type who had but lately left the Church of England. The atmosphere of Boston was too stifling for the youthful Benjamin, who was born with the temperament of a free-thinker, and soon began to hear himself called an "infidel." There can be no doubt that this circumstance was potent in turning the young man's attention to the more liberal Dutch and Quaker commonwealths,1 and thus his footsteps were led to Pennsylvania, which could furnish more work for printers than New York. Thus Boston's loss was Philadelphia's gain. Attitude of toward learning. In spite of their liberalism, the Quakers attached far less importance to education than the Puritans of New England. The majority of their preachers and instructors were men of high moral Quakers tone and spiritual insight with scant learning, like George Fox himself. Fox used to say that "God stood in no need of human learning," and that "Oxford and Cambridge could not make a minister." Quakers, in studying the Bible, depended upon their Inner Light rather than that critical interpretation of texts to which the orthodox Puritans attached so much importance. A knowledge of Hebrew, therefore, was not highly valued; and as for Greek and Latin literature, it was the unsanctified work of pagans, while the poets of France and Italy dealt with worldly and frivolous themes. In these respects 1 "I was rather inclined to leave Boston when I reflected that I had already made myself a little obnoxious to the governing party, and farther, that my indiscreet disputations about religion began to make me pointed at with horror by good people as an infidel or atheist." Franklin's Autobiography, ed. Bigelow, 1868, p. 106 we must remember that Penn was as far from being a typical Quaker as Milton, with his pervading artistic sense, his love of music and the theatre, and his long curling hair, was from being a typical Puritan. George Fox and John Cotton are respectively the typical men. The latter, who spent twelve hours a day in study and said, "I love to sweeten my mouth with a piece of Calvin before I go to sleep," could write and speak fluently in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, besides carrying a ponderous burden of philological, metaphysical, and theological erudition. Among the Puritan divines of New England, real scholarship was commonly found, and it was sometimes of a high order; and this was because sound scholarship was supposed to be conducive to soundness in doctrines. This explains the founding of Harvard College in the wilderness in 1636. schools. To the Quaker, whose mind was directly illuminated by light from above, this elaborate equipment was mere rubbish. It was therefore not strange that in colonial times the higher education in Pennsylvania owed little to Quakers. They were nevertheless careful, as people of practi- The first cal sense, to teach their children "the three R's," and it was unusual to find a member of the community who could not write and cipher. The first school in Philadelphia was opened in 1683, when the town was scarcely a year old. In that humble establishment the master, Enoch Flower, taught reading for four shillings per quarter; for six shillings the pupil could add writing, and for eight shillings arithmetic likewise, to his VOL. II. initial accomplishment. In 1689 the Society of Friends set up their public school, which was chartered by Penn in 1711. The Bradfords. The impulse toward literary culture, given from the outset by Penn and his friends, was visible in the early establishment of a printing-press, the first one south of New England, by William Bradford, in 1685. In 1690 the same Bradford set up a paper-mill on the bank of the Schuylkill. After his removal to New York in 1693,1 his son Andrew kept up the press, with a considerable bookstore, and in 1719 issued the first newspaper in the middle colonies. In 1735 he was finely established as a bookseller at the sign of the Bible in Second Street, whence he afterward moved to South Front Street, and in 1741 began to publish "The American Magazine." In the following year Andrew's nephew, William Bradford, started the "Pennsylvania Journal," which was continued under that name until 1801, when it became "The True American." It was in Andrew Bradford's office that Franklin in 1723 found work as a compositor. The standard English books of the period could be found on the shelves of Philadelphia booksellers, and the demand for such works as Robertson's "Charles V." and Blackstone's "Commentaries" was so great that they were reprinted. Among Pennsylvanians who attained distinction for scientific or literary achievement were the astronomer David Rittenhouse, the botanists John Bartram and his son William, the self-taught mathematician Thomas 1 See above, p. 249. Godfrey, one of the inventors of Hadley's so-called quadrant,1 and his son Thomas, author of the first American dramatic work, "The Prince The first of Parthia." This tragedy, rapid and American strong in action, and dignified, if somewhat monotonous and conventional in its language,2 drama. 1 This useful instrument, which is more properly called a sextant, was invented by Thomas Godfrey and also by John Hadley. The Royal Society decided that both were entitled to the credit of the invention, and awarded to each a prize of £200. 2 On a stormy night two arch-conspirators thus parley together: VARDANES.—Why rage the elements? They are not cursed LYSIAS. VARDANES. Like me! Evanthe frowns not angry on them; O Lysias, chide no more, for I have done. LYSIAS. Can pry into futurity and tell What distant ages will produce of wonder, My days were deemed to be a hurricane. LYSIAS. Then, haste to raise the tempest. My soul disdains this one eternal round, Steady and firm to all your purposes; And here's a hand that knows to execute Whate'er designs thy daring breast can form, See Godfrey's Juvenile Poems, ed. Evans, Philadelphia, 1767. suggests that, had not the author been cut off at the early age of seven-and-twenty, he might have won honourable mention among English poets. Beginnings tre. At the time when the first American drama was written, the stage was generally viewed with strong disapproval, except in New York, where the first theatre was opened in 1761, in spite of some feeble remonstrances. In Philadelphia a little company of players undertook in 1749 to give the of the thea- public a taste of Shakespeare under improvised conditions, but the performance was suppressed by the magistrates. After two or three further abortive attempts, the Old Southwark Theatre went into operation in 1766, and the most vehement efforts to close it were unsuccessful. It is worthy of note that, among the strait-laced persons who deemed it scandalous to look on at "Hamlet" or Othello," there were not a few who took delight in cock-fighting and bullbaiting.1 66 The chief occupation of Pennyslvanians was Agriculture and commerce. agriculture, but there was also a brisk commerce, and towns grew up rapidly. Soon after the middle of the century, Philadelphia, with a population of 30,000, was the largest city of the English colonies; Lancaster, with 10,000, was the largest inland town; York was nearly as large; while Wilmington and Newcastle, in Delaware, were thriving places. Wheat, The volume contains also, among other things, a poem in pentameter couplets, entitled "The Court of Fancy," a sort of study after Chaucer. 1 Cf. Miss Repplier's Philadelphia, p. 69. |