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will suit the country best, where they have not so many dram-shops as we have in Boston.'

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Hawthorne, in his pleasant review of old American newspapers, says, 'no advertisements are more frequent than those of a negro fellow, fit for almost any household work;" a "negro woman, honest, healthy, and capable;" or "a negro man very fit for a tailor," &c.

We can find no books of the latter part of the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth century which give concise and lifelike sketches of the people of those times. To collect the traits of popular life, we must search through many old records, pamphlets, and old newspapers. This work has been partly done for us by the graphic writer already quoted, who gives, as the result of his porings over old newspapers, a pleasant sketch, from which we may borrow some paragraphs

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OLD NEWS. 1719-1744.

"The first pages of most of these old papers are as soporific as a bed of poppies. Here we have an erudite clergyman, or perhaps a Cambridge professor, occupying several successive weeks with a criticism on Tate and Brady, as compared with the New England version of the Psalms. Of course, the preference is given to the native article. . .

In vain we endeavour to throw a sunny and joyous air over our picture of this period; nothing passes before our fancy but a crowd of sad-visaged people, moving duskily through a dull gray atmosphere. It is certain that winter rushed upon them with fiercer storms than now, blocking up the narrow forest-paths, and overwhelming the roads along the sea-coast with mountain snow-drifts, so that weeks elapsed before the newspaper could announce how many travellers had perished, or what wrecks had strewn the shore. The cold was more piercing then, and lingered further into the spring, making the chimney-corner a comfortable seat till long past May-day. By the number of such accidents on record, we might suppose that the thunder-stone, as they termed it, fell oftener and deadlier on steeples, dwellings, and unsheltered wretches. In fine, our fathers bore the brunt of more raging and pitiless elements than we. There were forebodings, also, of a more fearful tempest than those of the elements. At two or three dates, we have stories of drums, trumpets, and all sorts of martial music, passing athwart the midnight sky, accompanied with the roar of cannon and rattle of musketry; prophetic echoes of the sounds that were soon to shake the land. Besides these airy prognostics, there were rumours of French fleets on the coast, and of the march of French and Indians through the wilderness, along the borders of the settlements. The country was saddened, moreover, with grievous sickness. The small-pox raged in many of the towns, and seems, though so familiar

a scourge, to have been regarded with as much affright as that which drove the throng from Wall Street and Broadway at the approach of a new pestilence. There were autumnal fevers, too, and a contagious and destructive throat distemper-diseases unwritten in medical books. The dark superstition of former days had not yet been so far dispelled as not to heighten the gloom of the present times. There is an advertisement, indeed, by a committee of the legislature, calling for information as to the circumstances of sufferers in the "late calamity of 1692,"1 with a view to reparation for their losses and misfortunes. But the tenderness with which, after above forty years, it was thought expedient to allude to the witchcraft delusion, indicates a good deal of lingering error, as well as the advance of more enlightened opinions. The rigid hand of Puritanism might yet be felt upon the reins of government, while some of the ordinances intimate a disorderly spirit on the part of the people.'

At a later period—the time of the old French war—we find the papers full of indications of the military spirit that moved the colonies. In the letters of the provincial officers, it is amusing to observe how some of them endeavour to catch the careless and jovial turn of old campaigners. One gentleman tells us, that he holds a brimming glass in his hand, intending to drink the health of his correspondent, unless a cannon-ball should dash the liquor from his lips.' We read of 'bears driven from the woods by the uproar of contending armies, and prowling within a mile or two of Boston. In the advertising columns, also, we are continually reminded that the country was in a state of war. Governor Pownall makes proclamation for the enlisting of soldiers, and directs the militia colonels to attend to the discipline of their regiments, and the select men of every town to replenish their stocks of ammunition. The magazine, by the way, was generally kept in the upper loft of the village meeting-house. provincial captains are drumming up for soldiers in every newspaper. Sir Jeffrey Amherst advertises for bateau-men, to be employed on the lakes; and gives notice to the officers of seven British regiments, dispersed on the recruiting-service, to rendezvous in Boston. Captain Hallowell, of the province ship of war King George, invites able-bodied seamen to serve his majesty, for fifteen pounds, old tenor,2 per month. By the rewards offered, there would appear to have been frequent desertions from the New England forces; we applaud their wisdom, if not their valour or integrity. Cannon of all calibres, gunpowder and

The

1 The delusion in Salem, of which some account has been given in the notice of Cotton Mather and his Times.

2 A New England currency.

balls, firelocks, pistols, swords, and hangers, were common articles of merchandise. Daniel Jones, at the sign of the Hat and Helmet, offers to supply officers with scarlet broadcloth, gold lace for hats and waistcoats, cockades, and other military foppery, allowing credit until the pay-rolls shall be made up.'1

Magazines, and other periodicals less ephemeral than newspapers, had little success before the Revolution. The Boston Weekly Magazine, begun in 1743, lingered through only four numbers; and The Christian History, starting with the religious excitement under Whitefield, came to a close in two years1743-45. The American Magazine and Historical Chronicle was issued monthly for more than three years, beginning in 1743. Passing over other attempts of short duration, we find The General Magazine, commenced by Franklin about the time 1741, and may notice The Pennsylvania Magazine, begun by Robert Aitken in 1775, which owed its celebrity mainly to contributions by the notorious Thomas Paine. His necessary apparatus' for writing a leading article 'included,' as Aitken says, 'a decanter of brandy.' Altogether, about a dozen periodicals of a class above newspapers were commenced before the Revolution; but as they exerted no considerable influence on life in America, they require no lengthened notice. The first successful magazine was The Portfolio (1801). Charles Brockden Brown, the novelist, tried a Monthly Magazine and American Review in 1794, but it was a failure. The times were more favourable to the excitements of politics than to the quiet pursuits of literature.

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SECOND PERIOD.

1800-1855.

POETRY.

ALLSTON-PAULDING-PIERPONT DANA SPRAGUE-WILDE - HILLHOUSE-DRAKE-BRYANT-NEAL-PERCIVAL-HALLECK-BRAINARD

-DOANE-EMERSON.

IN order to include the names of a few writers who preceded Irving and Bryant, the second period in American literature may be defined as extending from 1800 to the present time; but it should be observed that nearly all the best works in poetry, prose-fiction, history, biography, and criticism-to say nothing of special writings in the several sciences—have been produced within the space of the last thirty-five years; while American readers have had free access to all the rich stores of modern English literature.

It seems idle to speculate on all that might have been done by writers in the United States, who have had to contend against circumstances very unfavourable to the development of a national literature. This remark may be especially applied to poetry and prose-fiction. Instead of complaining that poets and novelists have done little to illustrate life on the western side of the Atlantic, we might as reasonably express our surprise that so much has been done within the space of a short lifetime, and in a country where the writings of Scott, Campbell, Wordsworth, Byron, Bulwer, Dickens, Thackeray, and a host of other English authors, have been so cheaply circulated.

Mr Griswold, whose definition of poetry appears to be exceedingly liberal, has given, in his work on the Poets and Poetry of America, the names of more than one hundred and forty authors who have written verses since the Revolution. This abundance of materials makes our task of selection rather difficult, and it is very probable that we may omit to mention names as worthy of notice as some that may be included in our brief review. To explain our reasons for passing over many

of the inferior names, it may be sufficient to quote the remarks of an intelligent American critic-E. P. Whipple. Speaking of the selection by Mr Griswold, he says: 'Some of the authors whom he has included in the list are unworthy of the honour of having their feebleness thrust into notice. From others of more pretensions, he has copied too unsparingly. A few of his critical notices reflect more credit upon his benevolence than his taste. He seems to have fixed the price of admission low, in order, as the show-bills say, that the public might be more generally accommodated. King James I. debased the ancient order of knighthood, by laying his sword on the shoulder of every pander or buffoon who recommended himself by the fulness of his purse, the readiness of his jests, or the pliancy of his conscience. Editors should keep this fact in mind, and extract from it the warning and admonition it is so eminently calculated to suggest.'

In obedience to this wholesome rule, we may pass over the names of several verse-writers who succeeded Philip Freneau, and wrote before the time of W. C. Bryant. ALLSTON, the painter, included versification among his general accomplishments; but his poems have no remarkable merit. PAULDING, the novelist, wrote a poem, entitled The Backwoodsman, of which the design was better than the execution.

JOHN PIERPONT, author of lyrical poems which gained a considerable popularity, was a native of Litchfield in Connecticut, and was born April 6, 1785. In 1816, he published his poem, entitled The Airs of Palestine, which passed through several editions, and is chiefly remarkable for its smooth versification in describing the effects of music. We prefer his occasional lyrical poems, of which the following stanzas afford a favourable specimen :

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

'The pilgrim exile-sainted name !-
The hill, whose icy brow

Rejoiced, when he came, in the morning's flame,

In the morning's flame burns now.

And the moon's cold light, as it lay that night

On the hillside and the sea,

Still lies where he laid his houseless head;

But the pilgrim-where is he?

The Pilgrim Fathers are at rest :

When summer's throned on high,

And the world's warm breast is in verdure dressed,
Go, stand on the hill where they lie.

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