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fering it to the public" but for the sole use of her own school in manuscript. In this form she used it for several years, which gave her the best opportunity for making corrections and improvements. Mrs. Rowson appears to have read geography and history with much attention and discernment. Her accounts are the most particular of those countries, whose history is the most important to us; and she has been happy in selecting from each those facts and events, from which the most instruction may be drawn. In describing the situation, boundaries, government, religion &c. of different countries she has been accurate, as appears from a comparison of her compend with the respectable authorities, from which it was taken. These are principally Guthrie, Walker, and Morse.

The general description and divisions of the earth, with the astronomical problems, commonly found in the introduction to systems of geography, are in this subjoined to the body of the work, in the familiar form of question and answer. To this mode of writing we have nothing to object; but the reasons for the transposition are not apparent. We do not notice it, as a very material circumstance, though we think the common arrangement preferable. In geography, as in most other sciences, the natural order of procedure is from generals to particulars. The pupil is usually and with propriety required to understand the doctrine of the sphere, and the use of the artificial globe, before he is carried into the different quarters of the world in search of curiosities, or to be made acquainted with the character and condition of different nations.

We are gratified with the historical exercises, with which Mrs. Rowson concludes her book. She has compressed into a small compass the most material things, relative to the different nations of the earth, from the earliest period of their history. She gives us the present form and administration of governments, and briefly describes the political changes, which have recently taken place in several European states. In selecting and arranging. the matter of these, exercises, as well, as in her style, Mrs. R. has regarded the capacity of her pupils. Her descriptions are calculated to engage attention, and awaken curiosity.

This compend of geography might have been rendered more complete and useful by the insertion of a few maps. In so concise a treatise, a particular map of each country could not be expected; but the entire omission of them must be viewed, as a defect in a system of geography however short. The pupil should be taught the cardinal points of a map, the way to find the latitude and longitude of places, and the general principles, on which maps are projected. This instruction, though simple, cannot easily be conveyed to children, without placing a Vol. II. No. 3.

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map before them. Notwithstanding this omission we think the work has many claims on the patronage of the public. A number of typographical errors have escaped the vigilance of the edi

tor.

These may yet be corrected by a table of errata. It is to be regretted, that the publishers of school books are frequently too inattentive to the quality of the paper and type. The paper ought to be of a firm texture to endure the hard usage, to which books are liable in schools; and the eyes of children should not be exposed to pain and injury by a small or obscure print.

POETRY,

TO THE EDITORS OF THE LITERARY MISCELLANY.

THE following is a paraphrastic translation of one of Martial's best epigrams. I do not recollect ever to have seen it in English, and this is my greatest apology for attempting to translate it for the Miscellany. If any should discover a departure from the rules of translation, I hope they will still allow the English lines to be strictly Epigrammatic.

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;

While I with Julius dwelt
My cup life's varying streams did fill
With sweet and bitter, good and ill,
The bitter least I felt.

When I recal each chequered year,
And mark the days as they appear,
The good and evil blend;

But rightly cast and closely view'd
The evil lessen, and the good
Surpass them in the end,

If bitter draughts we wish to shun,
And free from pain our race would run,

Our friendships should be few;

Nor must attachments be too firm;
Friends here unite a little term,
And then must bid adieu.

THE FADING YEAR.

SEE with the year the face of nature fade;
The dying forest and the mourning glade ;
"Tis all decay. See all, in ruin lost,

Waste with the wind, and perish with the frost.
See Flora's treasures unregarded lie,

While faded leaves whirl wildly through the sky;
Lo, through the cheerless meads and wither'd plains
Thy howling genius, desolation, reigns.

E'en the old oak, his leafy honors shed,

Spreads his bare arms and nods his naked head
And like the wretch forlorn, the world forsakes,
Friendless and sad amid the wild winds quakes;
Yet, not like man with each misfortune mad,
He stands "forever silent, ever sad";
Save, when in contest dire his aged form
Wars with the winds and wrestles with the storm,
No verdant plant, no spot of smiling green
Glads the tired eye, or cheers the lonely scene.
E'en sportive zephyr with his frolic airs

To greener vales and happier climes repairs.
While howling blasts mourn through the forest drear,
In doleful elogy, the faded year.

'Tis so in life. The autumnal hour of age
Shall waste the flowers of youth with fatal rage.
E'en you, ye fair, whose opening beauties glow,
Mingling the rival teints of rose and mow,
Must feel time's wasting hand, and, like the flower,
Wither and fade in life's dark, wintry hour;
And in those cheeks, now beauty's blest domain,
The graces' solitary ruins reign.

H. M.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

WE recollect no work, which has been recently announced by our own booksellers or printers, calculated to excite the attention of our readers.

In looking over the first number of the Monthly Literary Advertiser, London, May 10 1805, we find, that some valuable papers, left for publication by the late Professor Robinson of Edinburgh will shortly be published under the care of his Executors. In the same number we are informed, that an account of the life and writings of the late Doctor J. Beattie, by Sir W. Forbes, one of his Executors, is in great forwardness.

In the Advertiser for June we are told, that Mr. Good's translation of Lucretius, specimens from which were quoted by Mr. Drake in his Literary Hours several years since, is nearly ready for publication.

From the number of the Advertiser for September we select the following intelligence.

Mr. Wool has a quarto volume in the press of Biographical Memoirs of the late Rev. Dr. Joseph Warton, with a selection from his poetical works, and a very extensive literary correspondence between eminent persons, left by him for publication

Professor Scott of Aberdeen is preparing for publication, Elements of Intellectual Philosophy, or an analysis of the powers of the human understanding tending to ascertain the principles of a rational logic.

Dr. James Playfair, Principal of St. Andrew's College, has circulated proposals for printing a complete system of Geography, Ancient and Modern, in six thick 4to. volumes; accompanied with ancient and modern maps, designed to form a separate Atlas. He has been many years engaged in perfecting this great design.

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Of the colonies, planted in the second and subsequent centuries.

THE probable number of mankind at this time was a

bout a hundred and sixty thousand. As the patriarch had been careful to preserve all the useful knowledge of the old world, his posterity were instructed in all the beneficial arts, that had been hitherto discovered. On this account there was no difficulty in sending out colonies.* Shem led his tribe southerly, till he came to a beautiful plain, where he built Damascus, about four hundred miles southwesterly of Nacsivan.+ Other colonies called it the city of Shem, and its popular name, even at present, is Shams. This name, it is true, is frequently supposed to be derived from the worship of the sun, Shemesh, being established there; but, as the town is the most ancient one, that can now be ascertained, except Nacsivan, and was of considerable note before Shem's death, it most probably was named from him. At his new settlement he lived four hundred, and died at the age of six hundred years, having seen his descendents engaged in war with the posterity of his younger brother.

Ham was not content to remain in disgrace at Nacsivan, and he also went southward. The first pitch was at a place, called from him Hamath; but he afterward removed farther

Gen. xi. Peleg was born A. M. 1758, or 102 years after the flood, and was so named, bacause in his days the earth was divided. Gen. v. 25, + See Brooks' gazetteer, Damasc. and Nacsivan.

Vol. II. No. 4

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