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IfUR-DAT, Ssptembe? 20, 1783.
“GEORGIA STATE GAZETTE
•lindependent
»r ■
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O IkEE DO M of the PRESS, and TRIAL bj JURY, to remain inviolate forever. ConJHtution of Georgia •
I V GUST A: Printed by JOHN E. SMITH, Printer to the State-, EJfays, Articles of
I Intelligence, Advertisements, (Ac. will be gratefully received, and every kind of Printing performed.
I Lector to Auditor.
Br T were the grofleft flattery to attribute
II to your ingenuity, what is really the
rc fult of illepid invettive and feeble
■biifc ; I mean, that predicament I may
le apprehended to (land in, of hazarding
■he imputation of insanity by a serious re-
Wy: I shall therefore plate it among
■hpfe nugatory fortuities, which the mind
Kas never thought worthy of investigation
■ n any flage of their existence, and couch
Bnyrefponfe in such profundity cf reason-
Ing and solemnity of phrase, as if I had
Bn view the probationary recital of an
■African convert prior to his advancement
to the grade of a Baptiflical devotee :
Willing however that you may enjoy the
reputation of poflefling a certain fliare of
underfianding, I will prcmife, that you
have some grand political revolution in
your eye, of which that you may never
be fufpetted, you will confefs yourfelf
the author of a critical analization of
these glaring aflertions and confefled
crudities of mine which were only uttered
to be derided:—Your outrageous effoit
to demolith that mirror which was con
llrutted for your foie ule, demonflrates
indeed, that you were not much delight
ed with its powers of reflexion, but is
a whimsical manner of attempting to in
troduce its author to contempt or neglect
•—1 will allow it to be a falfe glass, and
recommend you to thefirft publication in
ftur Independent Register of the 15th inst.
for a more perfect view of your amisble
phizz : After having for a little while con
templated yourfelf therein, I make no
doubt, that the idea of a Roman hangman,
will be totally obliterated in your dirturb
ed imagination ; and the complex one, of
a modern Littor exercising suicide, tor
ture you in its room, until your natural
callosity revive, seconded by fuperflition
to reconcile you to exiflence. You have hit
■upon the expedient of at once becoming
ludicrous and rediculous; by attempting
a serious difeuflion of my bumble imitalien
of your pfuedo-reafoning \ and then by de
nyingtheonly (legitimate) conclulionlhad
drawn as a contrast to my prefatory afier
tions, and that from your own propositions
without any exaggeration. But you have
far tranfeended this, when in one sentence,
you introduce yourfelf to the public in
the charatter of an umpire to decide, who
Bull enjoy the laureate wreath; and
in another, trespass so egregiously upon
common sense, that illiterate folly would
klufli to own the expreflion. Ido not en
pTy their talte who may dilcern an appo-
fitenefs, to the fubjett in queflion, in the
couplet which'you have lugged in amongst
your •verities, from Hor. II Lib. I Ep,
Ad Augujlum. If you had quoted in cha*
ratter, you would have cited the proceed
ing line to those you have prosaically
tranferibed, and according to custom
would have charged your follies to
my account. Were I to proceed
farther in this Brain, I would condemn
mylelf of unpardonable prolixity, and
that justly; when it is obvious, that the
most concise method of enumerating your
ablurdities, is to particularize your con
lidencies. And firjl, 44 you know not
how Horace would reiifli Burgundy”—
you are right, physically; for his tafe
and your’s, very probably might diia
gree—and you are right, positively; if
you have never partook of the generous
juice. Secondly , and lajlly; your perti
nent choice of the epithet 44 idle,” con
ferred on me as your opponent: I ac
knowledge the charge, from a thorough
convittion, that whoever was, is or (hall
Band in that anti-relation to you, ought
to plead guilty to the accusation. What
trait of genius, or what veflige of eru
dition is to be found in your productions,
that could apologize for your dreaming of
being fiyled, An Author of Syflem > Or
in what nook of your vacive foul dwelt
so much importance, as to give birth to
the thought, that any one would claim a
triumph over such feeble refinance ?—lt
were but putting it once more in your
power to render yourfelf rediculous, to
exonerate you from your' promise of
future fihncr, and therefore I thall
infill on your religious observance
of the fame 1 But if any votary of rea
son will point out where I have sported
with found syllogism or true proposition,
I will gladly attend to bis obfeivations.
-«9&OGGGSC§-
Mr. B R I G G S' s
Dissertation, (itfirjl President ;
On the institution of the Academic Society ,
forthepurpofe of improvment in Rhe
toric and Belles Lettres.
(Published by their order.)
Gentlemen of the Society ,
AT this period, when the fine arts
have attained to such a degree of
perfeftion, for me to attempt an eulogi
um upon eloquence would be highly pre
famptioue. When I reflett that a Hume,
the
a Sheridan and a Blair, among many
other eminent writers, have employed
their pens on this fubjett, I am almolt
awed into Silence. However, Gentle*
men, relying on your indulgence, and
tonfidering America as having opened an
unbounded profpett and fixed a new era
in the hiftory of this noble art, I am en
couraged to hazard a few general observa
tions on the objects of our institution.
Belles Lettres are allowed to be, not
only an ornamental part of education, but
extremely ufeful to alraoft every other
art or science. They are the handmaid
of philosophical knowledge—they intro
duce the arts and Sciences in a pleating
drefs—Wd direftly to the temple of fame,
and drew the arduous path with flowers—
and inftruft the understanding by capti
vating the heart. It will be a Sufficient
recommendation to the study of Belles
Lettres to peruse the writings of Longi
nus, Cicero, Hume, Voltaire, Pope, Swift,
Chefterfield, Sheridan, Blair—but the il
lustrious groupe increases on my view,
aod fliould I attempt to mention them all
it would far exceed the limits I have pre
scribed to this little eftay. Neither have
our own countrymen been unsuccessful in
this delightful study ; —as a few inftanccs,
witness the manliuefsand energr of Adams,
the beauty and politeness of Je/ferfon, and
the correctness of Walton. Nor does
the flern muse of Hiftory disdain the al
lurements of Belles Lettres, witness a
Robertson, S Ferguson, a Gibbon and a
Raynal—and among ourselves a Ramsay.
But it is my intention to- touch but
slightly on Belles Lettres, as their utility
is universally acknowledged and as they
are of much easier attainment than Ora
tory ; I Shall therefore dwell principally
on the latter .
Eloquence has always flourifhed in a
greater or less degree, in every popular
government; and always in proportion
to the prevalence of the democratical prin
ciple. The government of Athens, in
the time of Dcmofthenes, was in a very
high degree democratical, perhaps more
so than any that has ever appeared ; and
Demosthenes is allowed to have been the
greatest orator whose name ever adorned
the page of hiftory. The government of
Rome poflefled much more of the arifto
cratical principle than Athens,
probably more of the democratical than
any government Since ; Cicero according*"
ly was inferior to the Athenian
though eighteen Succeeding centuries hav»
not yet produced his equal. Great-Bri«
tain too, with all it* principles of vvmtp
/ oy
pfcteCW.]