a province of North America, belonging at present to the state of Virginia, but proposed soon to be admitted into the union as an independent state. It is situated between 36° 30' and 39° 30' north latitude, and 80° and 15° west longitude; being 250 miles in length, and 200 in breadth. It is bounded north-west by the river Ohio; west, by Cumberland river; Kentucky river; south, by North Carolina; east, by Sandy river; and a line drawn due south from its source till it strikes the northern boundary of North Carolina. Kentucky was originally divided into two counties, Lincoln and Jefferson. It has since been subdivided into seven, viz. Jefferson, Fayette, Bourbon, Mercer, Nelson, Madison, and Lincoln. Lexington is the chief town.

The river Ohio washes the north-western side of Kentucky, in its whole extent. Its principal branches which water this fertile tract of country, are Sandy, Licking, Kentucky, Salt, Green, and Cumberland rivers. These again branch, in various directions, into rivulets of different magnitudes, fertilizing the country in all its parts.—There are five noted salt springs or licks in this country, viz. the higher and lower Blue Springs on Licking river, from some of which, it is said, issue streams of brine water; the Big Bone lick, Drennon's licks, and Bullet's lick at Saltburg. The last of these licks, though in low order, has supplied this county and Cumberland with salt at twenty shillings the bushel, Virginia currency; and some is exported to the Illinois country. The method of procuring water from these licks is by sinking wells from 30 to 40 feet deep. The water drawn from these wells is more strongly impregnated with salt than the water from the sea.

This whole country, as far as has yet been discovered, lies upon a bed of limestone, which in general is about six feet below the surface, except in the valleys, where the soil is much thinner. A tract of about 20 miles wide along the banks of the Ohio is hilly broken land, interspersed with many fertile spots. The rest of the country is agreeably uneven, gently ascending and descending at no great distances. This country in general is well timbered; and such is the variety and beauty of the flowering shrubs and plants which grow spontaneously in it, that in the proper season the wilderness appears in blossom. The accounts of the fertility of the soil in this country have in some instances exceeded belief, and probably have been exaggerated. That some parts of Kentucky, particularly the high grounds, are remarkably good, all accounts agree. The lands of the first rate are too rich for wheat, and will produce 50 and 60, and in some instances it is affirmed 100 bushels of good corn an acre. In common the land will produce 30 bushels of wheat or rye an acre. Barley, oats, cotton, flax, hemp, and vegetables of all kinds—common in this climate—yield abundantly. The old Virginia planters say, that if the climate does not prove too moist, few soils known will yield more and better tobacco. The climate is healthy and delightful, some few places in the neighbourhood of ponds and low grounds excepted. The inhabitants do not experience the extremes of heat and cold. Snow seldom falls deep or lies long. The winter, which begins about Christmas, is never longer than three months, and is commonly but two, and is so mild as that cattle can subsist without fodder.

It is impossible to ascertain with any degree of accuracy the present number of inhabitants, owing to the numerous accretions which are made almost every month. In 1793, in the county of Lincoln only, there were on the militia rolls 3,570 men, chiefly emigrants from the lower parts of Virginia. In 1784, the number of inhabitants was reckoned at upwards of 30,000, Kentucky. From the accounts of their astonishing increase since, we may now safely estimate them at 100,000. It is asserted that at least 20,000 migrated here in the year 1787. These people, collected from different states, of different manners, customs, religions, and political sentiments, have not been long enough together to form a uniform and distinguishing character. Among the settlers there are many gentlemen of abilities, and many genteel families from several of the states, who give dignity and respectability to the settlement. They are in general more orderly perhaps than any people who have settled a new country.

As to religion, the Baptists are the most numerous sect in Kentucky. In 1789 they had 16 churches established, besides several congregations where churches were not constituted. These were supplied with upwards of 30 ministers or teachers. There are several large congregations of Presbyterians, and some few of other denominations.

The legislature of Virginia have made provision for a college in Kentucky, and have endowed it with very considerable landed funds. Schools are established in the several towns, and in general regularly and handsomely supported. They have a printing office, and publish a weekly gazette. They have erected a paper-mill, an oil-mill, fulling-mills, saw-mills, and a great number of valuable grist-mills. Their silk works are more than sufficient to supply all the inhabitants at a low price. They make considerable quantities of sugar from the sugar trees. Labourers, particularly tradesmen, are exceedingly wanted here.

The first white man who discovered this province was one James Macbride, in the year 1754. From this period it remained unexplored till about the year 1767, when one John Finley and some others, trading with the Indians, fortunately travelled over the fertile region now called Kentucky, then but known to the Indians by the name of the Dark and Bloody Grounds, sometimes the Middle Ground. This country greatly engaged Mr Finley's attention, and he communicated his discovery to Colonel Daniel Boone, and a few more, who conceiving it to be an interesting object, agreed in the year 1769 to undertake a journey in order to explore it. After a long fatiguing march over a mountainous wilderness, in a westward direction, they at length arrived upon its borders; and from the top of an eminence, with joy and wonder descried the beautiful landscape of Kentucky. Here they encamped, and some went to hunt provisions, which were readily procured, there being plenty of game, while Colonel Boone and John Finley made a tour through the country, which they found far exceeding their expectations; and returning to camp, informed their companions of their discoveries. But in spite of this promising beginning, this company meeting with nothing but hardships and adversity, grew exceedingly disheartened, and was plundered, dispersed, and killed by the Indians, except Colonel Boone, who continued an inhabitant of the wilderness until the year 1771, when he returned home.

Colonel Henderson of North Carolina being informed of this country by Colonel Boone, he and some other gentlemen held a treaty with the Cherokee Indians at Wataga in March 1775, and then purchased from... Kentucky, from them the lands lying on the south side of Kentucky river for goods at valuable rates, to the amount of 6000l. specie.

Soon after this purchase, the state of Virginia took the alarm, agreed to pay the money Colonel Donaldson had contracted for, and then disputed Colonel Henderson's right of purchase, as a private gentleman of another state in behalf of himself. However, for his eminent services to the country, and for having been instrumental in making so valuable an acquisition to Virginia, that state was pleased to reward him with a tract of land at the mouth of Green river, to the amount of 250,000 acres; and the state of North Carolina gave him the like quantity in Powell's Valley. This region was formerly claimed by various tribes of Indians; whose title, if they had any, originated in such a manner as to render it doubtful which ought to possess it. Hence this fertile spot became an object of contention, a theatre of war, from which it was properly denominated the Bloody Grounds. Their contentions not being likely to decide the right to any particular tribe, as soon as Mr Henderson and his friends proposed to purchase, the Indians agreed to sell; and notwithstanding the valuable consideration they received, have continued ever since troublesome neighbours to the new settlers.

The progress in improvements and cultivation which has been made in this country, almost exceeds belief. In the period of eleven years from the time that Kentucky was covered with forests, and inhabited only by wild beasts, and notwithstanding the opposition of the western Indians, she exhibits an extensive settlement, divided into seven large and populous counties, in which are a number of flourishing little towns, containing more inhabitants than are in Georgia, Delaware, or Rhode Island states; and nearly as many as in New Hampshire.

Kepler, John, one of the most eminent astronomers who have appeared in any age, was born at Wiel on the 27th of December 1571. His father's name was Henry Kepler, an officer of distinction among the troops of Wurtemberg, but reduced to poverty by numerous misfortunes. This exposed young Kepler to many difficulties and interruptions while acquiring the rudiments of his education; but such was his genius, and such his avidity for knowledge, that he surmounted every difficulty, and his proficiency was astonishing. He studied at the university of Tubingen, where he obtained the degree of bachelor in the year 1588, and that of master of philosophy in 1591. In the year 1592 he applied himself to the study of divinity; and the sermons he produced were sufficient indications that he would have excelled as a preacher, had he continued in the clerical profession. The mathematics, however, became his favourite study, for his knowledge of which he acquired such distinguished reputation, that he was invited to Gratz in Styria in the year 1594, to fill the mathematical chair in the university of that city. After this period his chief attention was directed to the study of astronomy, and he made many interesting discoveries respecting the laws of planetary motions.

Two years after his marriage with a lady descended from a noble family, persecution on account of his religion compelled him to quit Gratz, to which he was afterwards recalled by the states of Styria. The calamities of war, however, induced him to look for a residence where he might enjoy greater safety and tranquility. During this uncomfortable situation of affairs, the celebrated Tycho Brahe strongly urged him to settle in Bohemia as his affianced, where he himself had every necessary requisite furnished to him by the emperor Rudolph for the prosecution of his astronomical studies. The numerous and urgent letters which Kepler received upon this subject, and solemn assurances that he should be introduced to the emperor, at length prevailed with him to leave the university, and settle in Bohemia with his family in the year 1600. On his way to that country he was seized with a quartan ague, which afflicted him for seven or eight months, and rendered him incapable of contributing that aid to Tycho which he would otherwise have done. He was likewise displeased with the conduct of this astronomer towards him, and thought that he behaved in an unfriendly manner, by neglecting to do a material service to his family when he had it in his power. Kepler also considered him as by far too reserved, in not communicating to him the whole of his discoveries and improvements.

The death of Tycho happened in 1601; and thus the intercourse between these two eminent men being of such short duration, precluded Kepler either from being very serviceable to, or deriving much advantage from, the investigations and researches of the Danish astronomer. Kepler, however, was introduced to the emperor by Tycho, in conformity to his promise, and appointed mathematician to his imperial majesty, with instructions to complete the Rodolphine Tables which that great man had begun. These were not published till the year 1627, owing to a variety of obstructions and difficulties which were thrown in his way. Two years after the publication of this work, he went to Ratibon, by permission of the emperor, to claim payment of the arrears of his pension, where he was seized with a violent fever, supposed to have been brought upon him by too hard riding; and to this he fell a victim in the month of November 1630, in the 59th year of his age.

The learned world is indebted to this sagacious and able astronomer and mathematician for the discovery of the true figure of the planetary orbits, and the proportions of the motions of the solar system. Like the disciples of Pythagoras and Plato, Kepler was seized with a peculiar passion for finding analogies and harmonies in nature; and although this led him to the adoption of very strange and ridiculous conceits, we shall readily be disposed to overlook these, when we reflect that they were the means of leading him to the most interesting discoveries. He was for some time so charmed with the whimsical notions contained in his Mysterium Cosmographicum, published in 1596, that he declared he would not give up the honour of having invented what was contained in that book for the electorate of Saxony;—so easy is it for the greatest of men to be deceived by a darling hypothesis.

He was the first who discovered that astronomers had been invariably mistaken in always attributing circular orbits and uniform motions to the planets, since each of them moves in an ellipse, having one of its foci in the sun; and, after a variety of fruitless efforts, he, on the 15th of May 1618, made his splendid discovery "that the squares of the periodic times of the planets were always..." ways in the same proportion as the cubes of their mean distances from the sun." As it was long a favourite opinion of Kepler's, that there are only six primary planets, he seems to have been alarmed at the discovery made by Galileo, of four new planets, or satellites of Jupiter, which gave a deathblow to the doctrines contained in his Mysterium Cosmographicum. The sagacity of this wonderful man, and his incessant application to the study of the planetary motions, pointed out to him some of the genuine principles from which these motions originate. He considered gravity as a power that is mutual between bodies; that the earth and moon tend towards each other, and would meet in a point, so many times nearer to the earth than to the moon, as the earth is greater than the moon, if their motions did not prevent it. His opinion of the tides was, that they arise from the gravitation of the waters towards the moon; but his notions of the laws of motion not being accurate, he could not turn his thoughts to the best advantage. The prediction he uttered at the end of his epitome of astronomy, has been long since verified by the discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, that the discovery of such things (the true laws of gravity) was referred for the succeeding age, when the Author of nature would be pleased to reveal those mysteries.

To this concise account of the celebrated Kepler, we shall now add a list of his principal publications. Mysterium Cosmographicum, already mentioned, 4to; Paralipomena ad Vitellionem, quibus Afronomiae Pars Optica traditur, 1604, 4to; De Stella Nova in Pede Serpentarii, 1606, 4to; Afronomia Nova, seu Physica Celestis, tradita Commentariis de Motibus Stellae Martis, ex Observationibus Tyconis Brahei, 1609, folio; Dissertations cum Nuncio Sidereo Galilei, 1610; De Cometis, Libri tres, 1611, 4to; Ephemerides Novae, from 1617 to 1620; Epitome Afronomiae Copernicanae, in two volumes 8vo, the first published in 1618, and the second in 1622; Harmonices Mundi, lib. v. 1619, 4to; Chilias Logarithmorum in coidein numeros rotundos, 1624, 4to; Supplementum Chiladii, &c. 1625, 4to; Tabulae Rudolphinae, 1627, folio; De Jefu Christi Servatoris anno natalitio, &c. He was also the author of several other pieces connected with chronology, the mensuration of solids, and trigonometry, with a treatise on dioptries, an excellent performance for the period in which he flourished.