Chapter III: Part 3

Leigh Hunt was not the only English poet of far-shining fame who was of American origin. Percy Bysshe Shelley was the grandson of a quack doctor in Newark, N. J., who, according to a local tradition, married the widow of a New York miller. Fitz-Greene Halleck lived and died in an old house in Guilford, Connecticut, built upon ground that had belonged to Bysshe Shelley, before he went to England and became master of Castle Goring. Many another great life in England was bound with strands of intimate connection to the history of America. John Keats's brother George made his home in Kentucky, and his descendants are still residents of Philadelphia. Tench Francis, the merchant, who was for many years the agent for the Penns in their domain, and who was the first cashier of the Bank of North America, was a cousin of Sir Philip Francis, the reputed author of the "Junius" letters. Sir Philip wrote to Tench's brother, Turbott, whom he called, familiarly, "Tubby:" "At present I am bound to the Ganges, but who knows whether I may not end my days on the banks of the Ohio? It gives me great comfort to reflect that I have relatives, who are honest fellows, in almost every part of the world. In America the name of Francis flourishes. I don't like to think of the quantity of salt water between us. If it were claret I would drink my way to America." The name of Francis certainly flourishes in Philadelphia. The intricate little settlement of Francisville, within the city, perpetuates the name of the family.

It has always been asserted and believed that Gulian Crommelin Verplanck, of New York, was the first American editor of Shakespeare. A few jottings from the _Port Folio_ will show that he has too rashly been placed upon the pinnacle, and that the honor justly belongs to Joseph Dennie.

The _Port Folio_ of February 11, 1804 (p. 46) advertises "the first complete edition of Shakespeare in this country, from the text of the best editors of Shakespeare. To be published by Hugh Maxwell and Thomas S. Manning." No editor's name is mentioned, but in the following month (March 10, 1804) Dennie tells the whole story: "The editor, having, at the request of his publisher, undertaken to superintend a new edition of the Plays of Shakespeare, is particularly desirous of inspecting the first folio edition. This is probably very scarce, and may be found only in the cabinet of some distant virtuoso. But the owner of this rare book will be very gratefully thanked if the editor can have permission to consult it for a short season." Later on (April 14, p. 119) Dennie confesses some further "wants:" "During some weeks in which the editor has been engaged in researches respecting the text of Shakespeare he has had frequent occasion to acknowledge the kindness of many literary gentlemen who have directed his attention to many books auxiliary to his labors. But notwithstanding his own inquisitiveness and the aid of others, he still has not had the good fortune to find the following, for the whole or any one of which he will be particularly obliged:--'Remarks on Shakespeare's Tempest,' 'An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff, by Mr. Maurice Morgan, 8 vo, 1777,'" etc., etc.

After this there can be no doubt that the useful notes to the 1807 edition, signed "J. D.," are from the pen of Joseph Dennie. Although he edited but one volume, he is the first American editor, and the honors are transferred from New York to Philadelphia.

Charles Brockden Brown was the first man in America to cultivate literature as a profession; Dennie was the second. When inaugurating the _Port Folio_ he wrote of himself: "He has long been urged by a sober wish, or, if the sneering reader will have it so, he has long been deluded by the visionary whim, of making literature the handmaid of fortune, or at least of securing something like independence, by exertion, as a man of letters."

Of course Dennie and his colleagues who drew their poetry from Pope and their prose from Addison had no sympathy with the new romantic poetry that at the time of the birth of the _Port Folio_ was issuing from the English Lakes. "William Wordsworth" said the _Port Folio_ of 1809 "stands among the foremost of those English bards who have mistaken silliness for simplicity, and, with a false and affected taste, filled their papers with the language of children and clowns" (_P. F._, Vol. VII, p. 256).

The first American edition of Wordsworth was published in Philadelphia in 1802. It is exceedingly rare, and bears the following imprint:

LYRICAL BALLADS, | with | other poems: | In Two Volumes. | By W. WORDSWORTH. | [Motto] Quam nihil ad genium, papiniane, tuum! | Vol. I. | From the London Second Edition. | PHILADELPHIA: | _Printed and sold by James Humphreys,--At the N. W. Corner of Walnut and Dock street, 1802._ 2 _vols._ 120. VOL. I, _pp._ xxii-159. VOL. II, _pp._ 172.

The earliest notice of John Howard Payne is in the _Port Folio_, new series, Vol. I, p. 101 (1806). Payne was then a lad of fourteen years, and already editor of the _Thespian Mirror_ in New York.

The _Port Folio_, new series, Vol. II, p. 421, contains an account of the first dramatic performance composed in North Carolina, "NOLENS VOLENS; or, _The Biter Bit_," written by Everard Hall, a gentleman of North Carolina.

Dennie died January 7, 1812, and was buried in St. Peter's churchyard. A monument was erected to him, and the inscription carved upon it, which errs only in the place of his nativity, was written by his friend, John Quincy Adams:

Joseph Dennie,
Born at Lexington, Massachusetts,
August 30, 1768;
Died at Philadelphia, January 7, 1812;
Endowed with talents and qualified by education
To adorn the senate and the bar;
But following the impulse of a genius
Formed for converse with the muses
He devoted his life to the literature of his country.
As author of "The Lay Preacher,"
And as first editor of the _Port Folio_,
He contributed to chasten the morals, and to
Refine the taste of this nation.
To an imagination lively, not licentious,
A wit sportive, not wanton,
And a heart without guile, he
United a deep sensibility, which endeared
Him to his friends, and an ardent piety,
Which we humbly trust recommended him
to his God.
Those friends have erected this tribute of their
Affection to his memory;
To the mercies of that God is their resort
For themselves and for him.
MDCCCXIX.

John Quincy Adams, who wrote the lines upon the monument, was an old and valued friend of Dennie's, and one of the earliest contributors to the _Port Folio_.

His "Tour Through Silesia," afterward reprinted in London in two octavo volumes, first appeared in the _Port Folio_ in 1801. He also contributed to the first number of the magazine a version of the thirteenth satire of Juvenal, and intended to continue the translation of Juvenal, but abandoned the project when Gifford's work was announced. A brother of John Quincy Adams, who was a resident of Philadelphia, had been a fellow-student with Dennie at Harvard.

The obituary notice of Dennie in the _Port Folio_ of February, 1812, did not satisfy his friends. His life was related at greater length, accompanied by a silhouette, in May, 1816 (_Port Folio_, page 361). This time the affection and admiration for the man found right expression. It was said that Dennie had "erected the first temple to the muses on his natal shore;" and "when the Muse of History shall hereafter narrate the story of our rapid progress from ignorance, poverty and feebleness, to knowledge, splendor and strength, the name of Dennie will be inscribed among the most worthy of those who laboured to procure these invaluable blessings" (page 170).

A complete list of the contributors to the _Port Folio_ would be the history of literature in Philadelphia for the first quarter of this century. The articles were almost never signed, and while the thin disguises of assumed names are in most cases easily penetrable, some that occur infrequently are only identified with much difficulty.

The last editor of the _Port Folio_, Mr. John E. Hall, published in 1826 "The Philadelphia Souvenir, a collection of fugitive pieces from the Philadelphia press, with biographical and explanatory notes." The book was intended to be "a sort of _cairn_ to the memory of the circle of friends which Mr. Moore has commemorated in his immortal poems." The commemoration to which Mr. Hall refers is found in Moore's "eighth epistle," addressed "To the Honourable W. R. Spencer:"

Yet, yet forgive me, oh you sacred few,
Whom late by Delaware's green banks I knew;
Whom, known and lov'd through many a social eve,
'Twas bliss to live with, and 'twas pain to leave.
Not with more joy the lonely exile scann'd
The writing traced upon the desert sand,
Where his lone breast but little hop'd to find
One trace of life, one stamp of human kind,
Than did I hail the pure, th' enlightened zeal,
The strength to reason and the warmth to feel,
The manly polish and the illumin'd taste,
Which,--'mid the melancholy, heartless waste
My foot has travers'd,--oh you sacred few!
I found by Delaware's green banks with you.

The only pleasant memories of America that Thomas Moore carried back with him to England were of the "nights of mirth and mind" spent "where Schuylkill winds his way through banks of flowers." He was in Philadelphia in the autumn of 1804, and was lionized by the _Port Folio_; the eighth epistle in the "Poems Relating to America," from which the lines above are quoted, was written at Buffalo, and it was from Buffalo also that Moore sent to Dennie the manuscript of the beautiful "Lines on Leaving Philadelphia," which was published in the _Port Folio_ of August 31, 1805 (Vol. V, p. 271), and reprinted in Brockden Brown's _Literary Magazine_, January, 1806 (Vol. III, p. 27).

LINES WRITTEN ON LEAVING PHILADELPHIA.

Alone by the Schuylkill a wanderer rov'd,
And bright were its flowery banks to his eye;
But far, very far were the friends that he lov'd,
And he gazed on its flowery banks with a sigh.

O Nature, though blessed and bright are thy rays,
O'er the brow of creation enchantingly thrown,
Yet faint are they all to the lustre that plays
In a smile from the heart that is fondly our own!

Nor long did the soul of the stranger remain
Unblest by the smile that he languished to meet;
Though scarce did he hope it would soothe him again,
Till the threshold of home had been prest by his feet.

But the lays of his boyhood had stol'n to their ear,
And they lov'd what they knew of so humble a name;
And they told him, with flattery welcome and dear,
That they found in his heart something better than fame.

Nor did woman--O woman! whose form and whose soul
Are the spell and the light of each path we pursue;
Whether sunn'd in the tropics or chill'd at the pole,
If a woman be there, there is happiness too.

Nor did she her enamouring magic deny,--
That magic his heart had relinquished so long,--
Like eyes he had loved was _her_ eloquent eye,
Like them did it soften and weep at his song.

Oh, blest be the tear, and in memory oft
May its sparkle be shed o'er the wanderer's dream;
Thrice blest be that eye, and may passion as soft,
As free from a pang, ever mellow its beam!

The stranger is gone--but he will not forget,
When at home he shall talk of the toils he has known,
To tell with a sigh what endearments he met,
As he stray'd by the wave of the Schuylkill alone.

It is interesting to remember that the woman in the poem,

Like eyes he had loved was her eloquent eye,

was the wife of Joseph Hopkinson, the author of "Hail Columbia," whose house at Fourth and Chestnut Streets was the resort of Dennie and the wits.

Moore also contributed to the _Port Folio_ "When Time who steals our Hearts Away," "Dear, in Pity do not Speak," "Good-night, Good-night, and is it so?" "When the Heart's Feeling," "Loud sung the Wind," and "The Sorrow long has worn my Heart."

Among the _Port Folio_ gentlemen who may have met "Anacreon" Moore, and who were Dennie's faithful coadjutors, were John Blair Linn, John Shaw, Francis Cope, Robert H. Rose, Thomas I. Wharton, Charles J. Ingersoll and his brother Edward, Condy Raguet, Robert Walsh, John Sanderson, John Syng Dorsey, Royall Tyler, Robert Hare, Dr. Nathaniel Chapman, Alexander Graydon, Josiah Quincy, John Leeds Bozman, William B. Wood, General Thomas Cadwalader, Philip Hamilton, Richard Rush, Richard Peters, Gouverneur Morris, Joseph Hopkinson, Horace Binney, Alexander Wilson, Charles Brockden Brown and Samuel Ewing. To this list must be added the bright names of Sarah Hall, Mrs. Elizabeth Ferguson and Harriet Fenno.

The editors and editorial helpers of the _Port Folio_ from the death of Dennie until 1827, when the magazine finally ceased, were Paul Allen, Nicholas Biddle, Dr. Charles Caldwell, Thomas Cooper, Judge Workman, John Elihu Hall, and his three brothers James, Thomas Mifflin, and Harrison.

JOHN BLAIR LINN (1777-1804), the author of the "Powers of Genius" (1801), a popular work which was splendidly reprinted in London,[13] was the son of Dr. William Linn, of Shippensburg, who presided successively over the destinies of three colleges--Washington, Rutgers and Union--and was for many years a regent of a fourth--the University of the State of New York. John Blair was graduated from Columbia, read law with Alexander Hamilton, wrote an unsuccessful drama, "Bourville Castle," and on June 13, 1799, was installed as joint-pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. He engaged in controversy with Joseph Priestley, but his best achievements were "Valerian," a narrative poem, and "The Death of Washington" (1800). John Blair Linn was a brother-in-law of Charles Brockden Brown. A biographical sketch of him was written for the _Port Folio_ in 1809 (page 21), and again in 1811 (89-97). Brown also published a review of his life and work in the _Literary Magazine_, Vol. II, page 554.

[13] The Powers of Genius, a poem in three parts, by John Blair Linn, A.M. Albion Press. Printed by J. Cundee, Ivy Lane, for F. Williams, Stationers' Court, and T. Hurst, Paternoster Row, 1804.

JOHN SHAW (1778-1809) was born in Annapolis, May 4, 1778, and lost at sea January 10, 1809. He studied medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, and visited Algiers as a ship-surgeon in 1798. He died on a voyage to the Bahama Islands.

The best poem that he contributed to the _Port Folio_ was:

Who has robbed the ocean cave,
To tinge thy lips with coral hue?
Who from India's distant wave
For thee those pearly treasures drew?
Who, from yonder Orient sky,
Stole the morning of thine eye?

Thousand charms thy form to deck,
From sea, and earth, and air are born;
Roses bloom upon thy cheek,
On thy breath their fragrance borne.
Guard thy bosom from the day,
Lest thy snows should melt away.

But one charm remains behind,
Which mute earth can ne'er impart;
Nor in ocean wilt thou find,
Nor in the circling air, a heart.
Fairest! wouldst thou perfect be,
Take, oh take that heart from me.

All his offerings to the _Port Folio_ were signed "Ithacus." His poems were collected and published in 1810, together with a memoir and extracts from his foreign correspondence.

FRANCIS COPE contributed essays to the _Port Folio_ in 1812. He was an occasional writer for several years, signing his papers with the initials "C. F."

ROBERT H. ROSE is the author of the "Sketches in Verse," published in 1810, nearly all of which had previously appeared in the _Port Folio_, where the "Sketches" were termed "a kind of chalk drawings." One of them, "To a Market Street Gutter," was a parody of the "Ode to the Raritan," and was the cause of John Davis writing the "Pursuits of Philadelphia Literature".[14]

[14] There is no mention of Robert Rose in Duyckinck, or Allibone, in Appleton's Encyclopædia of American Biography, or in the admirable Stedman-Hutchinson Library of American Literature.

The _Port Folio_ of May, 1816 (page 361), has a frontispiece engraving of "Silver Lake," the seat of Robert Rose, in Susquehanna County, on the New York line.

ODE TO A MARKET STREET GUTTER.

_A Specimen of Local Description._

O sweetest Gutter! though a clown,
I love to see thee running down;
Or mark thee stop awhile, then free
From ice, jog on again, like me;
Or like the lasses whom I meet,
Who, sauntering, stray along the street,
As if they had nowhere to go!
At times, so rapid is thy flow,
That did the cits not wish in vain
Thou wouldst be in the pumps again,
But like a pig, whose fates deny
To find again his wonted sty,
You turn, and stop, and run, and turn,
Yet ne'er shall find your "native urn."
How oft has rolled down thy stream
Things which in song not well would seem,
Ere scavengers their scrapers plied
To drag manure from out thy tide,
Or hydrants bade thy scanty rill
Desert its banks and cellars fill.
Last Thursday morn, so very cold,
A morn _not_ better felt than told,
Then first in all its bright array,
Did I thy "frozen form" survey;
And, goodness! what a great big steeple!
What sights of houses! and such people!!
And then I thought, did I not stutter,
But verse could, like _some poets_, utter,
How much I'd praise thee, sweetest Gutter!

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 review
The Philadelphia lounging scribbling crew."

Davis had met the gentlemen of the _Port Folio_ and 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. Wilkins to 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]

[15] Abercrombie's prospectus for a new edition of Johnson's Works--"to be comprised in fourteen octavo volumes, with new designs and plates. Phila.: 1811"--is contained in the _Port Folio_, Vol. VI, p. 98.

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 bed
Roars, 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."

THOMAS I. WHARTON (1791-1856), a distinguished Philadelphia lawyer, was a frequent contributor, and for a time was editor of the _Analectic 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 the _Port Folio_ of 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 the _Port Folio_ on 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 the _Port Folio_ some 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 the _Port Folio_ upon "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 the _Knickerbocker 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 the _Port Folio_.

JOHN SYNG DORSEY (1783-1818) succeeded Dr. 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 TYLER was 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 the _Farmer's Weekly Museum_ he 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 the _Port 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 the _Port 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 chemistry and natural philosophy in William and Mary College, and, later, professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, published a number of moral essays in the _Port Folio_ under 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 the _Port 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 the _Port Folio_ has been already quoted, contributed to it a series of articles, beginning January 28, 1804, in the style of Swift, and signed "Climenole".[16]

[16] The name of the flappers, employed by the inhabitants of Laputa to arouse them from their scientific reveries.

JOHN LEEDS BOZMAN (1757-1823) studied at the University of Pennsylvania, and read law in the Middle Temple, London. He contributed both prose and verse to the _Port 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 the _Aurora_, on a charge of libelling Gov. Thomas McKean. He occasionally contributed official and personal anecdotes to the _Port 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 the _Port Folio_.

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS (1752-1816) contributed political satires in both prose and verse to Dennie and his confrères.

JOSEPH HOPKINSON (1770-1842), whose authorship of "Hail Columbia" has been already referred to, wrote the articles upon Shakespeare that appeared in the _Port Folio_ between 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 the _Port Folio_.

HARRIET FENNO, daughter of John Ward Fenno, founder and editor of the _United States Gazette_, signed her verses "Violetta."

MRS. ELIZABETH FERGUSON was 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 the _Port Folio_ of 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 WILSON was 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 at Paisley 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. Thomas Bradford 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's _Literary Magazine_ of August, 1804, and the "Solitary Tutor" in the same publication, October, 1804. The former poem was reprinted in the _Port Folio_ of 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 their _dingles_ and _dells_. 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 afar
The whitened spire of sacred name,[17]
And ars'nal, where the god of war
Has 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 tide
By Bartram's green emblossom'd bowers,
Where nature sports in all her pride
Of choicest plants and fruits and flowers."

[17] Christ Church.

[18] Dr. Benjamin Say's house at Gray's Ferry.

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 the _Port Folio_ of 1809, Volumes I, II and III. The entire poem contained 2,000 lines. The _Literary Magazine_ contains 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 the _Port 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 the _Port Folio_ concerning 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 the other." 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 to _Graham'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 EWING was born in Philadelphia August 16, 1776. He was placed in the counting house of John Swanwick. Upon the failure of his employer, Ewing studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1800. He was a contributor to the _Port Folio_ from the first. He wrote for it a series of articles, entitled "Reflections in Solitude." All his contributions were signed "Jacques."

In 1809 he founded _The 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 the _Analectic_, when the editorship passed into the hands of Washington Irving. Samuel Ewing helped to establish the _Athenæum_ in 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 familiar story 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 the _Port Folio_ that 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 Goldsmith retorted, "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 the _Port 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 the _American Law Journal_ 1808-1817. He was for a time professor of rhetoric in the University of Maryland. In the _Port Folio_ of 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 Anacreontic odes 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 his _Port Folio_ papers. 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 the _Port Folio_ of 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 the _Port Folio_ and wrote a book on "Distillation," which went through several editions here, and was reprinted in England.

JOHN ELIHU HALL became editor of the _Port Folio_ in 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 longer _political_, 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 and lemon-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 the _Port Folio_ was the oldest literary journal in America.

NICHOLAS BIDDLE became 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 their connection with all interesting events of the army, as regularly to the editor of the _Port Folio_ as 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 versatile THOMAS 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 WORKMAN was 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 the _Port Folio_, 1814, pp. 8 and 457, and also in the _American Review_, II, 128, 166.

Dr. Caldwell at this time edited _Delaplaine's Repository_, and Smith had his revenge in a telling criticism of that work in the _Analectic Magazine_, to which Caldwell replied in 1816. To finish the story, there is to be found in the _Port Folio_ of 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 the _Port Folio_ declared, "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 the _London Monthly Magazine_ began to copy from the _Port 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_, page 463) 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 the _Port Folio_ was 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 them are 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 where _everyone_ has been starving for the last century, where _everyone_ has been crushed by the load of taxes, and _everyone_ has 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 of _purchasing_ our newspapers and magazines we subscribe for them."

Alack-a-day! the world went very well in the consulship of Plancus! No doubt even in the best and soundest of their times the magazines did suffer by the subscription plan. The remaining stock of the _Analectic Magazine_ was sold for seven cents a volume in sheets, and the stock of the _Literary 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. _Burn_ the Philadelphia Library, we say. Aye! _burn_ it! 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 the _Port Folio_ was reduced to making selections from the literary and political journals of Europe after the manner of _The Select Reviews_ which Ewing had edited.

The final suspension of the _Port Folio_ was preceded by an international quarrel. John Neal was in England in 1834, and his offer to write for _Blackwood's Magazine_ in that year a series of sketches of "American writers" was accepted, and the first instalment appeared in _Blackwood's_ of 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 favorite _Blackwood'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 the _Port 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'--puffing himself 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 the _Port Folio_, December, 1824, of the author of "Logan" and "Randolph," the Baltimorean who was writing for _Blackwood'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."

The _Port Folio_ was 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.

FROM THE PORT FOLIO TO GRAHAM'S.

The _Ladies' Museum_ was commenced in February, 1800, and made five numbers.

The _Philadelphia Repository and Weekly Register_ was 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--the _Juvenile Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository of Useful Information_, Phila., 1802, printed for Benjamin Johnson and Jacob Johnston.

It was followed by the _Juvenile Olio_ in 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, the _Literary 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. The _Columbian Magazine_ of 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 the _Literary Magazine and American Register_ was 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 three pages, 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:_