mon schools for which with such praiseworthy prospective wisdom an early provision had been made — had in the two chief Colonies been teaching the rudiments of knowledge to every child of all the generations of New England; and the printing-press had been actively at work from the beginning of her history. Twice every week all her people sate down to listen to able men (for the pulpits of New England then admitted no others), accomplished in the best learning of the time; and while In a Winthrop were among the writers, this narrative has now reached, were as were the Governor, Chief Justice Oliver, James Bowdoin, Dr. Church, Dr. Samuel Cooper, and John Lovell, master of the Boston Latin School. (There is a critique of this collection, by A. H. Everett, in the Boston Anthology for June, 1809, p. 422. letter to R. Jackson, Feb. 7, 1763 [Sparks's MSS. of Bernard, II. 260], Bernard describes the getting up of Pietas et Gratulatio." In a letter from Professor Lane of Harvard College, dated April 10, 1876, relating to these poetical effusions," these words occur: 66 Though I do not admire the kind, these seem to me not bad specimens of the kind.") 1 In turning over Mr. Haven's invaluable list of books printed in America before 1775 (Archæol. Amer., VI. 309 et seq.), I have remarked no American reprint before 1709 of an English book, except Baxter's "Call to the Unconverted" and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress," published in Boston, respectively in 1702 and 1706. There may have been other reprints of English works, but I think none of any note. For a century from 1639 (the date of Pierce's Almanac and of the Freeman's Oath," the first-fruits of the American press), almanacs were printed every year. But with this exception, and that of the occasional issue of laws and other public documents, nearly all the publications down to the period which of sermons and other religious treatises. The large majority of works of this kind were of domestic production, though a book of John Flavel was reprinted in 1709; a discourse of Bishop King, and another of Bishop Williams, in 1712; Matthew Henry's "Communicant's Companion" and "Plain Catechism," in 1716 and 1717; Leslie's "Short and Easy Method with the Deists," in 1719; Jeremy Taylor's "Contemplations," in 1723; and Scougal's "Life of God in the Soul of Man,” in 1725. The version of the Psalms by Tate and Brady was reprinted in Boston in 1737, as the version of Watts had been in 1729. This was followed in later years by several of Watts's other writings, for he was held in special esteem in New England. The whole number of reprints of English publications in New England down to the accession of Governor Shirley (in 1741) did not much, if at all, exceed twenty, and for many years later they were far from numerous. There was a Boston edition of Locke on Toleration in 1743, of Richardson's "Pamela" in 1744, and of Addison's "Cato" in 1750. The Boston reprint, in 1728, of Swift's "Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles and the Commons of Athens and Rome" was said by Prince to have been promoted by Governor Burnet. their convictions and characters were moulded by this vigorous instrumentality, their understandings and their taste received a wholesome stimulus and a generous nurture. Of the eloquence of the pulpit we are able to judge from abundant printed specimens; and we see that in the times of Jonathan Mayhew and Samuel Cooper it had become polished as well as vigorous, and that, on the whole, in times earlier than theirs, it did not fall sensibly below the standard in the parent country. In the beginning of the reign of King George the Third, New England boasted not a few deeply read lawyers and accomplished advocates.1 On the character of deliberative eloquence at the time, we cannot positively decide, for as yet debates in the legislative assemblies were held within closed doors, and no reports of them got abroad. But it is impossible to doubt the powers in debate of the men from whose hands came those addresses to the Governors which the newspapers brought before the public eye. The newspapers were a useful instrument of general education, though as yet, in the provinces of New England as well as at home, they scarcely pretended to a higher function than that which is expressed by the name. Genius for poetry had not yet appeared. What verses were produced had not merit. enough to cause them to be preserved, except as curiosities. Perhaps the earliest fictitious narrative of New England origin was "The Algerine Captive," published in 1797, a youthful production of the afterwards distinguished politician Royal Tyler. To near the end of the colonial period there was next to nothing that could be called knowledge or study of the Fine Arts. A few pictures, chiefly portraits, hung in the great houses; but, 1 For abundant proof of this, see Washburn's "Judicial History of Massachusetts," the Diary of John Adams in Vol. II. of his Life and Writings," and "Reports of Cases," &c., by Josiah Quiucy, Jr. Lord John Russell says (Life and Times of C. J. 1764. 1749. if painted in this country, they were mostly works of Smibert and Blackburn. As yet, except Copley, whose career was chiefly European, there was no native painter. Sculpture there was none. Ornamental architecture, even for public buildings, had not come to be much considered. Faneuil Hall, the Town House, and the Province House in Boston, were merely structures convenient for their uses. King's Chapel was the earliest building in the same town which had any pretensions as a work of art. Till Harvard Hall—which is said to have been designed by Governor Bernard, and in its original form was not without elegance - - was built, the college buildings had no better symmetry than that of barracks. Christ Church in Cambridge, though a wooden structure, testifies to the good taste of its builders, as did the houses of several of the King's officers in the same town and in Boston, of Shirley in Roxbury, and of Hutchinson in Milton. Music was little cultivated except as subsidiary to psalmody.1 Dramatic exhibitions were pro 1 A learned friend writes to me that in his opinion "singing-schools were the foundation of secular social gatherings in New England, and a very important element in social progress." They were, he says, "first established in the country towns, about the year 1720, and were soon in operation all over the Province (of Massachusetts), if not throughout New England. These schools were the first secular assemblies of the people, except militia musters, schools, courts of justice, and the General Court; and they were the first evening entertainments. They brought about a revolution in social habits, elevated the public taste, brought the sexes together under circumstances more favorable to romantic attachments, led to the reading of secular literature, including books of fiction, were the precursors of purely social hibited by law.1 Dancing was as yet little practised in reputable circles. So homely, yet refined by such a tone of mental cultivation, was the state of society in the two more considerable Colonies of New England at the period when their action on the world's affairs became observable. And all the softening of their ancient rigor and advance in mental graces were so much assimilation and tion of Dr. Watts's imitations of the not where better to look than to the Hebrew psalms. "To understand the importance of this change, requires only a proper appreciation of the reverence with which the literal words of Scripture were regarded by our forefathers, as the very idiom of Jehovah, the very breath of his Holy Spirit. Nothing more nor less than an exact metaphrase could be allowed, without incurring the penalties threatened in the Apocalypse. "Yet in the period of less than eighty years from the arrival of the Charter, this great revolution had been actually accomplished in the manner I have indicated, not, how ever, without bitter strife between the parties into which the whole Province was divided. published letters of Abigail Adams, wife of the second President of the United States. Mrs. Adams was married in 1764, so that her infancy and girlhood were passed between the year of the expedition against Cape Breton and the year of the Stamp Act. As a clergyman's daughter she was by birthright a member of the best society, enjoying all its advantages for education and introduction into life, and at the same time not separated from her contemporaries by opportunity for those accomplishments which only wealth can command. The biography of her husband records her familiarity in early years "with the pages of Shakspeare and Milton, of Dryden and Pope, of Addison and Swift, of Tillotson and Berkeley," with Butler and Locke, with Thomson, Collins, and Young. (Life and Works of John Adams, I. 63.) "The young ladies of Massachusetts in the last century were certainly readers, even though only self-taught, and their taste.. was derived from the deepest wells of English literature. The poets and moralists of the mother country furnished to these enquiring minds their ample stores; and they were used to an extent which it is doubtful if the more pretending and elaborate instruction of the present generation would equal." (Letters of Mrs. Adams, XXVII.) Mrs. Adams's mind had a furniture and a finish such as are not often found among young women of the present day. so much attraction to the types of manners and society in that parent country which they still habitually called "home." 1754. Το In the course of the preparations for the last French war, some special causes for jealousy of the Colonies had presented themselves to the British government. While the plan for a sort of colonial union for the common defence, which, proposed by Franklin, had received the general approbation of the meeting of delegates at Albany, had found less favor with the several legislatures on account of being thought to give too much power to the Ministers of the Crown, by the Ministers it was condemned and rejected for the opposite reason. them such a union as was proposed appeared a step towards the independence which they were always imagining to be in the contemplation of the Colonies. The union, had it been established, would have had to a great extent the management of the approaching war, and would have made the Provinces which constituted it responsible for the heavy expenses about to be incurred. But, rather than encounter the risks which they fancied the arrangement to involve, the King's servants preferred to send across the water large forces of regular troops at the cost of the imperial treasury. And if thus in England there were doubt and misgiving, in America there was elation, and a confidence vague and aimless, indeed, and unconnected with any ambitious schemes arising from a sense of rapidly increasing power. The English Colonies on the mainland of America counted an aggregate white population exceeding a million and a half. They had obtained some practice in military operations on a large scale; they had done some of the best fighting of the war; and the liberality of their several contributions to common objects had emboldened all by giving to each a first lesson of reliance on the rest. 1760. The capture of Quebec, though it did not end the war, |