344 Nations lately become Literary. 



Before the institution of these academies, that 

 is, anterior to the year 1730, there was very little 

 taste for classical learning in the middle colonies of 

 America. It is true, the number of respectable di- 

 vines, physicians and lawyers, was not small, but 

 the greater part of those who had attained to any 

 eminence had received their education in Europe, 

 and almost all the instructors in academies or 

 schools were emigrants from Great-Britain or 

 Ireland. But from this period a new era com- 

 menced. Native Americans began to discover a 

 taste for both ancient and modern literature, and 

 the interests of liberal knowledge began to assume 

 a more promising aspect. 



It is generally known that the clergy, in all 

 civilized nations, are the chief promoters of the 

 instruction of youth. Accordingly, it is a remark- 

 able fact, that in all those parts of our country in 

 which the clergy are most numerous, pious, and 

 exemplary, literature is most popular ; and in re- 

 viewing the literary history of the several American 

 States, we find that useful knowledge has been 

 most early and most generally encouraged in those 

 parts of the country in which clergymen of good 

 character were most early and generally settled. 

 This remark was strikingly confirmed and exem- 

 plified in Pennsylvania and New-Jersey, at the 

 period of which we are now speaking. The ex- 

 ertions made by some of the clergy of these colo^ 

 nies, at this period, for the promotion of literature, 

 were unwearied and persevering, and deserve the 

 most grateful acknowledgments. The Svnod of 

 Philadelphia embarked in this cause with great 

 zeal. They particularly favoured the academies of 

 Dr. Allison and Mr. Blair, before mentioned. 

 To the former they agreed to pay a certain sum 

 annually, that he might be enabled to render his 

 seminary more extensive in its plan, and especially 



