3798.1 
towards compenfating for the inherent 
defegts of plan, and the abjence of thoit 
bold and original flights of genius, which. 
have been defignated as among the indif- 
penfible charatteriftics of the Epopea; 
and the poem may be repeatedly peruled 
with pleafure, although the reader may 
net be able to forget that fome of its moft 
interefting paflages are clofe ¢opics of 
correfpondent deferiptions and relations 
in the Incas of Marmontel. 
After the publication of his poem, Mr. 
Barrow was employed, by the clergy 
ef Conneéticut, in the revifion of Dr. 
Watts’s verlion of the Pialms; to fupply 
‘deficiences, and to adapt the whole to the 
culiar ftate of the country. .This tafk 
he executed to general acceptance; and 
in two inflances added very beautiful 
little poems to the common Pfalm-book. 
About this time Mr. BaRLow drop- 
ped his connection with the weekly paper, 
and opened a book-ftore. But as this 
was principally for the fale of his edition 
of the Pfatms, he quitted this occupation 
as foon as that was effected, and engaged 
in the profeflion of the law. In tais his 
fuccefs was but indifferent. ‘The noble 
conceits and generous fentiments of the 
poet; do not readily amalgamate with the 
tautological jargon and petty detail of 
the lawyer: Mr. BaRLow’s manacrs 
and addrefs were not popular; his elo- 
cution was embarrafled; and he was 
thought deficient in that happy wapudence 
which is fo effential to the fuccels of an 
adyocate. He had no children to labour 
for; and the amiable fortitude and en- 
lightened underftanding of his partner 
fuitained his fpirits. Still the profpect 
of a {mall decreafing fund preyed upon 
his mind; and he was, therefore, the 
more eafily induced to quit his fituation, 
and to feck in an agengy to a foreipi 
country that wealth which eluded his 
grafp in his own. 
Some members of a fand-company, 
called the Ohio Company, in connecticn 
with a few other perfons then fuppofed to 
‘be men of property, by a mancuvre not 
then underitood, but which hms iince been 
detected, appropriated to their own ufe 
a very confiderable part of the funds. of 
that campany ; and, under the title of the 
Scioto Company, offered vaft tra&ts of 
land for fale in Europe, to few of which 
they had any pretenfions. It was as the 
agent of this Scioto Company, but witha 
perfeét ignorance of their fecret plan, that 
‘Mr. Bartow embarked for France, in 
1783. The event of this agency was 
unfortunate, and left him, it is fuppofed, 
Account of Mr. Feel Barlow, an American Poet. 
251 
with no other refources than his own 
genius and reputation, to make his way 
in a diftant land, and amid a different 
people. From this time his literary and 
political hiftory is well known. 
During his refidence in Hartford, Mr. 
BarkLow was concerned in all the pub- 
lications of the time, which iffued from 
the Club of Wits in that city. In par- 
ticular, he bore a large fhare in ‘* The 
Anarchiad.’ It was alfo during this 
period, probably, that his religious opi- 
nions were fhaken; and that procefs of 
inquiry was undertaken, which has ter- 
minated in the fentiments he now avoews. 
With the change in his religious faith, 
his political fyftem has more completely 
evolyed itfeif; and the emiflion of the 
dedication of his ‘* Vijion of Columbus’. 
to Louis XVI. and of  fome paffages 
in the poefh itfelf, in his laf edition, 
evince the confiftency of his political and 
the liberality of his moral creed. 
Mr. BaRLOw has publithed,’ fince his. 
refidence in Hurope— 
1. The Confpiracy of Kings, a poem, ie 
Ato. London, 1796.—This has been repube 
lithed repeatedly in the United States. 
2. Advice to the Privileged Orders, Part fy | 
London. 
3. Letter to the National Convention, &c. 
4. Addrefs to the People of Piedmont, sc.. 
5. Advice to Privileged Orders, Pact If. 
Paris, &c. , 
6. The Haty-Pudding, a poem.  Firft 
printed in New York, im 12mo. in 1796.—- 
This has gone through repeated editions, as 
have all the precedjag works. 
Mr. Bartow is now the American 
Centul at Aigiers, in which capacity be 
has concluded an advantageous treaty 
with the Dey: and dittinguifhed himfelf, 
at the hazard of his life, by his humane 
exertions in behalf of his countrymen, 
who were held there in flavery. H, 
Augufl, 1798. i . 
— ae 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magaxine. 
SIR; 
OR the information of your corre- 
Kt foondent CLEON, I bee you will ia- 
fert the following quotation from Dr. 
Keill’s % Affronomical Leftures :”’ 
6c If you defire to know in what pofition 
Venus appears with the greateft luftre, the 
great geometer and aftronomer, Dr. EpmMunp 
HaLtiey, my colleague, has given us an 
elegant folution of the problem, in the 
6 Philofophical Tranfactions,” No. 349 3 wheres 
in he has fhewn, that Venus appears brightef& 
when the is about 40 degrees removed from 
the fun, and that then byt only a fourth 
part 
