series, commencing with the lowest elementary branch of learning, and gradually advancing to the perfection of their kind. And it is proper to say that these are everywhere in use. At the close of the last century the New England Primer was extensively used; but it was superseded by Dilworth's Spelling Book, which, in its turn, .was obliged to yield to Webster's more valuable compilation.

The subject of English Grammar has been simplified by Greenleaf, Webster, Kirkham, and Gould Brown. Mr. Greenleaf's book is one of the clearest to the youthful mind ever published. That by Mr. Kirkham is wonderfully concise, and has been widely popular. The large work of Gould Brown, however, is the most elaborate of its kind, and although it is too complicated in its arrangements for elementary instruction, as a searching production on English Grammar, it must be regarded as an able contribution to the philology of the age.

In this department of literature America is entirely independent of Great Britain, and her text books in this branch of education are not surpassed by those of any country. Many of these are class books in England; and among them we may name Professor Anthon's admirable series of Latin and Greek Classics, the truly scholarly Hebrew and English Dictionary of Gesenius, by Professor Robinson, and the excellent Latin-English Dictionary of Mr. Andrews, founded on the celebrated work of Dr. Freund. In fact this last-named work reminds us that the students of Great Britain have received many valuable educational works of German scholars through the hands of American editors, without being aware of the fact.

The great majority of the school books in the United States are by American authors, and more of this class of books are produced annually in the United States than in all Europe. Even at this date, more than 1,000,000 of Webster's Spelling Book are sold yearly.

Our geographical knowledge has been increased by the explorations and publications of Frémont, Kane, Herndon, Bartlett, Maury, Wilkes, Wells, Williams, Squier, and Commodore Perry. The works of these gentlemen have mainly resulted from expeditions of the American government in the cause of science, and their narratives are always instructive. Herndon's Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon, Frémont's Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon, and California, and Commodore Perry's Narrative of his recent visits to Japan, record some of the most interesting geographical discoveries within the last forty years.

Due prominence should be given here to the Physical Geography of the Sea, by Lieut. Maury of the American navy, as it is not only an aid to navigation, but a contribution to modern science unique in itself. This valuable work was published in 1855, and a second edition, revised and enlarged, was almost immediately printed. Lieut. Maury had before contributed much to the cause of navigation and geography, his wind charts having been long recognised as reliable aids to the mariner. The many excellent maps published in the United States, and charts of the American coasts executed under the care of the government from actual surveys instituted by itself, are a few of this description of our additions to geographical illustration for which we are indebted to America.

There are several phases of American literature which do not enter into the bibliography of any European nation, and we have therefore been obliged to create headings which will describe them. These all belong to the present period. Of them Freemasonry is the senior. This institution has been elucidated to the fraternity by many writers, and a very able work on the Analogy of Masonry with Christianity, was published at Jackson, Mississippi, in 1850, which as a literary performance, apart from the interest of its subject, is a remarkable book.

Spiritualism is not calculated, so far as our judgment goes, to add much to our intellectual delights; but the rapid rise of this mystery, and the wonderful increase of its believers in the United States, are subjects of history, and the literature it has already produced is as remarkable a phase of intellectual life as is the subject of Spiritualism itself. We do not profess to any very high regard for the followers of this new light in our world of spiritual darkness, and look upon many of the books which it has given birth to as the offspring of diseased brains; and yet, others of these works are so well written, and withal, with such an air of truthfulness and conscientiousness on the part of their authors, that we are obliged to look upon them with a charitable eye, and if we cannot receive them as dissertations upon metaphysical phenomena, we can regard them as "curiosities of literature," and illustrations of the strange directions the human mind is occasionally induced to take.

Another equally peculiar subject of American authorship is Mormonism. The book of Mormon itself is a very indifferent attempt to unite the sensual phases of the Bible and the Koran, and, as a work, possesses neither elegance nor grammatical correctness. Still, it has given birth to commentaries and expositions, some of which are valuable. And many of the narratives and records of this extraordinary delusion have merits not easily disallowed.

When the madness which produced these shall have expired, and expire it will, as certain as the advance of intelligence, these histories of its existence and conquest will form a curious phase in the literature of America, which the philosopher who may write its history in future years will not pass carelessly by.

Those who have turned their attention to humorous literature in the United States, have in the main succeeded, and the reader is compelled, in spite of himself, to give way to laughter when perusing The Big Bear of Arkansas, and the extravagant sketches of unsophisticated genius which go to make up Georgia Scenes. The humour of these is genuine. It comes up without effort, and there is a freshness, a spontaneousness about it, which compensates for any absence of conventional refinement the over-fastidious European is apt to seek in such productions. These books are the types of this class of American writing, and are as free from European taint as the air from which they come. There is a smell of the fresh forest about them, the midnight lamp is incapable of imparting. Washington Irving probably set the example in this line of letters, unconsciously we allow, in his Knickerbocker History of New York, and in his truthful sketch of Rip Van Winkle.

A very excellent History of the Arts of Design in the United States, by William Dunlap, was published in 1834, in two octavo volumes, which contains a succinct account of all American artists in every department of design who had made themselves a name up to that time. This work is carefully

written, is unusually accurate in its statements, and is a deserved tribute to the Fine Arts in the United States.

The Agricultural literature of the United States is both extensive and valuable. There are more journals devoted to this science published in the Republic than in all the world besides. This fact gives promise of future achievements in rural literature no other nation is likely to equal. The Federal Government publishes an Agricultural Report yearly of the greatest practical value, which consists in the main of carefully-prepared observations on the products of all parts of the country, on experiments in Agriculture, the introduction of new methods of farming, improvements in implements of husbandry, and the increase of crops, as well as of accurate statements of the success or failure of experiments on new seeds, fruits, and vegetables. It also contains descriptions of experiments on various descriptions of live stock, and is in reality a faithful contemporaneous history of farming in all its branches throughout the United States.

Many excellent State Agricultural Societies exist. These generally publish Annual Reports: the most valuable of which are those of the New York State Agricultural Society. There are about sixteen of these volumes, and they contain a plainly-written account of all that is valuable in Northern Agriculture, as now practised. The reports and transactions of the Southern Central Agricultural Society of Georgia set forth in a concise manner the progress and improvements in the cultivation peculiar to that region. These are valuable publications, and record facts connected with a part of the United States which has ever been and ever must remain preeminently agricultural. The cultivation of the soil has always received the attention of the ablest minds at the South, and the best work on the subject of Calcareous Manures yet published in the Republic is of Southern origin. It is the production of Edmund Ruffin, a Virginia gentleman, who has given almost his entire life to practical Agriculture, was first published about 1837, is replete with sound information, is a standard authority with intelligent farmers north and south, and is a credit to any literature, being written in a pure and captivating style.

Robert R. Livingston, George Clinton, and Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, have each written ably on the subject of Agriculture, and the remarks of the latter, written and published before Liebig was born, are by some believed far more correct than anything that has emanated from him.

We could enlarge alike our list of subjects as well as that of our books; but what has been done we consider sufficient for the purpose we have in view. Enough has been shown to convince the sceptical that America has not only a literature of her own, but that she has, within the short period of eighty years, created a literature which will not readily die. Since 1820, she has done wonders. The vast, the rapid change for the better in the style and scholarship of American writers in the past thirty-seven years must strike every intelligent mind familiar with American literature. Freedom from common-place expression, from pedantry, from mere words barren of ideas, is almost everywhere visible; and we discover, instead of long platitudes pregnant with verbosity, clear, bold, and vigorous writing-where words are the vehicles of thought, instead of sounding ornaments substituted for ideas.

It is a delicate question whether it is the more difficult task to create a

literature in a language new to letters, or to build up a literature for a new country in an old language already rich in intellectual treasures. In the first case a free field, unknown and unreapt, is open to the mind, rich in flowers sighing to be gathered; while in the other the soil is preoccupied, and the labourer must plant under the umbrageous shade of gigantic trees, whose roots have everywhere penetrated the soil, drawing from it the vitality it contains. And although this last is true of America, she has found it in her rugged and hardy nature to plant between the permeating roots of the literature of the mother country, and produce a growth of new works, which, if not so sublime as those of the parent country, are such as no candid Briton who loves his race can regard with other than feelings of pride.

CHAPTER VII.

FOREIGN WRITERS IN AMERICA.

IN the preparation of the preceding chapters we have sedulously kept in view the fact that many foreigners in America, mostly natives of Europe, have added to the literature of the country during the American period, or from 1770 to the present time. And although the majority of these have had their tastes formed and been educated to a great extent in the United States, and may justly regard themselves Americans in principle, feeling, and preference; and notwithstanding their writings are essentially American, still we conceive it proper not to rank them as native authors for obvious reasons, and shall therefore consider them under the expressive and respectful head of FOREIGN or COLLATERAL WRITERS.

The majority of this class who emigrated to the United States at an carly period subsequent to the Revolution, were men of highly cultivated minds, possessing a just estimate of the good in literature, and a sense of true elegance of style, which, being imparted, did much to sustain a high tone of thought and expression among Americans given to letters. On the other hand, several of these persons, whose influence was unquestionably great over certain minds, displayed a coarseness of style, by no means worthy of imitation, which did much to lower the general taste, and corrupt for a time the clear current of the nation's youthful literature. Much of the vulgarity discoverable in the secondary class of American journals of this day, may be fairly attributed to this influence. It was adopted in newspaper articles, and being adapted to partisan purposes, proved a tempting but pernicious example. Paine's vigorous and sonorous style is blemished with vulgarity; and Cobbett's bold invective, although glowing with fervour, has an insidious tendency to corruption not easily resisted.

It was natural the earliest of these emigrants should participate in the party controversies of the times. Paine, who was undoubtedly the most remarkable man among them, early turned his mind to this description of writing, and his pamphlet of Common Sense was published in January, 1776. So

powerful was its effect upon the political world of Great Britain, that a reprint, with many omissions, was published in London in the same year, and other editions followed. His Crisis was written at various periods from December, 1776, to December, 1783, and at its conclusion formed a volume of about 200 pages. These were the only works of note he wrote in America, and by general consent they are considered his best.

As a representative of a class of contributors to American literature, whose views on politics and religion differed essentially from those of Paine and Cobbett, both of whom wrote in America, we may mention the justly-honoured name of John Witherspoon. This eminent divine was a lineal descendant of John Knox. His writings are mainly of a religious character: but he has left behind some very valuable works of a political nature. His Essay on Money, published before the close of the last century, was probably the first American production written against the repeated issue of paper currency, and many of its predictions have long since been fulfilled. He was for years the efficient President of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, and, in 1781, published an entertaining volume of vigorously-written essays, entitled The Druid, in one of which he comments with singular beauty and force on the corruptions of languages, and the necessity of observing a purity of style among American authors.

A curiosity of literature is found in the history of Mrs. Susanna Rowson, the authoress of the once eagerly-sought for, and not yet forgotten, novel of Charlotte Temple. Mrs. Rowson was the daughter of a British naval officer, who was wrecked in 1769, on the coast of New England. He lived with his daughter for some time at Nantasket, but returned to England with her at the breaking out of the Revolution. She became an authoress in London, where she wrote her most successful novel, Charlotte Temple. It is founded on events in American life, with which the authoress shows great familiarity, and, like Uncle Tom's Cabin, was indebted for its popularity mainly to its speciality and its appeals to the softer feelings of our nature. The story of hardships endured by a simple-minded girl, seduced by a heartless and accomplished villain, and thrown destitute and friendless upon the world, is a subject designed to reach the heart; and no wonder therefore that 25,000 copies of Charlotte Temple were sold in a few years, at a time when printing was not done by steam. The popularity of the book, both in Europe and America, was as remarkable as the success of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and many of the scenes are quite as ably described.

The great political commotions in Europe incident to the French Revolution and the establishment of American Independence, induced several prominent minds to seek a home in the United States. Of those of this class who emigrated from England, the celebrated Dr. Joseph Priestley merits honourable mention for his contributions to the young nation's literature. He arrived at New York in 1794, and soon after settled at Northumberland, Pa., where he died in 1804. His active mind was never idle, and he early published two volumes on the Evidences of Revelation, that being the first work he wrote in America. He also wrote an able reply to Paine's and Volney's attacks upon revealed religion, as well as his Continuation of the History of the Christian Church, from the Fall of the Western Empire to the present Times, which he