cannot refrain from expressing our admiration of the patient assiduity, indefatigable industry, and ardent devotion to professional learning, of which this work, more extensive and voluminous, than any that has been published by any individual in our country, on any subject, either in science or literature, is the honorable monument. Mr Dane's arduous labors at the bar, at which he held a distinguished rank, for the long space of nearly forty years, would alone have been deemed, by most men, sufficient occupation. Few, however, have devoted so much time and exertion to the public service, at the most gloomy periods too of our history, when the hearts of the wise and virtuous were filled with perplexity, and our most able men were anxiously summoned into the public councils. The journals of the state and national legislatures show, that he was one of the most influential and leading members of those bodies.

In 1780, soon after the civil government of Massachusetts had been organized under its constitution, then just adopted, a committee, consisting of the Judges of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, James Bowdoin, and John Pickering, was appointed to revise the statutes, in use in the Commonwealth, to select, alter, abridge, and digest them, in order to accommodate them to the new form of government. Mr Dane was chairman of the legislative committee, to whose careful revision and severe scrutiny all the bills were subjected. The legislature again, in 1812, appointed him chairman of a committee to collect and publish the charters, and the public and general laws of the late colony and province of Massachusetts Bay; and, at a subsequent period, to revise and consolidate the various statutes regulating the Probate Court. He has contributed more services in the revision and improvement of the statute law of Massachusetts, than any other individual.

The journals of the Continental Congress in 1787 and 1788, while all the legislative and executive powers of the national government were vested in that single body, abundantly prove, that Mr Dane was an able, efficient, and influential member; and was frequently associated on the most important committees with Madison, Hamilton, and King. He was the framer of the celebrated ordinance of Congress of 1787, for the government of the Territory of the United States, Northwest of the River Ohio, an admirable code of constitutional law, by which the principles of free government were extended to an immense region, and its political and moral interests secured on a perma

nent basis. One of its fundamental provisions, that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory,' prevented, by a wise foresight, a mass of evils, and rendered that fine country the abode of industry, enterprise, and freedom.

In drafting this ordinance, Mr Dane incorporated into it the cardinal preventive provisions, against impairing the obligations of contracts by legislative acts. A few months after the adoption of this ordinance, the convention, which framed the Federal constitution, ingrafted the same great moral principle into that instrument; and it is worthy of observation, that this fundamental provision was so much in accordance with the moral sense of the American people, that, amid the great diversity of opinions, and variety of amendments and objections to that instrument, in the state conventions, no proposition was made, from any quarter, to expunge this restriction on their power to resort to relief and stop laws, which had, in various shapes, at that time aggravated the distresses of the people.

A liberal and learned profession will hold in high estimation the labors of this eminent civilian and lawyer, who, for half a century, has made American jurisprudence and American institutions his peculiar study; and every lawyer, instead of feeling regret for deficiencies, ought to be animated with sincere gratitude for what has been accomplished.

ART. II.—Elements of History, Ancient and Modern; with Historical Charts. By J. E. WORCESTER. Boston. Cummings, Hilliard, & Co. 1826. 12mo. pp. 324. and fol. pp. 34.

THE advances that have been made in education, during the present century, so far as elementary books are concerned, are among the most noticeable things of the age. We do not speak merely of the increase of such books; for this, apart from their increasing merit, is no inconsiderable evil. But there has

been, from the humblest schools up to our highest academical institutions, much actual improvement in books and modes of instruction, which are so intimately connected, that they may be expected to advance with equal steps. Scholars have not been disposed, in general, to acknowledge, that there are many disVOL. XXIII.—NO. 52.

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coveries to be made in the methods of imparting a knowledge of what mankind have been constantly learning, ever since the dark ages, where the limits and boundaries of the art or science are well known; but whatever may have been our belief on the subject in our reasonings a priori, there are examples enough of recent improvements, not indeed to justify the visionary theorists, who look forward to a summary process for all sorts of learned acquirements, but enough to satisfy the reasonable expectations of wiser men, who have grieved over the elaborate processes gone through by learners for the obtaining of slender results, and the lamentable mechanical contrivances resorted to for learning that, which ought to be the work of the understanding. are not among those who think that children and young people will ever find, that they can play their progressive course through all learning and knowledge; but we know and have seen how much encouragement they want, and how unreasonably their elders sometimes presume upon their capacities, and power of attention and of reasoning from one example to another, little remembering the bitter tears, and disappointments, and mortifications of their own boyish years from the same source. Knowing these things, we would encourage every facility to learning, which is not obtained by the sacrifice of anything valuable in what is to be learned. It is with this view of the case, that we are always pleased to see every useless incumbrance thrown off; to see logic despoiled of its old barbarous terms; to see the rules in our Latin grammars, expressed in our vernacular language; to see everything technical rejected, except so far as it is subsidiary to the understanding and memory, in acquiring and retaining valuable truth. Not that we approve of perpetual change, without evident practical benefit. Too much of caprice has been witnessed in this respect, in the multiplication and introduction of school books; and a foolish vanity has often instigated a teacher to issue his spellingbook, or grammar, or arithmetic, of which the highest praise is, that it is harmless or superfluous. But while the market has been filled with these small and easily wrought wares, there has, till of late, been wanting an elementary work on ancient and modern history.

Tytler's Elements, the first work of this kind, which we think it necessary to notice, has been regarded, as it deserves to be, with respect. Formed from the abundant materials furnished by a course of lectures on general history, which he delivered

for a succession of years in the University of Edinburgh, it might be expected to display all the learning and fidelity, which the subject demands. And in these respects, the reader is not disappointed; for the work manifests much diligent research, and a good deal of philosophical reflection. It imparts a just knowledge of the progress of literature and the arts, and of the state of society and government of different countries at different periods. All this is done so much better than it had been done before, in a small compass, that the work is a very useful addition to the class of books to which it belongs, though not calculated for the earlier stages of education. It too frequently indicates, that its origin was in the lecture room; for while it is sufficiently full of the philosophy of history, the philosophy is not sufficiently taught and illustrated by examples, to comport with the ancient definition of history given by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, which is so often quoted to this day. The speculations are too often dry and uninteresting, and not sufficiently intelligible to the young pupil, whose attention must be lured by easy and simple narrative, and who cannot be expected to gain much from abstruse reasonings upon causes and consequences, either physical or moral.

The style of this history partakes of the general character of the work itself; and is wanting in that simplicity, which is necessary to adapt it to youthful minds.

Well conducted philosophical discussions concerning persons and facts, are indeed among the higher excellences of the historian; but considerable maturity of mind is requisite, in order to estimate their value, and to derive from them the instruction they are intended to impart. We are persuaded that many of these discussions in Tytler's Elements are above the reach of learners, and anticipate much more historical knowledge than the book itself furnishes. This is a great blemish, and very discouraging to young readers. Indeed one of the greatest mistakes, and a mistake among the most difficult to avoid, both in books and in modes of teaching, is the presuming of too many things as already known, which are known only to the writer or preceptor. We are too apt in imparting instruction to children and youth, to come too suddenly to results, forgetting some of the steps by which we ourselves arrived at the knowledge we would convey; and the learner strives and perplexes himself in vain, to supply the defects of his teacher.

One other defect of this work, considered as an elementary

book, is the arrangement of its materials. It is divided into chapters, the subjects of which are often but slightly, and sometimes not at all connected with each other. The thread of historical narrative is so frequently broken, that the interest of the pupil is not awakened and sustained, and he comes from his task with vague and indistinct impressions. After having studied the whole work with diligence, he will indeed have obtained many important facts and useful truths; but his knowledge will be confused and unconnected, and no regular outline of the history of any empire or state will be impressed upon his mind.

We are confirmed in the justness of the foregoing remarks, by the testimony of several experienced teachers; and it was probably the growing dissatisfaction with Tytler's Elements, which was perceived to exist among instructers and their pupils, that induced one of our own countrymen to offer the public a work of similar kind, but of a character more pleasing and popular.

The work to which we refer, is a Compend of History, by Samuel Whelpley. If Tytler, in his style, aiming to be didactic, is dry, and philosophically dull; Whelpley, on the contrary, striving to charm too much, by the eloquence of his diction, is often verbose and declamatory. As it is impossible to tell at how early a period of life a false taste in the use of language may be formed, we do not think it unimportant, and we deem the present a fair occasion, to protest against some of the faults of style, which pervade this Compend. We have said it is declamatory, not in the worst sense of the word, but far too declamatory for history. It is seldom sufficiently simple, and everywhere abounds too much in epithets; and the writer too frequently forgets, that there is any distinction between the province of the historian, and that of the orator. Hence it is there are many passages, which would not disgrace a fourth of July oration, and some, which would be animated and not unseemly in the pulpit; but which, in both kinds, are out of place in history. The directions of all the standard, philosophical critics require in narration a style at once concise and comprehensive, a style, which rejects superfluous words and circumstances. Redundant epithets are even sparingly allowed to poets; least of all writers, perhaps, to the historian. But beside the multitude of epithets, in the Compend of which we are speaking, they are often offensive in their kind. It is, to be sure, the