403 Nations lately become Literary. 



Nor is it of less importance here to recollecr, 

 that the nature of our connection with Great- 

 Britain has operated, and continues to operate un-> 

 favourably to the progress of American literature. 

 Long accustomed to a state of colonial depend- 

 ence on that enlightened and cultivated Nation, 

 we have also been accustomed to derive from her 

 the supplies for our literary wants, And still con- 

 nected with her by the ties Gf language, manners, 

 taste, and commercial intercourse, her literature, 

 science and arts may be considered as ours. Being 

 able, therefore, with so much ease, to reap the 

 fruits of her fields, we have not sufficient induce- 

 ment to cultivate our own. And even when an 

 excellent production of the American soil is offered 

 to the public, it is generally undervalued and neg- 

 lected. A large portion of fc our citizens seem to 

 entertain the idea, that nothing worthy of patron- 

 age can be produced on this side of the Atlantic. 

 Instead of being prompted to a more liberal en- 

 couragement of genius because it is American, 

 their prejudices, on this account, are rather exr 

 cited against it/ 



4. Want of Books. In the capital cities of Eu- 

 rope, the votary of literature is surrounded with 

 immense Libraries, to which he may easily obtain 

 access ; and even in many of the smaller towns, 

 books on any subject, and to almost any number, 

 may be easily obtained. It is otherwise in Ame- 

 rica. Here the student, in addition to all the 



d The writer in the Monthly Magazine, whose strictures on American 

 literature were before mentioned, represents the inhabitants of the 

 United States as having strong prejudices in favour of their own produc- 

 tions, and ridicules them for preferring American publications to all others. 

 In this, as well as in most of his assertions, he discovers profound igno- 

 rance of the subject. The fact is directly the reverse. Americans are too 

 apt to join with ignorant or fastidious foreigners, in undervaluing and de» 

 crying our domestic literature ; and this circumstance is one of the nume- 

 rous obstacles which have operated to discourage literary exertions on this 

 eide of tke Adantic, and to impede our literary progress. 



