THE annexed View on the East River is taken from the heights of Indinberg about four miles from the city of Newyork, and includes several interesting objects. On the heights of Bedford, which bound the distance, was fought the battle of Longisland, and in Kips bay immediately at the feet of the spectator, the British army landed soon after that disastrous affair. The large building in the centre of the picture was erected by Messrs. A. and N. Brown, for the purpose of sheltering ships while on the stocks from the weather. The first vessel built beneath it was a ship of five hundred tons, called the America. Immediately beyond it are seen the gunboat fleet in the Wallabout, and one of the large frigates.

AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

LIFE OF JOHN EWING, D. D. LATE PROVOST OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

THE following life is an eminent example of the beneficial results of persevering industry, and the object of recording it will have been attained, if it shall teach the timid, a proper confidence in his own efforts, and the presumptuous, an humble confidence in his God.

Dr. JOHN EWING was born on the twenty-second day of June, 1732, in the township of Nottingham, in Cœcil county, Maryland, near to the line which separates that state from Pennsylvania. Of his ancestors little is known. They emigrated from Scotland at an early period of the settlement of our country, and fixed themselves on the banks of the Susquehanna, near to the spot where he was born. They were farmers, who, if they did not extend their names beyond their immediate neighbourhood, yet maintained within it that degree of reputation which their descendants can speak of without a blush.

His father was enabled by his industry to support his family" from the produce of his farm, and to give to his children that degree of education which country schools at that time had to offer. This indeed was little, but it was all that was necessary to such a mind as Dr. Ewing's. It was sufficient to furnish the rudiments of science, which, however early they are lost by ordinary minds in the distractions of a life of business, only serve to fan the fire of ambition in stronger intellects, and to direct and guide their possessors to fame.

The school-house at which Dr. Ewing was taught the elements of his native language and the first rules in arithmetic, was at a considerable distance from his father's residence. The daily exercise of walking thither in his youth, tended to invigorate a constitution naturally strong, and enabled him to acquire a stock of health which carried him through sixty years without sickness. At this school it cannot be supposed that he learned much, but he was soon removed from it and placed under the

• There were five brothers: William, George, Alexander, John, and his twin brother, James, who is the only one now living.

superintendance of Dr. Alison, a clergyman eminent for his erudition and piety, who then directed a school at Newlondon cross roads, in the state of Pennsylvania. After having finished those studies usually taught in his school, he remained with him three years as a tutor. To this he was led, not merely by inclination, but by necessity. His father died about this time, and left his small property to be distributed according to the laws of the state of Maryland, in which that of primogeniture prevailed. The eldest son inherited the patrimonial estate, and left Dr. Ewing and his remaining brothers, to struggle in the world with twenty pounds each. At this distribution of his father's property he did not repine, for he then felt a confidence in his own powers which did not deceive him, which poverty could not diminish, and which enabled him subsequently to attain that honourable elevation which he adorned by his virtues as well as his talents.

Under the kind care of Dr. Alison he made considerable progress in his favourite pursuit, the study of mathematics. Books of science were not at that time casily obtained in America, espe cially in places remote from cities; but such was his thirst for knowledge that he frequently rode thirty or forty miles to obtain the loan of a book which might afford him some information on the subject of his favourite speculations. Those authors who were safe guides could not always be obtained. Incorrect writings sometimes fell into his hands, the errors of which did not escape the detection of his penetrating and original genius. It often occurs that difficulties only quicken the eagerness of the mind in its pursuits, and bring into action its latent energies. Such was the result of difficulties on Dr. Ewing at this early period of his life. His mind did not shrink from intellectual conflict, but gathered vigour from hindrance, and bade defiance to difficulty. At this period he certainly learned much from books, and much from the conversation of Dr. Alison, of whom indeed he always spoke with kindness, but he acquired more from the habits of close thinking in which he early indulged. To the two former he was much indebted, but if we allow to those sources of information all that they merit, it will yet not be hazardous to say that in the science of mathematics he was selftaught, and could never have reached that station which he afterwards adorned, struggling as he was with poverty and harassed

with difficulties, without receiving from other than human aid the impulse which carried him forward.

In the year 1754 he left the school of Dr. Alison, and removed to Princeton for the purpose of entering the college. Mr. Burr, the father of the late vice-president of the United States, was then president of that institution, and of that great and celebrated man he was a favourite pupil. He joined the senior class, and, impelled by pecuniary embarrassments, engaged at the same time as teacher of the grammar school which was connected with the college. His intention was to graduate, and for this purpose it was necessary that he should study in private some branches of learning to which he had previously been unable to attend. These causes made his labour greater than that of his classmates. His studies were arduous and multiplied; but he brought to the contest a mind which difficulties did not easily subdue. He graduated with his class in the year 1755, and finding that he had still to toil for a subsistence, he immediately accepted the appointment of tutor in the college. At this period he resolved to choose his profession; and feeling the study of theology congenial with his wishes, and calculated to permit him to mingle with it scientific researches, he adopted it with his usual promptitude and his usual zeal.

In pursuance of this design, he returned to Dr. Alison, his former tutor and friend, and, after the usual period of preparatory study, he was licensed to preach the Gospel by the presbytery of Newcastle, in the state of Delaware. At the age of twenty-six, before he undertook the pastoral charge of any congregation, hc was selected to instruct the philosophical classes in the college of Philadelphia, during the absence of the provost, the late Dr. William Smith. Whilst he was engaged in the discharge of this honourable office, he received an invitation from the presbyterian congregation of his native place to settle himself among them as their pastor. This was an invitation on which he deliberated, before he declined it. To be selected by the friends of his youth as their spiritual guide; to fix himself with a decent stipend on his native spot among his relations and former associates, was a temptation calculated to win a man who was social in his affections, and who was little troubled with the unquiet spirit of am