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principal object was the gratification of personal ambition-conquest was the aim of the Republic; the grandest monuments of the commonwealth are the Military Ways, and the roads of Appius, Flaccus, Albinius, and Flaminius, &c. worn as they are with the use of more than twenty centuries, still remain to attest the energy and persevering spirit of their constructors. Of the aqueducts of this period, only portions of the Aqua Martia remain, and Mr. Forsyth seems to be of opinion that the superb arcades which conveyed that water to the Esquiline, are the works of Augustus. The convertibility of the Pagan Temples to the purposes of the Catholic religion has fortunately preserved some of those august edifices from destruction. Of these the Pantheon is the chief. The doors are cased in bronze. The light is admitted through "one large orb" in the centre of the roof, and grand, indeed, in the days of her glory, must have been the interior aspect of the Pantheon, when the splendour of an unclouded and meridian sun beamed into its sanctuary, and shed its perpendicular and diffusive radiance on the divine sculptures that seemed to realise the seductive fables of an enchanting mythology. The tombs of the Servilii, Horatii, and Metelli would, at first, appear to belong to the Republicbut the absence of name, epitaph, and indeed, all mark whatever that can assist us in ascertaining the persons or age to which they belong, will not allow us to form any decisive opinion on their antiquity;-they are situated without the Capena gate, and from the aversion entertained in the early times to which they are ascribed, to inhumation within the walls, it has been too arbitrarily decided that they were raised in the times of the Republic-Another sepulchre (the Cornelian) which has been classed with them, was, however, at length discovered in the heart of the city, a circumstance that, in our opinion, at least neutralises the point. None of the tombs belonging to the republican era, have the names of the buried inscribed upon them, with the exception of Cæcilia Metella's, built by Crassus.

Near the tombs on the Appian Way is a small temple ascribed to the Republic, dedicated to the god Rediculus. It was built of red and yellow brick, and the remains are so fresh that it appears as if it had been destroyed but a short while after its erection. The adhesion also of the materials is so intimate, that "each of its puny pilasters appear like one piece," and the sculpturing of the cornice is executed with a delicacy equal to that of the finest

marble. The minute and lavish ornament of this building, the design of which is remarkably poor, induces the author to refer it to a period at least as late as the reign of Severus; and the same reason operates with respect to a temple on a neighbouring hill, said to have been raised to Honour and Virtue.

Under the emperors architecture was patronised, as it had been under the kings, as an art contributing to the personal fame and splendour of the sovereign. Some of the finest works of this period were raised by the vilest characters that ever disgraced humanity. The baths of Caracalla are among the most extensive and sumptuous of the imperial edifices, and those of Diocletian are scarcely inferior in amplitude, or richness of decoration. The Triumphal Arches, of Trajan, Titus, Severus, Constantine, Gallienus, &c. are generally heavy and tasteless in their design, and loaded with meretricious embellishments. The mausolea of Augustus and Hadrian are grand and awful even in their ruins, but the proudest structure is the mighty Coliseum, the united work of Vespasian and Titus. We admire, we are astonished at, the majesty of this stupendous edifice, but we abhor the purposes to which it was devoted, and feel powerfully convinced of the imperfection of human virtue, when we reflect that it was under the administration of two of the best and wisest of her

emperors, that Rome beheld the rise and completion of a structure, which, however we may admire it as a specimen of national magnificence, can excite, with respect to the scenes it displayed, and was built to display, no other sentiments than those of horror and disgust. The feelings of Mr. Forsyth on this subject are in such perfect unison with our own, that notwithstanding our resolution to refrain from farther quotation, we cannot resist the temptation of giving his sentiments on the cruel and sanguinary sports to which both sexes and all ranks of the Romans were so passionately addicted.

Every nation has undergone its revolution of vices; and, as cruelty is not the present vice of ours, we can all humanely execrate the purpose of amphitheatres, now that they lie in ruins. Moralists may tell us that the truly brave are never cruel; but this monument says 'No.' Here sat the conquerors of the world, coolly to enjoy the tortures and death of men who had never offended them. Two aqueducts were scarcely sufficient to wash off the human blood which a few hour's sport shed in this imperial shambles. Twice in one day came the senators and matrons of Rome to the

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Maclure's Observations on the Gealogy of the United States.

butchery; a virgin always gave the signal for slaughter, and when glutted with bloodshed, those ladies sat down in the wet and streaming arenea to a luxurious supper. "Such reflections check our regret for its ruin. As it now stands, the Coliseum is a striking image of Rome itself:-decayedvacant-serious-yet grand;-half gray and half green-erect on one side and fallen on the other, with consecrated ground in its bosom-inhabited by a beadsman; visited by every cast; for moralists, antiquaries, painters, architects, devotees, all meet here to meditate, to examine, to draw, to measure, and to pray."

The extent to which this article has grown compels us, however unwillingly, to come to a conclusion. Our extracts,

ample as they are, afford only a slight notion of the innumerable beauties of thought and expression with which this delightful volume abounds,--the variety of its subject matter-or the union it furnishes of sound judgment with a style almost poetical, and which adapts itself, as it were by instinct, to every change of topic, and at once introduces the reader to a most lively and intimate acquaintance with every thing in Italy that can in any way be interesting to him.

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We wish to leave our readers in good humour, and we know no better way of accomplishing so desirable an object, than by the concluding this article with a few of Mr. Forsyth's animated reflections upon Naples.

"To a mere student of nature, to an artist, to a man of pleasure, to any man that can virtue, perhaps there is no residence in Eube happy among people who seldom affect rope so tempting as Naples and its environs. What variety of attractions!-a climate where heaven's breath smells sweet and wooingly-the most beautiful interchange of sea and land-wines, fruits, provisions, in their highest excellence-a vigorous and luxuriant nature, unparalleled in its produccanic power spent or in action-antiquities tions and processes-all the wonders of voldifferent from all antiquities on earth-a coast which was once the fairy-land of poets, and the favourite retreat of great men. Even the tyrants of the creation loved this alluring region, spared it, adorned it, lived in it, died in it. This country has subdued all its conquerors, and continues to subvert the two great sexual virtues, guardians of every other virtue,-the courage of men and the modesty of women."

G.

ART. 3. Observations on the Geology of the United States of America; with some Remarks on the Effects produced on the Nature and Fertility of Soils, by the Decom position of the Different Classes of Rocks, and an Application to the Fertility of every State of the Union, in reference to the accompanying Geological Map. With two Plates. By WILLIAM MACLURE. 8vo. pp. 128. Philadelphia. 1817.

NEVERAL years ago Mr. Maclure

Society of Philadelphia, some observations on the geology of the United States; he has now somewhat enlarged and corrected his former memoir, increasing it at the same time with an attempt to apply geology to agriculture, in which he is highly commendable, as we have no doubt that his endeavours will be found practically useful, even by those who do not entertain any high idea of scientific researches. Every science is connected with the wants of mankind; and many sciences are indebted for their origin to those wants, which increase in proportion to civilization and refinement. Agriculture sprung from the inadequacy of nature's spontaneous supplies of food for a large population, and has but lately become a science; medicine sprung from the natural desire of relieving our pains and lengthening our lives; geometry from the necessity of ascertaining the extent and limits of our fields; geography from VOL. III.-No. 1.

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the importance of knowing the strength

the means and dispositions of our neighbours; astronomy from the exigences of shepherds and navigators; physics from the need of becoming acquainted with the phenomena which surround us, as well to avail ourselves of their co-operation, as to avert some of the dreadful disasters of which they are sometimes the cause; cosmony from the cravings of nature, which instigate us to learn what animals, plants, or minerals may be made subservient to our use, or afford us food, raiment, weapons, tools, &c.

All the divisions of knowledge to which we have given the names of arts or sciences, have, therefore, a common origin-our wants! a common object-our uses! a common view-our improvement! These selfish motives are those which govern the majority of mankind; but philosophy refines and elevates them. This common origin and object of the sciences has often led to the belief of their identity,

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Maclure's Observations on the Geology of the United States.

as if they were all concentrated in a universal science. This hypothesis cannot now have many adherents, since the different scientific pursuits have been so well illustrated and distinguished; yet every one must be aware of the intimate connexion which exists between all the sciences. For instance, botany and geometry, which appear so widely distinct, are yet so far connected that botany must horrow part of its language from geometry, and geometry some of its forms from botany.

In a peculiarly improved stage and ex tended state of the sciences, the necessity of dividing them into minor sciences or branches begins to be felt, and such a division usually takes place shortly afterwards. It is to such a period that we are indebted for the new science of geology, or the knowledge of the solid part of the earth. This science was for a long time blended with natural history, mineralogy, astronomy, cosmogony, mythology, history, to which it is more or less connected, without properly belonging to either; but it has in recent days been raised to the dignified station of à separate science, and can already number among its votaries such men as Cuvier, Werner, Hutton, Patrin, Lametherie, &c. in Europe, while in the United States many enlightened men do not disdain to cultivate it for the benefit of the present generation and of posterity.

Among the latter Mr. Maclure stands conspicuous for zeal, assiduity, perspicuity, liberality, utility, and an early at tention to this important subject. It is not by the size of his work that we must judge of its value; but by its intrinsic merit. We believe that in the small number of pages of his volume, more essential facts and useful truths are disclosed than in many thick volumes of yore. We shall endeavour to collect such of them as our limits will allow, and such that a tolerable idea of the value of his observations may be formed; and the few imperfections which we may have occasion to notice, will but slightly invalidate its real merit.

We agree altogether with our worthy author, when he states the fallacy of the numberless presumptive theories of the earth, which have so often been set up. While we have scarcely studied onefourth part of the surface of the earth, and while the interior of our globe is totally unknown, all speculative theories must be considered as the novels of geology rather than its history. How many of them have even been founded upon a few local facts, which are belied by so

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many different facts elsewhere! Mr. Maclure mentions that those animals whose bones have been found in northern climates, while they (or their congenerous species) are now found only in tropical climates, might have been migratory, as the wild Buffaloe of America is at this time;-he might have added, that most of them being different from the now living species, were probably (as the mammoth of Siberia was to a certainty) covered with a thick fur suitable to the climates they dwelt in. Yet to account for this simple fact, a supposition has been advanced, that the equator was once where the poles are now, and vice versa! If the mutation of the poles could only be supported by this false reasoning, every supposition of the kind would fall to the ground. Fire and water were, till lately, considered as the only agents acting over the earth,-now galvanism is allowed to have also its share; but electricity, magnetism, light, gases, air, frost, compression, and animal and vegetable agency, &c. have certainly also their share; wherefore every theory founded upon a simple or single agent, becomes an erroneous system.

Our author adopts Werner's classification of rocks; but he is not satisfied with his distinctive names of primitive and secondary; he might have added his transition, which denomination is certainly illusive. The fact is, that there are but four formations of rocks and earths, all of which, even granite, are stratified; they are the crystallized, the deposited, the volcanic, and the organic formations; the first originates in crystallizations, the second in depositions, the third in emissions, and the last in organic remains; if a fifth formation was to be added, it ought to be the agglomerated formation. The transition formation belongs to all the formations in various instances, and the alluvial to the deposited formations. All these formations often happen to be blended, which destroys altogether the theories of universal separate formations, since suppositions must yield to facts; and strata vary from the thickness of a sheet of paper to the immense thickness of several thousand feet, so far as they have been penetrated or seen.

The uniformity of the formations in the United states, and the regularity of their dispositions, strike every observer who has witnessed the disparity and irregularity which are exhibited in the formatious of Europe. Mr. Maclure traces an able parallel between the two continents, and describes next the outlines and limits

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Maclure's Observations on the Geology of the United States.

of the formations, rocks, mountains and strata of our continent, being the result of nearly thirty different excursions across their nucleus, which runs from northeast to southwest. He describes the whole in general results, disdaining minute investigation of insulated rocks and detached masses; yet if there are some of such, which may throw light upon the approximating formations, why should we neglect them altogether? We shall not follow him through his leading remarks, and his divisions; a single glance at his map will convey a better idea of his principles, the results of which are, that nearly all the New-England states, the northern part of New-York, and a broad stripe as far as Georgia, are primitive; that the alluvial formation extends from Long-Island to Louisiana, from the Atlantic to the granite up the Mississippi as far as the mouth of the Ohio; that the limestone, or secondary formation, extends all over the western states, as far as the lakes, including most of New-York, and that it is divided from the primitive by a transition region. A formation of sandstone exists in the primitive, in New-York, Maryland, Connecticut, &c.

Notwithstanding the able researches of our author, we cannot but regard his results, as well as those of Volney, as mere attempts towards the knowledge which he means to convey; we know of several instances in which the limits assigned to some formations are not altogether correct, nor can they ever be completely known, but after a series of long, minute local observations all over the United States; and even then, how are we to know when those limits are absolute or relative? We would advise observers to notice the angle of inclination of the strata at the place of their disappearance, whence a probable calculation may be made of their further depth and extent, A long period must elapse before we can acquire a complete knowledge of the soil we inhabit; we must sink wells and shafts, dig mines and coal-pits to great depths, ere we can assert which is the predomi; nant formation in the strata we tread upon; but we must especially collect and describe all the organic remains of our soil, if we ever want to speculate with the smallest degree of probability, on the formation, respective age, and history of our strata. Mr. Maclure has altogether omitted these accessories or auxiliaries, which have received, with much propriety, the name of medals of nature: he says little or nothing of the numberless animal remains, shells, polyps, &c.

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found all over our deposited and agglo-
merated soils, or alluvial, limestone, sand-
stone regions. He omits the alluvial
found in Ohio and New-England, &c.
The regions north of the lakes are a blank
in his map; they are probably of primi-
tive or granitic formation. The present
great lakes of North-America, and those
which have to a certainty existed else-
where in ancient times, have had more
influence on some parts of the soil than
he is aware of. He has not mentioned
any volcanic soils and rocks in the United
States; yet there are certainly some,
which he has classed, with the Werneria:
school, among transition and secondary
but the trap, wake, coal, and clay forma:
tions, which are found in many parts, are
here, as in Europe, evidently of volcanic,
or emitted formation. Volcanoes do not
always emit fire and lava, nor heap up
mountains and craters; they often vomi
water and mud, and, when they are co
vered by water, their smoke and ashes
form, under the water, strata of various
substances: such have been the ancient
submarine volcanoes of Connecticut, New-
York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Alabama,

&c.

The second plate of this work contains five transverse sections of the United States: 1. across lake Champlain and the White Hills; 2. from Plymouth to lake Erie; 3. from Egg-Harbour to Pittsburg; 4. from Cape Henry to Abingdon; 5. from Cape Fear to the Warm Springs, They give a tolerably good idea of the succession of formations; but we hope, that by leading each formation to the level of the sea, it was not meant to inply that they really reach it, else we should ask how was it known to be so?

We now proceed to the second part of this work, or the practical part thereof, wherein the author relates, with much propriety in the preface, how various are the practical results to be derived fro the study of geology; it is by such a study that we are safely guided in our search for coal, salt, gypsum, limestone, sandstone, millstones, grindstones, whetstones, marble, clay, inarl, slate, ores, &c. For instance, those who should search for coal in a primitive region, or under granite, would lose their time and money: those who mistake pyrites and mica for ores, find soon their delusion to their cost. It will teach you to pave turnpikes with quartz, which will wear two years, instead of limestone or any soft stone, which will not last three months. When clay contains too much calcarious matter, it cannot make good bricks, and when lime

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Maclure's Observations on the Geology of the United States.

stone contains too much argillaceous matter, it cannot make lime.

The theory of the decomposition of rocks is treated with great ability and perspicuity; it is worth while for every enlightened agriculturalist to become acquainted with it: the results are, that the best soils for agricultural purposes are those proceeding from the decomposition of wake, limestone, lava, tuffa, &c. that the worst are those resulting from clay, salt, sand, quartz, &c. that alluvial and transition formations partake of such formations as they have been washed from that vegetable mould is the common manure of nature, that gypsum is the next, marl and clay, of sand, and vice versa, &c.

In the last chapter Mr. Maclure enters at length into an investigation of the probable effects which the decomposition of rocks may have on the nature and fertility of the soils of the different states of NorthAmerica, when such soils are in their pristine state, since, when covered with vegetable and animal manure or mould, their fertility lasts as long as such mould remains. In result it appears that Pennsylvania and New-York possess the greatest quantity of good lands among the Atlantic states, while all the western states enjoy an equal fertility, being all situated in the limestone formation. All the alluvial region fronting the ocean appears to possess a peculiar character, the soil being almost every where light, dry and sandy, or swampy; this soil, when mixed with marl, which is generally found under it, forms a good cultivable ground. It is probable that cotton, the staple produce of this region south of the Chesapeake, will, at a future period, be found suitable to the whole region, and cultivable as far north as LongIsland, and on those Hempstead plains, now thought almost unfit for cultivation, as were formerly thought the pine barrens of South-Carolina.

Mr. Maclure indulges sometimes in digressions in which some happy thoughts are discernible: his great division of the states, into states east and west of the AlTeghany, is quite natural, and the probable consequences of their respective features are truly delineated. Happily the Atlantic states are divided also naturally in three districts; New-England states,

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east of the Hudson and lake Champlain; middle states, whose territories extend west of the mountains or natural limit; and southern states, where slavery prevails; while the western states will soon be divided in three natural districts,north of the Ohio, south of the Ohio, and west of the Mississippi, whose features and interests will also assume their own peculiarities, the presumable result of which will be a happy balance of indivisible interests.

We wish that a hint of Mr. Maclure's might meet the eyes of some of those who direct among us the education of youth. He insinuates that we may reasonably hope that, ere long, some portion of time will be appropriated, in our colleges and universities, to studies of evident utility, and that the knowledge of substances, their properties and their uses, will be permitted, in some degree, to encroach on the study of mere words, or the smattering of dead languages. His hopes begin to be partly realized, and the utility of the study of our soil, our waters, our minerals, our fossils, our plants, our animals, &c. is becoming daily more evident; let us hope that these studies will soon be taught every where, together, at least, with those of a less permanent and general utility. We shall conclude in the words of this author,-" The earth is every day moulding down into a form more capable of producing and increasing vegetable matter, the food of animals, and consequently progressing towards a state of amelioration and accumulation of those materials, of which the moderate and rational enjoyment constitutes great part of our comfort and happiness. On the surface of such an extensive and perpetual progression, let us hope that mankind will not, nay, cannot, remain stationary."

These remarks bear evidence that our worthy author is gifted with a philanthropic and philosophical mind. The style and the details of his work bear the stamp of the same modest, unassuming, and plain philosophy, and give the author a title to the highest reward of a good citizen, the gratitude of his countrymen; and should his labours be rewarded with the praise that greeted his predecessor Volney, we doubt not he will feel his anticipations fully realized. C. S. R.

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