be sadly put to it; for there is at none of these springs a drawing-room, where such of the company as choose may meet for social purposes, either at morning or evening. The ladies live in cabins, most of them containing but one room-which, of course, has a bed in it-and we Americans are not yet in that pure state of Parisian innocence that we can visit a lady in her bedroom, without considerabletrepidation. Thus the only social place of meeting is at the spring; and there few opportunities for conversation occur. A neat, capacious, and wellfurnished drawing-room, would add infinitely to the pleasures of these fashionable resorts.

It so happened, that a servant of one of the gentlemen here was an adept in playing Virginia reels, which are true native-born dances; and, in my mind, infinitely preferable to cotillons and waltzes-the first of which are only calculated for a people that are born dancing, and the latter for people who are reconciled to indecency, by seeing it practised from their birth. It is not to be wondered at, that custom should render such, insensible to the public exhibition of ladies whirling round a room in the arms of gentlemen; but that England and America-the one past her frolicsome days, and the other arrived at years of discretion, should fall into the practice of such preposterous novelties, at war with their ideas of common decorum, is not easily accounted for. But it seems that nations, however vain of themselves, cannot refrain from now and then following the fashions of people they affect to despise. There

is almost always one nation which sets the fashion to its neighbours, either in dress, dancing, or some equally important matter. This is not peculiar to the civilized world-for Commodore Porter tells me there is a little island among the group of the Marquesas, the inhabitants of which give the ton to all the others. The warriors of Madison's island imitated their warlike weapons, and tatooed themselves after their style; and the fashionable ladies were accustomed to paddle over in canoes to buy their millinery.

It is only, however, the higher, more refined class, who thus indulge their capricious tastes in adopting foreign novelties. The people at large, who constitute the nation; who are the true depositories of its manners, habits, strength, and glory, preserve, and are fond of those original peculiarities, which give a national physiognomy, distinct in various features from that of every other. They are attached to the modes of their youth; and so far from considering it a proof of either sense or refinement; to adopt others, look upon the man who does it, as having vitiated his taste; or, what is more probable, that he affects what he cannot feel. It has been observed, that the most imitative animal in nature is a dunce; and Heaven help our poor country, at least that part of it along the seashore, if the rule applies to a nation, for it imitates every body in turn. Almost every ship that comes into port turns the bon ton topsyturvy, and in one week creates a French revolution among hats, caps, gowns, and petticoats. I remember, on the arrival of the Hannibal, from Bordeaux, the

republican ladies, who are mostly under French influence, appeared in hats of such enormous dimensions, that an honest countryman of the west observed, they looked as if they were sitting in the back seat of a great covered wagon. A few of the most sturdy republican young fellows in the meantime wore little short coatees, with broad backs, and buttons at a mighty distance from each other. The federal bucks and belles, however, sided with England. The former, at least those who had travelled, put on corsets, wore long-skirted, narrow-backed coats, so tight that it was generally supposed they were buttoned by machinery. Then they suffered their hair to grow into a mighty bunch behind, and walked with the genuine Rutland wriggle; that is to say, on tiptoe, and with a most portentous extension of the hinder parts. But the ladies who professed fashionable fealty to England, did incontinently disclaim the covered wagons, and yclept themselves in little bonnets, shaped like a clam-shell; and because the prince-regent did affect fat women, contrived their dresses in such a manner, that what with puffings, &c. they looked almost as broad as they were long. All this was, however, reversed by the next arrival, I suppose; and what succeeded it I am not able to tell.

Now is it not a sin and a shame, that none of our fashionable bucks or belles have genius to invent a new mode of their own, or influence to carry it into general adoption? If the fashionable people had any spirit, they would make their own fashions, rather than borrow them thus servilely from abroad, by

which means they are never in the fashion, since, before it can get here, some other has taken its place, where it was originally adopted. If we only had a national costume, national music, national dances, national literature, national feelings, and a few other trifles, what a respectable and glorious nation we would soon become! So long, however, as it is the test of refinement and fashion to imitate the kept mistresses of kings and princes in dress; Bond-street loungers in manners; Italian castrati in music; and border-ballads in our poetry-so long will we deservedly pass for a contemptible imitative race. All this, I dare say, smacks of vandalism; and should it ever get to the ears of the English reviewers, who are lords of opinions in this country, will very likely get me a sound drubbing. I don't care, not I:while I live, move, and have a being, I will continue to raise my voice, feeble as it is, against that habit of imitation, that want of manly, national self-confidence and respect, which is the characteristic of those great cities most especially, that give the tone to fashionable manners, modes, and opinions, all along the Atlantic coast. It is this which represses the genius of our country, and palsies exertions that are sure never to be properly estimated; it is this which calls down upon us the contempt of foreigners;-it is this which makes it the criterion of refinement to throw away every feeling of respect and affection for the land of our birth,-and it is this alone that stands in the way of this nation very soon becoming one of the first in the world. Farewell.

LETTER XXI.

DEAR FRANK,

THE two principal inquiries made by the sage Pantagruel, the traveller of princes, and the prince of travellers, when he came to a strange place, were as to the quality of the wine and the state of learning. These he considered as most worthy his attention; and I shall follow his example; first, because he was a mighty king, and legitimate withal; secondly, because he was a giant; and thirdly, because I agree with him in opinion. As to the wine of the south, it is good; and if you don't believe it—veni; vidi; vici-which means, come, taste, and try.

Having settled the first Pantagruelian inquiry, we will proceed to the second. It has been remarked, I believe, that large congregations of men are necessary to a flourishing state of literature. Cities are for that reason essential; they bring together great masses of people; they furnish conveniences of all kinds for the publication of books, and in the vast variety of character, as well as incident they afford, present the materials for composing them. Where a people is sparely distributed over a great surface, and men reside at a distance from each other, it is not to be expected that new books will multiply, because, in the first place, there will be few readers and

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