Various, that the mind of desultory man, studious of change and pleased with novelty, may be indulged-Cowp. Vol. VI. Philadelphia, Saturday, August 6, 1808. No. 6 ORIGINAL PAPERS. For The Port Folio. TRAVELS. LETTERS FROM GENEVA AND FRANCE. Written during a residence of between two and three years in different parts of those countries, and addressed to a lady in Virginia. (Continued from page 71.) My dear E, I HOPE I do not deceive myself, in supposing that you have been amused with the account in the last letter: had I suppressed the name of the insect and omitted a few circumstances, as in one of Hume's essays, or pretended that some traveller, Mr. Humbold, for instance, had discovered a nation of Amazons in South America, you would have admired the arrangement of a commonwealth, in which the monarchical and de mocratick powers were so wisely combined, and the science of domestick administration carried to such perfection. In some future letter, I will endeavour to give you an idea of the discoveries which have been made by another Mr. Huber, the son of the lastmentioned, in the history and internal management of a race of bees, who live under ground; we call them humblebees, in English; they make in small quantities, an inferiour kind of honey, and have which you will, adapted to their pean instinct, or inspiration, call it culiar. circumstances and situation: he has turned his attention to the commonwealth of ants also, whom I find, upon better acquaintance, to be by no means unworthy of the notice taken of them by Solomon; they cannot indeed be held forth as patterns of foresight and frugality, for they consume as much as they can lay their hands on, and sleep all the winter; but they have in general a large family to bring up; they have fatigue parties who labour for the common good, and bring home food for the rest, in a L very unusual way, and they are content that their superiours, who are the parents of the nation, should be exempted from labour: these last, who are a winged race, take flight, with the exception of a very few, at a certain season of the year, and leave the ant-hill, as the nobility of France did the tiers état, to get through the winter as they can; there are circumstances attending this active race that are not unworthy of our attention: they have a degree of sensibility in their horns, or feclers, by which with roots to live upon, and compress them at regular periods, as the inhabitants of a village in the Alps may be seen milking their cows every morning and evening. Other animals are observed to live among the ants, unmolesting and unmolested, and may possibly serve for some domestick purpose, which has not yet been discovered, and as the pucerons are in the nature of cows, these other insects may be as the dogs and cats of the ant nation. If these discoveries of the younger Mr. Huber raise the nation of ants in your estimation, it must be con vate the importance of the puceron race, who act also as purveyors for the race of bees; it is to them is owing that honied substance on the leaves of trees, and which sometimes falls from them like dew, and which you may perceive the bees so busily employed in collecting of a summer morning. You will be struck with the circumstance of three individuals of the name of Huber, of three succeeding generations, being distinguished for their ingenuity and their talents of observation in Natural History, but the race of man, unlike the race of bees and ants, who are impelled by instinct, is principally influenced by the force of early domestick example; our nerves, like the strings of a musical instrument, may be made to convey the most sublime, or the most ordinary sensations, and our mental organs can only be developed their sensations are communicated to each other in a way scarcely inferiour to speech, and though arm-fessed, that they very much eleed with teeth, they seldom make use of them against any living creature, but instead of that violence which many of the smaller of the brute creation exercise against such as are still smaller and weaker than themselves, they employ arts, of which you would not suppose an ant capable: the principal objects of their attention are the puceron and the gall insect-animals which, like a rich luxurious planter, live always upon the same spot, and derive a superabundant nourishment from the paternal stem, or leaf, with hardly any other exertion than what the powers of the trunk require: these they approach, and practising certain blandishments, induce them to give up a part of their superfluity: sometimes they carry their arts still further; they either surround the little establishment of pucerons with a shelter of clay, against the weather, and against the inroads of other animals, taking care to leave a private passage for themselves, or, as if they foresaw a degree of danger from coming abroad every day, they carefully remove the to their own pucerons cells under ground, furnish them * I observe that Forsyth, who has the merit of having adapted the improvements of surgery, to the treatment of fruit trees, was acquainted with the nature of this substance, which he calls honey-dew; he attributes it to a small insect, called the vinefretter. by the culture which our minds receive. You may not be able to leave your children rich, or to see them placed in brilliant situations, but you may give them morality to direct their course by, you can inspire them with activity, which seeks for employment, and you must take care that a liberal education shall enable them to turn their activity into a proper channel. On looking back, I perceive, that contrary to a practice very common in the world, I have spoken too little of ourselves, and too much of others; it is time, therefore, to enter into some description of our country life, and of the place we live at. As the houses of Geneva are crowded with inhabitants, the streets are dirty, without any side pavement, and, in general, too steep for pleasurable exercise: the taste for passing the summer in the country, is very prevalent, and we, among the rest, began, at a very early period of the Spring, to look out for a retreat: the difficulty was, to determine upon a choice in the number that were offered, and we at last fixed upon the Maison Constant at St. Jean, near the confluence of the Arve and Rhone, which we got furnished for sixty pounds ayear. The house is roomy and convenient; and three or four steps lead from the drawing room to the terrace, which is upwards of 100 yards long, and broad in proportion, and planted with double rows of lofty trees, which afford shade at every hour of the day, and are so arranged, as to leave intervals at either extremity and in front for one of the most beautiful and diversified prospects in the world. The slope in front, which might almost be called a precipice, leaves room for a narrow strip of vineyard, and then succeeds the broad, azure-coloured, rapid stream of the Rhone: a garden tract of 60 or 70 acres of rich soil, bounded by the Arve, and visibly the deposit of the waters in former times, next presents itself, in all the lively beauty of variegated vegetation; and the view is afterwards carried over fertile fields. and vineyards, and farm houses, and villages, till it is terminated, at no great distance, by the mountain of Soleve. To the left, the ci-. ty presents itself in one of the best points of view, at a distance of little more than half a mile; on one side of it is a glimpse of the lake, and above it, at a distance, are cultivated hills, where I often admire. the unusual reunion of all that be speaks plenty and population, with that sort of comfortable retirement from which it might be delightful to survey the world. On the other side is seen the Buet, one of the loftiest of the Alps, and next to it is the commencement of those masses of granite which are connected with Mont Blanc. From the right of the terrace, the view would 1emind you of those sudden turns in the North River, where the waters appear to have burst a pas sage: the banks are lofty and steep, and the Rhone receives the accession of the Arve, which, white with pulverised rock, from the mountain, seems at first repulsed, as a rough and ill-bred country 'squire might be by some beauty of polished manners, and better education-but great is the power of perseverance; those turbid wa ters, which at first make scarcely any impression on the Rhone, are very soon in possession of half the space, fram bank to bank, and shortly after, from the change of colour, which is evident, they seem in possession of the whole. clergyman of Geneva, preaching | den, at the foot of which runs the not long ago to a numerous audience, and wishing to impress upon the minds of the younger part of his congregation a sense of the danger that would arise from the contagion of improper company in the world, made a very happy allusion to the junction of these rivers, and to the effects which I have described. The church of Geneva, though stripped of its consistorial powers, is still rendered respectable by the personal merit of its ministers, and good preaching is as much admired as ever. The sermon is, indeed, the only part of the service, which is properly attended, and it is not unusual, after the reader has been reciting the word of the Lord to empty benches, to perceive a rush of company, and a degree of momentary confusion, when a favourite minister is to preach, which reminds one too much of the theatre. The style of preaching is such as you would think exaggerated; it is attended with a great deal of action, and consists very much in description. The estate annexed to the Maison Constant is a very small one, and in the hands of a farmer who pays thirty louis for about twelve English acres, with a small dwelling house, and out-houses. From two poses, or 58,254 square feet (English) of vineyard, he has, this year, made seven chars, or 5600 quarts, nearly 13 pipes of English measure. The wine is but of an ordinary quality, and from the abundant vintage all over the country, would not sell, at present, for more than 3 the char. Such land is supposed to be worth about 89, the acre. Below the house is another small estate, with a vineyard and a gar Rhone. Before the reformation, there was a nunnery on the spot, the church was dedicated to St. Jean, which has given its name to the whole neighbourhood. The garden tract, on the opposite side, reminds me a little of our rice fields, it is cultivated to the utmost advantage, and watered by means of wheels, which having buckets fixed to the rim of the circumference, and being set in motion by the current, are seen dipping up and pouring out, alternatively, the water in the manner of the elevators in our rice mills: the water is received in a trough properly placed for that purpose, and is conducted where it is required. A drawing which accompanies this will give you a very good idea of the situation I have been describing; words alone are insufficient. For The Port Folio. From the infancy of that well organized establishment, The Philadelphia Academy, until the present period of its glorious maturity, we have been constantly solicitous for its success. Powerful were the reasons for this sort of anxiety. Frequent habits of intimacy with the gentleman, to whom the arduous care of this Se minary is intrusted, taught us highly to appreciate his moral and intellectual worth, the purity of his principles, his variety of information, and his zeal in the cause of useful and elegant literature. Nor did the plan and discipline of his Academy escape our regard. We thought the one was liberal and the other exact, and both commanded an ample approbation. The success of this Seminary has abundantly verified every sanguine hope. In despite of early obstacles, and frequent disappointments, Dr. ABERCROMBIE has meritoriously persevered, and has tri umphed over the Malice and Caprice of Fortune. We had not the pleasure of witnessing his recent exhibition, by which, according to annual custom, the Publick are entertained with brilliant proofs of the abilities of the instructor, and the genius and docility of his pupils. But though it was our misfortune to be absent, we learn from all quarters, and, in particular from the report of those, whose praise is of sterling value, that the performance of the young gentlemen exceeded all expectation. The skill and harmony of their enunciation, the gracefulness of their gesture, the accuracy of their emphasis, and the dignity and manliness of their deportment were the themes of general applause. At the close of the Commencement their classical instructor pronounced the following Charge, which is copious without prolixity, and minute without confusion. Although the topicks of education are of extreme triteness, and have been amply and ably discussed by original thinkers, under the happiest auspices, yet Genius, in aliance with victorious Industry, can discover new and pleasant paths to Minerva's Temple. Dr. Abercrombie though he has had frequent occasion to traverse a beaten field, has the art of conducting us through it without a symptom of languor, or an exclamation of impatience. We follow him and are delighted; nor should we assign so ample a space to the article, now expanding before us, were it not a dict te of our judgment that his survey of the varieties of life is wide and clear, and that it may be profitably scanned, not merely by the prying schoolboy, but by the adult critick. In the present state of the country, while some are engrossed by Avarice, and many are servile to Faction, while the grovelling crowd see nothing but Earth's surface, and only the favoured few perceive and acknowledge the transcendant charms of Genius, assisted by Art and Learning, fortified by Discipline, let the merit of a successful Teacher re | ceive no inglorious reward. Liberal encouragement will invigorate future exertion, and that ACADEMY We commend, like those of which we read in the golden ages of Greece, may be the nursery of Heroes, Philosophers, Oratours, and Statesmen. A CHARGE, &c. YOUNG GENTLEMEN, This day, by minds less expanded and cultivated than yours, would be considered as a day of jubilee; because the long-expected day of emancipation from the confinement and discipline of a school. That you should finish your course of studies here with joy, and justly appreciate the honours which this Seminary confers upon her studious and faithful sons, is indeed natural and truly laudable. But, I flatter myself, your exhileration originates not in so childish, so ignoble a motive as that I have suggested: a motive which can exist only in a weak and a frivolous mind. You, I trust, rejoice because you have now completed the acquisition of those elementary principles of English literature, which form the proper basis for a learned, and, where that is not intended, will always be in the highest degree useful, as constituting the various branches of a complete English education.* In the former case, the correct and scientifick knowledge you have The branches of science, taught in the Philadelphia Academy, are Reading, Writing, Arithmetick, Merchants' Accompts, Book-keeping, Grammar, Composition, Elocution, Natural History, Geography and Logick; together with the general principles of Morals and of Christianity; the students, under the age of sixteen, being called upon every Saturday to recite the Catechism of the religious society to which they belong; after which a lecture is read by the Director, upon one of the general precepts or principles of the Christian Re ligion. |