no further stances," yet. Mr. Wakefield must than Homer, where we stop as coefirst prove that there is "abundant val with the event: Here then we attestation and general belief, from have no more "abundant attestaremote antiquity contiguous to its tion" of the presumed fact, than achievement," before he invalidates Homer's poem, which Mr. W. acMr. B.'s arguments against the ex-knowledges to be in part a fable. istence of an expedition against Therefore it follows, that if such a Troy in Phrygia. But by assum-fact as is presumed cannot be invaling it for a fact, Mr.W.'s theorem is little else than a begging of the question; for whether it be fact or fable is the point in dispute.

Besides, does Mr. Bryant in fact rely on "the disagreements of writers relative to concomitant circumstances of subordinate consideration,” to disprove the expedition to Troy? If not, the proposition has no application. Of the three writers on whom he relies, two contend that Homer's poem was allegorical, and the armament of the Grecians a fable; and the other that the existence of the city could never be determined, and that the earliest natives of the region, where it was supposed to have stood, had no tradition of it. These surely are not "circumstances of subordinate consideration."

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idated by arguments derived from the fuble of the poet, so neither can it be established thereby, But as Mr. Wakefield does not offer any proof of the existence of "Troy in Phrygia," and Mr. Bryant does anx deny, but that a war against a city called Troy (probably in Egypt) might have given rise to the table, the very matter in dispute, by impli cation at least, seems to be given up.

Mr. Bryant has been accused of ruining credibility and endangering all religious faith, by this attempt. For to what can we trust, it is said, if an object of belief, so long and and universally admitted is proved to be a mere apologue and fable! The answer is, that christianity ought to be better founded, than, for its credibility to depend on the existence or non-existence of a city,of town or rotten borough. If it were placed on such a basis, it would indeed be a cause of alarm. But there

The second proposition is this. "Such a fact as I stated above cannot be invalidated by arguments derived from poetic fable, which takes a striking event merely as a ground-is in fact no cause of alarm. How work, and has always been indulged in a superinduction of adventitious embellishments, either resulting from an exaggeration and modification of received truths, or an absoJute invention of imaginary circumstances."

can it concern any one whether Paris went to Sparta, or lived in Egypt, or whether he lived at all;

"What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?"

But Mr. Bryant himself gives an an swer to every objection, on the score This postulatum is concurred in; of weakening religious faith. He de but to what does it lead? The same clares there can be no harm in strip thing is assumed as before; for Mr. ping the tree of science of its spuri W. does not pretend to distinguish ous branches; and that "the detec the fact from the fable, or to authen-tion of error can never be an obstuci ticate the one independent of the to truth."

BIOGRAPHY.

whole plan of instruction is perfect A brief sketch of the Life of FRED-ly on military principles; the puERIC SCHILLER, the German Dra-pils marching en parade from their matist; condensed from the Month-bed to church, from church, to ly Magazine.

breakfast, dinner, supper, to play and even to bed. Here existed on

THE 10th of November 1759, ly one virtue-subordination; but was the day that ushered Schiller one crime-free-will, independence. into the world. He was born at This kind of life did not accord Marbach, in Wirtemberg, where with the aspiring genius of Schiller: his father was then a lieutenant in fate had destined him for a Shakes-the service of the Duke: but after-peare, and he could not submit to wards was promoted to a higher grade. Schiller had a brother, who translated Robertson's Charles Vth, and the Discovery of America, into German, and who is now alive and a bookseller at Mannheim: a sister is married to Counseller Reinswald of Meiningen, an illustrious member of the republic of letters.

school discipline; hence he became. disliked by the masters; and in their turn, they and their whole system were objects of his sincere aversion. He was extravagantly fond of history and although other heroes of antiquity had his cordial approbation, yet Brutus, was his hero. His sentiments of him were conveyed by his "Brutus in Elysium," a piece which he composed at that period.

While a boy, Schiller was distinguished by uncommon ardour of imagination; and nothing afforded him such delight as the perusal of The repugnance which he felt to the Prophecies of. Ezekiel. The his present situation, induced him fancy of this prophet is inexhausti- to reflect on the adoption of some ble; and he lays open new work's line of life, which he would pursue.. to our view. His unfettered im- Images and ideas crowded like a agination bursts forth, and paints, rising world upon his soul and he. though in glowing colours, yet in was unable to resist the impulse to minute detail; and it is his peculiar delincate what lived, and glowed character, that he transports all with ardour in his bosom. He de-spiritual objects into the sensitive termined to become an author and world, and converts them into a communicated his intention to his magnificent picture. The reader friend Zumsteeg, a celebrated muwill undoubtedly recollect that pas-sician, who approved his choice. sage, tremendously sublime, in He produced his "Robbers" in which he represents himself stand-which his soul, panting for liberty,. ing among the tombs upon the moul- gives full scope to the sentimentsdering bones of the dead; the tombs with which it was impressed. open, the mouldering bones issue But this production proved a forth, a new creation appears.detriment to Schiller; the inspec-Whoever will take the trouble to tors of the Academy thought the read this passage, and to compare it with Francis Moor's Dream, will not fail to recognize striking traits of resemblance.

youth, for he had not completed
his twentieth year, was infected
with the most dengerous of all vi- -
ces, a proud, independent and ama
bitious mind, and was the author of
a performance by which all kind of
subordination was trampled under:

foot. They determined no longer friends.-He left Mannheim. At to nourish the serpent in the ma- Mentz, to which city he repaired, ternal bosom of the institution; the he had the good fortune to become ardent mind of the boy might one acquainted with that illustrious day or other unfold another Charles patron of the arts and sciences, the Moor, and if the flame were com- Duke of Weimar, to whom he read municated to others, what conse- the first act of his Don Carlos. quences might result they were Soon after this interview he visited not prepared to withstand. Be-Saxony, where Dresden captivated sides, some expressions in the play him by its charming situation, its gave offence to persons in high treasures of art, its rich library, and stations. From these circumstan-the many men of genius whom he ces Schiller did not think it advisable to await the decision of his own fate, especially as he had printed an obnoxious poem on tyranny;

he fled.

found there. Schiller now plunged into life, in order to drink of it in copious draughts. It must not however be imagined, that, like the voluptuary, he indulged in the enIn Mannheim he found friends. joyment of uninterrupted pleasure. He at first had recourse to his sur- For weeks and months he was bu gical attainments for subsistence;ried among his books, which he he was appointed surgeon to a re- scarcely quitted for a moment; ke giment; but his friends soon open-then rested for a time, but appeared ed for him a career more adapted only to have desisted from his táto his wishes and talents; the post bours. With great geniuses, it is of dramatist to the theatre of the well known, that these pauses are city was procured for him. In this only moments in which they collect station he wrote "The conspiracy their energies, in order to apply of Fiesco," and "Intrigue and themselves with increased ardour Love." The "Rhenish Thalia" to their darling pursuits. deserves to be mentioned. was the case with Schiller. At "The Robbers" was so violently such times he wandered through attacked as to produce a kind of the country, where the grandeur justification in the German Museum of nature reanimated his genius, of 1784, by the author. He says and his heart throbbed with new "the whole moral world has charg- force. One of his favourite aed the author with treason. His musements was to take an excur only defence is the climate under sion in a boat on the beautiful which he was born.-If among the river, especially during storms, multiplied censures of the Robbers when the stream rose in foaming only one is just, it is this, that I pre-billows, and all the elements apsumed to delineate mankind two peared in conflict. The harsher years before I had any intercourse the thunder, the greater was his de with them." light. Once, when the most awful

Such

His reputation was soon establish-peals reverberated among the mouned; and Schiller now wished to see tains, and the tempestuous wind something more of the world. lashed the stream into lofty waves, Without other fortune, the fortune he was so enraptured with the ter of his genius inspired him withic grandeur of nature, that he confidence in himself; and his fame could Lot forbear to hail the scene gave him reason to hope that he with an exulting bravo!, oʻ should every where meet with | 2.!.

4

DESULTORY SELECTIONS
And Original Remarks.

The town in soft solemnities delights,
And gentle poets to her arms invites ;"
The people free from cares, serene and
[way,

gay,

Pass all their mild untroubled hours a-
A Siren,for her songs and beauty fam'd,
Parthenope the rising city nam'd
That oft had drown'd among the neigh-
b'ring seas,

The list'ning wretch, and made, des.
truction please..

Antipater of Sidon has written a very elegant and simple poem, descriptive of the affectionate dependence of a young and tender woman on her husband, and the mutual assistance and comfort he derives from her society. The metaphor is a very common one, but here it is in- of Richard the Third, Mr. W. In his analysis of the character troduced with a delicacy and propri-Richardson observes, respecting the ety that I never observed elsewhere. danger in which that prince's conSee yonder blushing vine-tree grow, And clasp a dry and wither'd plane, now arrives at the brink of ruin, duct had involved him, that she And round its youthful tendrils throw To shelter it from sun and rain him into the abyss. and the slightest impulse will push That sapless trunk, in former time, He resembles Gave covert from the noontide blaze, And taught the infant shoot to climb, Which now the pious debt repays. And thus, kind powers, a partner give," was endowed, by infernal sorcery, To share in my prosperity, Hang on my strength while yet live, And do me honor when I die.

the misshapen rock described in fairy tale." This astonishing rock," says the whimsical novelist,

with a power of impetuous motion.
It rolled through aflourishing king-
dom; it crushed down its oppo-
nents; it laid the land desolate
and was followed by a stream of
blood. It arrived unwittingly at an
awful precipice; it had no power
of returning, for the bloody stream
that pursued it was so strong that
it never rolled back. It was pushed-
from the precipice; was shivered
into fragments; and the roar of its
downfall arose unto heaven."

Fancy thou changeful maid,
And now in all the hues of orient light;
Now in dark weeds array'd,
While Reason slumb'ring lay,
Ere yet the golden ray
Of Science pierc'd the gloom of gothic
night,

Hell's inauspicious meteors round thee
And pallid Fear crouch'd Tow, and
blaz'd,
shudder'd as he¡gaz'd,

EPIGRAM...On Anacreon Moore, Esq O MOURN hot for Anacreon fled,

weep not for Anacreon dead! The lyre still breathes that liv'd before, For we have one Anacreon Moore!

Sir Isaac Newton, who pursued his rescarches into the laws of nature so profoundly, never pronounced the name of God without moving his hat; and otherwise expressing the most devout respect. A poor Arabian of the desert, ignorant as most of the Arabians are, was one day asked how he came to be assured there was a God-" In the same way," replied he, that I am enabled to tell, by a print impressed on the sand, whether it was a man or beast that passed that way.co.i

On hearing a young lady too frequently exclaim"THE DEVIL"

Yes, I have said that being would be blest,

By whom so sweet a maid should be

possest.

But now I own myself a wretched gues,

ten, they still continue to the admiration of the present age, and will probably last forever,

The ensuing character of BURKE, is the conclusion of an essay, written by the late William Beckford, Esq. on the question, whether men of genius are exempted from the infirmities of na

ture ?

FERVID in thought, and graceful in elocution, he produced from the fertile laboratory of his brain tropes and figures, without embarrassment, and metaphors without end. His imagination was prurient, beyond a rivalship; and his descriptions so animated and so enchanting, that they rather satiated from sweetness, than grew vapid from a want of variety. And yet, he who was thus embellished by nature, and thus refined by art; thus selecting, and thus admired, was more than most men perplexed by the multiplicity of his images, the eructations of his wit; and subject to that irritability of talents, which is the too frequent accompaniment of a great and a comprehensive mind.

If, with a graceful, he sometimes scattered his flowers with too unsparing a hand; and was often found to drop a weed, when it should have been torn from the soil-let it be remembered that he still was a man, and subject to the imperfections of his condition. If ideas of a more lax and less impressive import, succeeded to the general tenor

As a moralist, Lord BOLINGBROOKE by having endeavoured at too much, seems to have done nothing but, as a political writer, few can equal, and none can exceed him. As he was a practical politi-and enforcing vigour of his style, cin, his writings are less filled with and that the beauty of his thoughts. those speculative illusions, which and the harmony of his execution are the result of solitude and seclu- were diminished by the introduction sion. He wrote them with a cer-of similies and expressions, not eletainty of their being opposed, sifted, gantly applicable nor glowingly examined, and reviled; he therefore pourtrayed; we should compare took care to build them up of such them to those passing clouds that, materials, as could not be easily for a moment, over-shadow the face overthrown: they prevailed at the of nature, to allay the intensity of the the times in which they were writ-solai beams, and to encourage them