we are not among those who believe, that we are to wait until this conversion is accomplished by a miracle; for the disciples were expressly commanded, to begin at Jerusalem when they went forth to preach repentance. And this command was given after the author of it had been rejected and crucified by the Jews. The AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY have inade such progress in their plan of removing the negroes from this country, that they have resolved to apply to congress for aid from the national government, in the further prosecution of this great national undertaking. Of the expediency of now making such an application to congress, the committee, after very full and attentive consideration, entertain no doubt. It seems to them, they say, very clear, that no means which individuals, or any association of individuals, can command are adequate to the accomplishment of any thing more, than to prove the practicability of this enterprise, to show the course which must be pursued, and to prepare the way for its accomplishment. This, the committee apprehend, has been already effected, by the efforts of this society and its auxiliaries, aided by the enlightened measures adopted by the president, under the authority of congress. A territory, probably the best and most suitable for the purpose, which the whole south western coast of Africa contains, has been procured. A colony has been actually established, and now subsists; the hostility of the neighbouring tribes has been successfully resisted and overcome; very considerable progress has been made in conciliating and securing their amity, their good will, and their confidence. Land has been distributed to the colonists, who have made much progress in erecting houses, clearing and enclosing fields, and preparing for a cultivation, not only sufficient for their own support, but for the supply of future emigrants. A species of government by consent, has been established, in which the colonists have a share, and which has hitherto been found sufficient for the maintenance of security and order; and, above all, it has been found that, to the African race, for which this asylum is intended, the climate is so well suited, that far less mortality has taken place at this establishment, than usually attends new settlements, in our own or any other country. It is also proved, that free people of colour are ready and desirous to emigrate in far greater numbers, than the means at the disposal of the society enable it to convey. For the Port Folio. ON FEMALE EDUCATION. MRS. BARBAULD, the author of the following extract, is one of the most correct and elegant among the female writers of England, and has had the best opportunities of observing the effects of education in the character and conduct of women of the middle, and higher classes. She re ceived a liberal education, like that which is given to men, under the care and superintendance of her father, who was the principal of a college, and distinguished by his learning and virtues. It has been her lot to apply her talents and learning to the support of her family, and the acquisition of property. From all these circumstances she may be considered as a competent judge of that mode of education which is best adapted to render women useful members of society, in the various stations which they may happen to occupy. The present system of female education, which is becoming fashionable among the higher classes in this country, does not meet her approbation. To us it appears to be too miscellaneous, superficial, and showy, and inadequate to enable women to discharge the peculiar offices of domestic life, for which nature has destined them. The various and unceasing avocations which they are required to perform have opposed an obstacle to the attainment of certain kinds of knowledge, which cannot be applied by women, to useful purposes in the capacity of wives and mothers. We are not inclined to discourage a liberal system of female education among persons of opulence and leisure; but we would not encourage a waste of time and money in the vain attempt to acquire a superficial knowledge of a variety of subjects which admit of no beneficial application, and consequently will be soon obliterated from the memory. We have not observed any substantial benefits which a variety of literary attainments and accomplishments have conferred upon certain learned ladies in this country. Nature seems to have prescribed different kinds of education to males and females: and we do not desire to see her decrees perverted by the opposition and caprice of fashion. We wish to see a marked distinction between the two sexes in all respects, except good qualities of the mind. From the nature and constitution of woman we expect to receive entertainment more agreeable and congenial to our minds than the ability to read or speak imperfectly a number of foreign languages, which we do not understand; or to discuss, in mixed companies, the merits of a new poem or a play by Moore, Scott, or Byron. As to languages, either ancient or modern, a woman has seldom an opportunity of making a vain display of her knowledge of them in the company of respectable men, and fit associates. Let respectable strangers, who seek the society of our ladies, learn to converse with them in their native language, and not exact from the latter that kind and degree of homage which seems rather due to them. When we go to France or Italy, we endeavour to learn the languages of those countries, and do not expect that the people will condescend to study ours for the sake of administering to our convenience and entertainment. But we will no longer detain our fair readers from Mrs. Barbauld.— It is impossible to supply the pupils of a school, with any great variety of original authors, and yet it is very desirable, that they should be early introduced to a number of the best authors, at least in their own language. When the sources are opened to them, they may take fuller draughts at their leisure. A taste for fine writing, cannot be cultivated too early; and the surest mode of cultivating it, is by reading much at that period of life, when what is read, is indelibly impressed upon the memory, and by reading nothing, which does not deserve to be so impressed. How strongly are moral sentiments or descriptions of nature fixed upon the mind by passages which we have admired in early youth, and which, whenever we meet with them at any distant time, raise, almost mechanically, the emotions we then experienced! The maxims first recommended by beauty of diction, become perhaps, the guides of our after life; and the feelings, introduced through the medium of the imagination, influence the heart in the intercourses of society. Whoever has been conversant with them in early youth, has laid up in her mind treasures, which, in sickness and in sorrow, in the sleepless night and the solitary day, will sooth the mind with ideas dear to its recollections; will come upon it like the remembrance of an early friend, revive the vivid feelings of youth, feed the mind with hope, compose it to resignation, and perhaps dismiss the parting breath with those hallelujahs on the tongue, which awoke the first feelings of love and admiration in the childish bosom. It is perhaps, an error in modern education, liberally conducted as at present it is towards females, that they spend too much time in learning languages and too little in reading authors; so that when they have gone through their course of education, they have a general acquaintance with, perhaps, three or four languages, and know little of the best productions in their own. If they have time to pursue their studies, they may supply the deficiency; but if the happiest destination of a woman be fulfilled, they become early engaged in domestic cares and duties, their acquirements stop short at the threshold of knowledge, and the real furniture of their minds is less rich, than that of a girl, who, educated at home, and with little expense, but supplied with a judicious variety of English classics, has learnt less, but read more. It may be questioned, whether the practice, now so much in fashion, of teaching the learned languages to young women indiscriminately, can answer the time and pains, which must be employed about it. If a girl has a decided turn for literature, and a genius, which may perhaps impel her, at some period of her life, to give her own thoughts to the public, they will certainly enlarge the sphere of her ideas; but they can be of little use to those, who, in their own language, joined to that of the French, have more than enough to employ all the time they ever will or ought to devote to reading. That a girl should be put to read Virgil or Horace, who is unacquainted with Pope or Boileau, is surely a solecism in language. Graceful reading is a most pleasing, and it is a scarce accomplishment; and it is seldom attained without some practice in reciting; which necessarily demands a full, distinct, utterance; and those tones and cadences, which bring out the sense of the author and the harmony of his periods. Finished verse, particularly, loses half its charms, when it is submitted only to the eye; and if poetry has been divorced from music, it ought at least to have the music of a well toned voice, regulated by a well informed taste. Many English ladies profess to want courage to recite, or even to read aloud a copy of verses in a social party; nor can it be denied, that bashfulness, and shrinking from display, is one characteristic of our nation: yet it is somewhat difficult to conceive, that a young lady shall have courage enough to stand by the side of a professional singer, for an hour together, and entertain a large and mixed audience, and yet be too modest to read or recite, by her father's fireside, amidst a circle of his friends, a passage from Milton or Cowper. For the Port Folio. THE FLOWER OF YARE. The Yare is a river which runs from Norwich, in England, to Yar- So mild, so lovely, so serene, So calmly sweet, the eve, The Sun would wait to gild the scene Along the meads the cattle stray, On either side the rising land And many a flow'ret gay and fair But oh! there blooms, a flower beside Her gentle form and easy grace MATHEWS COMICI LAUDES. The following parody is no doubt from the pen of some Oxford wag, who delights to relieve his mind from the labyrinths of metaphysics, in the lighter sports of the comic Muse. Prime Mimorum! Thou rare mimic Mathews, |