In a survey of the writers of this period it would be unwise to omit the honoured name of Washington, whose many writings evince a skill in graceful composition not common to military men. The majority of what he wrote was produced in the camp, surrounded by the din of arms, and much of it when he was weighed down by public cares; and yet, it all is remarkable for clearness of expression, force of language, and a tone of lofty patriotism. It is the custom with some persons to speak slightly of his writings, or with an air of compassionate condescension; but we regard them, even in a literary view, as second to none of a similar character of whatever nation, and think they display an intellect which, had it been devoted to literature, would have made for itself a position by no means of a merely secondary character.

Josiah Quincy, jun., of Boston, commenced his career as a political writer in his 23rd year, attracting the notice of the government by the force and logic of his writings. In 1774 he published a pamphlet entitled Observations on the Act of Parliament commonly called the Boston Port Bill, with Thoughts on Civil Society and Standing Armies :-a work of sound reasoning and much literary merit. In the same year he sailed for England, where he associated with many of the literary men of the age, corresponding at the time with his friends at home on almost every topic of interest. These letters were published after his death, and constitute the first collection of American epistolary compositions deserving commendation.

Capable writers were not wanting to occupy almost every field in the realm of letters; and as early as 1784, Jeremy Belknap published, at Philadelphia, the first volume of a credible and attractive History of New Hampshire. He also wrote an amusing Apologue entitled The Foresters, which abounds in genuine humour. And in 1794, he published the first volume of a carefullywritten and pleasing series of American Biographical Sketches, which form the foundation of an American Biography, and evidently suggested Mr. Sparks' more able and valuable work.

It is worthy of note that to this period of American literature belongs a name known wherever the English language is spoken-that of Lindley Murray, the Grammarian. He was born in Pennsylvania, educated in New York, and his first literary effort was a work on the Power of Religion on the Mind, which passed through seventeen editions in the author's life-time, six of which were published in England. He wrote his celebrated English Grammar for the use of the pupils at a female boarding-school near York, in England, and first published it in 1795. This incident directed his attention to the defective character of English School-books generally, which he set about to remedy, and soon after issued his widely-known English Reader; being extracts from the best authors in the language, arranged and selected for the use of schools. To him the British people are indebted for the best grammar of their language then published, and his practical mind first perceived and remedied the defective character of English School-books.

In very many instances literary reputation at this period was incidental to the politician. The cases of John Jay and Alexander Hamilton are examples. Both of these gentlemen wrote for the Federalist. Hamilton, however, contributed the majority of the papers which compose that work-a work "that exhibits," says the Edinburgh Review, "an extent and precision of informa

tion, a profundity of research, and an acuteness of understanding, which would have done honour to the most illustrious statesman of ancient or modern times." But Jay's fame does not rest entirely upon his writings in the Federalist. He wrote the Address to the People of Great Britain, issued by Congress in 1774, as well as other political papers now of historic interest. His correspondence constitutes a valuable addition to American historical literature. Of the writers on the Science of Medicine, Dr. Benjamin Rush is conspicuous. Chalmers, in his Biographical Dictionary, says, he "threw more light on the true character of gout, dropsy, and consumption of the lungs, than is to be derived from the investigations of any other author." He also wrote a valuable work on the Diseases of the Mind, now a standard authority with Medical men in America, and particularly interesting to the general reader for the ease and purity of its style, and the many personal anecdotes with which it abounds. At least one other medical author of note belongs to the same period. As early as 1771, James McClurg, a native of Virginia, published in London, an Essay on the Human Bile, so ably written, says one authority, "and expressed with such beauty and classical elegance of diction, that it was translated into many of the languages of Europe."

Although the period immediately succeeding the subsidence of the Revolutionary excitement was strongly tinctured with a tendency to political discussion, a few able minds freed themselves from this influence, and turned to the study of natural philosophy and physical science. Of these Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, Professor of various branches of learning in the University of Pennsylvania, merits especial notice as the author of the first American elementary work on Botany, and as being the first person to direct attention to the Indian tribes of America as a subject of ethnological investigation and study. In this scientific field he is the pioneer of Duponceau, Squier, Bartlett, and others, and his New Views of the Indian Tribes was the first contribution to the ethnological literature of America.

Theology found able exponents and defenders from 1770 to 1820. President Edwards, a son of the celebrated author of the Essay on the Freedom of the Will, wrote a profound Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, and a treatise entitled The Salvation of all Men Examined and Explained; both of which works display a high order of intellect in their author.

Among the writers of less note in the same field of investigation, Joseph Bellamy and Samuel Hopkins are conspicuous. But a greater than all was President Timothy Dwight, the successor of Edwin Stiles in the Presidency of Yale College. His Theology Explained and Defended still exercises a considerable influence on religious opinion in America, and the circulation it has attained in England indicates a respect for its 'teachings at once suggestive of its sound reasonings and pure Christian doctrines. There were many other theological authors during this epoch, but the mention of one other name must suffice. Bishop White's writings are numerous, ranging from Lectures on various subjects connected with the Church of England discipline to Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. This contribution to the history of Episcopacy in America deserves to be better known in England, as it explains in concise terms the present organization of the Anglican Church in the United States, a subject not generally un

derstood by English churchmen. Bishop White was personally acquainted in his younger days with Goldsmith and Dr. Johnson, when a visitor from the colonies in England, and, for the last forty years of his life, was the presiding bishop of the Anglican Church in the United States.

Historians, both national and local, belong to this era of American literature. Abel Holmes, a painstaking compiler, produced his Annals of the United States, now a standard authority; and David Ramsay wrote a History of the Revolution, a Life of Washington, and other works of more merit than any previous American productions of the kind. And in 1797, Robert Proud published a reliable History of Pennsylvania, which has never been rivalled.

It may be remarked that objects of special historical interest were not disregarded. The Art of Printing, so much practised in the United States, and where its progress has been so marked, found an intelligent chronicler in Isaiah Thomas, a New England printer. His work is exceedingly valuable for its narrative-record of the art in America.

Several biographical works followed the subsidence of the waves of the Revolution. It was natural the men of the times should find historians. Chief Justice Marshall wrote a Life of Washington, in a clear and unpretending style, not usual to such works, and possessing more literary merit than many books of loftier pretensions. Other writers treated the same subject with varied success; but Marshall's Life held its ground until lately superseded by Washington Irving's more purely literary and personal production.

That there were many good if not able American writers, who embellished biography as well as miscellaneous literature, from 1770 to 1820, is shown by the publications of the period. In 1811, a small dingy volume entitled Memoirs of a Life chiefly passed in Pennsylvania, appeared at Harrisburg, in the State named, which must ever command admiration for its literary worth. It was written by Alexander Graydon, an officer in the American revolutionary army, the trials of which it, to some extent, describes, and was republished in Edinburgh, in 1822, under the editorship of the well-known John Galt. That gentleman, in speaking of it, says, "it is remarkable, that a production so rich in the various excellencies of style, description and impartiality, should not have been known to the collectors of American books in this country," and adds that the volume "will probably obtain for the author no mean place among those who have added permanent lustre to the English language."

Some time before Mr. Graydon's work was published, William Wirt, of Virginia, whose celebrated speech at the trial of Aaron Burr, for treason, will ever stand as a monument to his genius, printed a series of papers in the manner of Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, under the title of Letters of the British Spy. The style is polished and forcible. The work was most successful, and was early republished in England. In the preface to the first English edition, it is observed, as an evidence of the low estimate in which American literature was then held in this country, that "the people of the United States of America have so very small a claim on the world for any particular mark of distinction for honours in the field of literature, that it is feared the present demand on the English reader may be considered more as a call on British courtesy and benevolence than one of right and equity." And concludes by saying, in a tone of solicitation, "that the publishers have been in

duced, from a conviction of the merit of the work, to furnish an impression of the British Spy —a kind of appeal no longer necessary, we are glad to say, to induce Englishmen to purchase American books.

Mr. Wirt published in 1817 his most important literary achievement-The Life and Character of Patrick Henry. As a finished piece of biography it stands alone in American literature; and but few European works of a similar nature surpass it in elegance of style and force of narrative.

Not a few of the truly important works of travel produced in the United States are the result of expeditions planned by the Government. This encouragement to exploration is not new. As early as 1805, Zebulon Montgomery Pike was despatched on a surveying expedition, which led him into New Mexico; and to this we are indebted for one of the first, if not the very first, books ever published upon the country between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. It is written with spirit, contains much information, and may be regarded as the forerunner of many similar literary works since given to the world by Americans. It was first printed in 1810.

That love of adventure, for which the American character is so remarkable, has contributed much to the gratification of mankind through its literature. John Ledyard, a native of Connecticut, whose death occurred in Egypt while prosecuting an enterprise for the exploration of Central Africa, was the first important contributor to this department of American letters. His journals, which abound in pleasing descriptions and truthful narrations, have more than once been published in Great Britain, and may usually be found in standard libraries. Ledyard's works belong deservedly to the classic literature of travel, being altogether free from that idle gossip which forms the web of the narrative of the mere tourist.

A racy, captivating book of travels in France, by Lieut. Pinkney, of Baltimore, was published in London in 1809, which Leigh Hunt, in his admirable “Book for a Corner," tells us created a sensation in England, and set all the idle world going to France to live on the Loire. The fact of its having had such an influence on the minds of the denizens of London, is a high compliment to the author's capacity to draw fascinating pictures, and indicates something masterly either in style or manner, or, possibly, in both.

That love of poetry which distinguished alike the Puritans of New England and the Cavaliers of Virginia, was not extinguished by the Revolution. On the contrary, the excitement incident to the contest, seems rather to have increased than to have diminished this spirit ; and many of the rhythmical compositions of the era rise to the standard of tolerable poetry, a character not belonging to any previous specimens of American verse. Philip Freneau, a native of New York, and graduate of the College of Princeton, is the most distinguished of these writers. He possessed a loftier imagination than any of his predecessors, and will always hold a conspicuous place among the early American poets. One or two successful verse-writers preceded him; but their merits do not place them before him. John Trumbull, a revolutionary officer of note, wrote a very successful satirical poem in the style of Hudibras, entitled Me Fingal, which was a decided improvement upon all previous American rhythmical productions of length. Trumbull was the associate of Joel Barlow and other scholars of the time; who, if they did not add anything brilliant to

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American literature, at least contributed much to improve the style of American authors generally. Barlow wrote a heavy epic of indifferent worth, called The Columbiad; and a pleasing poem, which describes, in an easy-flowing verse, the virtues of a New England dish, known as Hasty Pudding. His works are all inferior to those of William Clifton, a young Philadelphian, who wrote a few songs imbued with the true spirit of lyric poetry. Timothy Dwight, before referred to as a theological writer, was the author of a number of miscellaneous poems, one of which received the praise of Cowper.

As a curious fact in American literature, it is not inappropriate to mention, that one of the best poetical satires of this period was written in London under circumstances of distress. Thomas Green Fessenden, a native of New Hampshire, visited the capital of Great Britain, in 1801, for the purpose of introducing a new hydraulic machine; but failing in his aims, was reduced to want. With that tact so eminently possessed by his countrymen when thrown upon their own resources in desperate cases, he conceived the idea of writing a satire, and took for his subject the Medical Profession and the Metallic Tractors of Perkins, a galvanic application for the cure of all diseases, then much in vogue, and much ridiculed by the profession. His work-The Terrible Tractoration-doubtless still fresh in the memory of many now living— was a decided success, brought relief to its author, and passed through several editions in London, besides being republished in New York.

No American devoted himself exclusively to literature as a profession until 1793; and this fact, in fairness, should not be lost sight of when criticising the literature of America prior to that date. Charles Brockden Brown was the first purely professional American author. He wrote well on all subjects connected with Belles Lettres ; but his chief productions, and those on which his fame mainly rests, are two works of fiction, entitled Wieland and Arthur Mervyn. They are written with considerable elegance and taste. As the first of American creations in the world of romance, they early attracted attention in England, where they were favourably received, and now constitute a part of Bentley's Library of Standard Romance. Many of Mr. Brown's descriptions of American forest life and scenery, are equal to anything of the kind in Mr. Cooper's writings; and his works are so honourable to the American novel literature of this period, as to make it unnecessary to refer to other in the same department of letters.

It is within our power to name other writers of this period, whose works in the various branches of literature confer honour on themselves and country; but we regard the above enumeration as sufficiently indicating the advance of American literature, in the fifty years under consideration, to make it a work of supererogation in us to extend the list.

Before concluding our observations, however, we offer, in support of our arrangement of American literature into four distinct eras, and more particularly in support of our theory that American national literature properly dates from about the Revolution, the opinion of Charles Brockden Brown on the power of English books on American thought during the time of the Colonies. In speaking of this, he in substance says, that English prejudices then possessed an unusual degree of strength; but that many of the views imbibed from English works during the days of the Colonies were completely re