and most especially the critics, of whom there are reckoned not less than an army of ten thousand, who-like a troop of Swiss, are to be let out for hire-take great state upon themselves, and, not content with deciding what is English in England, most impudently attempt to take the very words out of our mouths here in this free country. Why, Sir, they might as well attempt to take the bread out of our mouths-and better too, for there are a vast number of our American patriots who love talking better than bread.

That the intention of these critics is to establish an unwarrantable British literary influence in this country, and, through the medium of our language, tyrannize over us as they did before the revolution, is, I think, plain enough. What is it constitutes perfect liberty?-The liberty of speech. To interfere with that liberty is to infringe on the right of national sovereignty, which consists as much in coining words as in coining money, and, like matrimonial sovereignty, is intimately connected with the exercise of the tongue. Perhaps some people who possess that sort of wisdom which is only visible to themselves, may smile at the importance which I have given to mere sounds. But those of more mature reflection know that language is the strongest tie between nations as well as men. Nations no more than individuals can make love to each other in different tongues; and it has ac cordingly been made one of the indications of Bonaparte's ambitious designs against the liberties of the world, that he took unwearied pains to disseminate the French tongue, and always, before he invaded a country, sent a good number of "language masters," by way of pioneers, to corrupt the people and clear the way for him. Thus, too, the people of New England, by only fancying they speak better English than their neighbours, have acquired a singular predilection for England; and the devotion of Mr. Jefferson to France is to be traced, according to the most keen-sighted politicians, to his having learned the French language.

It is, therefore, high time, I think, to warn my countrymen of their danger, and call upon them to resist, before it is too late, this deep laid conspiracy against that most invaluable immunity, the liberty of speech, without which we shall, in a little time, become like dumb beasts. Between ourselves, one of the greatest politi

cians of our ward has assured me that one of the grounds of the present war was the insult offered by the British critics, "od rot em," to those genuine native citizens, Messrs. Lengthy and Progressing. They are both parliamentary words; (as they say in congress;) they were born and brought up in this country, have never set foot out of it, and I would as soon submit to the impressment of seamen, as to be thus bullied out of words of our own honest begetting. We shall never be truly independent, I am afraid, till we make our own books, and coin our own words-two things as necessary to national sovereignty, as making laws and coining money. The best way, perhaps, to avoid the impending danger would be, to invent an entire new language. There are a great many writers in this country who could materially assist in this important undertaking, and several famous orators who might, without much trouble, help us to some words that would make good their citizenship even on board a British man of war. In order to encourage this plan, the test of literary merit might be made to consist in the invention of a new word, instead of the conception of a new idea. If proper rewards were held out as temptations, I do really think that in so many talkative republics, we might, at no distant period, collect a sufficient quantity of words that would establish their claim to originality in any court of criticism, to begin business on a small scale.

But it is hardly to be hoped that this desirable plan will ever be put in execution. It is not easy to persuade a whole nation to forget its native tongue and learn another. We are not so old, indeed, as Dr. Johnson was when he talked of learning Dutch, but we have lived long enough in the world to get a habit; and habits are like our night gown and slippers, we may put them by for a little time to walk in public, or pay visits of ceremony, but when nobody is by, we are sure to call for the night gown and slippers again.

All that is possible to be done, I fear, is to recommend to the fourth of July orators, members of congress, and eminent literati, to hold fast by honest "Lengthy," and stick to "Progressing," as the palladium of our safety, and the bulwark of our independence. If the preachers would now and then introduce them into their sermons it would recommend them most effectually; but

they are so strangely bigoted to what they are pleased to call classical models, and so apt to resist all innovations, good or bad, that there is little hope of this. Much, however, may be done in the way of progressing towards this desirable end; if we were to enter into a covenant to buy no books, and read no speeches, but such as are not only lengthy in themselves, but also abound in lengthies and progressings; if, in addition to this, the fashionable orators in congress would introduce them a little oftener than they do, it would be the means of restoring them to a greater degree of public estimation. They are almost the only words exclusively our own, and the last words a nation ought to eat, are words of its own lawful manufacturing. For my part, I mean to have a "starling" taught them, who shall "hallow lengthy" in the ear of every transatlantic critic who shall dare to beard this most orthodox and parliamentary word.

I have been more lengthy and zealous in my defence of this little phrase, than perhaps you may think was necessary or proper; but the honest truth of the matter is, that if it is routed from the language, I shall be no more

Your humble servant,

VOL. III. New Series.

52

Lemuel Lengthy.

P.

For the Analectic Magazine.

METEORIC STONES.

INSTANCES of the fall of meteoric stones have long been known in various parts of the earth. At all times, their descent has been attended with light and explosion, and if discovered soon after their descent, they are found more or less heated. This phenomenon, the meteoric stone, so often noticed, has not yet received a solution at all satisfactory to me. The notion that they are masses ejected from volcanoes in our earth or moon, seems too extravagant to detain the attention for a moment. Such a piece of artillery as would be required to project these stones to such heights, could not be discharged silently, and yet the descent of meteoric stones has never been attended or preceded by any earthquake, or known volcanic eruption.

The other supposition that these meteoric stones are formed suddenly in the higher regions of our atmosphere, by some wonderful combination of their before floating minute parts, is in some small degree countenanced by the sudden production of hail of a large size. The occurrence is so familiar to us that we have ceased to wonder that a blast of excessive cold air, coming instantaneously in contact with ambient moisture, should bind it together in masses of even a pound weight, although such a hailstone has, perhaps, never, or very rarely, been known. But how much more out of the reach of our kindest credulity is it, to believe that a mass of iron and earth of more than a hundred weight, should be produced in mid-air! In 1809, I think, one of these meteoric stones fell in or near Greenfield, in Connecticut. The writer saw the largest part of it which was found. It bore the general appearance of iron ore; its exterior was covered slightly with rust; small portions of pure malleable iron were intermixed with the mass. It was found soon after its descent, quite warm;

the usual meteoric accompaniments, brilliant light and loud explosions, attended its fall. If such large and solid masses are generated in the upper regions of air, by some great shock which might possibly produce or be attended with light and explosion, it should seem that the effect being produced, the light and noise would cease, and the newly formed stone descend, with the usual rapidity of other falling bodies, quietly to earth. But not so with our meteoric masses; they are in their descent, when nearest the earth, seen, or rather guessed at, by brilliant flashes of light, and by loud noise, and are found burst in pieces.

The difficulties suggested to every mind which reasons from what we know, in the preceding theories, are too numerous to be pursued now; volumes might be written of the reasons quare non, while the only countenance afforded is by a little hail, a wretched protection to the formers of a huge irregular stone!

I beg leave to reason from what we know, and when compelled to travel out of that direct, plain road, let me find one most parrallel with it-analogy.

According to the Newtonian philosophy, all smaller bodies, having freedom to move, tend or gravitate to their nearest larger neighbours. Upon which plan every member of the planetary system is found to proceed. Most of the planets of our system are known to be attended with satellites, and from time to time new ones are discovered. No doubt millions of bodies, large and small, perform the celestial rounds, to us utterly unseen, and the old whim, that sun, moon and stars were made to shine for the exclusive benefit of such vermin as we are, is long since exploded. This law of gravitation is not confined to act upon bodies of any given diameters, either 1,000 or 1,000,000 of miles. It may with equal reasons, act upon a moon of one foot diameter as upon one of 2,000 miles; then, where is the difficulty attending the following proposition? This earth is attended not only by the moon, but by numerous satellites of very inferior and various dimensions from one foot to several miles in diameter. Some twenty or thirty years since, a meteor was seen in England, and I believe in France, which caused a path of light of great extent, and was attended by loud noises. It did not, as far as it is known, touch the earth; it was computed, at the nearest distance, to be 45 miles from the