Voltaire, a Buffon, the constellation of Encyelopædists, the Abbe Raynal himself, &c. &c. We therefore have reason to believe she can produce her full quota of genius. The present war having so long cut of all communication with Great Britain, we are not able to make a fair estimate of the state of science in that country. The spirit in which she wages war, is the only sample before our eyes, and that does not seem the legitimate offspring either of science or of civilization. The sun of her glory is fast descending to the horizon. Her philosophy has crossed the channel, her freedom the Atlantic, and herself seems passing to that awful dissolution, whose issue is not given human foresight to scan*. Having given a sketch of our minerals, vegetables, and quadrupeds, and being led by a proud theory to make a comparison of the lat In a latter edition of the Abbe Raynal's work, he has withdrawn bis cenfure from that part of the new world inhabited by the FederoAmericans; but has left it still on the other parts. North-America has always been more acceffible to strangers than South. If he was mistaken then as to the former, he may be fo as to the latter. The glimmerings which reach us from South-America enable us only to fee that its inhabi bants are held under the accumulated preffure of flavery, fuperftition and ignorance. Whenever they shall be able to rife under this weight, and to fhow themselves to the rest of the world, they will probably show they are like the rest of the world. We have not yet fufficient evidence that there are more lakes and fogs in South America than in other parts of the earth. As little do we know what would be their operation on the mind of man. That country has been visited by Spaniards and Portuguese chiefly, and almost exclusively. These, going from a coun. try of the old world remarkably dry in its soil and climate, fancied there were more lakes and fogs in South America than in Europe. An inhabitant of Ireland, Sweden, or Finland would have formed the con. trary opinion, Had South America then been discovered and settled by a people from a fenny country, it would probably have been repre sented as much drier than the old world. A patient pursuit of facts, and cautious combination and comparison of them, is the drudgery to which man is subjected by his Maker, if he wishes to attain sure knows ledge. ter with those of Europe, and to extend it to the man of America, both aboriginal and emigrant, I will proceed to the remaining articles comprehended under the present query., Between ninety and an hundred of our birds have been described by Catesby. His drawings are better as to form and attitude, than colouring, which is generally too high. They are the following: |