reason, is the instrument by which the world is to be moved onward. He mistakes when he would give more light, but forgets to purify the atmosphere; for man can close his eyes to the sun's brightest beams, but the air he breathes continually.

S. E. C.

ART. VI. Cinq Mois aux Etats-Unis de l'Amérique du Nord, depuis le 29 Avril jusqu'au 23 Septembre 1835; Journal de Voyage de M. RAMON DE LA SAGRA, Directeur de Jardin des Plantes de la Havane, &c. Traduit de l'Espagnol, par M. RENE BAÏSSAS. Paris, chez F. G. Leyrault. 1837. Svo. pp. 458.

THE writer of this journal of a five months' tour in our country had made himself favorably known, during his residence in Havana, by the publication of his Statistical History of Cuba, which was noticed in one of the late numbers. of our work. We understand that he is now in Spain, where he is engaged in the mazes of Spanish politics; and that he has also undertaken the preparation of a Physical, Political, and Natural History of Cuba, which is to be illustrated with magnificent plates in folio, and to be published in livraisons, or parts. From the politics we cannot help wishing him a safe delivery; and to the appearance of his History of Cuba we look forward with great interest.

When M. de la Sagra left Cuba, he did not intend to pass even five months in the United States; but on his arrival at New York he soon became so deeply interested in the observation of our various institutions, that he found himself compelled to prolong his stay, and he certainly made good use of the time which he spent among us. He is a warm and honest admirer of our usual modes of thinking and acting, of our national manners, of our economical improvements and inventions, of our prison discipline, public charities, and public means of instruction. But in the mean time his admiration does not blind his judgment, or deceive him into the belief that what is good for us, must necessarily be good for his countrymen, and be forth

* For September, 1837.

with adopted by them. On this point he expresses his mind, in his Introduction, very sensibly, as follows.

"Some persons will take notice of the enthusiasm with which I speak of the institutions of the United States, and will think that I mean to propose them as models to our unhappy Spain ; but I here protest against such an intention. Far be it from me to present the savory fruits of the robust tree, which flourishes in the privileged soil of the Union, to the Spanish people, who are so little able to digest them. On the contrary, I conjure those, who sincerely love the country, to concentrate their efforts in diffusing literary, moral, and religious instruction among the masses, instead of exciting them by the image of benefits which they cannot comprehend. In this way only they may advance the establishment of those principles, on which social happiness and the development of the productive energies depend. Thus only can be promoted the growth of the tender plant of liberty. Let it be left to time and nature to accomplish their course toward maturity, the period of blossoms and of fruit."

The view which our author takes of the causes of the degeneracy of Spain, and other portions of continental Europe, evince still further the sound and prudent character of his patriotism; and what he says concerning the passionate devotion to amusement and an out-door life, which is there indulged in, deserves the consideration of those of our countrymen, who, innoculated with the same passion, by a few months of foreign gayety and sight-seeing, would wish to introduce it -God forbid that they should. upon our own shores. He is speaking of some contrasts which are offered by their institu

tions.

"On the one hand, there is an alarming disproportion between the ordinary means of existence, the price of labor, the recompense of industry, and the amount of those social pleasures which excite the desires of the active and laborious classes. On the other, there is a parasitical population of foundlings and mendicants, idly consuming the resources of public and private benevolence. And then, at the termination of these two highways of ambition and misery, the whole company of victims come together, to be swept into the prisons and galleys, horrible sinks of corruption and depravity, hells, as it were, of demoralization, whence they are vomited back on society, to corrupt innocence anew. In reflecting on the erroneous principles which ferment and keep alive the vices, it seems that, notwithstanding VOL. XXV. - 3D S. VOL. VII. NO. I.

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the remarkable degree of civilization to which Europe has attained, she is found to be under the influence of the genius of evil, who kindles the fires of disorder, breathes his destructive spirit over the most numerous classes, and employs as combustibles those refinements and allurements of luxury which draw people with a kind of madness towards pleasures, where the sacrifice of virtue is almost always demanded. In vain do philanthropists and governments address themselves to extinguish a conflagration, which threatens universal ruin; for the utmost they can do is to hide the wounds, and stifle the cries of the victims."

His allusion to religion, in the succeeding paragraph, is evidence of his just sentiments on that head.

"In the midst of this astounding confusion, which impartial and foresighted men cannot deny, are to be recognised the principal causes of the evil, and of that sore of demoralization which is festering in the bosom of a most civilized and enlightened people. We discern the beacon-light which shines through the darkness of the tempest, but we fear to announce the port of safety, because its holy shelter has been profaned. The fury of reform is not content with pulling down all that has been founded by man, but attacks also the sanctuary of God; and the name, which ought to serve as an asylum and bulwark for the regeneration of a demoralized community, bears far different significations to the ears of the multitude."

From premises of this nature, he arrives at precisely such wise and moderate conclusions as we should beforehand have expected.

"What then is necessary for a community constituted like that of Spain? Education and Reforms. I will not speak of political and administrative reform, an object of actual revolution, and regarded in divers manners by the parties who are tearing the country asunder. The object which I propose to myself in this book is the recommendation of primary education and moral reform to the Spanish people; a reform, the importance of which is perceived by all minds; for, struggling incessantly as we advance in the work of melioration, we must begin with the beginning, if we would build with solidity."

He says that he expects to be condemned by the violent on both sides in his own country, for doctrines and facts distasteful to them both. The liberals, for instance, will be alarmed at the severity of the moral and religious duties which are upheld

in the United States; and the absolutists will be scandalized at hearing him praise the virtue and piety of a nation of republicans. He nevertheless will declare to the former that they may try in vain to find any other foundation than strict morals for the happiness of the Spanish people; and he will advise the latter to imitate the conduct of the children of liberty, if they wish to make religion lovely and respectable.

Having given an idea of our author's purpose, and of the general views advanced in his Introduction, let us turn to the body of his work. It may be worth while to remark, that he arrived in New York when the fever for land speculation was burning, not only in that city but throughout the whole country. "Speculators," he observes," are wholly absorbed in the purchase of lands on Long Island. One of my friends has just told me, that three individuals who had purchased, three months ago, to the extent of six thousand dollars, having sold their lots yesterday, had divided from the proceeds eighty-five thousand dollars apiece. At the same time, some cooler persons abstain from these operations, and think that the end of it all will be the ruin of numbers." This was in April, 1835. The prediction of these cooler persons has been sadly verified. Many have been ruined, and many more have been greatly injured; and so it will always be, when the desire of wealth gets the better of discretion, and calculations of the increase of property outrun time and probability. With all our advantages as a nation, we have sore temptations, temptations which are all the more powerful and to be feared, as they arise mainly from those very advantages. Our circumstances urge us to hastiness in all things. We are all the time on the race. We race after riches, and multitudes are thrown out and crippled. We race after distinction and station in life, and many are prematurely broken down. We race in travelling from one part of our country to another, and explosions on the river and wrecks on the sea proclaim the dismal consequences. We race after changes and reforms, after new philosophies and new religions, before we have appropriated half the benefits, or learned half the wisdom of the established and old; and confusion and irritation attend the course. Some among us are seriously sick of all this racing, and would fain give up something of our presumed progress, and a great deal of our talk about progress, for a little more safety, and a little more quietness. We are not losing our hope in the permanent interests of our country, nor our honest pride

in our free and religious institutions, nor our faith in the general good sense and final success of our countrymen ; but we are occasionally losing our patience at the recklessness which assumes the name of advancement, at the crudities which are flourished before our eyes as wisdom, and at the many abuses which are committed of fair opportunity and ample freedom. We are all the while convinced, that we possess many good things and ways in this vigorous young country of ours, which are not to be found in time-worn Europe. We heartily sympathize with the enthusiastic and open mind of our author, which has perceived them, and which would induce their adoption, in due season, among his countrymen; and we hope that while other nations are enabled to appropriate whatever is to be approved in our manners and institutions, we may avoid the sin of national vainglory, and labor to render ourselves more worthy of imitation than we are.

In pursuing his plan of investigating our economical and charitable institutions, and of making those practical researches for which, he says, "the United States may be called the classical country," Don Ramon pays an early visit to the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, in New York; in the account of which he takes an opportunity of stating, that it was in his own country that the idea of instructing this class of our fellow beings originated.

“I had a lively desire of visiting the institutions for the Deaf and Dumb, from the moment I learned that there were such in the Union. For it was in Spain that this generous idea had birth, as well as a thousand other useful inventions which have risen up in the present age, hiding under a foreign varnish a Spanish origin, which is lost in those distant times when Europe followed in the wake of our civilization. Documents of undoubted authenticity declare, that the Benedictine Pedro Ponce instructed deaf and dumb pupils as early as the year 1570, two brothers and a sister of the constable of Castile. Not only did he teach them reading, writing, arithmetic, astronomy, the living languages, and many other things, but also to pronounce certain words. Ponce left behind him no writings concerning his method; an omission which has been common among the men of genius of the Peninsula; but which, whether owing to idleness or modesty, deserves the severest reproaches. Nevertheless, the two first works, which were published on this wonderful art, proceeded from the pens of two Spaniards, Juan Bonnet and Ramirez de Carrion, about the year 1620. Dr. Wallis, in 1659,