The ancients allotted to the memory of their heroes, statues as large as life; and to their gods, figures above the natural size. In tracing the character of those to whom mankind has been most prodigal of their applause, a similar rule may be observed, and a faithful resemblance drawn, within the common stature, as it were, of human genius and virtue. But in delineating general Washington, the dimensions of the portrait swell insensibly beyond the ordinary standard of human perfection, and exhibit, not merely the dignity of Solon or Epaminondas, but an imposing, although temperate and natural majesty like that of the Apollo of Belvedere. His character resembles that idea of perfection, which is said to float before the imagination of the painter and the sculptor, but which no human skill can embody-it has an airy elevation to which the mind may soar, but which no hand can reach—it is a pure essence-a fine extract an etherial substance without any of the dross and residuum of our nature. The strength of his judgment; the moderation of his desires; the lustre of his virtues; the perfect aptitude of his talents for every situation; the magnitude of his services, the whole tenor of his life and his character, which left nothing to desire, and exhibited nothing to reprehend-form altogether a combination of excellence, which, if it were not attested by the voice of all mankind, might be hereafter regarded as the fiction of some extravagant romance.

In his highest prosperity, during that struggle for national independence of which he was the soul, he manifested nothing of the intoxication of success. In the lowest depression of the public fortunes, if he ever doubted of the issue, he never failed to exhibit the rare union of practical vigour with speculative despondency. After having successfully maintained the cause of his country in arms, he twice saved it by the wisdom of his councils; once by securing the adoption and establishing the influence of the federal constitution; again by resisting the spirit of innovation, when it was the epidemical disease of the world he loved subordination, which excludes arbitrary power; and detested licentiousness, which leads to despotism. The whole tenor of his administration was not only immediately, but prospectively, useful. As Apeiles painted, he legislated, for posterity. His aim was not merely to complete a work of temporary benefit, but to establish a model for the instruction of

every age. He generalized in governing, and framed a system adapted, not only to the circumstances of his own time, but to every vicissitude of affairs, and to every combination of difficulties to which his successors could be exposed. His maxims and his strokes of policy, were of the highest order and of universal application. They were drawn from a lofty sense of honour, from the most enlarged patriotism, from a comprehensive survey both of the proximate effects, and of the remote relations and indirect tendencies of public measures. Never in any one act of his administration, was he known to consult his personal interests, or to have in view the support of his individual authority. There was nothing about him of littleness, either in object or in means. With the most consummate prudence, and the most profound discretion, he was, nevertheless, totally devoid of cunning. He acted always upon great principles; from the dictates of a pure heart, auxiliary to the operations of a sound understanding. We have never seen him, therefore, at a loss in any conjuncture; never stooping to the low artifices which cunning suggests-nor involved in the difficulties to which a crooked or sinister policy so commonly leads. He understood, fully, the difference between the patience of fortitude, and the endurance of pusillanimity-between the puling policy of a weak and confused administration and the distempered vigour and insane alacrity of those who court danger without necessity, and make war the universal resort. In the iconology of the ancients, honour is appropriately sculptured with the sword in one hand, and the olive branch in the other. He bore this image constantly in his mind, and never wished to see peace unless led by "warlike honour," nor war unaccompanied by the emblems of peace. He felt, and in all cases, acted upon that peculiar responsibility which is imposed upon every administration by the infancy of this nation: the responsibility of exciting among the people, for the inheritance of posterity, a gallantry of spirit, a quick sense of honour; an abhorrence of despotism; the virtues of magnanimity, of fortitude, and of perseverance, by which nations contending in the cause of justice and freedom, have triumphantly surmounted difficulties otherwise invincible, and by which they have erected, on their very misfortunes, imperishable trophies to their renown.

When public virtue and real capacity, says a great writer, are rendered the sole means of acquiring any degree of power or profit in the state, the passions of the heart are enlisted on the side of liberty and good government. This was Washington's maxim-he knew it to be one of the ends of the constitution of this country, that the stations of dignity, and the ranks of society, should be allotted to merit alone. He deprecated the dominion of weak understandings and strong prejudices. He governed by no party-he laboured to raise up a spirit fit to cope with the passions which division calls into action, and which have so often disordered the frame, and, not unfrequently, extinguished the principles of a free government. He wished to inflame us with one common zeal, and to unite us in one common end-that we might be faithful to ourselves and to the state. He wished that the government, when called upon to exert its strength, should exert the strength of the whole nation. He knew that factions, like the iron race of Cadmus, destroy each other: that under their guidance, fools and knaves are often invested with the robes of honour and the emblems of wisdom; that the intemperance of party is, generally, more prone to emblazon, than solicitous to remedy the evils which incapacity or corruption may entail on a country. Your memorialists state, the more readily, the doctrines of Washington on this head, as it cannot be concealed that we now labour under unhappy divisions; and as they lament to see, so many whom the public good summons to act in concert, thrown into opposite ranks of party, with no real difference of principles or designs to support the distinction. Those who think alike, on the subject of Washington, cannot want a bond of union; and your memorialists know of no more efficacious means of producing unanimity, than that of attracting the attention of the country to his memory.

It has not been the intention of your memorialists to pronounce an elaborate panegyric on the character of Washington: but they have thus ventured to suggest some of the leading features and maxims of his mind, both because it is natural for his countrymen to dwell upon them at all times with delight, and because such a review strikingly 'illustrates the obligation and the utility of the end for which your memorialists now present themselves before your honourable body. They wish his principles to exert a universal influ

ence, and to strike an everlasting root in the soil. Under their control we cannot fall into an oblivion of our rights, nor be duped into submission to the ignominious tyranny of demagogues;-nor yield an additional proof to the world, either that popular institutions are essentially short lived, or that the forms of a free, and the purposes of an arbitrary government are not irreconcilable. While the name of Washington is suitably revered, your memorialists entertain no fear that we shall ever be afflicted with the disgrace and the calamities of foreign conquest, or overtaken by that new and mighty current which has so irresistibly set against liberty in the other hemisphere.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PORT FOLIO.

Observations on the Music of Handel.

Your discernment in perceiving, and your zeal in promoting whatever promises to conduce to the improvement of the public taste, warrants me in the expectation that you will lend your elegant pen and valuable publication to forward the grand musical performances of which a plan has been announced to the people of this city. Upon the strength of this presumption I beg leave to of fer you a few observations on the music of Handel from which, it is said, selections will be made by the conductors of that plan. I do not pretend to say that those observations are my own; but as in all likelihood they will be new to your readers, they will answer the purpose of entertainment as well, and as they are taken from the writings of persons who understood the subject much more fully than I do, they will answer the purposes of instruction much better than if they were my own.

Music in its common application is considered merely as an entertainment: when bad it disgusts; when good, it creates sensations unknown from other sources, and, if it reach the sublime, our feelings are more powerfully excited than by the utmost perfection that poetry alone or painting has yet attained.

With painting music cannot be connected; but when joined, or, as Milton says, wedded with poetry, it reaches the highest pitch of excellence, and soars a height which, disjoined from its powerful ally, it never can attain. To the production of sublime effects neither poetical measure nor rhyme are necessary: Prose produced by a poetical imagination on a grand subject is as powerful as verse; indeed more so, as every one must have felt, who has heard passages from the psalms and prophets as they are set to music by Handel, from which any one of ordinary taste and capacity may ⚫ conceive how much divine worship has lost by using the versions in hobbling rhyme of Sternhold and Hopkins and their fulsome successors. How far altering the sublime words of the psalmist into the weak sing-songs generally used, for the sake of jingling terminations in rhyme, may be LAWFUL, I leave to the heads of the church to determine. I and mine, however, will adhere to the grand originals.

Music never attained perfect sublimity before Handel. The best vocal music was heard in churches, and the best composer was Purcell. Instrumental music was wretched till Corelli arose, and opened a new world in it. Even at this day that great composer continues to be the favourite of the tasteful and judicious. What Corelli did for bow instruments Handel did for the harpsichord, the forte piano, and the organ.

The first attempt to unite wind instruments with violins was made by Handel in his hautbois concertos; which have ever since been heard with delight, and are unquestionably the best compositions in their kind. This union of wind and bow instruments was for a long time reprobated in Italy, but like every thing that is true was at last triumphant.

The operas of Handel are confessedly superior to all preceding and contemporary compositions of the same kind. His oratorios are original in both design and execution. As these are the pieces which have from their first production to this day been most frequently performed, what Johnson says of the works of Shakspeare may be applied to them. "They are heard without any other reason than the desire to please, and are therefore praised only as pleasure is obtained; yet thus unassisted by interest or passion they have passed through variations of taste and changes of manners,