own individual notions of any kind. On the contrary, what perhaps inspires his disgust and gives him offence is, the discov ery that society is not only disposed and even prepared to make a convert of him even to "the bitter letter," but that it is apt to resort to violent measures in the attempt. and redouble that violence where the attempt has failed. The language which society addresses to him is neither calculated to convince his reason nor to conciliate his pride: it is this, "Your ways are bad, mend them, or you shall suffer for them." We endeavoured upon a former occasion.* to point out the difference between the imaginative and all other minds. We attempted to show that the tendencies of the poetical mind were less practical than those of any other. The poetical mind is of a temperament morbidly predisposed-a morbidly predisposed mind is one generally addicted to those extremes in feeling and situation which commonly result in that moral emasculation which incapacitates the individual for pursuing those practical ends, the proper efforts at attaining which, society presupposes in its very formation, and in the actual attainment of which its well being is involved. The individual thus incapacitated for the practical purposes of society, is scarce recognised as one of its members-he is in a great measure disconnected with the social contract; his interests are of course, not involved in the general interests; nor are they the interests of those immediately around him. He has therefore comparatively nothing at stake. What life-guards of conduct can such an individval possibly possess? And it is in a case of this kind, and in all similar cases, that the strength of passive impressions is so destructive of moral virtue. Passive impressions thus confirmed, incapacitate the individual for the practical ends of society, while society turns its back upon him for not pursuing those ends. The moment he is found holding himself aloof from society, society conceives a doubt of his character, and "once to be in doubt, is once to be resolved, and in the proof," which society is very ingenious in furnishing-"no more but this," he is banished by sentence of a moral ostracism. The man who has thus become a sentimental outlaw, who has been thus ejected beyond the pale of the moral and the social virtues, is let down the wind to prey at fortune;" and if he becomes by consequence addicted to extremes and excesses of conduct, is it at all to be wondered at?j

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Remarks on the Analogy between Painting and Poetry: published in the National Intelligencer for October 1822.

† Lord Bolingbroke is of opinion, that a man will profit by the experience he may acquire in the world, according to the temper and habit of mind which may have been previously unfolded and formed. "The same experience,” he observes, "which secures the judgment of one man or excites him to virtue,

THE BEAUTY OF UTILITY

In speaking of that appearance of Beauty which Utility confers, Adam Smith makes too subtle and sophistical a distinction, we think, between the actual convenience which utility affords, and the fitness or aptness of the object itself which produces this convenience, between the end of utility and the means calculated to produce it. He contends that we are generally more pleased with the means than with the end; and this he seems to regard as a discovery of his own, "that the exact adjustment of the means for attaining any convenience," he observes, "is generally more regarded than the very convenience in the attainment of which their whole merit would seem to consist, has not, so far as I know, been taken notice of by any body."* This has not been taken notice of by any body, for the very reason perhaps which we have suggested, that the distinction is too subtle and sophistical, and in fact amounts to nothing in the end. There is an original beauty resulting from the perception of order and regularity, independent of their utility, and this pleasure is perfectly congenial with the desires of our moral and intellectual nature. When the beauty proceeding from the appearance of utility is united to this original beauty the effect of the whole is undoubtedly the greater. There is no beauty, or at least but little in mere conveniency apart from all perception of the harmony of order and regularity. There are many pieces of mechanism totally without utility which yet please and are accounted beautiful. †

shall lead another into error or plunge him into vice." [1] The truth of this re mark has been illustrated, we fear by the moral failings of many virtuous minds; and is a circumstance to be accounted for only in the way in which we have attempted to explain it. The same writer remarks, that the chief advantage to be derived from the study of History is " that it prepares us for experience and guides us in it." This observation however will by no means admit of an universal application. Were it unexceptionably true, that this study, or any other, is capable of preparing us for an intercourse with the world, the very cases, we have been supposing would be the less pardonable and indeed could scarce possibly occur. History, which has been denominated or defined "Philosophy teaching by example," has certainly its uses; but we fear, that the influence of its precepts and examples on the moral character will never be accounted in the number. The topic doubtless might afford many curious and perhaps useful speculations. Before however we could hope to establish the doctrine of the practical uses of History, we should have to encounter the Moral Philosophy of Adam Smith, particularly those parts of his Theory of Moral Sentiments which treat of the nature and origin of the Principle of Moral Approba

tion.

[1] Letters on the Study of History. Letter II. page 25.

Theo. of Mor. Sen. Part IV. Chap. 1.

It will be kept in view, that Adam Smith is speaking of the beauty which utility affords. To ask us therefore, with an air of triumph, what it is that we ad

It is perfectly natural that we should admire the exquisite adjustment of means in the attainment of any end, apart from the end itself, but it does not follow therefore, that we have no regard to this end, or that there is no beauty resulting from the contemplation of it. distinct from our consideration of the means which produced it. In contemplating the Water-Works on the Schuylkill near the City of Philadelphia, we certainly admire the admirable adjustment of the means for promoting the end, viz. that of supplying the City with water. But does it follow that we have no regard to this end, or that we admire its utility less than the means made use of for promoting it? We should have admired the admirable utility of the invention, had the mechanical means been less exquisitely beautiful then they are. The utility of the invention is perhaps heightened in the imagination by virtue of the beauty of the means employed; and this is perfectly natural. It does not follow however, that had the ingenuity of the invention been less we should not have admired its utility as much. Adam Smith says farther, that it is not the desire of utility, but of that beauty which the appearance of it affords, that induces a good government to project internal improvements, and to protect and encourage its commerce and agriculture. Indeed! this is too vague and fanciful a theory we apprehend, to be applied in matter of so much and so great a practical moment. A level turnpike road is undoubtedly a beautiful object; but do we admire its beauty beyond or even as much as its utility. Public spirit. according to this writer, resolves itself not into the desire of promoting the public good; but merely the appearance of it! And as a proof of this he adduces the instance of Peter the Great, who with all his public spirit, we are told was devoid of humanity! The ingenious writer wishes to establish a general rule, which in the first place

mire in a trinket or a toy, which can have no possible utility, is to separate the means from the end. When these are united as they ought properly to be in every instance which we may adduce, in order to prove the greater importance of the one than the other-when the means are united to the end, and when this end is of dignity or consequence, then I apprehend, it will be difficult to determine whether we admire the means more than the end. In a toy or a trinket there is nothing to admire but the means; but then, it may be asked, is there not some end hich these means were intended to attain? We should say no, were we strictly to answer the question. Is there an end beld in view on every moral action? Are our every day and hourly actions agents in effect. ing some particular end, which may be said to be the final cause of those actions? You might with equal propriety speak of the end of the most trivial and every day action, as to speak of the utility or end of a toy or trinket. If then there be no utility or end in a toy or a trincket, the means alone are left for us to admire. Our words therefore do not militate against our own position, when we say that "many pieces of mechanism totally without utility, yet please and are accounted beautiful."

is merely assumed, and in the next place by way of proof he gives as a single example! May not an hundred examples be produced to the contrary of the single example of the Legislator of Muscovy? If so, why then the contrary would seem to be the truth.*

This Theory of Adam Smith is directly opposite to one of the maxims of the Philosopher of Malmsbury, who evidently regarded the end more than the means employed in attaining it, when he contended that bad means might be employed for attaining a good end; and he was wont to illustrate his maxim by asking, "If I were cast into a deep pit, and the Devil was to put down his clo. ven foot, would I not readily lay hold of it to get out?"

(To be continued.)

FOR THE AMERICAN MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

THE STAR.

On hearing a lady repeat for a child the following little stanza.

"Twinkle, twinkle little star,
"How I wonder what you are!
"Up above the earth so high,
"Like a diamond in the sky."

Not to light this earthly sphere,*
Hath the Almighty fixed thee there,
For, thy ray, when we are dark,
Seems but as the glow-worm's spark.

The fixed stars being at such immense distances from the sun, cannot possibly receive from him so strong a light as they seem to possess; nor indeed any brightness sufficient to make them visible to us. For the sun's rays must be so scattered and dissipated, before they reach such remote objects, that they can never be transmitted back to our eyes, so as to render these objects vissible by reflection. The stars therefore shine with their own native and unborrowed lustre, as the sun does; and since each particular star, as well as the sun, is confined to a particular portion of space, it is plain that the stars are of the same nature with the sun.

"It is no way probable that the Almighty, who always acts with infinite wisdom, and does nothing in vain, should create so many glorious suns, fit for so many important purposes, and place them at such distances from one another, without proper objects near enough to be benefitted by their influences. -Whoever imagines, that they were created only to give a faint glimmering light to the inhabitants of this globe, must have a very superficial knowledge of astronomy, and a mean opinion of Divine wisdom. There are many stars which are not visible without the assistance of a powerful telescope; and therefore instead of giving light to this world, they can only be seen by a few astronomers; and it is clear, that by an infinitely less exertion, of creating power, the Deity could have given our earth much more light, by a single additional moon."

FERGUSON.

True, the Tyrian bark in thee,
Found a faithful guide at sea;
And Sidonian* seamen bold,
Blessed his cynosure of old.

Ev'n more learned moderns now,
When the briny deep they plough,
With quadrant. needle. chart and scale,
By thy guidance often sail.

And though by thy sparkling light,
Thou enrich the vault of night,
With thy myriad sister-train,
Countless as the drops of rain ;

Whether plac'd in Taurus' knees,
Or, in the weeping Hyades, t
Or, in Bootest whip the Bear,
Round about the north pole drear;

Or, twinkling in the twins you bring,
The promises of gentle spring;

* The Sidonians, to whom, or to whose nation Phenicia, we are indebted for the invention of writing, and for the first attempts at commercial navigation, always steered their course by Cynosura, (the pole star) in the tail of the smaller Bear-the Grecians by the greater Bear,

"Cynosura petatur Sidoniis, Helicen Graia carina notet.”—OVID.

"And thou'shalt be my star of Arcady,

Or Tyrian Cynosure."

MILTON'S COMUS.

The Phoenicians (the Canaanites of scripture) were a commercial people in the days of Abraham. The Sidonians carried on an extensive commerce at the time of the Trojan war.

Atlas, King of Mauritania, was a very famous astronomer, and according to some, was the first who taught the doctrine of the sphere; on this account, his daughters were turned into stars; The first seven by his Queen Pelivene, were called the Pleiades, and are placed in the shoulder of the Bull. The next, also seven in number, are placed in the head of the same constellation, and are called the Hyades, a word which from it Greek derivation signifies to rain. But a more poetical, and more beautiful derivation of their name is this. The Hyades had a beloved brother, named Hyas, who was unfortunately devoured by a lion, and his affectionate sisters were so immoderately grieved, and afflicted for his death, that Jupiter in compassion changed them into stars,-and they are justly called Hyades, because show ers of tears flow from their eyes to this day.

Bootes is represented on the celestial globe as a man in a walking posture, grasping in his left hand a club, and having his right hand extended upwards, holding the cord of the two dogs, Asterion and Chara, which seem to be barking at the Great Bear; hence Bootes is sometimes called the bear driver, and the office assigned him is to drive the bears round about the pole.