the mentioning in the invention of such an excellent and uncom. mon instrument. Any person that will take the trouble of reading these letters, will there have more than aral tradition for the perfection of Mr. Godfrey's invention.

"Let Mr. Ludlam read these letters with the candour and impartiality of a gentleman and then do justice to the character of Mr. Godfrey, whom he thinks "not worth naming after Hadley;" nor call it a ridiculous vanity that I have presumed with many others, to differ from him in judgment, when it is supported by better evidence than he can pretend to in this matter. It is allowed by all that Mr. Hadley had the honour of making some alterations in the original construction of that instrument: and he may be an inventor of it too, for any thing that I know. But when we consider the mutilated form in which one of Mr. Logan's letters is printed in the Philosophical Transactions, and the silence with respect to the other, which was written two years before, and which contains a particular and minute account of the construction; together with its being shown at Jamaica to a master of a ship just going to England-these things render it very probable that justice has not been done to Mr. Godfrey. Therefore, although the instrument has very generally borne the name of Hadley, Mr. Ludlam must allow others the liberty of entertaining their doubts about the justice and propriety of that denominatiou.

"I dispute not but the great Sir Isaac Newton might have been the first inventor in point of time; but this much is certain, that the world was nothing the better for that discovery of his, until the instrument was invented and constructed by Mr. Godfrey; from which time it became of general utility to mankind.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

ANECDOTES CONNECTED WITH THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

In the year 1774, Mr. Quincy of Boston, at the instigation of the patriots of that day, embarked for England, with a view to observe the measures of the British cabinet, and promote the efforts of the colonists, in the great struggle, which was about to commence. He died on his voyage home, a short time before the bat

tle of Lexington. The following anecdotes are from a journal which was found among his papers.

COL. BARRE.

Extract from a letter to Joseph Reed, Esq. of Philadelphia.

"2d January 1775. While at Bath, viewing the most magnificently elegant new rooms, in company with Col. Barré, he pointed to the pictures taken from ruins found at Herculaneum, and said; "I hope you have not the books containing the draughts of those ruins with you?" I replied, "There was one set I believed in the public library at our college." "Keep them there," said he, " and they may be of some service as a matter of curiosity for the speculative, but let them get abroad and you are ruined. They will infuse a taste for buildings and sculpture; and when a people get a taste for the fine arts, they are ruined. 'Tis taste that ruins whole kingdoms. 'Tis taste that depopulates whole nations. I could not help weeping when I surveyed the ruins at Rome. All the remains of the Roman grandeur are of works which were finished when Rome and the spirit of Romans were no more, unless I except the ruins of the Emilian baths. Mr. Quincy, let your countrymen beware of taste in their buildings, equipage, and dress, as a deadly poison." Colonel Barré also added in the course of conversation, “About fourteen or fifteen years ago, I was through a considerable part of your country; for in the expedition against Canada, my business called me to pass by land through Pennsylvania, New Jersey, York and Albany; and when I returned again to this country, I was often speaking of America, and could not help speaking well of its climate, soil and inhabitants; for you must know, sir, America was always a favourite with me. But will you believe it, sir, yet I assure you it is true, more than two thirds of this island at that time, thought the Americans were all negroes." ."* I replied, "I did not in the least doubt it; for if I was to judge by the late acts of parliament, I should suppose that a majority of the people of Great Britain still thought so, for I

* Dr. Ewing, of this city, being on a visit to Edinburgh about this time, was invited by Dr. Robertson, the historian, to preach for him. A great crowd was collected on the occasion, the people expecting to behold an Indian! ED. P. F.

found that their representatives still treated them as such." He smiled, and the discourse dropped. The colonel was among those who voted for the Boston port-bill."

DR. FRANKLIN.

On the 8th Feb. 1775, Lord Chatham brought into the House of Lords the outlines of a bill, respecting the "troubles in America," which occasioned much discussion. Lord Dartmouth said that it contained matter of such magnitude, that he hoped the noble earl would be willing it should lie on the table for consideration. Lord Chatham answered, "I expect no more." Upon this Lord Sandwich rose, and in a petulant peevish manner, opposed its being received at all: he said, it ought immediately to be rejected with the contempt it deserved:-that he could not believe it to be the production of any British peer: that it appeared to him to be the work of some Americau. Here turning himself round toward Dr. Franklin, who was leaning on the bar, he added, that he fancied he had in his eye the person who drew it up, one of the bitterest and most mischievous enemies this country had ever known. In reply to this, Lord Chatham declared the Bill to be entirely his own, but that he had no scruple to add, that if he were the first minister of the country, and had the care of settling this momentous business, he should not be ashamed of publicly calling to his assistance a person so perfectly acquainted with the whole of the American affairs as the gentleman alluded to and so injuriously reflected on. One whom all Europe held in high estimation for his knowledge and wisdom, and ranked with the Boyles and the Newtons-a man who was an honour not only to the English nation but to human nature!

RESISTANCE AGAINST USURPATION.

Somebody once asked the celebrated John Selden, in what law book, in what state or archives, a law for resisting tyranny night be found. "I do not know," replied he, "whether it is worth while to look deeply into the books upon this matter; but I'll tell you what is most certain, that it has always been the custom of England, and the custom of England is the law of the land."

ing been related, as we learn from Mr. Quincy's Journal, by Lord Camden in one of those addresses to the House of Lords, in which the learning and eloquence of this venerable peer were combined to assert the cause of American liberty.

We shall feel ourselves obliged by the communication of other journals and letters that have any relation to our Revolution. They ought to be preserved from oblivion.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF CRITICISM.

FROM THE GERMAN OF SCHLEGEL.

WE see numbers of men, and even whole nations, so much fettered by the habits of their education and modes of living, that they cannot shake themselves free from them even in the enjoyment of the fine arts. Nothing to them appears natural, proper, or beautiful, which is foreign to their language, their manners, er their social relations. In this exclusive mode of seeing and feeling, it is no doubt possible, by means of cultivation, to attain a great nicety of discrimination in the narrow circle within which they are limited and circumscribed. But no man can be a true critic or connoisseur, who does not possess a universality of mind, who does not possess the flexibility, which, throwing aside all personal predilections and blind habits, enables him to transport himself into the peculiarities of other ages and nations, to feel them as it were from their proper central point; and, what ennobies human nature, to recognize and respect whatever is beautiful and grand under those external modifications which are necessary to their existence, and which sometimes even seem to disguise them. There is no monopoly of poetry for certain ages and nations; and consequently that despotism in taste, by which it is attempted to make those rules universal which were at first perhaps arbitrarily established, is a pretension which ought never to be allowed. Poetry, taken in its widest acceptation, as the power of creating what is beautiful, and representing it to the eye or the ear, is a universal gift of heaven, which is even shared to a certain ex

tent by those whom we call barbarians and savages. Internal excellence is alone decisive, and where this exists we must not allow ourselves to be repelled by external appearances.

Every thing must be traced up to the root of our existence: if it has sprung from thence, it must possess an undoubted worth; but if, without possessing a living germ, it is merely an external appendage, it can never thrive nor acquire a proper growth. Many productions which appear at first sight dazzling phenomena in the province of the fine arts, and which as a whole have been honoured with the appellation of works of a golden age, resemble the mimic gardens of children: impatient to witness the work of their hands they break off here and there branches and flowers, and plant them in the earth; every thing at first assumes a noble appearance; the childish gardener struts proudly up and down among his elegant beds, till the rootless plants begin to droop, and hang down their withered leaves and flowers, and nothing soon remains but the bare twigs, while the dark forest, on which no art or care was ever bestowed, and which towered up towards heaven long before human remembrance, bears every blast unshaken, and fills the solitary beholder with religous awe.

Let us now think of applying the idea which we have been developing, of the universality of true criticism, to the history of poetry and the fine arts. We generally limit it, although there may be much which deserves to be known beyond this circle) as we limit what we call universal history to whatever has had a nearer or more remote influence on the present cultivation of Europe: consequently to the works of the Greeks and Romans, and of those of the modern European nations, who first and chiefly distinguished themselves in art and literature. It is well known that, three centuries and a half ago, the study of ancient literature, by the diffusion of the Grecian language, (for the Latin was never extinct,) received a new life: the classical authors were sought after with avidity, and made accessible by means of the press; and the monuments of ancient art were carefully dug up and preserved. All this excited the human mind in a powerful manner, and formed a decided epoch in the history of our cultivation; the fruits have extended to our times, and will extend to a period beyond the power of our calculation. But the study of the ancients was im