5. On the Independence of the Analytical and Geometrical Me- thods of Investigation; and on the Advantages to be derived from Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau: et sur celles de chacune de ses parties: avec des observations sur la possibilité de reconnaitre les instincts, les penchans, les talens, ou les dispositions morales et in- tellectuelles des Hommes et des Animaux, par la configuration de VI. SCOTT'S LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French; with a preliminary view of the French Revolution. By the Author of Wa- verly. Lectures on the Elements of Political Economy. By Thomas Cooper, M. D. President of the South-Carolina College, and Profes- The Tenth Annual Report of the American Society, for Coloniz- ing the Free People of Colour of the United States. With an Ap- CONTENTS OF No. II. 1. Articles of the Constitution as agreed upon by the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787. 2. The Federalist, a Collection of Essays written in favour of the 3. The Crisis: or Essays on the Usurpations of the Federal Go- vernment. 1. Röemische Geschichte Von B. G. Niebuhr, 1ste und 2te Theile. 2. Roman History, by B. G. Niebuhr, translated from the Ger- History of Roman Literature, from its earliest period to the Au- gustan Age. By John Dunlop, Author of the History of Fiction. Vita Danielis Wyttenbachii, Literarum humaniorum nuperrime in Academia Lugduno-Batava Professoris. Auctore Gulielmo Leo- nardo Mahne. The Life of Hugo Grotius, with brief Minutes of the Civil, Eccle- 1. An Address pronounced at the opening of the New-York High School, with Notes and Illustrations. By John Griscom. 2. Third Annual Report of the Trustees of the High School So- ciety of New-York, made November 12, 1827. 3. Tenth Annual Report of the Comptrollers of the Public Schools of the First School District of the State of Pennsylvania. 4. Address of the Trustees of the Public School Society in the city of New-York, to their Fellow-Citizens, respecting the extension 5. Report of a Sub-Committee of the School Committee, recom- mending various improvements in the System of Instruction in the Grammar and Writing Schools of the City of Boston. 6. Prospectus of the Livingston County High School for Boys on A Selection in Prose and Poetry, from the Miscellaneous Writ- ings of the late William Crafts. To which is prefixed a Memoir of : SOUTHERN REVIEW. NO. I. FEBRUARY, 1828. ART. I.-1. An Address on the Character and Objects of Science, and especially on the Influence of the Reformation on the Science and Literature, past, present and future, of Protestant Nations; delivered in the First Presbyterian Church, on Wednesday the 9th of May, being the Anniversary of the Literary and Philosophical Society of South-Carolina. By THOMAS S. GRIMKE. 8vo. Charleston. Miller. 1827. 2. An Address delivered before the South-Carolina Society, on the Occasion of Opening their Male Academy, on the 2d July, 1827. Ву WM. GEO. READ, Principal of the Same. 8vo. Charleston. Miller. 1827. 3. Inaugural Discourse, delivered in Trinity Church, Geneva, New-York, August 1st, 1827. By the Rev. JASPER ADAMS, President of Geneva College. Geneva. 1827. WE Americans take nothing for granted-except, indeed, as it would appear from the tone of some recent publications-the immeasurable superiority of those who have lived to see this "Age of Reason" over all that have not been so fortunate. With this exception, however, (since we must needs consider it as such) all postulates are rigorously excluded from our most approved systems of logic-and when, in the fulness of time, those mathematicians shall rise up amongst us, who, according to a cheering prophecy of Mr. Grimké, are to throw into the shade, as intellectual beings, the Newtons and the La Places, no less than the Euclids and the Apollonius', we shall scarcely be satisfied with their improvements in Geometry, unless they begin by demonstrating its axioms. We take up all questions de novo, and treat every subject of general speculation and philosophy, no matter VOL. I. NO. 1. 1 how frequently and fully discussed, or how solemnly decided elsewhere, as what is called at the bar res integra, that is to say, as fair game for criticism and controversy. Besides this, we may be permitted to observe, while we are upon this topic, that the pleasant exhortation, mon ami, commence par le commencement, seems to have been made expressly for our use. We are for coming out on all occasions, not only with the truth, but the whole truth, and seem utterly unable to comprehend the reason of that peevish rule, Nec reditum Diomedis ab interitu Meleagri, For instance, it would not surprise us much if a member of Congress from one of the more enlightened, because less ancient and prejudiced States, should introduce a speech upon the Colonial Trade by a "brief" account of Columbus and his discoveries, as it is every day's experience to see even our leading politicians lay hold of the most casual and ordinary questions of commerce and finance, to spout whole volumes of the merest rudiments and generalities of political economy. There are some people, we dare say, in this censorious world who would be apt to consider all this as outrageously rational; but, perhaps, after all, it will not do in so new a country to adopt old ideas and assume established truths-and no one, we humbly conceive, can address the American public with effect, who is not himself patient enough to begin at the very beginning, and to accommodate his mode of discussion to this decided national predilection for elementary inquiry, and regular and exact demonstration according to the utmost rigour of the logical forms. We have thought it advisable to premise thus much, at the very outset of our critical labors, by way of preventive apology, so to speak, for the manner in which we shall find ourselves constrained to examine many matters that are considered in other countries as quite settled. For instance, a formal discussion at this time of day, of the comparative merits of the Ancients and Moderns, and the advantages of a classical education, would be set down in England by the side of that notable argument to prove, that a general can do nothing without troops, of which, Cicero, if we mistake not, has somewhere made such honorable mention. But what might there very properly be rejected as supererogation, or even quizzed as downright twaddling, (to borrow a phrase from an English Magazine) may be imperiously called for by the state of public opinion on this side of the Atlantic. The Edinburgh Review, in an able and elaborate article on Cobbett's writings, dispatched his opinions upon the subject |