Which discord, in her maddest fit, Where Roman greatness once bore sway. And fee! where Greece in ruin lies! The rude barbarians now invade, If we to Indian groves repair, Content alone can boaft the charm, THE CHURCH PORCH. (Continued.) THY friend put in thy bofome: wear his eyes Still in thy heart, that he may fee what's there. If caufe require, thou art his facrifice; Thy drops of bloud muft pay down all his fear: In thy discourse, if thou defire to please, All fuch is courteous, ufefull, new, or wittie. Usefulneffe comes by labour, wit by ease; Courtefie grows in court; news in the citie. Get a good stock of these, then draw the card: That fuits him beft, of whom thy fpeech is heard. Entice all neatly to what they know best; For fo thou doft thy felf and him a pleasure : (But a proud ignorance will lofe his rest, Rather than fhew his cards) steal from his treasure What to ask further. Doubts well rais'd do lock The fpeaker to thee, and preferve thy stock. If thou be Master-gunner, fpend not all That thou canft fpeak, at once; but husband it, And give men turns of fpeech: do not forestall By lavishneffe thine own and others wit, As if thou mad'ft thy will. A civil gueft Will no more talk all, then eat all the feast. A grain of glorie mixt with humbleneffe Cures both a fever and lethargickneffe. Be calm in arguing: for fierceneffe Let thy minde still be bent, still plotting where, And when, and how the bufinesse may be done. Slackneffe breeds worms; but the fure traveller, Though he alight fometimes, still goeth Whether thy ftock of credit fwell, or fall. Who fay, I care not, thofe I give for loft; And to inftruct them, 'twill not quit the coft. Scorn no mans love, though of a mean degree; Take all into thee; then with equal (Love is a prefent for a mightie king) Much leffe make any one thine enemie. As gunnes destroy, so may a little fling. The cunning workman never doth refufe The meanest tool, that he may chance to use. All forrain wisdome doth amount to this, To take all that is given; whether wealth, Or love, or language; nothing comes amiffe: A good digestion turneth all to health: And then, as farre as fair behaviour THE BOSTON REVIEW, FOR FEBRUARY, 1805. BY FAIR DISCUSSION TRUTHS IMMORTAL FIND. HUMPHRETS. ARTICLE. 7. Letters of Shahcoolen, a Hindu philofopher, refiding in Philadelphia, to his friend El Haffan, an inhabitant of Delhi. Bofton, printed by Ruffell & Cutler, proprietors of the work. 1802. THESE letters are reprefented in the publifhers' advertisement, as "fuccessful imitations" "of the oriental ftyle," If this be fo, the Perfian Letters of Littleton, and Goldfmith's Citizen of the World, have been greatly mifconceived; there is not the smallest affinity fubfifting between these produc tions and the Letters of Shahcoolen. These occafional effays were first published in the NewYork Commercial Advertiser, and it evidently appears from the author's preface, and the letters themselves, they were never calculated to meet the publick eye in their present form. But fuch is the rage for book-making, that every "ephemeral" contributor to the columns of a newfpaper, after a time, comes forth "ftitched in blue" or "bound in calf." So that a library, composed of modern publications, will foon exceed the ancient Roman laws, which, according to Livy, tam immenfus aliarum fuper alias acervatarum legum cumulus, that they were computed to be the burthen of many camels. This is one of the evils incident to the early state of literature in all countries, and which can only be alleviated by time and experience. It was not till three centuries after the taking of Rome by the Gauls, that publick fchools were erected, or learning engaged their attention. So rude were they at that period, that a nail was annually driven up with great pomp and ceremony in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, in order to afflift the common people in reckoning the years. At prefent there feem to be more writers than readers in this country; but as we advance, the numbers of the former will be leffened, and thofe of the latter increafed; the multitude of fine-bound books will ceafe to accumulate ; the eye will become weary with the baubles of literature, and the ear fated with their found. The little volume, in review, comprifes fourteen letters; they are of a local nature, and the juvenile writer does not feem to have looked beyond the city from which he indites. The four first letters contain "a general account of the new philofophy and the practical influence of Mary Wolftonecraft's writings in the United States." In his remarks on this fubject the writer is unwarrantably fevere. The publications of Mifs Wolstonecraft have had little effect, comparatively, with the author's statement. In fome of the warmer fouthern states fhe may have found votaries to whom her notions were congenial, but in the temperate regions of the north paffion has not yet overturned the empire of reafon. It is a grofs and indecorous charge to attribute fuch general and extenfive influence, as to revolutionize the morals of a country, to a woman whom he calls "pbrenzied "and extravagant in her mind ; "whofe writings are obfcure, rhapfodical, and often wholly "unintelligible; where figures are daubed with extravagant colouring; fhadows and fubitances are joined; he-goats and foxes are yoked together; fo "that a man of correct mind and "dignified taste must be fhocked with the rhetorical abfurdities in every page." 46 66 66 His delineation of Mary Wolftonecraft's character is a fpecimen of " successful imitation." Those who have feen the works of Goldfmith, Littleton, and Montefquieu, in the oriental manner, may now decide upon the merit of Shahcoolen. It requires no great acuteness to difcern the reafon why Mary laboured to establish this doctrine. She was herself a lerud woman; and, unlefs lewd women could be made refpectable, she was confcious that the muft alfo yield to that infamy, which well regulated focieties univerfally throw upon female impurity. After being engaged in feveral open and shameful amours, particularly with a Mr. Imlay, an American gentleman, and Mr. Fufeli an Italian, Mifs Wolftonecraft toward the clofe of her life married one William Godwin, having previously cohabited with him feveral months. This man has written her history, in which, fo far from exprefling any remorfe on account of his connection with fo abandoned a woman, he celebrates, in ftrains of philofophical eulogium, the purity of her mind, and the ardour of her affections. fide of a fair American, I have thought Often, when reclining on a fofa,by the that her white bofom, fcarcely veiled at all from my fight, and her finely proportioned limbs, which the extreme thinnefs and narrownefs of her apparel rendered quite evident to the eye, would have excited impure emotions in any heart, lefs fubject to reason, than that of a Hindu philofopher.-When I have topped in my walks, as I often do, at fome publick corner, the confined motion of the limbs,in robes fcarcely eighteen inches in breadth, has enabled me to compare with great accuracy the delicate proportions, and graceful movements of the fprightly fair ones, who wander forth into the ftreets of this metropolis. every exclamation with an appeal prac "to her God"? The author in- Letter fixth contains the ftate of American poetry, and extracts In the letter immediately fub from poetical writers. The wri |