Sect. III.] United States of America. 18<) 



fashionable in their native country when they left 

 it*. Accordingly they were generally well, and 

 some of tliem profoundly, read in the Latin, 

 Greek, and Hebrew languages ; in theology, an- 

 cient history, metaphysics, and some parts of ma- 

 thematical and astronomical science. There is 

 good reason to believe that the clergy and other 

 scholars of New England, for near a hundred 

 years after their first settlement, that is, till after 

 the commencement of the eighteenth century, 

 were more eminent for classical and theological 

 erudition than men of the same profession at this 

 dayf. They were, in particular, much better 

 acquainted with the Latin and Greek writers than 

 their descendants can now boast of being; TiwA 

 many of them were masters of the Hebrew lan- 

 guage, which at present is almost entirely neg- 

 lected J. 



* The university of Cambridge, in Massachusetts, was formed, 

 as far as circumstances would admit, on the same plan Avith the 

 . universities in England; and the same course of learning was, in. 

 substance, pursued. The study of biblical literature and theological 

 science was encouraged by the peculiar spirit of the times, and of 

 the emigrants. And the direction once given was continued by 

 the force of example and habit long afterwards. 



f This appears not only from the MagnaUa Americana of the 

 celebrated Cotton Mather, but also from the few publications 

 made by the clergy and others of that day ; from an inspection 

 of the books found in their libraries, and from the quality of 

 early donations in books made to Harvard and Yale colleges. 



X Marty of the distinguished divines of Massachusetts and, 

 Connecticut, in the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth 

 centuries, were celebrated for their knowledge of the Hebrew 

 language. It is said that the rev. John Davenport, the second 

 clergyman of that name, and who died minister of the church at 



