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2. The largest of thefe ftupendous works, is fix hundred feet fquare at the bafe, and five hundred feet high, composed of foft calcareous stone, which alfo forms the hill where it ftands. The whole area covered by this mafs of ftone is about eleven acres of ground. On the outfide are steps by which a perfon may afcend, but not without danger, as the leps are much decayed, except on the fouth fide. On the top is a level platform, fixteen feet fquare, where a perfon may repofe and enjoy one of the most extenfive profpects on earth.

3. Sixteen fteps above the base, there is an entrance into this pyramid, about three feet fquare; from which is a steep defcent of ninety-two feet. Within, are fpacious galleries, halls and chambers, lined with Thebaic marble, or porphyry, in ftones of a vaft fize. Within one of thefe apartments is a tomb of one entire piece of marble, hollowed and uncovered at the top, conjectured to have been the fepulcher of the founder. This tomb, like the pyramid, ftands exactly north and fouth. At what time, by what prince and for what purpose, this and the other pyramids were erected, are questions that are left to conjecture. The common idea is, that they were intended for the tombs of Kings. At any rate, mankind agree that they are durable monuments of the extreme folly, as well as defpotifm of their founders, and of the miferable flavery of their fubjects.

1.

ON

OF JOSEPH'S WELL IN CAIRO.

N the fouth fide of Cairo, is a rocky hill, on which flands a Caftle, within which is an extraordinary well, which fupplies the caftle with water. This well is dug into a foft rock, to the depth of two hundred and feventy feet. A wind. ing ftaircafe is cut out of the fame rock, about fix feet wide, but feparated from the well by a thickness of half a yard of the rock, to prevent perfons from falling into the well, or evea looking in, except by fmall holes made to let in light.

2. The fteps are broad and the defcent eafy; but perfons defcending are incommoded by dirt. At the depth of one hundred and fifty feet, is a large chamber or apartment, where oxen are employed to raise the water by means of wheels and machinery. The water being raifed to this place, is carried to the top by other wheels, worked also by oxen. From this

place, the defcent is more difficult, the ftairs being narrow, and not feparated from the fhaft of the well by a partition. The water raised from this well is diftributed in pipes to dif ferent parts of the castle.

EXTRACT FROM THE ORATION OF THOMAS DAWES, ESQ. DELIVERED AT BOSTON, JULY 4, 1787.

1. THAT Education is one of the deepeft princicles of independence, need not be be labored in this affembly. In arbitrary governments, where the people neither make the laws nor choofe thofe who legiflate, the more ignorance the more peace.

2. But in a government where the people fill all the branches of the fovereignty, intelligence is the life of liberty. An American would refent his being denied the ufe of his musket; but he would deprive himself of a stronger fafeguard, if he fhould want that learning which is neceffary to a knowledge of his conftitution.

3. It is easy to fee that our agrarian law and the law of edu cation were calculated to make republicans; to make men. Servitude could never long confist with the habits of such citizens. Enlightened minds and virtuous manners lead to the gates of glory. The fentiments of independence must have been connatural in the bofoms of Americans; and fooner or later, must have blazed out into public action.

4. Independence fits the foul of her refidence for every noble enterprize of humanity and greatnefs. Her radient fmile lights up celeftial ardor in poets and orators, who found her praifes through all ages; in legiflators and philofophers, who fabricate wife and happy governments as dedications to her fame; in patriots and heroes, who fhed their lives in facrifice, to her divinity.

5. At this idea, do not our minds fwell with the memory of thofe whefe godlike virtues have founded her most magnificent temple in America? It is eafy for us to maintain her doctrins, at this late day, when there is but one party on the fubject, an immenfe people. But what tribute fhall we bestow, what facred peean fhall we raife over the tombs of thofe who dared, in the face of unrivalled power, and within the reach of majesty, to blow the blast of freedom throughout a fubject

continent?

6. Nor did thofe brave countrymen of ours only exprefs the emotions of glory; the nature of their principles infpired them with the power of practice; and they offered their bofoms to the fhafts of battle. Bunker's awful mount is the ca. pacious urn of their afhes; but the flaming bounds of the univerfe could not limit the flight of their minds.

7. They fled to the union of kindred fouls; and those who fell at the ftraits of Thermopyle, and those who bied on the heights of Charlestown, now reap congenial joys in the fields of the bleffed.

ELOCUTION.

Extract from an ORATION, delivered at Boston, March 5, 1772, by Dr. JOSEPH WARREN.

I.

WH

HEN we turn over the historic page, and trace the rife and fall of states and empires; the mighty revolutions which have fo often varied the face of the world, ftrike our minds with folemn surprise, and we are naturally led to search for the caufe of fuch aftonishing changes.

2. That man is formed for focial life, is an obfervation, which, upon our firft enquiry prefents itfelf to our view. Government has its origin in the weaknefs of individuals, and hath for its end the strength and fecurity of all; and so long as the means of effecting this important end are thoroughly known, and religiously attended to, government is one of the richeft bleffings to mankind, and ought to be held in the higheft veneration.

3. In young and new formed communities, the grand defign of this inftitution, is most generally understood, and most ftrictly regarded; the motives which urged to the focial compact cannot be at once forgotten, and that equality which is remembered to have fubfifted fo lately among them, prevents those who are clothed with authority from attempting to invade the freedom of their brethren, or, if fuch an attempt is made, it prevents the community from fuffering the offender to go unpunished.

4. Every member feels it to be his intereft, and knows it to be his duty, to preferve inviolate the conftitution on which the public fafety depends, and is equally ready to affift the magiftrate in the execution of the laws, and the fubje& in the defense of his right. So long as the noble attachment to a

conftitution, founded on free and benevolent principles, exifts in full vigor, in any state, that fate must be flourishing and happy.

5. It was this noble attachment to a free conftitution which raifed ancient Rome from the fmalleft beginnings, to that bright fummit of happiness and glory to which the arrived; and it was the lofs of this which plunged her from that fummit, into the black gulf of infamy and flavery.

6. It was this attachment which infpired her fenators with wisdom; it was this which glowed in the breaft of her heroes; it was this which guarded her liberties, and extended her dominions, gave peace at home, and commanded refpect abroad; and when this decayed, her magiftrates loft their reverence for juftice and laws, and degenerated into tyrants and oppref fors-her fenators forgetful of their dignity, and feduced by bafe corruption, betrayed their Country-her foldiers, regardlefs of their relation to the community, and urged only by the hopes of plunder and rapine, unfeelingly committed the moft flagrant enormities; and hired to the trade of death, with relentlefs fury, they perpetrated the most cruel murders; by which the streets of imperial Rome were drenched with her nobleft blood.

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7. Thus this empress of the world loft her dominions abroad, and her inhabitants, diffolute in their manners, length became contented flaves; and fhe ftands to this day, the fcorn and derifion of nations, and a monument of this eternal truth, that public happiness depends on a virtuous and un◄ fhaken attachment to a free confiitution.

8. It was this attachment to a conftitution founded on free and benevolent principles, which infpired the firft fettlers of this country; they faw with grief the daring outrages committed on the free conftitution of their native land; they knew that nothing but a civil war could at that time reftore its prif tine purity.

9. So hard was it to refolve to embrue their hands in the blood of their brethren, that they chofe rather to quit their fair poffeffions, and feek another habitation in a diftant clime. When they came to this new world, which they fairly purcha ced of the Indian natives, the only rightful proprietors, they cultivated the then barren foil, by their inceffant labor, and defended their dear bought poffeffions with the fortitude of the Chriftian, and the bravery of the hero.

Extracts from an ORATION, delivered at the North- Church in Hartford, at the meeting of the Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati, July 4th, 1787, in commemoration of the Independence of the United States. By JOEL BARLOW, Efq. Publifhed by defire of faid Society.

MR. PRESIDENT, GENTLEMEN OF THE SOCIETY AND FELLOW-CITIZENS,

I.

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ON N the anniversary of fo great an event as the birth of the Empire in which we live, none will queftion the propriety of paffing a few moments in contemplating the various objects fuggested to the mind by the important occafion.

2. But at the prefent period, while the bleffings claimed by the fword of victory, and promised in the voice of peace, remain to be confirmed by our future exertions; while the nourishment, the growth, and even the existence of our em pire, depend upon the united efforts of an extenfive and divided people; the duties of this day afcend from amufement and congratulation, to a ferious patriotic employment.

3. We are affembled, my friends, not to boast, but to realize ; not to inflate our national vanity by a pompous relation of paft atchievments in the council or in the field; but from a modeft retrospect of the truly dignified part already acted by our countrymen, from an accurate view of our prefent fituation, and from an anticipation of the scenes that remain to be unfolded; to difcern and familiarize the duties that ftill await us as citizens, as foldiers, and as men.

4. Revolutions in other countries have been effected by accident. The faculties of human reason, and the rights of human nature, have been the sport of chance and the prey of ambition. And when indignation has burst the bands of flavery, to the destruction of one tyrant, it was only to impofe the manacles of another.

5. This arofe from the imperfection of that early stage of fociety, which neceffarily occafioned the foundation of empires, on the eastern continent, to be laid in ignorance, and which induced a total inability of foreseeing the improvements of civilization, or of adapting the government to a state of focial refinement.

6. I shall but repeat a common obfervation, when I remark, that on the western continent the fcene was entirely different, and a new task, totally unknown to the legislatures of other

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