Nations lately become Literary, 361 



notice/ The first printer introduced in that Co- 

 lony, was about the year 1726, when William 

 Parks settled there in that capacity. The first 

 work of any consequence printed in the Colony, 

 was the body of Laics, in folio, in 1733, by the per- 

 son above-mentioned. The foundation of a Library 

 in William and Alary College was early laid. This 

 was augmented from time to time, by various 

 means, particularly by private donations, from se- 

 veral friends of literature, until it became a very 

 respectable collection. The additions to it with- 

 in a few years past have been few and small; hence 

 it abounds more in ancient than modern works. 



Nor was Virginia, by any means, even at this 

 early period, without instances of honourable lite- 

 rary enterprize. The Histories of the Colony, pub- 

 lished respectively by Stith and Beverley, are 

 generally known. The former was a respectable 

 Clergyman, and President of the College; and 

 though he did not write elegantly, he was a faith- 

 ful and judicious historian. The latter wrote with 

 {ess prolixity and tediousness, but, at the same 

 ime, with a less satisfactory fulness of informa- 

 tion. Several other instances of literary exertion, 

 made at this period in Virginia, might be mention- 

 ed, did our limits admit of going into further par- 

 ticulars. 



Among the promoters of literature in Virginia, 

 at this time, it will be proper to mention Colonel 

 Byrd, a native of that Colony, who had been li- 

 berally educated in Great-Britain, and possessed 

 a very ample estate. Few private persons in Ame- 

 rica ever collected so large or so valuable a Library 



h Some of the names and facts mentioned in this section, relating to 

 the progress of letters and science in Virginia, were communicated to the 

 author, in a letter from Bishop Madisox, of Williamsburgh. The 

 services rendered to the cause of liberal knowledge in America, and par., 

 ticularly in his own State, by this enlightened Philosopher and Divide* 

 are well known. 



YOL. II, a 



