nearly forty years of this period, from 1641 to 1677, Sir William Berkeley exerted his influence and power "in favor of the fine old conservative policy of keeping subjects ignorant in order to keep them submissive." 1 When questioned in 1670 about the condition of Virginia, he said: "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing; and I hope we shall not have, these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us from both."2 Surely under these circumstances there was but little encouragement to literature. Toward the close of the period before us, a growing interest in higher education resulted, in 1692, in the founding of the College of William and Mary, the oldest institution of learning in the South, and, after Harvard, the oldest in the United States. It received a cordial support not only in Virginia, but also in England. The lieutenant-governor headed the subscription list with a generous gift, and his example was followed by other prominent members of the colony. After the sum of twenty-five hundred pounds had thus been raised, the Rev. James Blair was sent to England to solicit a charter for the institution. This was readily granted; and as a further evidence of the royal favor, the quit-rents yet due in the colony, amounting to nearly two thousand pounds, were turned over to the college. For its further support, twenty thousand acres of land were set apart for its use, and a tax of a penny a pound was laid on all tobacco exported from Virginia and Maryland to other American 1 Tyler, History of American Literature, p. 89. 2 Campbell, History of Virginia, p. 273. colonies. The college was located at Williamsburg; and the Rev. James Blair, who had been active in securing its establishment, was chosen as its first president. In the language of the charter, the college was founded "to the end that the Church of Virginia may be furnished with a seminary of ministers of the Gospel, and that the youth may be piously educated in good letters and manners, and that Christian faith may be propagated among the western Indians to the glory of God." The founding of this college, though without influence upon literature during the First Colonial Period, supplied in the next century a number of men who became illustrious in the political and literary history of their country. New England. - Thirteen years after the founding of Jamestown, the Mayflower, with one hundred and two colonists, landed at Plymouth. They were Puritans, who for the sake of conscience first exiled themselves in Holland; and there considering that their nationality would finally be lost among the hospitable Dutch, they heroically resolved to migrate to the New World. They recognized the difficulties of the undertaking; but, as one of their number tells us, it was replied that "all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised and overcome with answerable courages." Religion was a dominant factor in the character of the Puritans. In coming to America, they sought a refuge where, to use their own language, they "might glorify God, do more good to their country, better provide for their posterity, and live to be more refreshed by their labors." They were thorough-going Protestants; but in their adherence to Scripture they fell into Hebrew rigor. They not only abstained from all forms of immorality, but they discountenanced innocent pleasures. - Notwithstanding the difficulties which attended their settlement, the rigor of the climate, the hostility of the Indians, and the interference of foes abroad, the Puritan colony rapidly grew in numbers and influence. The despotism of Charles I. and the persecution instigated by Archbishop Laud drove some of the best people of England to seek religious and political freedom in the colony of Massachusetts. By the year 1640 the colony numbered more than twenty thousand persons, distributed in about fifty towns and villages. Tyranny had made them friends of constitutional government. In spite of superstition and religious intolerance, evils belonging to the age, New England was from the start the friend of popular intelligence and social progress. The printing-press was introduced in 1639; and though it was kept under close supervision, it was not allowed to remain entirely inactive. The Puritans deserve the credit of being the first community in Christendom to make ample provision for the instruction of the people. "In the laws establishing common schools, lies the secret of the success and character of New England. Every child, as it was born into the world, was lifted from the earth by the genius of the country, and, in the statutes of the land, received, as its birthright, a pledge of the public care for its morals and its mind." 1 In order that the Scriptures might be properly understood, and that learning might not be buried in the grave of their fathers, as the Act of the General Court stated, it was ordered in 1647 in all the Puritan colonies, "that 1 Bancroft, History of the United States, Vol. I., p. 459. every township, after the Lord hath increased them to fifty householders, shall appoint one to teach all children to write and read; and when any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families, they shall set up a grammar school; the masters thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university." Harvard College, the oldest institution of learning in the United States, was founded in 1636. In that year the Massachusetts assembly "agreed to give four hundred pounds towards a school or college." This appropriation was equivalent to the colony tax for one year, and from this point of view would equal at the present time several millions of dollars. Newtown, which was afterwards changed to Cambridge in memory of the English university town, was chosen as the site of the new college. When John Harvard, who died shortly after the founding of the college, bequeathed to it his library and one-half of his estate, his name was associated with the institution, which was destined to exert an untold influence upon the literary history of our country. We can now understand the literary pre-eminence of New England. From the first it was colonized by an earnest body of men of unusual intelligence. They lived together in towns, where perpetual contact sharpened their wits, and kept them in sympathy with subjects of common interest. Their attitude to religion led them to theological discussion. With some conception at least of the magnitude and far-reaching results of their undertaking, they minutely noted the facts of their experience, and sought to build a solid political structure. The tasks imposed upon them, as well as their novel and picturesque surroundings, stimulated their minds to the highest ac tivity. From their surroundings and character we would not expect artistic form. They hardly thought of literature as a fine art. But in their literature we find a manly strength and intense earnestness of purpose. The seventeenth century produced a large number of writers in New England. Most of their works, however, are of interest now only to the antiquarian or specialist. No masterpiece of literature, such as the Puritan Milton produced in England, appeared to adorn American letters. The first book printed was the "Bay Psalm Book," a rude rendering of the Hebrew. As the preface informs us, "It hath been one part of our religious care and faithful endeavor to keep close to the original text. If, therefore, the verses are not always so smooth and elegant as some may desire or expect, . . . we have respected rather a plain translation than to smooth our verses with the sweetness of any paraphrase; and so have attended conscience rather than elegance, fidelity rather than poetry." After this introduction we are not much surprised to read the following version of Psalm XIX. : "The heavens doe declare also the firmament shews forth Day speaks to day, knowledge night hath to night declar'd. There neither speach nor language is, where their voyce is not heard. Through all the earth their line is gone forth, & unto the utmost end of all the world, A Tabernacle hee in them pitcht for the Sun, |