at home, or if from the want of a suitable school, they are sent abroad for instruction, they spend but a few of their earlier years at a distance from their parents, and are seldom without the salutary influence of excellent examples.

But although our generous countryman is so very moderate in his demands for furnishing out this choicest gem of life, our young ladies endeavour to acquire something more than the every-day qualifications of gentleness, modesty, and economy. They aspire to the honour of being companions to their future lords. They do not, indeed, affect to be philosophers:-they cannot explain, for instance,* why "ships might be rendered more buoyant in the water, by making them air-tight, and forcing in air by means of an air-pump;" because, to their unsophisticated understandings, it appears that if any weight be thrown in vessels, its tendency is not to" elevate them to a higher level in the water," but to sink them deeper. In these cases they are content to take common sense as their guide, and she (i. e. common sense) teaches them to laugh at such absurdities.

Our ladies, young, and-not young, listen to lectures on the phenomena of nature-on mineralogy, botany, and chymistry. This species of knowledge may be dispensed with by our homely adviser, yet if professor Cooper should instruct us in the saving arts of making better bread, a cheaper pudding, more palatable beer, and so forth, than our mothers have been able to do, he will, peradventure, allow us to leave our needles now and then for the lecture room; and even be disposed to admit our pretensions to thinking "sometimes of saving as well as of spending."

When this very extraordinary paragraph first met our eye, we felt very much inclined to pass it over as we have since seen others do with a smile at its absurdity. We have, however, amused ourselves, and we hope prevented some others from believing, that American women are altogether good for nothing as helps-meet for man. Here we should be glad to dismiss the article, but it would seem almost a dereliction of duty, not to notice another characteristic which we do not resist as a slander of our countrywomen, but deprecate as an insidious sneer at religion.

VOL. VI.

* See Analectic Magazine for August, 1818, p. 162.

N n

We never see such things from an American pen without feelings of shame and indignation, particularly when they appear in works of such high pretensions as this Journal. Our butterflies, it seems, after "flaring away the summer of life," "retire to board in some cheap country village, and become exceedingly pious, and withal a little scandalous." If this assertion did not altogether originate in the welcome opportunity of uttering some pleasantry offensive to piety;-or if the brain of this writer be really a little deranged by the freaks of some hypocritical old maid, we will afford him some pity;-but we must tell the sober part of the community, that American women, not only in the autumn, but in the spring, and the summer of their days, are distinguished in works of genuine piety. The sun scarcely shines on a portion of the new hemisphere that is not also morally enlightened by their Christian beneficence.

Female virtue has ever been the curb of vice and the polisher of virtue; but the nineteenth century beholds it, emphatically, "clothed with strength and honour."* To talk of the substantial benefits conferred on the poor and the ignorant by innumerable female societies of every age and condition, would be utterly superfluous. But the patience, the modesty, and the good sense displayed by girls, in teaching both young persons and adults to read: by girls scarcely more than children themselves-in a labour which brings nothing in return but the consciousness of doing good-certainly these qualities deserve the highest commendation, and ought to rescue their sex from misrepresentation. Is it not wonderful, that amongst thousands of young women, associated in every section of our country, we hear of no dissention— no envyings—no struggles for precedence-nothing but harmony and meekness," rendering honour to whom honour is due?" Do girls who are suffered to "flare away the summer of life" in idle

* Proverbs, 31.

The institutions to which our correspondent alludes, are so numerous, that it would seem to be invidious to mention any one of them. Yet we cannot permit this opportunity to pass without inviting those whose rambles lead them to the banks of the Schuylkill, and who delight in the contemplation of that benevolence "which blesseth him that gives and him that receives," to pause at the entrance to the "Female Asylum Society."

ED. P. F.

ness and extravagance act thus? No, sir; our daughters are worthy, to use the language of this writer, of " the regards of prudent and reflecting young men"-" the hearts of their husbands may safely trust in them"-for "their works do praise them in the gates."*

CONSTANTIA.

PETITION OF DANIEL DOLLAR.-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

ALTHOUGH Our munificent patrons do not enable us to enjoy a very sociable acquaintance with such persons as the petitioner in the following case, we are indulged sometimes, like the hungry man in the cook-shop, with the sound of their voices.

We understand from our correspondent, Orlando, who spoils the barks of innocent trees, by carving them with names, and hangs verses on the bushes, that the part of the prisoner, on this occasion, was supported by the editor of the Pittsburg Gazelle, who first brought the matter before the public. He was not of the opinion, we suppose, which some wise persons entertain, that guineas are an incumbrance on commerce; nor did he apprehend that their moon-faced cousins, the Dollar family, would be in any danger from the noise and smoke of his industrious city. That the prayer was granted we have been informed; but we have yet to learn what was the return upon the writ. We therefore begin to suspect that the whole is a trumped up story: that no such thing as a Dollar will be found in the vaults of any house in Pittsburg, or elsewhere. It has lately been stated in the public prints, that the "mother" of this numerous progeny has lost no less than 300,000 of them during the last year, in taking care of the rest of her family. No doubt, then, they have been effectually put out of the way. in the state of Pennsylvania, the humble petition of Daniel Dollar,*

To the honourable the judges of the court of

RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH:

THAT your petitioner is a citizen of the United States and of the state of Pennsylvania. His parents were natives of South America, who, although possessed of shining virtues and

*Proverbs, 31.

+ Republished here, with alterations, from the Pittsburg Gazette. ED. P. F.

great intrinsic worth, had remained pressed by a burthen of earthly cares, buried in obscurity. Here they were discovered by a person of deep penetration and profound research, who pronounced, with oracular wisdom, that rough, untutored, and surrounded by rubbish, as they were, they would soon, by the help of a little polish and refinement, become models of beauty and perfection, and talents of the first order would be elicited from what now seemed to be a dull and heavy mass of heterogeneous particles. The prediction was soon verified; they rose from the deep caverns of obscurity, passed the fiery ordeal, were "weighed in the balance," and not " found wanting."

Your petitioner first saw light in the city of Philadelphia, where, being a gay young fellow of a brilliant appearance, and not deficient in solidity of character, he soon became respected, courted, and admired. Early impressions are said to be the most lasting; and those which he received were not calculated to be easily erased; from his birth he has worn the motto of his country, and liberty was engraved upon his breast. The rich man cherished, the poor man honoured, and all men loved him; nay, even so great was his popularity, that he could enter those doors which closed alike upon the wealthy, the learned, and the indigent. Many a hearty squeeze has he received from the hand, that neither love, friendship, nor benevolence could open; and he has shared the chamber of the husband and the bachelor, the priest, the matron, and the virgin. He can boast that

"he has seen better days,

And has with holy bell been knolled to church,

And sat at good men's feasts."

The ladies were not less his friends than the gentlemen-it is true they sometimes affected to turn him into ridicule; but this your honours well know is the best proof of a lady's regard; and your petitioner can assure you that he has dangled at their sides for hours together, that they ever evinced a strong desire to detain him in their silken chains; that they always received him with smiles, and parted with him with regret. Happy, happy! would he be to devote all his hours to their service! and happy they if they had no amusements which cost them dearer than

those purchased at his expense, and no afflictions but those which he could relieve! Your honours would smile, and perhaps accuse him of exaggeration, were he to detail all the services which he has rendered to the sex: how he has supplied their toilets, administered to their wants, and indulged their whims-but how will that smile of incredulity vanish, when he adds, that this fickle sex," uncertain, coy, and hard to please," have ever been to him inflexibly constant, and tenderly attached.

He has not, however, been confined to the circles of fashion and elegance alone; he has visited every rank, and shone in every station. Naturally fond of his countrymen, and possessed of an inflexible character, he neither smiled upon opulence, or frowned on poverty-his face was alike to all he has ever been a pure republican. The stupendous exertions of his philanthropic spirit have been equally meritorious and astonishing: he has brought joy to soldier's heart, and intoxicating pleasure to his fancy; he has clothed the naked, fed the hungry, and cheered with comfort the bed of sickness; and on more than one occasion he has purchased the liberty of a hundred of the copper-coloured aborigines of our country from loathsome vaults like that which it has since become his own fate to inhabit,

Your petitioner has always been a peaceable citizen; he has never "made one honest man his foe," nor" from the soft-ey'd virgin drew a tear." He has never, it is true, harangued at elections, but he has exerted his silent influence, and has done more than those who made most noise; he has never preached, but he has paid those who did; he has never fought for his country, nor has he sat in her councils-but he has made many patriots, and has "done the state some service," by contributing the "ways and means."

Your petitioner will not intrude on your honours a detail of all his good deeds-for although the acknowledgment of a deed is held by good judges to be essential to its validity, he is a fellow of too much mettle to descend to forms. He thanks heaven that he has passed through the hands of lawyers unsullied, and that although they have griped him hard, they have not been able to bend him at will, as they do most of the unfortunate persons who fall into their clutches. But he can confidently assert that he has al