the enemy's former naval strength, by the loss of the Terrible, and the condemnation of two other ships of the line, leave them so vastly inferior, that I think they will not venture upon a relief.

It is to be wished that your excellency's plan would be adopted, but there are reasons which operate forcibly against count de Grasse's dividing his fleet. By grasping at too much, we might lose a stake which nothing but the most adverse stroke of fortune can take out of our hands, and which, if we attain, will give a most fatal stab to the power of Great Britain in America.

I hope your excellency will excuse my short and imperfect answers to your full and obliging letters. The variety of matter which engages my attention must be my apology. My public despatch will inform your excellency of our progress up to this date.

With the greatest esteem and respect, I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient and obliged servant,

GEO. WASHINGTON.

His excellency, THOMAS M'KEAN ESQ.

SIR,

Mount Vernon, 15th November, 1781.

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your favour of the 31st ultimo, covering the resolutions of congress of the 29th, and a proclamation for a day of public prayer and thanksgiving; and have to thank you, sir, most sincerely for the very polite and affectionate manner in which these inclosures have been conveyed.

The success of the combined armies against the enemy at York and Gloucester, as it affects the welfare and independence of the United States, I view as a most fortunate event. In performing my part towards its accomplishment, I consider myself to have done only my duty, and in the execution of that, I ever feel myself happy. At the same time, as it augurs well to our cause, I take a particular pleasure in acknowledging, that the interposing hand of Heaven, in the various instances of our extensive preparations for this operation, has been most conspicuous and remarkable.

After the receipt of your favour, I was officially informed, through the secretary of congress, of a new choice of their president. While I congratulate you, sir, on a release from the fatigues and trouble of so arduous a task, I beg you to accept my sincerest thanks for the pleasure and satisfaction

I have experienced in the correspondence with which you have honoured me, and the many interesting communications of intelligence with which you have favoured me.

I have the honour to be, with very sincere regard and esteem, dear sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant, GEO. WASHINGTON.

Hon. THOMAS M'KEAN, Esq.

THE EPICUREAN,

A Tale. By Thomas Moore, 12mo. pp. 332, London, 1827. Longman & Co.

[From the London Literary Gazette.]

When we profess to take our full share, and in the highest degree, of that admiration which the poetry of Moore has inspired, and to feel that he has by his genius won a glorious immortality, our sense of the beauties of this Tale may be appreciated by the acknowledgment that for an exquisite insight into human nature, for poetical thought and imagery, for grace, refinement, intellect, pathos, and sublimity, we prize the Epicurean even above the Loves of the Angels, or any other of the author's best works. Indeed, although written in prose, this is a poem, and a masterly poem. We are certain that it must have been originally planned for the language of metrical composition, whatever may have induced the bard to depart from his design, and give us only (as at pages 242, 250, &c.) glimpses of his first intention. But be this as it may, it is and will for ever rank as one of the most exquisite productions in English literature, alike valued for its lustre and purity.

Alciphron, the chief of the Epicurean philosophy at Athens, devoted to every indulgence and pleasure, becomes, in a slight degree, satiated with the unbounded gratification of human enjoyments. They do not pall upon the mind so much as they lead to a feeling of their briefness and uncertainty;they confer too much happiness to be lasting; and their worshipper, wrapt in the Elysium of their bliss, begins to tremble at the thought that they must have an end. Then comes the natural longing for an immortality of delight and of love. The present is poisoned with a vague fear, and the future is coveted with a superhuman ardour.

A strange vision in the delicious gardens of Epicurus fills the soul of Alciphron with this irresistible desire; and in

search of the mysterious secret by which life may be prolonged, and the round of joys be made eternal, he departs for the land of ancient wonders, Egypt, and speedily reaches the solemn city of Memphis.

But before we follow him thither, we must, to the best of our power, point out some of the striking passages with which Mr. Moore has adorned his narrative; and we regret to say that these touches are so numerous and so condensed as to be hardly separable from the web of the story; they are like jewels sparkling upon a tissue of gold. The period is thus defined:

"The rapid progress of the Christian faith had alarmed all those, who, either from piety or worldliness, were interested in the continuance of the old-established creed-all who believed in the deities of Olympus, and all who lived by them. The consequence was, a considerable increase of zeal and activity throughout the constituted authorities and priesthood of the whole heathen world. What was wanting in sincerity of belief was made up in rigour; the weakest parts of the mythology were those, of course, most angrily defended; and any reflections tending to bring Saturn, or his wife Ops into contempt, were punished with the utmost severity of the law. In this state of affairs, between the alarmed bigotry of the declining faith, and the simple sublime austerity of her rival, it was not wonderful, that those lovers of ease and pleasure, who had no interest, reversionary or otherwise, in the old religion, and were too indolent to inquire into the sanctions of the new, should take refuge from the severities of both under the shelter of a luxurious philosophy which, leaving to others the task of disputing about the future, centered all its wisdom in the full enjoyment of the present."

The scene where the Athenian Epicureans cultivated this temporary gratificaton is thus described:

"Walks, leading through wildernesses of shade and fragrance-glades, opening, as if to afford a play-ground for the sunshine-temples, rising on the very spots where imagination herself would have called them up, and fountains and lakes, in alternate motion and repose, either wantonly courting the verdure, or calmly sleeping in its embrace,such was the variety of feature that diversified these fair dens,"

gar

On a day of festival, "though study, as may easily be supposed, engrossed but little of the mornings of the garden, yet the lighter part of learning, that portion of its attic honey, for which the bee is not obliged to go very deep into the

flower, was zealously cultivated. Even here, however, the student had to encounter distractions, which are, of all others, least favorable to composure of thought; and, with more than one of my fair disciples, there used to occur such scenes as the following, which a poet of the garden, taking his picture from the life, described:

'As o'er the lake, in evening's glow,

That temple threw its lengthening shade,
Upon the marble steps below,

There sat a fair Corinthian maid,
Gracefully o'er some volume bending,
While, by her side, the youthful Sage
Held back her ringlets, lest, descending,
They should o'ershadow all the page.

But it was for the evening of that day, that the richest of our luxuries were reserved. Every part of the garden was illuminated with the most skilful variety of lustre; while over the lake of the Temples were scattered wreaths of flowers, through which boats, filled with beautiful children, floated, as through a liquid parterre. Between two of these boats a perpetual combat was maintained;-their respective commanders, two blooming youths being habited to represent Eros and Anteros; the former the Celestial Love of the Platonists, and the latter that more earthly spirit which usurps the name of Love among the Epicureans. Throughout the evening their conflict was carried on with various success; the timid distance at which Eros kept from his more lively antagonist being his only safeguard against those darts of fire, with showers of which the other continually assailed him, but which, luckily falling short of their mark upon the lake, only scorched the flowers upon which they fell, and were extinguished." Other parts are painted with equal felicity, and as the festival terminates, Alciphron tells us, in a tone which reminds us forcibly of Rasselas

"The sounds of the song and dance had ceased, and I was now left in those luxurious gardens alone. Though so ardent and active a votary of pleasure, I had, by nature a disposition full of melancholy; an imagination that presented sad thoughts even in the midst of mirth and happiness, and threw the shadow of the future over the gayest illusions of the present. Melancholy was, indeed, twin-born in my soul with Passion; and, not even in the fullest fervour of the latter, they were separated. From the first moment that I was conscious of thought and feeling, the same dark thread had run across the web; and images of death and annihilation mingled themselves with the most smiling scenes through

which my career of enjoyment led me. My very passion for pleasure but deepened these gloomy fancies. For, shut out as I was by my creed, from a future life, and having no hope beyond the horizon of this, every minute of delight assumed a mournful preciousness in my eyes, and pleasure, like the flower of cemetery, grew but more luxuriant from the neighborhood of death. This very night my triumph, my happiness, had seemed complete. I had been the presiding genius of that voluptuous scene. Both my ambition and my love of pleasure had drunk deep of the cup for which they thirsted. Looked up to by the learned, and loved by the beautiful and the young, I had seen, in every eye that met mine, either the acknowledgment of triumphs already won, or the promise of others, still brighter, that awaited me. Yet even in the midst of all this, the same dark thoughts had presented themselves; the perishableness of myself and all around me every instant recurred to my mind. Those hands I had prest -those eyes in which I had seen sparkling a spirit of light and life that should never die-those voices that had talked of eternal love-all, all, I felt, were but a mockery of the moment, and would leave nothing eternal but the silence of their dust.

Oh, were it not for this sad voice;

Stealing amid our mirth to say
That all in which we most rejoice,

Ere night may be the earth-worm's prey;

But for this bitter-only this

Full as the world is brimm'd with bliss

And capable as feels my soul

Of draining to its depth the whole,

I should turn earth to heaven, and be,

If bliss made Gods, a deity!"

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It is in this strain of mind, the truth of which must be recognised by every breast susceptible of the highest emotions, and conscious of that frequent blending of the sad with the happy, the sadder in proportion as the happiness is the greater; it is in this strain of mind that the vision alluded to appeared to the young philosopher, and bid him, if he sought eternal life, go unto the shores of the dark Nile, and thou wilt find the eternal life thou seekest." Impressed with the idea of the " possible existence of some secret, by which youth might be, if not perpetuated, at least prolonged, and that dreadful vicinity of death, within whose circle love pines, and pleasure sickens, might be for a while averted," Alciphron resolves to follow the oracular advice; and his leavJULY, 1827.-No. 291. 8