Entering the 18th c., we come at once upon a name that towers high above all pre ceding, and in metaphysics and religious criticism above nearly all names, the last and greatest of the Puritan apostles, the Boanerges of Jonathan Edwards, only son in a family of fourteen children, whose influence still permeates New England, where his life was spent, and whose name is treasured iu the college of New Jersey, over which he presided for the last few months of his life. This is not the place to record his history. His influence was not confined to this country, but was long a living power in all English theology. Edwards has been called by some admirer " the first man of the world during the second quarter of the 18th century." His style, though not always lucid, is vigorous; his eloquence was fervid, and his life modest and simple. Ten large volumes comprised his share of American literature. The most famous of %his works is known as Edwards on the Will. A singular event will illustrate both his modesty and his power: Once. when Whitfield, the wonderful preacher, failed to appear as appointed, Edwards, a young man almost unknown in person to the public, took the place of the expected orator. He naturally thought that many of the audience would leave, but they did not; they soon became attentive, and perfect silence reigned. They were soon chained to his words; then, as was the custom, one after another rose to hear more perfectly; then they all rose, and pressed around hint, and before lie concluded, sobs and tears attested the power of simple argument modestly delivered. Edwards was b. in Conn., Oct. 5, 1703, and d. March 22, 1758. It has been the habit of some' English writers to say that there is no such thing as American literature, assigning as their reason that the sameness of language makes it impossible, since it is all English literature. However, even those writers graciously admit that there are American authors, and unanimously name Jonathan Edwards as one. The name next following is that of Benjamin Franklin, whom, it is safe to say, all the world will admit to have been the most American of Americans. His career and works, literary and political, in philosophy, in social economies, and in diplomacy, are too well known for more than mere mention. Every child knows, or should know, the story of the poor apprentice who "tore the lightning from heaven and the scepter from tyrants," and left to American literature the wisdom of an honest and a great mind. The struggle for liberty opened in the third quarter of the 18th c., and tinged for a time all spoken and written literature. With Edwards the domination of theology, which had continued from the landing of the Pilgrims, passed away, and philosophy and belles-lettres began to have audience. But the revolution suspended literary activity, except in the political sphere, and the names next after Franklin belong to the forum as well as the printed page. Prof. John Winthrop, of Harvard, intervened with lectures on earthquakes, storms, astronomy, and miscellaneous themes; and capt. Benjamin Church wrote a History of King Philip's War. William Livingston, governor of New York in 1776, was a notable writer for the newspapers, and author of a heavy didactic poem. Ezra Stiles, president of Yale college, left 45 volumes of diary and manuscripts. The first woman author after Anne Bradstreet, in our annals, was Mercy Warren (daughter of col. James Otis, Of Barnstable, )ra.ss.), who wrote The Adulator, a political satire; The Sack of Rome, and The Ladies of Castile, works highly eommended by John Adams.
Reaching the critical period of revolution, we pass hastily over the remainder of the century, necessarily mingling together orators and writers. James Otis was the oldest of the revolutionary leaders, a ready writer and a remarkable speaker. John Adams was early in the war of words. On the royalist side," parson Peters" (the. Her. Samuel Peters) wrote, at a later period, a caustic History of Connecticut, full of wit and and not bound by the truth. Thomas Paine must rank highest among those who contributed not only to our political emancipation but also to our literary fame. Francis Ilopkinson, satirist, and William I3artram, traveler in the southern colonies, must be mentioned, the latter for his admirable descriptive powers. Thomas Jefferson;
Josiah Quincy, jr.; Jeremy Belknap, distinguished clergyman; Lindley Murray, whose grammar was the bete nenr of our grandfathers and grandmothers; John Jay, Huguenot jurist; Benjamin Rush, physician and philosopher, friend of Franklin; Richard Rush, diplomat; 'William C. Redfield, meteorologist; Jonathan M. Sewall, poet; Hugh Brackenridge, politician, judge, and satirist— these bring us to John Trumbull, the author of licliTingal, the best imitation of Hudibras ever produced, and of The Progress of Dullness, an elaborate epic poem. Then come John Ledyard, one of the most distinguished of travelers; and Philip Freneau, the first American poet of real fame, a prolific and gifted writer, from whom the fastidious Campbell deigned to borrow. James Madison and Gouverneur Morris must be mentioned; and then Timothy Dwight, president of Yale college, theologian and poet. We now find in the foreground a dark shade char acteristic of our country—Phillis, a full-blooded African, brought here when a child, bought in the Boston slave market by a Mrs. Wheatly, whose name she took; a prodigy of intellect, and a poet of no mean order, complimented by Washington and by men of high position in New England. Another writer of the period was Benjamin Thompson, a student of science, better known as count Rumford; another poet was David Hum phries, household and camp companion of Washington. lie is followed by our first epic poet, whose works are still read, Joel Barlow, author of The Vbcion of Columbus, and, The. Hasty Pudding. Chief justice John Marshall's name brings us back to sober proSe in his Life of Washington. Hannah Adams wrote a History of New England; Henry Lee wrote Memoirs of the War in the Southern part of the United States; Royal Tyler follows, a wit, a poet, and a chief justice, who wrote in one moment the gravest legal opinions and in the next the most delightful squibs.
And now we reach the name of a man whose untimely taking off was the destruction of the federal party, and doubtless changed the partisan complexion, if not the theory, of our government—Alexander Hamilton, Washington's mentor and chief reliance, the Ajax of federalism. Hamilton's writings are chiefly political, but they are characteris tically American, and of the highest order of composition. Fisher Ames, the federal leader in congress, wrote political essays, and pronounced before the Massachusetts legis lature a noble eulogy upon Washington. Noah Webster appears, who, if not a literary magnate himself, was the cause and aid of literature in others. Jedediah Morse gave the country its first geographical works soon after the establishment of the government. Albert Gallatin is a name deservedly famous in diplomacy and as awriter on finance. Fran cis Wayland, president of Brown university, left an undying Treatise on Human Respon sibility, and other works. James Kent gave us Commentaries on American Law, which compelled the Edinburgh Review to say of him and Story, "They have done more than any other men to put an end to the indifference of English lawyers to the learning of their American brethren." Kent was of New York; and about this time that city had a savant of rare intellectual ability in Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, and a historian and dramatic author of note in William Dunlap. At the same time the whole land, and English people everywhere, were honored with the first American ornithologist, Alexander Wil son—a Scotchman, however, by birth. his seventy-v9lume Ornithology is a standard work. But we must close the century by rapid mention of John Quincy Adams, young but becoming known as a writer; De Witt Clinton, beginning to be heard from; Joseph Dennie, journalist,author,and critic, the "Lay Preacher" of a monthly publication ; David Rittenhouse, astronomer and mathematician, of whom high authority said, " We should place him in point of scientific merit second to Franklin alone;" and, to finish the century and the revolutionary era, we name the first American novelist, Charles Brockden Brown, a Philadelphian, whose Quaker ancestors came over with William Penn. Brown's Wieland, or the Transformation (1798), Ormand, or the Secret 1Vitness (1799), and Arthur Mervyn (1800), are works of acknowledged merit, and he is highly eulogized by Prescott.