Thus it will be seen, that these remains, which were so few and small along the northern lakes, are more and more numerous as we travel in a southwestern direction, until we reach the Mississippi, where they are lofty and magnificent' p. 189.

-We see a line of ancient works, reaching from the south side of lake Ontario across this state, to the banks of the Mississippi, along the banks of that river, through the upper part of the province of Texas, around the Mexican gulf, quite into Mexico:-increasing in number, improving in every respect as we have followed them; and showing the increased numbers and improved condition of their authors, as they migrated towards the country where they finally settled.

'It is true, that no historian has told us the names of the mighty chieftains, whose ashes are inurned in our tumuli; no poet's song has been handed down to us, in which their exploits are noticed. History has not informed us who were their priests, their orators, their ablest statesmen, or their greatest warriors. But we find idols that shew that the same gods were worshipped here as in Mexico. The works left behind them are exactly similar to those in Mexico and Peru; and our works are continued quite into that country.'. p. 248.

In some of the nitrous caves in Kentucky exsiccated bodies have been found, which are called mummies,' though it does not appear that they were ever embalmed. Of these the following account is given;

The mummies have generally been found enveloped in three coverings; first in a coarse species of linen cloth, of about the consistency and texture of cotton bagging. It was evidently woven by the same kind of process, which is still practised in the interior part of Africa. The warp being extended by some slight kind of machinery, the woof was passed across it, and then twisted every two threads of the warp together, before the second passage of the filling. This seems to have been the first rude method of weaving in Asia, Africa, and America. The second envelope of the mummies is a kind of net work, of coarse threads, formed of very small loose meshes, in which were fixed the feathers of various kinds of birds, so as to make a perfectly smooth surface, lying all in one direction. The art of this tedious, but beautiful manufacture, was well understood in Mexico, and still exists on the northwest coast of America, and in the islands of the Pacific Ocean. In those isles it is the state or court dress. The third and outer envelope of these mummies is either like the one first described, or it consists of leather sewed together.' p. 231.

It is but justice to say, that the active, zealous, and indefatigable exertions of Mr. Atwater in collecting the materials which compose the principal part of the volume before us, and in obtaining such accurate measurements and delineations, do him much honour. He has furnished information respecting these wonderful structures, which is more satisfactory than has ever before been given to the public; and his labours are particularly valuable and meritorious, because the antiquities which he has so minutely and accurately described are constantly mouldering away, and every year becoming more and more indistinct; and, as the forests are cleared, settlements made, and the land cultivated, they will one after another be levelled and obliterated.

6

The latter part of the volume consists of an account of the present state of the Indian tribes inhabiting the Ohio, by John Johnston Esq. United States agent for Indian affairs; Conjectures respecting the ancient inhabitants of North America,' by Moses Fiske Esq.; Antiquities and Curiosities of Western Pennsylvania,' by President Alden; • Communications,' by Dr. S. Mitchill; Description of a remarkable cave in Kentucky,' by J. H. Farnham; An account of the exsiccated body, or mummy, found in a cave,' by Charles Wilkins Esq.; and a very interesting account of the Caraibs who inhabited the Antilles,' by William Sheldon Esq. of Jamaica.

ART. XIII.-Memoires Historiques sur la vie de M. Suard, sur ses écrits, et sur le 18me Siècle, par Dominique Joseph Garat. Paris, 8vo, 2 vols. 1820.

THIS, we are sorry to say, is a very indifferent work. The plan is bad, and the execution not much better. We cannot, in conscience, recommend it to our readers; but having taken the trouble to go through it ourselves, we hope to be able to turn the time and labour employed upon it to some account, by extracting a part of the more instructive and amusing passages. The least valuable book generally contains something worth attention, as it has been observed, that some fruit may be gathered from the conversation of the dullest companion.

The author of this work sustained a conspicuous part in

the French revolution, and held the office of Minister of Justice, at its worst period. It was he who announced to the unfortunate Louis XVI the sentence passed upon him by the Convention, and who presided, as the superior judicial officer, over all the proceedings connected with his trial and execution. And yet Garat was not by nature a person of a savage and ferocious character. He possessed, on the contrary, the fine taste and feelings, that accompany a delicate physical organization, and his mind was early disciplined by Kterary studies. Before the opening of the revolution, he had obtained a considerable reputation by several publications of a fugitive kind, and was a promising candidate for higher literary eminence. Unfortunately his mind was heated by the political effervescence of the time, and with intentions originally honest and philanthropic, he was hurried on, step by step, to take a leading part in scenes of horror, that would have disgraced the worst of savages. This, like a thousand other examples of the same description, may serve to inculcate the useful lesson, that, when party disputes run high, the best intentions and the most respectable personal qualities are compatible with the most atrocious line of conduct; and may teach us to pause, when those, whom we ordinarily respect and esteem, would persuade us for political purposes to follow them to the perpetration of treason and murder.

Attracted into the vortex of political affairs, and absorbed by their details, before his views on general subjects were sufficiently matured, Mr. Garat has brought to the present enterprise a large stock of superficial reading on various subjects, accompanied by a very slender share of original thought. It is his plan to connect with a biographical sketch of Mr. Suard a review of the progress of knowledge, and in some measure of political events during the eighteenth century. It is difficult to imagine a more absurd and incongruous scheme. Suard, a man of real merit in his way, and a good writer, was a person of a most unassuming character, and passed his whole life in a secondary sphere of action. He neither took the lead in the opinions, nor in the events of his time. He received his philosophical impressions from the loftier spirits, that were shaking the world around him, and communicated them to the public through the journal, of which he was the editor. He was either too modest or too indolent to turn his talent for writing to any account, and

was satisfied, to use the language of one of our own writers, with adding a nameless stone to the pyramid of his country's glory.' He was admitted into the Academy on the strength of his good character, and his translation of Robertson's Charles V; and his greatest original effort is admitted by his biographer to have been a few letters published in his journal, upon the musical quarrel that raged at one time with so much bitterness at Paris; and even these he never avowed. Such was the person, who is now marked out for the leading figure in a group, composed of the most distinguished characters of the eighteenth century.

A plan so defective might have been remedied in part by a better execution. A rich stock of biographical anecdotes and valuable remarks, relating to the literary history of the period in question, would have been interesting under any title. Instead of this, we have a very small proportion of narrative, and an overwhelming mass of crude and indigested speculation upon all sorts of subjects. The author talks long and largely upon every thing, and has evidently reflected with precision and justice upon nothing. His style is the image of his matter, ambitious without effect, and diffuse without perspicuity. Superficial views are obtruded with pomp and bustle, and in all the imposing majesty of Italics and Capitals, as profound and original conclusions. And this is the more unpleasant, as the principles of the work are professedly liberal, and it therefore has the effect of an injudicious and unsuccessful defence of a good cause. There is, however, a slender strain of narrative running through the whole, which is interesting and attractive, from the great characters to which it relates, and it is to this that we shall principally attach ourselves in the present article, with some occasional remarks on the general subjects introduced and discussed in the work.

One of Suard's earliest productions was a eulogy on Louis XV. A prize had been offered by a provincial academy for the best performance on this subject, and Suard obtained it. A part of this eulogy was occupied with an account of the distinguished writers of the time; and the merit and genius of Montesquieu were particularly extolled. The illustrious. president was pleased with this tribute of applause, and sought the acquaintance of the young writer. This was among the first circumstances, that gave him an introduction into the

higher literary circles. The following passage contains some interesting details of the domestic life of Montesquieu, and of his opinions.

'Scarce was Montesquieu's wish to see M. Suard known, but it was fulfilled. M. Suard, like Eucrates before Sylla, felt little of that confusion before Montesquieu, into which one is commonly thrown, by the presence of great men. Whether alone, or in company, with this great genius, he was at ease, as one always is, when happy. It is true, that no man, of great or of small talents, was ever more simple than Montesquieu in his deportment and manners; and he was as much so, in the saloons of Paris, as upon his estate at the Brède, where, among his lawns, his fountains, and his English groves, he passed the day, from morning to night, with a white cotton cap on his head, and a long vine pole on his shoulder; and where those, who came to present to him the homage of Europe, asked him more than once, en le tutoyant, like a vine-dresser, "if that were the castle of Montesquieu." Whenever he spoke, of which he was neither profuse, nor sparing, you felt sure that it was Montesquieu. It was by turns the sprightly gaiety of Ricca, the vast and rapid views of Usbeck; sometimes the energetical and poetical expression of passion of Roxana, and always the same energy, when his hatred of despotism kindled his imagination. His defence of the Esprit des Lois, said d'Alembert, was the image of his conversation; his conversation was equal to his writings. Fénélon, Montesquieu, and Voltaire are the only great writers, who have displayed, to this degree, the gift of speech. M. Suard, as good a judge in this respect as d'Alembert, was of this opinion, This period in the life of Suard was one of those, of which he recalled the memory with the greatest delight. He, who knew more by reflection than memory, recollected, even to the very words, some of his conversations with Montesquieu. "Come, gentlemen," said he one day to the Abbé Raynal, to Helvetius, to Dr. Roux, and M. Suard, "you are at the age of great efforts, and of great success. I exhort you to be useful to men, as the greatest happiness of life; I have never suffered a mortification, of which one half hour's meditation could not soften the bitterness. For myself, I have done; I have fired away all my cartridges; my tapers are all burned out. You are beginning; take good aim at the mark; I have not hit it, but, I think, I have had sight of it. Man has not been able, has not been willing, to remain in that instinct, in which he was safe enough, though not far removed from the brutes. In seeking to raise himself up to reason, he has produced and consecrated the most monstrous errors. His virtues and his enjoyments were obliged to share the imperfection of his