Nations lately become Literary. 385 



the means, and to excite an ambition for enriching 

 our own country with the treasures of knowledge. 



From this time till the end of the century, literary 

 institutions of various kinds were multiplied with 

 astonishing rapidity in the United States. Besides 

 Colleges, Academies, and subordinate Schools, 

 Scientific Associations were formed; Libraries be- 

 gan to be established in the most remote parts of 

 the country; Printing Presses and Bookstores ap- 

 peared in great numbers where they were never 

 before known; Newspapers became numerous to 

 a degree beyond all precedent; and the rewards 

 of literary labour, though still too small, were 

 considerably augmented. The establishment of 

 the Historical Society of Massachusetts, in 1791; 

 of the Medical Schools of New-Hampshire and 

 Kentucky, in 1798; of the Connecticut Academy 

 of Arts and Sciences, in* 1799; and of the numerous 

 Medical and Agricultural Societies in almost every 

 part of the United States, within a few years past, 

 deserve particular notice, and form interesting 

 items in the annals of our literary progress. 



At the beginning of the century there were two 

 Colleges in the American Colonies. At the close 

 of it there were twenty-five ; from which it may be 

 estimated that four hundred students are annually 

 sent forth, with academic honours. At the be- 

 ginning of the century the number of Academies 

 was small; and even these were on a comparatively 

 narrow r plan, and were ill attended by students; 

 but at the close of it, the number of these insti- 

 tutions had become so great, in almost every State 

 in the Union, especially in the Eastern and Middle 

 States, that it would be difficult to form a tolera- 

 bly correct estimate of their number. At the 

 commencement of the century there were but tzvo 

 public Libraries in the American Colonies : these 

 belonged to Harvard College, and to the Province 



VOL. II. 3 D 



