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THE
Philadelphia Magazines
AND THEIR
CONTRIBUTORS
1741-1850
BY
ALBERT H. SMYTH,
_A. B._, _Johns Hopkins University_,
_Professor of English Literature in the Philadelphia High School;
Member of the American Philosophical Society._
PHILADELPHIA:
ROBERT M. LINDSAY
1892
TO
J. G. ROSENGARTEN
A TOKEN OF THE
GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION OF THE
AUTHOR
PREFACE.
This study in the history of the Philadelphia magazines was undertaken
at the request of Professor H. B. Adams, and the results were first read
at a joint-meeting of the Historical and English Seminaries of the Johns
Hopkins University. At a later date they were again read before the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The subject has been found so rich,
and the materials so interesting, that, in spite of my best efforts to
be brief, the article has grown into a book. It has been with no little
distrust that I have made this wide excursion from my chosen studies,
but the generous aid and encouragement of friends, who are learned in
our local lore, have given me heart to complete and to publish the
results of these researches.
A complete list of the Philadelphia magazines is impossible. Many of
them have disappeared and left not a rack behind. The special student of
Pennsylvania history will detect some omissions in these pages, for all
that has here been done has been done at first hand, and where a
magazine was inaccessible to me, I have not attempted to see it through
the eyes of a more fortunate investigator. I have done my best to make
the story, dull and dreary as it surely is at times, not unworthy of its
subject, or of the city that it describes, and of which I grow fonder
year by year.
My grateful thanks are due to my friends, Professor H. B. Adams, Dr.
James W. Bright, Mr. Charles R. Hildeburn, Professor John Bach McMaster,
Hon. S. W. Pennypacker and Mr. F. D. Stone, for thoughtful suggestions
and valuable information.
I am deeply indebted to Mr. George W. Childs for his unfailing interest
and assistance. To Mr. George R. Graham, Dr. Thomas Dunn English, Mr.
John Sartain and Mr. Frank Lee Benedict I owe some of the most important
facts in this little volume.
ALBERT H. SMYTH.
_Philadelphia, 5 February, 1892,
126, South Twenty-second Street._
"Sweet Philadelphia! lov'liest of the lawn,"
Where rising greatness opes its pleasing dawn,
Where daring commerce spreads th' advent'rous sail,
Cleaves thro' the wave, and drives before the gale,
Where genius yields her kind conducting lore,
And learning spreads its inexhausted store:--
Kind seat of industry, where art may see
Its labours foster'd to its due degree,
Where merit meets the due regard it claims,
Tho' envy dictates and tho' malice blames:--
Thou fairest daughter of Columbia's train,
The great emporium of the western plain;--
Best seat of science, friend to ev'ry art,
That mends, improves, or dignifies the heart.
_The Philadelphiad_, Vol. I, p. 6, 1784.
INTRODUCTION.
To relate the history of the Philadelphia magazines is to tell the story
of Philadelphia literature. The story is not a stately nor a splendid
one, but it is exceedingly instructive. It helps to exhibit the process
of American literature as an evolution, and it illustrates perilous and
important chapters in American history. For a hundred years Pennsylvania
was the seat of the ripest culture in America. The best libraries were
to be found here, and the earliest and choicest reprints of Latin and
English classics were made here. James Logan, a man of gentle nature and
a scholar of rare attainments, had gathered at Stenton a library that
comprehended books "so scarce that neither price nor prayers could
purchase them." John Davis, the satirical English traveller, who said of
Princeton that it was "a place more famous for its college than its
learning," did justice, despite of his own nature, to Logan and to
Philadelphia when he wrote: "The Greek and Roman authors, forgotten on
their native banks of the Ilissus and Tiber, delight by the kindness of
a Logan the votaries to learning on those of the _Delaware_." The
eagerness of Philadelphia social circles for each new thing in
literature enabled booksellers to import large supplies from England and
to undertake splendid editions of notable books. Dr. Johnson was made to
feel amiable for a moment toward America on being presented with a copy
of _Rasselas_ bearing a Philadelphia imprint.
The first American editions of Shakespeare and of Milton, of "Pamela"
and of "The Vicar of Wakefield" were printed in Philadelphia. In the
same city, in 1805, Aristotle's "Ethics" and "Politics" were published
for the first time in America. A little later came the costly
"Columbiad" and the great volumes of Alexander Wilson. Robert Aitken, at
the Pope's Head, issued the first English Bible in America in 1782, and
his daughter, Jane, printed Charles Thomson's translation of the
Septuagint in four superb volumes in 1808. Robert Bell successfully
compiled Blackstone's _Commentaries_ in 1772, "a stupendous enterprise."
Bell did much by his good taste and untiring industry to advance the
literary culture of the city. "The more books are sold," he declared in
one of his broadsides, "the more will be sold, is an established Truth
well known to every liberal reader, and to every bookseller of
experience. For the sale of one book propagateth the sale of another
with as much certainty as the possession of one guinea helpeth to the
possession of another."
"The Philadelphiad" (1784) gives us a glimpse of the motley society that
loitered in Bell's Third Street shop.
"Just by St. Paul's, where dry divines rehearse,
_Bell_ keeps his store for vending prose and verse,
And books that's neither--for no age nor clime,
Lame, languid prose, begot on hobb'ling ryme.
Here authors meet who ne'er a sprig have got,
The poet, player, doctor, wit and sot;
Smart politicians wrangling here are seen
Condemning Jeffries or indulging spleen,
Reproving Congress or amending laws,
Still fond to find out blemishes and flaws;
Here harmless _sentimental-mongers_ join
To praise some author or his wit refine,
Or treat the mental appetite with lore
From Plato's, Pope's, and Shakespeare's endless store;
Young blushing writers, eager for the bays,
Try here the merit of their new-born lays,
Seek for a patron, follow fleeting fame,
And beg the slut may raise their hidden name."
The Philadelphia magazines, from Franklin's to Graham's, furnished ample
opportunities for "young blushing writers eager for the bays." Their
articles, it is true, were often a kind of yeasty collection of fond and
winnowed opinions, but among these shallow fopperies there would at
times be heard a strain of higher mood. Nor is the story of these
magazines altogether without its pathos. American writers, after the
Revolution which lost England her colonies, felt themselves to be under
the opprobrium of the literary world. They felt keenly the sneers of
English men-of-letters, and winced under injustice and invective that
they were not strong enough to resent. The insolence of British
travellers was especially provoking. J. N. Williams, a Philadelphian,
stung by some offensive criticism by a wandering Englishman, wrote,
"America looked not for a spy upon the sanctity of her household gods in
the stranger that sat within her gates; she scarce supposed that the
hand of a clumsy servant like the claws of the harpies could utterly mar
and defile the feast which honest hospitality had provided."
The _Port Folio_, in 1810, was moved indignantly to declare that
foreign critics grounded their strictures "upon the tales of some
miserable reptiles who, after having abused the hospitality and patience
of this country, levy a tax from their own by disseminating a vile mass
of falsehood and nonsense under the denomination of Travels through the
United States."
Sydney Smith waved American literature contemptuously aside in the
_Edinburgh Review_. _The Quarterly_ was brutal in its attacks upon timid
transatlantic books. William Godwin reproached American ignorance, and
proceeded to locate Philadelphia upon the Chesapeake Bay. No wonder that
the _Port Folio_ exclaimed in 1810, "The fastidious arrogance with which
the reviewers and magazine makers of Great Britain treat the genius and
intellect of this country is equalled by nothing but their profound
ignorance of its situation."
The insolence of Great Britain affected American writers in two ways.
Some it stung into violent hatred or sullen antagonism, others it
coerced into timid imitation and servility. Upon Dennie and his
associates it had the latter effect, and the _Port Folio_ vigorously
resisted all "Americanisms" in politics and in letters, and sought to
conciliate England and to win the coveted stamp of English approbation
by unlimited adulation of the favorites of the hour. "To study with a
view of becoming an author by profession in America," wrote Dennie, "is
a prospect of no less flattering promise than to publish among the
Esquimaux an essay on delicacy of taste, or to found an academy of
sciences in Lapland."
Upon Brackenridge and Paine the truculent criticisms of England acted as
a lively stimulus, and they went profanely to work "to resent the
British scoff that when separated from England the colonies would become
mere illiterate ourang-outangs."
Thomas Green Fessenden, one of the contributors to the _Farmers' Weekly
Museum_, and to Dennie's _Port Folio_, wrote in the preface to his
"Original Poems" (Philadelphia, 1806), "Although the war, which
terminated in a separation of the two nations, inflicted wounds which,
it is to be feared, still rankle, yet the more considerate of both
countries have long desired (if I may be allowed a transatlantic simile)
that the hatchet of animosity might be buried in the grave of oblivion"
(page 6). A little further on he confesses his timidity, when, speaking
of the political leaders at home, he says, "I could have enlarged on the
demerits of these political impostors, but I feared I might disgust the
English reader by such exhibitions of human depravity" (p. 7).
A serener voice is that of John Blair Linn, brother-in-law of Charles
Brockden Brown, who was not out of love with his nativity, nor
accustomed to disable the benefits of his country. In his "Powers of
Genius," which was beautifully reprinted in England, we read:
"I shall not attempt to conceal the enthusiasm which I feel for
meritorious performances of native Americans. Nor can I repress my
indignation at the unjust manner in which they are treated by the
reviewers of England. America, notwithstanding their aspersions,
has attained an eminence in literature, which is, at least,
respectable. Like Hercules in his cradle, she has manifested a
gigantic grasp, and discovered that she will be great. The wisdom,
penetration and eloquence of her statesmen are undoubted--they are
known and acknowledged throughout Europe. The gentlemen of the law,
who fill her benches of justice, and who are heard at the bar, are
eminently distinguished by the powers of reason, and by
plausibility of address.... Our historians have not been numerous.
Some, however, who have unrolled our records of truth claim a
considerable portion of praise.... The prospect before us is now
brightening. Histories have been promised from pens which have
raised our expectations. The death of our great Washington has left
a subject for the American historian which has never been surpassed
in dignity.... From the poems and fictions of the Columbian Muse,
several works might be selected, which deserve high and
distinguishing praise. The poetry of our country has not yet, I
hope, assumed its most elevated and elegant form. Beneath our
skies, fancy neither sickens nor dies. The fire of poetry is
kindled by our storms. Amid our plains, on the banks of our waters,
and on our mountains, dwells the spirit of inventive enthusiasm.
"These regions are not formed only to echo the voice of Europe,
but from them shall yet sound a lyre which shall be the admiration
of the world.
"From the exhibition of American talent I indulge the warmest
expectations. I behold, in imagination, the Newtons, the Miltons
and the Robertsons of this new world, and I behold the sun of
genius pouring on our land his meridian beams.
"In order to concentrate the force of her literature, the genius of
America points to a National University, so warmly recommended, and
remembered in his will, by our deceased friend and father. Such an
establishment, far more than a pyramid that reached the clouds,
would honor the name of Washington" (p. 81).
The Philadelphia writers had their own little thrills, and their own
little ambitions, and amid the poverty of their intellectual
surroundings they refreshed themselves with visions of the giant things
to come at large. James Hall, in his "Letters from the West," wrote:
"The vicinity of Pittsburg may one day wake the lyre of the
Pennsylvanian bard to strains as martial and as sweet as Scott; ...
believe me, I should tread with as much reverence over the mausoleum of
a Shawanee chief, as among the catacombs of Egypt, and would speculate
with as much delight upon the site of an Indian village as in the
gardens of Tivoli, or the ruins of Herculaneum."
American critics soon caught the contagion of sneering censure, and
caused the _Port Folio_ to say, in 1811: "American critics seem, in
almost all cases, to have entered into a confederacy to exterminate
American poetry. If an individual has the temerity to jingle a couplet,
and to avow himself descended from Americans, the offence is absolutely
unpardonable." When Fenimore Cooper published his first novel, he
suppressed his name and wrote instead, "PRECAUTION, by _an Englishman_."
Still, a notable feature of the American magazines was a general
insistence upon or, perhaps, a preference for subjects out of American
history, or articles dealing with what might be called American
archæology--sketches of the life and character of "the ancients of these
lands"--or, at least, contributions that were tricked out in some local
garb or color. The minds of young American writers turned with alacrity
to the subjects that lay nearest to them and which were intimately
connected with the life of the country. A national literature was never
altogether absent from their thoughts, however the fear of English
censure or ridicule may have checked the aspiration. John Webbe, in his
prospectus to the first American magazine, said that the new venture
would be "an attempt to erect on neutral principles a publick theatre in
the centre of the British Empire in America" (_Amer. Weekly Mercury_,
October 30, 1740).
A discussion of the Philadelphia magazines takes us back to a time when
Philadelphia led all the cities of the country in culture, in commerce,
in statecraft and in authorship. Every new experiment in literature was
first tried in Philadelphia. Her's was the first monthly magazine
(January, 1741), and her's, too, the first daily newspaper (_Amer. Daily
Advertiser_, December 21, 1784). The first religious magazine was
_Sauer's Geistliches Magazien_ (1764)--for which Christopher Sauer cast
his own type, the first made in America--and the first religious weekly
was _The Religious Remembrancer_ (September 4, 1813). Philadelphia led
off with the first penny paper (_The Cent_) in 1830; and the first
mathematical journal (_The Annulus_), and the first _Juvenile Magazine_
(1802), and the first illustrated comical paper on an original plan,
_The John Donkey_, in 1848, were all Philadelphia adventures.
There is scarcely a notable name in the literature of America that is
not in some way connected with the Philadelphia magazines. Dennie and
Brown, the first professional men-of-letters on this continent, were
Philadelphia editors. Washington Irving edited the _Analectic Magazine_.
James Russell Lowell, Edgar Allan Poe and Bayard Taylor were editorial
writers on _Graham's Magazine_, and John Greenleaf Whittier edited _The
Pennsylvania Freeman_.
Bryant and Cooper and Longfellow and Hawthorne and a hundred lesser men
were constant contributors to the Philadelphia journals.
A striking difference between the older magazines and the recent ones is
the conspicuous absence from the journal of a century ago of what is
commonly called "light literature." Magazines were then conducted by
scholars for scholars. "Popular" essays and silly novels had not yet
depraved the taste of readers who could relish Somerville and Shenstone,
Savage and Johnson. Articles appeared monthly in the _Port Folio_ that
could not by any chance win recognition from an editor of these days.
One of the favorite amusements of the _Port Folio_ gentlemen was the
translation of Mother Goose melodies and alliterative nursery rhymes
into Latin, and especially into Greek. These curious translations, in
which the object was to preserve in the Greek, as far as possible, the
verbal eccentricities of "butter blue beans" and other intricate verses
of infantile memory, are scattered up and down the pages of the _Port
Folio_, together with fresh versions of Horace and dissertations upon
classical rhetoric.
But the curtain has fallen on all this scholastic bravery. The dust of a
dry antiquity has settled upon the laborious pages of these ragged
tomes, undisturbed save by some "local grubber," or by some
"illustrator" in search of portraits for a rich man's library.
Magazines increase and fill the demand of the public, but they are not
cut upon the ancient pattern. The gradual accumulation of books about
books, of criticisms on both, of reviews of the critics, of newspaper
accounts of the reviews, of weekly summaries of the newspapers, seems to
be carrying us ever further from the face of reality into a mere
commerce of ideas on which no healthy soul can live.
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
The type of the monthly periodical was fixed when Edward Cave, in 1731,
founded in London _The Gentleman's Magazine_. Ten years later, and at
the very time that Samuel Johnson, at St. John's Gate, was preparing for
"Sylvanus Urban, Esq.," the reports of the parliamentary debates,
Benjamin Franklin and Andrew Bradford issued in Philadelphia the first
monthly magazines in America.
These two magazines appear to have been conceived in jealousy and
brought forth in anger. In the _Philadelphia Weekly Mercury_ of October
30, 1740, is the announcement of a prospective magazine to be edited by
John Webbe and printed by Andrew Bradford, to be issued monthly, to
contain four sheets, and to cost twelve shillings Pennsylvania money a
year. The magazine, it was promised, should contain speeches of
governors, addresses and answers of assemblies, their resolutions and
debates, extracts of laws, with the reasons on which they were founded
and the grievances intended to be remedied by them; accounts of the
climate, soil, productions, trade and manufactures of all the British
plantations, the constitutions of the several colonies with their
respective views and interests; of remarkable trials, civil and
criminal; of the course of exchange and the proportion between sterling
and the several paper currencies, and the price of goods in the
principal trading marts of the plantations. One thing only the new
magazine should not contain: its pages should never be smeared by
falsehood, nor sullied by defamatory libelling.
In the _Pennsylvania Gazette_ of November 13, 1740, Franklin announced a
monthly magazine to be called _The General Magazine and Historical
Chronicle for all the British Plantations in America_. The price was to
be nine-pence Pennsylvania money, with considerable allowance to shopmen
who should take quantities. The brevity of Franklin's advertisement is
in strong contrast to the learned length of Webbe's pedantic prospectus.
He claims that the idea of the magazine had long been in his mind, and
that Webbe had stolen his plans. Before he had divulged the scheme to
Webbe he had proceeded so far in the matter as to choose his writers and
to buy his small type.
Webbe wrote a wrathful reply in the _Mercury_ of November 13, and
continued it under the title of "The Detection" through three numbers.
He admitted that Franklin did communicate to him his desire to print a
magazine, and asked him to compose it. But this did not restrain him
from publishing at any other press without Mr. Franklin's leave. In the
third number of "The Detection," Webbe accused Franklin of using his
place of Postmaster to shut the _Mercury_ out of the post, and of
refusing to allow the riders to carry it. Up to this point Franklin had
made no reply to Webbe's abuse, but upon this new attack he dropped the
advertisement of the magazine and put a letter in its stead in the
_Gazette_ of December 11. He acknowledged it to be true that the riders
did not carry Bradford's _Mercury_, but explained that the
Postmaster-General, Colonel Spotswood, had forbidden it because Mr.
Bradford had refused to settle his accounts as late Postmaster at
Philadelphia.
Webbe had the last word in the controversy in a reply to this letter
(_Mercury_, December 18), in which he showed that Franklin had not
complied with the order of Colonel Spotswood until the personal letters
appeared in the _Mercury_.
In January of the following year Andrew Bradford published _The American
Magazine; or a Monthly View of the Political State of the British
Colonies_.
Three days later Franklin issued _The General Magazine and Historical
Chronicle for all the British Plantations in America_.
Three numbers only of Bradford's periodical appeared, and only one copy
is known to exist. It is lodged in the New York Historical Society.
Franklin's magazine contained parliamentary proceedings, extracts from
sermons, a bit of verse of more than Franklinian foulness, rhymes
eulogizing Gilbert Tennent, and a manual of arms. The title-page wore
the coronet and plumes of the Prince of Wales. Franklin ridiculed his
rival's magazine in doggerel verse; his own he made no mention of in
his autobiography. Its publication ceased in June, 1741.
_The General Magazine_ had given accounts of the excited discussion that
followed the visits paid to the colonies by George Whitefield. Tens of
thousands listened to the impressive sermons of the eloquent divine,
delivered from the balcony of the courthouse, which stood then on High
Street, in the centre of the city. There Franklin and Shippen and
Lawrence and Maddox might daily be seen, and there Benjamin Chew and
Tench Francis and John Ross might daily be heard. From that balcony John
Penn, freshly arrived from England, "showed himself to his anxious and
expectant people." One block east of the ancient courthouse was the
London Coffee-house, and there, too, were the publishing houses of those
days. Directly opposite to the Coffee-house, on the north side of High
Street, was the shop of the famous bookseller from London, James
Rivington, whose father in 1741 published Richardson's "Pamela," and
supplied six editions of it in a twelvemonth. Immediately to the west
was Robert Aitken, who published the _Pennsylvania Magazine_ and the
first English Bible in America. And hither, to the old Coffee-house, in
1754, William Bradford removed his famous hereditary press, and three
years later printed the third Philadelphia magazine.
The first William Bradford arrived in Philadelphia in 1685, and brought
with him the second printing press that was set up in British North
America. Upon it, in the following year, he printed the first Middle
Colony publication, the "Kalendarium Pennsilvaniense." His son, Andrew
Sowle, named after a London printer of Friends' books, to whom the
father had been apprenticed, continued the business, and from 1712 to
1723 was the only printer in Pennsylvania. From his press, at the sign
of the Bible, issued the first American magazine. Andrew's nephew,
William Bradford, grandson of the first William, transferred the
business to the London Coffee-house, and in October, 1757, published the
first number of "_The American Magazine and Monthly Chronicle for the
British Colonies_. By a Society of Gentlemen. Printed and sold by
William Bradford." The policy of the new magazine was to support the
cause of the crown against France, and the Penns against Franklin and
the Friends.
The French and Indian war brought the magazine into existence. "That
war," says the editor in his preface, "has rendered this country at
length the object of a very general attention, and it seems now become
as much the mode among those who would be useful or conspicuous in the
state, to seek an acquaintance with the affairs of these colonies, their
constitutions, interests and commerce, as it had been before, to look
upon such matters as things of inferior or secondary consideration." The
editor further relates the origin of the enterprise: "It was proposed by
some booksellers and others in London, soon after the commencement of
the present war, to some persons in this city who were thought to have
abilities and leisure for the work, to undertake a monthly magazine for
the colonies, offering at the same time to procure considerable
encouragement for it in all parts of _Great Britain_ and _Ireland_.
"The persons to whom the proposal was made, approved of the design, but
gave for answer, that if it was to be a work of general use for all the
_British_ colonies, and not confined to the affairs of a few particular
ones, it could not be carried on without establishing an extensive
correspondence with men of leisure and learning in all parts of
_America_, which would require some time and a considerable expense.
This, however, has at length been happily effected, and proper persons
are now engaged in the design, not only in all the different governments
on this continent, but likewise in most of the _West India_ Islands."
At the head of each issue of the magazine is a vignette in which the
French and English treatment of the Indian are contrasted. In the middle
of the picture an Indian leans upon his gun; on the left is a Briton
reading from the Bible, beneath his arm is a roll of cloth, symbolizing
the dress and manufactures of civilized life; on the right is a
Frenchman, extravagantly dressed, offering to the savage a tomahawk and
purse of gold. The vignette has the inferior motto: _Prævalebit
æquior_, and the title-page the further legend: _Veritatis cultores,
Fraudis inimici_.
The first number (October, 1757) gave a variety of pleasing and
extraordinary information to curious readers: Indians, "broods of French
savages;" earthquakes, St. Helmo's fire, phosphorescence, aurora
borealis, mermen and mermaids, sea-snakes, _krakens_, etc., were jostled
together in charming confusion.
The editor of the new magazine was the Rev. William Smith, first provost
of the College of Philadelphia. He was born near Aberdeen, Scotland, in
1727, and was invited to take charge of the Seminary of Philadelphia in
1752. His personality made the magazine a very fair representative of
the culture and refinement of Philadelphia society, when already through
the influence of the college and library the city was becoming "the
Athens of America," as, at a later date, it was frequently called.
Smith published in eight successive numbers of the magazine a series of
papers called "The Hermit," and signed "Theodore." He desired these
contributions to be considered in the nature of a monthly sermon.... "In
composing these occasional lectures, I shall be animated with the
thoughts that they are not to be delivered to a single auditory, and in
the presence of persons among whom there might be many of my enemies,
but to this whole continent, and in a manner that can never create
prejudices against my person or performances, as I am to be forever
concealed" (Vol. I, p. 43).
The earliest reference to the genius of Benjamin West is in the
_American Magazine_, p. 237, where of the 19-year-old Chester County boy
it is said, "We are glad of this opportunity of making known to the
world the name of so extraordinary a genius as Mr. West. He was born in
Chester County, in this province, and, without the assistance of any
master, has acquired such a delicacy and correctness of expression in
his paintings, joined to such a laudable thirst of improvement, that we
are persuaded, when he shall have obtained more experience and proper
opportunities of viewing the productions of able masters, he will become
truly eminent in his profession." This note accompanies a poem upon one
of Mr. West's portraits which, the editor remarks, "We communicate with
particular pleasure, when we consider that the lady who sat, the
painter who guided the pencil, and the poet who so well describes the
whole, are all _natives of this place, and very young_."
The poet so happily applauded for his skill did indeed turn his verse
and his compliment gracefully.
"Yet sure his flattering pencil's unsincere,
His fancy takes the place of bashful truth;
And warm imagination pictures here
The pride of beauty and the bloom of youth.
Thus had I said, and thus, deluded, thought,
Had lovely Stella still remained unseen,
Whose grace and beauty to perfection brought
Make every imitative art look mean."
The poem was dated Philadelphia, February 15, 1758, and signed
"Lovelace."
R. W. Griswold, "Poets and Poetry of America" (p. 24) gives Joseph
Shippen (1732-1810) the credit of the lines, and Moses Coit Tyler
assigns them to the same source (History of American Literature, II,
240). Another poem by Shippen, "On the Glorious Victory near Newmark in
Silesia," was contributed to the magazine in March, over the signature
"Annandius."
Hearty appreciation of earnestness and ability in the young is a
characteristic of this _American Magazine_ and of its editor, who, with
the true teacher's instinct, freely awarded superb and splendid praise
to the humble and obscure for good work done. Among the young men who
received recognition was Francis Hopkinson, whose first poem appeared in
the first number (p. 44), "Ode on Music, written at Philadelphia, by a
young gentleman of seventeen, on his beginning to learn the
harpsichord." In the following month Hopkinson contributed two poems in
imitation of Milton, "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso," the first dedicated
to B. C--w, Esq. (Benjamin Chew), under whom the author studied law, and
the latter a tribute of affection to William Smith.
"And thou, O S--th! my more than friend,
To whom these artless lines I send,
Once more thy wonted candor bring,
And hear the muse you taught to sing;
The muse that strives to win your ear,
By themes your soul delights to hear,
And loves like you, in sober mood,
To meditate of _just_ and _good_.
Exalted themes! divinest maid!
Sweet Melancholy, raise thy head;
With languid look, oh quickly come,
And lead me to thy _Hermit home_.
Then let my frequent feet be seen
On yonder steep romantic green,
Along whose yellow gravelly side,
_Schuylkill_ sweeps his gentle tide.
Rude, rough and rugged rocks surrounding,
And clash of broken waves resounding,
Where waters fall with loud'ning roar
Rebellowing down the hilly shore."[1]
[1] Alluding to William Smith's home at Falls of Schuylkill. There is a
further description in prose of Smith's summer home upon page 123 of the
magazine.
The other poems by Hopkinson in the _American Magazine_ are, "Ode on the
Morning" (page 187), "On the taking of Cape Breton" (page 552) and
"Verses inscribed to Mr. Wollaston" (the portrait painter).
The most remarkable poem in the magazine appeared in March, 1758. It
occupied seven octavo pages, and drew in its wake three closely-printed
pages of learned notes. It set forth its subject "On the Invention of
Letters and the Art of Printing. Addrest to Mr. Richardson, in London,
the Author and Printer of Sir Charles Grandison and other works for the
promotion of Religion, Virtue and Polite Manners, in a corrupted age."
The anonymous author lived in Kent County, Maryland. "His intimacy with
Mr. Pope," he says, "obliged him to tell that great Poet, above twenty
years ago, that it was peculiarly ungrateful in him not to celebrate
such a subject as the INVENTION OF LETTERS, or to suffer it to be
disgraced by a meaner hand."
It may not be amiss to note that the author credits Koster with the
glory of the invention of printing.
"Ah! let not Faustus rob great Koster's name
Like him, who since usurp'd Columbus' fame.
Pierian laurels flourish round his tomb;
And ever-living roses breathe your bloom!"[2]
[2] Which reminds us of Sandys's translation of a fifteenth century
epitaph:
"Let Koster's fame live ever in our hearts
Unshar'd; whose art preserves all other arts."
Many wild conjectures have been made as to the identity of the Kentish
man who contributed this long, careful and learned poem to American
literature, but the author has hitherto remained unknown. In the summer
of 1891, while reading in the British Museum, I found a copy of the
_American Magazine_, annotated throughout in a contemporary hand, and
apparently the gift of a Philadelphian to an Englishman who had visited
the colonies. This would seem to be evident from the character of the
notes, which read sometimes like the following:
"This poem was written by Francis Hopkinson, _whom you will remember in
Philadelphia_." Unfortunately, many of the historical notes have been
cut away in the binding of the book. In this volume the author of the
poem in question is named and clearly defined. To James Sterling, the
author of "The Parricides" and "The Rival Generals," must be given
whatever credit this poem, written in Maryland, can confer upon its
author.
Among Sterling's other poetic contributions is to be noted "A
Pastoral--To his Excellency George Thomas, Esq., formerly Governor of
Pennsylvania, and now General of the Leeward Islands." This poem was
written in 1744, on the occasion of the death of Alexander Pope, by "one
of the first encouragers of this magazine." The Governor saw the
manuscript and gave permission for its publication. It is an invitation
to the muses to visit these lands:
"Haste lovely nymphs, and quickly come away,
Our sylvan gods lament your long delay;
The stately oaks that dwell on Delaware
Rear their tall heads to view you from afar.
The Naiads summon all their sealy crew
And at _Henlopen_ anxious wait for you.
* * * * *
But hark, they come! The _Dryads_ crowd the shore,
The waters rise, I hear the billows roar!
Hoarse Delaware the joyful tidings brings,
And all his swans, transported, clap their wings."
The author's apologetic introduction of these enthusiastic verses to the
editor is worth preserving:
"As this _poetical brat_ was conceived in _North America_, you may, if
you please, suffer it to give its first squeak in the world through the
channel of the _American Magazine_. But if it should appear of a
_monstrous_ nature, stifle the wretch by all means in the birth, and
throw it into the river _Delaware_, from whence, you will observe, it
originally sprung. The parent, I can assure you, will shed no tears at
the funeral. If _Saturn_ presided at its formation instead of _Apollo_,
it will want no _lead_ to make it sink, but fall quickly to the bottom
by its own natural heaviness, as I doubt not many other modern
productions, both in prose and verse,
('Sinking from thought to thought--a vast profound')
would have done, had they been put to the trial."
The last of Sterling's contributions to the _American Magazine_ was an
"Epitaph on the late Lord Howe:"
Patriots and chiefs! Britannia's mighty dead,
Whose wisdom counsel'd, and whose valor bled,
With gratulations, 'midst your radiant host,
Receive to _glory_ Howe's heroic ghost;
Who self severe, in Honor's cause expir'd,
By native worth and your example fir'd,
In foreign fields, like Sidney, young and brave,
Doom'd to an early not untimely grave.
Death flew commission'd by celestial love,
And, scourging earth, improv'd the joys above.
Impassive to low pleasure's baneful charm,
Inur'd to gen'rous toils, and nerv'd for arms,
He saw, indignant, our worst foes advance
With strides gigantic--_Luxury_ and _France_!
A martial spirit emulous to raise,
He fought, as soldiers fought, in Marlbro's days.
His country call'd--the noble talents given,
'Twas his t'exert--success belonged to heaven!
High o'er his standard and the crimson shore
Plum'd victory hover'd, till he breathed no more.
'Midst piles of slaughter'd foes--"_French_ slaves, he cry'd,"
"My _Britons_ will revenge"--then smil'd and dy'd!
The unknown annotator of the British Museum copy writes against these
lines, "I cannot yet learn who was the author of this noble epitaph."
But it is clearly by Sterling. In the letter that accompanies the poem
he writes: "Please to know that the grandfather of the late Lord Howe,
when in a high employment in the reign of Queen Anne, was a generous
patron to the father of the author of these lines, by presenting to her
Majesty a memorial of his long services in the wars of Ireland, Spain
and Flanders, and by farther promoting his pretensions to an honourable
post in the army, of which he would have been deprived by a
court-interest in favour of a younger and unexperienced officer." This
letter is written from Maryland. It corresponds with all that we know of
Sterling's life. His gratitude was unfailing to those who had helped the
advancement of his father. In his dedication of "The Rival Generals"
(London, 1722), Sterling, addressing himself to William Conolly, Lord
Justice of Ireland, wrote: "Nor can I omit this occasion of testifying
my gratitude to your Excellency, who so generously contributed, in the
First Session of this Parliament, to do my Father that Justice in his
Pretensions which was deny'd him in a late reign."
In July, 1758, _The American Magazine_ published James Logan's letters
to Edmund Halley establishing Thomas Godfrey's claim to the invention of
"Hadley's quadrant." Thomas Godfrey, a glazier by trade, was one of the
original members of Franklin's "Junto," and boarded in Franklin's house
on High Street. He was born in Bristol, Pa., in 1704. While working for
James Logan, at Stenton, he accidentally discovered the principle upon
which he constructed his improvement upon Davis's quadrant. The new
instrument was first used in Delaware Bay by Joshua Fisher, of Lewes.
"Mr. Godfrey then sent the instrument to be tried at sea by an
acquaintance of his, an ingenious navigator, in a voyage to Jamaica, who
showed it to a captain of a ship there just going for England, by which
means it came to the knowledge of Mr. Hadley" (_American Magazine_, p.
476). The Royal Society of England, after hearing James Logan's
communication, decided that both Godfrey and Hadley were entitled to the
honor of the invention, and sent to Godfrey household goods to the
value of two hundred dollars.
In spite of the clearest facts and undoubted dates, the quadrant is
still persistently miscalled by the name of its English appropriator.[3]
[3] The remains of Thomas Godfrey were removed by John Watson from the
neglected spot where they were laid to Laurel Hill Cemetery, and in 1843
a monument was erected over them by the Mercantile Library Company of
Philadelphia. Near by, and close to the river, is the grave of Charles
Thomson, "the man of truth," the Sam. Adams, of Philadelphia, marked by
an Egyptian obelisk of granite.
"Junius" is the signature to a neat poem called "The Invitation" in the
_American Magazine_ for January, 1758, and appended to it is the
following editorial note: "This little poem was sent to us by an unknown
hand, and seems dated as an original. If it be so, we think it does
honor to our city; but of this we are not certain. All we can say is
that we do not recollect to have seen it before." This poem, which
William Smith thought to be an honor to Philadelphia, was the
composition of Thomas Godfrey the younger, then a youth of twenty-one
years. Editorial encouragement won from him an "Ode on Friendship" in
August, and an "Ode on Wine" in September. Young Godfrey was apprenticed
to a watchmaker, but through the friendly influence of the Provost of
the College he obtained a lieutenant's commission in the provincial
forces raised against Fort Du Quesne. He died of fever when only
twenty-seven years of age, and his poems, with an "account of T.
Godfrey," were published by Nathaniel Evans in 1767.
Nathaniel Evans knits together, in a manner, this _American Magazine_
and the _Port Folio_, as he was the biographer of Godfrey, who was a
contributor to the former, and the Petrarch-lover of Elizabeth Graeme or
Mrs. Ferguson, a helper of the latter. That he was hopeful of his city's
future is evident from the following prophecy, which makes a part of his
"Ode on the Prospect of Peace," 1761:
"To such may Delaware, majestic flood,
Lend from his flow'ry banks a ravish'd ear,
Such notes as may delight the wise and good,
Or saints celestial may induce to hear!
For if the Muse can aught of time descry
Such notes shall sound thy crystal waves along,
Thy cities fair with glorious Athens rise,
Nor pure Ilissus boast a nobler song."
Godfrey's chief claim to recognition in the history of American
literature is his authorship of the "Prince of Parthia," the first
dramatic work produced in America. It was written in 1758, and acted at
the new theatre in Southwark, Philadelphia, April 24, 1767.
Several of the contributors to the magazine were members of the faculty
of the college. Ebenezer Kinnersley, chief master of the English School,
summarized the month's progress in philosophy; John Beveridge supplied
the readers of the magazine with Latin poems, which were too lightly
timbered for the loud praise of William Smith, who pronounced them of
equal merit with the choicest Latinity of Buchanan, Erasmus and
Addison.[4]
[4] "The Trustees of the College of this city, who have never spared
either pains or expense to supply every vacancy in the institution with
able masters and professors, having been informed of Mr. Beveridge's
capacity, experience and fidelity, were pleased at a full meeting, on
the 13th of this month (June, 1758), unanimously to appoint him
Professor of Languages and Master of the Latin School, in the room of
Mr. Paul Jackson" (_American Magazine_, p. 437).
Thomas Coombe, assistant minister of Christ Church, translated some of
Beveridge's Latin poems, and was himself the author of "The Peasant of
Auburn; or, the Emigrant," published in 1775, and intended as a
continuation of "The Deserted Village."
A collection of poems came from distant Virginia from the pen of Mr.
Samuel Davies (1724-1761), the dissenting minister in Hanover County,
Virginia, who made use of the pseudonym "Virginianus Hanoverensis."
Davies accompanied Gilbert Tennent to England in 1753, and successfully
solicited funds for the College of New Jersey. He at first declined to
succeed Jonathan Edwards as President of Princeton College, but on the
invitation being repeated he accepted, and presided over the college for
eighteen months. In a note to one of his sermons occurs the following:
"That heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hope
Providence has preserved in so signal a manner for some important
service to his country."
The magazine also contained the usual number of miscellaneous articles
signed with the alliterative and indicative names that were then in
vogue--Timothy Timbertoe, Richard Dimple, Hymenæus Phiz and the like.
Galt, in his life of Benjamin West (p. 77), says that "Dr. Smith
largely contributed to elevate the taste, the sentiment and topics of
conversation in Philadelphia." He certainly conducted the _American
Magazine_ to a considerable literary and financial success; and the
magazine came abruptly to an end on the completion of its first year in
consequence of Dr. Smith's visit to England, where his worth was
recognized and rewarded with honorary degrees from Oxford, Aberdeen and
Dublin.
On the 2d of January, 1769, the American Philosophical Society, the
oldest learned society in America, was formed by merging into one
organization the "American Philosophical Society" and the "American
Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge." Benjamin
Franklin was chosen president. In this month and year, January, 1769, a
new magazine appeared in Philadelphia, printed at the press of the
Bradfords, as we learn from Hall and Sellers' _Pennsylvania Gazette_ of
January 12, 1769, which continued the title of _The American Magazine_.
The editor and proprietor, Mr. Lewis Nicola, was a member of the
American Philosophical Society, having been elected to membership April
8, 1768, and held the office of curator for 1769.
In a certain sense his magazine became the voice of the Society; for
each number, except the first, contained an appendix of sixteen pages
made up of the Society's publications. Nicola was born in Dublin,
Ireland, in 1717. He served in the English army, but in 1766 resigned
his commission, emigrated to America, and settled in Philadelphia.
He was town-major of Philadelphia during the Revolution, wrote several
military works, but is chiefly remembered for his letter to General
Washington in May, 1783, asking him to accept the title of King of the
United States.
The magazine contained various practical articles and sketches of
American occurrences. In the February number was a large and curious
engraving, the only one in all the issues of the magazine, representing
the manner of fowling in Norway. The engraver is unknown.
The price of the magazine was 13 shillings, Pennsylvania currency. It
was suspended in September, 1769.
"_The Pennsylvania Magazine, or American Monthly Museum_, Vol. I, 1775,
Philadelphia, printed and sold by R. Aitken, printer and bookseller,
opposite the London Coffee-house, Front Street," was published amidst
preparations for war. The publisher apologized for lack of variety in
the year's work, by saying that we in America "are deprived of one
considerable fund of entertainment which contributes largely to the
embellishment of the magazines in Europe, viz., discoveries of curious
remains of antiquity.... We can look no further back than to the rude
manners and customs of the savage aborigines of North America ... but
the principal difficulty in our way is the present importunate situation
of public affairs ... every heart and hand seems to be engaged in the
interesting struggle for American Liberty."
Thomas Paine arrived in Philadelphia in 1775, with letters from
Franklin, and was immediately employed by Aitken as editor of the
_Pennsylvania Magazine_, with a salary of £25, currency, a year. In his
preface to the first number, January 24, 1775, Paine wrote: "We presume
it is unnecessary to inform our friends that we encounter all the
inconveniences which a magazine can possibly start with. Unassisted by
imported materials we are destined to create what our predecessors in
this walk had only to compile; and the present perplexities of affairs
have rendered it somewhat difficult for us to procure the necessary
aids. Thus encompassed with difficulties, the first number of the
_Pennsylvania Magazine_ entreats a favorable reception; of which we
shall only say, like the early snowdrop, it comes forth in a barren
season, and contents itself with modestly foretelling that _choicer
flowers_ are preparing to appear."