five loans, secured according to the By inserting this information in P. THACHER, Treasurer of the Fund. THE WITHERED OAK. TWAS Autumn-the sun now descending the sky, The voice of the evening was heard in the trees- E,en the trees appear'd drest in their holiday cloaths, But ah! there was one that did not appear gay, Nor wave his long branches-now verdant no more! Once green like the rest, strong and lovely he grew, The rays of the morning still shine on the tree, Oh! say, is it age that has alter'd thy form, Thou art silent-the silence my fancy improve ; Old friend, I shall sigh as I think upon thee. FOR DECEMBER, 1807. Librum tuum legi & quam diligentissime potui annotavi, quæ commutanda, que eximenda, arbitrarer. Nam ego dicere verum assuevi. Neque ulli patientius reprehenduntur, quam qui maxime laudari merentur. PLIN. ARTICLE 67. The Life of George Washington, commander in chief of the armies of the United States of America throughout the war, which established their independence, and first president of the United States. By David Ramsay, M.D. author of the History of the 8vo. PP. American Revolution. 376. New-York, printed by Hopkins & Seymour, for E. S. Thomas, Baltimore. 1807. An Essay on the Life of George Washington, commander in chief of the American army through the revolutionary war, and the first president of the United States. By Aaron Bancroft, A. A. S. pastor of a Congregational church in Worcester. 8vo. pp. 552. Worcester, printed by Thomas & Sturtevant, 1807.. THE biography of the best great man, recorded in the annals of history, will be perused through suceessive ages with increasing delight. Early in the present year the long-desired life of Washington by Marshall was completed and given to the publick. This work was so eagerly expected by the world, that our praise or censure could neither retard nor increase its circulation : and we Vol. IV. No. 12. 4M have within a few months issued The volumes now before us from our press, the authors having waited to derive all possible advantage from the work of Marshall for the perfection of their abridgments. abridgments. Of the utility of their plan no doubt can arise, for thousands in our country cannot purchase the costly volumes of the great biographer, to whom much information may be afforded by Ramsay and by Bancroft. The first observation in comparing these two volumes, that will strike every one who reads them, is, that they might well exchange titles. The work, modestly called An Essay on the life of George Washington,' exhibits many proofs of profound research among the scattered fragments of our history, and much curious inquiry after anecdotes relating to its subject. The Life of George Washington,' by the historian of the American war, contains nothing new to one, who has read Marshall with careless rapidity, and who faintly remembers the im pression made on him in his pas sage through that ample repository. Dr. Ramsay is diffuse and oratorical in his manner, as if he were contesting for the palm of eloquence in a eulogy. The style of Mr. Bancroft is simple without meanness; it seldom glows, and is never frigid: it is not rapid, nor does it often stagnate. 'He has not conceived that he was writing formen of erudition, but for the unlettered portion of the community; and he has for their benefit more particularly studied simplicity of style. Should he be so happy as to obtain their approbation, he will receive an ample Preface. reward of his labour." Such is the safe manner of him, who, too diffident to aspire to the rank of a philosophical historian, contents himself with the faithful performance of the useful duties of an annalist. If therefore to an inhabitant of Europe, who shall inquire for the character of Washing with little curiosity to learn the private biography of the man, or the peculiar circumstances and events of little splendour, that at tended the warriour,the volume of Ramsay be recommended, as a well written epitome; by every American, who searches with eager veneration for all the less observable qualities of the father of his country, to whom no situation, in which he stood, is uninteresting, no detail of facts, in which he was concerned, trivial, superiority will be allowed without hesitation to the abridgment of Mr. Bancroft. resemblance, which commendation Dr. Ramsay has dedicated lis book to the youth of the United States, in a sentence neat enough, but we see little use in this way of filling a page. The two authors have divided their works into chapters, and, a if by preconcert, each has thirteen, of which the first in Ramsay's narrates the history of Washing. ton in twenty pages to the com mencement of our revolution: Mr. Bancroft has given the biog raphy only till the year 1759 is thirty-seven pages. This may shew the greater satisfaction to be derived from the minuteness of Mr. Bancroft. In the history of Chief Justice Marshall we are informed who was the father of Washington, as well as that he was his third son; who was his great-grandfather, and the time of his emigration from Eng land; but we remain ignorant of the name of our hero's grand ther; and the defect is not supplied in the volumes before us. As these works will soon be among the most usual books in the hands of our children, who acquire their style of expression from the most common authors it is of importance to notice a few ver bal errours, that might otherwise pass us uncensured. On the page of Dr. Ramsay few readers would expect to find such sentences as these: 'On the next day a dreadful "A revolutionscene took place? An engraved head of Washington is prefixed to each of these ary war of eight years duration, : volumes; in Ramsay's by Leney, which issued in their establish in Bancroft's by Edwin. Neither ment, as thirteen United States is equal to the fine likeness by Ed-List' for enlist is growing obso win in Marshall's Washington; lete. On page 33d he informs us, but that in Bancroft's, though per- that the British troops fell down to of haps more coarsely executed than the Castle, with the intention the work of Leney, carries a strong proceeding up the river to attack 1 Dorchester heights. Query, was the historian ever in Boston? The phrase brought round a revolution' is very offensive to our ears. Brought about would be bad enough, but this seems to be brought round about. Prodigious convoy' and * ineffable delight' are modes of expression inconsistent with the modesty of history; and majestick silence suits only the romantick. Judgment was his forte' would be a mean expression to apply to any body, but it is highly improper to speak so vulgarly of the subject of our author's history. After a tedious hearing before a court, Lee was found guilty. We hope no contempt is meant in these words, though it might be thought so. The word thereof occurs frequently in Dr. Ramsay's volume, and in Wood's Conveyancing.' The son of general St. Clair will inform the Doctor,that his father's name was not Sinclair, and any school-boy in the country might have corrected the word. If in so large a work by an American author more faults of grammar and expression are not discovered, than we have now marked, he deserves no small praise; and Dr. Ramsay may remember, that many writers in our country are not worth censuring. He has done much heretofore, and his Life of Washington' has given him another claim to the grat'itude of his country. His style is usually pure, and often elegant. His remarks are judicious and sometimes profound. From a quotation our readers may easily deeide for themselves. proper, methods of accomplishing proposed objects. Of a thousand proposit tions he knew to distinguish the best, and to select among a thousand the individual most fitted for his purpose.' P. 329. The whole character indeed of Washington is well drawn, and its conclusion impressive : Citizens of the United States ! While with grateful hearts you recollect the virtues of your Washington, carry your thoughts one step farther. On a review of his life, and of all the circumstances of the times in which he lived, you must be convinced, that a kind Providence in its beneficence raised him, and endowed him with extraordinary virtues, to be to you an instrument of great good. None but such a man could have carried you successful. which tried men's souls, and ended in ly through the revolutionary times the establishment of your independence. None but such a man could have braced up your government after it had become so contemptible,from the but such a man could have saved your imbecility of the federal system. None country from being plunged into war, either with the greatest naval powerin Europe, or with that which is most formidable by land, in consequence of your animosity against the one, and your partiality in favour of the other.' P. 337 Of The clergy of this country are our best scholars, but they are sometimes careless writers. this we have been once or twice satisfied in Mr. Bancroft's book. A pilot' is one, who steers a vessel, as a guide directs us on land. For the use of that word, however, Washington's journal may be quoted, but its authority cannot affix a new meaning. Infilade' is not an English word, but enfilade is naturalized from the French.Of other words we cannot be so tender; and, if necessitated" is Perhaps no man ever lived who was so often called upon to form a judgment in cases of real difficulty, and who so often formed a right one. En-authorized by the dictionary, no gaged in the busy scenes of life, he one will deny, that it is inelegant. Tedium' is not English; and knew human nature, and the most |