312 CALLOGRAPHY. 



Epes Sergeant's Velasco ; and especially Dawes's Jlthenia of Da- 

 mascus: but the tragedies of Hillhouse, called Hadad, Percy's 

 Masque, and Demelria, are perhaps the best which our country has 

 yet produced. 



Of American Romance, in prose, the first production appears to 

 have been The Foresters, by Dr. Belknap of Boston, first published 

 in 1787, in the Columbian Magazine, Philadelphia. It relates to 

 our colonial history, and may be regarded as a continuation of Ar- 

 buthnot's John Bull. Tyler's Algerine Captive, published in 1797, 

 is a genuine novel, though founded on facts. The first professed 

 novelist, Charles Brockden Brown, wrote Wieland, Ormond, Ar- 

 thur Mervyn, Edgar Huntley, Clara Howard, and Jane Talbot ; 

 works of genius and merit, though not of the most recent school. 

 Washington Irving's Knickerbocker's History of New York; and 

 his Jonathan Oldstyle's Letters, Salmagundi, Sketch Book, Brace- 

 bridge Hall, Tales of a Traveller, and Jllhambra, are also classed 

 as works of fiction, and are unsurpassed in style and character. 

 Wirt's Old Bachelor, and British Spy, are also standard works of 

 this class. Dennie's Female Quixotism; Mrs. Foster's Board- 

 ing School, and Coquette ; and Mrs. Rowson's Rebecca, and Sarah, 

 have met with less notice. Cooper's novels, have been generally 

 read and admired ; particularly The Spy, T7ie Pioneers, The Pilot, 

 The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie, and The Red Rover. We 

 would also mention Paulding's Dutchman's Fireside, and Westward 

 Ho! ; Flint's Francis Berrian ; Kennedy's Swalloio Barn, and 

 Horseshoe Robinson; Bird's Hawk of Hawks Hollow, Calavar, 

 and Peter Pilgrim ; Ingraham's Southwest, Lajitte, and Burton ; 

 Simms's Yemassee, Guy Rivers, and Mellichamp ; Fay's Norman 

 Lesley, and Countess Ida; Tuckerman's Isabel or Sicily ; and 

 Longfellow's Hyperion; as worthy specimens of American romance, 

 generally evincing talent and taste. Miss Sedgwick's New Eng- 

 land Tale, Redwood, Hope Leslie, Clarence, and The. Linwoods, 

 are beautiful and natural ; and her recent minor tales are fraught with 

 excellent instruction. The Hobomok, Rebels, and Wilderness, of 

 Mrs. Child, (formerly Miss Francis) ; as also Miss Leslie's Pencil 

 Sketches, and Jllthea Vernon, are entertaining productions ; the last 

 of this class which we have room to name. 



Among the best productions of American eloquence, it is to be 

 regretted that most of the speeches of Patrick Henry, Edmund Ran- 

 dolph, James Otis, Samuel Adarns, and other Revolutionary worthies, 

 have not been written out and preserved. Those of Fisher Ames, 

 Hamilton, and Jefferson, are, we believe, mostly published with 

 their works. A selection from the numerous eulogies of Washing- 

 ton, by various orators, would of itself form an interesting volume. 

 The speeches and addresses of Clay, Webster, and Everett, have 

 been published in separate volumes, and are, we think, models of 

 their kind. 



