guage; the light green leaves of many a new and fairer sprout of expression would spread abroad, and fresh blossoms of diction unrimple their roscat petals. When Klopstock published the first five books of his Messiah, hexameter was assailed by the critics as a most unnatural costume for the German Muse: the poet persevered, and the nation is converted. Why should not his future translator anticipate a similar success? It may be doubted however if the most fortunate Englisher of Klopstock would obtain that national popularity and gratitude, that recognition of his work as a perpetual classic, which Mickle, beyond our other epic translators, seems to have attained. Klopstock's Messiah, why should it not be owned? will appear dull in English; because it is really so in German. The plan was not struck out at a single effort; it is all piece-meal soldering, instead of being melted in one cast. It wants distinctness, proportion, cohesion. The fable is consequently deficient in interest. Where there is no wholeness, there can be no care for the one great end. Nor does all the topical application of the poet overcome this constitutional imperfection of his work. The crucifixion and the resurrection ought to have been the focuses of expectation, the centres of attraction along the whole orbit of his cometary course: they are lost sight of in favour of a galaxy of minute anecdotes, and a zodiac of mythological apparitions. What the action wants of extent as to time, the poet has endeavoured to supply by extent as to space, and beckons spectators from every cranny of the universe. He seems aloof and adrift in a crowded atmosphere of spirits and angels, where every little group is gibbering, and occasionally veers to look at the execution that is going on: but his mortal astonishment, instead of selecting the mightier business for record,thinks every character in the throng worth describing, and gets bewildered in the infinitude of his task. No epopea exists, out of which so many passages and personages could be cut without mutilation. Distracted by the multiplicity of subordinate objects, curiosity excited concerning each is inconsiderable. That headlong participation in the pursuits of the heroes, which bawls aloud along with Hector for fire, is nowhere felt in the Messiah. Every secondary incident should have found a place only in as much as it tended to advance or retard, or influence, the grand catastrophe. An anxiety about the chief business of the poem might thus have been inspired. Now, the parts withdraw attention from the whole: one sees not the forest for the trees. Instead of bearing down on the point for which he is bound, and sailing with full canvas toward his main destination, Klopstock is continually laveering: beautiful or sublime as the islands and rocks may be which he thus brings into view, they indemnify not his forgetting the voyage. One as willingly begins with the second book as with the first: one as willingly stops after the eighth canto as after the tenth. The thousand and one episodes of the second half of the poem have interrupted many a reader, and one translator, in his determination to travel to the end. The multiplicity of the pietistical rapsodies would weary even Saint Theresa. (To be Continned.) THE POSSIBILITY OF PREVENT- It has been asked, whether it might not be possible to prevent, or to avert, the fatal effects of thunder? You are well aware of the importance of the question, and under what obligation I should lay a number of worthy people, were I able to indicate an infallible method of finding protection against thunder. The knowledge of the nature and effects of electricity, permits me not to doubt that the thing is possible. I corresponded some time ago with a Moravian priest, named Procopius Divisch, who assured me that he had averted, during a whole summer, every thunder-storm which threatened his own habitation and the neighbourhood, by means of a machine constructed on the principles of electricity. Several persons, since arrived from that country, have assured me that the fact is undoubted, and confirmed by irresistible proof. But there are many respectable characters, who, on the supposition that the thing is practicable, would have their scruples respecting the lawfulness of employing such a preservative. The ancient pagans, no doubt, would have considered him as impious, who should have presumed to interfere with Jupiter, in the direction of his thunder. Christians, who are assured that thunder is the work of God, and that Divine Providence frequently employs it to punish the wickedness of men, might with equal reason alledge, that it was impiety to attempt to oppose the course of sovereign justice. Without involving myself in this delicate discussion, I remark that conflagrations, deluges, and many other general calamities, are likewise the means employed by Providence to punish the sins of men; but no one, surely, ever will pretend, that it is lawful to prevent, or resist, the progress of a fire or an inundation. Hence I infer, that it is perfectly lawful to use the means of prevention against the effects of thunder, if they are attainable. The melancholy accident which befel Mr. Richmann at Petersburg, demonstrates, that the thunderstroke which this gentleman unhappily attracted to himself, would undoubtedly have fallen somewhere else, and that such place thereby escaped: it can therefore no longer remain a question whether it be possible to conduct thunder to one place in preference to another; and this seems to bring us near our mark. It would, no doubt, be a matter of still greater importance, to have it in our power to divest the clouds of their electric force, without being under the necessity of exposing any one place to the ravages of thunder; we should, in that case, altogether prevent these dreadful effects, which terrify so great a part of mankind. This appears by no means impossible; and the Moravian priest, whom I mentioned above, unquestionably effected it; for I have been assured, that his machinery sensibly attracted the clouds, and constrained them to descend quietly in a distillation, without any but a very distant thunder-clap. The experiment of a bar of iron, in a very elevated situation, which becomes electric on the approach of a thunder-storm, may lead us to the construction of a similar machine, as it is certain, that in proportion as the bar discharges its electricity, the clouds must lose precisely the same quantity; but it must be contrived in such a manner, that the bars may immediately discharge the ether which they have attracted. It would be necessary, for this purpose, to procure for them a free communication with a pool, or with the bowels of the earth, which, by means of their open pores, may easily receive a much greater quantity of ether, and disperse it over the whole immense extent of the earth, so that the compression of the ether may not become sensible in any particular spot. This communication is very easy by means of chains of iron, or any other metal, which will, with great rapidity, carry off the ether with which the bars are surcharged. I would advise the fixing of strong bars of iron, in very elevated situations, and several of them together, their higher extremity to terminate in a point, as this figure is very much adapted to the attrae tion of electricity. I would, afterwards, attach long chains of iron to these bars, which I would conduct under ground into a pool, lake, or river, there to discharge the electricity; and I have no doubt, that after making repeated essays, the means may be certainly discovered of rendering such machinery more commodious, and more certain in its effect. It is abundantly evident, that on the approach of a thunder-storm, the ether, with which the clouds are surcharged, would be transmitted in great abundance into these bars, which would thereby become very electric, unless the chains furnished to the ether a free passage, to spend itself in the water, and in the bowels of the earth. The ether of the clouds would continue, thereafter, to enter quietly into the bars, and would, by its agitation, produce a light, which might be visible on the pointed extremities. Such light is, accordingly, often observed, during a storm, on the summit of spires, an infallible proof that the ether of the cloud is there quietly discharging itself; and every one considers this as a very good sign, of the harmless absorption of many thunder-strokes. Lights are likewise frequently observed at sea, on the tops of the masts of ships, known to sailors by the name of Castor and Pollux; and when such signs are visible, they consider themselves as safe from the stroke of thunder. Most philosophers have ranked these phenomena among vulgar superstitions; but we are now fully assured, that such sentiments are not without foundation; indeed they are infinitely better founded than many of our philosophic reveries. and improving the condition of the African race, assembled for the purpose of deliberation upon such matters as relate to the design of their institution, believe it their duty to address you at this time: not with a view to descant upon the horrors of slavery, or its incompatibility with sound policy, with justice, with morality, and with the spirit and doctrines of christianity: for besides that the circumscribed nature of such an address necessarily precludes lengthy animadversion, these are topics which have been so repeatedly and ably discussed, as to leave little room for additional argument or new illustration. The feelings and the judgment have been often addresed with all the strength of reason and the powers of eloquence, and although prejudice may blind the eyes of some, and avarice close the avenues of sensibility in others, we derive consolation from the assurance, that the wise and the good, the liberal and the considerate of all classes of the community, lament the existence of slavery, and consider it as a dark stain in the annals of our country. We do not even hesitate to believe that many who hold slaves by demise, acknowledge the injustice of the tenure; but perplexed in the contemplation of the embarrassment in which they find themselves, they are ready to exclaim, "What shall be done with them?" We would willingly include these among the number of our friends, and intreat them to unite in the removal of an evil so justly and almost universally deplored. A principal object of our concern, is to rouse the attention of the public to the continued....may we not say....increasing necessity of exertion. We fear many have taken up an idea, that there is less Occasion now than formerly, for active zeal in promoting the cause OF THE UNITED STATES. of the oppressed African: but when FELLOW CITIZENS, it is remembered that there are THE American convention for about nine hundred thousand slaves promoting the abolition of slavery, in this country! that hundreds of ADDRESS OF THE AMERICAN CONVENTION TO THE PEOPLE vessels do annually sail from our shores to traffic in the blood of our fellow men! and that the abominable practice of kidnapping is carried on to an alarming extent! surely it will not be thought a time for supineness and neglect. Ought not rather every faculty of the mind to be awakened? and in a matter wherein the reputation and prosperity of these United States are so deeply involved, is it possible that any can remain as indifferent and idle spectators? The gross and violent outrages committed by a horde of kidnap pers, call aloud for redress. We have reason to believe, there is a complete chain of them along our sea coast, from Georgia to Maine. Like the vulture, soaring in apparent indifference, while watching for his prey, these shameless men, disguised in the habiliments of gentlemen, haunt public places, and at night seize and carry off the victims of their avarice.....The convention are informed of some of their insidious manœuvres. They generally have vessels moored in small rivers and creeks, and after stealing the unprotected, they decoy by stratagem and allure by specious offers of gain, such free persons of colour as they find susceptible of delusion.....Öthers residing near the sea coast, are continually purchasing slaves in the middle states, to sell at an advanced price to their compeers in infamy. For the victims of this shocking business, they find a ready market among the southern planters. The design of this detail, must be obvious: it is to excite the vigilance of every friend to humanity and to virtue, in the detection and punishment of these monsters in the shape of men. To complain of injustice, or petition for redress of grievances, cannot be mistaken for rebellion against the laws of our country..... We lament therefore the existence of statutes in the state of North Carolina, prohibiting individuals the privilege of doing justice to the unfortunate slave, and to their own feelings, by setting him at liberty; and we learn with the deepest regret, that the state of South Carolina has recently repealed the law prohibiting the importation of slaves from Africa into that state. Such appears to be the melancholy fact; but we cannot restrain the involuntary question.... Is this possible? Is the measure of iniquity not yet filled? Is there no point at which you will stop? Or was it necessary to add this one step, to complete the climax of folly, cruelty, and desperation? Oh legislators! we beseech you to reflect, before you increase the evils which already surround you in gloomy and frightful perspective! Beholding with anxiety the increase rather than diminution of slavery and its dreadful concomitants, we earnestly request the zealous co-operation of every friend to justice and every lover of his country. It is an honourable, a virtuous and a humane cause in which we have embarked. Much good has already been effected, but much remains to be done; and, under the divine blessing, may we not confidently hope, that in proportion to the sincerity of our motives, and the temperate, firm, and persevering constancy of our exertions will be our success, and peaceful reward. Those who live contiguous to the sea ports, in particular, we wish may be stimulated to vigilance, that none of those shameful acts of atrocity adverted to, may elude deserved punishment: and our fellow citizens of the eastern states are respectfully invited to pay attention to the clandestine traffic in slaves carried on from some of their ports. Such daring infractions of the laws of our country require prompt and decisive measures. Many aspersions have been cast upon the advocates of the freedom of the Blacks, by malicious or interested men; but, conscious of the rectitude of our intentions, and the disinterestedness of our endeavours, we hope not to be intimi We conclude in the expression of a hope that the Supreme Disposer of events, will prosper our labours in this work of justice, and hasten the day, when liberty shall be proclaimed to the captive, and this land of boasted freedom and independence, be relieved from the opprobrium which the sufferings of the oppressed African now cast upon it. By order of the Convention, MAT. FRANKLIN, President. Attest....OTHN. ALSOP, Sec'ry. Philadelphia, Jan. 13th, 1801. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN NEW The legislature of New Jersey, on the 15th February passed a law for the gradual abolition of slavery. It enacts that every child born of a slave after the 4th day of July next, shall be free, but shall remain the servant of the owner of the mother, in the same manner as if such child had been bound to service by the overseers of the poor, males until the age of 25, and females until the age of 21....provides for the registry of the birth of all such children within nine months after such birth dated by censure from performing the part assigned us. We frankly own, that it is our wish to promote a general emancipation; and, in doing this, it is our belief that we essentially promote the true interests of the state: Although many inconveniences may result from a general liberation of the People of Colour; yet those which flow from their continuance in slavery must be infinitely greater, and are every day increasing. It is, therefore, in our estimation, desirable that this object should be brought about with as much speed as a prudent regard to existing circumstances, and the safety of the country will admit : But in all our endeavours for its accomplishment, we hope to move with care and circumspection. We pointedly disavow the most distant intention to contravene any existing law of the states collectively or separately....We will not knowingly infringe upon the nominal rights of property, although those rights may only be traced to our statute-books; and while we desire to be supported in our endeavours to defend the cause of the oppressed, we hope that discretion and moderation will characterize all our proceedings. We feel with others the common frailties of humanity, and, therefore cannot....and gives liberty to the owner, expect an exemption from error. The best intentions are sometimes inadvertently led astray; a lively zeal in a good cause may occasionally overleap the bounds of discretion: although therefore individuals may in some instances, have suffered their zeal to exceed knowledge, yet we repeat, that the line of conduct which we approve, and which is consonant with the spirit and design of our institutions, is in strict conformity with a due submission to existing laws, and to the legal claims of our fellow citizens. On this ground we think we have a, just claim to the countenance and support of all liberal minds....of all who delight in the real prosperity of their country, and in the multiplication of human happiness. at any time within one year from the birth, to elect to abandon his right to any such child, the owner being, nevertheless, liable to maintain the child until one year old, and thereafter the child to be considered as a pauper, and liable to be bound out to service as other poor children, males until the age of 25, and females 21....but while the child remains a pauper, and until it shall be bound out, it is to be maintained by the town, at the expense of the state, not exceeding the rate of three dollars per month... the owner not abandoning the child within the year, to be considered as having elected to retain the child, and liable to its maintenance during the respective periods of service limited by the act. |