UNITED STATES (LITERATURE). 



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nected with the Athenaeum in Boston, in which the 

 annual exhibition of paintings is very respectable. 

 Plaster casts of the principal antique statues have 

 been obtained for these institutions, which have 

 been liberally patronised. A statue of Washing- 

 ton has been executed by Canova for the state of 

 North Carolina ; another, by Chantrey, for a num- 

 ber of citizens of Boston ; and Greenough, a na- 

 tive artist, favourably known by his Chanting 

 Cherubs, and some busts of distinguished Ame- 

 ricans, was employed by the congress to execute 

 a colossal statue of the same great man for the 

 capitol at Washington. Augur, a self-taught ar- 

 tist, has executed a group, Jephthah's Daughter, 

 and some single statues. It was a long time before 

 any attention was paid to the natural sciences in 

 the colonies ; for, although the early inhabitants of 

 the United States found themselves literally in a 

 new world, surrounded with objects, in the veget- 

 able, animal and mineral kingdoms, which had 

 never been accurately described, yet the imperfect 

 state of education, the want of collections and ap- 

 paratuses, could only be slowly overcome. In 

 1725, a professorship of mathematics and experi- 

 mental philosophy was founded in Harvard college, 

 by Mr Hollis, a friend of the institution, in England ; 

 but New England, at least, could not furnish a man 

 capable of discharging the duties of the office. Mr 

 Greenwood went out to England, and, after study- 

 ing a short time under Desaguliers, returned to 

 America, and was appointed professor. There was 

 also a professorship of natural philosophy and ma- 

 thematics at William and Mary's at an early period, 

 but there was none at Yale college until 1770. 

 Logan, Godfrey (inventor of the quadrant), Ritten- 

 house (inventor of the orrery), Franklin, Rumford, 

 &c. (see the articles), were self-taught men. Dur- 

 ing the last thirty years, scientific studies have been 

 pursued in a more systematic and thorough man- 

 ner, and valuable treatises upon almost all subjects 

 of natural science and natural history, so far as re- 

 lates to the United States, have been produced. 

 Mineralogy has been studied with much zeal ; and 

 Cleaveland's Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology 

 (2d edition, 2 vols, 8vo., 1822), and Maclure's Geo- 

 logy of the United States (1817), deserve to be 

 mentioned. Among the botanical works, Elliot's 

 Botany of South Carolina and Georgia ; Bigelow's 

 American Medical Botany (3 vols., 8vo., Boston, 

 1817 20), and FlorulaBostoniensis; Barton's Flora 

 of North America (3 vols., 4to., 106 coloured 

 engravings, Philadelphia, 182123), and Medical 

 Botany of the United States (2 vols., 4to , 50 

 coloured plates, 1825) ; Nuttall's Genera of North 

 American Plants, a good sequel to Pursh's Flora, 

 &c., are valuable. Say's American Entomology 

 (with coloured plates, 3 vols., 8vo., 182425); 

 Godman's American Natural History (3 vols., 8vo., 

 182628); Wilson's American Ornithology (9 

 vols., folio, Philadelphia, 18081814): Bonaparte's 

 American Ornithology (3 vols., 4to., Philadelphia, 

 1825) ; Nuttall's American Ornithology (2d vol., 

 Boston, 1832), are works of great merit. The 

 splendid work of Audubon has been executed in Lon- 

 don (with coloured engravings) ; that of Michaux, a 

 foreigner (the North American Sylva, or a Descrip- 

 tion of North American Forest Trees, with 150 

 coloured engravings), though published in Philadel- 

 phia (3 vols., 8vo., 1817), was executed in Paris. 

 In addition to these works, we must mention Con- 

 rad's Fossil Shells (with coloured plates); She- 

 (jsrd's Fossil Remains; Say's Conchology (with 



coloured plates), &c. The principal irmthematica- 

 work which has been produced in the United 

 States is Bowditch's translation of the Mccamque 

 Celeste of Laplace, with a commentary (2d vol., 

 4to., Boston, 1832'). Silliman's Journal of Science 

 and Arts began to be published in 1818. 



10. Poetry. The first book published in the 

 United States (8vo., 1640), was an original version 

 of the Psalms, in metre, " for the use, edification 

 and comfort of the saints," made by Eliot, Welde, 

 and Mather, three clergymen appointed for this 

 purpose. This version was afterwards improved 

 by Dunster, president of Harvard college, and Mr 

 Lyon, with additions, of which the twentieth edi- 

 tion was published in 1722: it was often, also, re- 

 printed in Scotland and England, and used by 

 many of the dissenting congregations. Mrs Anne 

 Bradstreet published a volume of poems in 1642, 

 which contains some good descriptions. P. Folger, 

 of Nantucket, grandfather of Franklin, wrote a 

 Looking-Glass for the Times (1676). These 

 works, with Michael Wigglesworths Day of Doom, 

 a Poetical Description of the Last Judgment, 

 which went through many editions, and was re- 

 published in London, and a few elegies, stanzas, 

 &c., without taste or spirit, appear to constitute 

 the colonial Parnassus of the seventeenth century. 

 Nor does the first half of the eighteenth century 

 present a more attractive prospect. A volume of 

 poems by John Adams (Boston, 1745) ; another by 

 Thomas Godfrey (Philadelphia, 1765), including 

 the Prince of Parthia, a tragedy, and the Court of 

 Fancy ; W. Livingston's Philosophic Solitude 

 (1747), hardly deserve to be mentioned. The ex- 

 citement of the revolution produced several satirical 

 poems of considerable merit. Trumbull's M'Fingal, 

 written in 1775, to ridicule the British and the 

 tories, passed through more than thirty editions, and 

 was often republished in England. Philip Freneau, 

 author of a number of poems, began to write just 

 before the revolution, but continued till a com- 

 paratively recent period. He is distinguished for 

 ease, humour and sprightliness. Timothy Dwight 

 was the author of the Conquest of Canaan, an epic 

 poem, in eleven books (1785); Greenfield Hill, a 

 descriptive and didactic poem ; and the Triumph 

 of Infidelity, a satirical poem. Joel Barlow 

 published his Vision of Columbus in 1787, and 

 cast anew under the title of the Columbiad, in 

 1808; the Conspiracy of Kings in 1793, and his 

 Hasty Pudding in 1799. More recently, the poems 

 of Allston, Pierpont, Paulding, Sands, Hillhouse, 

 Percival, Halleck, Wilcox, Brainard, Bryant, Dana, 

 Sprague, Willis, and others, have enjoyed different 

 degrees of popularity in their own country. Inde- 

 pendently of other circumstances, which operated . 

 more powerfully, indeed, at an earlier period, but 

 which still continue to operate with great force, 

 the superior popularity of some of the forms of 

 prose fiction at the present day may partly account 

 for the poverty of the Americans in the poetical 

 department. 



11. History and Biography. It is a peculiarity 

 in the history of the United States, that, from the 

 beginning of the first European settlements of their 

 territory, we have accounts of the events which 

 occurred in them, of the chief actors in those events, 

 and, even farther back, that the written charters 

 which described their objects, and defined their 

 privileges, are yet in our hands. We know the 

 family names, the condition in life, the local origin, 

 even the features of the first settlers ; and, from 

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