undue partiality, that no nation was ever more productive of all kinds of genius, or capacity for excellence in every species of elegant pursuit. But while these high panegyrics are deemed but a tribute due to the undoubted merits of our countrymen, it is not to be denied, also, that we are not equally distinguished by a profound knowledge of the sciences, or by the delicacy and correctness of our taste. Sound learning, a capacity for profound investigation, and a just discrimination in the works of genius, are not the spontaneous products of nature, but the slow acquisitions of time, application, and exclusive devotion to the pursuits of study. The Americans are too active, laborious, and thrifty a people, to find time for those silent contemplations, and toilsome researches, by which alone great masters in science, profound interpreters of nature, or the finest models in prose and poetry are to be formed. Hence, although talents, and no doubt much of the highest order, we have in abundance, to a nice discrimination of the degrees of excellence in writing and eloquence, we certainly can lay no claim. No readers are more easily caught and imposed upon than ours, by counterfeit beauties. Hence the crudest productions, and most flimsy and glittering specimens of oratory, find warm encomiasts, a rapid sale, and ready circulation among us. There really seems as yet no sufficient preparation made in the public mind, which would enable us to pronounce a right decision, or promulge an authoritative sanction, by which the merits of any great and solid work would be accurately ascertained. About such performances, indeed, our readers, for the most part, appear to hold their judgment in a state of perfect supineness and indifference, contenting themselves with relishing lighter pieces, and awaiting the sentence of European critics to determine the pretensions of weightier contributions to science. And shall we long remain in this condition of dependence and intellectual vassalage to foreign critics and reviewers? Is it not high time that we should awake to a perception of our own claims? But by what process, let us ask, shall this evil be remedied? What are the expedients to be adopted, in order not only to produce good, deep, and sound authors, but also their only efficient patrons and supports, correct judges, whose approbation will stamp a high character and value upon works, and promote their circulation among intelligent readers, and secure their permanent fame? This is an interrogatory of infinite importance, at this time, to the literary reputation of our country, and of consequence demands from us a distinct, full, and adequate reply.

That deficiency in correct taste, both in the readers and writers of our country, which is perceptible to all scholars, and which has not escaped the observation and strictures of our European libellers, arises out of the operation of many conjoined causes, but first and more especially from the imperfections in that system of education which is prevalent in our colleges and schools. Parents are so excessively eager to have their sons protruded into the world in quest of fortunes, that our seminaries of learning are compelled, by public sentiment, to abridge their course of intellectual discipline, and hastening their under graduates from study to study, in order to compass the whole circle in a given time, at last

The American people are less open to censure in this regard than formerly. They think and judge for themselves far more than they were wont to do. EDS. KNICKERBOCKER.

let loose from their studious retirement a succession of unfledged scholars, who, becoming soon involved in a whirl of business, never afterward find time or opportunity to complete those acquirements which they had just begun, supply those vacuities of which they are sensible, or improve and perfect that taste which was left by their instructors in a state of crudity. And when our young men, thus slenderly supplied with learning, at their departure from the walls of college commence the practice of their several professions, and make their appearance before the public eye, instead of finding a corrective of their own faulty judgments in the decisions of others, they readily discover that the standard to which their efforts are referred is as defective as their own, and that their best qualifications for success, and their most available recommendations to the applause of their hearers and umpires, are those florid harangues and tinsel decorations of style, which the authors whom they studied in youth would have taught them to repudiate. Thus unskilful judges in writing and eloquence encourage and multiply imperfect writers and speakers, and these two classes of men have a reciprocal influence upon each other. In order to produce the finest specimens of composition and oratory in a country, it is indispensable that readers and auditors should have attained to the highest refinement and perfection in taste. The intercourse, in this particular, between writers and speakers, and their readers and hearers, resembles the interchange of commodities which takes place in market - able writers and speakers requiring the most intelligent and highly cultivated assemblies, in order to a just perception and correct estimation of the finished productions of their genius.

But to proceed with the subject of our present remark. The most effectual methods by which we shall refine and perfect the public taste in our country, and give rise among us to the finest productions of genius, is to raise the standard of our early education, and give adequate encouragement to men of letters. And as the next step to be taken at the present moment, in this desirable work, no more efficacious measure could be devised by human wisdom, than that which has been prepared for our republic by a liberal and enlightened foreigner, who has placed ample funds at the disposal of Congress, with the intent of founding a great literary institution at Washington, for the diffusion of useful knowledge among men.' Should the generous bequest of this noblespirited Englishman, which our Congress has judiciously acknowledged, and taken measures to procure, be appropriated to the purpose contemplated by the testator, and the means he has furnished be judiciously applied, the most ardent wish of our Washington will be fulfilled, and an institution founded, which will supply one of the most urgent wants of our republic at this time, raise the standard of education among us, give a new impulse to American intellect, elevate our scientific reputation at home and abroad, and finally produce a succession of American authors and philosophers, who will reflect the highest honors upon their country through all future ages. This, however, is a topic too copious and interesting to be discussed in this article, and we defer its full investigation to our next.

MARIGOLD.

DEAR P

SECRET HISTORY OF TASSO.*

Rome, 20th April, 1836. In my often sad and solitary, but to me always deeply interesting, wanderings in France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, I have thought of you frequently, and wished to write in evidence of my recollection of old friendship and past kindness. But to what purpose should I describe that which has been described over and over again by every traveler, and of which every description can give but a most faint and imperfect idea? The Alps, the Lake of Geneva, the Simplon, the Hospice of St. Bernard, Lago Maggiore, Milan, the Certora near Pavia, Lodi, Mantua, Venice, Arqua, Ferrara, Bologna, the Appenines, Fiesole, Florence, the Galleries, the Venus, the Wrestlers, the Faun, Arezzo, Cortona, Perugia, Lake Thrasymene, Clitumnus, Terni, Rome, St. Peters, the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Vatican, the Laocoon, and the Apollo, are things to be seen and felt, not written or spoken of. I waited, therefore, till I could find an unbeaten track — a subject of some novelty and interest to which language, and especially the poor words at my command, should not be utterly unequal. You will judge, when you have heard me out, how far I have been successful.

During my stay at Florence, I read an exceedingly well-written essay, by Professor Rosini, of Pisa, upon the causes of the imprisonment of Tasso. I learned that the very ingenious and almost conclusive argument it contains, supported or deduced from the published and undoubted works of the poet, received abundant and nearly incontestible

*IN presenting this letter to the public, it may be proper to state, that it was addressed to a distinguished citizen of this city, by an American gentleman now abroad, who, both as a man of letters and as a statesinan, has added not a little to the reputation of his country.

confirmation from some мss. brought to light by the industry and research of Count Mariano Alberti, an antiquarian and man of letters at Rome. These papers had been offered to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and a price agreed on, if they should be deemed genuine; but the mode adopted for deciding their authenticity was certainly not happy. Instead of being subjected to the judgment of learned men, skilled in mss., and capable of determining from the quality of the paper, the color of the ink, the shape of the characters, as well as the style, and the comparison of the hand-writing, whether they were true or forged, they were submitted to the examination of experts, accustomed to compare and testify respecting modern hand-writing, a species of evidence admitted, as you know, by the civil law. These persons-able and faithful enough, I dare say, in their peculiar occupation, but assuredly no judges of ancient MSS., or of the poetry of Tasso-after comparing the hand-writing with some of his autographs in Florence, either pronounced against the papers of Alberti, or declined giving a favorable opinion I know not which, nor is it at all material. The result was the same. The Grand Duke declined taking the mss., but made the Count some compensation for his loss of time, trouble, and expense. The genuineness of the мss. being thus in some degree discredited, it behooved the Count, as well in vindication of his character, as in support of the value of his literary property, to make farther investigations, and procure other proof. In this he has been some length of time employed, and he has obtained the testimony of some of the most eminent and learned antiquarians in Italy. Such men as Mezzofanti and Mai, for example of the keepers of the different libraries, in which the poet's hand-writing exists those of Milan, Paris, Naples, Venice, etc., and even those of the Magliabechian and Laurentinian- the very subjects and officers of the Grand Duke himself. Armed with this evidence, and various circumstantial and incidental proofs, furnished by his own reading and examination in special reference to this subject, he determined to bring the matter to the test of public opinion, and issued proposals for publishing fac similes of the MSS., with explanatory notes, and the testimony in favor of their authenticity. Part of the work was already prepared for the press, when the Roman government prohibited its publication. Whether the influence under which it acts comes from Modena or Florence - whether the honor of the family of Este, the literary infallibility of the Grand Duke's advisers, or the cause of morals and religion are believed to be endangered — and why it would be in vain to conjecture. A reason for any thing is never to be asked for on this side of the Alps. Having had the pleasure to make Count Alberti's acquaintance, as soon as I found his work was suppressed, I took the liberty of asking to see the original Mss. Upon his most kind and courteous invitation, I have been twice present at readings of several of them, and have had ample opportunities of satisfying myself respecting their authenticity. I confess my entire conviction that they are genuine. To this conclusion every thing concurs. The internal evidence alone would be sufficient. It is harder to imagine the possibility of any one-the greatest geniuseven Tasso himself- being able to forge such papers -to write with such force and feeling, where he was not personally concerned than to believe, under all the circumstances, that these curious and precious memorials should have remained in obscurity for more than two centuries.