5216 Nations lately become Liter aj-y. [Ch. XXVI, 



afterward appointed a professor in the college of 

 Philadelphia, and was one of the active promoters 

 of useful knowledge of his day *. 



In the province of New York the interests ofli' 

 terature had been more than commonly neglected 

 before the middle of the eighteenth century. Few 

 of the first settlers had any literary taste or ac- 

 quirements; and though now and then an indi- 

 vidual came to the province from Europe, who 

 was learned, and disposed to cultivate letters f, 

 yet the number of these was so small, and the 

 great body of the inhabitants so little willing to 

 second any endeavours which they might make 

 for the advancement of knowledge, that every 

 thing relating to education was in the most deplo- 

 rable state. Some of the more wealthy inhabi- 

 tants sent their sons to Holland, or to Great Bri- 

 tain, to be educated; while a few others, to whom 

 this would have been inconvenient, placed their 



* Mr. Kinnersley was bred a baptist, and was for some time a 

 preacher of that denomination ; but afterward, taking some of- 

 fence, he left the baptist communion, laid aside his clerical cha- 

 racter, and joined the episcopal church. 



-f- Governor Stuy vesant appears to have been a man of respec- 

 table attainments in literature. Out of the small number of cler- 

 gymen who came to the province in early times, a few had made 

 considerable acquirements in letters. The ancestors of the Rens- 

 salaer, the Bayard, the Livingston, and the Morris families, and 

 a few others, who first came to the colony, had also been liberally 

 fducated. Two or three of the governors, who were sent at dif- 

 ferent times, were fond of literature, and made some exertions to 

 promote it. Of this character, especially, was governor Burnet. 

 To these might be added some other names, did our limits allow 

 of more minute details. But the influence of these could not be 

 great, \vhen the mass of the people were regardless of every lite« 

 rary object. 



