place." In this respect we go beyond every other nation. It were well if these vehicles of information had improved as much in purity, intelligence, and instructiveness, as in other respects; but the blindest partiality for American literature must perceive and lament the sad reverse!

It may not be improper to attempt, in a few sentences, a comparative estimate of the extent to which different branches of knowledge are cultivated in different parts of the United States.

That amount of knowledge which is usually acquired at common schools, viz. reading, writing, and arithmetic, is more generally diffused among all classes of the people in New-England, and particularly in Massachusetts and Connecticut, than in any other portion of our country, and indeed than in any other part of the globe. This may be ascribed to the superior excellence of their School establishments; to the number, piety, and diligence of the Clergy; to the regular organization of their towns and parishes; to the honourable point of light in which the instructors of youth are considered; and to the general spirit of activity and enterprize which must be admitted to enter into the national character of New-England.

It may also be observed, as another circum.. stance of discrimination, that in the Eastern States a larger portion of the youth pass through a regular collegiate course of education, than in any other

u See pages 250 and 251 of the present volume.

This circumstance has a most benign influence in New-England. In the Middle, but more especially in the Southern States, the employment of a Schoolmaster is considered by many as rather degrading, and has sometimes been used as a ground of reproach. The consequence is, that too many of the instructors of youth in these States are ignorant and vicious adventurers; those who are well qualified rather shunning an office to which so little respect is attached. In the New-England States it iş otherwise. Some of their greatest Divines and Statesmen were Schoolmasters in early life. The employment is considered and treated as an honourable one. The consequence is, that the common parish schools Are generally under the care of well informed and virtuous men.

part of our country. In New-England, the mass of the people are more generally taught to respect literature, and to make exertions for conferring this advantage on their children. In that part of the Union also, the expense attending an Academic course is rather less than in most of the other American Seminaries. These two circumstances have a natural tendency to fill their Colleges with a greater number of Students than are to be found elsewhere.

The Classic Literature of the United States, as was before remarked, is almost every where superficial. It is believed, however, that the learned languages, and especially the Greek language, are rather less studied in the Eastern than in the Middle and Southern States. It is true, many more individuals attend to this branch of learning in the former than in the latter; but they read fewer books, and devote a less portion of time to the ob ject. For this fact, many reasons might be assigned; but it is not necessary to mention more than two. The one is, that, owing to the superior wealth enjoyed by a number of individuals in the Middle and Southern States, it was more common, during a great part of the eighteenth century, to send young men to Europe for their education from those States, than from New-England. The youth, thus educated, might be expected, of course, to bring back with them to their native country, a larger portion of classic literature than could be easily acquired in American seminaries. Another reason is, that, while almost all the instructors of youth in New-England, and especially

The Author is aware, that in tracing the literary history of NewEngland, the names of some classical Scholars of great eminence are found. He means, however, only to speak of the degree of attention generally paid to Classic literature, by those who go through a collegiate course in the Eastern States, and especially within the last twenty or thirty years.

the higher classes of them, during the last hundred years, have been natives; a large portion of the Superintendents of Academies, and of the Presi dents and Professors of Colleges, in the Middle and Southern parts of our country, during the same period, were Europeans, and many of them eminently accomplished in classic literature. If, there, fore, the knowledge in this branch of learning, acquired in the best seminaries of Europe, were usually more accurate and profound than could ordinarily be obtained from our native citizens, it must follow of course, that those who derived their classical learning from the former of these sources, were, in general, more thoroughly instructed themselves, and consequently more capable of instructing others, than those who had access only to the latter.

In the study of Oriental Literature, it is be lieved that New-England has generally excelled the Middle and Southern States. Certain it is, that we hear of more eminent Orientalists in the former than in the latter; if we except a few foreigners occasionally residing among us. This we may ascribe to the great Oriental learning of several of those distinguished divines who came with the first settlers to New-England, or who soon afterwards followed them thither. The influence of these men has continued, in a degree, to the present day. To this circumstance it may be added, that the University of Cambridge, in Massachusetts, is the only seminary of learning in the United States in which a Professorship for instruction in the Oriental languages has been steadily maintained through the whole of the eighteenth cen tury.

In the cultivation of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, it is difficult to say to what part of our country the preference ought to be given. Prop

bably an impartial judge, taking the whole history of the country together, would give the palm, in this respect, to Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

The Sciences of Chemistry, Natural History, and Medicine, have long been, and continue to be, more successfully cultivated in the Middle and Southern than in the Eastern States. The same reasons apply in this case that were suggested with respect to Classic literature. Comparatively, few young men have been sent, at any period, from the Eastern States to European seminaries to complete their medical education. Besides this consideration, foreigners, even of literary and scientific character, have received less encouragement to settle in those States than in most other parts of the Union. On the other hand, from the Middle and Southern States a number of young men have been, every year, sent to the Medical Schools of Europe, who not only attended the ordinary courses of instruction in Medicine, strictly so called, but also the Lectures delivered on Che mistry and Natural History, as important auxiliary branches of Philosophy. It is further to be observed, that several learned and enterprizing foreigners, who visited and resided for some time in New-York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South, Carolina, devoted much of their time and attention to Natural History; excited some of the native citizens, in their respective neighbourhoods, to engage in this study; and thus introduced that

y There is a particular reference here to CATESBY, GARDEN, and WALTER, who resided in South-Carolina; to MITCHELL, who spent a number of years in Virginia; to Professor KALM, who devoted several years to travelling in the Middle States; to SCHOEPF and WANGENHEIM, who came to America with the German troops, during the Revo Jutionary war; to whom may be added, Dr. COLDEN and Dr. MUHLEN BERG, whose talents and zeal in the study of Botany have been before repeatedly mentioned.

z It was probably owing to the conversation and influence of these, or of some other foreigners visiting the country, that CLAYTON, STARKE

taste for inquiries of this nature which has ever since existed, in a greater or less degree, in some individuals in those States.

New-England has given birth to the greatest number, and the most eminent of the native Theological writers of America. And there is no doubt that by far the larger portion of the Sermons printed in the United States, whether in volumes or single discourses, is produced in that part of our country. It may also be asserted, that almost all the valuable disquisitions on the Philosophy of the hu man mind, which have been published on this side of the Atlantic, were written in New-England.

In the literature and science of Politics, it is not easy to say which part of our country is most entitled to credit. If we pronounce in favour of those States, which have produced the greatest number of eminent political writers, we must give the first honours to Massachusetts, New-York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. But there is no subject more generally studied, in every State in the Union, than Political science; none on which our literary men so frequently write; and, of course, none which so constantly calls forth the exertion of talents.

Of Historical composition, the Eastern States have produced their full proportion, and rather more. Of respectable Poets, they have given birth to a greater number than any other proportional division of the Union. And in Belles Lettres generally, there is, without doubt, more cultivation in New-England than in any other part of our country; if we except the larger cities in the Middle and Southern States.

With respect to the Mechanic Arts, New-England has furnished her full proportion of those in

CARY, and GREENWAY, of Virginia; and the BARTRAMS, MARSHALL and others, of Pennsylvania, were so much devoted to botanical pursuits,