Changes of Plants ^ and Animals. 361 



cations (when either persons or things,* in this coun- 

 try, are the subjects) are so common ; that they excite 

 in me no keen feehngs of resentment. Although in 

 themselves stingless, I regret, that the causticities of 

 such writers are sometimes mischievous, when they fall 

 in the way of those, who have not magnanimity to de- 

 spise such hackneyed malevolence ; which is unequal- 

 led by any thing, but the ridiculous, gross, and "shame- 

 less," falsehoods, of their "coadjutors," — the jaundiced 

 Tourists, who haunt, and flit through, our country. 

 , It has been only defensively, that I have mentioned 

 the race of animals who feed on the products of calum- 

 ny. They will not be extinct, w^hile human nature re- 

 tains its present condition. On their account, I should 

 be ashamed of casting the least reflection on the coun- 

 try to which they belong. Equally unjust would it be, 

 with censure thrown on one individual for the opinions 

 of another. The wandering part of this race, prove my 

 allegation, that the propensity to change locality (not 



^ The pious and philosophical gall of the writer in the Ec- 

 lectic Review, is roused by the unoffending Schuylkill bridge* 

 With his usual candour, he misapplies the friendly testimonv 

 of that worthy and intelligent English engineer, — Mr. Wes- 

 ton ; who writes, as to the xvestern pier, — built of solid ma- 

 sonry, whereof it contains 6178 perches, in a coffer-dam, on 

 a bare rock, without footing for very many of the piles, in 

 41 feet water ; in the tide water of a river subject to frequent 

 floods, — " it will afford you matter of well founded triumph, 

 when I tell you, that you have accomplished an undertaking 

 unrivalled by any thing of the kind that Europe can boast 

 of." — He stiles these expressions of his respectable country- 

 man, — "American Vanity"!!!! 



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