Sect. III.] United States of America. 259 



was in the year 1791, by Mr. Isaac Collins, then 

 residing at Trenton in New Jersey. In a few 

 montlis afterward another quarto edition was 

 published by Mr. Isaiah Thomas, of Worcester 

 in Massachusetts; who, in the same year, laid be- 

 fore the public the first folio edition of the Holy 

 Scriptures that was printed in the United States. 

 Since that time several folio editions of the Bible, 

 and a number of quarto editions, have been 

 printed in America, and begin to be considered 

 by the printers and booksellers of that country 

 as small and easy undertakings. 



Those kinds of literary productions which have 

 been most common and most successful in the 

 United States are theological and political works, 

 and those intended for the use of schools. For 

 the frst we are indebted to that seriousness and 

 taste for religious inquiry which prevails in New 

 England, and in a considerable, though less de- 

 gree, in the middle and southern states. The 

 almost universal taste for the second class of books 

 we owe to the nature of our government, which 

 is eminently calculated to foster, to bring for- 

 ward, and to display political talents, and to ex- 

 cite the attention of every class of citizens to po- 

 litical inquiries. And the general encourage- 

 ment given to productions of the last mentioned 

 kind arises from that disposition to attend to the 

 education of children, which has long chaiacte- 

 riscd the eastern states, and which, during the 

 last ten years of the century under review, rapid- 

 ly extended itself through every part of the 

 union. 



The School establishments of New England, 



■ S2 



