Sect. III.] Unikd States of America. 253 



commonwealth. The governors of the university- 

 were enabled to effect this establishment by means 

 of several generous donations made for this par- 

 ticular purpose by Dr. Ezekiel Hersey, an en- 

 lightened and opulent physician of Hingham ; by 

 his widow, a few years afterward ; by his brother. 

 Dr. Abner Hei"sey, of Barnstable ; by Dr. John 

 Cnmming, of Concord ; and by William Erving, 

 esq., of Boston *. The several professorships bear 

 the names of their respective founders; and while 

 they exhibit monuments of laudable beneficence, 

 have proved highly useful in the diffusion of 

 science f. 



In 1783 Mr. Noah Webster, of Connecticut^ 

 published the first part of his Gra^nmatical Insti- 

 tute of the English Language J. This was soon 



* Dr. Ezekiel Hersey gave 1000/., IMassaclmsetts currency, to 

 be applied t© the support of a professor of anatomy and surgery; 

 his widow a like sum, for the same purpose ; his brother. Dr. A. 

 Hersey, 500/., for the encouragement and support of medical 

 instruction; Dr. Gumming, a like sum, to be applied to the same 

 object; and William Erving, esq., 1000/., to be devoted to the 

 support of a professorship of chetrdstrj/ and materia medica. These 

 several sums, amounting to between 13000 and 14000 dollars, 

 are funded, and the interest devoted to the objects directed by 

 the donors. • 



f The author takes pleasure in acknowledging in this place 

 his obligation* to his friend the rev. Dr. Eliot, of Boston, for 

 a large portion of the information he is able to give respecting 

 the literature of Massachusetts. From a mind so well stored oa 

 the subject of American antiquities, he might have drawn much 

 more ample materials, had application been made early enough 

 to admit of a leisurely attention to the object. 



"l This worjc was begun in the autumn of 1782, and published 

 in the spring of 1783, at Hartford. The success which has at- 

 tended it, notwithstanding so many other spelling books and 

 grammars have •elicited public favour since it appeared, at once 



