demeanor exhibited all the dignity and purity of her character, mingled with the tenderness of her heart.

Captain Smith called on Pocahontas foon after her arrival. Her astonishment was at first fucceeded by contempt. But the refentment of wounded pride foon yielded to tender fentiments. In a private interview fhe heard his interefting explanation, and ever after careffed him with the fondness of a fifter.

After remaining fome time in England and travelling with Pocahontas through the country, he had fo often defcribed, Rolfe refolved to revifit America. But alas! Pocahontas had quitted her native wilds forever. She was taken fick at Gravefend, and after a fhort illness, died. Religion cheered her through the hours of declining life, and her laft faltering accents whispered praise to her Creator.

When we reflect that so much virtue, heroism, intellect and piety adorned fo young a native of our country, we cannot but regard America as the natural clime of greatnefs, and confider Pocahontas, as exhibiting proof of the powers and capacity of favage nature, rather than as an exception to common degen

eracy.

REMARKS

ON THE MERITS AND DEFECTS OF DR. JOHNSON, AS A CRITIC. [From Theatrum Poetarum Anglicanorum.]

'DR. JOHNSON, whofe Lives of the Poets are extremely valuable, from the knowledge of life they difplay, from their morality, and from that acutenefs of investigation and vigour of expreffion, which his astonishing powers of intellect threw on every fubject, in which he engaged, has yet contributed to authorize a degraded tafte. For candour ought to confefs, that a feeling for the higher kinds of poetry was not among excellencies. Is it poffible for those to doubt it, who recollect the opinion he has expreffed of Milton's Lycidas, and of the Odes. of Gray? who remember that he has scarce mentioned the Fables of Dryden, and that he has hardly conferred even a cold extorted praise on the Ode to the Paffions by Collins ? who muft

his

admit, that among the modern poets, who have pretenfions to excellence in their art, there are but two, except his favourite Pope, to whofe merits he has done any tolerable justice? These are Thomson and Young.*

'Dr. Johnfon, born no doubt with violent paffions, yet with the organs of his fenfes, through which the fancy is ftored, if not imperfect, furely far from acute, had from a very early age moft cultivated his powers of ratiocination, till by degrees he grew to esteem lightly every other fpecies of excellence: and carrying these ideas into poetry, he was too much inclined to think, that to reason in verfe, when the harmony of numbers, and especially if fomething of the ornament of poetical language was added to the force of truth, was to attain the highest praise of the art. The pleasure of pure defcription or fentiment, of what was calculated merely to exercise the imagination or the heart, he feems fcarcely ever to have felt.

But if Johnfon has failed, there is no wonder why ordinary critics do not even apprehend wherein true genius confifts. The first qualification is that extreme fenfibility through which images are strongly and originally impreffed upon the mind by the objects themselves, and whence all thofe feelings of admiration and tenderness which they cause, rife fpontaneously without being forced by the hot-bed of books or the aid of flow reflection. Whoever has felt the charms of nature, or the paffions common to mankind, with fuch force, and cultivated language with fuch fuccefs, as to be able to arrest and tranfcribe his own immediate fenfations, poffeffes the powers of a poet.'

The flight shown to Ld. Lyttelton's "Monody," is another proof of unpoetic feeling in our great critic; and fuch may be deemed his treasured farcasm on Dyer's " Fleece." Dr. Johnson too frequently faid a witty thing in preference to a wife one; an infirmity, which doth most cafily befet' a temper unchaftifed. Review.

For the MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY.

LOOSE PARAGRAPHS.

THERE

HERE are but few authors in the world.

In general we

only publish the fentiments of others, and all the merit we can claim is that of tailors, who contrive new clothes for old perfons.

IT is neceffary to learn rules that we may be able to act without them, and to fucceed in difregarding them. He who has been inftructed in arithmetic, can calculate without adhering to its rules. The graceful dancer may occafionally neglect those steps by which he acquired his gracefulness; and the best musician will often violate those laws by which he acquired his art. Expreffion in mufic, tafte in the fine arts, and excellence in the meanest trades, do not confist in adherence to rules, but spring from a judgment originally formed by rules, and hence enabled to reach its end without regarding them. Perhaps the highest proof of skill is to know when and how to neglect established rules.

THE most enviable power is that which is exercised over the minds of men. He, who enforces conviction, bends the will and commands the affections, has refiftless power; he is a defpot; he raises his throne in the heart; he wears a crown, which no revolutions of empires can pluck from his brow. The reverence, paid to fuch a fovereign, is worth more than all the mockery of homage, which was ever offered to an eastern monarch. It is reverence of the heart, paid not to a name or a glittering fceptre, but to qualities of the foul, acquired by honourable erertion, and permanent as the mind, which poffeffes them.

NOTHING is more difficult than the acquifition of truth. Born in weakness and ignorance, we neceffarily depend on others for fupport and direction. The expansion of our minds, as well

as of our bodies, is entrusted to the care of our parents. Nature puts us, pliant as ofier, fufceptible as wax, into the hands of others. They mould us, they influence our minds, they prefcribe our principles, they infuse into us their own prejudices. The very air we breathe is infected. Before we begin to reason, we are nursed in error, and wedded to delufion. Our fight is obfcured. Our powers are cramped. The fpirit of investigation is loft in blind attachment to prevailing opinions. We think as we were taught. We cling to the leading ftrings when we are. old enough to walk alone. Ancient fyftems grow into us, incorporate themselves with our minds, and become a part of us; and it is as painful to renounce them, as to hew the limbs from our bodies. It requires ftrength and courage greater than heroes have exerted, to caft away our fhackles, to rife above the clouds of prejudice, to open our eyes wide to the light, to fi lence our attachments and averfions, and to hear the folemn voice of truth.

THERE is often in works of taste and eloquence, a uniform tedious elegance, more disgusting than coarseness and barbarity. An eafy, unbalanced, unlaboured ftyle fhould form the ground of compofition. This will give relief and prominence to the most important parts, and produce an agreeable variety. We love to travel through plains, and the eye naturally reposes now on the verdure of the fields, and now on the foft blue of heaven. In the fame Dazzling objects foon fatigue and overpower us. manner, fimple truth, in a plain perfpicuous ftyle, with familiar illuftrations, fhould form the fubftance of a difcourfe, and alt that is melting, magnificent, and folemnizing, fhould be introduced by natural tranfition from this eafy courfe. Compofition fhould indeed be always rich in thought. By fimple truth we mean not stale repetition and barrenness of sentiment. There is nothing to gratify us in a defert level of fand, but we delight in the fertile well-watered plain.

Eloquent compofition fhould resemble nature.

Here should

be rugged force, there flowing melody, here folemn gloom, there cheerful funshine, in one part the wildness of the storm and of the uncultivated waste, in another the charms of order, and the mildnefs of the evening fky.

FOR THE MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY.

EVENING ENTERTAINMENTS.-No. II.

THE corrupt manners of the world have always been a fubject of much declamation; and, though fometimes they have been drawn perhaps with too bold a pencil, an attentive and candid obferver will yet find much to deplore and to correct. I propofed, in thefe effays, to make fome obfervations on the manner of occupying our focial interviews, the amufements, to which we have recourse to fill up our evening hours, and the purposes, to which we ought to devote them. In this number I fhall confider the tendency and effects of levity and impure wit.

The advantages of fociety are great and eftimable. Society will make us better men, and better Christians. But much of our intercourse with the world and our friends can produce no happy influence on the minds of others, nor our own. That buy levity, that engroffes most of the leisure hours, which we appropriate to the entertainment of each other, in the best point of view, can only store the mind with trifles. By habituating our minds to idle topics of discourse we progreflively difrelish subjects of a more important nature. A vacant hour, which might be agreeably occupied by the ftudious, thoughtful and fedate, becomes a burden. We are happy only, when in circles of gaiety, wit and humour. Important investigations can never engage a mind without disgust, which has been devoted to useless exercises. As the mind has been floating on the surface of the world, and drawn pleasure only from the fallies and folly of a wild imagination, objects of a higher nature lofe their importance. In perfons, who are devoted to gay and humourous company, there is most commonly difcoverable a want of useful reflection; for the object of such is not to be instructed, but diverted.

The difpofition to levity prevails in moft of our affociations. It is seldom we meet or hear any thing instructive and interesting. Even in most of improved focieties we find little to enrich our hearts or understandings. It is a circumftance to be regretted, that fuch favourable opportunities are fo frequently pervert