168 
mated by that ideal ftandard of excellence 
which every critic forms in his own mind, 
and which is lofty in proportion as his 
own conceptions are elevated and magnifi- 
cent, Col. HUMPHREYS will not occupy 
a ftation in the foremoft rank: but, ifin 
judging of his literary character, we com- 
pare him with the mafs of his cotempo- 
raries, and confider the difficulties with 
which American genius had then, and 
even ftill has, to ttrugele, we fhall not 
hefitate to affign him a refpeétable plece 
among the poets of the prelentday. His 
poems, it is true, difplay none of that 
originality of thought which at once de- 
lights and aitonifhes ; none of that fiery 
enthufiafm which hurries us beyond the 
bounds of fober recolleftion, 
guod pettus inaniter anget, 
Irritat, mulcet, falfis terroribus implet, 
Ut magus:—modd—Thebis, modd ponit 
Athenis—- 
hut they are every where (at leait the 
principal poems) correct and pleating ; 
the verfe flows with an eafy and becoming 
grace 3 and the fentiments, except when 
the writer aims at a fublimity to which he 
has no claims, are adapted tothe oceafion, 
aad befpeak an amiable and manly temper 
and underitanding. 
What firft drew the attention of his 
countrymen towards Col. HUMPHREYS, 
as a poet, was his‘ Addrefs to the 
Armies,” ata time when, like Camden, 
* One hand the fword and one the pen 
employed.”> Few publications, what- 
ever may have been their fubject or their 
merits, have gained for their author a 
more fudden and jurprifing reputation ; 
and the popularity with which it was at- 
tended in America followed it to Europe. 
The Marquis de CHAsTELLUX honoured 
it by performing the office “of its tranfla- 
tor into French ; and the Englith journals 
boldly challenged the author as a native 
of Britain. But much of this applaufe 
muf be attributed to the circumftances of 
time and place; and the reader of the 
prefent day will find no reafon for this 
nnufual firccefs of a poem, which, tho’ 
handfome and fpirited, has no peculiar 
claim to the admiration of the critic. 
Col. HUMPHREYS’s next publication, 
of any note, was his poem ‘ Oz the 
Happinc{s of America” "The fuccefs of 
this publication was moderate but re[pect- 
able. It did not raife, but. 1t did not 
diminifh the reputation of the author. 
This was followed by his ‘* Ejay on the 
Life. of General Putnam,” in 1788, and 
“by his Tragedy, intituled ‘ The Widow 
of Malabar,’* tranilated from the French, 
“firft played in May and published in 



Col. Humphreys, an American Poet.....Horfe Chefauts. [Sept. 
Auguft, 1790. - Neither of thefe ad- 
vanced the literary charater of their au- 
.thor. The firft was thought deficient in 
that eafe and grace which biographical 
narration 1s fuppofed peculiarly to de- 
mand ; and the fecond fhared the fate of 
many other dramatic efforts of natives of 
the United States; it was decently re- 
ceived, but foon fell into negle&.. It 
muft be confefled, however, that the tur- 
gid frigidity of the original was very 
little improved in the tranflation; and 
that the intereft which tragedy was in- 
ended to excite was overwhelmed, in 
this inftance, by the difguf which fo 
horrid a fpeftacle as the devotion of the 
heroine infpired. . Nor was the difguft 
much alleviated by the “‘ dry rapture” of 
the cataftrophe. _ 
The works of Col. HumMpureys 
confit, 
1. Of an o€tavo volume, publifhed by 
Hodge, Allen, and Campbell, New York, 
1790 3; comprifing the preceding pieces, and 
his fmaller poems, &c. 
2. Of a poem, intituled ‘‘ Indufry,™ 
publithed by Carey, Philadelphia, 1794, 
when the author made his laft vifit to Ame- 
rica. This is the leaft meritorious perform- 
ance; but its limited circulation has pre- 
vented that effe€ on his political character 
which is generally produced by the fucceffion 
of a bad piece, to others of a certain repu- 
tation. 
Fuly, 1798. Hi. 
—_—_—— Le 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SER, . 
HROUGH the medium of your va- 
luable work, I beg leave to infert 
the following anfwer to the query of your 
correfpondent, A. B. C. in your Maga- 
zine for Auguft, on the fubje&t of the 
nut of the horfe-chefnut. ; 
From -the fucceffive obfervation of 
‘many years, while I refided in the 1mme- 
diate neighbourhood of a nobleman’s 
park, where there were a number of thefe. 
trees, I know deer to be extremely fend 
of this nut. During the feafon, when 
they were ripe, the eagernefs of thefe 
animals to obtain them was fuch, that the 
ground under and around thefe trees, to 
a certain extent, was poached to a flough 
by their hoofs, in their fearch for them, 
and they would leap to a very confider- 
abie height to catch at them with their 
-mouths, or to beat them down with their 
horns. 
I have heard that the nut of the horfe- 
chefnut may be ufed with advantage in 
making foap. Iam, Sir, &c. 
Sept. 8, 1798. D. E. Fi 
