THE biography of such a man as Thomas Jefferson can only be drawn up by his own hand, and a true judgment of his merits can only be formed by future generations. When the animosities of the present age have been laid asleep by time, his character and actions may rise to the view in their native and proper colours, and the meed of blame or of praise will be conferred on him, in the degree to which he is justly entitled to it.

In consequence of living in a country, where civil liberty is enjoyed with fewer curbs and restraints than were ever before known; where the honours and riches of the state are open to unbounded competition; where the voluntary suffrages of mankind are the only passport to political power, and their suffrages are influenced by the esteem which individuals may be able to acquire for their wisdom and virtue, the intellectual and moral character of the candidates for public favour become objects of universal and rigid scrutiny and such is the influence of the passions, that the same man, and the same conduct, is the worst or

VOL. II. NO. XII.

best, the brightest or darkest, according to the medium through which the gazer examines it. As our passions and interests dictate, our competitors are transformed into monsters and demons, and our partizans or champions into angels and divinities: every faulty speck in the character of the former spreads a deep and horrid black over the whole surface, while the dark spots in the disk of the latter are wholly overpowered and lost in the blaze of surrounding brightness.

All this has been eminently true of our present subject. No man has been more applauded or more censured, because no man's situation has been connected in a more intimate manner with the hopes and fears of his fellow citizens. A large number have laboured for his eleva tion, with all the zeal which our own interest is sure to inspire; while a number, scarcely less considerable, have laboured to degrade him, with all the perseverance and anxiety which men usually display to prevent their own fall.

In this state of things, it would be highly absurd, in a publication like

1

the present, to enter into investigations of the character and conduct of this eminent personage. It would be equally impossible to escape the indignation of his friends or enemies, and nobody is neuter in this controversy, or to destroy that bias in the writer's own mind, which, whether. favourable or unpropitious to the person in view, is necessarily adverse and destructive to candour and truth. The general events of his life might be detailed; but they form a barren catalogue, when they consist of mere dates and names, and besides are too universally known to justify their formal repetition. That Mr. Jefferson is a native of Virginia; that, though born to affluence, he studied the law as his profession; that he took an active and important part in the early scenes of the revolution, was a member of the state and national legislatures, and assisted in the formation of laws and constitutions; that he has been successively ambassador, minister of state, vice-president, and finally president, of the United States, are all events in his life familiarly known, among foreigners and his own countrymen: that he has been distinguished by his attachment to the sciences and arts, and has built up a noble monument to his own literary glory, and to the honour of his native state, in his description of Virginia, are equally well known to the studious part of mankind.

To these few remarks we shall only add our fervent wish, that Mr. Jefferson, who is so well acquainted with the pen, may exercise it in recording the events of his own life. We are not always proper judges of our relative merit, nor can we see ourselves as others see us; but since a man is best acquainted with his own motives to action, and since the most important information relative to any one is connected with the light in which he views himself, it seems to be the duty of every eminent person to be his own biographer. Independently of these claims to curiosity which the history of

Mr. Jefferson possesses for its own sale, his life has been too intimately connected with the history of his country, not to be particularly worthy of being recorded by his own hand.

For the Literary Magazine.

MILTON'S RELIGION.

NOBODY pays much regard to a poet's creed. Men of thought, and particularly men of imagination, when they become thinkers, are prone to changes: they must not, however, be said to veer about like weathercocks, at the mercy of the winds; but through the ordinary progress of human existence and human intellect, they rather vary like the seasons of the year. It is the order of thought, producing a variety of sentiment.

Milton was at first a calvinist, and readers of his life will recollect that he was a baptist. Toland, in his life of him, says, that he also became an arminian, if not an arian. Perhaps he at last became a kind of quaker, his confidential amanuensis being of that persuasion. He went to no place of worship, nor, though well acquainted with the scriptures, and a student in them, had he any family worship.

Bishop Newton says, that no such man as Milton ever became an unbeliever. Johnson speaks more like an accurate man. It is much easier to say what he was not, than what he was.

For the Literary Magazine.

COWPER'S RELIGION.

COWPER'S religion was either altogether methodism, or strongly tinctured with the peculiarities of this sect. In outward show and practice, he was, however, an adherent to the

church of England, and perhaps carried his rigours no further than many the most eminent of that persuasion have done.

Cowper's intimate connection with the Throgmorton family, as mentioned in his life by Hayley, and his even platonic attachment to the lady of this family, is a striking proof of the charity and candour of the poet's mind, as well, indeed, as of the minds of his friends, who were rigid Roman catholics.

Cowper's religious creed, indeed, is a point, of very small importance, since he may justly be considered as a maniac, and his example and precepts, instead of being favourable to true piety, may be deemed adverse to it, since, in his case, it was the parent of exquisite though fantastic misery, and appears, at no time, to have stimulated him to active and manly usefulness. With him, religion was matter of sentiment and feeling rather than an active principle, prolific of felicity, fortitude, and perseverance. Happiness may be regarded as the test of piety and virtue (for virtue is only piety in action); for though men are sometimes joyous or serene without virtue and piety, it is impossible to be virtuous and pious without being joyous or serene. They who pass for pious and good, and yet are a prey to sorrow, impatience, and repining, afford an incontestible proof that either their principles or practices are vicious and erroneous.

The following lines of Cowper occur no where in his works, but are perhaps more descriptive of his mental situation than any thing of his we meet with in print:

Casus amor meus est, et nostro crimine, cujus,

For the Literary Magazine.

ORIGIN OF GAZETTES.

THEOPHRASTUS RENAUDOT, a physician of Paris, picked up news from all quarters, to amuse his patients; he presently became more in request than any of his brethren; but as a whole city is not ill, or at least don't imagine itself to be so, he began to reflect at the end of some years, that he might gain a more considerable income by giving a pa per every week, containing the news of different countries. A permission was necessary; he obtained it, with an exclusive privilege, in 1632. Such papers had been in use for a considerable time at Venice, and were called gazettes, because a small piece of money, called gazetta, was paid for the reading of them. This is the origin of our gazette, and its name. About ten years after, they were common in England, by the name of mercuries.

For the Literary Magazine.

NATURE OF VIRTUE.

THE celebrated Jonathan Edwards wrote a profound treatise on the nature of true virtue. The following anecdote from Joinville, the historian, of the last great expedition of the French to Syria and Egypt, before that of the present imperator Gallorum, will show that the same sentiment and doctrine may occur to the most dissi nilar minds and in the most opposite situations.

Joinville says, "Friar Yves, of Brittany, being skilled in the lan

Whether do these lines refer to an earthly or a heavenly love? It is true in both senses, since the idol of his youthful affections met an untimely death for his sake, though not for his fault.

ed as interpreter between St. Louis and the ambassadors from the king of Damascus. St. Louis was then in Acre, and the ambassadors had come there to treat with him. The friar, in passing between the king's lodging and that of the ambassadors, was one day encountered in