its severity, even were there much more occasion for it, than we find in this work. From its nature, such a work must be capable of improvement; and, should the life of the author be prolonged, as we hope it may be many years, a future edition will no doubt receive them. Embracing a multitude of detached articles of various matter, length, and interest, this compilation does not demand a systematic or detailed review. We can only point the reader to certain articles of prominent value, as indicating the usefulness of the work, and the fidelity and ability of its compiler. Óf this class will be found particularly interesting, (especially as they show in how signal a manner many of the most remarkable prophecies have been fulfilled,) Noph, Jerusalem, Babyton and Tyre. In other views, the articles, Arabia, Egypt, Israelites, Palestine, Promise, land of, Bethlehem, Canaan, Carmel, are fraught with much entertaining and useful matter, condensed within a small compass, and expressed in a perspicuous style. As a fair specimen of the manner, in which this work is executed, we give the author's description of Ephesus. "EPHESUS, & celebrated city of Ionia, in Asia Minor, situated upon the river Cayster. Among heathen authors, this city was much noted for its famous temple of Diana, which for its extent and workmanship, was accounted one of the seven wonders of the world. It is said to have been 425 feet long, 220 broad, and to have been supported by 127 pillars of marble, 70 feet high, of which 27 were most curiously wrought and all the rest polished. The famous architect who contrived the model employed so mh art and curiosity, that it took up two hundred years, or as some histories say 400 years, before it was finished, though it was built at the common VOL. IX. "Here St. Paul wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians. Ephesus, above all other places in the world, was noted of old for the study of Magic, and all secret and hidden arts, insomuch that the Ephesian letters, so often spoken of by the ancients, which were certain obscure mystical spells or charms, by which they endeavored to heal diseases, and drive away evil spirits, seem to have been first invented in this city. Certain Jews who took upon them devil, for which they were to have money, to exorcise persons, possessed with a having one day performed this office, in the name of Jesus Christ, the possessed ed them, and scarce suffered them to esfell on them, tore off their clothes, wound cape alive. This accident frightened the inhabitants, Jews and Gentiles; and several persons addicted to mystical arts, publicly burnt their books relating to such subjects, the value of which amounted to about 7,000 dollars, or according to other calculations, to 27,777. Acts xix, 14. "The apostle in the last journey, which he made to Rome, took Ephesus again in his way, and while he was a prisoner at Rome, being informed that the Christians at Ephesus stood firm in the faith, he wrote an Epistle to them, which, Mr. Locke observes, is not written in the for mal way of reasoning and argumentation, but is all, as it were, in a rapture, in a style, far above the plain didactic method. "Aquila and Priscilla, with whom St. Paul lodged at Corinth came thence with him to Ephesus, and made some stay there, Acts xviii, 2, 3, 8. Apollos, likewise, came and preached there; and the apostle St. John, passed a great part of his life at Ephesus, and died there, when Timothy was made first bishop of Ephesus by the apostle, who laid his hands on him. "Of this famous city nothing but ruins now remain. Of the temple of Diana nothing is to be seen, but a few broken pillars. The lofty church of St. John is converted to a Mahometan mosque. Its largest pillar is twelve feet in circuit; this church yet lifts up its head in mournful dignity over surrounding cottages and ruins. In every walk the traveller stumbles over broken columns, subverted temples and palaces. The whole town con 63 Dr. tains only 40 or 50 families of Turks, who are herdsmen and farmers, living in low cottages of dirt, covered on the top with earth and sheltered from the extremity of the weather by mighty masses of ruinous walls, the pride and ostentation of former days, and in these, the emblems of the frailty and transient vanity of human glory. This handful of miserable outcasts is all which remains of the immense pop. ulation of Ephesus. Here is not a single Christian family to invoke the name of Jesus. So dreadful an evil it is for professors "to forsake their first love, and not to remember whence they have fallen, and repent." Literally has Christ fulfilled his threatening, against this church, "Thy candlestick shall be removed out of his place," Rev. ii. The description of an eye witness must be interesting. Chandler says, The inhabitants are a few Greek peasants, living in extreme wretchedness, dependence, and insensibility; the representatives of an illustrious people, inhabiting the wreck of their greatness, under the walls of the glorious edifices which they raised, and some beneath the vaults of the stadium, once the crowded scene of their diversions, and some by the abrupt precipice, in the sepulchres which received their ashes. Its streets are obscured and overgrown. A herd of goats was driven to it for shelter from the sun at noon, and a noisy flight of crows from the quarries seemed to insult its silence. We heard the partridge call in the area of the theatre. The glorious pomp of its heathen worship is no longer remembered, and Christianity, which was here nursed by apostles, and fostered by general councils, until it increased to fulness of stature, barely lingers on, in an existence hardly visible. This city was celebrated for the worship of Diana, her image supposed by them to have fallen down from heaven, was small and of wood, but very georgeously attired; each hand was supported by a bar of gold, and a veil from the ceiling concealed it, except when the service required it should be visible. So sacred was this temple, that the im mense treasures were secure for many ages. But we now seek in vain for the temple itself; the city is prostrate, and the goddess is gone. Ephesus had a good har bor, on a gulf of the same name, 40 miles south from Symrna, long. 27, 58 E. lat. 37, 48 N. Ricaut, Newton, Thevenot, Wells." The work is well printed, on a large type, and illustrated with a handsome Map of the principal countries mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures. We recommend this volume to all who love the Sacred Scrip. tures, to heads of families, and the young particularly, as a useful interpreter of many obscure texts, and as comprising, in a compass within the limits of their finances the parts of Sacred Geography most valuable and interesting to them, which before lay scattered in many scarce and very expensive volumes. LIV. The Columbiad, a Poem. By JOEL BARLOW. pp. xvi and 454. 4to. Price 20 Dolls. Printed by Fry & Kammerèr for C. & A. Conrad & Co., Philadelphia; Conrad, Lucas, & Co., Baltimore. Philadel phia. 1807. SEVERAL years ago we prepar ed materials for a review of this poem, but have never before had a convenient opportunity to insert one. As we have lately issued two numbers of the Panoplist a month, we have it now in our power without excluding other articles on hand, to publish what has so long been delayed. These remarks, we are aware, have the aspect of an apology for publishing the review at all. To some of our readers it appears, that we are stepping out of our proper limits, whenever we admit into our pa ges any articles not strictly religious. But do such persons reflect, that most works of a literary nature have either a salutary or mischievous tendency, in a religious point of view? This is the case, especially, with works of imagination. Productions of this class have generally been among the most powerful corruptors of the human race, Often have we are they been the vehicles of all that is detestable in spurious morals, and all that is impious in false religion. A particular attention to the poem before us, in reference to its moral and religious tendency, will, unless mistaken, afford much instruction to the genuine philosopher and the contemplative Christian It will exhibit, in a striking point of view, the weakness and fatuity of the human intellect, when so far debased as to rely on the most childish and absurd hypothesis in opposition to revelation; and so blinded as to grope in the total darkness of Atheism, denying the existence of the Sun of Righteousness, and the light which shines from heaven. Reviewers are often desirous of passing their sentence on a work immediately after its appearance, lest the decision of the public should anticipate their own. But in regard to Mr. Barlow's poem, though our remarks upon it have been long withheld, we are well convinced that few persons indeed have formed any opinion respecting it from their own perusal. After much inquiry we found one gentleman, who had actually read it through; not, if we recollect aright, from any interest which he found in the work as a poem; but merely that he might understand the various philosophical and atheistical dogmas which it was the great object of the writer to inculcate. It appears, also, that several reviewers, in the prosecution of their arduous Jabors, have persevered in the examination of this poem from beginning to end. But to the great mass of the readers of En glish poetry, it is now, and will ever remain, as utterly unknown as the Ramayuna of Valmeeki, or any other Hindoo rhapsody. We propose now to give a regular abstract of the work before us. The first book opens with the subject, and an invocation to freedom Columbus is introduced in prison. He recapitulates the principal events of his past life in a soliloquy, and prays to the departed spirit of his patroness, Isabella. Suddenly his dungeon is illuminated, and Hesper, the brother of Atlas, appears by the side of his couch, and kindly addresses him. Hesper introduces himself as the guardian power of the western world, as having formed that world, and directed Columbus to the discovery of it-and predicts the future fame of the favorite navigator. The chains fall from Columbus, and he walks forth with his supernatural instructor, and ascends a high mountain, which overlooks Europe. America rises to his view. Hesper gives a geographical account of the western continent, which occupies about two thirds of the book. This account is in some parts lively; though deformed with a ridiculous description of a conflict between the Amazon and Sire Ocean, and another between the St. Lawrence and Frost. Book II. Columbus observes the savages of America-inquires into their nature and character, and whether they had a common origin with the Europeans. Hesper, in reply, enters upon a long philosophical discussion, which must have been dull enough to the hardy sailor. Part of it we shall quote in a sub sequent page. Columbus inquires how the western world was peopled. Hesper replies, that storms drove some nautical adventurers from Europe across the Atlantic, and wandering tribes passed Behren's straits that, after the continent was peopled, cities rose. He points out Mexico and the court of Montezuma-and predicts the cruelties of Cortes-changes the scene to Peru-tells the story of Capac and Oella, the great civil izers of the savage inhabitants. Capac, it seems, first conceived the idea of improving the state of the natives by the cultivation of the arts of peace--he proposes to his wife, Oella, to set up for demigods, pretend to be the children of the sun, travel south ward to Peru, demand divine worship, and exercise a salutary control over the ignorant and adoring multitudes. Very opportunely, Qella had learned to spin cotton and make it into white garments. They sat out on their journey; their project succeed. ed; they wrought miracles; the natives received them as gods, submitted to their sway, abandoned their former cruel religious rites, and worshipped only the sun, and them as his children. Book III. The story of Capac is continued. He sends his eldest son, Rocha, on an embassy to the neighboring savages who threatened war. The youth converts them to the worship of the sun by kindling a fire with a concave mirror, which reflected the solar rays upon dried leaves. Rocha and his companions are seized by more furious tribes. His particular friends, who had been his attendants, are sacrificed to the gods of the Andes; but he is almost miraculously delivered by his father, just as he was about to expire on an al tar. Book IV. A view of the state of Europe in times immediately succeeding those of Columbus, the colonization of America➡ and a brief prophetical view of the future history of this country. Books V, VI, and VII, are occupied with the details of American history, especially of the These derevolutionary war. tails are interspersed with various clumsy fictions, which, instead of enlivening the narration, render it intolerably wearisome. There is, also, a superabundance of philosophical phraseology, of which, however, the ninth book affords the choicest specimens. Book VIII is a political disquisition on the blessings of peace, the means of securing them, the evils of African slavery, and the advantages of commerce, science, and the arts. It closes with a description of Americans, distinguished by their scientific attainments, or by their progress in the arts of painting and poetry. Book IX is the most wonderful part of the poem. Hesper gives the genealogy of the universe, which we shall take occasion to examine somewhat particularly. He also gives a history of man from the time that nature produced him out of the mud, through "countless ages" till he learnt to talk, build, write, &c. down to the days of Columbus. To this outline he adds, in answer to the inquiries of Columbus, the reasons for believing, that man will advance in knowl edge and happiness, and not relapse into barbarism. The poem closes with a description of a grand political millennium, which will exist, when men shall have become wise enough to abstain from war, and commit the interests of the world to a federal Congress. This august body will assemble in Egypt, and manage the affairs of the whole human race with integrity and wisdom. The tenth and last book is principally occupied in detailing the preparations for this great consummation. Having presented the reader with the foregoing abstract, we proceed to examine the merits and demerits of this work, both as an exibition of genius and taste, and in regard to its moral tendency. It is evident that the author thought highly of his poem in both these points of view. Critics have uttered many oracular sayings, and clashed not a little with each other, in reference to the great moral, which they suppose Homer to have inculcated; but Mr. Barlow is determined that nothing shall be left to the sagacity of the future critic, so far as his great design is concerned. He explains, in his preface and notes, his object, his meaning, and his own judg ment of the poem; and enforces in prose all the doctrines which he had developed in verse. following passage from the preface gives us his views of the plan of the poem. The "I shall enter into no, discussion on the nature of the epopea, nor attempt to prove by any latitude of reasoning that I have written an Epic poem. The subject indeed is vast; far superior to any one of those on which the celebrated poems of this description have been constructed; and I have no doubt but the form I have given to the work is the best that the subject would admit. It may be added, that in no poem are the unities of time, place and action more rigidly observed: the action, in the technical sense of the word, consisting only of what takes place between Co. lumbus and Hesper; which must be supposed to occupy but few hours, and is vision." confined to the prison and the mount of After stating, that a narrative poem should have a poetical and a moral object, and describing the poetical object of the Columbiad, the author proceeds thus: "But the real object of the poem em, braces a larger scope: it is to inculcate the love of rational liberty, and to discountenance the deleterious passion for violence and war; to show that on the basis of the republican principle all good morals, as well as good government and hopes of permanent peace, must be founded; and to convince the student in political science that the theoretical question of the future advancement of human society, till states as well as individuals arrive at universal civil ization, is held in dispute and still unsettled only because we have had too little experience of organized liberty in the government of nations to have well considered its effects." Preface, Every person accustomed to weigh language, especially the language of modern philosophers, can hardly mistake the nature of the above described ob ject. If all good morals, and permanent peace, are to spring good government, and hopes of from the republican principie, what need is there of religion? An attentive perusal of the poem will convince any impartial reader, that the design of the author was to decry and explode religion of every kind, and in every form, as a mischievous intruder upon the happiness of men; and to teach us his deliberate and solemn opinion, that men should never look for happiness beyond the present life, and should rely, for the attainment of it here, upon what he |