of these children, and the existence of the small-pox, more than two years afterwards, in one of them, for it was only to one of the children that the committee had an opportunity of applying any particular examination, and in that one the disease was marked by some striking peculiarities, as will appear in the history, the report closes with the following observations:

"The committee, however, feels it a duty to remark, that the above facts are not to be considered as militating against the general practice of vaccination. Some well-authenticated, though rare, cases, have been stated, in which the natural small-pox occurred twice in the same person. A few other instances are recorded of persons who, after having undergone the inoculated small-pox, nevertheless took the disease by infection: yet these cases were not deemed conclusive against the advantages of variolous inoculation, nor do they seem to have impeded its progress.

"In every country where European science is diffused, the general preventive power of vaccine inoculation, with regard to the small-pox, has been fully ascertained, and cannot now be affected by the result of a few detached cases, which, by future observations and experiments, may be accounted for satisfactorily. The committee, therefore, with one accord, subscribes to the established opinion, that if vaccination were universally adopted, it would afford the means of finally extirpating the small-pox."

By way of illustrating the assertion that the small pox may, in certain cases be taken twice, an eminent physician has published the following curious and authentic cases, no less than eight of which occurred within his own direct ob

the Memoirs of the Medical Society of London.

Mr. Langford had passed through the disease in his infancy, when three others of the family were also affected by it, one of whom died. His face was so remarkably pitted and seamed, as to attract general notice, and no one who saw him entertained a doubt of his having had the disease in a most inveterate manner. It was his custom, from his sympathy with persons afflicted with small-pox, to visit and assist the poor when labouring under it, and in May, 1775, he again took the infection, and on the twenty-first day fell a victim to it. Two physicians, Dr. Collet and Dr. Hulbert, concurred with Mr. Withers in opinion of the second disease being truly small-pox, which was still farther confirmed by others of the family afterwards falling ill of it: to one of whom, a sister of the deceased, it also proved fatal.

In October, 1804, the daughter of Mr. C., of Russel-square, Bloomsbury, recovered from a most severe and dangerous form of confluent small-pox, by which her life had been brought into imminent danger. This child had been inoculated for small-pox, on the 14th of November, 1801, and passed through the disease with all its usual symptoms, both as to the local affection in the inoculated arm, where it had left the common scar, and the constitutional disease. She had the eruptive fever at the proper time, a convulsion-fit, and four or five pustules about the face, which maturated and declined, with perfect regularity.

Mr. D., of C., in Devonshire, then of adult age, had passed through the small-pox in his childhood. He was considered by himself, by his family, and by the medical attendant, to be perfectly secure, as will plainly appear, from the manner in which he exposed himself to future infection. When some younger branches of the family were about to be inoculated, Mr. D., relying on his own safety, amused himself by examining particularly

the variolous matter brought by the surgeon for the purpose, holding the phial in which it was contained, upon lint or cotton, to his nostrils, to smell it. He paid very dearly for the indulgence of his curiosity, for, after the usual interval, he became ill, and went through the small-pox, quite as regularly, and more severely, than those of the family who were inoculated. A peculiar anxiety was excited, not only for the safety of his life, but also, in his own mind at least, for the preservation of his person from the dreadful disfigurations occasioned by this cruel distemper, as he was then on the point of marriage.

Miss Sarah H., of Sudbury, was inoculated, when a month old, by Mr. B., a surgeon, of that place. The effect of this inoculation was not any general pustular eruption, which, indeed, has never been deemed necessary to the success of variolous inoculation. The surgeon, however, thought her perfectly secure; and on a subsequent occasion, when some other children of the family were to be inoculated, and Mrs. H. desired that, for her own satisfaction, the operation might be repeated on this child, he assured her that it would be altogether impossible to produce any farther infection. The event proved him mistaken. The child was inoculated, and had the disease in the same way as the other children.

In May, 1788, two children of the Rev. G. O., of W. B., in Staffordshire, were inoculated, with variolous matter, obtained from a surgeon of the first respectability in a neighbouring town. The operation was performed also in the manner recommended, and commonly employed, by this very experienced practitioner. The arms inflamed more rapidly than usual: at the end of a week constitutional symptoms took place, and were followed by an eruption of pimples, which increased in size, and continued to appear in succession for some days; and then, together with the constitutional illness, gradually disappeared,

and the sores in the arms dried up and healed. From a dissatisfaction with the result of this inoculation, both children were, a few weeks afterwards, inoculated in a different mode, and passed through the disease with the most perfect regularity in all respects.

In the latter end of the year 1794, five children of some workmen at the Brades steel-works, near Birmingham, were inoculated with some recent matter taken from one or two only remaining pustules, in a very late period of the natural smallpox, from a child of one of the domestics of the Rev. Dr. Hallam, late dean of Bristol, at Charlemont, in Staffordshire. Of these five two only passed through the disease with regularity, the other three had a complaint very much resembling that of the last mentioned two children of Mr. O., attended with eruptions; a sort of imitative or spurious small-pox. On this account they were afterwards subjected to inoculation with the matter of an earlier stage, and then had the disease in its common form. The two former were likewise inoculated again, but these resisted the infection altogether.

For the Literary Magazine.

YOUNG ROSCIUS.

ONE of the most general and interesting subjects of curiosity and discussion, in England, at present, next to the menaced invasion, appears to be the character and merits of a player, by name William Henry Betty, but who is more commonly known by the name of Young Roscius. This title will sufficiently explain the popular opinion of his merit. The press has teemed with publications respecting him, and the ingenuity of biographers and managers has contrived to extract from his affairs the materials of a heavy controversy, in which, however, we, in America, have no interest. Whe

ther we shall ever be favoured by a sight of this miracle of talents on this side the ocean is a doubtful point. Unless we go, or unless he comes, immediately, we shall miss the surprising spectacle. The accomplishments of Betty, at the age of twelve or fourteen, are truly prodigious; but the prodigy will disappear with that age. Betty, at the age of twenty-five or thirty, whatever his present attainments may be, cannot expect to be more than Garrick was; therefore it is quite probable he may fall far short of Garrick.

For the Literary Magazine.

PORTRAIT OF A LEARNED MAN.

THERE is no kind of reading which delights and instructs me more than that which contains sketches of personal history and character. The well-known imperfection incident to all pictures of human actions or feelings, whether drawn by the actor himself, or by some observer, is some abatement of this satisfaction, but it does not annihilate it altogether. A man must have studied himself very imperfectly, who does not see, that a faithful moral portrait is impossible: but it would be a ridiculous refinement to despise or overlook these pictures, merely because they are not, what they cannot be, absolutely faithful. In most cases, the defect arises from the incapacity of the relater or pourtrayer, and not from his intention to deceive. On many occasions, the fault consists in omit ting true, rather than in inserting false lineaments: and hence information and instruction is, in some degree, derived from it. Though the picture does not show the whole man, it shows a very large portion of him, and we are more benefited by the success of the painter, than injured by his failure.

I have seldom been more pleased than with the following portrait of

a learned man. Every man's head is full of the imperfections to be found in a man devoted to learning, especially ancient learning. By diverting the attention from the scenes around us, and from the transactions of our own times, and fixing it upon characters and incidents which occurred in a distant age and remote country, erudition is supposed to disqualify its votaries for the common offices of life. The ancient languages being emphatically dead, no one, it is vulgarly imagined, can buy skill in them, but at the cost of his native tongue, and thus they are likely to become uncouth and outlandish, from their disuse and ignorance of the great instrument of human communication, speech. If these students chance to have their passions engaged, not by the languages and arts, but by what are called the sciences, and especially among these by the metaphysics of antiquity, their case becomes a hopeless one. Ancient metaphysics are classed, by the learned of the present times, with exploded dreams and childish reveries, and those who give their time and veneration to them are deemed no better than Bedlamites or old women. These notions may receive some degree of countenance from the examples of a Taylor and Montboddo, but they are certainly in direct opposition to the lines in the following portrait. It belongs to one, whose passion for the ancients has never been exceeded; who testified this passion not by closet application merely, but by extensive publications; and who was particularly distinguished by his rage for ancient metaphysics: circumstances which greatly enhance the wonder we must feel at the moral and intellectual character displayed on this canvas.

Though the attainments of this man, for which he was known to the public, were those of a man of learning, and especially of Grecian learning, his studies were by no means confined to these departments of knowledge. He possessed likewise a general knowledge of modern

history, with a very distinguishing taste in the fine arts, in one of which, music, he was an eminent proficient. His singular industry empowered him to make these various acquisitions without neglecting any of the duties which he owed to his family, his friends, or his country. His survivors possess such proofs, besides those given to the public, of his laborious study and reflection, as are very rarely to be met with. Not only was he accustomed, through a long series of years, to make copious extracts from the different books which he read, and to write critical remarks and conjectures on many of the passages extracted, but he was also in the habit of regularly committing to writing such reflections as arose out of his study, which evince a mind carefully disciplined, and anxiously bent on the attainment of self-knowledge, and selfgovernment. And yet, though habituated to deep thinking and laborious reading, he was generally cheerful, even to playfulness. There was no pedantry in his manners or conversation, nor was he ever seen either to display his learning with os tentation, or to treat with slight or superciliousness those less informed than himself. He rather sought to make them partakers of what he knew, than to mortify them by a parade of his own superiority. Nor had he any of that miserable fastidiousness about him which two often disgraces men of learning, and prevents their being amused or interested, at least their choosing to aphear so, by common performances, and common events.

It was with him a maxim, that the most difficult, and infinitely the preferable, sort of criticism, both in literature and in the arts, was that which consists in finding out beauties, rather than defects; and although he certainly wanted not judgment to distinguish and to prefer superior excellence of any kind, he was too reasonable to expect it should often occur, and too wise to allow himself to be disgusted at common weakness or imperfection. He

thought, indeed, that the very at tempt to please, however it might fall short of its aim, deserved some return of thanks, some degree of approbation; and that to endeavour at being pleased by such efforts, was due to justice, good-nature, and good sense.

Far, at the same time, from that presumptuous conceit which is solicitous about mending others, and that moroseness which feeds its own pride by dealing general censure, he cultivated to the utmost that great moral wisdom, by which we are made humane, gentle, and forgiving, thankful for the blessings of life, acquiescent in the afflictions we endure, and submissive to all the dispensations of Providence. He detested the gloom of superstition, and the persecuting spirit by which it is so often accompanied.

His affection to every part of his family was extreme and uniform. As a husband, a parent, a master, he was ever kind and indu:gent; and he thought it no interruption of his graver occupations to instruct his daughters himself, by exercising them daily both in reading and composition, and writing essays for their improvement, during many of their younger years. No man was a better judge of what belonged to female education, and the elegant accomplishments of the sex, or more disposed to set a high value upon them. But he had infinitely more at heart that his children should be early habituated to the practice of religion and morality, and deeply impressed with their true principles. To promote this desirable end, he was assiduous, both by instruction and example, being himself a constant attendant upon public worship, and enforcing that great duty upon every part of his family. The deep sense of moral and religious obligation which was habitual to him, and those benevolent feelings which were so great a happiness to his family and friends, had the same powerful influence over his public as his private life. He had an ardent zeal for the prosperity of his country, whose

real interests he well understood; and, in his senatorial conduct, he proved himself a warm friend to the genuine principles of religious and civil liberty.

My readers will easily perceive, that the subject of this picture is no other than Mr. Harris. But I ought, if it were possible, to conceal from them that the painter is lord Malusbury, his son. There is a sacred obligation incumbent on a son to conceal the faults of his father, and it is the natural tendency of perso nal affection to magnify the merits of its object. What deductions are to be made from the above catalogue of virtues, on this account, I leave to the judgment of candid readers.

For the Literary Magazine.

NUMBER OF NOVELS.

B.

A LITERARY enquirer in England has lately taken the pains to count up all the novels, translations and originals, which have been published in England during the last forty years. He has been able to form an actual list of twenty-two hundred and seventy-nine. The

number of volumes, as these have little relation to the bulk, and none at all to the intrinsic merit of the work, he has omitted to examine, but he calculates the number at about seven thousand five hundred: a very tolerable library, and such as would furnish entertainment, to those who relish such viands, and whose taste does not very nicely discriminate, for fifty years together, at half a volume per day.

Among the strange freaks of literary curiosity may be classed that of a maiden lady of fortune, in the west of England, who collected into a library all the works of this kind, in her own language, which she could by any labour or expence procure. Whether the extent of her collection was equal to the above number is nowhere said, but it could not be far short of it, since her lite

rature cost her near eight hundred pounds (3500 dollars).

As the caprices of the human mind are endless, we have no right to say, that there never was another instance of a similar collection; yet surely the number of such collections must be few.

For the Literary Magazine.

COMMERCIAL REPUTATION OF THE UNITED STATES.

NO man can have much value for his country who is not anxious for its reputation among foreigners; yet this, to a native of America, is a most painful solicitude: it brings anger or mortification along with it much oftener than complacency or exultation. Every opportunity of seeing ourselves as others see us only convinces us to what a low ebb our reputation is reduced among foreign nations. Our literary and political atchievements are either depised, or, what is still more humiliating, they are totally overlooked; our authors, our lawyers, our divines, our orators, our statesmen, are seldom known, except to the friends or correspondents of the individuals themselves, even by name.

Our commercial character is more likely to be known in Europe, than our character in any other point of view; and yet, alas, the respect of foreigners seems not disposed to keep pace with their knowledge of us in this respect. Whether we deserve the following censures, I mean not to decide, but they were launched against us, no longer ago than three months, with the utmost solemnity, and in a British publication more read and more respected than any other that issues from their press. True or false, therefore, their influence on general opinion may be easily imagined.

Remittances from America (says this historiographer and censor, who was probably a sufferer by the failure he enveighs against) never came