Nations lately become Literary. 399 



place." In this respect we go beyond every other 

 nation. It were well if these vehicles of infor- 

 mation had improved as much in purity, intelli- 

 gence, and instructiveness, as in other respects; 

 but the blindest partiality for American literature 

 must perceive and lament the sad reverse ! 



It may not be improper to attempt, in a few 

 sentences, a comparative estimate of the extent 

 to which different branches of knowledge are cul- 

 tivated in different parts of the United States. 



That amount of knowledge which is usually ac- 

 quired at common schools, viz. reading, writing, 

 and arithmetic, is more generally diffused among 

 all classes of the people in New-England, and par- 

 ticularly in Massachusetts and Connecticut, than 

 in any other portion of our country, and indeed 

 than in any other part of the globe. This maybe 

 ascribed to the superior excellence of their School 

 establishments ; to the number, piety, and dili- 

 gence of the Clergy; to the regular organization 

 of their towns and parishes; to the honourable 

 point of light in which the instructors of youth are 

 considered f and to the general spirit of activity 

 and enterprize which must be admitted to enter 

 into the national character of New-England. 



It may also be observed, as another circum- 

 stance of discrimination, that in the Eastern States 

 a larger portion of the youth pass through a regu- 

 lar collegiate course of education, than in any other 



u See pages 250 and 251 of the present volume. 



iv This circumstance has a most benign influence in New-England. In 

 the Middle, but more especially in the Southern States, the employment 

 of a Schoolmaster is considered by many as rather degrading, and has 

 sometimes been used as a ground of reproach. The consequence is, that 

 too many of the instructors of youth in these States are ignorant and vi- 

 cious adventurers; these who are well qualified rather shunning an 

 office to which so little respect is attached. In the New-England States it 

 is otherwise. Some of their greatest Divines and Statesmen were School- 

 masters in early life. The employment is considered and treated as an 

 honourable one. The consequence is, that the common parish schools 

 are generally under the care of well informed and virtuous men. 



