OLD AND NEW PHILADELPHIA. - We gave in our last number an extract from an oldtime chronicle, 'A Prospect of New York, in 1685, with the Scituation, Plantation, and Products Thereof,' and we promised a kindred sketch of the City of Brotherly Love, at the same remote period. The 'Prospect of Pennsylvania, with the Scituation, Products, and Conveniences Thereof,' is enriched, among other rare matters, with an 'originall letter from the good Quaker himself,' dated at Philadelphia, only two and a half years after King Charles had granted letters patent, to 'give and grant unto WILLIAM PENN, Esquire, son and heir of the Sir William Penn, all that tract of land in North America, called by the name of Pennsylvania.' We quote the following from the 'good Quaker's letter,' partly for its spirit of benevolence toward the ancient lords of our soil, contrasting so strongly with the later treatment of the red men, and partly as a confirmation of the theory of our friend Major Noaн, that the Indians are of the stock of the ten tribes:

'We have agreed, that in all differences between us, six of each side shall end the matter: Don't abuse them, but let them have Justice, and you win them: The worst is, that they are the worse for the Christians, who have progagated their Vices, and yielded them Tradition for ill, and not for good things. But as low an ebb as they are at, and as inglorious as their Condition looks, the Christians have not out-lived their sight, with all their Pretensions to an higher Manifestation: What good then might not a good People graft, where there is so distinct a Knowledg left between good and evil? I beseech God to incline the Hearts of all that come into these parts, to out-live the Knowledge of the Natives, by a fixt Obedience to their greater Knowledg of the Will of God; for it were miserable indeed for us to fall under the just censure of the Poor Indian Conscience, while we make profession of things so far transcending.

For their Original, I am ready to believe them of the Jewish Race, I mean, of the stock of the Ten Tribes, and that for the following Reasons: first. They were to go to a Land not Planted or known, which to be sure Asia and Africa were, if not Europe; and he that intended that extraordinary Judgment upon them, might make the passage not uneasy to them, as it is not impossible in itself, from the Easter-most parts of Asia, to the Wester-most of America. In the next place, I find them of like countenance, and their Children of so lively Resemblance, that a man would think himself in Dukes-place or Berry-street in London, when be seeth them. But this is not all; they agree in Rites, they reckon by Moons; they offer their first Fruits, they have a kind of Feast of Tabernacles; they are said to lay their Altar upon Twelve Stones; their Mourning a year, Customs of Women, with many things that do not now occur.'

Let our Philadelphia readers, as they walk through their beautiful streets, admire their matchless public edifices, or survey, from the steeple of the State-House, their noble city, stretching out its polypus arms, and swallowing up suburban village after village, compare the present condition and prospects of the metropolis of Pennsylvania, with the following record, probably the very first description of it by its founder:

'Philadelphia, the Expectation of those that are concern'd in this Province, is at last laid out, to the great Content of those here, that are in any wayes Interested therein: The Scituation is a Neck of Land, and lieth between two navigable Rivers, Delaware and Skulkil, whereby it hath two Fronts upon the Water, each a Mile, and two from River to River. Delaware is a glorious River, but the Skulkil being an hundred Miles Boatable above the Falls, and its Course North-East toward the Fountain of Susquahanuah (that tends to the Heart of the Province, and both sides our own) it is like to be a great part of the Settlement of this Age, in which those who are Purchasers of me, will find their Names and Interest. But this I will say for the good Providence of God, that of all the many Places I have seen in the World, I remember not one better seated; so that it seems to me to have been appointed for a Town, whether we regard the Rivers, or the conveniency of the Coves, Docks, Springs, the loftiness and soundness of the Land and the Air, held by the People of those parts to be very good. It is advanced within less than a year to about four score Houses and Cottages, such as they are, where Merchants and Handicrafts are following their Vocations as fast as they can, while the Country men are close at their Farms: Some of them got a little Winter-Corn in the Ground last Season, and the generality have had a handsome Summer-Crop, and are preparing for their Winter-Corn.' . The City of Philadelphia, as it is now laid out, extends in

Length, from River to River, two miles, and in Breadth near a Mile; and the Governour, as a further manifestation of his Kindness to the Purchasers, hath freely given them their respective Lots in the City, without defalcation of any of their Quantities of Purchased Lands; and as it's now placed and modelled between two Navigable Rivers upon a Neck of Land, and that Ships may ride in good Anchorage, in six or eight Fathom Water in both Rivers, close to the City, and the land of the City level, dry and wholsom; such a Scituation is scarce to be parallel'd. The City is so ordered now, by the Governour's Care and Prudence, that it hath a front to each River, one half at Delaware, the other at Skulkil; and though all this cannot make way for small Purchasers to be in the Fronts, yet they are placed in the next Streets, contiguous to each Front, viz. all Purchasers of one Thousand Acres, and upwards, bave the Fronts (and the High-street) and to every five Thousand Acres Purchase, in the Front about an Acre, and the smaller Purchasers about half an Acre in the backwardStreet; By which means the least have room enough for House, Garden and small Orchard, to the great Content and satisfaction of all here concerned.'

As we peruse records like these, we can scarcely realize that TIME has wrought so wonderful a change; yet great as it is, how much greater will it be, some two hundred and sixty years hence, should a beneficent Providence grant us, in the mean while, a stable government, and continued prosperity!

THE DEVIL! It was our intention to have furnished the reader of the present number with an elaborate review, embracing copious extracts, of the 'History of the Devil,' by the author of 'Robinson Crusoe,' to which we alluded in our January issue; a work, the subject of which is 'handled after a singular manner.' The author avows, in the outset, that he does not think we are bound never to speak of the Devil but with an air of terror, as if we were always afraid of him. The whole tenor of the work he avers to be solemn, calculated to promote serious religion, and capable of being improved in a religious manner. The wise part of the world,' says he, 'has been pleased with it, the merry part has been diverted with it, and the ignorant part has been taught by it.' We remember reading, recently, in the 'Mother's Magazine,' an excellent periodical,' published at Utica, in this state, some very judicious comments upon the erroneous practice of parents impressing upon their children an idea of the personal presence of the Evil One, instead of represe nting him as an invisible spirit of evil, rebelling against goodness in the heart of every child of earth. How many pictorial shapes has the Devil assumed! We encountered him for the first time in the 'Pilgrims' Progress,' as Apollyon, with ears like a jack-ass, and the ever-present hoof, 'straddling quite over the whole breadth of the way,' and coolly telling Christian to 'come on,' as he was quite 'devoid of fear in the matter' which they had in hand. We next saw his counterfeit presentment in one of HOOD's 'Comic Annuals,' illustrating the 'Devil's Walk:'

And pray how was the Devil dressed?

Oh, he was in his Sunday's best;

His coat was black, and his trowsers blue,

With a hole behind, where his tail came through.'

Never was there a 'man about town' apparently better skilled in the 'ars elegantiam dandi.' He held his barbed 'continuation' daintily over his arm, and in his hand, like a cane; his person was encased in a very gentlemanly coat and trowsers; and his hat was placed upon his head with a most jaunty air. Afterward, we met him in some book, as the God of wine, and underneath his portrait was the warning counsel of IAGO :

'Every inordinate cup is unblessed,

And the ingredient is A DEVIL!'

He had sat for 'Bacchus,' and we verily believe that if a hogshead of wine had had sensibility, a single leer of that Old One's eye would have made it tremble to the very lees. The English MARTIN has since furnished several portraits of Satan, high seated upon his awful throne, in dazzling floods of light, looking into the infernal deeps, fading into the immensity of downward and outward space, the 'little glooming light, much like a shade,' swelling out the vast almost to the infinite, in the magnificent perspective. One can almost see him advance through the countless legions of his flaming ministers, as a black cloud moves on through the stars of the sky, and take his station on that 'bad eminence :'

'His voice, like the thunder, is deep, strong, and loud,
And his eye gleams like lightning from under the cloud,'

as he calls his council to order. This is the personification of MILTON's sublime description. Other popular writers have represented the Evil Presence as a most winning and seductive personage, with an insinuating demeanor, a voice soft and low, and ripe

and luscious in its tones, as if his throat were lacquered with Florence oil. SHAKSPEARE says, 'the Prince of Darkness is a gentleman;' never fuddled with mere animal spirits, nor exhibiting a thin varnish of low politeness, but rather the suavity and quiet selfpossession of a well-bred man.

We have written thus much, to prepare the reader for a few running passages from one of the lighter chapters in the history under consideration; preferring rather to serve up an occasional entrêmet from its pages, than to make it the subject of an elaborate and continuous review. Our author is considering the error which has been handed down from generation to generation, through all time, of serving up the Devil, on all occasions, with a cloven foot:

Some people would fain have us treat this tale of the Devil's appearing with a cloven foot with more solemnity, than, I believe, the Devil himself does; for Satan, who knows how much of a cheat it is, must certainly ridicule it, in his own thoughts, to the last degree; but as he is glad of any way to hoodwink the understandings, and bubble the weak part of the world; so, if he sees men willing to take every scarecrow for a Devil, it is not his business to undeceive them on the other hand, he finds it his interest to foster the cheat, and serve himself of the consequence: nor could I doubt but the Devil, if any mirth be allowed him, often laughs at the many frightful shapes and figures we dress him up in, and especially to see how willing we are first to paint him as black, and make him appear as ugly as we cau, and then stare and start at the spectre of our own making.'

Our author thinks, that among all the horribles in which Satan has been dressed up, the cloven foot exhibits the least invention and plausibility. The goat, it is true, has a cloven foot, and the left hand place in the SAVIOUR's allegory of the day of judgment; but then a lamb has a cloven foot, as well as a goat; and the Scripture is on the Devil's side in the matter: 'for the dividing of the hoof was the distinguishing character or mark of a clean beast; and how the Devil can be brought into the number, is pretty hard to say.' The writer thinks it would have been better to have given him a foot like a cat, a lion, or a red dragon, by the latter of which he is sometimes represented in the Bible. The first animal would explain an otherwise rather obscure term in common use; and 'playing the very Old Cat' with a man or woman, would be more readily understood. The diabolical historian proceeds:

The cloven foot is understood by us not as a bare token to know Satan by, but as if it were a brand upon him; and that, like the mark God put upon Cain, it was given him for a punishment, so that he cannot get leave to appear without it, nay, cannot conceal it, whatever other dress or disguise he may put on; and, as if it was to make him as ridiculous as possible, they will have it, that, whenever Satan has occasion to dress himself in any human shape, be it of what degree soever, from the king to the beggar, be it of a fine lady or of an old woman, (the latter, it seems, he oftenest assumes,) yet still he not only must have this cloven foot about him, but is obliged to show it too: uay, they will not allow him any dress, whether it be a prince's robes, a lord chamberlain's gown, or a lady's hoop and long petticoats, but the cloven foot must be shown from under them; they will not so much as allow him an artificial shoe or a jack-boot, as we often see contrived to' conceal a club foot or a wooden leg; but that the Devil may be known wherever he goes, he is bound to show his foot: they might as well oblige him to set a bill upon his cap, as folks do upon a house' to be let, and have it written in capital letters, I AM THE DEVIL.'

It must be confessed this is very particular, and would be very hard upon the Devil, if it had not another article in it, which is some advantage to him; and that is, that the fact is not true: but the belief of this is so universal, that all the world runs away with it; by which mistake, the good people miss the Devil many times where they look for him, and meet him as often where they did not expect him, and when, for want of this cloven foot, they did not know him.

Upon this very account, I have sometimes thought, not that this has been put upon him by mere fancy, and the cheat of an heavy imagination. propagated by sable and chimney-corner divinity, but that it has been a contrivance of his own; and that in short, the Devil raised the scandal upon himself, that he might keep his disguise the better, and might go a visiting among his friends without being known; for were it really so, that he could go nowhere without this particular brand of infamy, he could not come into company, could not dine with my lord mayor, nor drink tea with the ladies; he could not go to the masquerade, nor to any of our balls: the reason is plain, he would be always discovered, exposed, and forced to leave the good company, or, which would be as bad, the company would all cry out, the Devil! and run out of the room as if they were frighted; nor could all the help of invention do him any service; no dress he could put on would cover him, no habit that would disguise or conceal him, this unhappy foot would spoil all. Now this would be so great a loss to him, that I question whether he could carry on any of his most important affairs in the world without it; for though he has access to mankind in his complete disguise, I mean that of his invisibility, yet the learned very much agree in thi th

is absolutely necessary, upon many occasions, to support

ences, and particularly to encourage his friends, whi

'As I have thus suggested, that the Devil himse

ing his appearing with a cloven foot, so I do

this cloven foot so lively in the imaginations

is corporeal presence in the world

, and keep up his correspondrequisite to carry on his affairs. ad about this notion concernught it for his purpose to paint and especially of those clear

sighted folks, who see the Devil when he is not to be seen, that they would make no scruple to say, and to make affidavit too, even before Satan himself, whenever he sat upon the bench, that they had seen his worship's foot at such and such a time. This I advance the rather, because it is very much for his interest to do this; for if we had not many witnesses, viva voce, to testify it, we should have had some obstinate fellows always among us, who would have denied the fact, or at least have spoken doubtfully of it; and so have raised disputes and objections against it, as impossible, or at least improbable; buzzing one ridiculous notion or other into our ears, as if the Devil was not so black as he was painted; that he had no more a cloven foot than a pope, whose apostolical toes have been so reverentially kissed by kings and emperors; but now, alas! this part is out of the question. The Devil not have a cloven foot! I doubt not but I could, in a short time, bring you a thousand old women together, that would as soon believe there was no Devil at all; nay, they will tell you he could not be a Devil without it, any more than he could come into the room, and the candles not burn blue; or go out, and not leave a smell of brimstone behind him.'

Our author considers the certainty of the cloven foot thoroughly established, by good and substantial witnesses, ready to testify to the fact, and the indisputable records of antiquity: indeed Satan himself, if he did n't raise the report, is quite willing to have it believed:

'As much a jest as some unbelieving people would have this story pass for, who knows, but that if Satan is impowered to assume any shape or body, and to appear to us as if really so shaped: I say, who knows but he may, by the same authority, be allowed to assume the addition of the cloven foot, or two or four cloven feet, if he pleased? And why not a cloven foot as well as any other foot, if he thinks fit? For if the Devil can assume a shape, and can appear to mankind in a visible form, it may, I doubt not, with as good authority be advanced, that he is left at liberty to assume what shape he pleases, and to chuse what case of flesh and blood he will please to wear, whether real or imaginary; and if this liberty be allowed him, it is an admirable disguise for him to come generally with his cloven foot, that when he finds it for his purpose, on special occasions, to come without it, as I said above, he may not be suspected. . . . In the old writings of the Egyptians, I mean their hieroglyphic writings, before the use of letters were known, we are told this was the mark that he was known by; and the figure of a goat was the hieroglyphic of the Devil. Some will affirm, that the Devil was particularly pleased to be so represented. How they came by their information, and whether they had it from his own mouth or not, authors have not yet determined. But be this as it will, I do not see that Satan could have been at a loss for some extraordinary figure to have bautered mankind with, though this had not been thought of: but thinking of the cloven foot first, and the matter being indifferent, this took place, and easily rooted itself in the bewildered fancy of the people; and now it is riveted too fast for the Devil himself to remove it, if he was disposed to try; but as I said above, it is none of his business to solve doubts, or to remove difficulties out of our heads, but to perplex us with more as much as he can.'

Some would-be wise people, our historian affirms, have endeavored to make divers improvements upon this doctrine of the cloven foot, treating it as a significant instrument of Satan's private operations; the divided hoof indicating the double-tongue, and double-heart of deceitful men; from whence it comes to pass that there is no such thing as single-hearted integrity, or an upright meaning, to be found in the world; that mankind, worse than the ravenous brutes, prey upon their own kind, and devour them by the laudable methods of flattery, wine, cheat, and treachery; crocodile-like, weeping over those they would devour; destroying those they smile upon; and, in a word, devouring their own kind, which the beasts refuse, and that by all the ways of fraud and allurement that hell can invent; holding out a cloven, divided hoof, or hand, pretending to save, when the very pretence is made use of to ensnare and destroy. A learned speculation ensues, whether that devil is not the most dangerous, that has no cloven foot; and which is most hurtful to the world, the devil walking about without the cloven foot, or the cloven foot walking about without the Devil? But of this, and nameless matters more, in another number.

AMERICAN MEDICAL LIBRARY. This excellent semi-monthy publication, intended as a concentrated record of medical science and literature, and edited by Dr. DUNGLINSON, of Philadelphia, continues to increase in reputation and circulation. The last December and the first January number are before us. Among the contents of the former, is a very interesting paper, even to the merely general reader, upon the treatment of various cases of club-foot, by the eminent SCOUTETTEN, accompanied with several fine lithographic illustrations of the different species of this deformity, which, it should seem, is by no means difficult of cure, if treated in season.

THE DRAMA.

PARK THEATRE. — A succession of large audiences during the late engagement of Mr. and Miss VANDENHOFF, is the best testimony of the estimation in which they are held by the public. Of the father it is perhaps almost too late in the day to express an opinion of approbatiou. His style is not, however, in all respects the most natural that we have seen. There is too great an evidence of study, and too much apparent art, to render his manner as true and effective as that of one, at least, of his great predecessors on our boards. His representation of Hamlet is his best, and in our judgment, an almost faultless performance; yet even this personation has too much of that certain mouthing affectation, which pervades his style of acting. We know of no reason why the hero of Tragedy should not be portrayed with the same regard to nature that is expected in the representation of a comic character. Both must be natural, if they would be true. Because blank verse is not the medium through which we express our every-day thoughts, it does not follow that when it is used for a similar purpose upon the stage, its delivery should be executed in an affected utterance, which the speaker would be stared at for using in sentences of prose. Mr. VANDENHOFF's fault seems to be, an overweening desire to impress his audience with the astonishing consequence of every movement portrayed, and every syllable expressed by the character which he for the nonce assumes. This leads to 'over-acting,' and an exhibition of the actor's efforts to give an important meaning to unimportant passages; thereby weakening the effect of those points which really require extraordinary power. None but a really studious actor, perhaps, would be amenable to a criticism which blamed him for attempting to produce effects, where the matériel did not exist in the author; and such an actor we consider Mr. VANDENHOFF. The part of 'Richelieu,' in BULWER'S new play of that name, was given by Mr. VANDENHOFF with great power. The wily Cardinal stood before us, in all his strength and all his weakness. There were passages in the character, especially, which were rendered with almost electrifying effect. The scene wherein the crafty and rather humorous cunning of the old minister, is displayed toward the Chevalier de Maufrat (CRESWICK,) when he sends him to the presence of Julie, under the impression that he is there to meet his executioner, as well as the scene immediately succeeding, was an exhibition of the Cardinal's character well worthy the applause which it elicited.

Miss VANDENHOFF, with all the advantage of the excellent tuition of her father, bears evident marks of a tyro in the art she professes. She has a good person for the stage, and apparently great physical power, which sometimes carries her beyond the strict bounds of moderation in the expression of the stronger passions. Her voice is at times harsh, and not generally sufficiently modulated, but breaks abruptly at times, to the marring of the effect which she wishes to produce. The character of Julia, in the Hunchback,' which has been so often and so well played, that old playgoers can recite it backward, 'with proper emphasis and discretion,' was, in its illustration by Miss VANDENHOFF, rendered ineffective, in many of the best scenes, by the harshness and violence of her manner. The 'letter scene' with Clifford would have been good, if the actress had in some small degree restrained this exuberance; and the after scene with Master Walter, where Julia signs the contract 'to wed that lord, or any other lord,' was quite destroyed by a want of moderation.

Miss VANDENHOFF appears to have a correct idea of the characters which she assumes, and has no doubt studied them closely, with great spirit, and an evident ambition to excel. There can be but little fear that experience will not teach her to overcome those defects which lie between her and the eminence to which she aspires, and which her father has for himself so deservedly won.

A very commendable degree of care and attention has been bestowed upon the production of 'Richelieu,' us regards scenery, dresses, and properties. Much credit is due to Messrs. HILLIARD and EVERS, for their efforts in producing scenery every way worthy of the piece, and in perfect character and keeping with the fashion of the time of Louis Quatorze.

An extremely juvenile Roscius, under the style and appellation of Master HUTCHINS, has lately made his appearance at this house, to the surprise and delight of the amateurs of prococity. He is a very clever child, no doubt; but we had rather see the 'infant phenomenon' with a satchel on his arm, trudging to school, than exhibiting the wire-pulled pranks of his teachers upon the stage.

C.

THE BOWERY THEATRE.. The latest attraction at this house, has been 'The Fairy Spell, or the Talisman of Fate,' a name which smacks of stage clap-trap, and evinces very little taste in the anthor. The machinery, scenery, dresses, and music, are excellent, and reflect great credit upon the liberality of the manager, and the various talent of his company. But here our praise must end.