S56 Nations lately} become Literary. [Ch. XXVI, 



to the province of South Carolina, and were very 

 small*. SinCe that period the number has in- 

 creased to many hundreds, and is every year be- 

 coming still greater f. Private libraries have also 

 become numerous and extensive in a still more 

 remarkable degree. 



At the commencement of the period under re- 

 view, there were but three or four printers in the 

 American colonies ; and these carried on their 

 business upon a very small scale, and in a very 

 coarse, inelegant manner. But at present the 

 number of printers in the United States may be 

 -considered as nearly three hundred; and many of 

 these perform their work with a neatness and ele- 

 gance which are rarely exceeded in Europe. At 

 that time the printing an original American w ork, 

 even a small pamphlet, was a rare occurrence, and 

 seriously weighed, as an important undertaking ; 

 while the reprinting of foreign works was seldom 

 attempted. But now at least one hundred Ameri-- 

 can works, some of which are large and respec- 

 table, annually issue from their presses; and the 

 republication of foreign books is carried on in 

 almost every part of the country, and particu- 

 larly in the capital towns, with a degree of enter- 



* In the seventeenth century, some of the congregational 

 churches in Massachusetts began to form church libraries. These 

 were considerably numerous and useful; and some of them re- 

 main till the present day. The use of these libraries, however, 

 was chiefly confined to the particular congregations whose pro- 

 perty they were. 



t The number of incorporated libraries in Massachusetts is 

 said to be about one hundred. The number in the other eastern 

 states is not known ; but institutions of this kind are far more 

 numerous in New Eogland than in any other part of America. 



