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AMERICAN SCENERY-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

THE prospects on the Hudson river possess such an infinite variety of character, that it is difficult to groupe, within a single view, their more prominent peculiarities. The author of the annexed picture, in endeavouring to present something like a general idea of the scenery, has chosen a spot about twenty miles above Newyork, in the range of what are called the Palisado Rocks. These commence in the neighbourhood of the town of Bergen, and running along the western bank of the Hudson, terminate at the distance of about forty miles from Newyork, near the upper part of Haverstraw Bay. Their general appearance and character are uniform; they vary in height, from three to five hundred feet; and in their irregularities, present the form

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CRITICISM-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

Exposition of the Transactions relative to the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of Newyork, from its establishment until the assumption of the charter by the Regents of the University. Newyork, 8vo. pp. 44.

WE announce unto thee, gentle reader, no ordinary work. The volume which is now about to pass through the fiery ordeal of our criticism, is not, as usual, the production of some solitary individual; neither is it the fruit of the conjoint labours of any sage confederacy of men of letters; nay, nor even yet, as thou mayest peradventure imagine, the compound offspring of some gentle pair of authors, determined, like Beaumont and Fletcher, to walk together lovingly, arm in arm, down to posterity. But it is the work of a college-or rather of what was a college; for the college alas, is dead, having been cruelly murdered, after a most innocent life (as we are herein repeatedly assured) of only four years, by the ruffian hands of the regents of the university of Newyork; and now its ghost thus appears to tell the sad story of its fate, and to haunt its murderers in the hydra-headed form of a committee of a college, and most amply proves that although "when the brains are out, the man will die," yet the college, par. taking of the nature of the tortoise and other slow and coldblooded animals, can survive, and discharge most of the functions of its nature, long after that disastrous and unpleasant oc

currence.

If, worthy reader, thou hast ever witnessed the malicious joy, the demure ferocity, with which the veteran mouser darts her velvet paw upon the trembling neck of the little full-fed plunderer of the pantry and the stove-room, then mayest thou faintly image to thyself those feelings of sober yet malicious exultation which now swell our breasts at thus, unexpectedly, apprehending a whole college of physicians and surgeons actually trespassing on our literary domain, and within the jurisdiction of this our critical tribunal. We no longer envy our elder brethren of Edinburgh the fame of gallant-daring, so bravely won, in apprehending that ancient and venerable malefactor, the university of Oxford, in spite of her wealth and dignity, and convicting her of the

black arts of logic and prosody. We too have our Oxford before us, and sit in judgment on professors and colleges; and it will be owing only to our own natural gentleness and good-nature, if the M. Ds. of Newyork are treated with one jot more civility and ceremony than the D. Ds. of Oxford. The good Iapis, we are told by Virgil, when he was offered by Apollo the choice of any talent within the gift of the god, was content with that of medicine, and cheerfully gave up all pretensions to literature and authorship.

Ipse suas artes, sua munera lætus Apollo,

Augurium, citharamque dabat,

Ille

Scire potestates herbarum, usumque medendi
Maluit, et mutas agitare inglorius artes.

If the faculty of Newyork are not wise enough to follow this example, and rest satisfied with their own peculiar province, they must even take the consequences and share the fate of humbler and unprivileged authors. But alas, the sober voice of Prudence, which warned them to forbear from this forbidden field, was drowned amid the harsh and dissonant clamours of Discord and Ambition.

Happy, thrice, and four times happy, are ye, worthy citizens of the peaceful town of Penn. Here no pulpit, "drum ecclesiastic," with its doubling thunders interrupts the calm slumbers of your pews, and summons you to the inky field of controversy. Here no factious feuds disturb the gentle sons of Esculapius; but like a band of brothers they go on blistering, bleeding, cupping and scarifying their happy fellow townsmen in love, peace, meekness and humility. Meantime the demon of black Discord hovers aloft over the very centre of fair Newyork, high above the marble walls and wooden cupola of the new city hall, and blows aloud the trump of hell, at whose fell sound, meek pastors and pious elders, grave divines and reverend bishops, rouse themselves to dreadful conflict. The masters of the healing art exchange the lancet for the pen, their mercury for ink, "and all the sons of physic crowd to war." Their cars of death stand empty at the doors of the hospital and the colleges, while the walls within ring with their high and hot debates. The noisy

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