34 ExtraSlsfrom the Port-fol'io of a Man of Letters. [Aug, 1, 



ragement of the arts and manufaflures, perpetual intercourfe, feebly leftraincd by 



for the abolition of Negio-flavery (a ftain the inacequate operations of local and 



of colonial dependence that liill tarniflies temporary health-laws, 

 the fairefcutcheon of American freedom), Within the memory of a gentleman of 



and for alieviaing the miftries of public ohfcrvation, there were but thres coaches 



prifons; to whole benevolent exertions is kept among the gentry of Philadelphia ; 



chitfiy owing the improvement of the pe- not more than two, or, at molt, three. 



rial code, and the prefent iafety of the in 

 habitants from the deprtdations of the 

 ■unprincipled part of the community. 



Befides thefe benevolent afiiciations, 

 there are now in Philadelphia three char- 

 tered banks, fix marine infuiance compa- 

 nies, iwo for infuring agffii ft fire, and 

 forty. one printing ofiices, five of whkh 

 publirti daily-papeis, that are in a few 



(hips arrived once a year with the un- 

 ri'valled manufaflures of Great Britain ; 

 nor were petty floops fitted out to ex- 

 change American flour for Weft-India 

 proiiuce but in (liares of one-thiid, tme- 

 iixh, or even one twelfth, by the then 

 principal merchants of the place. With- 

 out exceeding tlie bounds ot ordinary lon- 

 gevity, he has lived to fee twelve or fifteen 



days circulated giatis from Georgia to hundred fail annually expedited for every 



New-Hamplhire,' by means of the poft- quaiter cf the globe, of which fifteen or 



oftice, which originated in 1775, in the twenty double the fouthern pron.oiuory of 



then capital of thtt Britifti colonies, under Africa, and explore the an'tiiodes for the 



the aufpices of t!-.e venerable Franklin, fo moft coftiy produilions of the Ea!t ; while 



long the btnefaclor of his country. at heme ihree hundred coaches occafion- 



The mint of tlie United States is ftill ally difplay the cafe cf opi.ilcnce, cr the 



kept at Philadelphia. A type foundry elegance of luxury. 



has been long eftabliftied ; and printing. Such an increafe of wealth and fplen- 



coachrnaking, cabinet woik, and (liip- dour, within the recollefiion tf a fingle 



building, are carritd to a degree of per- man, admits of but one coniparifon in tiie 



feftion "unrivalled in America, and little hi ft cry of the world ; and, if Peterlburg 



excelled in Europe. But the flaple com- may judly bcaft fuperior nunibers, and a 



modify of Philadelphia is flour, cf which more recent origin, it has been created 



400,000 barrels have been exported in a among the marfties of the Neva by a Aic- 



year. ceflion of abfoluie princes, commanding 



Such is thefdubrity of theair ofPhila- the ref urccs cf a mighty empire ; while 



delphia, that the births annually exceed Philadelphia, at firft only the chief town 



the deaths in the proportion of five to of a dtptnclcnt colony, and row no more 



three; yet the exctilive heat of tiie fum- than the capital of a fmgle province of an 



naer-months, during vjhich the therniome- infant nation, hasiilen upon the bmks of 



ter may be averaged at 71, ai.d fometimes the Delaware, from the liberal inftitutcs 



rifes to 95, is Ibnearly allitd to theatmo- of a private founder, fecorwied only by 



fphere of the burning zone, as realily to the energy of principle, and the efforts 



receive and propagate the yellow-fever of of intelligence, to a diftingui(hed rank 



the Wc(?-Indies, of late fo frequently in- among the capitals of nations, 

 troduced into the United States throueh 



Ext ran s from the Port -folio of a Man of Letters. 



ACRATUS. 



IN a recent collection of engravings from 

 antique gems, occurs a Ibrtor'wing-^ 

 ed Bacchus, calleii Acratus, a genius, or 

 I'piiit, of the god ol the grape. Might 

 not this hitherto neglected divinity, be em- 

 ployed as the cnblematic cr allegoric pcr- 

 Ibnification of brandy ? An acratiliu was 

 the old name for a whet, orcoidial. There 

 Is this ufc in an euphemifm, that it facdi- 

 tates finccrity : one cannot lay of any wo- 

 man " ftie drinks drams ;" but one might 

 hazard " flie is a woifhipper of Acratus." 



JHe was no doubt the fon of Bacchus and 

 of Vcfta. 



ENCYCLOPEDV. 



Who firft contrived thefe diilionaries 

 of omnifcience wliicli are become the cif- 

 terns of all modern knowledge!" 



Hermannus TorreiUinus of Zwol, in 

 the Dutch province Overyflel, printed in 

 J510, at Haguenau, his alphabetic Eluci- 

 ilarius Carminum et Hijioriarum. 



Au augmented edition was publiflied at 



Paris, in J 567, entitled Dii?ionarium 



H'J'toricum, 



