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State, to Jack the Ostler, at " a true Kentucky Inn," some striking circumstance to illustrate his reasonings, or to enforce his deductions. But we have been struck with some few exceptions, where our Philosopher, departing from his usual caution and circumspection, draws very broad conclusions, from what, we apprehend will be deemed very narrow premises. Thus, for example, he learns of "a gentleman living close by Cincinnati, and whe has built an excellent brick house," that in digging a well, he found sixty feet below the surface of the earth a stump of a tree, which had been cut down with an axe. "The incisions of the axe were perfectly visible, and the chips made by its action lay scattered about its roots."

Now, Mr. Ashe infers from the preceding fact no less than,

1. "That the tree was undoubtedly antediluvian.

2. "That the river called the Ohio, did not exist anterior to the deluge, inasmuch, as the remains of the tree, were found firmly rooted in their original position, several feet below the bed of the river.

3. "That America was peopled before the flood, as appears from the action of the axe, and the cutting down of the tree.

4. "That the Antediluvian Americans were acquainted with the use and properties of iron, of the advantage and knowledge of which the flood deprived their descendants, and from which it would appear that the same flood swept off every individual, from whom that knowledge might be derived."

That the continent of America was once inhabited by a race of people, who at a very remote era, but subsequent to the deluge, had made so small advancement in the arts of civilization, is another very favourite and predominent notion with Mr. Ashe, and to substantiate it, he calls all his industry into requisition, and sometimes too, if we be not much deceived, tasks the utmost exertion of his inventive powers.

In support of this position, he displays a series of "ancient relics," brought to light for the most part by his own patient and laborious researches. Indeed, the praise of original and peculiar discovery belongs eminently to Mr. Ashe. We doubt whether his pretensions in this respect will ever be denied. As yet, we have heard of no one, who has even been so successful as to see any one of the objects which he has described, much less to dispute his claim to its discovery.

Dispersed throughout the Western States, and particularly in Kentucky, he traced, he says, with exactness, the remains of

"Fortified Camps," which bear evidence of having been constructed with the skill and science of a Vauban or a Carnot; and of their remote antiquity, he alleges, there can be no doubt, as trees of an enormous size, some exceeding sixteen feet in circumference, have since grown up within them.

Near to Lexington, he also found the vestiges of an old Indian town, which must have been of great extent, and magnificence, as is fully evinced by the wide range of its circumvallatory walls, &c."

Of the ruins of this Western Palmyra, that which struck us with the most astonishment is a catacomb of masterly workmanship, and stupendous dimensions.

We wish for the sake of those of our readers, whose "gloomy habits of soul," might relish these sepulchral Tales, that our limits would allow us to extract the description of " this deep and am· ple repository of the dead."

In the "whole State of Kentucky" there is only one catatomb to be seen. But mounds, barrows, mausolea, and tumuli, all of the "olden time," and of the same matured style of architecture, he finds in every direction:

"Thick as the autumnal leaves that strew the brooks in Vallambrosa."

In the vicinity of Marietta, he had the further good fortune to dig out of the earth, the "visible remains of the stone abutments of a bridge," which in ancient times undoubtedly extended across the adjoining creek.

We have, moreover, mention made of two "curious relics," which Mr. Ashe never saw, but heard described by a "learned Doctor," in whom he reposed implicit confidence.

The first, is a green spherical stone, twelve inches in every diameter, divided into twelve sides, each side into twelve equal parts, and each part distinguished by characteristic engravings."

The nature and uses of the stone, he tells us, defied the conjectures of the most profound and ingenious. Nor could he get any certain information of what "had become of this beautiful object so interesting to science, and the history of former times." Report placed it in the Cabinet of Arts in Philadelphia. Suspecting that this might be the Philosopher's Stone, and therefore never to be found, we have been deterred from all inquiries respecting it.

The second, is an "Ivory Image elegantly executed, denoting a Female Figure in the act of pressing a child to her naked bosom."

Unhappily before Mr. Ashe arrived at the place where the image was found, "though he hurried with perturbation and anxiety," it had been forwarded to Mr. Jefferson. The disappointment, however, he the less regrets, as he has "no doubt that a communication on the subject will be speedily made to the American Philosophical Society."

After appropriating a few weeks, thus actively, to the investigation of American Antiquities, in which short interval, it must be confessed, that he saw, and did more, than all the people of the country from its earliest settlement to the present hour, our Traveller reembarks for New Orleans, the ultimate point of his destination. There is little in the subsequent part of his work which, in any respect, deserves to be noticed. He glides rapidly down the stream, hardly pausing long enough to tell even an amusing story.

We have, it is true, an account of a cavern on the banks of the Ohio, which at different periods has been used as the refuge of a tribe of Indians, from the persecutions of the whites, and as the abode of a Banditti, who robbed and murdered with indiscriminate violence all whom they met in their fell career, concealing their carcasses in its dark recesses. Notwithstanding the care and labour bestowed on the description of this cave, we still feel no disposition to copy it, as we are persuaded that most of our readers are familiar with the fancy paintings of the same subject of another school which, with a closer adherence to truth and nature, have far more brightness of colouring, and vigour of delineation.

We omit, nearly for the same reason, the particulars of what is said of the "clouds of musketoes which literally darkened the air, and of the hosts of alligators, that roared like thunder," neither story being quite new, nor half so miraculous as those about the same animals, in the travels of Weld and Bartram! Indeed, we discern, most manifestly, that the imagination of our traveller flags from the moment of his quitting Kentucky. It seems to have been exhausted on " American Antiquities." For his soul he cannot get up a " Tale of Wonder." The highest efforts of his creative powers, is "a whirlpool in the Mississippi, where boats are swallowed, and then vomited up again;" and a "land

Terrapin of sixty pounds weight, whose snapping might be heard a hundred yards."

We cannot take leave of Mr. Ashe, without expressing our entire contempt both of himself and his book. He appears to us, and we speak on no slender authority, to be one of those European malecontents, who either to escape from the wholesome discipline of their government, or allured by the love of change, and the prospect of successful adventure, emigrate to us with the most delusive expectations, which being disappointed, return home to redeem their patriotism, and assuage their mortification by the most illiberal, rancorous, and malignant abuse of our country, and its institutions.

The work contains nothing to instruct, and little to amuse any description of readers, and that little is produced at the expense of the author's candour and veracity.

C.

THE SCRIBBLER, NO. II.FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

THOSE who write without affording any pleasure except to themselves may be aptly distinguished by the name of Scribblers, but what name shall we confer on those who read with the same limited effects; without being inclined or enabled by their reading to please or benefit others?

Between those who trifle with books and those who trifle with the pen there is, indeed, an intimate connexion: some laborious or frivolous readers are generally extremely prone to commit the fruits of their studies to paper. If they cannot add anything absolutely new to the stock of knowledge, they imagine that they can, at least, bestow a more agreeable, intelligible, and convenient form on what is current. Whatever suggests itself originally, and by the force of our own reflections to our minds, strikes us with peculiar force and vividness, and we cannot help fancying that we do injustice to the world in withholding from them these luminous and happy views which have so much delighted ourselves. As to the intrinsic value of the subject, or the interest which it is likely to excite, we cannot admit that any topic is frivolous which engages our own attention, and that others may not reasonably and laudably be pleased with what pleases us. There are some indeed who are not seduced by this error, and whom a just acquaintance with mankind enables to perceive that the source of our interest in any intellectual inquiry or pursuit, has no connexion with its genuine importance or

utility; but the number of such dispassionate readers, of those who despise while they love, and undervalue while they seek, is, I am afraid, very small. Very few, indeed, are those who would not write on what they read, if their own slender resources, or the superior caution of printers, did not prevent them. They will not write, if they have no opportunity of publishing their lucubrations.

I am not sure that the state of public curiosity among ourselves which affords no encouragement to anything but political scribbling, be a good or an evil. The surest sign of a scribbler, or of a frivolous or narrow-minded student, is an alacrity in bestowing those names upon others. There are many kinds of reading and branches of study which excite no interest in me, and appear dull or trivial, but I am sure that my favourite walk, would be equally thorny, dreary, and irksome, to some others, as theirs is to me. The pleasures of study are at least more innocent; they lead us less into temptation; are less liable to immoral abuses than any other pleasures: and we shall find that whatever difference there may be in the usefulness, or native grandeur of different sciences, our attachment to our favourite one, originated in some casual, blind, involuntary association, and maintains its power merely through the influence of unconscious habit. It is not quite reasonable or just, therefore, in any man, to censure or regret that state of a nation which affords encouragement to every class of writers, however trivial or worthless they may appear in his eyes, by supplying them with readers whose tastes and inclinations coincide with theirs.

It is a curious subject of inquiry, How far the pleasures arising from different studies may differ in their nature and degree. This inquiry might seem, at first, to be not only curious but useful, since, if the superior usefulness of any pursuit has no effect in gaining votaries to its shrines, and converts to its worship, yet it may be supposed that men will hearken to recommendations built on its superior power of giving pleasure. This, however, is a fallacy. Men by nature or habit are formed to receive pleasure from different objects. The pleasure which one derives from his pursuit may be purer, higher, and more durable than another is able to glean from his field, but the fullest conviction of this, does not endow the latter with a capacity for feasting like the former. One wants the senses, the organs of the other. His neighbour's hands are longer than his, and he therefore plucks the ripest, which are always the highest grapes. The difference between them is radical and incurable, and the discovery, if it be of any consequence, is rather hurtful than beneficial, since it must produce nothing but repining.

But is there any difference, in truth, between the pleasures of different pursuits? The freaks of Archimedes, when he found out a solution for his famous problem, are well known. Kepler, when he suddenly perceived the relative agreement between the squares of the periotlic

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