400 Nations lately become Literary. 



part of our country. In New-England, the mass 

 of the people are more generally taught to respect 

 literature, and to make exertions for conferring 

 this advantage on their children. In that part of 

 the Union also, the expense attending an Acade- 

 mic course is rather less than in most of the other 

 American Seminaries. These two circumstances 

 have a natural tendency to fill their Colleges with 

 a greater number of Students than are to be found 

 elsewhere. 



The Classic Literature of the United States, as 

 was before remarked, is almost every where super- 

 ficial. It is believed, however, that the learned 

 languages, and especially the Greek language, are 

 rather less studied in the Eastern than in the 

 Middle and Southern States. It is true, many 

 more individuals attend to this branch of learning 

 in the former than in the latter; but they read fewer 

 books, and devote a less portion of time to the ob- 

 ject/ For this fact, many reasons might be as- 

 signed ; but it is not necessary to mention more 

 than two. The one is, that, owing to the superior 

 wealth enjoyed by a number of individuals in the 

 Middle and Southern States, it w^as more common, 

 during a great part of the eighteenth century, 

 to send young men to Europe for their educa- 

 tion from those States, than from New-England. 

 The youth, thus educated, might be expected, of 

 course, to bring back with them to their native 

 country, a larger portion of classic literature than 

 could be easily acquired in American seminaries. 

 Another reason is, that, wmile almost all the in- 

 structors of youth in New-England, and especially 



x The Author is aware, that in tracing the literary history of New- 

 England, the names of some classical Scholars of great eminence arc 

 found. He means, however, only to speak of the degree of attention 

 generally paid to Classic literature, by those who go through a colle- 

 giate course in the Eastern States, and especially within the last twenty 

 or thirty years. 



