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found his power and his commonwealth on the nobler feelings of man.' Discourse, pp. 26, 27.

Again, in another part of his discourse, Mr Du Ponceau observes:

The character of William Penn alone sheds a never-fading lustre upon our history. No other state in the union can boast of such an illustrious founder; none began their social career under auspices so honorable to humanity. Every trait of the life of that great man, every fact and anecdote of those golden times, will be sought for by our descendants with avidity, and will furnish many an interesting subject for the fancy of the novelist, and the enthusiasm of the poet. Ibid. p. 13.

If any thing could induce us to qualify the panegyric here bestowed on the great founder of Pennsylvania, it would be the rare combination of propitious circumstances under which his enterprise was conducted; for, although one of the clearest tokens of a powerful mind is an ability to discern and profit by the favorable occasions that chance may throw in our way, still we should do wrong to attribute entirely to a native energy of soul, those consequences, which flowed in part, at least, from birth, fortune, opportunity, or any other accidental advantages. When, therefore, we advert to the early establishment or speedy growth of Pennsylvania, as redounding to the peculiar glory of William Penn, we ought to consider that he was not, like the primitive settlers of Massachusetts, a fugitive from the justice, or more truly speaking, the injustice of his native country, when that country would scarcely grant the poor boon of obtaining a shelter from ecclesiastical oppression in the wilderness of the west. Born of distinguished parentage and the heir of large possessions; admitted to the familiar converse of one king, and honored with the personal friendship of another; rather conferring a favor on his master, than receiving one from him, in consenting to accept a grant of wild and distant lands, in lieu of a debt due his family from the crown; and, although a persecuted sectarian, yet elevated by that very persecution to the rank and influence of a prophet among his enthusiastic associates in religious faith :-uniting, as he did, all these extraneous advantages with a ready eloquence and unbounded zeal, it would have been extraordinary if he had not effected more, than it was possible to do with the scanty resources of those who planted most of the sister colonies in America.

We do not wish, by these remarks, to be understood as calling in question the merits of a legislator, whom Montesquieu has honored with the title of America's Lycurgus. The keenness of foresight, the sagacity and penetration of judgment, the fertility in inventing and clearness of discernment in applying resources, which the events of his life display, are no less remarkable, than the pure spirit of universal benevolence, which seems to have been the governing principle of all his actions, as it was the leading tenet in his particular views of religion. By steadily adhering to the maxims of gospel charity in the establishment of his commonwealth, he secured it against many of those violent shocks, which at that time threatened the dissolution of some of the older and robuster colonies, especially from the hostility of the savages, over whom, by pacific measures, by kind treatment, probity, and equitable dealing, he gained an ascendancy far more complete than any exhibition of military force could have imparted. It is not strictly true, indeed, which some foreign writers have asserted, that he was the first of the colonists to treat with the savages on an equal footing, and to obtain their lands by honorable purchase; for numerous instances occur, in the history of other colonies, where the same respect was shown to the primeval lords of the soil. Dr Belknap, in his excellent American Biography, observes, that it had been a common thing in New England,' for fifty years before the time of Penn, to make fair and regular purchases of land from the Indians.' But although William Penn did not first set the example of this moderation, he and his followers alone persisted in the practice of it, and thus preserved the goodwill of their savage neighbors, while, in other parts of the country, a different course of conduct on the part of the colonists subjected them to a series of wasteful and vindictive wars, which ended only in the extermination of some of the most powerful among the aboriginal tribes. There is little doubt, for instance, that, if all the colonies had entertained the same ardent love of peace which actuated the settlers of Pennsylvania, our ancestors would have avoided the cruel wars waged against first the Pequot, then the Pokanoket, and afterwards the Penobscot indians, which, for more than a hundred years, were the source of constant apprehension, expense, and suffering to the inhabitants of New England.

The same enlightened spirit of benevolence, which led

Penn to consult his true interest in adopting peaceful means of avoiding the enmity of the savages, dictated the memorable clause in the code of laws drawn up by him for the use of his colony, that all persons living in the province, who confess and acknowledge the one almighty and eternal God to be the creator, upholder, and ruler of the world, and hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and justly in civil society, shall in no wise be molested for their religious persuasion or practice in matters of faith and worship.' The constant assertion of this golden rule of civil society, and that too by one whose life and fortune were devoted to the task of gaining proselytes for that peculiar sect, of which he was the illustrious chief, evinces a liberality of feeling, which, in that age, seldom accompanied a high degree of religious enthusiasm.

The character of William Penn, upon which we have been tempted to pause for a moment, is adduced by Mr Du Ponceau, among other things to the same effect, in illustration and enforcement of his belief, that the colonial history of Pennsylvania affords much to instruct and to please, that is worthy to be handed down to posterity in a less perishable form than the scattered tracts and meagre compilations, in which it is now for the most part recorded; and if Mr Duponceau's zeal in the cause of learning were not so honorably employed in another department of historical research, we might regret, with him, that his age or professional avocations should prevent his becoming the historian of Pennsylvania. That the history of that, as well as of the other colonies, abounds with a variety of striking and curious incidents, we think no one, who is familiar with the old memorials and records of our origin, will be disposed to deny, when he considers the traits of individual daring and national firmness, of private and public virtue, of dignified resolution in suffering, and of noble moderation in prosperity, of which the whole course of our colonial history furnishes unnumbered examples. And we have every reason to express the same hope as to Massachusetts, which Mr Du Ponceau has expressed with respect to Pennsylvania, that the history of our name and race may ere long be rescued from the mouldering records, evanescent pamphlets, and ill-digested abridgments, in which it now lies buried, and be consigned to monuments more worthy of its intrinsic value.

In conclusion, we will only add one more extract from Mr Du Ponceau's discourse, which forcibly illustrates the considerations that we have just now suggested, and would serve as no unfit introduction to the delightful descriptions of scenery and manners in Gertrude of Wyoming.

'Let it not be imagined that the annals of Pennsylvania are not sufficiently interesting to call forth the talents of an eloquent historian. It is true, that they exhibit none of those striking events which the vulgar mass of mankind consider as alone worthy of being transmitted to posterity. No ambitious rival warriors occupy the stage, nor are strong emotions excited by the frequent description of scenes of blood, murder and devastation. But what country on earth ever presented such a spectacle as this fortunate commonwealth held out to view for the space of near one hundred years, realizing all that fable ever invented, or poetry ever sang of an imaginary golden age! Happy country, whose unparalleled innocence already communicates to thy history the interest of romance! Should Pennsylvanians hereafter degenerate, they will not need, like the Greeks, a fabulous Arcadia to relieve the mind from the prospect of their crimes and follies, and to redeem their own vices by the fancied virtues of their forefathers. Pennsylvania once realized what never existed before, except in fabled story. Not that her citizens were entirely free from the passions of human nature, for they were men, and not angels ; but it is certain that no country on earth ever exhibited such a scene of happiness, innocence, and peace, as was witnessed here during the first century of our social existence. I well remember them, those patriarchal times, when simple, yet not inelegant manners prevailed every where among us; when rusticity was devoid of roughness, and polished life diffused its mild radiance around, unassuming and unenvied; when society was free from the constraint of etiquette and parade; when love was not crossed by avarice or pride, and friendships were unbroken by ambition and intrigue. This was the spectacle which Pennsylvania offered even in the midst of the storms of our revolution, and which she continued to exhibit until a sudden influx of riches broke in upon the land, and brought in its train luxury more baneful than war.'

ART. XXIV.—Elements of Interpretation, translated from the Latin of J. A. Ernesti, accompanied with Notes. By Moses Stuart, Professor of Sacred Literature in the Theological Seminary at Andover.

THE Bible, of all books, is most worthy of every effort which can be made to throw light upon its sacred communications, and to convey them with clearness and emphasis to the human mind. The truth of this proposition is too generally admitted to need illustration; and, in point of fact, the Bible has engaged as much of the attention of learned men, in some connexion or other, as perhaps all the other writings which have descended to us from antiquity. Notwithstanding, however, what it deserves, and what has been done, probably no other book has suffered so much, both from the learned and -the unlearned, as the sacred volume. We have reference now more particularly to the pretended principles of interpretation, which have been applied to it, of some of which we shall give a short sketch, in order to show the desirableness of such a work, as that which heads this article.

The mode of interpretation, which was earliest formed into any thing like a system, has been denominated the allegorical, and may be traced back even beyond the days of Philo, who was contemporary with the apostles. If it be not allowable to call Philo the great master of allegorical interpretation, it is only because he found a superior in Origen. But it was not the fault of Philo alone to interpret the scriptures allegorically, it was the fault also of the Jews generally of the age in which he lived. The Jews derived this method of interpretation from the Greeks, and the latter, if we mistake not, must attribute the glory, if so it may be called, of its first introduction among them to the inventive genius of Plato. Although this last named philosopher had been a poet himself in his younger days, yet, owing to his ill success in this vocation, or some other cause, he gradually acquired, not merely a dislike, but apparently a decided antipathy to the whole Parnassian tribe. He excluded them from his ideal republic, and, to rectify the influence of their fictions on the popular belief, he gave an allegorical interpretation to the whole of their mythology. In pursuit of this system, the Jupiter, who, in the estimation of the people, was enthroned on the snowy cliffs of

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