A SKETCH OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. CHAPTER I. Literature in the Colonies imitative-Relation of American to English Literature-Gradual Advancement of the United States in Letters-Their first Development theological-Writers in this Department-Jonathan Edwards -Religious Controversy-William E. Channing-Writings of the ClergyNewspapers and School Books-Domestic Literature-Female WritersOratory-Revolutionary Eloquence-American Orators-Alexander Hamilton-Daniel Webster and others-Edward Everett-American History and Historians-Jared Sparks - David Ramsay-George Bancroft-HildrethElliot Lossing-William H. Prescott-Irving-Wheaton-Cooper-Park. man. LITERATURE is a positive element of civilized life; but in different countries and epochs it exists sometimes as a passive taste or means of culture, and at others as a development of productive tendencies. The first is the usual form in colonial societies, where the habit of looking to the fatherland for intellectual nutriment as well as political authority is the natural result even of patriotic feeling. The circumstances, too, of young communities, like those of the individual, are unfavourable to original literary production. Life is too absorbing to be recorded otherwise than in statistics. The wants of the hour and the exigencies of practical responsibility wholly engage the mind. Half a century ago, it was usual to sneer in England at the literary pretensions of America; but the ridicule was quite as unphilosophical as unjust, for it was to be expected that the new settlements would find their chief mental subsistence in the rich heritage of British literature, endeared to them by a community of language, political sentiment, and historical association. And when a few of the busy denizens of a new republic ventured to give expression to their thoughts, it was equally natural that the spirit and the principles of their ancestral literature should reappear. Scenery, border-life, the vicinity of the aborigines, and a great political experiment were the only novel features in the new (433) world upon which to found anticipations of originality; in academic culture, habitual reading, moral and domestic tastes, and cast of mind, the Americans were identified with the mother country; and in all essential particulars, would naturally follow the style thus inherent in their natures and confirmed by habit and study. At first, therefore, the literary development of the United States was imitative; but with the progress of the country, and her increased leisure and meaus of education, the writings of the people became more and more characteristic; theological and political occasions gradually ceased to be the exclusive moulds of thought; and didactic, romantic, and picturesque compositions appeared from time to time. Irving peopled 'Sleepy Hollow' with fanciful creations; Bryant described not only with truth and grace, but with devotional sentiment, the characteristic scenes of his native land; Cooper introduced Europeans to the wonders of her forest and sea-coast; Bancroft made her story eloquent; and Webster proved that the race of orators who once roused her children to freedom, was not extinct. The names of Edwards and Franklin were echoed abroad; the bonds of mental dependence were gradually loosened the inherited tastes remained, but they were freshened with a more native zest,—and although Brockden Brown is still compared to Godwin, Irving to Addison, Cooper to Scott, Hoffman to Moore, Emerson to Carlyle, and Holmes to Pope, a characteristic vein, an individuality of thought, and a local significance is now generally recognised in the emanations of the American mind; and the best of them rank favourably and harmoniously with similar examplars in British literature; while, in a few instances, the nationality is so marked, and so sanctioned by true genius as to challenge the recognition of all impartial and able critics. The majority, however, of our authors are men of talent rather than of genius; the greater part of the literature of the country has sprung from New England, and is therefore, as a general rule, too unimpassioned and coldly elegant for popular effect. There has been a lamentable want of self-reliance, and an obstinate blindness to the worth of native material, both scenic, historical, and social. The great defect of our literature has been a lack of independence, and too exclusive a deference to hackneyed models; there has been and is no deficiency of intellectual life; it has thus far, however, often proved too diffusive and conventional for great results. The intellect of the country first developed in a theological form. This was a natural consequence of emigration, induced by difference of religious opinion, the free scope which the new colonies afforded for discussion, and the variety of creeds represented by the different races who thus met on a common soil, including every diversity of sentiment, from Puritanism to Episcopacy, each extreme modified by shades of doctrine and individual speculation. The clergy, also, were the best educated and most influential class; in political and social 435 as well as religious affairs, their voice had a controlling power; and, for a considerable period, they alone enjoyed that frequent immunity from physical labor which is requisite to mental productiveness. The colonial era, therefore, boasted only a theological literature, for the most part fugitive and controversial; yet sometimes taking a more permanent shape, as in the Biblical Concordance of Newman, and some of the writings of Roger Williams, Increase and Cotton Mather, Mayhew, Cooper, Stiles, Dwight, Elliot, Johnson, Chauncey, Witherspoon, and Hopkins. There is no want of learning or reasoning power in many of the tracts of those once formidable disputants; and such reading accorded with the stern tastes of our ancestors; but, as a general rule, the specimens which yet remain in print, are now only referred to by the curious student of divinity or the antiquarian. One enduring relic, however, of this epoch survives, and is held in great estimation by metaphysicians for its subtlety of argument, its originality and vigor, and masterly treatment of a profound subject. I allude to the celebrated Treatise on the Will, by Dr. Edwards, a work originally undertaken to furnish a philosophical basis for the Calvinistic dogmas; and, in its sagacious hardihood of thought, forming a characteristic introduction to the literary history of New England. Jonathan Edwards was the only son of a Connecticut minister of good acquirements and sincere piety. He was born in 1703 in the town of Windsor; he entered Yale College at the age of thirteen, and at nineteen became a settled preacher in New York. In 1723, he was elected a tutor in the college at New Haven; and after discharging its duties with eminent success for two years, he became the colleague of his grandfather, in the ministry, at the beautiful village of Northampton, in Massachusetts. Relieved from all material cares by the affection of his wife, his time was entirely given to professional occupations and study. An ancient elm is yet designated in the town where he passed so many years, in the crotch of which was his favorite seat, where he was accustomed to read and think for hours together. His sermons began to attract attention, and several were republished in England. As a writer, he first gained celebrity by a treatise on 'Original Sin.' He was inaugurated President of Princeton College, N. J., on the 16th of February 1785; and on the 22d of the ensuing March died of small-pox, which then ravaged the vicinity. "This remarkable man," says Sir James Mackintosh, "the metaphysician of America, was formed among the Calvinists of New England, when their stern doctrine retained its vigorous authority. His power of subtle argument, perhaps unmatched, certainly unsurpassed among men, was joined, as in some of the ancient mystics, with a character which raised his piety to fervor. He embraced their doctrine, probably without knowing it to be theirs. Had he suffered this noble principle to take the right road to all its fair con |