390 Nations lately become Literary. 



It may not be improper to take notice of some 

 of those branches of science and literature which 

 have been most cultivated in the United States; 

 and also of the names of those who have been 

 principally distinguished by their attention to 

 these objects. 



In Mathematics, Astronomy, and the more ab- 

 struse departments of Mechanical Philosophy, our 

 country has been distinguished to a degree which, 

 all things considered, is highly honourable to 

 American genius and diligence. The names of 

 Greenwood, Winthrop, Bowdoin/ Willard, 

 Fobes, and others of Massachusetts; 'of West, of 

 Rhode-Island; of Clap, and Mansfield, of Con- 

 necticut; of William Alexander, commonly 

 called Lord Stirling,' of New-Jersey; of God- 

 frey, RlTTENHOUSE, EwiNG, WlLLIAMSON, PaT- 



terson, and Ellicott, of Pennsylvania ; and of 

 Madison, Page, and several more of Virginia, 

 are so well and so respectably known, that it is 

 unnecessary to enlarge on their merits/ Besides 



h James Bowdoix, LL. B. F. R. S. was born in Eoston, Massachu- 

 setts, August 18, 1727'. His father was a native of France, and fled 

 among the persecuted Protestants of that country, first to Ireland, and af- 

 terwards to New-England, where he arrived in the year 1688. His son 

 James, the object of our present attention, was educated at Harvard Col- 

 lege, where he received his first degree in 1745. After filling some im- 

 portant stations in public life, he was chosen Governor of Massachusetts 

 in 1785 and 1786. He died in 1790, greatly and generally respected. 

 Those who have perused the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts 

 and Sciences, will recollect the several papers contained in them, which 

 manifest no common taste and talents in astronomical inquiries. 



i William Alexander, Esq. was a native of the city of New-York, 

 but spent a considerable part of his life in New-Jersey. He was considered, 

 by many, as the rightful heir to the title and estate of an Earldom in Scot- 

 land, of which country his father was a native ; and although when he went 

 to North-Britain in pursuit of this inheritance, he failed of obtaining an 

 acknowledgment of his claim by government ; yet, among his friends and 

 acquaintances, he received, by courtesy, the title of Lord Stirling. He 

 discovered an early fondness for the study of Mathematics and Astronomy 5 

 and attained great eminence in these sciences. 



j The Author, in this list, has only introduced the names of such Ma- 

 thematicians, Astronomers, &,c. as, by means of some publication or other 

 display of their learning and talents, appeared to him to have made them- 

 selves more than usually known. He is sensible that a number of tha 



