bigoted, as his writings show. Eliot was the very opposite of this. He confined himself to works valuable for the instruction they imparted, and his labours were productive of immediate if not of lasting beneficial results; which was not always the case with the controversial productions of his argumentative contemporaries. As a whole, so far as the results to permanent and general literature are concerned, the early theological writings of America are meagre. Their chief value consisted of a force and sincerity which tended to invigorate the minds of readers, thereby forming the basis of subsequent improvement in American theological essays; and although at times conducing to bigotry, they often, on the contrary, incited to habits of reflection and independent thinking.

CHAPTER II.

SECOND COLONIAL PERIOD.

WHEN a people endeavour to create a literature of their own, they give some indications of nationality likely to be realized. States as well as authors live in books. The effort is in itself commendable, and seldom fails. The colonists from England, who settled what is now the most flourishing part of the United States, stand in strong contrast in this respect with the pioneers of many of the countries of South America, to say nothing of the French colonists of Canada, and even British settlers in India. We are not aware that a native of Brazil, during the period from 1700 to 1770, produced a book of merit; nor can we point to one of worth of the period by a native Anglo-Indian. It may be fairly stated, that of all the nations which have sprung into existence through the medium of European colonization since the discovery of America, the United States is the only one having a healthy literature of its own creation, and to which the general reader of this hemisphere is indebted for original works of a high order. We are aware a Brazilian, a Peruvian, and a Mexican, have produced single books of decided merit, but these by no means constitute a national literature, and are unknown except to the bibliographical student.

Force and purity of style characterized many American writings anterior to the Revolution. This, however, should not be a matter of special wonder. From the year 1700, until the breaking out of the American war, it was the custom, to a wide extent, of the wealthier colonists, to send their sons to Great Britain to be educated; and the rolls of Oxford and Cambridge of the period, as well as those of the London Inns of Court, contain many American names. Good institutions of learning, under excellent and capable instructors, also abounded in the Colonies, and many scholars graduated from these. Those youths who received their education in the parent country, returned to their native land with tastes more or less refined and cultivated, and their writings were in a greater or lesser degree English. It was fashionable then in the transatlantic provinces to imitate the productions of the wits of Queen

Anne's day, as well as those of the reigns of the first two Georges; and the periodicals of the time contain many contributions of no inferior order of merit. From this cause these writings were quite English; but it is gratifying to observe, they exhibited a manly vigour of thought not visible in the productions of the more Puritanical and puerile school. Many of them were political, and yet dashed with the peculiar religious views prevalent in the circles in which their authors moved, or the colonies to which they belonged. And although so tinged, they clearly exhibited a healthy and beneficial transition in thought from the theological to the more purely literary era of American authorship.

Taking the writers of the period in the order of chronology and talents, Jonathan Edwards is deservedly foremost. He was one of the first American authors who gave unequivocal evidence of great reasoning powers and originality of thought, and his strong analytic mind produced at least one metaphysical work "the world will not willingly let die." He displays in his writings that force of thought and keenness of argument only discoverable by great minds; and his works now rank among standard English metaphysics, having long since been pronounced by the most competent authorities to be of the first order. Dugald Stewart describes Edwards as one, "who in logical acuteness and subtlety does not yield to any disputant bred in the Universities of Europe;" and Hazlitt unhesitatingly says that he was one of the acutest, most powerful, and, of all reasoners, the most conscientious and sincere." He may not unworthily be styled the first man of the world during the second quarter of the eighteenth century; and as a theologian, Dr. Chalmers and Robert Hall declare him to have been the greatest in all Christian ages.

When Richardson broke down the conventionalism of fiction in folios, his racy, natural pictures captivated alike distant colonists and subjects nearer the throne. This occurred in what we conceive ourselves justified in calling the second era of American literature, and tended to relieve the writings of the period of much of the heaviness of the Puritan spirit. In fact, as before intimated, this particular period, from various palpable causes, produced fruits of promise, giving hopes of future results not altogether unfulfilled. The works of Defoe, Steel, Swift, and Addison; of Prior, Pope, Gay, Parnell, and others of the period, were incentives to intellectual exertion in the New World; and there they found imitators of no ordinary ability. Judging from Franklin's brief account of the literary associates of his youth in Philadelphia, it is fair to conclude that the writings of the authors above-named furnished models for the compositions of himself and friends, and his own productions sustain the opinion. One of his early companions, whose style was thus formed, essayed a literary life in the parent country, and although in a fit of youthful folly he called down upon his head the merciless sarcasm of Pope, on the other hand he received the commendation of Charles James Fox. We refer to James Ralph, whose contributions to English literature, notwithstanding the sneer of the Bard of Twickenham, are too valuable to be entirely overlooked. Two lines of malicious sarcasm have tended to deter people from a fair examination of his works, which, if once made, would place him in a much better light than he now enjoys. He wrote a History of England during the Reigns of William the Third and Queen Anne, for which he was pronounced by Fox,

the statesman, "a historian of great acuteness and diligence;" which from such a person is valuable praise. Ralph enjoyed a literary pension from the British Government for a short time immediately preceding his death; and so far as our researches enable us to express an opinion, he was the only American upon whom such an honour ever was conferred.

Franklin, whose name is a “household-word" in England, was not only an author of some repute, but his exertions in behalf of science have placed his name high among those who have conferred lasting benefits on their race by their discoveries. His political and philosophical writings exhibit great clearness, as well as skill in composition; and but few have the temerity to deny merit to his admirable Autobiography, which is in fact one of the most pleasing compositions in the English language.

From Franklin's early youth until about the year 1770, general literature received much attention, and, did our limits permit, we could name not a few able poetical productions which belong to this era. They display taste as well as scholarship, and are wonderful improvements on the rhymes of the Puritan age.

At a time when miscellaneous and light literature attracted so much notice, it was not altogether unnatural a few practical minds should devote themselves to colonial history; and we take pleasure in recording the fact, inasmuch as the labours of these early American chroniclers have been of great value to subsequent historians, and may be considered as indicating a respect for the opinions and wants of posterity not usually entertained by the fathers of nations. In a literary estimate, the works of Cadwallader Colden may take the first rank among the first American historical writings. He produced a History of the Five Nations [of Indians] about 1745, which was republished in London in 1747, and a third edition was published in the same city in 1755. This author turned his attention to the nature of American plants, and supplied Linnæus with a well-written account of between three and four hundred American plants, about two hundred of which were for the first time described in the Acta Societatis Upsaliensis. He also wrote on philosophical subjects; and left a collection of unpublished papers, valuable as ante-revolutionary records from which Mr. Bancroft obtained a vast amount of information not to be had elsewhere.

William Hubbard wrote a narrative History of New England, prior to 1700; but the work of Thomas Prince on the same subject, published in 1736 and in 1755, is of far more value. John Callender, a native of Boston, wrote a Discourse on the History of Rhode Island in 1739-now valuable for its factswhich was republished in 1838, with notes, and which must ever be considered as the best contribution extant to the early history of the State to which it relates. A full and entertaining History of King Philip's War was written by the famous Captain Church in 1716, which reached a second edition in a short time, and is now a standard authority on early New England affairs, particularly during King Philip's time. David Brainerd, who devoted himself to the work of an Indian Missionary, while so engaged, recorded faithfully his adventures, together with his observations on the manners and peculiarities of the various tribes with whom it was his fate to associate. His Diary has proved valu

able to more than one historian, and must remain a faithful picture of the savages inhabiting New England at the early settlement of the country.

Although the austere religion of the Puritans forbade dramatic representations under penalty of severe punishment, it did not succeed in crushing out the desire for the literature of the stage. Some efforts at dramatic composition were made even in New England during the period of which we treat; but nothing perfect was produced there. Thomas Godfrey, a native of Philadelphia, a son of the inventor of the Mariner's Quadrant, wrote the first finished play produced in America. It was composed during a three years' residence in North Carolina, and although deficient in force as a whole, possesses many redeeming points. It is called the Prince of Parthia, and considering the author's mathematical predilections, and that he received but a common education in his mother tongue, is quite a creditable performance. Godfrey's father was a companion of Franklin when a youth in Philadelphia, and is mentioned in the Autobiography.

This concludes our summary of American literary achievements in this period, and if nothing decidedly great was produced, the fruits are at least valuable for the progress displayed towards excellence. A clear style grew into favour. Terseness and purity of expression are observable in nearly all the essays of the time; and as we approach the exciting dawn of the Revolution, we cannot conceal our surprise at the force displayed in very many of the political pamphlets then published. These compositions show another advance-step in American letters, and they assuredly did much towards a habit of independent thinking among the people.

So ends our colonial survey; and, taking the brief period into consideration, together with the duties incident to conquering a wilderness from savages, these contributions to a national literature are as meritorious and numerous as those of England in the corresponding period of her early history.

CHAPTER III.

FIRST AMERICAN PERIOD.

MANY causes were at work at the commencement of the American Revolution, which tended to foster and develope both literary and oratorical talents. The oppressions of the mother country were not the least of these. At first silently endured, then received with murmurs of dissatisfaction, they finally produced boldly-expressed and manful opposition. Speeches and pamphlets were the weapons of attack; and in looking over the writings of those who took the Colonial side of the controversy, our admiration is fairly won by the high literary ability displayed in the written appeals to the parent country. Lord Chatham declared the public documents of the principal statesmen of the American Revolution to be equal to the finest specimens of Greek or Roman wisdom. A clear and forcible form of expression characterises nearly all

these productions, and in many cases they are written with graceful ease. Men who wrote so well possessed a cultivated taste, and the skill they displayed in composition may fairly be attributed to wise mental training, native talents, and that love of the good in literature so widely prevalent among the wealthier colonists during the second period of American literary history. From about 1770 the spirit of eloquence began to give evidence of its existence, and the writings of the country at once assumed a more decidedly national type than ever before. The transition from the stiffness of the Puritan era to the elegance of Queen Anne's age, is not more marked than that from the Georgian to the first American period. Among the most noticeable of the political writings of the time, and these cannot be overlooked in a survey of American literature, are those of James Otis. Some of William Livingston's pamphlets are tersely and smoothly written; and William Dickinson's Farmer's Letters were so highly esteemed, both for their able vindication of the rights of the colonists, their force of argument, and dignity of style, as to be republished both in England and France. He was the author of the Address to the Inhabitants of Quebec, issued by Congress in 1774; and also, of the first Petition of Remonstrance to the King, adopted by the same body.

As might be expected, a vigour was infused into both the speeches and writings of this period. The conventionalism of European literature was cast aside, and the first-fruits of a national American literature were produced. For a time political pamphlets necessarily occupied the field; but, dry as such works always are to the mass of readers, they were extensively read; and, treating as they did upon subjects affecting the individual liberty of every American, they went far to sever that reliance upon Europe for literature which American authorship is now so rapidly consummating, although reluctantly acknowledged by Europeans. As the occasion which gave existence to these pamphlets was removed, works of a more enduring character appeared. One or more narratives of adventure and suffering during the war of the Revolution were published between 1776 and 1790, which will always be valuable for their accuracy of detail and descriptions of the times. In 1791, Bartram, the botanist, published a volume of travels through North and South Carolina, which Coleridge describes as "a work of high merit in every way;" and it may properly be considered as among the valuable contributions to the American literature of this period.

William Henry Drayton of South Carolina, a conspicuous actor in the Revolution, wrote several pamphlets on the politics of the age; and left, at his decease, a large quantity of well-arranged materials for a history of the Revolution, subsequently published under the editorship of his son.

Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the Republic, while yet a young man, published in pamphlet form, A Summary View of the Rights of British America, which passed through several editions in London under the supervision of Edmund Burke. His Notes on Virginia, a work of interest and merit, was published in Paris in 1784, since which period it has passed through many editions both in Europe and America, ranking at present as a standard authority. And his varied and extensive correspondence is among the most reliable contributions to American political history, containing valuable suggestions, profound observations, and sagacious remarks on men and things.