The following gentlemen have been chosen to the offices provided, and have accepted,―viz : JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, LL. D. President. Hon. BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON, Hon. JOSEPH STORY, Hon. WILLIAM LOWNDES, Vice-Presidents. WILLIAM S. CARDELL, Esq. Corresponding Secretary. Ten Counsellors have been subsequently elected, as follows:- THOMAS C. BROWNELL, D. D. LL.D. Bishop of Con. JAMES KENT, LL. D. JOHN M. MASON, D. D. JOSEPH HOPKINSON, LL. D. PETER S. DU PONCEAU, LL. D. JOHN AUGUSTIN SMITH, M. D. Pres. of William and Mary Col. WASHINGTON IRVING, Esq. The following Honorary Members have been chosen : JOHN ADAMS. THOMAS JEFFERSON. JAMES MADISON. JOHN JAY. CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY. JAMES MONROE. JOHN TRUMBULL, LL. D. The following advertisement has been issued by the Academy : "Ata meeting of "the American Academy of Language and Belles Lettres," held at the City Hall in the city of New-York, October 20, 1820, the following preamble and resolution were unanimously adopted. "As the proper education of youth is in all communities closely connected with national prosperity and honour; and as it is particularly important in the United States that the rising generation should possess a correct knowledge of their own country and a patriotic attachment to its welfare; "Resolved, that a premium of not less than four hundred dollars, and a gold medal worth fifty dollars, be given to the author, being an American citizen, who within two years shall produce the best written history of the United States, and which, with such history shall contain a suitable exposition of the situation, character and interests, absolute and relative, of the American Republic: calculated for a class book in academies and schools. This work is to be examined and approved by a committee of the institution, in reference to the interest of its matter, the justness of its facts and principles, the purity, perspi-. cuity and elegance of its style, and its adaptation to its intended purpose. "Though it is wished to interfere as little as possible with the freedom of judgment, in authors; yet it will be expected that the examining committee, in ac cepting a work which is to receive the premium and sanction of the society, will suggest the alteration of any word, phrase or figure, which is not strictly pure and correct, according to the best usage of the English Language. "By order of the Academy, ALEX. M LEOD, Recording Secretary." It is believed that the concluding condition of this advertisement, which reserves the right of suggesting to the author any alteration that the Committee of the Academy may think important, is one which would not be exacted of a work intended for general readers. But it is of the highest importance, that productions which are to receive the sanction of the Academy for the use of schools, and are to give the first impressions to the rising generation, should be scrupulously exact in their statements, correct in grammar, and pure in language. Premiums for several other works have been proposed; but, with a view to the best choice, there is a necessary delay for collecting the opinions of distant members. 66 ART. 8.-WRITING BY CIPHER-Rees' Cyclopedia. The following exposition of plate III. (in vol. VI. part II.) of Rees' Cyclopedia, may be acceptable to some of the subscribers to that work. The plate represents "an example of ready and undecipherable writing by dots, of the author's own invention"-and the author of the Article CIPHER' (vol. VIII. part II.) " defies any of his readers to explain the principle by which it [the example] is composed, or to give him a similar piece of writing." The writing consists of dots, placed in different positions over, under, and upon a line. The dot above the line signifies 1-on the line, 2-and under it, 3. Each letter is represented by four dots, or figures, and by arranging the figures 11, 12, 13—21, 22, 23-31, 32, 33, above the key, opposite to the letters in the upper line, and the same figures in the same order at the left side of the key, beginning at the top, the plate will be deciphered with ease by drawing lines perpendicularly and horizontally from the figures denoted by the dots. Thus, the four first dots represent 31. 31, which in the key direct to the letter T: The next four, 12. 23, which answer to h: Then 11. 32, answering to e:--which gives the word The. ner. In the article CIPHER,' in the Cyclopedia, are four paragraphs, to be deciphered by the same key, but in a different manThe 2d is in figures, and can be easily read by taking two figures for each letter, thus 1,5 the 1st line and 5th letter T; 2,6 the 2d line and 6th letter h; 1,8 the 1st line and 8th letter e ;then O for the end of a word: 3,5 the third line and 5th letter, &c. The next paragraph is in letters, and must be deciphered by taking two letters, for two figures, which direct to the letter in the key represented by them; thus, b, a-b is the 1st letter in the column, and therefore represents 1, and a is the 5th letter in the column, in which it is found in the key, and therefore represents 5,the 1st line and 5th letter, as before, representing T-w, m, are the next two letters: w is the 7th letter of the column in which it is found in the key, and m, the 2d-the 7th line and 2d letter h; &c. The first and third paragraphs have not been deciphered. ART. 9.-INSCRIPTION UPON THE TOMBSTONE OF DOCTOR SAMUEL JOHNSON-AT STRATFORD, Con. 'M. S. SAMUELIS JOHNSON, D. D. Et hujus Ecclesiæ nuper Rectoris. If decent dignity and modest mien, The cheerful heart, and countenance serene; Still rising vigorous to his Lord and God; MYLES COOPER." ART. 10.-LINES ON THE LATE DOCTOR JOSEPH R. DRake. The following stanzas, for beauty and exquisite finish, are infinitely superior to the verses generally afforded on similar occasions. They were written by a friend of the late Dr. J. R. Drake, of this city. To commemorate the virtues and the talents of a departed friend, or to weigh with impartiality his claims to public attention, is indeed no easy task; but the subject of these lines was worthy of all the commendation and all the sorrow here so beautifully expressed. A devotion to the muses marked his early life; and many of his unpublished productions would not discredit (we speak it confidently) the pen of a Moore, or a Campbell. He fell an early victim to the Consumption,—a disease, which seems peculiarly to select for the objects of its attack, the amiable, the intelligent and the vir tuous. Green be the turf above thee, Friend of my better days! None knew thee, but to love thee, Whose weal and wo were thine; While memory bids me weep thee, The grief is fixed too deeply That mourns a man like thee. (COPY.) "Queries to the Reviewer of General Wilkinson's Memoirs. 1st Why was General Hampton permitted to escape, without a trial and without arrestation? 2d Why was General Wilkinson's private letter to General Lewis, opened and read at the war office? 3d Why is the history given by General Wilkinson, of the causes of the capture of Washington, passed over in silence? Was it because his story is unanswerable? "D. F. An inquirer after truth." Though the shape in which our correspondent D. F. presents himself, is somewhat questionable, still as he may be a mere inquirer after truth, we will speak to him in our next number. [Ed.] (87) SELECT. ART. 1.-From Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine-London, Sep. 1820. A REVIEW OF SOME LEADING POINTS IN THE OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE LATE PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY. BY A CORRESPONDENT. THE Royal Society of London, as Chamberlayne remarks, "chose for its motto Nullius in verba, to testify their resolution not to be enslaved by any of the greatest authority in their inquiries after nature:" and so long as their Presidents were changed with moderate frequency, and no one acquired any more autho rity or influence than was due to his talents and his virtues, independently of his rank (whatever that might be,) all continued to go on well. The arts and sciences, in their numerous departments, were promoted by the labours and inquiries of the different members of the Society; each brought from his own stock to deposit in the general storehouse; all was harmony; and bickering and usurpation were alike unknown. The distinctions which prevail in human society were not forgotten; but they were not permitted to operate injuriously in a society where all were, by its original constitution, FELLOWS. An authorized list of the members of the Royal Society circulated in 1693, only thirty years after its incorporation by charter, terminates thus :-"The reader may perceive by this list, how many sober, learned, solid, ingenious persons, of different degrees, religions, countries, professions, trades and fortunes, have united and conspired, laying aside all names of distinction, amicably to promote experimental knowledge." Indeed, it is only by determining thus to "lay aside all distinctions," except those which talents and genius confer, that a Society formed for the purpose of augmenting the sphere of natural knowledge in all its branches can be adequately efficient: for if it be "with wise intent" that "The Hand of Nature on peculiar minds Decrees its province in the common toil," it is surely wise for such an institution to collect, arrange, and classify, the results of the individual energies of its members, however diversified their several pursuits, or however varied the stations in political society which they occupy. Thus has the Royal society proceeded in different periods of its history. It did not ex |