For his documents of South Carolina and Georgia, Dr.Holmes is indebted to an anonymous his'tory of those provinces, which was for sale in this town some years ago, but is now scarce. A later edition may have been printed with the author's name; for our annalist refers to Hewit, whom we suppose to be one of the ministers of Edinburgh. He some years ago resided in America. To his account of Georgia the Dr. has added certain valuable observations of his own, and some facts, well worth preserving. A. D. 1746. A curious fact is mentioned for the observation of our spiritual corps. 'Ordination of ministers among the Separates in New England began this year. During the memorable period between 1740 and 1750, there were formed perhaps thirty small separate congregations; some of which were afterward dissolved; others became regular; and ten or twelve, which remained in 1785, were "more and more convinced of the duty of seeking ordination from among the standing ministers." her churches. The same evangelical truths, which people had from their infancy been taught to regard as divine, were now exhibited in a manner new and surprising; and every dormant passion was excited.' The question is, whether the result of this spiritual Quixotism was for the benefit of religion and morality? It completely broke the order and disci pline of the New-England churches; it shook the walls of our university; and filled the country with enthusiasm and ill humour. Before this time, the people were governed by pious principles; and their religion had less passion with it. Men, from a sense of duty, attended publick worship ; heads of families and magistrates were church members; in every house, there was a regular morning and evening sacrifice. There was peace in the hamlet, honour in the temples, and order in the community. But how soon did the river,which maketh glad the people of God by its gentle streams, to use the figure of the Psalmist, become like the troubled sea, whose waters cast up mire and dirt! Ministers of piety and learning were pointed at by the finger of scorn, and obliged to quit their parishes; the most orthodox preachers, if they had not a voice, and zeal which blazed, were said to be unconverted ; and all the tender charities of life were despised, as the filthy rags of a prostitute. If there ever should be a townmeeting orator, with talents like Whitefield, and he should make a cry for liberty, and set himself against laws and rulers, the state of society may show, what a revolution our churches suffered from the conduct of that wonderful man. Our author's reflection is very proper; for every historian should use this motto, Medium est virtus quod tenuisse juvat. In a review of this subject,' says he, 'to condemn indiscriminately were uncharitable, if not impious; to approve, without stricture, were to incur a just charge of weakness and enthusiam.' The last 200 pages of this volume are taken up with the affairs which led to the Revolution or were connected with it. Hence it cannot be so interesting to the antiquarian; and it is less important to the common reader, as the same thing has been said so often either by Gordon, Ramsay, Marshall, or Pemberton, who, though mentioned last, is not least worthy of respect; having written a journal of the war, printed in the Historical Collections, which makes up a chief part of the 2d volume, and another book more diffuse upon the subject, in MS. styled Memoirs of the Revolution in Massachusetts, besides his chronological papers, to which Dr. H. so frequently recurs. There are two facts, which our author must have received from hear-say, as he quotes no authority; but which are contrary to common report, and to the general account of our historians. In page 335, which takes up the events of the war in 1775, there is a concise description of the battle of Breed's-hill, in which words are put in the mouth of Gen. Putnam which we always understood were spoken by Col. Starke. He certainly commanded the troops behind the rail fence, which did such amazing execution upon the British forces as they ascended the hill. Gen. Putnam had no command that day. He went down as a volunteer, like General Warren. The one went into the trenches; the other remained without, to encourage the men. Had he been the commander, would he not have ordered Gerrish and Scammel to join the fighting men, instead of going where men had been placed by their Colonel and were doing their duty, and who were already in the best situation they could be? Dr. Holmes says Putnam conducted the retreat. He would not have used the expression, had he been on the spot. It is the first time we have ever met with it, as applied to this battle. Instead of a retreat, every man ran by himself, or all ran in the most disorderly manner, some over the common and some to Medford, just as they could best avoid the enemy's fire. Gen. Putnam was a deserving officer, but not to be named this day with Col. Starkes. No men ever behaved with more courage, than the Americans who fought; none with more cowardice, than those who remained idle at some distance. It is true, that Dr. H. quotes four lines of poetry, where the merit of Gen. Putnam is celebrated; but a man may be a good poet, and no historian. For facts, we may expect more from old parchments. The other exception we make is to a marginal note, page 344, where he mentions the death of General Montgomery. It is contrary to an account given in the Historical Collections, Vol. 1st, p. 111. A gentleman furnished that article, who knew every minute circumstance which took place. Our annalist refers to no authority. On all that part of the volume, containing materials for our history since the close of our war with great Britain, we are compelled to say, that it is meagre and unsatisfactory. Yet we cannot accuse Dr. Holmes of having neglected his duty; for unfortunately the means were not within his reach. The early part of our history will soon be known with greater certainty, than the later occurrences. We cannot however but regret, that no notice is taken of the history of the questions on the British Treaty. On page 466 we observe a confusion in the printing of the notes, which we should not have expected from a press. so correct, as that of Cambridge. So valuable a work, which may be quoted three centuries hence, should have received a more careful revision, than is usually bestowed on the inflammatory publications of the politicians of an hour, who must know, Debemur morti nos nostraque. We are much pleased with the concluding remarks of our author. learning, and the general diffusion of knowledge; to early formation of churches and the regular maintainance of publick worship; and to the union and co-operation of the colonies, in measures for the defence and interests of the whole. But, whatever has been the influence of these causes, there is still the highest reason for acceding to the conclusions of Washington: "No people can be bound to acble hand, which conducts the afknowledge and adore the invisifairs of men, more than the people of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distin guished by some token of providential agency." By the same. means, and under the same divine patronage, may the prosperity of the United States be protracted until TIME SHALL BE NO LONGER.' P. 308. ART. 7. The Garland of Flowers; composed of translations, chiefly, original, from the Spanish, Italian, Greek, Latin, &c. By Robert Walpole, esq. B.A. of Trinity college, Cambridge. Ne leggano i severi i detti nostri? Tasso. New-York, reprinted by Riley & Co. 1806. "Of the three centuries, which have elapsed since the discovery of America, nearly two have passed since the permanent settlement of Virginia. The events of these two centuries are in the highest degree interesting to us; and for that reason they have been the more recited. The means, by which five millions of people have, in so short a time become planted FEW studies have been so diliin a wilderness; have established gently cultivated as that of translafree constitutions of Government; tion, and few are of such extensive and risen to opulence, to indepen- utility. It is a kind of classick dence, and to national distinction, merit serious inquiry. Much uncommerce, which gives us the treasures of every country, and on questionably is to be ascribed to the salubrity of the climate of which few other duties are impoNorth America; to the fertility sed beside that of fidelity. But and variety of its soil; to the exthere are a species of smugglers tent of its sea coast; to its many and counterfeits, who have connavigable rivers; to the excellent trived to elude this impost, and pasturage and fisheries of the who have introduced into the renorth, and the valuable products of publick a base sort of merchandise. the south; to the enterprise, industry, simplicity of manners, and This is most to be lamented. unconquerable love of liberty, translation, the obstacles which obwhich have characterised the instruct the paths of knowledge are habitants; to the early establish- in a great measure removed; and ment of schools, and seminaries of life, which seems too short for per By fection in any individual branch of science, by this happiest of modern inventions, may be said figuratively to be prolonged. Most of the flowers which compose this little volume, entitled the Garland, have already been transplanted inte English verse, and we must say by more skilful hands. Some of them have received the labours of great and learned competitors for the poetick laurel. Those which now first appear in English are not indebted to Mr. Walpole for any thing beyond the smoothness of their versification; perhaps little more should be looked for, as the work is professedly (ridiculous affectation !) the "result of employment in gours of relaxation from other literary pursuits," intended merely as an exercise to become more intimately acquainted with the language of the originals," and as suc cannot be a subject of serious criticism. Doubtless the work was published at the earnest solicitation of Mr. Walpole's friends. Isabel, from the Spanish, is perhaps the best specimen of the writer's ability; the first stanza is pecularly happy; "corrientes aguas puras cristallinas," &c. เ 'Ye crystal floods, that lave With gently murmuring wave These banks, where spring its earliest sweets exhales; Ye lofty shades that show Within the stream below Your broad bows bending to the whispering gales.' Nor is the fourth inferiour to this in point of harmony. And is all fled, like dreams That fade before morn's beams? Sanctius, and the English versification is very rough. Perhaps there is not a softer poet in the Spanish language than Garcilaso de Vega; there is none who has so enriched the poetry of his country. The Morgenlied, from the German of Gesner, is also a beautiful little poem, and we will not say it is here" shorn of its beams." The sonnet from the Sicilian of Meli nearly resembles the fourteenth canzone of Petrarch, so often and so beautifully translated, that it is wonderful Mr. W. should have attempted it "in his hours of relaxation." We wish with the translator, that he "had not been prevented by want of time from selecting the originals" from the various authors he has undertaken to translate. It would have been more satisfactory to the reader, and perhaps more favourable to the translator, to have presented the readings of those editions he has used. work, where recurrence must be had to so many authors of different languages to test the translator's fidelity, this is still more necessary. But we are sensible,that in most translations, like the little volume in review, "time is always wanted to collect the originals." ART. 8. In a Annals of the life of the Right Hon. William Pitt. Philadelphia, B. Graves, for Hugh Maxwell, &c. 12mo. pp. 138. THIS work has been for some months before the American public. It issued from the English In vain these eyes each grace, each press shortly after the death of the charm require,' &c. The fifteenth reads very differently in the edition of the learned illustrious personage of whom it professes to be a biography; was republished in Philadelphia with extraordinary celerity, and has am ply repaid the prompitude and activity of the printers, by a very rapid sale of a large edition. The English editor (who,with due mod esty, abstains from a pretension to the name of Author) enters upon his subject, by cautioning the reader against "expecting anecdotes, where he will encounter orations, and incidents, where he will but meet with opinions," and candidly professes to have resorted principally to the journals of parliament and the periodical publications for the matter of his volume. As he here promises but little-he may certainly claim the modicum of merit, due to a literal performance of this promise; but, while we allow him this praise, we think it our duty to state that another, as solemn, though but implied, engagement still remains unperformed. So alluring a title page as "Annals of the life of the right honourable William Pitt," displayed in the front of a volume, at a bookseller's window, is a tacit promise to the publick, that either entertainment or instruction, either novelty of matter or felicity of selection, is to be there obtained. The credulous purchaser pays down his money, thrusts the half. bound treasure, yet damp and reeking from the press, into his bosom, retreats with hurried steps to his chamber, and, in the very first page, is informed, forsooth, by the candid Editor, that his precious work is compounded from garbled gazettes and pilfered magazines; that it is a book made by the scissors, a new edition of an old newspaper. We once more repeat that we think it our solemn duty to protest against this literary fraud; and we caution our readers, before they again commit the irremediable act of paying down their dollar on the counter of the book seller, to borrow his paper cutter, and take a previous sample of the whole piece. In the biography of a man, who, in a short life of forty-seven years, had risen to such a lofty station on the rock of fame, it might be expected that the first twenty-two years should have occupied no inconsiderable portion of the vol ume. Though the period of his infancy might have been compen diously dispatched, yet the years of his adolescence must have furnished ample matter to his historian; and the cotemporary biog rapher might have gathered, from even colloquial sources, some testimonials of his prematurity of talents,some prognostics of his future greatness. The stories of his college and his university might have been collected, the companions of his amusements and his studies might have been question、 ed, and the trifling and the philo sophick reader would have equally been gratified by the most common anecdotes of the early years of such a man. But the history of this long period, amounting to nearly half his life, is hurried over or compassed in less than two pages by his paper-sparing annalist. 'William Pitt' (says the Editor) was the youngest son of the illustrious Earl Chatham, and was born on the 28th of May, 1759, at a time when his father's glory was at its zenith, and of his councils, and the vigour and when, in consequence of the wisdom prompitude of his decisions, British valour reigned triumphant in every part of the globe. On the accession of his present majesty, that great statesman, in consequence of new arrange ments, retired from the station which he had so honorably filled, and, consigning his elder sons to the care of others, he devoted his own time to the educa tion of this his favourite child, on a he was in the habit of saying) that "he strong and well-founded persuasion (as would one day increase the glony of the name of Pitt." His classical |