-258 Nations latelij become Literary. [Ch. XXVI. 



lebrated apostle of the Indians, in the language of 

 the Naticks. This monument of pious labour 

 was first printed at Cambridge in Massachusetts, 

 in 166-4, and a second edition at the same place 

 sixteen years afterward. From this period till 

 the beginning of the revolutionary war, at so 

 low an ebb was the book trade in America, that 

 we hear of no attempt to print an edition of 

 the Bible on that side of the Atlantic. In 1776 

 Christopher Sower, of GermantOwn near Phila- 

 delphia, printed a quarto edition of the Bible 

 in the German language. He engaged in this 

 work at his own risk, executed it with great 

 elegance, and had the honour of printing 

 the first quarto Bible that ever issued from an 

 American press. About the year 1781 Mr. Ro- 

 bert Aitken, of Philadelphia, undertook to pre- 

 sent the American public with a duodecimo edi- 

 tion of the Sacred Scriptures. This laudable 

 undertaking was executed, but with great diffi- 

 calty, arising from the peculiar situation of the 

 country at that time *. But within the last eigh- 

 teen or twenty years, undertakings of this kind 

 have become so numerous and so familiar, that 

 the importation of Bibles for the supply of the 

 American market, though not entirely, has in a 

 great measure ceased. The first quarto edition 

 of the English Bible printed in the United States 



■■■ Immediately after the publication of this edition of the 

 Bible, peace took place; whea it was soon found that Bibles 

 could be imported from Great Britain cheaper than it was pos- 

 sible to print them in America. Mr. Aitken^ therefore, not ob- 

 taininsf a ready sale for his edition, which had been carried oh 

 •,vith great difficulty, was nearly ruined by the undertaking. 



