jyirm 
FOH 'SUE 9PY A'WTI CATfET. 
Copy of a Utter from- Tfr. Mitchid to 
Capt 8p mines. 
•Newark, Aug. Si, 1821. 
To Captain J. C. Symmes, 
Dear Sir— 
1 had not heard the opinion you seno 
jne of the royal academy of Scienceon- 
cerning your theory of our earto. J\is a 
\[iv when men judge hastily, and/deeme 
With too much precipitation. But what 
can we do with them ? Galileo was too 
early for his day: Mayovv was more than 
half a century a-headofhis age: and it 
Svmmes outstrips his generation there is 
no ground for marvelling. Should 1 learn 
any thing interesting, I yvill let you 
know. Yours with admiration. 
SAM’L ^MITCHELL. 
r From the Charleston Mercury. 
That strange character, John Cleves Syinmes, 
our readers will observe, has petitioned Congress 
for aid in his mad projects. As his purpose is of 
a profound and penetrating nature, he must needs 
think ,that he could no where apply more propei - 
ly for assistance in forwarding it than to the co 
lerted wisdom of the nation. Observing mat 
Congressmen profess to know every thing, and to 
talk about every thing, he concludes that he is 
addressing Philosophers—as he finds them abbet 
ting some whimsical iheories of their own, he 
takes the freedom of offering them one that they 
never dreamed of should they be in a serious 
mood, he imagines they would ponder on tue mag 
nificence of his plan ;ar.d should they be disposed 
to trifle, he furnishes them with a more excellent 
pretence to do so, than they can find in the high 
responsibilities with which their country charges 
them. u r 
It isafflirtingtosee such things. A member ot 
the gravest body of our legislature rises in his 
place, ami presents a petition from a visionary 
schemer —it is read in merriment, but it goes 
seriously to the world ; and alarms thinking men 
hv the excessive frivolity that it displays in an as¬ 
sembly w here frivolity should never appear. 
The petition could tio Symmes no good, but it 
affect the character of the conntry ; and that 
ca oht to be high matter with a member of the na¬ 
tional councils' — 
fyletrrrJ 
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