ing over the commonplace topics of the history of our independence, the orator insists strongly upon the necessity of an efficient general government, and evidently labours to prepare the popular sentiment for a favourable reception of the new constitution then under consideration of the convention, in session in Philadelphia.

These various publications continued to increase and extend his reputation as a man of general talents; but in the meanwhile his success at the bar was by no means flattering. His mind, long habituated to indulge itself in all the elegant luxuries of learning, or to exercise its reasoning powers only upon general truth and philosophical investigation, could not descend with facility to the minute details, and mechanical drudgery, of the subordinate branches of his profession. He was unfortunate in an embarrassed elocution, his habits of life were grave and retired, and his manners and address were not of that familiar and conciliating cast which so often supplies or conceals the want of professional merit. These, or similar impediments, have for a season depressed the talents of some of the brightest ornaments of the bar; but have finally given way to the power of resolute application, or the invincible energies of genius.

Barlow, however, was in no situation to wait for wealth and ho nour, which might come too late, if they came at all. The small fund which he had accumulated from his literary speculations was rapidly decreasing, and the emoluments of his business were incon. siderable. He had, indeed, no children to render poverty more bitter by participating with him of its evils; and the active virtues and cultivated understanding of his wife, enabled him to bear up with fortitude against the privations and difficulties which threatened him.

Under these circumstances he was easily induced to abandon the profession, and engage in an employment which promised to enable him to obtain, in Europe, that competence for which he seemed destined to toil in vain in his native land. Of the nature of this new occupation the writer of a sketch of the earlier part of Mr. Barlow's life, published several years ago,* gives the follow

* In the London Monthly Magazine, for 1798. This and several other sketches of American characters, are understood to have been written by the late Dr. W. P. Smith, of New-York.

ORIGINAL.

SKETCH

OF THE

LIFE AND WRITINGS OF JOEL BARLOW.

JOEL BARLOW was the youngest of ten children of a respectable farmer, in independent but moderate circumstances. He was born at Reading, a village of Fairfield county, Connecticut, in or about the year 1755. His father died while he was yet a lad at school, and his portion of the patrimonial property was little more than sufficient to defray the expenses of a liberal education, even if conducted upon the most economical plan. In 1774 he was placed by his guardian at Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, an institution, at that time, in its infancy, and struggling with many difficulties and embarrassments. After a very short residence there, he removed to Yale College, New Haven.

The class into which he entered at Yale College was remarkable for the high promise of talent displayed by many of its members, several of whom have since been eminently distinguished in various pursuits of active life. Among these Barlow always

ranked as one of the first.

About this period a taste for the cultivation of polite literature had sprung up in Connecticut, and, especially, at the college of New Haven, which had formerly been chiefly devoted to the severer sciences, and to those studies which are more immediately subsidiary to theological learning. The desire of imitation is the natural consequence of admiration of any species of excellence; and this revolution in taste soon manifested itself in many poetical attempts, attended, of course, by various degrees of success. The state of society in this country, which presents a much greater demand for every species of active talent, than for any of the mere elegances of literature, did not allow even the most successful of the Connecticut bards to devote themselves long to the ser

vice of the muses. They have all turned aside into other walks of intellectual labour, and several of them have arrived at high distinction in politics and learning. The productions of this school of poets, if it may be termed so, were mostly called forth by occasional subjects, and were all written by young men engaged in the study or practice of some profession. From these circumstances, as well as from the unsettled and dubious aspect of public affairs, at that period, and from the want of a ready communication between distant parts of our country, an evil then universal, and still, though in a much less degree, felt as a serious impediment to successful literary exertions, most of their poets have attained to little more than a temporary and local popularity. Yet of the little good poetry which America has produced, their works constitute a large proportion. Their satirical verses are among the happiest imitations of Butler; and their graver poetry is formed upon the purest models of the silver age of English poetry-upon the style of Dryden, of Pope, and of Goldsmith. In the imitation of their favourite authors, like all young artists, they have copied some of the defects of their models, while many of the more delicate graces have escaped. What in the original is languid, in the copy becomes tame. Their imagination is too closely reined in by a taste formed upon the study of particular models, and not refined by the general contemplation of every form of beauty. With these faults they have much excellence, and in a state of society which would have allowed of a more careful and exclusive cultivation of their poetical talents, some who at first limited their ambition to correct versification and happy imitation, might, like Lord Byron, after having thus familiarized themselves to the mechanical arts of poetry, have suddenly burst forth in all the dazzling glories of original genius. Among their happiest efforts may be numbered the M'Fingal of Trumbull, the Conquest of Canaan, and Greenfield Hill, of Dr. Dwight, the elegant translations, and some of the original verses, of Alsop, and many of the satiric pieces of Dr. Hopkins, and the wits of Hartford.

Barlow participated in the general taste of his young literary friends, and was soon "smit with the love of sacred song."

He displayed a talent for versification which gained him great