sity of Pennsylvania in 1753; King's College (now Columbia University) in 1754; Frederick College, Maryland, in 1763; Rhode Island College (now Brown University) in 1765; Rutgers College, New Jersey, in 1770; Dartmouth College in 1770; Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, in 1776; Washington College, Maryland, in 1782; Dickinson College, Penn sylvania, in 1783; College of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1785. Thus before the Revolution nine of the thirteen colonies had institutions of higher learning. These colonial colleges were of course small and poorly equipped. But most of them nevertheless did good work, especially in the classics. The requirements for admission to Harvard are thus stated by Cotton Mather in his Magnalia (Book IV., p. 127, ed. 1702): "When Scholars had so far profited at the Grammar Schools, that they could Read any Classical Author into English, and readily make, and speak true Latin, and Write it in Verse as well as Prose; and perfectly Decline the Paradigms of Nouns and Verbs in the Greek Tongue, they were judged capable of Admission into Harvard-Colledge." The college course, in Harvard at least, "embraced the contemporaneous learning of the colleges in England," including (in 1643) rhetoric, logic, ethics, divinity, arithmetic, geometry, physics, astronomy, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, etc.1 President Dunster wrote in 1649 that some of the Harvard students could "with ease dexterously translate Hebrew and Chaldee into Greek."2 This steeping in the great languages and literatures of antiquity was one of the best possible ways to prepare for the creation, later, of a worthy literature in the mother tongue. The American poets and novelists were yet to be born. Meanwhile their ancestors wisely conned the pages of Homer, Virgil, and Cicero. THE NEW ENGLAND PRIMER.3 From this curious little book the children of New England, for a century and a half, learned the elements of religion and morality as well as of reading. The first compiler of it seems to have been Benjamin Harris, a Boston publisher, who, before he fled from England in 1686, had printed The 1 Peirce's A History of Harvard University, p. 7; Appendix, pp. 6, 7. 2 Felt's The Ecclesiastical History of New England, Vol. II., p. 10. 8 See two articles by J. H. Trumbull in The Sunday School Times. April 29 and May 6, 1882; and The New-England Primer, by P. L Ford (Dodd, Mead & Co., 1897). Protestant Tutor, which had several of the distinctive features of the Primer, and was (says Mr. Ford) its "legitimate predecessor." The Primer is also the descendant of a line of English primers, running back through many centuries. The earliest surviving reference to it is in an almanac for 1691, published by Harris, in which he advertised as forthcoming "a Second Impression of the New-England Primer enlarged, to which is added, more Directions for Spelling," etc. The first edition must have appeared (says Mr. Ford) between 1687 and 1690. The earliest extant complete copy was published at Boston in 1737. The book was reprinted numberless times in the eighteenth century, with various changes and additions,1 and has often been reproduced since as a curiosity. In its sombre and dogmatic religiousness, severe morality, and defective æsthetic sense (as shown by the doggerel verse and rude wood-cuts), The New England Primer is a mirror of the times which produced and used it. It passes rapidly, and without apparent sense of incongruity, from hard sense or sublime theology to the puerile and trivial Some idea of the Primer may be had from a description of a copy printed (as the frontispiece shows) sometime during Washington's presidency. It is a quaint little book, four inches long, two and three-fourths inches wide, and one-third of an inch thick. The lids are of wood, covered with pale-blue paper and united by a leather back. The title-page reads thus: "The NewEngland Primer, or, an easy and pleasant Guide to the Art of Reading. Adorn'd with Cutts. To which are added, The Assembly of Divines' Catechism. Boston: Printed and sold by J. White, near Charles-River Bridge.' On the reverse are two stanzas to children, ending with Nor dare indulge a meaner flame, The alphabet follows; then come "Easy Syllables for Children "— ab, ac, eb, ec, etc.; and in five pages more, a bo mi na ti on and a scanty assortment of other "Words of six Syllables" are reached. Art and poetry are now wedded to the alphabet in twenty-four couplets or triplets, illustrated by inimitable wood-cuts apparently made by the printer with his pocket-knife. Some of the choicest lines are these: 1 Some editions reprinted John Cotton's Spiritual Milk for Amercan Babes, Drawn out of the Breasts of Both Testaments, for their Souls Nourishment. "In Adam's fall, We sinned all"; "Young Obadias, David, Josias, All were pious"; "Xerxes did die, And so must I"; "Zaccheus, he Did climb the tree, Our Lord to see." After some other matter, including the statement_that “He that don't learn his A B C, For ever will a blockhead be," come the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed. Treading close on the heels of these sublime passages intrudes some pious doggerel, beginning, I in the burying place may see This is at once succeeded by Watts's pretty Cradle Hymn, 1 Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber, Holy Angels guard thy bed, and his "Now I lay me down to sleep," both which are still sacred memories to millions. They are but thinly fenced off by Agur's Prayer from a marvellous cut which represents "Mr. John Rogers, minister of the gospel," "the first martyr in Queen Mary's reign," burning at the stake, while "his wife, with nine small children, and one at her breast," calmly look on; several pages of metrical advice, which unhappily escaped the author's fate, follow. Then comes The Shorter Catechism, which fills most of the latter half of the book. The solemn questions and answers are still sounding in our ears when we are exhorted to "Let dogs delight to bark and bite"; children are once more reminded that until their "breast glows with sacred love" they should "indulge no meaner fires"; and the Primer ends with this secular stanza, which is all the same as if a Puritan congregation were to come out of church in a jig: : Here's Tom, Dick, and Benny, With pitchfork and with rake; Come here the hay to make. 1 Many were the hours spent by the curious school-boy in wrestling with the question whether there were ten children in all or only nine. The obscure wood-cut but darkened the problem, which is still unsolved. C. PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY LITERATURE. [Many of the titles are copied from first editions; most of the others, from Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana. The titles are often abridged; but what is given is reproduced as exactly as possible, and anything added is enclosed in brackets.] I. COLONIAL PERIOD. 1. VIRGINIA. A Trve Relation of such occurrences and accidents of noate as hath hapned in Virginia since the first planting of that Collony. Written by Captaine Smith. London, 1608. A True Reportory of the Wracke, and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight. By William Strachey. London, 1610. Good Newes from Virginia. From Alexander Whitaker. London, 1613. The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles. By Captaine Iohn Smith. London, 1624. Ovids Metamorphosis Englished by G. S. [George Sandys]. London, 1626. A Voyage to Virginia._ By Colonel Norwood. [n. p. n. d.] [Reprinted: Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. III.] Leah and Rachel, or, the Two Fruitfull Sisters Virginia, and Mary-Land. By John Hammond. London, 1656. [Reprinted: Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. III.] A Song of Sion. Written by a Citizen thereof [John Grave], whose outward Habitation is in Virginia. [England.] 1662. History of Virginia. By a Native and Inhabitant of the Place [Robert Beverley]. The second edition. London, 1722. [The first edition (London, 1705) was smaller.] The Present State of Virginia. By Hugh Jones, A.M. London, 1724. [Reprinted: Sabin's Reprints, No. 5.] The Westover Manuscripts: containing the History of the Dividing Line betwixt Virginia and North Carolina; a Journey to the Land of Eden, A.D. 1733; and a Progress to the Mines. Written from 1728 to 1736, and now first published. By William Byrd, of Westover. Petersburg, 1841. History of the Dividing Line and Other Tracts. From the Papers of William Byrd. Richmond, 1866. Poems on Several Occasions. By a Gentleman of Virginia. Williamsburg, 1736. The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia. By William Stith, A.M. Williamsburg, 1747. 2. NEW ENGLAND. A Description of New England; or, The Observations, and discoueries of Captain Iohn Smith. London, 1616. [Reprinted: Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. II.] A Relation or Iournall of the beginning and proceedings of the English Plantation setled at Plimoth. [By William Bradford and Edward Winslow.] London, 1622. [Long known as Mourt's Relation. Reprinted: Library of New-England History, No. 1; portions of, in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., Series 2, Vol. IX.] Bradford's History" Of Plimoth Plantation." From the Original Manuscript. With a Report of the Proceedings Incident to the Return of the Manuscript to Massachusetts. Boston, 1898. [Also in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., Series 4, Vol. III.] New-England. Or A Briefe Enarration of the Ayre, Earth, Water, Fish and Fowles of that Country. With a Description of the Natures, Orders, Habits, and Religion of the Natiues; in Latine and English Verse. [By William Morrell.] London, 1625. [Reprinted: The Club of Odd Volumes, Boston, 1895, in photographic facsimile from a copy of the first edition in the British Museum; Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., Series 1, Vol. I., but with only the Latin title, Nova-Anglia.] A Journal of the Transactions and Occurrences in the settlement of Massachusetts and the other New-England Colonies, from the year 1630 to 1644. Written by John Winthrop, and now first published from a correct copy of the original Manuscript. Hartford, 1790. [Reprinted at Boston, 1825, 1826, as The History of New England. This edition included the third volume of the manuscript, bringing the record down to 1649.] and Margaret Winthrop New York: Dodd, Mead & Some Old Puritan Love-Letters -- John 1618-1638. Edited by J. H. Twichell. Co., 1893. New-Englands Plantation. Written by a reuerend Diuine now there resident [Francis Higginson]. London, 1630. [Reprinted: Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. I.; Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., Series 1, Vol. I. Nevv Englands Prospect. By William Wood. London, 1634. [Reprinted: Pub. Prince Soc., Vol. I.] New English Canaan. By Thomas Morton. Amsterdam, 1637. [Reprinted: Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. II.; Pub. Prince Soc., Vol. Xv.] The Freeman's Oath. [Cambridge.] 1639. [The first thing printed in America. See Winthrop's The History of New England, Vol. 1. p. 289, ed. 1825.] The VVhole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre. [Cambridge.] 1640. [Said to be the first book printed in America. |