After the publication of this parody John Davis printed "The Philadelphia Pursuits of Literature. By Juvenal Junius of New Jersey. Phila.: John Davis, 1805."
"Then Muses aid me! and I'll fain reviewThe Philadelphia lounging scribbling crew."
Davis had met the gentlemen of thePort Folioand had all the information necessary for stinging satire of the Mutual Admiration Society that met at Meredith's and Hopkinson's or at Dennie's office. In his "Travels" (p. 203), he writes: "At Philadelphia I found Mr. Brown (C. B.), who felt no remission of his literary diligence by a change of abode (from New York). He was ingratiating himself into the favor of the ladies by writing a new novel, and rivalling Lopez de Vega by the multitude of his works. Mr. Brown introduced me to Mr. (Asbury) Dickins, and Mr. Dickins to Mr. Dennie; Mr. Dennie presented me to Mr. Wilkins, and Mr. Wilkinsto the Rev. Mr. Abercrombie; a constellation of American geniuses, in whose blaze I was almost consumed.... Rev. Mr. Abercrombie was impatient of every conversation that did not relate to Dr. Johnson, of whom he could detail every anecdote from the time he trod on a duck till he purchased an oak-stick to repulse Macpherson."[15]
In the "Philadelphia Pursuits" Davis wrote of Dennie:
"There's no clown from Walpole to Hell-Gate,But ribaldry from him has learned to prate."
And again:
"Such is our Dennie! high exalted name,Eager alike for dollars and for fame."
Two Philadelphians only escaped the sting of the adder:
"With Clifton, Nature's poet, who shall vie?Though low he lies, his works shall never die.And Linn, distinguish'd for his moral lays,Shall, by his strain, Columbia's triumph raise."
"The Sketches in Verse" was magnificently printed for C. and A. Conrad by Smith and Maxwell in 1810.
To "a pastoral love-ditty" that began—
"Where Schuylkill o'er his rocky bedRoars, like a bull in battle"—
Rose appended the note:
"Our American names, although some of them are truly savage, are not much worse than many of those with which we might be furnished by other nations in abundance; and Schuylkill would not have offended the ears of Boileau more than the Whal and the Leck, the Issel and the Zuiderzee."
"Our American names, although some of them are truly savage, are not much worse than many of those with which we might be furnished by other nations in abundance; and Schuylkill would not have offended the ears of Boileau more than the Whal and the Leck, the Issel and the Zuiderzee."
Thomas I. Wharton(1791-1856), a distinguished Philadelphia lawyer, was a frequent contributor, and for a time was editor of theAnalectic Magazine.
Charles J. Ingersoll, the author of "Inchiquin the Jesuit's Letters on American Literature and Politics," was born in Philadelphia, October 3, 1782, and died there May 14, 1862. His first boyish composition is in thePort Folioof October 24, 1801. It is entitled "Chiomara," and is introduced by the editor as the work of a "youth ambitious of the fame of Chatterton." Chiomara is a Gaul, who kills a Roman in defence of her honor.
Edward Ingersoll, a younger brother of Charles, wrote poems for thePort Folioon the events of the times, and named them "Horace in Philadelphia." All his poems, of whatever nature, were signed "Horace."
Condy Raguet(1784-1842) published in thePort Foliosome interesting letters on the "Massacre of St. Domingo." He had gone as supercargo to Hayti, and lived there during the exciting scenes of the Revolution. He also contributed numerous papers to thePort Folioupon "Free Trade."
John Sanderson(1783-1844) was professor of Greek and Latin in the Philadelphia Central High School. He wrote, at the suggestion of Theodore Hook, a capital volume of Parisian sketches, called the "American in Paris," which Jules Janin translated into French. Portions of his "American in London" appeared in theKnickerbocker Magazine. He successfully opposed, in a pamphlet signed "Riberjot," the plan of excluding the classical languages from Girard College. He was an intimate friend of John E. Hall, and contributed to thePort Folio.
John Syng Dorsey(1783-1818) succeededDr. Wistar as professor of anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania. He published an edition of Cooper's "Surgery," and "Elements of Surgery," the latter of which was adopted as the text-book in Edinburgh.
Royall Tylerwas born in Boston, near Faneuil Hall, July 18, 1757. He studied law under John Adams, was made a judge of the Supreme Court in 1794, and, in 1800, became chief justice. He was one of the closest friends of Joseph Dennie, and when the latter became editor of theFarmer's Weekly Museumhe wrote for him a medley of verse and social and political skits under the general title "From the Shop of Messrs. Colon and Spondee."
These papers he continued to write for thePort Folio. They "are divided between Federal politics, attacks on French democracy, the Della Cruscan literature, and the fashionable frivolities of the day." He also wrote for thePort Folio, in 1801, a series of similarly varied articles, richly reminiscent, entitled "An Author's Evenings."
Robert Hare(1781-1858), father of Judge J. I. C. Hare, who was professor of chemistryand natural philosophy in William and Mary College, and, later, professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, published a number of moral essays in thePort Foliounder the pen-name of "Eldred Grayson."
Dr. Nathaniel Chapman(1783-1850) used the pen-name of "Falkland."
Alexander Graydon(1752-1818), a man of elegant manners and author of a useful and entertaining volume of "Memoirs of a Life chiefly passed in Pennsylvania within the last Sixty Years," published, in thePort Folio, in 1813-14, a series of chatty paragraphs styled "Notes of a Desultory Reader." He lived in the "Slate-Roof House," at Second Street and Norris' Alley, where he had an opportunity of meeting men of rank and fame.
Josiah Quincy(1772-1864), whose opinion of thePort Foliohas been already quoted, contributed to it a series of articles, beginning January 28, 1804, in the style of Swift, and signed "Climenole."[16]
John Leeds Bozman(1757-1823) studied at the University of Pennsylvania, and readlaw in the Middle Temple, London. He contributed both prose and verse to thePort Folio.
General Thomas Cadwalader(1779-1841) furnished the magazine with translations of Horace.
Richard Rush(1780-1859) was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1800, and successfully defended William Duane, of theAurora, on a charge of libelling Gov. Thomas McKean. He occasionally contributed official and personal anecdotes to thePort Folio.
Richard Peters(1744-1828), the witty judge of Belmont, extended princely hospitality at his country seat. His association with the most distinguished men of Europe and America stored his memory with the choicest bits of political and personal history. These odd old ends, stolen out of the secret chronicles of the time, and decked with his rare wit, were given upon irregular occasions to thePort Folio.
Gouverneur Morris(1752-1816) contributed political satires in both prose and verse to Dennie and his confrères.
Joseph Hopkinson(1770-1842), whoseauthorship of "Hail Columbia" has been already referred to, wrote the articles upon Shakespeare that appeared in thePort Foliobetween 1801 and 1806. His house at Fourth and Chestnut Streets was a favorite meeting-place for Dennie and the wits.
Horace Binney(1780-1875), one of the most distinguished lawyers at a time when a Philadelphia lawyer was a synonym for skill and cleverness, wrote in moments, snatched from a busy and almost breathless profession, some of the clearest and most careful sketches of classical literature, as well as the shrewdest of political satires to be found in the early volumes of thePort Folio.
Harriet Fenno, daughter of John Ward Fenno, founder and editor of theUnited States Gazette, signed her verses "Violetta."
Mrs. Elizabeth Fergusonwas the woman who carried to Washington the letter written by Dr. Duché urging concessions to the British as the only means of saving the country from spoliation and ruin. She was a daughter of Dr. Thomas Graeme, a Scottish physician, and granddaughter of Sir William Keith. Father and daughter lived for a time in the Slate-Roof House,then in the Carpenter mansion at Sixth and Chestnut, and finally at Graeme Hall in Montgomery County. Her life was written in thePort Folioof 1809 (Page 524). Letters from her appear in various numbers of that magazine, always signed "Laura." Nathaniel Evans wooed Miss Graeme as "Laura" in true Petrarchan fashion. The Philadelphia Library possesses the MS. of a translation of Fénelon by Mrs. Ferguson.
She visited Europe in company with Dr. Richard Peters, of Philadelphia, and everywhere her brilliant conversation and refined manners won her recognition and applause in literary society. Laurence Sterne was fascinated by her. "She took a seat upon the same stage with him at the York races. While bets were making upon different horses, she selected a small horse that was in the rear of the coursers as the subject of a trifling wager. Upon being asked the reason for doing so, she said 'the race was not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong.' Mr. Sterne, who stood near to her, was struck with this reply, and turning hastily toward her begged for the honor of her acquaintance. They soon became sociable, and a good deal of pleasant conversation took place between them to the great entertainment of the surrounding company" (Knapp, "Female Biography," page 217).
She wrote a parody upon Pope which was printed with Nathaniel Evans' poems (1772):
How happy is the country parson's lot!Forgetting bishops, as by them forgot;Tranquil of spirit, with an easy mind,To all his vestry's votes he sits resigned.Of manners gentle and of temper even,He jogs his flocks, with easy pace, to heaven.In Greek and Latin pious books he keeps,And, while his clerk sings psalms, he—soundly sleeps.His garden fronts the sun's sweet orient beams,And fat church-wardens prompt his golden dreams.The earliest fruit in his fair orchard blooms,And cleanly pipes pour out tobacco fumes.From rustic bridegroom oft he takes the ring,And hears the milkmaid plaintive ballads sing.Back-gammon cheats whole winter nights away,And Pilgrim's Progress helps a rainy day.
Alexander Wilsonwas born in Paisley, Scotland, July 6, 1766, and died in Philadelphia, August 23, 1813. "The Poems and Literary Prose of Alexander Wilson" was edited by A. B. Grosart, and published atPaisley in 1876. "With the exception of Allen Ramsay, Ferguson and Burns, none of our Scottish vernacular poets have been so continuously kept in print as Alexander Wilson" (Grosart). Seven biographies of him attest the lively interest felt in his personality and his work. In Scotland he was apprenticed to a weaver, and, after serving his time, he continued to work at the loom for four years more. He published "Watty and Meg" in 1792, an anonymous poem, the authorship of which was commonly ascribed to Robert Burns. He came to America in 1794, worked for a year at his trade, and subsequently taught at various schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 1802 he settled at Kingsessing, now in the city of Philadelphia, close by the home of Bartram, the botanist. Here he taught the "Union" School. It was in a picturesque spot. Before its doors were cedars and "stripling poplars planted in a row, and old gray white oaks."
But birds were more attractive to him than boys. They commanded him, as the nightingale did the gypsy steward, and he followed them into untrodden wildernesses. ThomasBradford undertook to publish Wilson's colossal "Ornithology." It was to be distinctly an "American" work. It was to be printed on American paper; and Amies, the paper-maker, even declared that he would use only "American" rags in making it. Seven volumes appeared during the author's life, or between 1808 and 1813.
Wilson published the "Rural Walk" in Brown'sLiterary Magazineof August, 1804, and the "Solitary Tutor" in the same publication, October, 1804. The former poem was reprinted in thePort Folioof April 27, 1805. Dennie was charmed with the poem, and explained that he reprinted it because the author "delights in pictures of American scenery and landscape, and wisely therefore leaves to European poets their nightingales and skylarks, and theirdinglesanddells. He makes no mention of yews and myrtles, nor echoes a single note of either bullfinch or chaffinch, but faithfully describes American objects, though not entirely in the American idiom." The following four stanzas from the "Rural Walk" may give a conception of Wilson's close observation and nice fidelity to nature.
"Down to the left was seen afarThe whitened spire of sacred name,[17]And ars'nal, where the god of warHas hung his spears of bloody fame."There upward where it (Schuylkill) gently bends,And Say's red fortress tow'rs in view,[18]The floating bridge its length extends—A lively scene forever new."There market-maids in lively rows,With wallets white, were riding home,And thundering gigs, with powdered beaux,Through Gray's green festive shades to roam."Sweet flows the Schuylkill's winding tideBy Bartram's green emblossom'd bowers,Where nature sports in all her prideOf choicest plants and fruits and flowers."
Wilson, in 1804, undertook a journey to Niagara. The adventures by the way and the sight of the stupendous cataract supply the theme of his longest and most ambitious poem, "The Foresters." It was published with illustrations in successive numbers of thePort Folioof 1809, Volumes I, II and III. The entire poem contained 2,000 lines. TheLiterary Magazinecontains a part of the poem. This appearance, I believe, has never been noted. It is to be found in Volume IV, page 155. The lines were written August 12, 1805, and were published in the same month. In the literary intelligence of the same month the future publication of "The Foresters" is glanced at.
A prose letter and a poem, "The Pilgrim," by Wilson, are in thePort Folio, June, 1809, page 499. Alexander Wilson and John James Audubon met in Louisville, Ky., whither the latter had gone after disposing of his farm upon the Perkiomen Creek, near Philadelphia. Wilson conceived a dislike for Audubon, and wrote to thePort Folioconcerning Louisville, "Science or literature has not one friend in this place." Audubon, into whose mind no thought of publishing his own fine drawings had yet come, refused out of jealousy to add his name to the subscription list for Wilson's "American Ornithology." Robert Buchanan wrote, "If Audubon had one marked fault it was vanity; he was a queer compound of Actæon and Narcissus—having a gun in one hand and flourishing a looking-glass in theother." Grosart is much too severe when he styles Audubon "a great dilettante impostor."
After Wilson's death three supplementary volumes to his "Ornithology" were added by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, and it was Lucien Bonaparte's son, Prince Canino, who first suggested to Audubon the publication of his collections.
One of Wilson's most intimate friends was the engraver Alexander Lawson, with whom he became acquainted through William Bartram, and from whom he learned to draw. Lawson was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, December 19, 1772. He came to Philadelphia in 1792, engraved four plates for Thomson's "Seasons" for Thomas Dobson, and died in 1846. His daughter, Mary Lockhart, was a contributor toGraham's Magazine.
It was Wilson's wish that he should be buried "in some rural spot where the birds might sing over his grave." His wish was fulfilled, and his body was laid away in the quiet old-world burial ground of old Swedes' Church.
Samuel Ewingwas born in Philadelphia August 16, 1776. He was placed in the counting house of John Swanwick. Uponthe failure of his employer, Ewing studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1800. He was a contributor to thePort Foliofrom the first. He wrote for it a series of articles, entitled "Reflections in Solitude." All his contributions were signed "Jacques."
In 1809 he foundedThe Select Reviews and Spirit of the Foreign Magazines, which he edited for three years, until it was sold to Mr. Thomas and the title changed to theAnalectic, when the editorship passed into the hands of Washington Irving. Samuel Ewing helped to establish theAthenæumin Philadelphia, and was for a time vice-president of that institution. He died in Philadelphia, February 8, 1825. Samuel Ewing's father was the Rev. Dr. John Ewing, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, whose contributions have been noted in the earlier magazines. A short account of his life is prefixed to his lectures on natural philosophy, "A Plain Elementary and Practical System of Natural Experimental Philosophy. By the late Rev. John Ewing. Philadelphia, 1809. Revised by Robert Patterson." John Ewing was born June 22, 1732, in Nottingham, Cecil County, Maryland;was graduated from Princeton 1752; received the degree of D.D. from Edinburgh; enjoyed the friendship of Robertson, the historian, and died in Philadelphia, September 8, 1802. An interesting anecdote is related in the life of Dr. Ewing (page 16). In 1773 he dined at Dilly's with Dr. Johnson. He remembered the silence that fell when Johnson entered the room. "He attended to nothing but his plate; ... having eaten voraciously, he raised his head slowly, and looking round the table surveyed the guests for the first time." The conversation turning upon America, Ewing defended the colonies. "What do you know, sir, on the subject?" Johnson demanded. Ewing had been cautioned to avoid contradiction, but the warning was forgotten. "Sir, what do you know in America; you never read; you have no books there," thundered on the "great cham." "Pardon me, sir," blandly replied the Philadelphian, "we have read the 'Rambler.'" This civility instantly pacified him.
This anecdote reminds us that the Americans did not always fall their crests when in the presence of Dr. Johnson. It is a familiarstory that when Johnson demanded of Gilbert Stuart, "Sir, where did you learn English?" the ready-witted young artist replied, "Out of your dictionary, sir." Bishop William White, first Bishop of Pennsylvania, has left, in a letter to Bishop Hobart, his memory of an interview with "that giant of genius and literature, Dr. Samuel Johnson." "Having dined in company with him in Kensington, at the house of Mr. Elphinstone, well known to scholars of that day, and returning in the stage-coach with the doctor, I mentioned to him there being a Philadelphia edition of his 'Prince of Abyssinia.' He expressed a wish to see it. I promised to send him a copy on my return to Philadelphia, and did so. He returned a polite answer, which I printed in Mr. Boswell's second edition of his 'Life of the Doctor.'" Richard Rush relates in thePort Foliothat when his father, Dr. Benjamin Rush, attended a meeting of "The Club" in London, Goldsmith asked him a question about the North American Indians, when Johnson remarked that there was not an Indian in North America foolish enough to ask such a question. Whereupon Goldsmithretorted, "There is not a savage in America, sir, rude enough to make such a speech to a gentleman."
Dr. Ewing's daughter, Sarah, born in Philadelphia October 30, 1761, married John Hall, of Baltimore, the son of a Maryland planter. In January, 1824, she contributed to thePort Folio"A Picture of Philadelphia as it is." In a letter to a Scotchwoman (1821) she wrote: "Your flattering inquiry about my literary career may be answered in a word. Literature has no career in America. It is like wine, which we are told must cross the ocean to make it good." Sarah Hall died in Philadelphia April 8, 1830.
Her eldest son, John Elihu Hall, was born in Philadelphia December 27, 1783; studied law, and edited theAmerican Law Journal1808-1817. He was for a time professor of rhetoric in the University of Maryland. In thePort Folioof March, 1806, encouraged by Thomas Moore, he commenced the publication of the "Memoirs of Anacreon," but suspended the work after a few instalments had appeared. In 1820 (Vol. IX, p. 401), he resumed the articles. Most of the Anacreonticodes occur, and the "biographical tissue" gave the papers a resemblance to Hardwicke's "Athenian Letters" and to the "Anacharsis" of Abbé Barthelemy. "Sedley" was the signature used by J. E. Hall in hisPort Foliopapers. In 1812 he published serially in that magazine his literary miscellany, entitled "Adversaria."
His brother, James, born in Philadelphia August 19, 1793, died near Cincinnati, July 15, 1868, published in thePort Folioof 1821 his "Letters from the West," afterward published in book form by John Elihu. Another brother, Thomas Mifflin Hall (1798-1828), wrote several poems for the magazine. Harrison Hall (1785-1866), a third brother, published thePort Folioand wrote a book on "Distillation," which went through several editions here, and was reprinted in England.
John Elihu Hallbecame editor of thePort Folioin February, 1816. Its history up to that time may be briefly stated. It was at first a weekly quarto, printed by H. Maxwell and sold by William Fry, opposite Christ Church. In 1806 the quarto size was changed to octavo. In 1809 the magazine appeared monthly instead of weekly, and continued from that time to be a monthly publication. In the prospectus issued at the time of this change the magazine was said to be "edited by Oliver Oldschool, assisted by a confederacy of men of letters." In its new dress it "cherished the hope that it might bear a comparison with any of the foreign journals." In 1804 the price had been raised to six dollars. The issue of July 21, 1804, was in deep black lines, in mourning for Alexander Hamilton. The issue of July 23, 1808, was a memorial number to Fisher Ames. The "Oliver Oldschool" figurehead was abandoned in January, 1811, and "conducted by Jos. Dennie, Esq.," took its place; for, the editor explained, "Since the magazine is no longerpolitical, the appellation of Oliver Oldschool is no longer expedient or necessary." During Dennie's last illness his place in the editorial chair was taken by Paul Allen (1775-1826), who wrote poems, and prepared the "Travels of Lewis and Clarke" for the press, and who must not be confounded with another eccentric Bohemian, James Allen, brother to the Sheriff of Suffolk, who wrote under the inspiration of the West Indian muses—sugar, rum andlemon-juice—who "wore ruffles—and they hung in tatters about his knuckles."
January, 1812, told of Dennie's death and "that the confederacy of scholars disbanded almost as soon as it was formed." At this time thePort Foliowas the oldest literary journal in America.
Nicholas Biddlebecame the next editor. He supplied the magazine with a number of articles upon paintings, old and new, and resigned his charge early in 1812. Dr. Charles Caldwell was requested to succeed him. "I accepted the proposal," he says, in his "Autobiography," "in less than a minute, and in less than one hour began to prepare for the performance of the duty it enjoined" (Autobiography, page 322). Caldwell entered upon his task under an engagement to furnish ninety-eight pages of matter for each number, and this matter would have to be to a great extent original. In six months Caldwell increased the number of subscribers twenty-five per cent. The war naturally became the theme of greatest interest. General Brown declared that "he reported himself, and ordered his officers to report themselves in theirconnection with all interesting events of the army, as regularly to the editor of thePort Folioas they did to him, or as he did to the Secretary of War." In this way the magazine obtained some interesting and valuable biographical notes of military and naval officers. Dr. Caldwell employed as assistant editor the famous and versatileThomas Cooper. Cooper was an Englishman, who was born in London in 1759, and had been a member of the National Assembly of France. He quarrelled with Robespierre, and challenged him to a duel. Robespierre swore revenge, and Cooper, knowing that flight alone could save him from the Jacobin Club, returned to England. He was censured by Burke, and replied in a bitter and abusive pamphlet. He followed his intimate friend, Mr. Priestley, to America and lived with him at Northumberland, where Coleridge and Southey dreamed of establishing an Eden of Pantisocracy. When Cooper came to Philadelphia, Washington and Jefferson and Jay and Madison were there. Cooper lent his pen to Jefferson and the Democrats, and was paid by them. He was appointed to a judgeship, but soon removed. He was elected professor of chemistry and moral philosophy in Dickinson College, and from there he went to the chair of chemistry in Columbia College, South Carolina. He left Philadelphia in 1819, and died in the South in 1840.
Judge Workmanwas a second assistant writer. The most extensive contributions that Dr. Caldwell made to the magazine were his reviews of "An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure of the Human Species," by Samuel Stanhope Smith, President of Princeton College. The reviews covered ninety pages and dealt with a philosophical and experimental examination of the strange case of Henry Moss, a Maryland negro, whose name, as Dr. Caldwell says, is as well known to the readers of periodicals as was that of John Adams or Thomas Jefferson or James Madison. Moss was a full-blooded African, whose skin, save in a few spots, turned white. Caldwell's critiques appeared in thePort Folio, 1814, pp. 8 and 457, and also in theAmerican Review, II, 128, 166.
Dr. Caldwell at this time editedDelaplaine's Repository, and Smith had his revenge in atelling criticism of that work in theAnalectic Magazine, to which Caldwell replied in 1816. To finish the story, there is to be found in thePort Folioof 1820, page 153, an article on S. S. Smith, with portrait, which is as ample in praise of the essay as Caldwell was liberal in detraction. Caldwell resigned his editorship in 1816. In the next month Oliver Oldschool the Fourth made his appearance in the person of John Elihu Hall.
The magazine was still well manned and well maintained. Philadelphia still kept her leadership in culture and literary production. In 1814 only twenty new books were annually put forth in America, and yet in April of that year thePort Foliodeclared, "From facts within our own knowledge, we fearlessly assert that Philadelphia contains scholars not a few whom Europe herself would be proud to acknowledge." In 1817 theLondon Monthly Magazinebegan to copy from thePort Folio.
But about 1820 the prestige of Philadelphia begins to fade and her ancient influences to hang about her "like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief." In this year (Port Folio, page463) is heard the first note of alarm. New England is gaining; "with such rivalry Philadelphia must yield the proud title which she has borne, or rouse from the withering lethargy in which she slumbers." New York jealousy is increasing. In 1820 Salmagundi says that "one of the editors of thePort Foliowas discharged—for writing common-sense." These trifles indicate a shifting of the balance of power. Three years more, and the cry of discontent and peevish querulousness reaches its height.
"With the exception of some scores of verses 'tempered with lovers' sighs' and oozing from the brains of 'lunatics, lovers and poets,' the last volume contains very few communications from any friend to us and our cause. In the days of our first predecessors such was the number and zeal of contributors that the editor was obliged to exchange the labor of composition for that of selection, and he often expatiated with gratitude upon the learning, the liberality and the industry of his voluntary assistants. Although they wore their visors up before the public, most of themare now known to us, and we can recognize many of them at home and abroad, pushing their fortunes at the bar, in the desk or the academy, or serving their country in high and honorable stations. They were all quickened with the fervid spirit of enterprise and adventure. They combined learning and wit and genius with industry, perseverance and ambition. They laid the foundation of a work which has outlived all its rivals and contemporaries; but they have left few to inherit and emulate their disinterested devotion to the cause of letters.... England, that detestable country whereeveryonehas been starving for the last century, whereeveryonehas been crushed by the load of taxes, andeveryonehas been flying from home to avoid the oppressions of the Ministry, prints several thousand copies of a magazine, and the whole edition is sold and paid for in twenty-four hours. These matters are ordered differently here. Instead ofpurchasingour newspapers and magazines we subscribe for them."
Alack-a-day! the world went very well in the consulship of Plancus! No doubt evenin the best and soundest of their times the magazines did suffer by the subscription plan. The remaining stock of theAnalectic Magazinewas sold for seven cents a volume in sheets, and the stock of theLiterary Gazette, its successor, brought but six and a quarter cents per pound.
Hall took the opportunity presented by the publication of "The Lives of the Signers," by his friend and contributor, John Sanderson, to trouble the deaf public again with his bootless cries:
"Oh! that we could boast a reading public; and that we could say, with truth, that any other books than a few novels and poems and, generally, an elegant folio Bible, kept for ornament and family dignity, were to be found in half the splendid mansions of Philadelphia. But 'we can procure the book at the Philadelphia Library.' Yes, and the author of an excellent work must be left to beg and starve, and his wife and children must be doomed to penury because their natural protector was a literary man and an author, who conferred honour on his species.Burnthe PhiladelphiaLibrary, we say. Aye!burnit! if this must be its influence, to deprive meritorious authors and enterprising artists of their sustenance and of the means of continuing their labours. Let those who cannot afford to purchase valuable works, who wish to peruse scarce tomes, the work of former generations, resort to the library; but let our rich merchants, our thrifty lawyers and the elegantly neat Quaker proprietors of the soil of this city, who have sons and daughters to be educated for usefulness and happiness, be ashamed to creep into the repository of rare, ancient and learned volumes, and ask in a soft voice of the librarian, 'Is Sanderson's Biography in?' and to add, 'My daughters wish to see it.'"
In 1822 thePort Foliowas reduced to making selections from the literary and political journals of Europe after the manner ofThe Select Reviewswhich Ewing had edited.
The final suspension of thePort Foliowas preceded by an international quarrel. John Neal was in England in 1834, and his offer to write forBlackwood's Magazinein that year a series of sketches of "American writers"was accepted, and the first instalment appeared inBlackwood'sof September, 1824, page 305. The author could name only three writers "who would not pass just as readily for an English writer as for an American." The trio consisted of Paulding, Neal and Brown. The article was signed "X. Y. Z." and was written in the favoriteBlackwood's"bludgeon" style. Neal says of himself, "He is undeniably the most original writer that America has produced—thinks himself the cleverest fellow in America, and does not scruple to say so—he is in Europe now." When he approached the date of thePort Folio, Neal paid his compliments, displaying unmistakable malice, to John E. Hall. "Hall had the misfortune, some years ago, to fall acquainted with Mr. Thomas Moore, the poet, while Mr. Moore was 'trampoosing' over America. It spoilt poor Hall—turned his brain. He has done little or nothing since but make-believe about criticism, talk dawdle-poetry with a lisp, write irresistible verses under the name of 'Sedley' in his own magazine, twitter sentimentally about 'little Moore,' his 'dear little Moore'—puffinghimself all the time anonymously in the newspaper, while he is damning himself, with unmistakable sincerity, twelve times a year in his own magazine. We do not think very highly of the mutton-headed Athenians at Philadelphia; but we do think, nevertheless, that Mr. John E. Hall is a little too much of a blockhead even for their meridian."
Hall published a scathing review in thePort Folio, December, 1824, of the author of "Logan" and "Randolph," the Baltimorean who was writing forBlackwood's. In volume 19 (1825, p. 78) this "nauseous reptile" is still further reviewed. Neal is quoted as saying, "Dennie is dead, John E. Hall is alive; Dennie was a gentleman, John E. Hall is a blackguard;" and Hall retorts that Neal is a "liar of the first magnitude," who prefers "English guineas to Baltimore horsewhips."
ThePort Foliowas now making a desperate struggle for life. Its publication was suspended from January to July, 1826, and again from January to July, 1827. Its budget was finally closed in December, 1827.
TheLadies' Museumwas commenced in February, 1800, and made five numbers.
ThePhiladelphia Repository and Weekly Registerwas commenced in 1801. It was edited and published by David Hogan, and later by John W. Scott. It was popular and original.
The first magazine published in America for children appeared in Philadelphia in 1802—theJuvenile Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository of Useful Information, Phila., 1802, printed for Benjamin Johnson and Jacob Johnston.
It was followed by theJuvenile Olioin the same year. This magazine was edited by "Amyntor" a citizen of Philadelphia, and was published by David Hogan.
Charles Brockden Brown, the most important of Philadelphia writers, the first professional man-of-letters in America, and the predecessor of all cis-Atlantic novelists, was born in Philadelphia, January 17, 1771, and in that city he founded, in 1803-4, theLiterary Magazine and American Register.
Brown had been educated until his sixteenth year in the school of Robert Proud, the historian of Pennsylvania. He then studied law with Alexander Wilcox, of Philadelphia. His health, which had been ever poor, suffered still further from enthusiastic attention to the needs of a belles-lettres club of nine members, and to the law society of his native city. TheColumbian Magazineof August, 1789, contained his first published article. It was entitled "The Rhapsodist," and was continued through several numbers of the magazine.
A close friendship sprang up between Brown and Elihu Hubbard Smith, and Brown made his home in New York, where Smith introduced him to "The Friendly Club." After the plague visited New York and Smith died of the fever, Brown returned to Philadelphia to spend the remainder of his life.
The first number of theLiterary Magazine and American Registerwas published by John Conrad, who had made a liberal arrangement with the editor, on Saturday, October 1, 1803. Brown's prospectus, which filled the first threepages, is so characteristic of the author, and so interesting as a contemporary comment upon magazines and their purposes, as to admit of complete quotation.
The Editor's Address to the Public:
"It is usual for one who presents the public with a periodical work like the present, to introduce himself to the notice of his readers by some sort of preface or address. I take up the pen in conformity to this custom, but am quite at loss for topics suitable to so interesting an occasion. I cannot expatiate on the variety of my knowledge, the brilliancy of my wit, the versatility of my talents. To none of these do I lay any claim, and though this variety, brilliancy of solidity, are necessary ingredients in a work of this kind, I trust merely to the zeal and liberality of my friends to supply me with them. I have them not myself, but doubt not of the good offices of those who possess them, and shall think myself entitled to no small praise if I am able to collect into one focal spot the rays of a great number of luminaries. They also maybe very unequal to each other in lustre, and some of them may be little better than twinkling and feeble stars of the hundredth magnitude; but what is wanting in individual splendour will be made up by the union of all their beams into one. My province shall beto hold the mirror upso as to assemble all their influence within its verge, and reflect them on the public in such manner as to warm and enlighten.
"As I possess nothing but zeal I can promise to exert nothing else; but my consolation is, that aided by that powerful spirit, many have accomplished things much more arduous than that which I propose to myself.
"Many are the works of this kind which have risen and fallen in America, and many of them have enjoyed but a brief existence. This circumstance has always at first sight given me some uneasiness, but when I come more soberly to meditate upon it my courage revives, and I discover no reason for my doubts. Many works have actually been reared and sustained by the curiosity and favour of the public. They have ultimatelydeclined or fallen, it is true; but why? From no abatement of the public curiosity, but from causes which publishers or editors only are accountable. Those who managed the publication have commonly either changed their principles, remitted their zeal, or voluntarily relinquished their trade, or last of all, and like other men, have died. Such works have flourished for a time, and they ceased to flourish, by the fault or misfortune of the proprietors. The public is always eager to encourage one who devotes himself to their rational amusement, and when he ceases to demand or to deserve their favour they feel more regret than anger in withdrawing it.
"The world—by which I mean the few hundred persons who concern themselves about this work—will naturally inquire who it is that thus addresses them. 'This is somewhat more than a point of idle curiosity,' my reader will say, 'for from my knowledge of the man must I infer how far he will be able or willing to fulfil his promises. Besides, it is great importance to know whether his sentiments on certain subjects be agreeable ornot to my own. In politics, for example, he may be a malcontent; in religion an heretic. He may be an ardent advocate for all that I abhor, or he may be a celebrated champion of my favourite opinions. It is evident that these particulars must dictate the treatment you receive from me, and make me either your friend or enemy: your patron or your persecutor. Besides, I am anxious for some personal knowledge of you that I may judge of your literary merits. You may possibly be one of these, who came hither from the old world to seek your fortune; who have handled the pen as others handle the awl or needle; that is, for the sake of a livelihood, and who, therefore, are willing to work on any kind of cloth or leather, and to any model that may be in demand. You may, in the course of your trade, have accommodated yourself to twenty different fashions, and have served twenty classes of customers; have copied at one time a Parisian, at another a London fashion, and have truckled to the humours, now of a precise enthusiast, and now of a smart free-thinker.
"''Tis of no manner of importance whatcreed you may publicly profess on this occasion, or on what side, religious or political, you may declare yourself enlisted. To judge of the value or sincerity of these professions, to form some notion how far you will faithfully or skilfully perform your part, I must know your character. By that knowledge, I shall regulate myself with more certainty than by any anonymous declaration you may think proper to make.'
"I bow to the reasonableness of these observations, and shall therefore take no pains to conceal my name. Anybody may know it who chooses to ask me or my publisher. I shall not, however, put it at the bottom of this address. My diffidence, as my friends would call it, and my discretion, as my enemies, if I have any, would term it, hinders me from calling out my name in a crowd. It has heretofore hindered me from making my appearance there, when impelled by the strongest of human considerations, and produces, at this time, an insuperable aversion to naming myself to my readers. The mere act of calling out my own name, on this occasion, is of no moment, since an author or editor who takesno pains to conceal himself, cannot fail of being known to as many as desire to know him. And whether my notoriety make for me or against me, I shall use no means to prevent it.
"I am far from wishing, however, that my readers should judge of my exertions by my former ones. I have written much, but take much blame to myself for something which I have written, and take no praise for anything. I should enjoy a larger share of my own respect, at the present moment, if nothing had ever flowed from my pen, the production of which could be traced to me. A variety of causes induces me to form such a wish, but I am principally influenced by the consideration that time can scarcely fail of enlarging and refining the powers of a man, while the world is sure to judge of his capacities and principles at fifty, from what he has written at fifteen.
"Meanwhile, I deem it reasonable to explain the motives of the present publication, and must rely for credit on the good nature of my readers. The project is not a mercenary one. Nobody relies for subsistence on its success,nor does the editor put anything but his reputation at stake. At the same time, he cannot but be desirous of an ample subscription, not merely because pecuniary profit is acceptable, but because this is the best proof which he can receive that his endeavours to amuse and instruct have not been unsuccessful.
"Useful information and rational amusement being his objects, he will not scruple to collect materials from all quarters. He will ransack the newest foreign publications, and extract from them whatever can serve his purpose. He will not forget that a work, which solicits the attention of many readers, must build its claim on the variety as well as copiousness of its contents.
"As todomesticpublications, besides extracting from them anything serviceable to the public, he will give a critical account of them, and, in this respect, make his work an American Review, in which the history of our native literature shall be carefully detailed.
"He will pay particular attention to the history of passing events. He will carefully compile the news, foreign and domestic, of the current month, and give, in a precise andsystematic order, that intelligence which the common newspapers communicate in a vague and indiscriminate way. His work shall likewise be a repository of all those signal incidents in private life, which mark the character of the age, and excite the liveliest curiosity.
"This is an imperfect sketch of his work, and to accomplish these ends, he is secure of the liberal aid of many most respectable persons in this city and New York. He regrets the necessity he is under of concealing these names, since they would furnish the public with irresistible inducements to read what,whenthey had read, they would find sufficiently recommended by its own merits.
"In an age like this, when the foundations of religion and morality have been so boldly attacked, it seems necessary, in announcing a work of this nature, to be particularly explicit as to the path which the editor means to pursue. He, therefore, avows himself to be, without equivocation or reserve, the ardent friend and the willing champion of the Christian religion. Christian piety he reveres as the highest excellence of human beings, and the amplest reward he can seek for his labouris the consciousness of having, in some degree, however inconsiderable, contributed to recommend the practice of religious duties.
"As, in the conduct of this work, a supreme regard will be paid to the interests of religion and morality, he will scrupulously guard against all that dishonours or impairs that principle. Everything that savors of indelicacy or licentiousness will be rigorously proscribed. His poetical pieces may be dull, but they shall, at least, be free from voluptuousness or sensuality, and his prose, whether seconded or not by genius and knowledge, shall scrupulously aim at the promotion of public and private virtue.
"As a political annalist, he will speculate freely on foreign transactions; but in his detail of domestic events he will confine himself as strictly as possible to the limits of a mere historian. There is nothing for which he has a deeper abhorrence than the intemperance of party, and his fundamental rule shall be to exclude from his pages all personal altercation and abuse.
"He will conclude by reminding the public that there is not, at present, any other monthlypublication in America; and that a plan of this kind, if well conducted, cannot fail of being highly conducive to amusement and instruction. There are many, therefore, it is hoped, who, when such a herald as this knocks at their door, will open it without reluctance, and admit a visitant who calls only once a month; who talks upon every topic; whose company may be dismissed or resumed, and who may be made to prate or hold his tongue at pleasure; a companion he will be, possessing one companionable property in the highest degree—that is to say, a desire to please.—Sep. 1, 1803."
The contents of the magazine corresponded with the contents of thePort Folio; there were the same abuse of Wordsworth, criticisms of Milton and Shakespeare, and articles upon "literary resemblances." In November, 1803, Brown began to publish in the magazine his "Memoirs of Carwin, the Biloquist." The following poem, written during the prevalence of the yellow fever, in 1797, appeared in theLiterary Magazinefor September, 1806.
PHILADELPHIA—AN ELEGY.
Written during the prevalence of the Yellow Fever in 1797.
Imperial daughter of the West,Why thus in widow'd weeds recline?With every gift of nature blest,The empire of a world was thine.Late brighter than the star that beamsWhen the soft morning carol flows:Now mournful as the maniac's dreams,When melancholy veils his woes.What foe, with more than Gallic ire,Has thinned thy city's thronging way,Bade the sweet breath of youth expire,And manhood's powerful pulse decay?No Gallic foe's ferocious band,Fearful as fate, as death severe,But the destroying angel's hand,With hotter rage, with fiercer fear.I saw thee in thy prime of days,In glory rich, in beauty fair,When many a patriot shar'd thy praise,And nurs'd thee with maternal care.Columbia's genius, veil thy brow,Guardian of freedom, hither bend:The prayer of mercy meets thee now,With healing energy descend.Chase far the fiend whose burning treadConsumes the fairest flower that blows;Bends the sweet lily's bashful head,And fades the blushes of the rose.E'en now ill-omened birds of preyThrough the unpeopled mansions rove:Quench'd is that eye's inspiring ray,And lost the breezy lip of love.Yet guard theFriend, who wandering nearHaunts which the loitering Schuylkill laves,Bestows the tributary tear,Or fans with sighs the drowsy waves.And while his mercy-dealing handFeeds many a famished child of care,Wave round his brow thy saving wand,And breathe thy sweetness through the air;'Till borne on Health's elastic wing,Aloft the rapid whirlwind flies;The coldest gale of Zembla bring,And brace with frost the dripping skies.Yet bring the naiads, bring their urns,Haste, and the marble fount unclose,Through streets where Syrian summer burns,'Till all the cool libation flowsCool as the brook that bathes the heathWhen noon unfolds his silent hours,Refreshing as the morning's breathAdown the cleansing streamlet pours.Imperial daughter of the West,No rival wins thy wreath away;In all the wealth of nature drest,Again thy sovereign charms display;See all thy setting glories rise,Again thy thronging streets appear;Thy mart a hundred ports supplies,Thy harvests feed thy circling year.
The magazine lived five years and made eight volumes octavo.
In 1806 Brown began to edit and John Conrad to publish theAmerican Register. It contained abstracts of laws and public proceedings, reviews of literature and of foreign and domestic scientific intelligence, American and foreign State papers, etc. After five volumes had been published, Charles Brockden Brown died in his house at Eleventh and George Streets, on the 19th of February, 1810. It was in this house, which wasnotupon the east side of Eleventh Street, as Neal asserted inBlackwood's Magazine, nor was it "a low, squalid, two-story house," that Thomas Sully saw him, and said: "I saw him a little before his death. I had never known him—never heard of him—never read any of his works. He was in a deep decline. It was in the month of November—our Indian summer, when the air is full of smoke. Passing a window one day, I was caught bythe sight of a man with a remarkable physiognomy, writing at a table in a dark room. The sun shone directly upon his head. I never shall forget it. The dead leaves were falling then—it was Charles Brockden Brown."
Of the obscure ground in which the body of this literary pioneer was laid George Lippard wrote in theNineteenth Century(p. 27):
"The time has come when the authors of America, the men who view with pride the growth of a pure and elevated National literature, should go to the Quaker graveyard and bear the bones of Brockden Brown to that Laurel Hill which he loved in his boyhood; yes, let the remains of the martyr author sleep beneath the shadow of some dark pine, whose evergreen boughs, swaying to the winter wind, bend over the rugged cliff and sweep the waters of the Schuylkill as it rolls on amid its hilly shores, like an image of the rest which awaits the blessed in a better world. Then a solitary column of white marble, rising like a form of snow among the green boughs, shall record the neglect and woe and glory of the author's life, in a single name—Charles Brockden Brown."
"Wieland," the most powerful of Brown's novels, was published in Philadelphia in 1798. It was followed by "Ormond, or the Secret Witness" (1799), "Arthur Mervyn" (1799), "Edgar Huntley, or the Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker" (1801), "Clara Howard" and "Jane Talbot" (1801). All these romances dealt with sombre and mysterious or terrible subjects. "Wieland" was a story of monstrous crime occasioned through the agency of ventriloquism. "Arthur Mervyn" contained vivid descriptions of the yellow fever pestilence in Philadelphia in 1793. "Edgar Huntley" followed the fortunes of a somnambulist in the mountain fastnesses of Western Pennsylvania.
When Brown began to write "the churchyard romance" was in fashion, and novelists revelled in tales of horror and of terror, dwelling long and painfully upon the most loathsome details of some ghastly bit of fancy. It was the time of Lewis's "Tales of Terror," of Walpole's "Castle of Otranto," of Beckford's "Vathek," and of Mrs. Radcliffe's "Mysteries of Udolpho" and Mrs. Shelley's "Frankenstein." William Godwin, too, wroteghostly stories of crime and supernatural agencies, and from Godwin, Charles Brockden Brown caught his style. The influence of Godwin is noticeable in Brown's first work, "Alcuin, a Dialogue on the Rights of Women" (1797). Godwin's "Falkland" and "Caleb Williams" are the models of "Wieland" and "Ormond."
It is interesting to find young Percy Bysshe Shelley confessing his obligations to the Philadelphia novelist, and saying that Brown's novels had influenced him beyond any other books. Traces of "Wieland" are to be found deeply stamped upon "Zastrozzi" and "St. Irvyne." It is a singular chapter of literary history that records the progress of William Godwin's social theories and tales of horror across the Atlantic to an obscure house in Philadelphia and their return in a new literary form into the hands of William Godwin's son-in-law, Percy Bysshe Shelley, himself a poet of American descent.
The British magazines of 1804 contain flattering notices of Brown, and his novels were reprinted and read with interest and critical approval in England. At home he has falleninto undeserved oblivion, and the attempts in 1857 and 1887 to revive the interest in his works proved fruitless. His style had in it no elements of permanent life, but he was the first to discover the capabilities of romance in America, and used in all his books American characters and scenery.
Sir Walter Scott so greatly admired the works of the American novelist that he named the hero of Guy Mannering after him and gave to another of the characters of the same story the familiar name of "Arthur Mervyn."
Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815), a nephew of David Rittenhouse, and the successor of Benjamin Rush as professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, edited thePhiladelphia Medical and Physical Journalfrom November 1, 1804, to May, 1807. It was published irregularly by J. Conrad and Co.
TheEvening Fireside, or Literary Miscellany, Philadelphia, 1805-1806, was established by a literary club, and published by Joseph Rakestraw. The second volume, which began January 4, 1806, completed the work.
Notes on the stage and criticism of the drama had frequently been given place in thePort Folio, and Brown'sLiterary Magazinehad published a farcical account of a "Theatrical Campaign" by Dick Buckram (Vol. I, p. 222), but the first magazine in America that attempted to take the theatre for its province was theTheatrical Censor, By a Citizen, first published in Philadelphia, December 9, 1805, and continued until November 17, 1806.
It was succeeded by theTheatrical Censor and Critical Miscellany, by Gregory Gryphon, Esq., Philadelphia, Saturday, October 11, 1806. Both these periodicals were issued during the theatrical season only, and the latter one was published in the interest of the theatres of Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Charleston. It was published on Saturdays, and made sixteen pages octavo.
The secondTheatrical Censorwas followed by theThespian Mirror, in New York, edited by John Howard Payne, then a youth of fourteen years. Still later came theBoston Magazineand thePolyanthus.
Matthew Carey introduced the third theatrical journal to the Philadelphians. It was theThespian Monitor and Dramatick Miscellany, by Barnaby Bangbar, Esq. (1809). It was begun Saturday, November 25, 1809. There is but a single issue of this publication in the British Museum, and its contents are almost entirely biographical. This copy was the property of John Howard Payne.
In 1810 Samuel T. Bradford was the most enterprising publisher in Philadelphia. With his partner, Inskeep, he printed in 1812 thePort Folio. With the same partner he issued in January, 1810, theMirror of Taste and Dramatic Censor. The editor was Stephen Cullen Carpenter, an Irishman, who had entered the East India service, where he remained fourteen years, retired with the rank of major, and returned to England. He wrote political pamphlets at the commencement of the French Revolution, and was made reporter of Debates in Commons by Edmund Burke. He reported the trial of Hastings, and came to America about 1800, and edited a magazine in South Carolina until he was engaged by Bradford and Inskeep to conduct theMirror of Taste.
The magazine was of small octavo size, each number contained about one hundred pages, and was illustrated with a fine portrait of an actor or actress. The regular performances at the theatres were criticised with a good deal of pungency and acumen. It is said in the preface that "London boasts several periodical publications founded on theDramaalone. In America there has not yet been one of that description." In January, 1811, the magazine changed hands, and was published by Thomas Barton Zantzinger & Co., in the Shakespeare Buildings at Sixth and Chestnut Streets.
At the close of the first year of the magazine a dramatic event occurred that caused unusual excitement in Philadelphia, and led to important consequences. The great tragedian, George Frederick Cooke, whom Edmund Kean pronounced "the greatest of all actors, Garrick alone excepted," arrived in New York and appeared on 21st October, 1810, asRichard IIIbefore two thousand spectators in the Park Theatre.
It was then that he requested the great audience to stand while "God Save the King"should be played, and during the storm that followed calmly took snuff until the audience acceded to his demand.
From New York he proceeded to Philadelphia. No such acting had been seen in America. The excitement among play-going people was extraordinary. "He was to playRichardon a Monday night, and on Sunday evening the steps of the theatre were covered with groups of porters, and other men of the lower orders, prepared to spend the night there, that they might have the first chance of taking places in the boxes. I saw some take their hats off and put on night-caps. At ten o'clock the next morning the door was opened to them, and at that time the street in front of the theatre was impassable. When the rush took place, I saw a man spring up and catch hold of the iron which supported a lamp on one side of the door, by which he raised himself so as to run over the heads of the crowd into the theatre. Some of these fellows were hired by gentlemen to secure places, and others took boxes on speculation, sure of selling them at double or treble the regular prices. When the time came for opening the doors inthe evening, the crowd was so tumultuous that it was evident there was little certainty that the holders of box tickets would obtain their places, and for ladies the attempt would be dangerous. A placard was therefore displayed, stating that all persons who had tickets would be admitted at the stage door before the front doors were opened. This notice soon drew such a crowd to the back of the theatre that when Cooke arrived he could not get in. He was on foot with Dunlap, one of the New York managers, and he was obliged to make himself known before he could be got through the press. 'I am like the man going to be hanged,' he said, 'who told the crowd they would have no fun unless they made way for him.'"
The writer of these lines was Charles Robert Leslie, who, on the night in question, occupied a place in the flies, and from that aerial station "first saw George Frederick Cooke, the bestRichardsince Garrick, and who has not been surpassed even by Edmund Kean" (Autobiography of C. R. Leslie, p. 18). Soon after this memorable night Leslie made a likeness of Cooke which attracted Bradford'sattention, and a fund was speedily raised by subscription to enable the young artist to study painting two years in Europe. Armed with letters to English artists, Leslie sailed from New York on the 11th of November, 1811, in company with Mr. Inskeep. So slight a circumstance gained for him an introduction into the great world of West and Allston, and Landseer and Fuseli, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and gave to England and the world the treasures of the Vernon and the Sheepshank's collections.
In the preface to theMirror of Taste(Vol. IV) the editors recognize the importance to them of the visit of Cooke. The magazine "rose into estimation just at that singular crisis when a great theatrical character unexpectedly visiting this country held a new light to the stage, and, pointing out the true dramatic representation, opened to our people a new train of thought, gave to the public mind a new spring, and imparted an impulse before unfelt, with a just and elegant direction to the general taste, roused the feelings and perceptions from listlessness and sloth, and infused into the best bosoms of the nation agenerous spirit, which gave new life to the arts, quickened them into action and effect, called forth the infant genius of aLeslieto the public view, and bade breathing portraits start from the canvas of a Sully."[19]
The father of Charles Robert Leslie was Robert Leslie, who had been a watchmaker at Elktown, Md., and had removed to Philadelphia in 1786. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and a friend of Rush and Barton and Wistar and Physick. It was while residing in London that Charles Robert was born, October 19, 1794. An elder sister, Eliza, was born in 1787 in Philadelphia. She won a prize for a story, "Mrs. Washington Potts," inGodey's Lady's Book, and afterwards edited theGift, an annual, andMiss Leslie's Magazine, a monthly publication (1843).
Blackwood's Magazinein 1824 congratulated America on C. R. Leslie's success. He never lost his profound respect and affection for Samuel Bradford, and named his second son after him. In the second year (1813) ofLeslie's residence in London, Washington Allston's health became seriously affected, and he resolved to visit Bristol. Coleridge, who was affectionately attached to Allston, followed him thither. "The house was so full," writes Leslie, in his autobiographical recollections, "that the poet was obliged to share a double-bedded room with me. We were kept up late in consequence of the critical condition of Allston, and when we retired Coleridge, seeing a copy of Knickerbocker's History of New York which I had brought with me, lying on the table, took it up and began reading. I went to bed, and think he must have sat up the greater part of the night, for the next day he had nearly got through Knickerbocker. This was many years before it was published in England, and the work was, of course, entirely new to him. He was delighted with it" (p. 23).
The Analectic.—Washington Irving, who had met Allston in Rome in 1804, and who was for a time almost swerved from his literary purpose by his desire to become a painter, and with whose first literary triumph Coleridge thus became familiar, was also aPhiladelphia editor. In 1809 E. Bronson and others began to print upon their Lorenzo pressThe Select Reviews and Spirit of the Foreign Magazines, edited by Samuel Ewing. The magazine was bought by Moses Thomas, in 1812, who changed its name to theAnalectic. Irving was its editor in 1813-14. He contributed to it some of the essays of the "Sketch Book," "Traits of Indian Character," and "Philip of Pokanoket." He reviewed Robert Treat Paine, E. C. Holland, Paulding and Lord Byron, and wrote for it biographies of Lawrence, Burrows, Perry and Porter.[20]