78 
be 
foulid 
in 
the 
United 
Stafes, 
particularly 
in 
Philadelphia, is not to be denied; but of that 
class, whose talents tend to augment the stock of 
intellectual enjoyment in the world, 
with 
no one, 
the 
single 
exception 
already 
alluded 
has 
yet 
aPPei1red_ 
Poetry is the art of connecting ideas of sen- 
sible objects with moral sentiments ; and without 
the previous existence of local feelings, there can be 
no poetry. America to the first European settlers 
had no objects interesting to the imagination, at 
least of the description 
thus strictly considered as 
poetical; for although the vigour and stupendous 
appearances of Nature were calculated to fill the 
mind with awe, and to exalt the contemplations 
of enthusiasm, 
there was nothing connected with 
the 
circumstances 
the 
SCCIIG 
susceptible 
of 
that colouring from the memory, which gives to 
the ideas of local resemblance the peculiar quali- 
ties of poetry. 
The forests, though interminable, 
were but 
trees ; 
composed of 
the 
mountains 
and 
rivers, 
though on a larger scale, 
Were not 
associ- 
ated 
in 
the 
with 
mind 
the exertions 
of 
patriotic 
valour, and the atchievements of individual enter-