candour and with juftice. And that we have reafoned as we if we are not able to decide with precifion, we fhall reft fatisfied ought. A. MR. EDITOR, For the Monthly Anthology. I am fo well pleafed with your publication, that I have procured all the numbers of the First Volume, and had them bound... Upon looking over the 5th and 6th numbers, pp. 224 and 278, I find " The Collectanea, or Magazine in miniature," Nos. 1 and 2, in which the writer intends to depofit fuch Selections, Scraps, and iofe Paragraphs, as his reading or reflexion may furnish. Now this is exactly fuch a department, as I with to fee reeftablified in your work. I have probably the fame regard for every flower" in the Anthology, which led you to keep the whole" collection" from withering away. Whether my incipient efforts will in any sense correspond with the original design of the author above mentioned, I cannot fay; with your leave he may refume and profecute his purpofe; but if you have no objection, 1 with you to publish the historical scraps I herewith offer under the title of No. 3. time known by the name of Normandy.-Mofheim, vol. 2. p. 374 THE whole ifland of GreatBritain was anciently called Albion. In the time of Julius Cæ-` far, it was called Britannia, from birth, which in the old British tongue fignified painted; for the fame reafon that the extra-provincial Britains were afterwards called Picts, from their retaining the ancient cuftom of painting" their skins. But about 800 years after the incarnation of Chrift, by a fpecial edit of king Egbert, who was defcended from the Anglès, a people of Lower-Saxony, in whofe poffeffion the greatest part of the country then was, the fouth part was called' Angle, or Englelond, or as we now pronounce it, England. COLLECTANEA, "Tam prodeffe quam confpici." THE famous arch-pirate Rollo, fon of a Norwegian count, being banished from his native land (in the ninth century), put him felf at the head of a refolute band of Normans and feized upon the maratime provinces of France, from whence he infefted the whole country. Charles the fimple, having neither refolution nor power to expel the invader from his dominions, had recourfe to negociation; and accordingly offered to make over to Rollo a confiderable portion of his territories, provided the latter would marry his daughter Gifela, confent to a peace, and embrace chriftianity. Thefe terms were immediately accepted; for the Norman pirates being without religion of any kind, were not reftrained by prejudice from embracing one which prefented to them the most advantageous profpects. Hence the province of Bretagne and a part of Neuftria, conveyed by grant from Charles to his fon-in-law, were from this Chamberlayne's prefent flate. of Great-Britain, p. 1. GREAT events may frequently be traced to trivial caufes, Louis 7th of France, in obedi buried with his head downwards and his face towards the west. The reafon of this being request ence to the injunction of his bishop, cropped his hair and fhaved his Eleanor of Aquitaine, his confort, founded, they answered, that it was to remind him, when called to judgment, that he had been the murderer of bimfelf. him, with this uncommon appearance, very ridiculous and contemptible. She revenged herfelf by becoming fomething more than a coquette. The king obtained a divorce, and the queen married the count of Anjou, who hortly after afcended the Englifh throne. She gave him for her marriage dower the rich provinces of Poitou and Guienne; and this was the origin of thofe wars which for 300 years ravaged France, and colt the French nation three millions of men. All which, probably, had never taken place, if Louis the 7th had not been fo rafh as to crop his hair and fhave his beard, by which he became fo difguftful in the eyes of the fair Eleanor. WHEN the moon is in its wane, they fay, in Otaheite, the fpirits are devouring the deity; and when it increafes, he is recruiting himfelf-Cook's laft voyage, vol. 1. p. 166. Ir was a few years fince, and probably now is a custom of the Mohawk Indians, to bury their dead in a fitting pofture, and with their faces to the east. This occafion of this was a tradition, that, at fome future day, a great man would appear in the east and call the dead to judgment. The pofture they deemed the moft convenient for rifing; and by having their faces directed to that particular quarter of the heavens, it was intended that they fhould fee the great man, as foon as he fhould appear. A fuicide was IN the fourth century, thofe applaufes which had formerly been confined to theatres or the forum, were permitted in the chriftian church. The preacher was frequently interrupted by the cry of " orthodox," and clapping of the hands and feet. Chryfoftom was applauded in the great church at Conftantinople, by the peoples' waving their plumes, their handkerchiefs, and their garments; and by others laying their hands on their fwords and exclaiming, "Thou art worthy of the priesthood!" Ib. p. 189. CONSTANTINE had a very fuperb church erected at Jerufalem, over the fepulchre of Chrift, which he dedicated to the twelve apoftles, and intended for his own maufoleum. This is the first inftance of church interment. Ib. p. 184-5. THE Saracens invaded Spain in 714, and deftroyed the em pire of the Vifigoths in that country, which had been establish ed there for upwards of 300 years. The conductor of this enterprife was Tarich, who, having encamp ed on the eminence which com MR. EDITOR, mands the bay of Cadiz, occafioned it to be called Gebal Ta rich, or the mount of Tarich, which, by corruption is ftyled Gib altar-Gregory's chriftian eburak, vol. 1. p. 424. COL. HUMPHREYS' WORKS. THE Reviewers in a late pum ber of your Anthology, in remarking on the Poems of Col Humphreys, have afferted that "It would be abfurd to compare him with the great poets of England"; and in a long effay have undertaken to prove, that the age of good English poetry ended with the reign of queen Anne; that the British Mufe has, from that period, been declining in a gradual nervous decay; that her young offspring, the American Mufe, inherited from her parent the fame diforder; and that both are now in the laft ftages of an incurable hectick. Though I have not used their language, I fubmit it to the reader, whether I have tated their ideas too strongly, or done any injuftice to their fenti ments. To decide whether their res marks be just, no fairer method can be taken, than to quote fimiLar paffages together, and obferve in what manner the poets of their Auguftan age of England, the modern British poets, and the "bards of Columbia" have written upon the fame fubject. I will therefore give an example of this kind of comparison. The defcription of a realm, once populous and happy, now exhibiting all the marks of ruin For the Monthly Anthology and defolation, has been a favourite topick, on which the poets have often exerted their highe talents, and have ufually adopted fimilar images. We will firk quote that of Pope, in defcribing the defolation of England under the firft Norman kings. The fields are ravifh'd from th' induftrious, fwains, From men their cities and from gods their fanes ;. The The levell'd towns with weeds lie cov er'd o'er ; hollow winds through naked temples roar;... Round broken columns clafping ivy twin'd O'er heaps of ruin: stalk'd the stately 'hind; The fox obfcene to gaping tombs retires, quires. Pope's Windfor Foreft I fhall take my next example from a modern British poet. The defcription of a ruined country-fettlement, from the De ferted Village of Goldsmith. Sweet fmiling village, lovelieft of the lawn, Thy fports are fled, and all thy charms withdrawn ; Amid thy bowers the tyrant's hand is And defolation, faddens all thy green; The Reviewer, who does not feel how, fuperiour is Goldsmith to his predecellor, does not deferve to exilt a moment longer in his critical capacity. We will next try the abfurdity of comparing with thefe the attempts of the bards of Columbia. I cite them in the order, as they have been first published. The defeription of the defolation of Babylon, imitated from Tome paffages in Ifaiah, For there no more fhall gay affemblies ineet, Crowd thy full mart, or throng thy spa- No more the bridegroom's cheerful Gild thy lone roofs or fparkle through the night; No future age thy glories fhall recal, The owl fhall ftun thee with funereal The baleful dragon through thy gar dens rove, And wolves ufurp the confecrated grove. No fhepherd there the wand'ring flock fhall fpread, Nortir'd, repofe beneath the tented shed; No ftranger there with devious footstep ftray, Where circling horrours guard the fated way; And all her glories totter to the ground. Where once the palace raptur'd eyes défcried, And the tall temple rear'd its splendid 1. pride, Sad ruins murmur to the wailing owl The long rank weed o'erfpread the gar den's bound, ... The wild Idumean caft a mournful eye On the brown towers, and pafs in filence by.. Dreight, Conqueft of Canaan. Whether the wolves and owls of the Columbian bards are equal in dignity to the fox obfcene of Pope, is a queftion, which, if it cannot be finally fettled by the criticks, must be referred to the writers of natural history. I thall now cite a paragraph from the poems of Col. Humphreys, a band, in his Reviewers? new fenfe of the word. judgment, incomparable, but in a The defcription of the future defolation of the fates of Barbary.... The heavens with fable clouds are overcast, And death-like founds ride on the hollow blaft; The rank grafs rustling to the paffing E'en now of men the cheerful voices fail. No revels fport, nor mirthful cymbals Faftidious pomp! how are thy pageants fled! How fleep the haughty in their lowly bed! Where the fair garden bloom'd, the 'Mid noxious brambles, and envenom'd thorn fucceeds, weeds.. On wreeks of ftate and piles of ruin gaze. Humphreys, on the future glory of the United States, No paffage which I have cited is free from faults, or fecure a gainst fevere and minute criticifm; but I helitate not to declare my opinion, that the expreflions in the last quotation are generally the most forcible, and that in strength, novelty, and fublimity, none of the thoughts or images in, the others, are equal to the perfonification of the peftilence by Col. Humphreys. It is not for the want of learn ing or genius, that the American poets are fo little regarded, and that the publick quietly endure fuch contemptuous criticifms on their works. It is because, amidst the mutual clamours of contending parties, not one reader in a thoufand cares three cents about the poetical or literary honour of his country. How dead the vegetable kingdom lies !THOMPSON'S WINTER. IN the past numbers we treated of the SEED; the ROOT; the STEM; and laftly of the BUD, bybernacula, or winter-quarters of the vegetative life. Order indicates that we defcribe the LEAVES and opening FLOWERS in this; but alas a froft, " a killing froft" has "nipt our foot," and Vol. II. No. I. C check'd us in the bud. Our congeniality, or uncongeniality to the feafons, is founded in the nature of things, let Johnfon fay what he will to the contrary. When the mercury in the glafs, and the mercury in the man, is a degree or two below o, he is fitted rather to write on modern patriotifm, |