In consequence of this act, the sum of seventy four thousand, two hundred and sixty eight dollars and seventy five cents was offered and accepted, this sum being the appraisement by a committee appointed for the purpose, of the garden, its walls and appurtenances, exclusive of the plants, shrubs, and trees contained in it.

Dr. H. was induced to make this publication with a view to correct a number of prevalent errours on the subject, originating partly in ignorance and partly in misrepresentation.

The second pamphlet contains an account of the present condition of the Elgin botanick garden, and a catalogue of its plants. The ground of this establishment, comprizing twenty acres, is now enclosed with a durable stone wall seven feet in height; which is lined with a belt of shrubs and forest trees of different kinds. An extensive green house and two spacious hot houses, forming a front of 180 feet, are erected. The catalogue of plants comprizes about three thousand different species, among which are many rare and curious exoticks from various remote parts of the globe.

Much praise is due to Dr. Hosack for the persevering attachment to science which has induced him to prosecute with so much zeal a pursuit which involved the partial sacrifice and more extensive hazard of his individual fortune. This gentleman ranks among his correspondents a number of naturalists of the first eminence in Europe and elsewhere, whose liberality has contributed not a little to the advancement of his institution. He announces an intention shortly to commence the publication of " American Botany, or a Flora of the United States," containing a description of the plants, their essential characters, &c. &c. to be, illustrated with coloured engravings, after the manner of the English Botany of Dr. Smith. A work of this kind, if properly executed, in addition to the proposed works of the very accurate and indefatigable Dr. Barton, of Philadelphia, will place the natural history of this country on a footing not less respectable than that of many countries much longer known.

It is impossible to quit this interesting subject without adverting to the establishment in the vicinity of this metropolis,*

* For an account of the establishment for natural history in Cambridge, Massachusetts, see Anthology for 1808, page 595.

commenced under happy auspices, but progressing slowly for want of the fostering support which is indispensably necessary to every institution in its infant state. Few objects have greater claims on the munificence of the wealthy, than one which unites the elegance of art with the utility of science. From the remotest antiquity a garden or similar situation has been considered the most appropriate seat of refined and rational enjoyment. Witness the Eden of the sacred, and the Elysium of profane writers. In every age of the world a predilection for the pursuits, uses, and amusements of horticulture has prevailed; from the splendid extravagance, which erected the hanging gardens of Babylon, to the laborious economy, which framed and furnished the floating gardens of Mexico. With regard to the study of botany, although the same mental improvement may not arise from a science exercising the memory chiefly, which is to be expected from more abstruse investigations; yet the very obvious utility of a knowledge of the productions of the soil, to agriculture, the arts, and to medicine, is too great not to command cultivation and patronage. The identification of a single species may be of incalculable consequence in preventing the effect of ignorance or imposture on the lives and health of society.

Patriotism and local attachment should direct the liberality of patrons of science here, toward an object, which alone can place the state of natural history in Massachusetts on a par with its standing in sister states. The severity of our climate renders necessary expenses, which are not incurred under a milder sun, yet this cannot operate as any objection to our botanical progress when it is recollected, that scarce any country has gone beyond Sweden in the successful cultivation of a knowledge of the earth's productions; and that the greatest naturalist the world ever saw, received his existence on the confines of the Baltick.

1

ARTICLE 27.

Memoirs of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, D. D. Founder and President of Dartmouth College, and Moor's Charity School; with a Summary History of the College and School. To which are added, copious Extracts from Dr. Wheelock's Correspondence. By David M'Clure, D. D. S. H. S. Pastor of a Church in East Windsor, Connecticut; and Elijah Parish, D. D. Pastor of the Church in Byfield, Massachusetts. Newburyport; published by Edward Little and Co. C. Norris and Co. printers. 1811. 8vo. pp. 336.

THIS Volume contains an account of the life, character, and labours of Dr. Eleazar Wheelock-of the great movement made under his auspices for converting the Indians to Christianity-and of the history and state of Dartmouth College, or University. It is interspersed with remarks, opinions, comments, and effusions of one or both of the authors; and supplied with a copious appendix of original letters and documents of different sorts.

Dr. Eleazar Wheelock was of puritan and levitical descent. His great grandfather, a minister in Shropshire, suffering for nonconformity, emigrated to Massachusetts, and lived at Dedham -afterwards at Medfield, of which he was one of the principal proprietors, and where he died, aet. 83, in 1683. The grandfather settled in Mendon, and as a commander of a corps of cavalry, maintained the warfare against the Indians with distinguished courage and perseverance ; qualities, which have continued in the family. His father lived a respectable farmer in Windham, Connecticut. Eleazar, his only son, a lively youth, of good talents and disposition, was destined for a liberal education; the more as a legacy of his grandfather, for whom he was named, was designed to provide for the expense. Whilst preparing for college at about sixteen years of age, Mr. Wheelock was so happy as to have a course of religious experience, that gave him an undoubting confidence in his good spiritual estate; and enabled him to hear the shouts of promise during the rest of his pilgrimage. So much, under grace, for an orthodox education. A person of one description of Christians has learned to believe that conversion must be preached to some, and improvement to others-that every one arrived to

years of discretion has at all times a measure of moral agency, which he may use or abuse, and on which his final destination is suspended; that he is always performing something right or something wrong; and that the work of religion is done and doing to the end of life. Such an one will naturally judge of his moral condition rather by his general tenor of disposition and behaviour, than by single religious acts or peculiar exercises at a given time. Another has been taught unconditional election, and supernatural grace, an influence in which there is nothing between it and the mind, infusing a new principle, and producing specifick operations and feelings, that constitute the evidence of election, and insure the name of the favoured vessel of mercy in indelible characters on the book of life. With what interest must such a man look for the decisive processfor the critical moment? With what eagerness welcome the new light, by which he sees himself among those who are sealed for redemption? This is the holding turn in his spiri tual concerns; which neither men, nor devils, nor his own remaining corruptions, can make him lose. Till this has been accomplished, no care to keep a good conscience has any effect to allay his fears of being lost; for the best acts of the unregenerate are but specious forms of sin; and when it is accomplished, his deviations and declensions may fix distrust upon his evidences, but cannot impair his title. His frames will not be always alike satisfactory-standing at various points between trembling solicitude and rapturous elevation; but so long as he can recur to his first experiences with a belief that they were genuine, though he may be cast down, he will never be in despair.

The early conversion of Mr. Wheelock is by no means the general privilege of the disciples of his school, however exemplary and regular their lives. The change, which they deem saving, is most commonly, in the case of those intended for the ministry, delayed till near the time when they must begin or relinquish their chosen calling. At that period they often find. themselves pursued as a “murderer by the avenger of blood, to the very gates of the city of refuge"-and they must enter or perish. If their reason survives the dismay or despondence of the law-work, the dreadful spasm in most instances passes off; and the agitation subsides into a calm, which enables

them first to hear the whispers of hope, and then proceed to the exultation of joy. The hope which Mr. W. now obtained, observe his biographers, afterwards proved the animating spring of his exertions to qualify himself for usefulness, and of his abundant labours to promote the best interest of mankind. It was a buoyant spirit, that prevented his sinking under the discouragements and pressures that his sanguine temperament and his peculiar views prompted him to encounter. It gave him a manifest advantage as a preacher in the times of extraordinary religious excitation which followed. Having no fears for himself, he was the more competent to the task of rousing and directing the fears of others.

Being graduated at Yale College in 1733, with the additional honour of the Berkeley prize assigned to him as one of the two best scholars in Greek, he soon commenced preacher, and was settled in Lebanon, Connecticut. The revival above mentioned soon after took place, which gave ample scope to his zeal and exertions, and gained him a name among the Whitefields and Tennants of the day. He was indefatigable in his exertions. In one year he preached four hundred and sixtyfive times. But this high effervescence of the popular mind could not last many years, and the ardent preacher found himself confined to the ordinary duties of his profession in a small parish; the attention of his people as he considered declining; and their support of their minister not satisfactory. As may be supposed, this was a scene far too tame for a spirit so keen and active. It was plain food to a man whose appetite demanded stimulants. He meditated some enterprize of pith and moment, some field of labour affording a wider range, and promising a richer harvest of usefulness, than could be found in his little vineyard of Lebanon. The exigences of the aboriginals of the country seized upon his mind. He resolved for himself to attempt making Christians of the American savages. He thought it a reproach upon our character, and a gross neglect of obvious duty, that more was not done to bring these pagan outcasts within the Christian fold. He believed that heaven had warned us of our guilt, by the frequent and deadly wars, which at various times had broken out between them and the whites. He was moved by a desire to give them the true religion for a barbarous superstition; to improve their state of