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that are found in Afia, Africa, Europe and America. Upwards of 50 of the best finished and accurate Wax Figures were also added; among which, were full length statues of Gen. Washington, Lady and Family, J. Adams, Franklin, Stiles, Trenck, the Boston, and other Beauties, and a great variety of Fanciful Figures. Its Hiftorical, and other Paintings, were very numerous and fuperb; among these, were America, allegorical; Canute the great, Belifarius, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hancock, Humphreys, Knox, Hamilton, Madison, Howe, Muhlenburg, &c.—the most interesting Scenes from Shakespeare, &c. at full length-(many of these Paintings were valued at from 500 to 1000 dolls.) and an extensive variety of other Likenesses, Views, &c. executed by the most eminent Afiatic, European and American masters. To these were also added a great and rich collection of minerals and foffils; philofophical and mechanical apparatus. In short, a highly valuable, extenfive and interesting variety of most all the various Productions of Nature, Science and Art, were to be found, arranged with great care and system, in a large, and elegantly adapted Building, erected by the Proprietor for the accommodation and gratification of the public.

Such, in brief, was the COLUMBIAN MUSEUM-when, on the evening of the 15th Jan. 1803, it was destroyed by fire, occafioned by accident.

If the death of a private friend, or a public benefactor, calls forth our forrow; if their worth was calculated to command our ferious reflections, and to be held up monitory to fociety-then the lofs of the late COLUMBIAN MUSEUM, in a connective view, called forth our grief, and our pity for not only as an important department of Arts and Sciences, but even as an interesting Political, Moral, and Religious arcana, did it exift. It was calculated to amuse, without disgusting; to please, without fatiating; to correct the errors of ignorance and superstition, without offending; to obliterate malice and revenge, without infulting; to destroy vice and barbarism, without violent compulsion-to rear up the tender shoots of genius and talent with affiduity, care, and gentleness ; to dignify and immortalize the conceptions and works of matured knowledge and ability. It held forth a UNIVERSAL MIRROR! a miniature of the WORKS and CONSEQUENCES of CREATION! We looked, and were charmed and edified!

What were our feelings, when we saw this " work of merit and of years,” a prey to the tyrannic and destructive element, in one short hour wholly obliterated! Vanished, as by the hand of magic," into air, thin air!" What were our ideas at that inglorious moment, when fociety lost one of the first reforts of rationality and improvement! and when Mr. BowEN, at that trying time, rifing fuperior to selfishness, forgot his own great misfortune in his wishes and exertions to save his neighbours from the deftruction he had sustained !

From the worth of the MAN, and the annihilation of bis invaluable property, a general grief was felt by all; univerfal was the hope, that he would not despair, and general were the efforts for affording him all the affistance, which friendship and esteem could bestow.

(To be continued.)

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PRINTED AND SOLD BY E. LINCOLN, WATER-STREET.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

WE have read the letter of R. F. on the impropriety, which is practifed by many of our Bookfellers, in their advertising literary works, which they receive from their American brethren and from foreign countries, as just published by themselves. Of the reditude of his intentions we can have no doubt; for this mode of their advertisements is undeniably wrong. But he accufes and cenfures rather too harshly. A gentle hint, we hope, would be quite fufficient for effecting the defired reformation.

LETTER 2. from STUDIOSUS, and the LOITERER No. 2. are deferred for our next publication.

We are

MEANDER'S "Ode on the close of the year 1803,” might, if published, be amusing to fome, and puzzling to all its readers. willing, however, to gratify its author with a typographical impreffion of the four first lines :

"Lo! the rolling year expires,
And in frowning pomp retires.
Down time's abyfs forever gone!

The months on breezy wings have flown!"

We received, fome time ago, an ELEGIAC EPISTLE, which contains much poetical imagery expressed by proper and elegant language, together with feveral confpicuous imperfections. We are unwilling to reject it yet we choose to delay its publication, till it has undergone a critical revifal of the writer.

In reply to the advisory letter of Q. R. S. we here mention our defign for allotting a department in the MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY of September next, and in the fucceeding NUMBERS, for reviewing PLAYS, and for Strictures on ACTING, under the title of THE DRAMATIC INQUISITOR.

ERRORS IN THE PRECEDING NUMBER.

Page 99, line 7, for history read bigotry. Page 102, line 3 from the bottom, for influence, read inflame. Page 103, line 4, for bare, read bafe.

Page 183, line 9, in the prefent number, for damp, read lamp.

THE

MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY,

FOR

FEBRUARY, 1804.

For the MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY.

ANTONINUS AND ARISTIDES.

A DIALOGUE.

Mr. PER-SE,

IF the following translation of a Greek Dialogue, written about A. D. 175, is deferving of a place in the ANTHOLOGY, "give it room." It has coft some pains, and, I hope, will afford fome pleasure.

PHILOSTRATES.

It was my good fortune to accompany the emperor, in his

campaign againft Caffius, as his Secretary. The heroism of this godlike man I have already recorded. But to me his virtues. and philofophy were as interesting, as his courage. His reafon was as irresistible, as his arms; and he excelled the reft of mankind as much in the vigour of his mind, as in the luftre of his fortune. He derived the prerogative of majesty from nature; and his pen was as powerful, as his fword.

You may recollect my account of the emperor's reception of Ariftides, the orator of Smyrna. His oration in praise of his country I also sketched out to you, with the fingularity of his conduct. Antoninus forgave eccentricity, when it was the concomitant of genius. In the evening of that day, which was devoted to the pleasures of philofophy, Aristides was emboldened by the emperor's complacency to inquire into the course of his life, and the nature of his literary pursuits.

In the current of converfation, Ariftides expreffed his aftonishment at the power of Antoninus in following the mufes in the court and camp. "Inter arma filent" mufæ.

You wonder, faid the emperor, how I have mingled philofophy with war and politics. But retirement into wilds and woods is not neceffary to fpeculation or virtue. The wife man re

treats from noise and folly into his own breast, and enjoys the pleasures of intellect and benevolence, in the contemplation of power and goodnefs, as exhibited by the gods, or in devifing fchemes for the happiness of men.

I know, replied Ariftides, this felf-command is poffible to one, who adds to the empire of his paffions the empire of the earth, and who defies the rage of men and the caprice of fortune. But to him, who feels the buffeting of a rude world, and out of the ten categories can boast but of time and place, there is no power of abstraction. His wants fubjugate his thoughts, and give him but a captive mind and a fettered frame.

I fee, rejoined Antoninus, you are yet ignorant of your own powers and dignity, and are willing to let your appetites and paffions hold divided empire with your mind. But what is this body, of which you make so great account, but a paltry machine of blood and bones; a piece of network of nerves and veins and arteries twisted together? As for your passions and appetites, they are not characteristics of our nature, for the brutes boast as many and as ftrong. If thefe then are but mere appendages, and drudges in the animal and focial economy, why will you inveft them with the rights of majefty, and sanction this ufurpation by fubmiffion?

I have often contemplated, replied Ariftides, the fublimity of that philofophy, which boasts fuperiority to time and chance. But it has generally appeared to me calculated to excite admiration, rather than regulate practice, or influence the mind. It feems to me a war upon our conftitutions, as wild as that of the Titans against the gods. It is at beft an enterprise of pride to efcape from its humble fphere. I feel a thousand wants-I gratify them and find a pleasure in the indulgence. I glow with a defire of glory, and, under this impulfe, hazard the most hardy attempts. Thus conftituted, can I be indifferent to accidents, and efcape from poverty and difgrace in afpiring contemplations? Can I break from those natural principles, which define my limited courfe, and neglect the claims of my difpofition, which teaches my duties, and is the oracle of my destiny?

A life of reflection on this subject, resumed Antoninus, may privilege me as a philofopher to give you fentiments, to which

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