CYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. PLOF. How many kinds of salt occur in a saltbox? STU. Two-coarse and fine. PROF. You have said that the saponaceous preparation is produced by the action of a vegetable alkaline salt on a pinguidinous or unctuous substancedescribe the process? STU. If a great quantity of strong lie be procured by passing water through wood ashes, and if a very large body of a pinguidinous habit should be immersed in this lie, and exposed to a considerable heat, the action of the lie, or rather the salts with which it abounds, upon the pinguidinous body, would cause the mixture to coagulate and-[Here the examiner looked very sour, for he was very fat.] At this instant a servant announced that dinner was on the table-the examination was concluded, and the parties separated-one rejoicing in the anticipation of a feast, and the examined happy in finding the fiery trial over. May, 1784. DIALOGUE ON THE ADDRESS OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY [For the Pennsylvania Packet.] I have perused with some attention the several addresses made to the venerable Doctor Franklin, by public bodies and private societies on his arrival in this city. So far as they express a sense of gratitude and esteem for his integrity and abilities as a public agent and a philosopher, they have my hearty concurrence and approbation: but they also afford some literary amusement, when considered merely as compositions, with a design of observing the various forms which the same subject matter may assume, in passing through the varied machinery of different pericraniums. Talking on this subject with Mr. B. the address of the American Philosophical Society engaged our attention, as distinguished from all the others by a dearth of sentiment, awkwardness of style, and obscurity of expression. I am surprised, said I-but it will be better to give it in the to avoid the number of said I's and said he's. way of dialogue, A. I am surprised that our Philosophical Society, from whom we might expect, on such an occasion, at least ease and propriety, if not something more, should exhibit so barren, so stiff, and costive a performance, as their address seems to be: it must certainly have been seethed too long in the author's brain, and so become hard like an over-boiled egg. B. I perceive, sir, you are not a member of the Philosophical Society. A. No, sir; I have not that honor. B. So I thought by your mentioning brains. Why, sir, we never make use of any in writing letters, or drawing addresses: we manage these things in quite a different way. How do you imagine our address was produced? 4. Some member, I suppose, was appointed to draft the address, which was afterwards read before the society; and being corrected, was finally ap proved of, and so delivered. B. When you shall become a philosopher you will know better: no, sir, we conduct all our business by ballot, as they choose magistrates-according to the spirit of our excellent constitution. A. No doubt, when new members, or officers of the institution are to be elected; but how an address can be composed by ballot, I confess, I cannot comprehend. B. Well, I will inform you. You must know we have four boxes: in one are put a number of substantives, the best the dictionary affords; in the second, an equal number of adjectives; in the third, a great number of verbs, with their participles, gerunds, &c.; and in the fourth, a still greater Lumber of pronouns, articles, and particles, with all the small ware of the syntax. The secretary shakes these boxes for a considerable time, and then places them side by side on a table, each bearing its proper label of distinction. This done, the members proceed to ballot for the composition, whatever it may be; each member taking out one substantive, one adjective, two verbs, and four particles from the boxes respectively; and so they proceed, repeating the operation, until they have drawn the number of words, of which, according to a previous determination, the composition is to consist. Some ingenious member is then requested to take all the ballots or words so obtained, and arrange them in the best order he can. In the present case, this task fell to *****; and you can see how he has worked up the materials which chance threw in his way. A. If this is your method it will sufficiently account for the short broken sentences, the harshness of the periods, and general obscurity which distinguish your address. B. What do you mean by obscurity? I am sure our address, if not elegant, is at least intelligible. A. Pray, inform me, then, what is meant by this paragraph:-"The high consideration and esteem in which we hold your character, so intimately combine with our regard for the public welfare, that we participate eminently in the general satisfaction which your return to America produces:"-and of this "We derive encouragement and extraordinary felicity from an assemblage of recent memorable events: and while we boast in a most pleasing equality, permanently ascertained," &c., &c. B. The meaning of your first quotation is, that our high consideration for the doctor, combining and intimately mixing with our regard for the public welfare, occasion a kind of chymical solution or effervescence in our minds, producing a tertium quid, which causes us to participate eminently, and so on; if you know anything of chymistry, you would have understood it well enough. A. Well! it appears to me something very like nonsense; but, I confess, I am no philosopher. B. As to the other passage you mentioned-the truth is, we were a little unlucky-it would have been the most elegant paragraph in the whole coinposition but for an unfortunate accident. You must know, that whilst ***** was arranging the ballots, a puff of wind blew away a number of excellent explanatory words, and carried them out of the window; the whole sentence had like to have gone: a careful search was made in the street, but no more could be recovered than what you see. indeed, proposed to ballot over again for as many It was, words as had been lost: but some members were of opinion that this might prove a dangerous precedent, and so the passage was suffered to pass as it now stands. A. I observe further, that you mention "the growth of sciences and arts;" would it not have read better, "the growth of arts and sciences;” according to the usual mode of expression? which has this to justify it, that arts were known and practised before sciences were investigated; and besides, the expression is more musical and pleasing to the ear. B. We had a long debate upon this subject; and the very reasons you now give were urged in favor of the common way of placing those words; but the learned compositor insisted, that as the sciences were more abstruse, and more eminent in dignity than the arts, they ought to be mentioned first, especially by a philosophical society. A. This reminds me of what the town-clerk says in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing :-" To. Cl. Write down that they hope they serve God: and be sure to write God first; for God defend, but God should go before such villains." B. It is in vain to attempt explanation to a mind so prejudiced as your's. I perceive you are determined to find fault, and so let us drop the subject. A. Why, do you imagine I believe one word of your boxes and your ballots? You are either ridiculing, or endeavoring to excuse a performance, which would, indeed, disgrace a schoolboy. When I compare this address with the president's short but elegant reply, I cannot but observe, how strongly the difference is marked between an author who sits down to think what he shall write, and one who only sits down to write what he thinks. VERSES Wrote in a blank book which once belonged to Mr. Shenstone the poet, and was given by the Lord Bishop of Worcester. Come little book, the giver's hand, Shall add such worth to mine, Come little book; nor in my care, Tho' Worcester own'd thee once, tho' once Had Shenstone in thy spotless page Then hadst thou been an emblem fit, DESCRIPTION OF A CHURCH. As late beneath the hallow'd roof I trod, The massy walls, which seem'd to scorn the rage There, sorrowing seraphs heav'nward lift their eyes, I trod-and started at the mighty noise; Far in the west, and noble to the sight, 1 Now by degrees more bold and broad they grow, But now the blast harmonious dies away, Hail heav'n born music! by thy pow'r we raise Th' uplifted soul to acts of highest praise; Oh! I would die with music melting round, And float to bliss upon a sea of sound. A MORNING HYMN. Once more the rising source of day, And prowling wolves through deserts howl Whilst slumbers soft my eye-lids close, My God! shall not such goodness move When shall my eager spirit rise, In realms where no returns of night, AN EVENING HYMN. At length the busy day is done, Oh! God of hosts! with this day's close, He whom this night th' expecting tomb, Up rose and breath'd the healthful air. Let Av'rice, feeble, grey and old, Let thoughtless youth, too often found, When mortal pangs his frame shall seize, Ah! what shall cheer my drooping heart? AN EPITAPH FOR AN INFANT. Sleep on, sweet babe! no dreams annoy thy rest, A CAMP BALLAD. Make room, oh! ye kingdoms in hist'ry renowned Whose arms have in battle with glory been crown'd, Make room for America, another great nation, Her sons fought for freedom, and by their own brav'ry Have rescued themselves from the shackles of slav'ry, America's free, and tho' Britain abhor'd it, Fair freedom in Britain her throne had erected, Her foes shall with shameful defeat be confounded. On Heav'n and Washington placing reliance, THE BATTLE OF THE KEGS,* Gallants attend and hear a friend, Trill forth harmonious ditty, Strange things I'll tell which late befel 'Twas early day, as poets say, The truth can't be de..ied, sir, This strange appearance viewing, First damn'd his eyes, in great surprise, Then said, "Some mischief's brewing. "These kegs, I'm told, the rebels hold, Pack'd up like pickled herring; And they're come down t' attack the town, In this new way of ferrying." The soldier flew, the sailor too, And scar'd almost to death, sir, Now up and down throughout the town, Some fire cry'd, which some denied, Sir William he, snug as a flea, Lay all this time a snoring, Nor dream'd of harm as he lay warm, Awak'd by such a clatter; Sir Erskine at command, sir, And th' other in his hand, sir. "Arise, arise," Sir Erskine cries, "The rebels-more's the pity, Without a boat are all afloat, And rang'd before the city. "The motly crew, in vessels new, With Satan for their guide, sir, These kegs must all be routed, The cannons roar from shore to shore, The rebel dales, the rebel vales, With rebel trees surrounded; The distant woods, the hills and floods, With rebel echoes sounded. The fish below swam to and fro, Attack'd from ev'ry quarter; Why sure, thought they, the devil's to pay, 'Mongst folks above the water. The kegs, 'tis said, tho' strongly made, Of rebel staves and hoops, sir, Could not oppose their powerful foes, The conq'ring British troops, sir. From morn to night these men of might Display'd amazing courage; And when the sun was fairly down, Retir❜d to sup their porrage An hundred men with each a pen, Or more upon my word, sir, It is most true would be too few, Their valour to record, sir. Such feats did they perform that day, Against these wicked kegs, sir, That years to come, if they get home, They'll make their boasts and brags, sir. THE NEW ROOF: A SONG FOR FEDERAL MECHANICS. Who, at the suggestion of Samuel Adams, opened the old Continental Congress of 1774 with prayer, was for a time Chaplain to the Congress of 1776, and was much admired for his ease and elegance as a preacher in his day; was also a writer of some pretensions. Of Huguenot descent, he was a native of Philadelphia, born about 1738. He took orders in England, and became a rector of the Episcopal church in his native city. In 1771 appeared from his pen the Letters of Tamoc Caspipina, an acrostic on his designation as Assistant Minister of Christ's Church, and St. Peters, in Philadelphia, in North America.* They have reference to the English politics of the times. One of them has an allusion to Sir William Draper, who was about that time in America, urging him to a fresh encounter with his antagonist Junius, "the knight of the polished armour." The letters are addressed by Tamoc Caspipina to Right Hon. Viscounts, Lady Carolines, Lord Bishops, &c.; and give an easy account, with not too much matter, of some of the institutions of Philadelphia, a few trite moralities of religion, two or three feeble poems, Soon, Myrtilla, must thy friend and a passing mention of the volumes of Godfrey and Evans. In one of the letters there is a contemplation of the rising greatness of America, which is expressed in a flowing style-probably a very good specimen of the author's rhetorical manner in his sermons, which, joined to a good delivery, might readily produce the effect assigned to Duché's pulpit eloquence. This collection was several times reprinted. In an elegant edition, in two small volumes, published at Bath in England in 1777, there is an allusion to two prior ones; and there is one still later, published at London in 1791. To the Bath edition is appended, A Brief Account of the Life of William Penn, Esq., Proprietor and Governor of Pennsylvania; in which his settlement of that Province is included, and to which is added his Character. The incidents of Duché's first services in the Continental Congress were striking. John Adams has given an account of the scene in a letter to his wife dated September 16, 1774. Duché appeared "with his clerk and his pontificals, and read several prayers in the established form, and then read the collect (psalter) for the seventh day of September, which was the thirty-fifth psalm. You must remember this was the next morning after we heard the horrible rumor of the cannonade of Boston. I never saw a greater effect upon an audience. It seems as if Heaven had ordained that psalm to be read on that morning. After this Mr. Duché, unexpectedly to everybody, struck out into an extemporary prayer, which filled the bosom of every man present. I must confess I never heard a better prayer, or one so well pronounced. Episcopalian as he is, Dr. Cooper himself never prayed with such fervor, such ardor, such earnestness and pathos, and in language so elegant and sublime for America, for the Congress, for the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and especially the town of Boston. It has had an excellent effect upon everybody here. I must beg you to read that psalm. If there was any faith in the Sortes Virgiliana or Sortes Ho * Caspipina's Letters. Observations on a variety of subjects, literary, moral, and religious; in a series of original letters, written by a gentleman of foreign extraction who resided some time in Philadelphia. Philadelphia. 1774. + Graydon's Memoirs. Littell's Ed., p. 98. merica, or especially in the Sortes Biblicæ, it would be thought providential. Mr. Duché is one of the most ingenious men, and best characters, and greatest orators in the Episcopal order upon this continent-yet a zealous friend of liberty and his country." He published two revolutionary sermons, a fast sermon before Congress, and another address to the militia. The Duty of Standing Fast in our Spiritual and Temporal Liberties, was the title of his discourse preached in Christ church, July 7, 1775, before the First Battalion of the city. He addressed his audience from the text, Stand fast, therefore, in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, as freemen both in the spiritual and temporal sense. It is temperate to England, but animated for independence. In one sentence he indulges in a bit of sarcasm. "We wish not to possess the golden groves of Asia, to sparkle in the public eye with jewels torn from the brows of weeping nabobs, or to riot on the spoil of plundered provinces." The American Line, was his fast-day sermon, delivered before the honorable Continental Congress the same month, in which he looks to the past prosperity of the country and invokes its continuance. He gave the pay of his chaplaincy to the families of the Whigs slain in battle. Though a man of conscientious views, and a lover of right, his judgment unfortunately wavered from timidity or the pressure of society around him on the British occupation of Philadelphia, and he felt himself called upon to write an unfortunate letter to General Washington,* urging him to abandon the cause of Independence, which Washington prudently laid before Congress, and which Duché's brother-in-law, Francis Hopkinson, replied to with great spirit and directness. This action caused his retirement from the country. He was well received in England, where he published two volumes of sermons in 1780, and a sermon before the Humane Society in 1781. After the war he returned to Philadelphia in 1790, where he died in 1794. FROM CASPIPINA'S LETTERS. To the Right Honorable Lord Viscount P, Queen Street, Westminster. **My attachment to America, I am apt to think, in a great measure proceeds from the prospect of its growing greatness, to which every day seems more or less to contribute. In Europe, the several arts and sciences are almost arrived at their meridian of perfection; at least, new discoveries are less frequent now than heretofore. Architecture, gardening, agriculture, mechanics are at a stand. The eye is weary with a repetition of scenes, in which it discovers a perpetual sameness, though heightened by all the refinements of taste. Excellency itself, in works of human art, cloys the faculties, if the mind is not now and then relieved by objects of inferior beauty. After roving over the magnificence of churches and palaces, we are glad to fix a while upon a simple farm-house, or straw-built cottage. We feel a particular delight in tracing the windings of a beautiful river from its first springs till it empties itself into the vast ocean. The mind pursues it through an immense tract of variegated country, and |