standard rules, it seems to be of less consequence than a similar departure in any other person. Sibilation too, is the great defect of the English language; it is a harshness with which a delicate ear is always offended, and, therefore, should be most scrupulously guarded against; but

If to his share some human errors fall,

Look on his face, and you forget them all.

To say what part was most ably filled by this "shining star” would be difficult. If an entire and absolute imitation of legitimate nature and real life, such as we have all beheld a thousand times, to the perfection of the histrionic art, it was found in sir Pertinax Mac Sycophant. Not a look faultered, not a word fell from his lips which did not designate the cunning Scotchman, Whether booing to lord Lumbercourt, scolding Egerton, tempting Sydney, or triumphing in the dishonesty of the lawyers, he was uniformly exquisite; and we suspect that an audience never was so completely wrapt up in any performance, as was that of Philadelphia, when they witnessed the three successive exhibibitions of the Man of the World. The part of Iago rose in his hands to an eminence and importance, of which they who had seen the play an hundred times, had formed no conception. Some of the last passages of sir Giles Overreach went to the soul of every auditor; and the unvarying flight of uniform excellence in the Duke of Gloster, which except in a small part of the tent scene, stooped not a moment on its rapid and adventurous wing, must remain impressed upon the recollection of all who witnessed it, as long as dramatic merit is cherished and admired, or the human heart beats responsive to the impulses of nature. But when he threw off the sarcasm which had of necessity pervaded several of his performances, and exhibited the conflicting doubt and fears of Macbeth, or thrilled the soul with the heart rending imprecations of King Lear, the still remaining feeble hesitations to acknowledge his supremacy, were at once extinguished, and the coldest admirers, with one voice, exclaimed like Churchill,

"Take the chair,

"Nor quit it till thou place an equal there:"

Mr. Cooke is sure to avoid all danger of tediousness, by. never dwelling upon unnecessary or unimportant words. He selects such as are most conspicuous; sends them forcibly to our. ears, and leaves the minor expletions to their fate. In elucidating a passage that is obscure, he is eminently successful: for he will elicit sense out of sound, and give richness to a sentence which, to an ordinary eye, would seem flat and unprofitable. A single instance will exemplify our meaning. When Macbeth is informed that his queen is dead, he falls to ruminating thus:

She should have died hereafter:

There would have been a time for such a word.-
-To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creep in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time, &c.

These lines have usually been spoken without any particular allusion; they have been explained by Johnson to mean, that if lady Macbeth had lived longer, "there would have been a time for the honours due to her as queen; and that respect which her husband owed for her fidelity and love." But Mr. Cooke reads them thus, that lady Macbeth now invested with the trappings of royalty, and surrounded with greatness, should live, but fearful of the change awaiting his and her condition, in consequence of the efforts of a besieging army, the time will come when death would have been welcome to her. He then seems to ask himself, when? and proceeds as if replying to that question, to-morThis word to-morrow, repeats again and again, and on that repetition falls into the train of sombre reflections, which terminates in an expression of contempt for life. We know not whether Mr. Cooke be original in this idea; he is so here, and it has shed a light upon a passage which, although always abundant in beauties, was, we think, no less abundant in obscurity.

row.

The reception of this gentleman in our city, was such as to do honor to the heads and hearts of its inhabitants, and to excite, we are confident, his gratitude and esteem. The impression of his dramatic excellence grew more and more forcible every day, and although the applauses of the million are not always a just criterion of merit, yet the continued fulness of the house

and the nightly increasing thunders of approbation from every quarter, must have been flattering testimonials of admiration and regard. With all ranks and classes he was a decided favorite. The critic looked for faults almost in vain; the volatile fixed their attention here, and the deities of the gallery shouted with delight at his performances. Many paintings of Mr. Cooke, both in and out of character, taken while he was in Philadelphia, will serve as a lively addition to the various memorials we retain of the delight he has afforded us. Among them, a lasting monument will be possessed in the admirable picture of him by Sully, in the part of Richard III, which is intended for the academy of arts.

We take leave of Mr. Cooke with unfeigned regret, and he may rest assured, that a future visit to our city, should he make it, would be attended with a reception no less fervent than the last.

BIOGRAPHY-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

LIFE OF DR. WILLIAM LINN.

BIOGRAPHICAL notices of men, rendered eminent for piety and learning, form a very interesting branch of American literature. Public characters become public property, and the right of that body to know the history of their lives, after their death, results from their having been engaged in its service when living. We are not sure that the community have not a deeper interest in the question, viz. the right of scrutinizing the characters of public men, and comparing their private characters with the principles they profess. Precepts derive force from example, and wherever they harmonize, the same should be made public for the benefit of others. So if examample violates precept, or in plainer words, if the private life and public professions of a man, are at open and palpable variance with each other, the hypocrite should be detected and exposed. Absurd and despicable as the maxim de mortuis nil nisi bonum is, still it bears a strong resemblance to charity and benevolence misplaced. There is a pretext for saying, that deli

cacy towards surviving friends, prohibits us from speaking of the dead in any terms than those of applause. A neglect to notice those characters who were ornaments to the religion they taught; whose private lives and whose public professions, formed a beautiful consistency, is destitute of all apology whatever. If severe and inexorable Justice, in the exercise of her high functions, recognizes no partiality for the living or the dead, and compels us to drag foibles and crimes from the recesses of the grave, surely we are bound by a more imperious obligation, to rescue piety and learning from the dust of the sepulchre.

Dr. William Linn was born of British ancestors, who, in the early settlement of this country, emigrated and inhabited the western part of this state. His father, William Linn, was the parent of a large and respectable family of children, of whom, the subject of the present memoir was the eldest. He was born on the 27th day of February, 1752, in the county of Cumberland in the state of Pennsylvania. After having received the rudiments of an education at a public school, he was put to a grammar school under the tuition of the Rev. Mr. Duffield. His education was afterwards superintended by the Rev. Mr. Smith. Amongst others of the scholars of that gentleman, he was strongly impressed with a sense of religious duty; here was laid the foundation of that piety which afterwards so eminently distinguished him as a minister of the gospel. Resolving to devote his existence to the service of his Redeemer, he entered Princeton College in the year 1770, where he applied himself rigidly to such studies as would qualify him for a task so sacred and important. When the usual term of his collegiate education had expired, he spent six or eight months at the house of his father, under the care of the Rev. Dr. Cooper. Being called upon to take the charge of a select academy in Philadelphia, he accepted of that appointment. At the conclusion of a year he resigned that office, returned and resumed his studies under his former teacher. In the year 1775 he was licensed by the Carlisle Presbytery and entered on the duties of his ministry, having previously formed a matrimonial connection with Rebecca Blair, daughter of the Rev. John Blair, a pious and learned minister

of the Gospel. By this marriage he became the father of twelve children, five of whom only are now living. In the year 1776, he was appointed chaplain to a regiment commanded by general Thompson, raised in the neighbourhood of Carlisle, on which occasion he was ordained by the same presbytery by which he was licensed. Shortly after the regiment was ordered to march for Canada; but Mr. Linn finding that the peculiar situation of his family rendered his presence indispensible, resigned his office and settled at Big Spring. Here, for the space of six years, he faithfully discharged the duties of his mission, and his popularity, every day increasing, required a more extended field for exertion. He was accordingly elected president of the Washington Academy, on the eastern shore of Maryland. At the expiration of a year the sickly state of his family compelled him to resign his charge, and he accepted of a call from the Presbyterian congregation of Elizabethtown in N. Jersey. He continued in the exercise of his pastoral duties until the year 1786, when he removed with his family to New York, and was settled in the reformed Dutch church of that city. His administration of the gospel was attended with the most signal success. His genius now seemed to respire in a congenial element. The theatre was broad enough to admit of the full expansion of his faculties, and he gained a reputation for eloquence, unrivalled in his native country. The poet, Cowper, without a knowledge of the original, has given us a faithful portraiture of his cloquence.

I would express him (the preacher) simple, grave, sincere,

In doctrine incorrupt; in language plain,

And plain in manner, decent, solemn, chaste,
And natural in gesture; much impressed
Himself as conscious of his awful charge,
And anxious mainly that the flock he tends

May feel it too; affectionate in look,

And tender in address, as well becomes

A messenger of grace to guilty men.

By him the violated law speaks out

In thunders, and by him in tones as sweet

As angels use, the gospel whispers peace.

This scene was the harvest of his fame; before sickness and