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Uebersicht aller bekannten Sprachen und ihrer Dialekte. 128

ART. X.-The Life of Pitt.

Memoirs of the life of the Right Honorable William Pitt.

By George Tomline D. D. F. R. S. Lord Bishop of Win-

chester, and prelate of the most noble order of the garter. 144

ART. XI.-Report upon Weights and Measures.

Report upon Weights and Measures. By John Quincy

Adams, Secretary of State of the United States. Pre-

pared in obedience to a resolution of the Senate of the

third of March 1817.

ART. XII.-The New York Canals.

1. Public documents relating to the New York canals,

which are to connect the western and northern lakes

with the Atlantic ocean; with an introduction. Printed

under the direction of the New York corresponding

association for the promotion of internal improvements.

2. History of the rise, progress, and existing condition of

the western canals in the state of New York, from Sep-

tember 1788 to the completion of the middle section of

the Grand Canal, in 1819; together with the rise, pro-

gress, and existing state of modern agricultural societies

on the Berkshire system, from 1807 to the establishment

of the Board of Agriculture in the state of New York,

Jauuary 10, 1820. By Elkanah Watson.

3. A vindication of the claim of Elkanah Watson Esq. to

the merit of projecting the lake canal policy, as created

by the canal act of March 1792. And also a vindication

of the claim of the late Gen. Schuyler to the merit of

drawing that act, and procuring its passage through the

legislature. By Robert Troup Esq.

ART. XIII.-Hale's Dissertations.

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

No. XXXIV.

NEW SERIES, No. IX.

JANUARY 1822.

ART. I.—Poems by James G. Percival. 12mo, pp. 346. New Haven, 1821.

Ir happens to almost all men of superior talents, to have made an essay at poetry, in early life. Whatever direction be finally forced upon them, by strong circumstances or strong inclination, there is a period after the imagination is awakened, and the affections are excited, and before the great duties and cares of life begin, when almost all men of genius write a few lines, in the shape of a patriotic song, a sonnet by Julio in the magazine, or lines to some fair object. This is the natural outlet and expression of youthful enthusiasm and warmth; and young men are poetical at the same age and for the same reasons, that they are apt to be flighty in their characters, and imprudent in their conduct. Poetry of this kind is a little intellectual dissipation, which calls up a blush on the cheek of the veteran in some profession, after a twenty years' recollection, as a youthful foible is also remembered with regret; but neither the sin of morals nor of taste is set down among the unpardonable. Certain forward young men moreover try their hand at almost every thing. Not that they have no prevailing taste, which will finally disclose itself for some one pursuit; and not because they are even now incapable of confining themselves to a manly choice of an occupation; but, like the generous ancients, they feel a lively interest in all the efforts of the understanding; and so when their zeal happens New Series, No. 9.

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to be excited by passion within, or nature without, or patriotic spirit, or any occasional impulse, it bursts out in poetry. Plato wrote verses when he was a young man, and wrote poetry always; but he had the discretion to burn his verses, and has raised his poetry to a higher strain, than any mere inspiration of the muse, by the admixture of a sublime philosophy. Cicero wrote poetry, but unluckily for his reputation he did not imitate Plato's example; and some of his verses have survived and betrayed themselves to the world. As a general rule, young men ought to be counselled to take Plato and not Cicero for their model on this occasion, and to commit carefully to the flames all this first species of poetry. Even if they have a strong poetical genius, it will rarely happen that these first flights will do it justice. If Virgil wrote the little pieces, which bear his name Virgil, who in the severity of his judgment condemned the Eneid to the flames-what would be his mortification, could he return to life, to find the Culex, and the Copa, and the Moretum extant? Lord Byron would gladly have toiled many busy days to have redeemed his Hours of Idleness from the world's knowledge. The difficulty is, that this youthful poetry, which is very creditable to the young men and women who write it, which fills up a corner handsomely in a newspaper, helps on the periodical dulness of a magazine, and is a treasure to the happy album, which can` boast of something original, is in reality a very different thing from that other native poetry, that sixth sense of the mind, that quicker perception, deeper thought, stronger feeling, prophetic warmth, vaster comprehension, and more glowing and expressive utterance, with which it is sometimes injuriously confounded. That it is different, witness all the corpuses of ancient and modern days, melancholy thesauruses of minor poets, (a phrase that commits suicide in its terms) sets of works in scores of volumes, containing under the sacred name of the Poets of a language, authors and the works of authors, of which the memory, the tradition would else be lost. These all thought themselves poets in their day. In the morning of life, their feelings were keen and lively. Well bred and well educated young men, they thought delicately on all subjects, and commanded a good flow of words out of the best books they had read; and when they had wrought up this cheap material into couplets and stanzas, and procured it the admiration of their friends and mistress, and accumulated it to a

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