troversy; 1. on account of its size, its weight being more than 1600 pounds; 2. of the purity and ductility of the iron, which it contains, as well as its close combination with the glassy matter above mentioned; and 3. of its crust, which is of the nature of iron ore, and seems to have enveloped the whole mass." See, for this passage, a note in a small pamphlet, translated into French, and entitled, Observat ons on the Formation of Mountains, and on the changes which have occurred in our Globe; written by Professor Pallas. This little product on, sold in 1782, by the elder Mecquignon, at Paris, and containing an attack on M. Buffon, will much interest a philosphical reader, if accompanied with a map adapted to its names of objects and of places; being chiefly founded on grand local facts.

As to the mass, containing native iron, discovered in South America, to which we now return, it is said to lie in a country almost deserted, in south lat. 27° 28' on the west side of the river de la Plata, (or Parana) and above the mouth of the Vermego, which runs into the Parana. Its station is said to be an immense plain, neither mountain, nor even stones being seen within one hundred leagues of it. The describer, unable otherwise to account for the appearance of this mass, conjectures that it issued from a volcano, of which he fixes the seat at a mineral brackish spring, two leagues disThe explosion, he thinks, was accompanied with an elevation of soil, which he conceives to have been since reduced by rains; the present rise of the soil being only four or six feet above the general level of the country. The earth in every part around the mass he repas having the lightness, looseness, and colour of ashes. These

tant.

resents

however are not symptons of a volcanick origin, in any degree calculated to satisfy a mineralogist. A mass weighing fifteen tons, thrown five or six miles, (which is a projection, perhaps, exceeding any effected by our modern volcanos) cannot easily have occurred without a crater, lava, scoriæ, pumice, enamel, glass, volcanick sand, puzzolana, tufa, or some other decisive or secondary signs of volcanick eruption, attending the operation. A mineral spring, without smoke or heat, and a slen der table of earth, in a country absolutely destitute of mountains, and removed 4 or 500 miles from the sea, cannot be considered as substitutes for evidence of the nature in question. And as to ashes, if the describer simply means, that he found here the appearance of (common or) vegetable ashes, these are not always similar to volcanick (or mineral) ashes. Vegetable ashes, if any such existed here, may even have proceeded from the conflagration of plants and trees, growing on the spot, fired, perhaps, by the very mass in question, at its first descent from the air; and, in this case, the surface of the soil would resemble that of all new countries, which have been cleared of woods, by the aid of fire, before tillage has been employed upon it.

But let us give the author's description and explanation of a few of the particulars.

"The appearance [of the mass] was that of perfectly compact iron; but upon cutting off pieces of it, I found, (says the writer) the internal part, full of cavities, as if the whole had, formerly, been in a li quid state.* I was confirmed in

*These cavities may have arisen from the parts of the mass having been imperfectly united together; or from the

this idea, by observing, on the surface of it, the impressions as of human feet and hands, of a large size, as well as of the feet of large birds, which are common in this country. Though these impressions seem very perfect, yet I am persuaded, that they are either a lusus nature, or that impressions of this nature, were previously upon the ground, and that the liquid mass of iron falling upon it, received them. It resembled nothing so much as a mass of dough, which having been stamped with impressions of hands and feet, and marked with a finger, was aftewards converted into iron." So far our author.

And here we may remark, that the impressions, described as stamped upon this mass, cannot have arisen from traces imprinted upon the ground; since every thing of this kind must have been effaced by the violent fall of the mass; nor could impressions from this cause have been seen, except on the under side of the mass, which the moisture of the earth is said to have converted into scoria.

The author, who was sent to examine this specimen by the Viceroy of La Plata, affirms, that he spoiled seventy chissels in cutting off his samples. He adds, that, according

expansive efforts, either of gases, or of elastick mineral steam, generated from heated minerals. Respecting the exist ence of such elastick mineral steam, which bears the same relation to liquid and solid minerals, that vaporous steam does to water and ice; see some valuable experiments in Spallanzani's travels in the two Sicilies, and in some parts of the Appennines. This masterly work, abound ing in new facts, observations, and experiments, merits the study of every mineralogist. A translation was published in London, for the Robinsons, in 1798, in 4 vols. 8vo; of which consult here 2 H

C. 21.

Vol. V. No. V.

to credible accounts, there exists, in these immense forests, another mass of pure iron, in the shape of a tree, with its branches; which, he conceives, may have been thrown out in streams, while liquid, as water is thrown out of a pail; the same volcano, according to him, having furnished both these masses.

Such is the statement to be collected from Don Michel Ruban de Celis, in vol. 78 of the the London Philosophical Transactions. After rejecting a part of his hypotheses, and admitting his principal facts, we may conclude, that the South American specimen, containing native iron, is a detached mass, bearing no relationship to the objects and operations of the neighbourhood, and consequently, that it was probably carried thither by foreign means, and, probably, by the same means, which bring us our atmospherick stones, as well as from the same quarter.

A few additional remarks will close what respects the analogy between atmospherick stones, and the masses containing native iron.

1st. It will evidently militate. against this analogy, if native iron, attended with the above mentioned accompaniments, shall be found at any great depth below the surface of the ground; unless accident, or some convulsion of the globe should be thought to have placed it there, after its falling from the atmosphere.

2d. The objection made by Mr. Kirwan to the influence of fusion, in the case of the great Peruvian specimen, is much lessened by the account of the adhesion of unconsumed straws to certain atmospherick. stones, when newly descended from the air; a fact, said to have been witnessed by the son of M. D'Arcet, at Agens in France, in July,

1790. The force of this reply is confirmed by the softness, or, at least, friability of others of these stones, even in their interior, after they have become cool enough to admit of being touched.

3d. Atmospherick stones, and the substances, containing native iron, may have one and the same origin, notwithstanding certain diversities in them; few genera being without their species, and few species, without their varieties.

4. It may still be wise to hold

as somewhat dubious,' a doctrine so novel as that of the analogy in question; and particularly, till our principal specimens of native iron, shall have been more thoroughly examined, than they yet appear to have been.

Leaving then the rest of this part of our subject to mineralogists and chemists, we shall next attend to atmospherick stones, as a branch of natural philosophy; and this inquiry will occupy our three remaining heads.

AMONG the choir of countless genii, whom Jupiter created for men, in order to superintend, and to bless the short period of a painful existence, was the dim sleep. "What have I to do (said he, surveying his dusky form) in the midst of my dazzling brethren? how sadly I look in the band of the sports, of the joys, and of the loves! it may be, that I am welcome to the unhappy, whom I lull to oblivion of their cares; it may be, that I am welcome to the weary, whom I do but strengthen to renew toil: but not to those who are neither weary nor woe-begone, whom I only in terrupt in the circle of their joys."

"Thou errest, said the father of genii, and of men; thou, in thy dusky form, shalt be a genius, dear to all the world. Dost thou not think that sports and joys fatigue? in truth, they tire sooner than care and want, and bequeath to their pampered host, the most loathsome sloth. And even thou, continued Jupiter shalt not be without thy pleasures, but shalt often surpass therein, the whole company of thy brothers." With these words, he

reached out the grey horn, full of pleasing dreams : "Hence, added he, scatter thy poppy seeds, and the happy, no less than the miserable of mankind, will wish for thee, and love thee above all thy brethren. The hopes, the sports, and the joys, herein contained, were caught by the charmed fingers of thy sisters, the graces, on the most redolent meads of paradise. The etherial dews, that glitter on them, will image to every one, whom thou wouldst bless, his own wish, and as the goddess of love has sprinkled them with celestial nectar, their forms will be radiant with a glowing grace, which the cold realities. of earth cannot attain. From amid the rosy band of the pleasures, gladly will men haste to thy arms. Poets will sing of thee, and strive to rival thy enchantments, in their songs. Even the innocent maid shall wish for thee; and thou wilt hang on her eyelids, a sweet, a welcome god." The complaint of Sleep was now changed into thankfulness and triumph, and he was united to the loveliest of the graces-to Pasithea.

PLIN.

ART. 13.

The Life of George Washington, commander in chief of the American forces, during the war which established the independence of his country, and first president of the United States. Compiled under the inspection of the honourable Bushrod Washington, from original papers bequeathed to him by his deceased relative, and now in possession of the author. To which is prefixed an introduction, containing a compendious view of the colonies planted by the English on the continent of North America, from their setilement to the commencement of that war, which terminated in their independence. By John Marshall. Vols. 5. Philadelphia, printed and published by C.P. Wayne. 1804.

WE owe an apology to our readers for the long delay of our notice of a work, which, whether we consider the grandeur of its subject, or the great and merited reputation of its author, presents itself with higher claims to attention, than any one, which it has hitherto been our fortune to examine. The cause of the delay we will frankly confess.

Distrusting our own competency to a task, requiring so much preliminary knowledge, and so much curious research; and desirous that a work of so much importance should be examined by judges better capable of appreciating its merits and defects, we have successively applied to several gentlemen, who have all the requisites, which knowledge, talents and taste can give. Our hopes of success have been confident, till within the last six months; but either because the undertaking has been found by our friends less inviting than it appeared at a distance; or, because engaged in more important avocations, or possibly because the Anthology has appeared too humble a vehicle for their labours; from all these causes, hopes have been entirely disappointed. We are at last compelled to trust to our own resources, and we presume we shall not be suspected of too much humility when we express our fears, that we bring to the task little other claim to attention than that of impartiality and fidelity. We may however venture to say, that our survey of the work has cost us labour. We have consulted all the accessible authorities

some or

our

of Judge Marshall, and examined most of them with minuteness and care. Where we have doubted we have sought and obtained confidence from a gentleman, who leaves us only to regret, that he has not himself attempted, what he has shown us he is so able to perform. If therefore there should be any one, who thinks, that after this confession of our previous want of familiarity with the subject, our opinions are advanced with too much confidence, we may remind him, that our assertions are fortified by better authorities than our own, and that Teucer may be daring, when sheltered behind the buckler of Ajax.

On opening the volumes of Judge Marshall every reader is surprized to find the history of North America, instead of the life of an individual, and this as it is the most obvious, we imagine to be the most popular objection to the work. Yet it is to be recollected, that the precise boundary between history and biography is not always easily adjusted. In writing the lives of publick characters the limit between them is entirely artificial. Their biography is in truth history, or at least the line of separation between them, is so indistinct, so unmarked by any natural division, that the biographer has nothing to remind him that he is passing the limit of his own province, and invading the territories of the historian. The biographer of Washington will feel this truth more than of any other character in the whole compass of history. To Washington we are indebted for every thing for which a nation can be grateful to an individual, and from his accession to office till his death, his name is in some way connected with every publick event of importance in our history. Even

those events in which he did not

personally share are necessary to be known in order to appreciate the circumstances, which contributed to his success, and to know also the full extent of the difficulties with which he was compelled to struggle. We do not hesitate to say therefore, that in our opinion, Judge M. is completely justified in interweaving with his biography a history of the American revolution, and of the events which succeeded it. The early history of our country, with which the work commences, is however a voluntary offering, and to defend it is rather less easy. We concede to Judge Marshall the necessity of giving such a survey of preceding events as to make the reader acquainted with the genius, character and resources of the people about to engage in the revolutionary contest. But we confess that we think this object would have been better attained by a disquisition on the nature and causes of the revolution; an undertaking for which the habits of thought and investigation of Judge Marshall peculiarly fits him. This plan we think would have included a survey of all the principal events of our early history; and while it would have given greater scope for the display of his philosophical genius, than mere narration admits, he would not have been tied down to that minute and rigid exactness with which in a historian we cannot dispense. Our most serious objection to the mode he has adopted is the very great addition which it makes to his already laborious task, and we cannot forbear to wish that the time which he has bestowed on it, had been devoted to the perfection and elaboration of his necessary duties. We are the more disposed to quarrel with this part of his plan because we think that it has contributed to produce what in our