1881.] 297 [Phillips. 



This most peculiar blessing rarely fails, 



The happy land adorned with hills and vales. 



The crystal springs that wash the mountain's side, 



Start from the hills and through the valleys glide, 



Collect their force from single drops begun. 



Unite their streams, enlarging as they run ; 



From brook to brook discharge the liquid store. 



Till ample Rivers in procession roar. 



Where these abound who can the blessing tell 



Which all enjoy and few consider well. 



Upon the horrid fields of driving sand. 



Betwixt Numedia and the Negro's land, 



A merchant's tomb his monument remains 



Who dy'd of thirst upon the scorching plain: 



A greedy carrier, fond of sacred gold, 



A draught of water to the merchant sold. 



Ten thousand Ducats was the price it cost. 



So dear he paid his dearer life he lost. 



Who can behold the springs and purling rills 



In sweet Meanders gliding down the hills. 



And not remember these unhappy plains, 



Where horror dwells and death forever reigns? 



In June is written in an old liand '•' y^ Governour arrived y^ 1^' day." 



In August of this year ; 



If needless, things we laid aside, 



A. woman destitute of Pride, 



Bohea and Green would scarcely steer 



2'welve thousand miles to find us here. 



Taylor for 1741 is filled with quotations from Paradise Lost. 



Taylor's Almanac for 1743 was "printed and sold by Isaiah Warxer 

 almost opposite to Charles Brockden's, in Chesnui-Street; " and contains 

 "The Indian Prophecy. 



" An Indian of this Province looking at the great Comet Anno 1680, be- 

 ing asked what he thought was the Meaning of that prodigious Appearance, 

 his answer was, ' 'It signifies tJiatwe Indians shall melt away and this coicntry 

 be inhabited by another sort of People. ' ' This Prediction the Indian delivered 

 very grave and positive, to a Z)M<cA??ifm of good Reputation, living there and 

 many Years since near Chester, on Delaware, who related the same punc- 

 tually to an Englishman, now living, whose Veracity, I think, is never ques- 

 tioned." The chain of evidence here is certainly very remarkable, but 

 cannot be called conclusive. In the same Almanac at the end of an article 

 on Politics occurs these words : "from us to the river St. Laurence, we 

 know the space too well. I could wish that his most Cliristian Majesty 

 had, in lieu of that, a Country ten times better, and a thousand times the 

 distance." 



Taylor's Almanac for 1744, was "Printed and sold by I. Warner and 

 C. Bradford at the sign of the Bible in Front-Street.'' 



The whole collection, filled with quaint and curious matter of which the 

 foregoing is a fair specimen, is well worthy of attention as an example of 

 early printing in Pennsylvania. The orthography is extremely unsettled, 

 and the grammar equally uncertain. 



