Literary Influences in Colonial Newspapers, 1704-1750

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Columbia University Press, 1912 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 279 pages
From the Preface: The following study aims to give a fairly comprehensive survey of the literary contributions in colonial newspapers from 1704 to 1750. Aside from the well-known essays of Benjamin Franklin in The New England Courant and in The Pennsylvania Gazette, the literary material in the colonial weeklies has been hitherto neglected. Especially is this true of the Southern papers. Quotations of some length from the essays and verse published in colonial journals have therefore been considered advisable in the present work. In most instances the originals of these extracts are accessible only in the collections of Historical Societies, or in the files of some especially favored library. The student who wishes to examine The South Carolina Gazette, for example, must go to the Charleston Library Society for the only file known to be extant. All quotations in the present volume follow literally the punctuation, spelling, and capitalization of the originals, no matter how inconsistent these may seem to the modern reader. The only exceptions to this rule are a few corrections of obvious printers' errors, the retention of which would add needless confusion.
 

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Page 157 - LOOK round the habitable world, how few Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue. How void of reason are our hopes and fears ! What in the conduct of our life appears So well...
Page 58 - Here will I hold. If there's a power above us — And that there is, all nature cries aloud Through all her works — He must delight in virtue; And that which He delights in must be happy.
Page 104 - Father of light and life ! thou Good Supreme ! O teach me what is good ! teach me Thyself ! Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, From every low pursuit! and feed my soul With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure; Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss...
Page 69 - I have often thought there has not been sufficient pains taken in finding out proper employments and diversions for the fair ones. Their amusements seem contrived for them rather as they are women than as they are reasonable creatures, and are more adapted to the sex than to the species.
Page 116 - ... cuts, a dress better than I had ever seen it wear in its own language. I have since found that it has been translated into most of the languages of Europe, and suppose it has been more generally read than any other book, except perhaps the Bible. Honest John was the first that I know of who mix'd narration and dialogue ; a method of writing very engaging to the reader, who in the most interesting parts finds himself, as it were, brought into the company and present at the discourse. DeFoe in...
Page 49 - There is no place of general resort wherein I do not often make my appearance ; sometimes I am seen thrusting my head into a round of politicians at Will's, and listening with great attention to the narratives that are made in those little circular audiences.
Page 33 - ... to send news ; made arrangements for the regular weekly publication of " the Number of Persons Buried and Baptized in the town of Boston ;" the prospectus closing thus : his may serve as a Notification, that a Select number of Gentlemen, who have had the happiness of a liberal Education, and some of them considerably improv'd by their Travels into distant Countries ; are now concerting some regular Schemes for the Entertainment of the ingenious Reader, and the Encouragement of Wit and Politeness...
Page 109 - I established myself in Pennsylvania, there was not a good bookseller's shop in any of the Colonies to the southward of Boston.
Page 234 - It is a folly for an eminent man to think of escaping it, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

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