Whether the following fact has any connection with the preceding, we undertake not to say. We state it as it is, and leave others to make the inference. We may not presume to compare with the Atlantic country in general intellectual advancement. But in as great a collection of autographs, as is, perhaps, possessed by any other individual, we notice the fact, that the hand writing of the western people is generally superior to that of the eastern. We remark this, as many scholars, very absurdly, as we think, are ashamed to write a good hand. From atmospheric circumstances, which we undertake not to attempt to explain, there is a glory and a splendor in the morning of all portions of the Mississippi valley, especially during the prevalence of the south-west wind, which we have no where else seen. The season of the renovation of nature and of man, and of the return of the most cheering and glorious luminary of the universe, is sufficiently beautiful every where; and has been sung in every combination of rhythm and image of poetry, that the teeming imagination could originate. But we walk forth in our fine spring and autumnal mornings, to greet the first beams of the sun, as he comes over our hills; and as we have so many hundred times enjoyed this spectacle alone, we have felt, that none need envy the possessors of opulence the poor pageants, which can be got up for money. Night begets in our valleys, along our water courses, sometimes dense fogs; but more frequently a thin, transpa · rent and gossamer mist, which seems to be attracted towards the first sunbeams. It rolls up the sides of our hills, in its ethereal whiteness. When the full orb of the sun is seen, and when the gentle breath of the south aids the spectacle, such a kind of ruddy light, such a peculiar glory of morning evolves the fresh creation from the mist, as we have no where else noted. We mean to allow no scope to imagination, but simply state the fact; for words would be thrown away upon the subject.

For the rest, in the climate of Cincinnati, the spring opens a month sooner, and the autumn closes a month later, as we judge, in the ordinary course of the seasons, than in the latitude of Boston, in the Atlantic country. The latter is more favorable to vigor and elasticity, though not to strength; and would be preferable for persons of a sanguine and full habit, on the right side of forty-five. But to persons on the waning side of that epoch, to persons of delicate, and especially hectic habits, to the sedentary, the feeble and the aged, our climate is decidedly preferable.

There will always be some, to whom other data will present more satisfactory and clearer views of our temperature, in comparison with that of other regions. To such we give the following thermometrical table, very accurately kept, and on the results of which the most perfect reliance may be placed.

The observations on the next page, it will be perceived, have been made by two gentlemen, in Cincinnati, and include the months of December, 1829, and April, 1830-omitting February, which with us is generally a month that belongs to spring as decidedly as March, which is in the Ohio valley a changeable and unpleasant month.

Dec.8am.4pm. Course of Wind.

Jan.Sam.4pm. Course of Wind. Ob's.
4 36 40 Easterly Easterly Rainy 1 34 45 North Calm Fair
SSW Cloudy 2 35 51

Thoughts on the style and eloquence of the Pulpit, the Bar, and the Press, in the three great divisions of the United States.

It would be easy to bring before the reader's eye a discussion of a hundred pages length upon this subject; but, perhaps, not so easy to induce him to peruse it. We frankly avow, that our chief object in writing, -bating that we are, as every candidate in his stump speech modestly proves himself, vastly desirous to benefit mankind,-is the hope of being read. We are aware that the holder of a ticket has as much right to count confidently on the highest prize, as we on being read, unless we are short. Short, therefore, shall be this discussion, upon some obvious features of the subject at the head of this article.

There are traits of national difference of character between the inhabitants of the northern, middle, and southern States, which would generally be overlooked by foreigners, and which such a traveller as Captain Hall would not see at all, and, in the confidence of his discriminating powers, would deny. They are traits, for the most part, too slight for the obser vation of any, but either keen observers, or such as are intimately acquainted with great numbers of the samples in each of the divisions. But the natural historian finds his pleasure greater to discriminate specific differences between specimens of the different species, or individuals of the same species, just in proportion as the shades of difference are slight and delicate, and not noted by the common eye.

The French are a singularly unique people, and as far as we are able to remark, from the specimens we have seen, very little marked with individuality, as concerns those national differences. Yet an observing native readily distinguishes a Norman from a Gascon, and both from a Provencal.

We might expect national differences of character in the United States, from the differences of climate, subsistence, pursuit, origin and education. No employments can well be imagined more unlike, than those of the inhabitants of Maine and Louisiana; and we have, diffused through our population, a sufficient sprinkling of diverse and foreign origin, to account for obvious and striking differences of dialect. But the great uniformity of our national institutions, commencing de novo, and on a blank sheet, tends at the same time more strongly to break down these differences, than those of any other people. Every where in the United States we have introduced the same way of getting onwards. We elect our officers, our ministers, and our school masters in the same way. Our popular modes of transacting those affairs, that bring people together, and make them acquainted with each other, are every where nearly the same. Yet we have already established three distinct styles, and standards of eloquence, to contemplate at this time no other points of national difference, in the three great divisions of our country.

We remark, then, that there are, in these respects, three styles in the United States,the northern, the mixed, and the southern. New-England is the region of the first; New-York and Pennsylvania of the second, and the southern states of the third. Ohio among the western states, and Indiana, so far as any thing can be predicated of institutions so fresh as hers, are samples of the second class; and all the other western states of the third.

The most obvious originating cause of the New-England style may be sought in the uniformity of the origin of the people; their more frank, free, and equal communications, especially the young of the different sexes; the greater uniformity of their modes of worship; the circumstance, that the different churches bring almost every member of the community into contact on the sabbath;-but more than all, the influence of common schools. Never did nation invent any other engine of equal efficacy to establish individuality of national character. No other institution, we Inay add, can ever be established of the same power, on which to rear a truly republican character.

From the numerous academies, and high schools,from the influence of the two chief literary institutions, Harvard and Yale, and the other respectable colleges, and from the strong, and perhaps, we may add, injurious fondness for giving the sons a professional education, it happens that a much greater number of the young, in proportion to the whole population, are there educated in a considerable degree, than in any other part of the union. It follows, that criticism, general criticism, and self criticism, are in the same proportion more generally practised. The farmer's family, as one of the members reads, during a winter's evening, becomes a natural court of criticism. Every worshipper in every congregation becomes a critic upon the sermon; of course criticism follows the child, the man and woman every where, and into every walk of life. Hence the susceptibility of the New-Englanders of ridicule. Hence their greater bashfulness, mauvaise honte, self criticism, and native gaucherie, that follows them every where, and tinges their cheek with the burning blush of shame, where a Kentuckian and a Virginian would feel entirely cool and self-possessed. This national trait has its advantages and disadvantages. It generates a stronger train of interior combination-restricts the mental movements of the interior, creates concentration of thought, and the basis of a firm and decided character. But self criticism, and the shrinking and unremitting fear of ridicule, repress the strong movements of the heart, and nip the buddings of fancy and imagination. Hence a northern divine, if you took away his notes from him, would dismount from his desk, and send his flock away without a sermon. Hence the young northern lawyer, when he makes his debut, has his speech perfectly committed to memory, before he trusts the effort. Hence in the pulpit, and at the bar, and the legislative hall, if the speaker have not written notes, every thing, which he delivers, is moulded to the manner of those, who deliver from notes. Hence the basis of New-England style in writing and in eloquence. A more severe manner, more chastened regard to the rules of criticism, a more shrinking dread of exaggeration, mock grandeur, and false sublime.We think, that an accurate eye can easily distinguish the productions of a northern scholar, by these marks, were others wanting.

No where is this attribute of northern manner so conspicuous, as in the pulpit. A traveller from the middle and southern states is struck with it, into whatever church he enters in the country; and still more so in the city and more polished congregations. The more measured manner, the milder and more subdued tone of voice, the more perfectly arranged ceremonial strike him forcibly, in comparison of the free and unrestrained movements, the louder tones of voice, the franker and more

soldier-like deportment in the pulpits at the south. The sermon at first, to the southerner, has an air of restraint and coldness, and the measured etiquette of a levee, which strikes him unfavorably. But as habit accustoms him to the regulated tones of voice, which seem dictated by a fear of disturbing the slumbering echoes, to the severe and sternly measured conciseness, to the condensed matter, and well ordered arrangement, he soon learns to prefer it to the more random and scattering declamation, to which he has been accustomed. In one word, the beau ideal of New-England is that transmitted by birth, blood and institutions from the parent country. It is the style of Old England. English pulpit eloquence is the model of the New-England pulpit, and the same general basis may be predicated of the eloquence of the bar and legislative hall, and the general style of writing from the press.

The French, perhaps, would object to being considered as the models of Southern eloquence. We have often listened to French preachers; and southern American ministers much more resemble them in manner, than their northern brethren. Except among the Episcopal clergy, we have not seen a southern minister appear before his audience, with any written notes. The self possessed manner, the military ease and confidence, with which he comes forward, evidence self-reliance, and the formed habit of extemporaneous speaking. A northerner, unacquainted with the other divisions of the country by comparison, can have but imperfect conceptions of the entire ease and self possession, with which a Kentucky clergyman or orator ascends the pulpit, how unembarrassed and at home he seems, when thus presenting himself before the multitude. Being of Virginia staple, and having lost nothing of the blood of the Douglas by this transplantation, he may be put down as the fullest example of southern style and manner.

His first point of difference from the northern speaker, is in the greater exertion of voice, which he puts forth from the beginning. He commands in general a much greater compass of voice, and modulates it between a greater number of notes in ascent and descent. We have heard speakers in the pulpit and at the bar, and of reputation in both places, who made use of scarcely less than the range of an octave. It is true, that the difficulty of right enunciation, and well modulated accent and tone, increases exactly in proportion to the extent of the scale. Hence a northern speaker generally speaks in better taste, and less offends the ear by violations of propriety in the modulation of his voice. For the same reason, a southern speaker, when he does succeed in modulation, accent and cadence, taking a higher aim, is a better speaker than he who avails himself of the safer effort of unambitious monotony. For want of understanding this matter aright, how many persons have we heard tearing their passion to tatters, and pouring forth sounds of as little melody as a cracked fiddle-or 'two old lutes with ne'er a string, or none except the bass.'

But the difference is still more palpable in the matter, than the manner. Heaven, earth, and ocean are rifled of their rich things for figures. The highest flights of Phillips, the utmost ken of Chalmers to the verge of the galaxy, his synopsis of the systems upon systems, in making the tour of the universe, are no holiday jewels, but mere common ornaments in the harangues of an unlettered advocate or minister in the south and west. Vol. III.-No. 12.

4