our sex only, many illustrious examples have been added to those recorded in ancient history, of ladies who have been the delight of every circle where polite learning was the theme of conversation, as they have been examples of every domestic virtue in their own families.

While, however, indulging such feelings, while exulting in the emancipation of the female mind from the fetters of prejudice, and the bondage of ignorance, let it be forever recollected, that as a polite and well-informed woman, is the most welcome companion of the intelligent of our sex, a female pedant is in all respects the reverse.

The modesty and amiableness of her character, should ever be considered by a well bred-woman, as ornaments of too valuable a description to give place to the affectation and conceit of scholastic attainments, and it should be her constant study, to avoid an ostentatious display of the decorations of her mind, as a correct taste would direct her to do in those of her person. It must, indeed, be confessed, that in our days, there is less danger than formerly of the occurrence of this evil.

The beneficial alterations that have taken place in the species of learning prosecuted in seminaries of female education, have had the effect of uniting the useful and agreeable.

While the pupil is directed to such branches of study as are calculated not wholly to engross the mind, but to allow her to prepare for the duties in life to which she may be destined; while she is presented with such as may never mar the delicacy of her sentiments, or the softness of her demeanor, but will embellish any situation in society she may be called to occupy; we need have little dread of female pedantry.

Possibly, in a disposition, as a general scheme, not to encourage our amiable friends to attempt the highest flights of scientific attainment, not to involve themselves in laborious efforts to become acquainted with the dead languages, or familiar with all the subtleties

of an abstract philosophy, we may err on the contrary extreme.

We may not sufficiently inculcate the necessity of adhering to what is really useful, and by carelessness in this respect may suffer our young ladies to acquire a fondness for reading of too light and trivial a kind. This is a fault, into which, of all others, the undirected youthful mind is most apt to fall.

On one description of books it feeds, if permitted, with a ruinous avidity. I mean the trash, under the names of novels and romances, which false taste, weak intellects, or depraved dispositions have thrown in such numbers on the world. Instead of the evil of pedantry, these are calculated to seduce the unsettled minds of young persons into the adoption of erroneous and immoral principles, to beget frivolity of disposition, and a dislike of more solid and profitable reading, to encourage false views of life, and frequently to terminate in a disastrous course of conduct.

ELOQUENCE.

Eloquence has ever been the delight of mankind; in all ages, in every climate, and under every form of government, it has possessed an exquisite charm, and borne an irresistible dominion. Over the savage and unlettered bands of America, and the barbarous hordes of the north over the enlightened meetings of the Areopagus and the forum, and the polished legislations of modern Europe and the United States, it has alike exercised a mighty sway. True it is, this exalted science has taken different directions and assumed differ ent forms, as the manners and opinions of men have varied; but still, its internal spirit and nature remain the same. The same soul is required to discern and to be animated by its beauties; and whether the cour age is to be inflamed, the imagination delighted, or the judgment convinced, still while these ends are effected by the use of words, and by the manner in which they are delivered, we must be content to con

sider this medium as eloquence, and to call him by whose powers it is thus successfully directed, an ora

tor.

HINTS ON THE ELOQUENCE OF THE BAR.

There is a uniform mode, or art of pleading in our courts, which is in itself, faulty, and is moreover, a bar to the higher excellencies. You know, before an advocate begins, in what manner he will treat the subject; you anticipate his positiveness, his complete confidence in the stability of his case, his contempt of his opponent, his valuable exaggeration, and the vehemence of his indignation. All these are of course. It is no matter what sort of a face the business assume. If the advocate be all impetuosity, astonishment and indignation on one side, we know he would not have been a whit less impetuous, less astonished or less indignant on the other, had he happened to be retained. It is true this assurance of success, this contempt of an opponent, and dictatorial decision in speaking, are calculated to have effect upon the minds of a jury; and, if it be the business of a counsel to obtain his ends by any means, he is right to adopt them; but the misfortune is, all these things are mechanical, and as much in the power of the opposite counsel as in your own; so that it is not so much who argues best, as who speaks last, loudest, and longest.

True eloquence, on the other hand, is confident only when there is real ground for confidence; trusts more to reasoh and facts than to imposing declamation, and seeks rather to convince than to dazzle.— The obstreperous rant of a pleader may, for a while, intimidate a jury; but plain, manly argument, deliv ered in a candid and ingenuous manner, would gain the confidence of a jury, and would find the avenue of their hearts much more open than a man of mɔre assurance, who by too much confidence where there is much doubt, and too much vehemence where there is greater need of coolness, puts his hearers continually

in mind that he is pleading for hire. There seems to me so much beauty in truth, that I could wish our barristers would make a difference between cases, in their opinion, well or ill founded; embarking their whole heart and soul in the one, and contenting themselves with a perspicuous and forcible statement of their client's case in the other.

ART OF PRINTING.

When we look at the remains of ancient literature that have passed unhurt the ordeal of Gothic barbarism, and reached us untarnished by the gross ignorance of the dark ages; when we recollect the number of literary works that formerly existed and which formed a magnificent monument of Roman and Grecian literature, and at the same time reflect on the endless drudgery, requisite in their formation and compilation, we can never sufficiently admire the prevalency of that taste for science and learning which characterized the ancient republics of Southern Europe; never do sufficient justice to the laborious efforts of the scientific portions of those communities, in raising a fabric of learning and knowledge, the vastness and magnificence of which should dazzle and astonish the imaginations of a future world. Eminent, however, as was the genius, and numerous as were the literary acquirements of such as, in those days were considered men of science, when we reflect upon the absolute impossibility there existed of diffusing the knowledge they possessed through the mass of society, or at least the irremediable inconvenience of communicating a portion of their numerous acquisitions to their more ignorant fellow-citizens, we find those great talents and the superabundance of knowledge they possessed, entirely destitute of that general utility which constitutes the essential importance of learning and science. For what benefit to society can ever result from knowledge, however extensive, if pos sessed solely by a few that are either unable or un

willing to share it with others ?-Who could ever consider the philosopher, that from some obvious reason, was incapable of allowing the world ever to taste the fruits of his labors, a useful or important member of society?

In how important a light then, must we not view a a discovery, that enabled man to scatter the results of his literary researches, with rapidity and equality, among those around him; that rendered all the divisions of a state capable of participating in the knowledge of their superiors; that released the scientific riches of the learned from the narrow limits of their closets and empowered them to spread free and unconfined but by the bounds of society itself.

View the art of printing in whatever light fancy may dictate, and we find it equally useful and important. Whether connected with civil government, religion or literature, it is to mankind of similar utility. To enumerate and demonstrate the dangers of despotism and make generally known the point at which the divesting of man of his natural liberty, when becoming a member of a civilized community, should with propriety stop; to infuse into the soul suitable ideas of our Creator's excellence, and expand the mind by a knowledge of his omnipotence and infinitude, and to 16 pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind," are in the end equally beneficial to society, and are among the many important advantages of which as rapid and effectual conveyance to the world in general, and the va rious classes of society in particular, has been primarily derived from the invention of printing.

GEOGRAPHY.

Perhaps there is no science, which blends more intimately the pleasing with the useful, than that which makes us acquainted with the figure and the laws of motion of the globe, which we inhabit; together with the relative position, and natural and artificial boundaries of the continents, countries, islands, seas, rivers,