Nations lately become Literary. 401 



(he higher classes of them, during the last hundred 

 years, have been natives; a large portion of the 

 Superintendents of Academies, and of the Presi- 

 dents and Professors of Colleges, in the Middle and 

 Southern parts of our country, during the same 

 period, were Europeans, and many of them emi- 

 nently accomplished in classic literature. If, there- 

 fore, the knowledge in this branch of learning, 

 acquired in the best seminaries of Europe, were 

 usually more accurate and profound than could 

 ordinarily be obtained from our native citizens, it 

 must follow of course, that those who derived their 

 classical learning from the former of these sources, 

 were, in general, more thoroughly instructed 

 themselves, and consequently more capable of 

 instructing others, than those who had access only 

 to the latter. 



In the study of Oriental Literature, it is be- 

 lieved that New-England has generally excelled 

 the Middle and Southern States. Certain it is, 

 that we hear of more eminent Orientalists in the 

 former than in the latter; if we except a kw fo- 

 reigners occasionally residing among us. This we 

 may ascribe to the great Oriental learning of seve- 

 ral of those distinguished divines who came with 

 the first settlers to New-England, or who soon af- 

 terwards followed them thither. The influence o£ 

 these men has continued, in a degree, to the pre- 

 sent day. To this circumstance it may be added, 

 that the University of Cambridge, in Massachu- 

 setts, is the only seminary of learning in the United 

 States in which a Professorship for instruction iri 

 the Oriental languages has been steadily main- 

 tained through the whole of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. 



In the cultivation of Mathematics and Natural 

 Philosophy, it is difficult to say to what part of our 

 country the preference ought to be given, Pro ? 



VOL, II, ?f 



