tain that it will not be on any other day. Perhaps, also, it would be useful to require, that persons, in order to receive the benefit of the library, shouid refrain from profane swearing, and the intemperate use of ardent spirits. That a family may enjoy the benefit of the library, let the head of it be required to subscribe the constitution and laws. To complete the system, and render it more efficient, and productive of greater good, let each library, so formed, be the property of some Missionary Society, in the first instance, and under their inspection and control, and removable at their pleasure: and let that Society, as often at least as once a year, send a missionary to each of the places, where such a library is established, with a commission to inspect the library and make report; so that, if it be neglected, or abused, it may be removed to some other place.

It may also be stipulated, that whenever the people, in any one of those settlements, feel able, they may purchase the library of the Missionary Society, at a moderate estimate of its value. Then it will be their own, and the money may be devoted to establish a library in some other destitute settlement.

It is believed that charity libraries, thus established, will be very useful: for they will not only furnish the means of instruction to many, who are destitute, but they will operate directly to restrain vice and promote virtue; they will strengthen the hands of the pious, and of those, who wish to support order, by combining their influence, and giving them the influ

ence of missionaries and the Missionary Society; they will furnish employment to the rising generation, and an opportu nity of improving their minds; and they will add to the good influence of missionaries. Το these things we may add, that these libraries will bear standing testimony, which cannot be resisted, that the friends of religion are willing to sacrifice a portion of their property to do good to the souls of men.

That this is not mere theory will appear from the following facts, with which the writer is personally acquainted.

1

On the last of May, 1813, two ministers, (one of them a missionary) moved by the cry from the wilderness, Come over into Macedonia, and help us, undertook to procure books for, at least, one or two charitable libraries, to consist of Scott's Family Bible, bound in 18 volumes, and other practical and experimental works, so as to make 25 or 30 volumes for each library. They had no funds, and therefore depended on the success, which Divine Providence might give, by opening the hearts of the pious and the liberal. Subscription papers were drawn and circulated: and through the good hand of God upon them, they had the pleasure of seeing collected, within 5 months, no less than 350 volumes of new, bound books, including 10 sets of Scott, each in 18 volumes, besides many tracts and pamphlets. They had also subscriptions, in money and books, to a considerable amount, still remaining.

These books were sufficient for 10 libraries on the plan proposed. Six have been already

established to the joy of many destitute people, and returns of them have been made to the Berkshire and Columbia Missionary Society, whose property they now are, and under whose inspection and control they are placed. The remaining books, and as many more procured, will be formed into libraries, as soon as the necessary preparation can be made in new settlements; and it is hoped that, under the divine blessing, they may much good.

as can be

be instrumental of

The libraries, already established, are in the counties of Montgomery and Saratoga, in the northern part of the state of New York.

On the same plan, if the means were furnished, charity libraries might be established to a great extent. It would be desirable to have them in all our new settlements. There appears to be need of them along the borders of the wilderness through Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Ohio, and the country south and west of Ohio, as far as our territories extend.

If such libraries should be established in those places, they would be so many posts and fortifications for the establishment of the Gospel, where missionafies might consider themselves as at home, and would serve as a rallying point for all the friends of truth and virtue.

It would be easy to enlarge, but the writer fears, that he has occupied too much space on the pages of the Panoplist for a stranger, and therefore will close by observing, that, if it should be thought desirable, he will forward for publication the Consti

tution and Laws, which have been framed for those charity libraries, which have been already established.

Φιλόψυχος.

STUBBORN FACTS.

To the Editor of the Panoplist.

Sir, THE annexed statement was made, in the year 1803, by a racity and accuracy. gentleman of unquestionable veIt was lately found among his loose papers; and, by his consent, it is tion in the Panoplist. The town now forwarded to you for inseralluded to, is not on the seaboard, but in the interior of Massachusetts. Its inhabitants are, principally, husbandmen and mechanics, who have never been considered as peculiarly addicted to intemperance; but on the contrary, have had as high a repof manners as, perhaps, any peoutation for industry and sobriety ple in New England.

The statement is thus given: "In this town, we annually pay taxes for the following purposes, and nearly the following sums, viz. $800

For schools

For
support
State and County taxes 900
For support of two Minis-

of the poor 1000

ters

For making and mending highways Allow for incidental charges

670*

3000

1000

Amount, 87,370

It is found by exact inquiry, that, within one year, the fol

*Each minister is partly supported by a parsonage.

Amounting to the enormous sum of

$1,170

$15,560." The paper adds a single reflection "The money which is paid for schools, for the maintenance of the poor, for the support of the Ministry, and for repairing highways, is expended in the town, and again circulates among us; and for it we receive an equivalent, in the preaching of the Gospel, in the education of our children, in convenient roads, and in the administration of good government. But the money paid for ardent spirits, all goes out of the town. Fifteen thousand, five hundred and sixty dollars, carried out of town yearly and for what!"

Now, Mr. Editor, among all the glaring statements on this subject, which have been contained in your pages, I have seen nothing that surpasses this. The population of the town, to which this sketch applies, was at the time about 3000: so that the expense of ardent spirits was $5,25, to each man, woman, and child, for one year: or about $30 to each family. I forbear to follow out the train of reflections suggested by these facts. Let every plain man sit down to the computation for himself. By the use of a few figures, he may

see, that more than twenty missionaries in India might have been supported by one town, with the same money that was employed to procure poverty, poison, and death to its inhabitants! Admitting what I have supposed, that the people of this town aré not peculiarly addicted to spirits, it is certain that, within the same year, the inhabitants of Massachusetts and Maine, must have paid, for the same deadly poison, at least three millions, sixteen thousand, four hundred and sixty one dollars. Happily, the progress of this evil has been partially arrested by the recent circumstances of the country, and the efforts of good men. We look back and exclaim,-"Verily we have been dreaming on the brink of a tremendous gulf! Our institutions, our liberties, our existence as a people, have been in jeopardy. Still we are but half awakened from our dream, if we suffer the work of reformation to languish, and shrink from the labor of finishing what has been so auspiciously begun."

P.

CAUTION TO YOUNG MEN.

PERHAPS no opinion has been more prevalent, than that a moderate, daily use of ardent spirits is harmless; though intemperance is universally considered as fatal to health and life. This pinion has ruined multitudes. It is by this harmless, moderate use of spirits that habit fastens its iron fetters on its thousand victims. Especially is this the fact with a certain class of invalids; and with those day laborers, who expect to receive spir its at stated times, from their

termined they should both make trial of their abilities, and he should succeed, who did most mischief. One made his ap

pearance in the shape of gunpowder, the other in that of brandy: The former was a declared enemy, and roared with a terrible noise, which made folks afraid, and put them on their guard: the other passed as a friend and physician through the world, disguised himself with sweets, and perfumes, and drugs, made his way into the ladies' cabinets, and the apothecaries' shops, and, under the notion of helping digestion, comforting the spirits, and cheering the heart, produced direct contrary effects; and, having insensibly thrown great numbers of human kind into a fatal decay, was found to people hell and the grave so fast, as to merit the government, which he still possesses."

LVI. The Columbiad.

twenty years, which elapsed from the publication of the Vision of Columbus to that of the Columbiad, the poet resided at Algiers, Paris, London, and other places in the eastern world. In the latter work, numerous marks of the residence at Paris are discernible; and, perhaps, if every place through which the writer passed were to put in its claims, all the new words and phrases might easily be accounted for without recurring to America in a single instance.

It is proper to remark, in this place, that English and Scotch Reviewers have discovered a hy

percritical petulance, on the sub ject of Americanisms, not very compatible with their high pretensions to the character of dignified and impartial critics. Without denying that our countrymen may have insensibly formed a few phrases, which vary in a slight degree from the best use in England; and that they may also have introduced a few words, not before sanctioned in our language, by deriving nouns from verbs, verbs from nouns, &c.; yet we can prove undeniably, that in nearly all the instances which we have seen noticed, the words in question were not Americanisms; i. e. they were neither first used in this country, nor are they in any sense peculiar to our writers.

The word advocate, for example, used as a verb, has been called an Americanism by the Anthology critics, if not by English reviewers. It is not justly so called, as it is sanctioned by respectable English authority. But no other word has furnished so much employment for wits and critics, as the verb to improve, and its derivatives. The first and most proper sense of this word, is, to make better, to advance a thing toward perfection. Another sense, in which the word is constantly used a mong us, is, to make a good use of, to employ to advantage. When used in this sense, the word is called an Americanism. Dr. Franklin began the charge many years ago; and it has been a thousand times repeated. The flippant English traveller, when

*We here refer to a class of empty, idle, ignorant travellers, with which this country has been much infested. They VOL. X.

he first arrives among us, cannot understand the good minister, who exhorts the young to improve their time, and who regularly comes to the improvement of his sermon. He affects, also, to be nonplussed, when he hears the clearing and tilling of lands in a new country styled improvements; which, by the way, is taking the word in its strictest and most proper sense, and simply applying it to a new object; for the clearing of land is undoubtedly an improvement, as it makes the land more valuable. The question, whether the second use of the word originated in this country, is easily settled. To a person, who is even moderately conversant with English books, it cannot be a matter of doubt, that from a period, antecedent to the settlement of this country, to the present day, the word has been used in this sense, without the smallest intermission, by very respectable writers, who never saw America. It is so used by Baxter, Beveridge, and their cotemporaries, by Watts, Doddridge, and their cotemporaries, and by Mrs. More, Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Scott, the writers in the Christian Observer, and a multitude of other popular authors, who are now living. This use of the word is much more common in religious books, than within the circle of polite literature: yet a friend of ours, who is observant of such matters, has assured us, that, in the course of his reading, he has remarked more than twenty instances of the same use of the

make great books, on returning to Eu rope, and effectually mislead and deceive multitudes of readers.