is Dr. Robley Dunglison. His Dictionary of Medical Science has long been popular in the United States; and his Practice of Medicine, Human Physiology, and Human Health,established him as one of the clearest headed medical authors of the time. Both he and Dr. Draper have been for many years in the United States, and their works are decided acquisitions to the medical literature of the world.

Quite a number of foreign divines have, within the last forty years, contributed to American literature, but, without partiality, we must confine ourselves to a brief account of the writings of but one of these-Dr. Philip Schaff of Franklin and Marshall College at Lancaster, Pa. His most valued work is an elaborate History of the Apostolic Church, first published in German at Mercersburg, Pa., in 1851. This is a clearly written history, imbued with the spirit of Christianity, and remarkable for the comprehensiveness of its character· An edition in German was printed at Leipsic, in 1854, and in the same year an English reprint from an American edition in English appeared at Edinburgh. Dr. Schaff is a Swiss by birth, and is the author of eight other theological works, several of them being of American origin.

Did space permit, or occasion require, we might extend this list of foreign writers in the United States; but we believe this brief reference to a few of the more prominent, as marking the leaders of certain classes, will be sufficient here. We have purposely observed a distinction between native and foreign authors, in order that the really valuable in the native literature of the United States should stand upon its own merits, as well as to show that European ideas have not had such a controlling power over American mind as some prejudiced writers on this side pretend to believe. In fact, we have been forcibly impressed in the course of our long and arduous investigations with the truth, that the originality of American authorship has really risen above a powerful European influence, and, instead of suffering itself to be ingulfed by the waves from the currents of the Old World, has rather imparted its native freshness to them, and escaped their impurities.

CHAPTER VIII.

EDUCATION.

SCHOOLS for the education of the youthful colonists were established at an early period in the settlement of both Virginia and New England; but the first institution of learning in the United States deserving the name was founded by the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay. On the 8th of October, 1636, or eight years after the first Pilgrims landed in New England, the General Court at Boston voted £400 towards a school or college, and the following year established it at Newtown, to which place they subsequently gave the name of Cambridge. In 1638, the scheme was fully matured, the Rev. John Harvard having bequeathed for the endowment of the projected academy a sum equal to double the original appropriation, together with a choice library, and in

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course of years the school became the time-honoured Harvard College. It is now one of the best-conducted institutions of learning in the world, and contains on its rolls of living graduates the names of Everett, Emerson, Prescott, and Bancroft.

For a considerable period Harvard College was the only institution of its kind in the Colonies, but others were founded as civilization extended, and the increased wealth and wants of the population demanded. At present there are 127 Colleges, 47 Theological Schools, 15 Law Schools, and 40 Medical Schools in the United States; to which might be added the various Public High Schools of the Northern States, all of which are colleges in every essential particular, and are mainly designed for instruction in the higher branches of human knowledge.

The great power, however, of national education is centred in the Public Schools, and we consider these worthy a brief notice here, because of their direct agency in creating a desire for reading among the masses, as well as for the indirect influence they exercise in developing and fostering the literature of the country. The settlers of the colony of Massachusetts Bay were well aware of the advantages of public instruction, and to them belongs the honour of having made the first provision for Public Schools in what is now the United States. On the 30th May, 1639, Dorchester, in that province, voted £20 a year, to be paid by the proprietors of Thomson's Island, towards the maintenance of a school in that town for instruction in "English, Latin, and other tongues, also writing;" and in 1645, or only 25 years after the first landing, the constituted rulers passed an act extending the blessing of public instruction to the whole colony so far as practicable. In 1692, they strengthened their enactments, and, for the first time in the world's history, announced the great principle, now a maxim of free government, that all the people of a state should be educated by the state, and this doctrine has been extended into nearly all the members of the American Confederation. In Minnesota, the maxim that "the property of the people should educate the children of the people," is acknowledged and acted upon, and so popular are the Public Schools that large appropriations, both in land and in money, are annually devoted in a majority, if not all the States, to their support, increase, and extension, as the following comprehensive statement will show.

According to the census of 1850 there were nearly 81,000 Public Schools then in the United States. Of these there were 4042 in Maine; 2381 in New Hampshire; 3679 in Massachusetts; 2731 in Vermont; 416 in Rhode Island; 1656 in Connecticut; 11,580 in New York; 1473 in New Jersey; 9061 in Pennsylvania; 194 in Delaware; 898 in Maryland; 22 in the District of Columbia; 2930 in Virginia; 2657 in North Carolina; 724 in South Carolina; 1251 in Georgia; 69 in Florida; 1152 in Alabama; 782 in Mississippi; 664 in Louisiana; 349 in Texas; 353 in Arkansas; 1570 in Missouri; 2680 in Tennessee; 2234 in Kentucky; 11,661 in Ohio; 4822 in Indiana; 4052 in Illinois; 740 in Iowa; 2714 in Michigan; and 1423 in Wisconsin; the remainder being in the various Territories and California, exclusive of New Mexico and Minnesota.'

When the Census was taken in 1850, the number of public scholars was 3,354,011, and the total cost of instruction and accommodation yearly, was

9,529,000 dollars. The ratio in the whole Union of Scholars to the population was one to every 5.6 persons including slaves, or one to every 4.6 persons of the white population. In Maine this ratio was one pupil to every 3.1 persons, giving to that State a larger proportion at school than is educated by any other state or country. And the ratio of the Republic, slaves included, demonstrates that the United States exceeds all other countries, Denmark alone excepted, in the number of pupils to the population. They had greatly increased in 1856. The cost of Public Schools that year throughout the Union, so far as could be learned, was upwards of 16 millions of dollars. Of this sum New York provided for her schools 3,544,587 dollars; Massachusetts for hers 2,346,309 dollars; Pennsylvania for hers 2,267,090 dollars; and Ohio for hers 2,732,800 dollars!

The number of schools had been greatly augmented in 1855, for we find there were then 10,469 in Pennsylvania; 11,883 in New York; 4242 in Maine, and a proportional increase in New Jersey, and these reliable data justify us in estimating the existing Public Schools of the Union at nearly 100,000. And the increase of scholars naturally keeps pace with, it if it does not surpass, the increase of schools. In 1850, the pupils attending public schools in New York State were 675,221, whereas in 1856 they numbered 876,603. In 1850 the Public Schools of New Jersey contained 77,920 pupils, whereas the number in 1856 was 176,350. And it is only fair to infer that the same rate of increase characterizes the schools of the South and West, and that the number of pupils at this time in attendance at the Public Schools of the United States is quite 5,000,000.

In this survey we have confined our remarks almost exclusively to the common schools of the country, not making any reference whatever to the many excellent private seminaries which everywhere abound throughout the Union, and in which a majority of the youth of the South of both sexes are educated. They also exert a power, and with lyceums, libraries, and literary and scientific bodies, are a prompting cause of that insatiable desire for literature everywhere so prevalent in the United States, and also aid in the great work now going forward, of creating a new and vigorous literature at once original and fresh, and glowing with nature and vitality.

CHAPTER IX.

INTRODUCTION AND PROGRESS OF PRINTING.

PRINTING exerts such a powerful influence in creating a taste, as well as supplying the existing demand, for literature, that to omit mention here of its history and progress in America, would be to leave a defect in our narrative of an important character.

From careful investigation we find that a printing-office was established at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1638, in which, in January, 1639, the art of printing was first practised in what is now the United States; and although

another press with types were added to the office in 1660, these presses were so fully employed, that many original works were sent to England to be printed -a practice which Thomas informs us, in his History of Printing, was continued for upwards of eighty years. For more than thirty years all works issued in the British North American Provinces were printed at Cambridge; but in 1674, a second printing-office was established at Boston; and in 1686, the third in the colonies was opened at Philadelphia, where, in that year, printing was first executed in the great State of Pennsylvania.

The art was introduced into New York in 1693, and seems to have slowly extended thence through the other provinces, until the breaking out of the Revolution, when it received a wonderful impulse. It is alleged that it was practised in Maryland as early as 1701, by one Green; but nothing of importance was done there before 1726. It was introduced into Virginia in 1729; into South Carolina in 1730; into New Jersey in 1751; into North Carolina in 1755; into Delaware in 1761; and into Georgia in 1762.

Our facilities for ascertaining when it was first practised in the New England States beyond Massachusetts are extremely few, and we are consequently without any positive data in all cases. It is known, however, that printing was executed in Rhode Island in 1732; and there is proof of the existence of a press in Connecticut in 1709. The art was first practised in New Hampshire in 1756; in Maine in 1780; and in the present State of Vermont about 1781. Its progress westward was even more rapid. The first press set up in the territory of the United States west of the Alleghanies was established in Kentucky in 1786; and the second was located at Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1793. In 1795 printing was introduced into Ohio, at Cincinnati, then a frontier trading-post; and in 1811 it was first practised in what is now the State of Indiana. It was first practised in Louisiana by the French, as early as 1704, but not much was done there before 1803, when the territory was ceded to the United States. At that period there was but one printingoffice in Louisiana, whereas, in 1810, or only seven years later, there were about ten. The art was introduced into Missouri and Michigan in 1810; and into Mississippi in 1809. There was a press in Arkansas as early as 1825.

The first printing in Illinois was done at Kaskaskia, by Matthew Duncan, in 1815. It was practised in Wisconsin in 1827, by General Ellis, a pioneer, who, having no press, used a plainer and mallet to make his first impressions. In 1833, this same gentleman procured a press, and printed in that year, at Green Bay, the first newspaper published in Wisconsin. The art was practised in Texas, by the Spaniards as early as 1760, and by the Americans about 1829; and in Iowa, by W. C. Connell, in 1836. In 1832 Iowa was almost entirely a wilderness, and in that year the first house was built in that part of the State adjacent to the present city of Davenport, which place is now noted for its commerce, and no less than three daily papers are published there.

Another instance of the early introduction of the press into new countries by Americans, is found in the history of the State of Minnesota. In 1848 there was not a village in the country. A few scattered log-cabins only marked the presence of the white man. In 1849, April 28, printing was first executed in the territory. The first effort to publish a newspaper was made in 1848, but the printing was done at Cincinnati, and the journal was pub

lished at St. Paul on the 27th April, 1849. In 1856 there were four printingoffices in St. Paul alone; and not fewer than 31 newspapers were published in the Territory. There were three dailies issued in St. Paul. It is believed some effort was made at printing by Mexicans, in California, prior to 1846; but we are unable to discover any evidence of the fact. After a careful perusal of several works on that country we are led to the conclusion that the first regular printing executed there was at Monterey, on the 15th August, 1846. We believe the Mormons began printing at the Great Salt Lake, in 1848; and that the art was practised in Oregon a year or two earlier than that date. It was first practised in Nebraska in 1854, and in Kansas the same year. At this time there are not fewer than twenty different newspapers published in that Territory.

To understand the rapid spread of printing west of the Alleghany Mountains, it must be remembered that the whole country thence to the Pacific Ocean was a dense impenetrable wilderness, inhabited only by savages and wild beasts, with here and there an occasional settler, as late as 1780. And that, at a period within the memory of men now living, there was not a permanent white settlement north of the Ohio, from the Wabash to the Pacific Ocean.

We have imperfectly traced the progress of the art in America, and given dates where obtainable; but this does not exactly convey a clear idea of the magnitude or extent of the printing business in the United States. From tolerably authentic sources it appears there were about 40 printing-offices in the country in 1776; about 375 in 1810; and not less than 900 in 1828. This number had increased to about 1800 in 1840; and in 1850, it had reached to about 4000. In this we do not, of course, include what are called "job offices," but such establishments only as possess facilities for printing either books or newspapers.

It is difficult to obtain correct figures respecting the number of persons employed at the art; and the Census of 1850 is evidently in error on this point. That report says there were 14,740 printers in the country then; but this is obviously incorrect. Allowing but five persons to each printing-officewhich is a low average-we have a total of 20,000! But this number is doubtless below the mark, great as it may appear. There are offices in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, Cincinnati, and Washington City, which employ from thirty to two hundred printers each.

The following paragraph illustrates in some degree the extent of the business in a practical manner. There are, in the United States, says a recent authority, 750 paper mills in actual operation, having 2000 engines, and producing 270,000,000 pounds of paper in a year, which is worth, at 10 cents a-pound, 27,000,000 dollars. To produce this quantity of paper, 405,000,000 pounds of rags are required, 14 pounds of rags being necessary to make 1 pound of paper. The cost of manufacturing, aside from labour and rags, is about 4,050,000 dollars.

There are no reliable data for estimating accurately the capital employed in the printing business in the United States; but it may be fairly conjectured to amount to 24,000,000 dollars. Of this sum, 12,000,000 dollars, at least, are invested in printing materials.

As a single instance of the increase of the business, we may take the city of