Portland Gazette, And Maine Advertiser

Mr. SHIRLEY,

I once saw with much pleasure, that proposals are issued for publishing by subscription, an Atlas of Ancient and Modern Geography. A work of this kind has long been wanted in this country, and from the known activity and enterprise of the publishers, the intrinsic merit of the work, we flatter ourselves the undertaking will not prove unsuccessful. Children have not been in the habit of fixing in their minds with sufficient precision the relative situation of nations: and even persons of more advanced age are apt to run through histories without referring attentively to maps, or without a distinct notion of the countries mentioned by historians. The work about to be published will, we think, supply this great deficiency. The plan, from the specimen we have of it, attached to the subscription paper, appears to be very good, it embraces ancient and modern geography, and contains several maps which are very scarce, and have not before been published in the U. States: another advantage in this edition is, that the maps, being executed with a great degree of neatness, are all coloured, thus affording to those who use them, a facility, which no other kind possesses. Of the utility of maps to all classes of citizens nothing need be said; it must be obvious to every one, that it is important for the merchant to know the situation of those countries to which he sends his produce; the student, without them cannot read with profit; and to the politician they are indispensable: the frequent recurrence to them by others, will secure them from the disgrace to which their ignorance may expose them. I recollect an instance of this kind, which will put this point in a clear light: I once knew a man, who on being asked where a certain West India Island, mentioning the name of it, was situated, replied very confidently, why sir it is in Spain. The subscription paper is left at Mr. Little's book-store. When we consider the cheapness of the book, which is to subscribers at the same price as Dr. Morse's last edition, though containing number more maps and all coloured, we are persuaded it will receive the encouragement it so highly deserves.

L.