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THE

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

VOL. XXX.

OCTOBER, 1823, & JANUARY, 1824.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1824.

7323,2 DRAXX 1860, July 13. "Pickman Bequest

HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

London: Printed by C. Roworth,
Bell-yard, Teinple-bar.

9784 53-80 5-01

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THE

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

OCTOBER, 1823.

ART. I.-Travels in New England and New York. By Timothy Dwight, S.T.D. LL.D. late President of Yale College; Author of Theology Explained and Defended. 4 vols. Newhaven.

THIS writer was known in England about thirty years ago by an heroic poem upon the Conquest of Canaan, and a descriptive one, entitled 'Greenfield Hill,' both republished in this country. More recently his System of Theology has been reprinted here, and with considerable success. But the work before us, though the humblest in its pretences, is the most important of his writings, and will derive additional value from time, whatever may become of his poetry and of his sermons.

Soon after Dr. Dwight had been appointed President of Yale College, he found it necessary for his health to employ the vacations in travelling-of all restoratives, both for body and mind, the most effectual for men of sedentary habits. A wish to gratify those who, a hundred years hence, might feel curiosity concerning his native country, made him resolve to prepare a faithful description of its existing state. He made notes, therefore, and collected information, on the spot; the materials were arranged and composed at leisure; and when a weakness of sight compelled him to desist from the undertaking, the students of his college offered to write for him in succession—a fact creditable to both parties, as showing an attachment on their part which could not have existed unless it had been deserved. The work is in the form of Letters addressed to an English gentleman; the author, however, wished it to be understood that they were written for his own countrymen, supposing that few persons in Great Britain felt any desire to be acquainted with the condition of the United States, or the real character of the Americans.

By the government,' he says, 'indeed we must, from the extent of our territory, our local circumstances, our population and our commerce, be considered as possessing a degree of political importance; and by the merchants of Liverpool, and the manufacturers of Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield, we may be regarded with some attention as customers. But, except by the religious part of the British nation, we seem to be chiefly unknown or forgotten in the character of rational beings; or known and remembered almost only to be made the object of contempt and calumny. A book which professes nothing more than to give a description of a country and a people regarded in this

VOL. XXX. NO. LIX.

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