them to fifty householders, shall appoint one to teach all children to write and read; and when any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families, they shall set up a grammar-school; the masters thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university."

31. Harvard College. Harvard College, the oldest institution of learning in the United States, was founded in 1636. In that year the Massachusetts assembly "agreed to give four hundred pounds towards a school or college." This appropriation was equivalent to the colony tax for one year, and from

this point of view would equal at the present time several millions of dollars. Newtown, which was afterwards changed to Cambridge in memory of the English university town, was chosen as the site of the new college. When John Harvard, who died shortly after the founding of the college, bequeathed

to it his library and one-half of his estate, his name was associated with the institution which was destined to exert an untold influence upon the literary history of our country.

32. Literary Pre-eminence. We can now understand the literary pre-eminence of New England. From the first it was colonized by an earnest body of men of unusual intelligence. They lived together in towns, where perpetual contact sharpened their wits, and kept them in sympathy with subjects of common interest. Their attitude to religion led them to theological discussion. With some conception at least of the magnitude and far-reaching results of their undertaking, they minutely noted the facts of their experience, and sought to build a solid political structure. The tasks imposed upon them, as well as their novel and picturesque surroundings, stimulated their minds to the highest activity. From their surroundings and character we should not expect artistic form. They hardly thought of literature as a fine art. But in their literature we find a manly strength and an intense earnestness of purpose.

a large number of writers in New England. Most of their works, however, are of interest now only to the antiquarian or specialist. No masterpiece of literature, such as the Puritan Milton produced in England, appeared to adorn American letters. The first book printed was the "Bay Psalm Book," a rude rendering of the Hebrew. As the preface informs us, "It hath been one part of our religious care and faithful endeavor to keep close to the original text. If, therefore, the verses are not always so smooth and elegant as some may desire or expect, ... we have respected rather a plain translation than to smooth our verses with the sweetness of any paraphrase; and so have attended conscience rather than elegance, fidelity rather than poetry." After this introduction. we are not much surprised to read the following version of Psalm XIX:

"The heavens doe declare

the majesty of God:

also the firmament shews forth
his handywork abroad.

Day speaks to day, knowledge

night hath to night declar'd.

There neither speach nor language is,

where their voyce is not heard.

Through all the earth their line

is gone forth, & unto

the utmost end of all the world,
their speaches reach also:

A Tabernacle hee

in them pitcht for the Sun,

Who Bridegroom like from's chamber goes

glad Giants-race to run.

From heavens utmost end,

his course and compassing

To ends of it, & from the heat
thereof is hid nothing."

34. Narrow Range of Literature. Both in Virginia and New England the range of subjects is limited. The life of the times, as in every age, is reflected in its literary works. Not æsthetic enjoyment but practical utility is the end aimed at. A glance at the titles of the principal works of this period, as given in the preceding list of writers, will show that narration and description, history, religion and theology, and civil administration were the principal themes. And in their treatment we find abundance and force rather than selfrestraint and perfection of form.

35. George Sandys. To these remarks, however, there are at least two important exceptions - one in each colony. Amid the suffer

ings, hardships,

and dangers of establishing a home on this wild continent, two souls still sought opportunity to cultivate the muse of poetry. The first was George Sandys, who, coming to Virginia in 1622, there completed his translation of the fifteen books of Ovid's "Met

GEORGE SANDYS

amorphoses." "This book," to use the words of Tyler, "may well have for us a sort of sacredness, as being the first monu

ment of English poetry, of classical scholarship, and a deliberate literary art, reared on these shores. And when we open the book, and examine it with reference to its merits, first, as a faithful rendering of the Latin text, and, second, as a specimen of fluent, idiomatic, and musical English poetry, we find that in both particulars it is a work that we may be proud to claim as in some sense our own, and to honor as the morning-star at once of poetry and of scholarship in the new world!" A few lines must suffice for illustration:

"The Golden Age was first; which uncompeld
And without rule, in faith and truth exceld,
As then there was no punishment nor fear;
Nor threat'ning laws in brass prescribed were;
Nor suppliant crouching prisoners shook to see
Their angrie judge."

36. Anne Bradstreet. The other exception to the prevalent utilitarian authorship was Mrs. Anne Bradstreet of Massachusetts, who was known as "the tenth muse lately sprung up in America." She found time, even among the cares of rearing eight children, to acquire considerable stores of learning. She was well versed in ancient history. In her poetry, learning, it must be confessed, frequently supplanted inspiration. Sometimes we meet with rather a startling piece of realism, as when, in speaking of winter, she says:

"Beef, brawn, and pork are now in great'st request,
And solid'st meats our stomachs can digest."

But she loved nature; and in her descriptions of flowers, and birds, and streams, she often reaches the plane of genuine poetry. Her moralizing is naturally in the sombre Puritan