2^4 Nations latelij become Literary;. [Cii. XXVI. 



president in 1739, and formally inducted into 

 office the next year. He appears to have been 

 one of the most profound and accurate scholars 

 ever bred in Connecticut ; and during the course 

 of his presidency, which continued till 1767, he 

 succeeded in producing a greater attention than 

 had been before paid to the abstruse sciences, 

 particularly to mathematics, astronomy, and the 

 various branches of natural philosophy. This pe- 

 riod indeed may be considered as forming an era 

 in the literary history of Connecticut. 



Passing on to Virginia, a few facts and names 

 appear there about this time which are worthy of 

 notice*. The first printer introduced in that co- 

 lony was about the year 1726, when William 

 Parks settled there in that capacity. The first 

 work of any conse(juence printed in the colony 

 was the body of Lazvs, in folio, in 1733, by the 

 person above mentioned. The foundation of a 



setts, in 1703; graduated at Harvard college in 1722; settled in 

 the ministry Kt Windham, in Connecticut, in 1726 ; became pre- 

 sident of Yale college in 1739 ; and died in 1767. He was re- 

 spectably learned in the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew languages ; 

 but in the higher branches of mathematics, in astronomy, and 

 in the various departments of natural philosophy, he had proba- 

 bly no equal at that time in America, excepting professor Win- 

 throp, of Cambridge. He appears also to have been extensively 

 and profoundly read in history, theology, moral philosophy, 

 canon and civil law, and indeed in most of the objects of study 

 attended to at that time. 



* Some .of the names and facts mentioned in this section, re- 

 lating to the progress of letters and science in Virginia, were 

 communicated to the author, in a letter from bishop Madison, of 

 Williamsburah. The services rendered to the cause of liberal 

 knowledge in America, and particularly in his own state, by this 

 enlightened philosopher and divine, are well known. 



