| 1 | Author: | Brooks
William Keith
1848-1908 | Add | | | Title: | The Oyster  | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | A citizen of Maryland will give the oyster a high
place in the list of our resources. The vast number
of oysters which the Chesapeake Bay has furnished in
the past is ample proof of its fertility, but it is difficult
to give any definite statement as to its value. Statistics,
even in recent years, are scanty and doubtful, and
it is not possible to estimate the number of oysters
which our beds have furnished to our people with any
accuracy, although it may be computed, approximately,
from indirect evidence. The business of
packing oysters for shipment to the interior was established
in Maryland in 1834, and from that date to
quite recent years it has grown steadily and constantly,
and, though small and insignificant at first, it
has kept pace with the development of our country,
the growth of our population, and the improvement
of means for transportation. For fifty-six years the
bay has furnished the oysters to meet this constantly
increasing demand. The middle of this period is the
year 1862, and as the greatest development of the
business has taken place since, the business of 1862
may be used as an average for the whole period,
with little danger of error through excess. We have
no statistics for 1862, but in 1865 C. S. Maltby made
a very careful computation of the oyster business of
the whole bay for the year. He says there were 1000
boats engaged in dredging and 1500 canoes engaged
in tonging. The dredgers gathered 3,663,125 bushels
of oysters in Maryland and 1,083,209 bushels in Virginia,
while 1,216,375 bushels were tonged in Maryland
and 981,791 bushels in Virginia, or 6,954,500 bushels
in all. About half of these were sent to Baltimore,
and the rest to the following cities in the following
order: Washington, Alexandria, Boston, Fair Haven,
New York, Philadelphia, Seaford, and Salisbury. Of
the 3,465,000 bushels which came to Baltimore, 625,000;
were consumed in the city and its vicinity, while
2,840,000 bushels were shipped to a distance by Baltimore
packers. Ten years later the harvest of oysters
from the bay had increased to 17,000,000 bushels,
and it has continued to increase, year after year, up
to the last few years. We may safely regard the
harvest of 1865 as an approximation to the annual
average for the whole period of fifty-six years, and
other methods of computation give essentially the
same result. Figure 1. The left side of an oyster lying in one
shell, with the other shell removed. The mantle has
been turned back a little, to show its fringe of dark-colored
tentacles, and in order to expose the gills.
The part of the mantle which is turned back in this
figure marks the place where the current of water
flows in to the gills. An oyster in the right valve of the shell, dissected
so as to show the internal organs. The anterior end
of the body is at the top of the figure, and the dorsal
surface on the right hand. Figure 1. A diagram to show the double-w-like
arrangement of the eight leaves forming the four gills.
The gill-chamber of the mantle is supposed to be on
the right and the cloacal chamber on the left. w is
the opening of a water tube. All the figures are highly magnified and all except
Figure 10 are autograph reproductions from the
author's drawings from nature. Figure 10 is copied
from a figure by R. T. Jackson in the American
Naturalist, December, 1890. Oysters fastened to the upper surface of a round
boulder, which had formed the ballast of some vessel
and had been thrown overboard in the bay, where the
lower half had become embedded in the bottom. The
figure, which is about one-fourth the size of the specimen,
shows the way in which the oysters grow, in
dense crowded clusters, on any solid body which raises
them above the mud. An old shoe, one-fourth natural size, upon which
there are forty oysters, large enough to be marketable,
besides a great number of smaller ones. Figure 2. An oyster shell upon the inside of
which about one hundred and fifty young oysters have
fastened themselves. This is one from the lot of shells
which were sold by Mr. Church, of Crisfield, from the
pile of shells at his packing-house, to an oyster farmer
in Long Island Sound. Mr. Church visited the farm
five weeks after the shells were shipped, and took up
a number of the shells, and he states that the one
which is here figured is a fair sample. (Tiles which were deposited in the Little Annamessex River
by Lieut. Francis Winslow, U. S. N., on July 9, 1879, for the
collection of oyster spat. From Winslow's Report on the Oyster
Beds of Tangier and Pokamoke Sounds.) Spat six weeks old, from a floating collector. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 2 | Author: | Catlin
George
1796-1872 | Add | | | Title: | O-kee-pa, a Religious Ceremony, and Other Customs of the Mandans | | | | Published: | 2004 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | In a narrative of fourteen years' travels and residence amongst the
native tribes of North and South America, entitled `Life amongst
the Indians,' and published in London and in Paris, several years
since, I gave an account of the tribe of Mandans,—their personal
appearance, character, and habits; and briefly alluded to the singular
and unique custom which is now to be described, and was then
omitted, as was alleged, for want of sufficient space for its insertion,—
the "O-kee-pa," an annual religious ceremony, to the strict observance
of which those ignorant and superstitious people attributed not
only their enjoyment in life, but their very existence; for traditions,
their only history, instructed them in the belief that the singular
forms of this ceremony produced the buffalos for their supply of food,
and that the omission of this annual ceremony, with its sacrifices
made to the waters, would bring upon them a repetition of the
calamity which their traditions say once befell them, destroying the
whole human race, excepting one man, who landed from his canoe
on a high mountain in the West. "We hereby certify that we witnessed, with Mr. Catlin, in the Mandan
village, the ceremonies represented in the four paintings to which this certificate
refers, and that he has therein represented those scenes as we saw
them enacted, without addition or exaggeration. "We hereby certify that we witnessed, in company with Mr. Catlin, in the
Mandan village, the ceremony represented in the four paintings to which this
certificate refers, and that he has therein represented those scenes as we saw
them transacted, without any addition or exaggeration. "To George Catlin, Esq. "To Thomas Potts, Esq., Edinburgh, Scotland. "To George Catlin, Esq., City of New York. "No man can appreciate better than myself the admirable fidelity of
your Indian Collection and Indian book, which I have lately examined. They
are equally spirited and accurate; they are true to nature. Things that are,
are not sacrificed, as they too often are by the painter, to things as (in his
judgment) they should be. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 5 | Author: | Meade
William
1789-1862 | Add | | | Title: | Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia | | | | Published: | 2006 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | "The earliest mention of a clergyman in the minutes of the vestry is
in 1753, when it was `ordered that two thousand pounds of tobacco be
paid to the Rev. Mr. Proctor, for services by him done and performed for
this parish.' And at the same meeting, `on motion of James Foulis,
for reasons appearing to this vestry, he is received and taken
minister of this parish.' The name of Mr. Foulis continues to appear
on the minutes of the vestry until 1759, when tradition relates that he
went away, nobody knew whither, and that he was not for a long time, if
ever afterward, heard from. In 1762 the Rev. Thomas Thompson officiated
a few months, and then resigned his charge, in consequence of his
age and the extent of the parish. The next spring the Rev. Alexander
Gordon, from Scotland, became rector of the parish, and continued to
officiate until the commencement of our Revolution, when, being disaffected
toward the new order of things, he retired, and spent his remaining days
near Petersburg. Some of his descendants are still remaining in the
parish, among whom are some of the brightest ornaments and chief supporters
of the Church. Of his own morals, however, and those of his
predecessor, (Foulis,) tradition does not speak in unmeasured terms. I have lately read your articles on
Lunenburg, Charlotte, Halifax, Prince Edward, &c with special interest,
as my early years were spent in the latter county, where my maternal relatives
reside, and who were connected with many families in the other
counties mentioned, by blood, or affinity, or religious sympathy. Your
papers embody much that I have often heard, with considerable additions.
Knowing that, while traversing this region, "Incedis per ignes, suppositos
cineri doloso," I must needs be curious to see how you would bear
yourself, and I cannot refrain from intimating my admiration of the spirit
in which you have handled a somewhat difficult theme. I will even add
something more in this connection,—reflections occasioned by your notices,
and which I must beg you to excuse, if at all trenching on propriety. "The case of thirty-two Protestant German families settled in Virginia
humbly showeth:—That twelve Protestant German families, consisting of
about fifty persons, arrived April 17th, in Virginia, and were therein
settled near the Rappahannock River. That in 1717 seventeen Protestant
German families, consisting of about fourscore persons, came and set
down near their countrymen. And many more, both German and Swiss
families, are likely to come there and settle likewise. That for the enjoyment
of the ministries of religion, there will be a necessity of building a
small church in the place of their settlement, and of maintaining a minister,
who shall catechize, read, and perform divine offices among them in
the German tongue, which is the only language they do yet understand.
That there went indeed with the first twelve German families one minister,
named Henry Hœger, a very sober, honest man, of about seventy-five
years of age; but he being likely to be past service in a short time, they
have empowered Mr. Jacob Christophe Zollicoffer, of St. Gall, in Switzerland,
to go into Europe and there to obtain, if possible, some contributions
from pious and charitable Christians toward the building of their church,
and bringing over with him a young German minister to assist the said Mr.
Hœger in the ministry of religion, and to succeed him when he shall
die; to get him ordained in England by the Right Rev. Lord-Bishop
of London, and to bring over with him the Liturgy of the Church of
England translated into High Dutch, which they are desirous to use
in the public worship. But this new settlement consisting of but mean
persons, being utterly unable of themselves both to build a church and
to make up a salary sufficient to maintain such assisting minister, they
humbly implore the countenance and encouragement of the Lord-Bishop
of London and others, the Lords, the Bishops, as also the Venerable
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, that they
would take their case under their pious consideration and grant their usual
allowance for the support of a minister, and, if it may be, to contribute
something toward the building of their church. By diligently perusing your letter, I perceive there is a
material argument, which I ought to have answered, upon which your
strongest objection against completing my happiness would seem to depend,
viz.: That you would incur ye censures of ye world for marrying a person of my
station and character. By which I understand that you think it a diminution
of your honour and ye dignity of your family to marry a person in ye station
of a clergyman. Now, if I can make it appear that ye ministerial office is
an employment in its nature ye most honourable, and in its effects ye most
beneficial to mankind, I hope your objections will immediately vanish, yt
you will keep me no longer in suspense and misery, but consummate my
happiness. For want of opportunity and leisure, I have delayed till now
answering your letter relative to your preaching in the Pine Stake Church.
When the vestry met I forgot to mention your request to them, as I promised
you, till it broke up. I then informed the members present what
you required of them; who, as the case was new and to them unprecedented,
thought it had better remain as it then stood, lest the members
of the church should be alarmed that their rights and privileges were in
danger of being unjustifiably disposed of Since I wrote you some days since, a
few items of interest in relation to this parish have come to my hands. A
single leaf, and that somewhat mutilated, of the old vestry-book of St.
Thomas parish, was found among the papers of one of my communicants
who died last week, and has since been handed to me. From this I am
able to ascertain who composed the vestry as far back as 1769. The
record states:—`At a vestry held for St. Thomas parish, at the glebe, on
Friday, the 1st day of September, 1769, present, Rev. Thomas Martin,
Eras. Taylor, James Madison, Alexander Waugh, Francis Moore, William
Bell, Rowland Thomas, Thomas Bell, Richard Barbour, William Moore'
The object of their meeting was to take into consideration the repairs
necessary to be made to the house and other buildings connected with the
glebe. I have endeavoured to obtain all the information to
be had respecting the old parish of Bloomfield,—embracing a section of
country now known as Madison and Rappahannock. What I have
gathered is from the recollections of the venerable Mrs. Sarah Lewis, now
in her eighty-second year. Mrs. Lewis is descended from the Pendletons
and Gaineses, of Culpepper, the Vauters, of Essex, and the Ruckers.
From her I learn that there were two churches,—the brick church, called
F. T., which stood near what is now known as the Slate Mills. It took
its name from being near the starting-point of a survey of land taken up
by Mr. Frank Thornton, who carved the initials of his name—F.T.—on an
oak-tree near a spring, where his lines commenced. The other church
was called South Church,—I presume from its relative situation, being
almost due south, and about sixteen miles distant, and four miles below
the present site of Madison Court-House. It was a frame building and
stood on the land of Richard Vauters. Both buildings were old at the
commencement of the Revolutionary War, and soon after, from causes
common to the old churches and parishes in Virginia, went into slow decay.
The first minister she recollects as officiating statedly in these churches
was a Mr. Iodell, (or Iredell,) who was the incumbent in 1790 or 1792.
He remained in the parish only a few years, when he was forced to leave
it in consequence of heavy charges of immorality. He was succeeded by
the Rev. Mr. O'Niel, an Irishman, who had charge of the parish for some
years, in connection with the Old Pine Stake and Orange Churches. He
was unmarried, and kept school near the Pine Stake Church, which stood
near to Raccoon Ford, in Orange county. Mr. John Conway, of Madison,
was a pupil of his, and relates some things which I may here mention, if
you are not already weary of the evil report of old ministers. He played
whist, and on one occasion lost a small piece of money, which the winner
put in his purse, and whenever he had occasion to make change (he was a
sheriff) would exhibit it, and refuse to part with it, because he had won it
from the parson. He also took his julep regularly, and, to the undoing of
one of his pupils, invited him to join him in the social glass. Still, he was
considered as a sober man. Mr. O'Niel left these churches about the year
1800. After that the Rev. Mr. Woodville occasionally performed services
there. After the parish became vacant, and the churches had gone to
decay, the Lutheran minister, a Mr. Carpenter, officiated at the baptisms,
marriages, and funerals of the Episcopal families. It was at the old
Lutheran Church, near the court-house, that some of our first political
men in Virginia, when candidates for Congress, held meetings and made
speeches on Sundays, after the religious services. The same was also done
in other places, under the sanction of Protestant ministers. Your letters, the one by Mrs. Carter, and the
other enclosing your amiable daughter's to that good lady, are both come
safe to hand, and you may rest assured that nothing could give my family
a greater pleasure than to hear and know from yourself—that is to say,
to have it under your own signature—that you still enjoy a tolerable share
of health; and your friend, Mrs. Ann Butler, [Mr. Carter's second wife,]
begs leave to join with me in congratulating both you and Mrs. Currie
upon being blessed, not only with dutiful, healthy, and robust children,
but clever and sensible. We rejoice to hear it, and pray God they may
prosper and become useful members of society. "I understand that you are advised and have some thoughts of putting
your son George to sea. I think he had better be put apprentice to a
tinker, for a common sailor before the mast has by no means the common
liberty of the subject; for they will press him from a ship where he has
fifty shillings a month and make him take twenty-three, and cut and
slash and use him like a negro, or rather like a dog. And, as to any
considerable preferment in the navy, it is not to be expected, as there
are always so many gaping for it here who have interest, and he has none.
And if he should get to be master of a Virginia ship, (which it is very
difficult to do,) a planter that has three or four hundred acres of land and
three or four slaves, if he be industrious, may live more comfortably, and
leave his family in better bread, than such a master of a ship can. . . .
He must not be too hasty to be rich, but go on gently and with patience,
Vol. II.—9
as things will naturally go. This method, without aiming at being a fine
gentleman before his time, will carry a man more comfortably and surely
through the world than going to sea, unless it be a great chance indeed.
I pray God keep you and yours It is a sensible pleasure to me to hear that you have
behaved yourself with such a martial spirit, in all your engagements
with the French, nigh Ohio. Go on as you have begun, and God prosper
you. We have heard of General Braddock's defeat. Everybody blames
his rash conduct. Everybody commends the courage of the Virginians
and Carolina men, which is very agreeable to me. I desire you, as you
may have opportunity, to give me a short account how you proceed. I
am your mother's brother. I hope you will not deny my request. I
heartily wish you good success, and am You will remember that I objected sitting as a member
of the Committee for Courts of Justice, whilst it was acting upon the
petition in relation to Yeocomico Church, because I was a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, and understanding that it was the subject
of dispute between that Church and the Episcopal Church; but at your
instance I did sit, but, being chairman of the committee, its action made
it unnecessary for me to vote. I take this mode, however, of saying that
I perfectly agreed with the committee, and even desired to go further
than the committee in this. I wished to pass a law giving to the Episcopal
Church all churches that it is now in possession of, to which it had a
right before the Revolutionary War. I think the construction given by
the committee to the Act of 1802, or at least my construction of it, is, that
the General Assembly claimed for the Commonwealth the right to all the
real property held by that Church, but that Act expressly forbids the sale
of the churches, &c. It is true, the proviso to that Act does not confer
upon the churches the right of property in the houses, &c. But it intended
to leave the possession and occupancy as it then existed; and, that
possession and occupancy being in the Episcopal Church, it had a right to
retain it until the Legislature should otherwise direct. I believe that the
Committee was of the opinion that the Episcopal Church had a right to
the use and occupancy of the church now in question: it certainly is my
opinion. I hope my Methodist brethren will see the justness of the determination
of the Committee, and with cheerfulness acquiesce in its
decision. The Rev. Wm. Hanson, rector of Trinity Church
in this place, a few days since handed me a number of the `Southern
Churchman' from Alexandria, dated the 27th of February, 1857. In it
is an historical sketch, from your pen, of Cople parish, Westmoreland
county, Virginia, and particularly of Yeocomico Church,—a spot ever
near and dear to my memory. From a long and intimate acquaintance
with its locality and history, I beg leave very respectfully to present the
following facts. It was built in the year 1706, as an unmistakable record
will show,—it being engraved in the solid wall over the front-door. It
was called by that name after the adjacent river,—the Indian name being
preserved. The Rev. Mr. Elliot was the last settled minister up to the
year 1800, when he removed to Kentucky. From that time it was wholly
unused and neglected as a place of worship until the Methodists occasionally
met under the shadow of its ruin about the year 1814, and continued
so to do, keeping alive the spark of vital piety, until the Rev. Mr. Nelson
in 1834 took charge of it as a settled minister. During his ministration
it was jointly used by the Episcopalians and Methodists in Christian harmony
and good-will. He being succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Ward in 1842,
the question of occupancy and right of possession was unhappily agitated,
which led to a decision of the Legislature giving to the wardens and vestry
of the Episcopal Church the exclusive right to its use and control. Thus
it will be seen, for thirty-four years there had been no settled minister of
our communion, or its sublime and beautiful service performed, except
two or three times by occasional visits. It would afford me great pleasure, could I give you an
assurance of being speedily supplied with a worthy minister. I sincerely
regret the deserted situation of too many of our parishes, and lament the
evils that must ensue. Finding that few persons, natives of this State,
were desirous of qualifying themselves for the ministerial office, I have
written to some of the Northern States, and have reason to expect several
young clergymen who have been liberally educated, of unexceptionable
moral character, and who, I flatter myself, will also be generally desirous
of establishing an academy for the instruction of youth, wherever they
may reside. Should they arrive, or should any other opportunity present
itself of recommending a worthy minister, I beg you to be assured, if
your advertisement proves unsuccessful, that I shall pay due attention to
the application of the worthy trustees of North Farnham. It is, no doubt, well known to you that the failure
last May in holding a Convention at the time and place agreed upon was
matter of deep regret to every sincere friend of our Church. To prevent,
if possible, a similar calamity at the next stated time for holding Conventions,
the deputies who met last May requested me to send circular
letters to the different parishes, exhorting them to pay a stricter regard
to one of the fundamental canons of the Church. I fulfil the duty with
alacrity, because the necessity of regular Conventions is urged by considerations
as obvious as they are weighty. I need not here enter into a detail
of those considerations; but I will ask, at what time was the fostering care
of the guardians—nay, of every member—of the Church more necessary
than at this period? Who doth not know that indifference to her interests
must inevitably inflict a mortal wound, over which the wise and the good
may in vain weep, when they behold that wound baffling every effort to
arrest its fatal progress? Who doth not know that irreligion and impiety
sleep not whilst we slumber? Who doth not know that there are
other enemies who laugh at our negligent supineness and deem it their
victory? I have been curate of this parish upward of forty
years. My own conscience bears me witness, and I trust my parishioners
(though many of them have fallen asleep) will also witness, that until age
and infirmities disabled me I always, so far as my infirmities would allow,
faithfully discharged my duties as a minister of the Gospel. It has given
me many hours of anxious concern that the services of the Church should
be so long discontinued on my account. The spirit indeed is willing, but
the flesh is weak. I therefore entreat the favour of you to provide me a
successor as soon as you can, that divine service may be discontinued no
longer; and at the end of the year the glebe shall be given up to him by
your affectionate servant, I heartily condole with you in your present sickness
and indisposition, which your age now every day contracts. God's grace
will make you bear it patiently, to your comfort, his glory, and your everlasting
salvation. I cannot enough thank you for the present of your
choice Bible. The money that you say you had present occasion for I
have ordered Mr. Cooper to enlarge, and you will see by his letter that it
is doubled. Before I was ten years old, as I am sure you will remember,
I looked upon this life here as but going to an inn, and no permanent
being. By God's grace I continue the same good thoughts and notions,
therefore am always prepared for my dissolution, which I can't be persuaded
to prolong by a wish. Now, dear mother, if you should be necessitated
for eight or ten pound extraordinary, please to apply to Mr. Cooper,
and he upon sight of this letter will furnish it to you." I have your letter by Peter yesterday, and the day
before I had one from Mr. Scott, who sent up Gustin Brown on purpose
with it. I entirely agree with Mr. Scott in preferring a funeral sermon at
Aquia Church, without any invitation to the house. Mr. Moncure's character
and general acquaintance will draw together much company, besides
a great part of his parishioners, and I am sure you are not in a condition
to bear such a scene; and it would be very inconvenient for a number of
people to come so far from church in the afternoon after the sermon. As
Mr. Moncure did not desire to be buried in any particular place, and as it
is usual to bury clergymen in their own churches, I think the corpse being
deposited in the church where he had so long preached is both decent and
proper, and it is probable, could he have chosen himself, he would have
preferred it. Mr. Scott writes to me that it is intended Mr. Green shall
preach the funeral sermon on the 20th of this month, if fair; if not, the
next fair day; and I shall write to Mr. Green to morrow to that purpose,
and inform him that you expect Mrs. Green and him at your house on the
day before; and, if God grants me strength sufficient either to ride on
horseback or in a chair, I will certainly attend to pay the last duty to the
memory of my friend; but I am really so weak at present that I can't walk
without crutches and very little with them, and have never been out of
the house but once or twice, and then, though I stayed but two or three
minutes at a time, it gave me such a cold as greatly to increase my disorder.
Mr. Green has lately been very sick, and was not able to attend
his church yesterday, (which I did not know when I wrote to Mr. Scott:)
if he should not recover soon, so as to be able to come down, I will inform
you or Mr. Scott in time, that some other clergyman may be applied to. In reply to your inquiries concerning the Old Potomac
Church and its neighbourhood, I give you the following statement, founded
in part upon tradition and partly upon my own recollection. My maternal
grandfather, John Moncure, a native of Scotland, was the regular minister
both of Aquia and Potomac Churches. He was succeeded in the ministry
in these churches by a clergyman named Brooke, who removed to the
State of Maryland. The Rev. Mr. Buchan succeeded him: he was tutor
in my father's family, and educated John Thompson Mason, General
Mason, of Georgetown, Judge Nicholas Fitzhugh, and many others.
Going back to a period somewhat remote in enumerating those who lived
in the vicinity of Potomac Church, I will mention my great-grandfather,
Rowleigh Travers, one of the most extensive landed proprietors in that
section of the country, and who married Hannah Ball, half-sister of Mary
Ball, the mother of General George Washington. From Rowleigh Travers
and Hannah Ball descended two daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah Travers:
the former married a man named Cooke, and the latter my grandfather,
Peter Daniel. To Peter and Sarah Daniel was born an only son,—Travers
Daniel, my father,—who married Frances Moncure, my mother, the daughter
of the Rev. John Moncure and Frances Brown, daughter of Dr. Gustavus
Brown, of Maryland. The nearest and the coterminous neighbour
of my father was John Mercer, of Marlborough, a native of Ireland, a
distinguished lawyer; the compiler of `Mercer's Abridgment of the Virginia
Laws;' the father of Colonel George Mercer, an officer in the British
service, and who died in England about the commencement of the Revolution;
the father also of Judge James Mercer, father of Charles F. Mercer,
of John Francis Mercer, who in my boyhood resided at Marlborough, in
Stafford, and was afterward Governor of Maryland; of Robert Mercer, who
lived and died in Fredericksburg; of Ann Mercer, who married Samuel
Selden, of Selvington, Stafford; of Maria Mercer, who married Richard
Brooke, of King William, father of General George M. Brooke; and of
another daughter, whose name is not recollected,—the wife of Muscoe
Garnett and mother of the late James M. Garnett. As your parish is at present unfurnished with a minister,
I recommend to your approbation and choice the Rev. Mr. Scott,
who, in my opinion, is a man of discretion, understanding, and integrity,
and in every way qualified to discharge the sacred office to your satisfaction.
I am your affectionate friend and humble servant, I hope and believe that your parish will be worthily
supplied by the Rev. Mr. James Scott. His merit having been long known
to you, I need not dwell upon it. That you may be greatly benefited by
his good life and doctrine, and mutually happy with each other, and all
the souls committed to his charge may be saved, is the daily prayer of, I received yours this morning. My father, Alexander
Henderson, came to this country from Scotland in the year 1756,
and settled first as a merchant in Colchester. During the Revolutionary
War he retired to a farm in Fairfax county to avoid the possibility of falling
into the hands of the English, as he had taken a decided part on the
side of freedom against the mother-country. About 1787 or 1788 he removed
to Dumfries. He died in the latter part of 1815, leaving six sons
and four daughters, all grown. John, Alexander, and James emigrated to
Western Virginia, and settled as farmers in Wood county. Richard and
Thomas were known to you, the former living in Leesburg and the latter
for the last twenty years being in the medical department of the army.
James and myself are the only surviving sons. Two of my sisters—Mrs.
Anne Henderson and Mrs. Margaret Wallace—are still alive. My sisters
Jane and Mary died many years ago. The latter married Mr. Inman Horner,
of Warrenton. All the members of the family have been, with scarce
an exception, steady Episcopalians." You may recollect the conversation we had when I had
the pleasure of seeing you at Richmond; that we mutually lamented the
declining state of the Church of England in this country, and the pitiable
situation of her clergy,—especially those whose circumstances are not
sufficiently independent to place them beyond the reach of want. I am
satisfied our Church has yet a very great number of powerful friends who
are disposed to give it encouragement and support, and who wish to see
some plan in agitation for effecting a business so important, and at this
time so very necessary. It is (and very justly) matter of astonishment to
many, that those whose more immediate duty it is to look to the concerns
of their religious society should show so much indifference and indolence
as the Church and clergy do, while the leaders of almost every other denomination
are labouring with the greatest assiduity to increase their influence,
and, by open attacks and subtle machinations, endeavouring to
lessen that of every other society,—particularly the Church to which you
and I have the honour to belong, in whose destruction they all (Quakers
and Methodists excepted) seem to agree perfectly, however they may differ
in other points. Against these it behooves us to be cautious. But, unless
the clergy act conjointly and agreeably to some well-regulated plan, the
ruin of our Church is inevitable without the malevolence of her enemies.
Considering her present situation and circumstances,—without ordination,
without government, without support, unprotected by the laws, and yet
labouring under injurious restrictions from laws which yet exist,—these
things considered, her destruction is sure as fate, unless some mode is
adopted for her preservation. Her friends, by suffering her to continue in
her present state of embarrassment, as effectually work her destruction as
her avowed enemies could do by their most successful contrivances. I received your letter, favoured by Mr. Fairfax, which
reminded me of a conversation which passed between us respecting the
low state of the Church whereof we are members, and in which you make
inquiry whether any thing has been attempted by any of its clergy to raise
it from its distressed situation, and inform me that reflections have been
thrown out against them for their remissness and want of zeal in an affair
of so much consequence. In order to remedy these evils, you propose
a plan for convening the clergy in the month of April next, to the end
that some form of ecclesiastical government might be established, particularly
a mode of ordination; and that an application might be made to
the Assembly for redress of grievances and a legal support. I hasten to give you an imperfect
account of the history of the Church in this neighbourhood; and, as there
are no records to refer to, I shall have to rely on an imperfect memory.
Morris Hudson, Elizabeth his wife, and their six children, nearly all married,
removed to this neighbourhood from Botetourt county, Virginia, in
1797, and were probably the first Episcopalians that settled in this neighbourhood.
They were both communicants of the Church. They came to
Virginia originally from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and were members
of Bangor Church,—an old church erected before the Revolution.
They removed to Botetourt county, in this State, during Bishop Madison's
time. The old patriarch, then in his eightieth year, (being uncertain
whether he had been confirmed in childhood,) received the rite of Confirmation
at your hands, on your first visit to this county, together with
several of his children. Some of their descendants still continue true to
the faith of their fathers, whilst others have wandered into other folds.
The next Episcopalians who settled here were my father's family, with
whose history you are well acquainted. They removed here in 1817.
My father died in 1837, in the seventieth year of his age. My mother
died the 8th of March, 1852, in the seventy-fifth year of her age. I have received your circular asking communications
on the important subject submitted to your consideration, and offer
the following suggestions as coming within the terms of your commission:— You will find in the enclosed the reason I have for
writing it, and will, I doubt not, agree in opinion with me that it cannot
but be useful to put the clergy under you in mind of their duty, even if
there should be no failing, much more if there be any. I therefore desire
you to communicate this letter to them, and to use all proper means
to redress any deviations from our rules, considering that both you and I
are to be answerable if we neglect our duty in that part. It is always a joy to me to hear of the good
success of your ministerial labours, and no less a grief to hear of any defaults
and irregularities among you; to which disadvantageous reports I am not
forward to give credit, finding that wrong representations are frequently
made. Some occasions have been given to apprehend, there may have
been faults and miscarriages in the life and conversation of some among
you, which I trust are corrected; and that the grace of God, and a sense
of duty you owe to Him, his Church, and to yourselves, will so rule in your
hearts, as that I shall no more hear any thing to the disadvantage of any
of you upon that head. Nevertheless, I cannot but give you notice, that
I have information of some irregularities, which, if practised, will need
very much to be redressed; and I cannot but hope, if such things there
be, you will not be unwilling to do your part, as I think it a duty to do
mine by this advisement. You are now come hither at your Commissary's
desire, that he might have the easier opportunity to communicate
to you a letter from your Right Reverend Diocesan. And seeing his Lordship
has been pleased to make mention of me in that letter, taking notice
that I have instructions to act in reference to institutions and inductions,
and that he must leave to my inquiry whether any ministers be settled
among you who have not license from him or his predecessor, and as his
Lordship seems to rely on my care as well as yours, that none may be
suffered to officiate in the public worship of God, or perform any ministerial
offices of religion, but such only as are Episcopally ordained, I ought not
to be silent on this occasion, and thereupon must remark to you, that the
very person whom his Lordship expects should use all fitting earnestness
in pressing the observations of these things is he whom I take to be the
least observer thereof himself. For none more eminently than Mr. Commissary
Blair sets at naught those instructions which your Diocesan leaves
you to be guided by, with respect to institutions and inductions; he denying
by his practice as well as discourses that the King's Government
has the right to collate ministers to ecclesiastical benefices within this
Colony; for, when the church which he now supplies became void by the
death of the former incumbent, his solicitation for the same was solely to
the vestry, without his ever making the least application to me for my collation,
notwithstanding it was my own parish church; and I cannot but
complain of his deserting the cause of the Church in general, and striving
to put it on such a foot as must deprive the clergy of that reasonable
security which, I think, they ought to have with regard to their livings. Though the hurry of public business, wherein I was
engaged, did not allow me time immediately to answer your letter of the
1st of August, yet I told Mr. Short on his going hence, on the 5th of that
month, that you might expect my answer in a few days; and if he has done
me justice he has informed you that I advised your forbearing, in the mean
time, to run too rashly into the measures I perceived you were inclining to;
assuring him my intentions are to make you easy, if possible, in relation to
your minister. But, whether that advice was imparted to you or not, it is
plain, by your proceedings of the 8th of the same month, that you resolved
not to accept of it, seeing you immediately discarded Mr. Bagge and sent
down Mr. Rainsford with a pretended presentation of induction. As soon
as that came into my hands, I observed it expressly contrary to a late
opinion of the Council, whereby it is declared that the right of supplying
vacant benefices is claimed by the King, and by his Majesty's commission
given to the Governor; and for that reason I let Mr. Rainsford know that
before I could admit of such a presentation it was necessary for me to
have likewise the advice of the Council thereon. But, not content to wait
their resolution, I understand you have taken upon you the power of induction,
as well as that of presentation, by giving Mr. Rainsford possession
of the pulpit, and excluding the person I appointed to officiate. I have,
according to my promise, taken the advice of my Council upon your pretended
presentation, and here send it enclosed, by which you will find that
the Board is clearly of opinion that I should not receive such presentation:
so that if you are the patrons (as you suppose) you may as soon as you
please bring a "quare impedit" to try your title; and then it will appear
whether the King's clerk or yours has the most rightful possession of this
church. In the mean time I think it necessary to forewarn you to be
cautious how you dispose of the profits of your parish, lest you pay it in
your own wrong. May it please your Honour, should we, the clergy of his Majesty's Province
of Virginia assembled in Convention, (who have, with the utmost
indignation and resentment, heard your Honour affronted and abused by a
few prejudiced men,) be silent upon this occasion, we should appear
ungrateful in both capacities as ministers and subjects. Therefore, with
Vol. II.—26
grateful hearts we now express our deep sense of your just and wise
government,—a government that has raised this Colony to a flourishing
condition by exercising over it no other authority but that wherein its
happiness and liberty consist, and which nothing but the groundless suspicions
and unreasonable jealousies of the eager and violent can render
liable to exception. Your Honour is happy to us rather than to yourself,
in that you are perpetually toiling for the public, constantly doing good
to many, whilst you do injury to none. Mr. Selater and Mr. Smith being absent when the House was called
over, Mr. Bagge moved that no member should be allowed to be absent
from the Convention without leave, which was seconded and ordered. The members of the Convention having desired Mr. Commissary to sign
the said letter and representation, he refused the same. Ordered it be
entered accordingly. Mr. Hugh Jones moved that the members of the
Convention sign the said letter and representation. As in my letter for calling you together at
this time I acquainted you that it was in pursuance of the directions of
our Right Reverend Diocesan, my Lord-Bishop of London, I shall first
read to you his Lordship's letter about it to myself, and his letter to the
clergy of this country, which he has desired me to communicate to you;
and then I shall (as I find my Lord expects of me) endeavour to resume the
particulars and press the observation of them with all fitting earnestness. Mr. Emanuel Jones delivered in the address to the Governor, which,
being read and examined paragraph by paragraph, passed without amendment. May it please your Honour, it is with no small concern we humbly
represent to your Honour that we could not join with the rest of our
brethren in one uniform address, being unwilling to determine between
persons and things which, as we apprehend, were not properly under our
cognizance nor within our province. Nevertheless, we think it our duty
to return our most hearty thanks for the continuance of your Honour's
protection to the Church and clergy of this country. We have no doubt
of your Honour's ready concurrence in any present methods that can be
offered for our support and encouragement. And seeing your Honour is
well apprized of all our circumstances, without any further information
from us, we desire to leave it with yourself to consider of the best ways
and means to remedy what wants redress in the precariousness of our circumstances,
whether by execution of the laws in being, or the contrivance
of new ones, to answer better the circumstances of the Church and clergy
and people of this country as in your wisdom you shall think fit. There is nothing to be remarked upon this day's proceedings but that
some objections were made to a few things in the clergy's answer to my
Lord of London's letter, upon the amendment of which all the clergy
declared their readiness to sign it. These objections were,—1st. The slur
it casts upon Mr. Commissary's ordination. 2d The unfair representation,
or insinuation, at least, as if some of the Council, and particularly Mr.
Commissary, obstructed the Governor's acting in favour of the clergy in
the point of institutions and inductions. It is true they do not take it
upon themselves to say this, but lay it upon the Governor, and say that he
imputes the opposition "he meets with in this affair to some of the Council,
and particularly to Mr. Commissary, whom he also accuses of some other
irregularities, as your Lordship, by his Honour's letter to us and another
to the vestry of the parish of St. Anne's, may perceive, both which, together
with Mr. Commissary's answer, we doubt not your Lordship will receive,
and in which we most humbly and earnestly pray your Lordship to interpose
your Lordship's advice and assistance." Though this was the least
they could do without directly incurring the Governor's displeasure, there
were several who said they knew the Council and the Commissary had
been such constant friends to the clergy that they would have no hand in
putting this slight upon them, as if they opposed their institutions and
inductions. 3d. That it lays the blame upon our laws that we are obliged
to baptize, church women, marry, and bury, at private houses, &c., whereas
it is not by our laws these things are occasioned, but partly by our precariousness,
(the Governor never making use of the lapse,) and partly by
the exceeding largeness of the parishes and other inconvenient circumstances
of the country. "The memorial of the Presbytery of Hanover humbly represents, That
your memorialists are governed by the same sentiments which inspire the
United States of America, and are determined that nothing in our power
and influence shall be wanting to give success to their common cause. We
would also represent that the dissenters from the Church of England in
this country have ever been desirous to conduct themselves as peaceable
members of the civil government, for which reason they have hitherto submitted
to several ecclesiastic burdens and restrictions that are inconsistent
with equal liberty. But now, when the many and grievous oppressions
of our mother-country have laid this continent under the necessity of
casting off the yoke of tyranny and of forming independent governments
upon equitable and liberal foundations, we flatter ourselves that we shall
be freed from all the encumbrances which a spirit of domination, prejudice,
or bigotry hath interwoven with most other political systems. This we are
the more strongly encouraged to expect by the Declaration of Rights, so
universally applauded for that dignity, firmness, and precision with which
it delineates and asserts the privileges of society and the prerogatives of
human nature, and which we embrace as the magna charta of our Commonwealth,
that can never be violated without endangering the grand superstructure
it was destined to sustain. Therefore we rely upon this Declaration,
as well as the justice of our honourable Legislature, to secure us the
free exercise of religion according to the dictates of our consciences; and we
should fall short in our duty to ourselves and the many and numerous congregations
under our care were we upon this occasion to neglect laying
before you a statement of the religious grievances under which we have
hitherto laboured, that they no longer may be continued in our present
form of government. The name of Ellis appears at an early day in connection with the
Colony of Virginia. David Ellis came out in the second supply of emigrants
from England, and was one of the men sent by Captain Smith to
build a house for King Powhatan at his favourite seat, Werowocomico, on
York River. John Ellis was one of the grantees in the second charter
of the Virginia Company. I fear that I shall be able to communicate
very little in regard to the church on Pedlar. Your uncle Richard was
one of the old-school, true Virginia gentlemen,—hospitable, unaffected,
polite, courteous,—and as regardful of the rights and feelings of a servant
as he was of the most favoured and distinguished that visited his house
I had not been in his house five minutes before I felt it to be what he
and his delightful family ever afterward made it to me,—a home. I,
however, experienced at their hands only what every clergyman of our
Church who has been connected with the parish experienced. To my verie deere and loving cosen M. G. Minister of the B. F. in
London. In replying to your letter from Tappahannock, I am sorry
to have to say to you that I am in possession of no papers that can be
useful to you in your notices relative to the Church, &c. in Virginia. I
have always understood that my ancestors were attached to the Protestant
Episcopal Church from their first settlement in this new world. They
were all well-educated men, and all business-men, generally filling public
offices down to the Revolution. It is highly probable my grandfather—
who died in April, 1800, and who, I was told, was a regular attendant at
and supporter of the church of which Parson Matthews was the pastor—
did leave papers that might have been useful to you. But in the division
of his estate his library and papers not on business were divided out
among his many sons, and, no doubt, like the other property left them,
scattered to the four winds. My uncle, Carter Beverley, qualified first as
his executor, and so took all papers on business—and, it is probable,
many others—to his home in Staunton, and, he told me, lost every thing
of the kind by the burning up of his house. I send you the inscription on the stone of the old Commissary
in as perfect condition as I could procure it. I also send a translation,
filling the blanks and chasms with my own knowledge of the
events of the Commissary's life. If you look critically at the Latin and
at my paraphrase, you will perceive that I have rarely missed the mark.
One thing it is proper to say. In the line "Evangeli—Preconis" there
may be a mistake of the transcriber. If the word "Preconis" be correct,
then it is figurative, and means to compare the Commissary with John
the Baptist. But I think the word "Preconis" is wrong, and was written
"Diaconi," "Deacon," as the number of years shows that it was in his
combined character of Evangelist, Deacon, and Priest, to which allusion
is made; that is, to his whole ministerial services, which were precisely
fifty-eight years. You will doubtless be not a little surprised at receiving
a letter from an individual whose name may possibly never have
reached you; but an accidental circumstance has given me the extreme
pleasure of introducing myself to your notice. In a conversation with the
Rev. Dr. Berrian a few days since, he informed me that he had lately paid
a visit to Mount Vernon, and that Mrs. Washington had expressed a wish
to have a doubt removed from her mind, which had long oppressed her,
as to the certainty of the General's having attended the Communion while
residing in the city of New York subsequent to the Revolution. As nearly
all the remnants of those days are now sleeping with their fathers, it is
not very probable that at this late day an individual can be found who
could satisfy this pious wish of your virtuous heart, except the writer. It
was my great good fortune to have attended St. Paul's Church in this city
with the General during the whole period of his residence in New York
as President of the United States. The pew of Chief-Justice Morris was
situated next to that of the President, close to whom I constantly sat in
Judge Morris's pew, and I am as confident as a memory now labouring under
the pressure of fourscore years and seven can make me, that the President
had more than once—I believe I may say often—attended at the sacramental
table, at which I had the privilege and happiness to kneel with
him. And I am aided in my associations by my elder daughter, who distinctly
recollects her grandmamma—Mrs. Morris—often mention that fact
with great pleasure. Indeed, I am further confirmed in my assurance by
the perfect recollection of the President's uniform deportment during
divine service in church. The steady seriousness of his manner, the solemn,
audible, but subdued tone of voice in which he read and repeated the
responses, the Christian humility which overspread and adorned the native
dignity of the saviour of his country, at once exhibited him a pattern to
all who had the honour of access to him. It was my good fortune, my
dear madam, to have had frequent intercourse with him. It is my pride
and boast to have seen him in various situations,—in the flush of victory,
in the field and in the tent,—in the church and at the altar, always himself,
ever the same. When (some weeks ago) I had the pleasure
of seeing you in Alexandria, and in our conversation the subject of the
religious opinions and character of General Washington was spoken of, I
repeated to you the substance of what I had heard from the late General
Robert Porterfield, of Augusta, and which at your request I promised to
reduce to writing at some leisure moment and send to you. I proceed
now to redeem the promise. Some short time before the death of General
Porterfield, I made him a visit and spent a night at his house. He related
many interesting facts that had occurred within his own observation in
the war of the Revolution, particularly in the Jersey campaign and the
encampment of the army at Valley Forge. He said that his official duty
(being brigade-inspector) frequently brought him in contact with General
Washington. Upon one occasion, some emergency (which he mentioned)
induced him to dispense with the usual formality, and he went directly to
General Washington's apartment, where he found him on his knees, engaged
in his morning's devotions. He said that he mentioned the circumstance
to General Hamilton, who replied that such was his constant
habit. I remarked that I had lately heard Mr. — say, on the authority
of Mr. —, that General Washington was subject to violent fits of passion,
and that he then swore terribly. General Porterfield said the charge was
false; that he had known General Washington personally for many years,
had frequently been in his presence under very exciting circumstances,
and had never heard him swear an oath, or in any way to profane the
name of God. "Tell Mr. — from me," said he, "that he had much
better be reading his Bible than repeating such slanders on the character
of General Washington. General Washington," said he, "was a pious
man, and a member of your Church, [the Episcopal.] I saw him myself on
his knees receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in — Church, in
Philadelphia." He specified the time and place. My impression is that
Christ Church was the place, and Bishop White, as he afterward was, the
minister. This is, to the best of my recollection, an accurate statement
of what I heard from General Porterfield on the subject. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 6 | Author: | Meade
William
1789-1862 | Add | | | Title: | Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia | | | | Published: | 2006 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | [From the Protestant Episcopal Quarterly Review.] † When your leasure
shall best serve you to peruse these lines, I trust in God the beginning
will not strike you into greater admiration than the end will give you good
content. It is a matter of no small moment, concerning my own particular,
which here I impart unto you, and which toucheth me so nearly
as the tenderness of my salvation. Howbeit, I freely subject myself to
your great and mature judgment, deliberation, approbation, and determination;
assuring myself of your zealous admonition and godly comforts,
either persuading me to desist, or encouraging me to persist therein, with
a religious fear and godly care, for which (from the very instant that this
began to roote itself within the secrete bosome of my breast) my daily
and earnest praiers have bin, still are, and ever shall bee poored forthwith,
in as sincere a goodly zeal as I possibly may, to be directed, aided, and
governed in all my thoughts, words, and deedes, to the glory of God and
for my eternal consolation; to persevere wherein I had never had more
neede, nor (till now) could ever imagine to have bin moved with the like
occasion. But (my case standing as it doth) what better worldly refuge
can I here seeke, than to shelter myself under the safety of your favourable
protection? And did not my case proceede from an unspotted conscience,
I should not dare to offer to your view and approved judgment
these passions of my troubled soule; so full of feare and trembling is
hypocrisie and dissimulation. But, knowing my own innocency and godly
fervour in the whole prosecution hereof, I doubt not of your benigne
acceptance and clement construction. As for malicious depravers and
turbulent spirits, to whom nothing is tasteful but what pleaseth their unsavoury
pallate, I passe not for them, being well assured in my persuasion
by the often trial and proving of myselfe in my holiest meditations and
praises, that I am called hereunto by the Spirit of God; and it shall be
sufficient for me to be protected by yourselfe in all virtuous and pious
endeavours. And for my more happy proceedings herein, my daily oblations
shall ever be addressed to bring to passe to goode effects, that yourselfe
and all the world may truly say, `This is the worke of God, and it
is marvellous in our eies.' As neither nature nor custom ever made me a man of
compliment, so now I shall have less will than ever for to use such ceremonies,
when I have left with Martha to be solicitus circa multa, and
believe with Mary unum sufficit. But it is no compliment or ceremony,
but a real and necessary duty that one friend oweth to another in absence,
and especially at their leave-taking, when, in man's reason, many accidents
may keep them long divided, or perhaps bar them ever meeting till
they meet in another world; for then shall I think that my friend, whose
honour, whose person, and whose fortune is dear unto me, shall prosper
and be happy wherever he goes, and whatever he takes in hand, when he
is in the favour of that God under whose protection there is only safety,
and in whose service there is only true happiness to be found. What I
think of your natural gifts or ability, in this age or in this State, to give
glory to God and to win honour to yourself, if you employ the talents you
have received to their best use, I will not now tell you; it sufficeth that
when I was farthest of all times from dissembling I spake truly and
have witness enough. But these things only I will put your lordship in
mind of. I understand that upon my former recommendation
to you of Mr. Samuel Eburne, you have received him, and he hath continued
to exercise his ministerial functions in preaching and performing
divine service. I have now to recommend him a second time to you,
with the addition of my own experience of his ability and true qualification
in all points, together with his exemplary life and conversation.
And therefore, holding of him in esteem, as a person who, to God's
honour and your good instruction, is fit to be received, I do desire he may
be by you entertained and continued, and that you will give him such
encouragement as you have formerly done to persons so qualified. I congratulate you on the honour your county has
done you in choosing you their representative with so large a vote. I
hope you are come into the Assembly without those trammels which some
people submit to wear for a seat in the House,—I mean, unbound by
promises to perform this or that job which the many-headed monster may
think proper to chalk out for you; especially that you have not engaged
to lend a last hand to pulling down the church, which, by some impertinent
questions in the last paper, I suspect will be attempted. Never, my
dear Wilson, let me hear that by that sacrilegious act you have furnished
yourself with materials to erect a scaffold by which you may climb to the
summit of popularity; rather remain in the lowest obscurity: though, I
think, from long observation, I can venture to assert that the man of
integrity, who observes one equal tenor in his conduct,—who deviates
neither to the one side or the other from the proper line,—has more of the
confidence of the people than the very compliant time-server, who calls
himself the servant—and, indeed, is the slave—of the people. I flatter
myself, too, you will act on a more liberal plan than some members have
done in matters in which the honour and interest of this State are concerned;
that you will not, to save a few pence to your constituents, discourage
the progress of arts and sciences, nor pay with so scanty a hand
persons who are eminent in either. This parsimonious plan, of late
adopted, will throw us behind the other States in all valuable improvements,
and chill, like a frost, the spring of learning and spirit of enterprise.
I have insensibly extended what I had to say beyond my first
design, but will not quit the subject without giving you a hint, from a
very good friend of yours, that your weight in the House will be much
greater if you do not take up the attention of the Assembly on trifling
matters nor too often demand a hearing. To this I must add a hint of
my own, that temper and decorum is of infinite advantage to a public
speaker, and a modest diffidence to a young man just entering the stage
of life: the neglect of the former throws him off his guard, breaks his
chain of reasoning, and has often produced in England duels that have
terminated fatally. The natural effect of the latter will ever be procuring
a favourable and patient hearing, and all those advantages that a
prepossession in favour of the speaker produces. Yours dated the 30th of January, asking for
some information relative to Temple Farm, near Yorktown, which, according
to history, was once the residence of Governor Spottswood, and
the house in which Lord Cornwallis signed the capitulation, was received
a few days ago. I have read with deep and filial
interest your reminiscenses published in the Southern Churchman, and I
send you a memorandum, hastily made from recollection. I have no
disposition to have my name appear in print, but if you have not already
all the information that you may desire in regard to Elizabeth City parish
and the old church at Hampton, you may use such parts of the following
memorandum as may suit you:— Having been at this place during the present
month, your letter of the 16th has only just reached me. Nothing was
published after my dear and distinguished brother's death, except the
poem of `Yamoyden, a Tale of the Wars of King Philip,' which he composed
in company with his friend, Robert C. Sands, and which the latter
edited. I can only say, in a few words, that he was ordained by Bishop
Hobart at the Diocesan Convention of New York, in October, 1818;
commenced his ministry in Accomac county almost immediately; and,
after a short but truly glorious ministry of about eight months, (during
which, as I heard him say, he thought he had been the instrument of the
conversion of seventeen persons,) returned, broken in health, to New
York, and expired in December, 1819, on his passage to St. Croix, W. I.,
to which island, in company with his mother and myself, he was proceeding
for the benefit of his health. He had just reached the age of
twenty-two years; but he was mature in mind, accomplished in attainments
both of ancient and modern learning, and one of the most "burning
lights" in the Church of God I ever knew. I think he left an impression
in Accomac which is not yet effaced. Being employed by Colonel Spottswood, our Governor,
to instruct the Indian children at this settlement, I thought it my duty to
address your lordship with this, in which I humbly beg leave to inform
you what progress I have made in carrying on this charitable design of
our excellent Governor. Should I presume to give an account of the kind
reception I met with at my arrival here from the Indian Queen, the great
men, and, indeed, from all the Indians, with a constant continuance of
their kindness and respect, and of the great sense they have of the good
that is designed them by the Governor in sending me to live with them
to teach their children, as also at the great expense he has been at, and
the many fatigues he has undergone by travelling hither in the heat of
summer, as well as in the midst of winter, to the great hazard of his
health, to encourage and promote this most pious undertaking, I should
far exceed the bounds of a letter, and intrude too much on your lordship's
time. I shall, therefore, decline this, and humbly represent to your lordship
what improvements the pagan children have made in the knowledge
of the Christian religion, which I promise myself can't but be very acceptable
to you, a pious Christian Bishop. We have here a very handsome
school-house, built at the charge of the Indian Company, in which
are at present taught seventy Indian children; and many others from the
Western Indians, who live more than four hundred miles from hence, will
be brought hither in the spring to be put under my care, in order to be
instructed in the religion of the Holy Jesus. The greatest number of my
scholars can say the Belief, the Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments,
perfectly well; they know that there is but one God, and they are able to
tell me how many persons there are in the Godhead, and what each of
those blessed Persons have done for them. They know how many sacraments
Christ hath ordained in his Church, and for what end he instituted
them; they behave themselves reverently at our daily prayers, and can
make their responses, which was no little pleasure to their great and good
benefactor, the Governor, as also to the Rev. Mr. John Cargill, Mr. Attorney-General,
and many other gentlemen who attended him in his progress
hither. Thus, my lord, hath the Governor (notwithstanding the many
difficulties he laboured under) happily laid the foundation of this great
and good work of civilizing and converting these poor Indians, who,
although they have lived many years among the professors of the best
and most holy religion in the world, yet so little care has been taken to
instruct them therein, that they still remain strangers to the covenant of
grace, and have not improved in any thing by their conversing with Christians,
excepting in vices to which before they were strangers, which is a
very sad and melancholy reflection. But that God may crown with success
this present undertaking, that thereby his Kingdom may be enlarged
by the sincere conversion of these poor heathen, I humbly recommend
both it and myself to your lordship's prayers, and beg leave to subscribe
myself, with great duty, my lord, your lordship's "It is a great satisfaction to me that I can now recommend to your
parish, which has been so long without a minister so good a man as the
bearer hereof, the Rev. Mr. Gammill, whose good life and conversation
will be very agreeable to you, as it is to, gentlemen, My letters to your brother Mann and your sisters
will inform you how and when I arrived here. I will tell you then what
I have not told them, and what you, a young traveller, ought to know.
This town is not half so large as Philadelphia, nor in any manner to be
compared to it for beauty and elegance. Philadelphia, I am well assured,
has more inhabitants than Boston and New York together. The streets
here are badly paved, very dirty, and narrow as well as crooked, and filled
up with a strange variety of wooden, stone, and brick buildings, and full
of hogs and mud. The College, St. Paul's Church, and the Hospital are
elegant buildings. The Federal Hall also, in which Congress is to sit, is
elegant. What is very remarkable here is, that there is but one well of
water which furnishes the inhabitants with drink, so that water is bought
here by every one that drinks it, except the owner of this well. Four
carts are continually going about selling it at three gallons for a copper;
that is, a penny for every three gallons of water. The other wells and
pumps serve for washing, and nothing else.*
*In another letter he says that he was mistaken—that there were several good
wells.
I have not time to say more
about this place and the other towns through which I passed, but will by
some other opportunity write you whatever may be worth your knowing.
You must show this to Frank. Give my love to him, and tell him I will
write to him and Judy next. Kiss her for me, and be a good boy, my
dear. Give my love to your brothers and sisters and to your cousin Mat
and Nat. Tell Beck [a maid-servant] that Sharp [the servant that went
with him] is well, and sends his love to her, [his wife, I suppose.] That
God Almighty may bless you all, my dear, is the fervent prayer of your
affectionate father, The love I bear my God, my King, and
my Church, hath so often emboldened me in the worst of extreme dangers,
that now honesty doth constrain me to presume thus far beyond myself,
to present to your Majesty this short discourse. If ingratitude be a
deadly poison to all honest virtues, I must be guilty of that crime if I
should omit any means to be thankful. So it was, that about ten years ago,
being in Virginia, and being taken prisoner by the power of Powhatan,
their chief king, I received from this great savage exceeding great courtesy,—especially
from his son, Nantiquaus, the manliest, comeliest, boldest
spirit I ever saw in a savage, and his sister Pocahontas, the king's most
dear and beloved daughter, being but a child of twelve or thirteen years
of age, whose compassionate, pitiful heart of my desperate estate gave me
much cause to respect her. I being the first Christian this proud king
and his grim attendants ever saw, and thus enthralled in their power, I
cannot say I felt the least occasion of want that was in the power of those,
my mortal foes, to prevent, notwithstanding all their threats. After some
six weeks' fattening among these savage courtiers, at the minute of my
execution she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine;
and not only that, but so prevailed with her father that I was safely conducted
to Jamestown, where I found about eight-and-thirty miserable,
poor, and sick creatures to keep possession of all those large territories in
Virginia. Such was the weakness of this poor Commonwealth, as had not
the savages fed us, we directly had starved. And this relief, most gracious
Queen, was commonly brought us by the Lady Pocahontas. "The humble petition of the vestry held for Christ Church parish the
7th day of May, 1722, showeth that this vestry, taking into consideration
the great satisfaction given to this parish for about eighteen years, and the
general good character of our minister, Mr. Bartholomew Yates, which we
are apprehensive has induced some other parishes to entertain thoughts
of endeavouring to prevail with him to quit this parish for some of those
more convenient, humbly pray they may be enabled to make use of such
measures as may be proper and reasonable to secure so great a good to
the parish. I do hereby, in his Majesty's name, will and require you to
acquaint the minister or ministers within your county, that (God willing)
they do not fail of meeting me here on Wednesday, being the 10th of April
next, and that they bring with them their Priests' and Deacons' Orders, as
likewise the Rt. Rev. the Father in God, the Lord-Bishop of London his
license for their preaching, or whatever license they have, and withall a copy
out of the vestry-books of the agreement they have made with the parish or
parishes where they officiate. If there be any parish or parishes within
your county who have no minister, I do hereby, in his Majesty's name,
command that the vestry of said parish or parishes do, by the said 10th
of April, return me an account how long they have been without a minister,
and the reason thereof, as also if they have any person that reads the
Common Prayer on Sundays and at their church. This account must be
signed by them, and they may send it by the minister who lives next to
them. So, not doubting of your compliances therein, I remain your
loving friend, "Gentlemen:—I'm not a little surprised at the sight of an order of
yours, wherein you take upon you to suspend from his office a clergyman
who, for near sixteen years, has served as your minister, and that without
assigning any manner of reason for your so doing. I look upon it that
the British subjects in these Plantations ought to conform to the Constitution
of their mother-country in all cases wherein the laws of the several
Colonies have not otherwise decided; and, as no vestry in England ever
pretended to set themselves up as judges over their ministers, so I know
no law of this country that has given such authority to the vestry here.
If a clergyman transgresses against the canons of the Church, he is to
be tried before a proper judicature; and though in this country there be
no Bishops to apply to, yet there is the substitute of the Bishop, who is
your diocesan, and who can take cognizance of the offences of the clergy;
and I cannot believe there is any vestry here so ignorant but to know that
the Governor, for the time-being, has the honour to be intrusted with the
power of collating to all benefits, and ought, in reason, to be made acquainted
with the crime which unqualifies a clergyman from holding a
benefice of which he is once legally possessed. In case of the misbehaviour
of your minister, you may be his accusers, but in no case his
judges; but much less are you empowered to turn him out without showing
any cause. But your churchwardens, ordering the church to be shut
up, and thereby taking upon them to lay the parish under an interdict, is
such an exorbitant act of power, that even the Pope of Rome never pretended
to a greater; and if your churchwardens persist in it, they will
find themselves involved in greater troubles than they are aware of. I have read with deep interest your account of
many of the old churches and families of Virginia. Having just risen
from the perusal of that on York-Hampton parish, it seems to me that you
have not given all the credit it deserves to the character of the Rev.
Samuel Shield. "Right Rev. Father in God:—I received your Lordship's blessing in
May, 1735, and by bad weather we were obliged to go up to Maryland,
and from thence five weeks after I came to Williamsburg, and was kindly
received by our Governor and Mr. Commissary Blair. I got immediately
a parish, which I served nine months; but hearing that a frontier-parish
was vacant, and that the people of the mountains had never seen a clergyman
since they were settled there, I desired the Governor's consent to
leave an easy parish for this I do now serve. I have three churches,
twenty-three and twenty-four miles from the glebe, in which I officiate
every third Sunday; and, besides these three, I have seven places of service
up in the mountains, where the clerks read prayers,—four clerks in the
seven places. I go twice a year to preach in twelve places, which I reckon
better than four hundred miles backward and forward, and ford nineteen
times the North and South Rivers. I have taken four trips already, and
the 20th instant I go up again. In my first journey I baptized white
people, 209; blacks, 172; Quakers, 15; Anabaptists, 2; and of the white
people there were baptized from twenty to twenty-five years of age, 4;
from twelve to twenty, 35; and from eight to twelve, 189. I found, on
my first coming into the parish, but six persons that received the Sacrament,
which my predecessors never administered but in the lower church;
and, blessed be God, I have now one hundred and thirty-six that receive
twice a year, and in the lower part three times a year, which fills my heart
with joy, and makes all my pains and fatigues very agreeable to me. I
struggle with many difficulties with Quakers, who are countenanced by
high-minded men, but I wrestle with wickedness in high places, and the
Lord gives me utterance to speak boldly as I ought to speak. I find that
my strength faileth me; but I hope the Lord will be my strength and
helper, that I may fight the good fight and finish my course in the ministry
which is given me to fulfil the word of God. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 7 | Author: | Brown
Charles Brockden
1771-1810 | Add | | | Title: | Ormond, Or, the Secret Witness | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Stephen Dudley was a native of New-York.
He was educated to the profession of a
painter. His father's trade was that or an apothecary.
But this son, manifesting an attachment
to the pencil, he was resolved that it should be
gratified. For this end Stephen was sent at an
early age to Europe, and not only enjoyed the instructions
of Fuzeli and Bartolozzi, but spent a
considerable period in Italy, in studying the Augustan
and Medicean monuments. It was intended
that he should practise his art in his native city,
but the young man, though reconciled to this
scheme by deference to paternal authority, and by
a sense of its propriety, was willing, as long as
possible to postpone it. The liberality of his father
relieved him from all pecuniary cares. His
whole time was devoted to the improvement of
his skill in his favorite art, and the enriching of
his mind with every valuable accomplishment.
He was endowed with a comprehensive genius
and indefatigable industry. His progress was
proportionably rapid, and he passed his time without
much regard to futurity, being too well satisfied
with the present to anticipate a change. A
change however was unavoidable, and he was
obliged at length to pay a reluctant obedience to
his father's repeated summons. The death of his
wife had rendered his society still more necessary
to the old gentleman. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 8 | Author: | Bennett
Emerson
1822-1905 | Add | | | Title: | Oliver Goldfinch, Or, the Hypocrite | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | It was a dark and stormy night in the
month of November, 18—. To simply say
it was dark and stormy, conveys but a faint
idea of what the night was in reality. The
clouds were pall black, and charged with
a vapor which, freezing as it descended,
spread an icy mantle over every thing exposed.
The wind was easterly and fierce,
and drove the sleety hail with a velocity
that made it any thing but pleasant to be
abroad. Signs creaked, windows rattled,
lamps flickered and became dim, casting
here and there long ghostly shadows, that
seemed to dance fantastically to the music
of the rushing winds, as they whistled
through some crevice, moaned down some
chimney, or howled along some deserted
alley on their mad career. It was, take it
all in all, a dismal night, and such an one
as, with a comfortable shelter over our
heads and a cheerful fire before us, is apt
to make us thank God we are not forced to
be abroad like the poor houseless wretches
who have no place to lay their heads. It
is too much the case at such times, that
we congratule ourselves on being far better
off than they, without taking into consideration
it is our duty, as humane beings,
to render them as comfortable as our circumstances
will permit. But who thinks
of the poor? God cares for them, say the
rich, and that is enough. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 9 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The oak openings, or, The bee-hunter | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | We have heard of those who fancied that they beheld a
signal instance of the hand of the Creator in the celebrated
cataract of Niagara. Such instances of the power of sensible
and near objects to influence certain minds, only
prove how much easier it is to impress the imaginations
of the dull with images that are novel, than with those that
are less apparent, though of infinitely greater magnitude.
Thus, it would seem to be strange, indeed, that any human
being should find more to wonder at in any one of the phenomena
of the earth, than in the earth itself; or, should specially
stand astonished at the might of Him who created the
world, when each night brings into view a firmament studded
with other worlds, each equally the work of His hands! | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 10 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The oak openings, or, The bee-hunter | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | When the bee hunter and corporal Flint thus went forth
at midnight, from the “garrison” of Castle Meal, (chateau
au miel,) as the latter would have expressed it, it was with
no great apprehension of meeting any other than a four-footed
enemy, notwithstanding the blast of the horn the
worthy corporal supposed he had heard. The movements
of the dog seemed to announce such a result rather than
any other, for Hive was taken along as a sort of guide.
Le Bourdon, however, did not permit his mastiff to run
off wide, but, having the animal at perfect command, it
was kept close to his own person. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 12 | Author: | Ingraham
J. H.
(Joseph Holt)
1809-1860 | Add | | | Title: | The odd fellow, or, The secret association, and Foraging Peter | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | `My Dear friend and `brother':—I am happy to inform you of my safe
arrival here yesterday, having been detained in New York by illness. I am
now quite well again and hasten to return you my acknowledgments for
your kind assistance, and that of your Order. The amount of money generously
advanced me, and the bill for my wardrobe is something under the
amount I enclose, which I beg you will do me the favor to return to the society,
for the aid of others of the Order who like me may be thrown by
Providence in a condition to call for its benevolence. I pray you will present
my regards to your family and accept the assurances of my grateful
friendship. If you, or any of your friends should visit Baltimore, where I
shall remain and engage in the mercantile business, I shall esteem myself
signally happy in extending to you our hospitality. Mr. Peter Dalton and his Lady most earnestly request the high honor of
his lordship's, the Earl of Elliston's noble company at a sworree to be given
by them in his honor Tuesday evening next. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 14 | Author: | McHenry
James
1753-1816 | Add | | | Title: | O'Halloran, or The insurgent chief | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Perhaps no where in the British Islands, will
the admirer of the grand and sublime, in the works
of nature, find more gratification than along the
northern shores of the county of Antrim. From
the Gabbon precipices, near the entrance of Larne
Harbour, to Port Rush, near Colerain, a long
range of rocky coast, extending upwards of fifty
miles, exhibits, in some places, the boldest promontories
jutting into the sea, and perforated with
numerous caverns, into many of which the raging
waters pour with reverberating noise. In other
places, small bays, occasioned by the mouths of
the rivers and rivulets that there seek a junction
with the ocean, interrupt the continuity of the
rocky chain, and by affording to the visiter the
view of towns and villages, surrounded by the fertility
of nature, and the conveniences of art, produce
a striking and pleasing contrast to the prevailing
wildness of the coast, and make its grandeur
still more grand. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 15 | Author: | McHenry
James
1753-1816 | Add | | | Title: | O'Halloran, or The insurgent chief | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | It was on the evening of the fourth of June, that
a messenger arrived from Belfast, at O'Halloran
Castle. He delivered to its owner the following
note, and passed on to circulate others of a similar
import throughout the country. “The signal is given. The mail coach has not
arrived. Our informant says it was stopped yesterday
at Swords. The south is in arms—Wexford is
taken. Let the rising be on the 7th inst. The general
rendezvous for this county is Donegore hill.
The small parties of the military quartered in the
country towns must be captured, if possible, by
surprise. The bearer will proceed with intelligence
along the coast. You will despatch messengers
through the interior, by Ballynure, Ballyclare,
Ballyeaston, Ballymena, &c. Expedition is requisite. “I am now a prisoner in the hands of the insurgents;
and you may be sure I am well treated,
when I inform you that I have had influence
enough to persuade them to postpone an attack,
which, just as I was brought here, they were on
the point of making upon you. “Sir, we are to the number of sixteen hundred
men in arms, prepared to attack the garrison under
your command. But to give you an opportunity
of saving your soldiers from destruction, we
have thought proper, first, to apprize you of our intention,
and to summon you in the name of our
country, to surrender your party, both military
and others, with all your warlike stores, into our
hands. As our prisoners your lives will be safe,
and as much attention as possible paid to your
comforts. The lives, families and properties of
such of our town's-men as have joined you, shall
also remain unmolested. Our attack shall be suspended,
in expectation of your compliance, for three
quarters of an hour, but no longer. “Sir, enclosed is my reply to the rebel chieftains.
By it you will see that you anticipated truly,
when you supposed that I would not agree to an
unconditional surrender. I am sorry that you are
in their power; but it is pleasing to find that they
are not disposed to abuse their good fortune, by
acts of wantonness or cruelty. It may yet be in
my power to show that I can esteem humanity,
even in such an enemy. “In answer to your message, I have to inform
you that rather than comply with your demands,
my party and myself are resolved to meet destruction
amidst the ruins of the place, which it is our
duty to defend. Do not, however, suppose that we
shall fall an easy prey. It is true, your number
exceed ours by ten to one; but were they a hundred
to one, as we are fully supplied with the
means of defence, we know too well how to use
them, not to make our enemies deplore the dearness
of any victory they may gain over us. In
your case, it is apparent that victory is at least
doubtful. Some traits of humanity displayed by
you have been communicated to me, in consideration
of which I give you my promise, and all the
gentlemen of the town, who have so gallantly come
to my assistance, will guarantee its performance,
that if you lay down your arms, and return peaceably
to your allegiance, all that you have yet done
shall be overlooked, and pardoned, and the full
and free protection of the laws of your country
shall once more be extended towards you. Should
you reject this offer, I can only deplore your infatuation;
I must resist you unto destruction, and
the blood of those who may fall on both sides, be
upon your heads. “Dear Sir—It has fallen to my lot to communicate
to you the unfortunate news of the forces we
assembled this morning, being completely defeated
and dispersed, after a severe conflict with a large
body of the king's troops, near Ballynahinch, in
which it is supposed, that we lost upwards of one
thousand men. “Sir, being informed that you have the rebel
chief, O'Halloran, in custody, I am induced, in
consequence of some representations made to me
in his favour, by a person well acquainted with
him, to pardon his offence, on condition that he
shall pay a fine to be assessed by you to any
amount, not exceeding ten thousand pounds, which
sum shall be appropriated to the relief of those
royalists who have suffered from the rebellion in
the county of Antrim. “Dear Barrymore—I have at length followed
you. Excited by my ardent desire to see the peerless
beauty, who could so completely subdue a
heart which was impregnable to all the attacks of
the Dublin fair, I eagerly embraced the first moment,
in which I could, with propriety, undertake
the journey. The day before I left the city, I
waited on the Lord Lieutenant, with the letter you
enclosed from the Recluse, who, I understand, is to
be no longer a mendicant, but is to appear in society
in his own proper character of Francis Hamilton,
Esq. of Hamilton-hall, in the county of Tyrone.
His excellency was much pleased to hear from
him; and, without delay, not only granted to him
his request, but wrote to him a long letter, which
on finding I was about to take a Northern trip, he
entrusted to my care. “Dear Sir—It is with great satisfaction that I
acknowledge the receipt of your's of this morning,
covering the commands of his excellency, the Lord
Lieutenant, respecting you, which, of course, it is
my duty, as well as my pleasure, to obey. I shall
make the agreeable communication known without
delay to all the justices of the peace, jailers, and
other officers, whom it concerns, so that you will
be in no danger of personal molestation; and may
appear in public whenever you think proper. “My Son—A few days ago, I received from you
a very foolish letter, requesting me to consent to
your marriage with a woman I never saw, nor, until
that very moment, ever heard of. I took, of
course, some pains to inquire concerning her, and
her connexions. The only person from whom I
could obtain much information, is your old mendicant
protagee, who praises her in a style that I
cannot well understand; but from which I can
gather that she is a great beauty. I presume,
therefore, that in the ardour of your admiration,
you have endowed her with angelic qualities, for
in the eyes of every love-sick young man who has
a handsome mistress, she cannot be aught else
than an angel. “* * * * * * * * * At what an awful crisis,”
said he, “have I been entrusted with the government
of this unfortunate country? Treason, rebellion,
massacre, and invasion, have shaken her to
pieces, and have prostrated her into the depth of
misery. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 16 | Author: | Paulding
James Kirke
1778-1860 | Add | | | Title: | The old Continental, or, The price of liberty | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | During the most gloomy and disastrous period of
our revolutionary war, there resided in the county of
Westchester a family of plain country people, who
had, in time long past, seen better days; but who
now had nothing to boast of, but a small farm, a good
name, and a good conscience. Though bred in the
city, they had lived so long in a retired part of the
country, that their habits, tastes, and manners, had become
altogether rural, and they had almost outlived
every vestige of former refinements, except in certain
modes of thinking, and acting, which had survived
in all changes of time and circumstances. Their residence
was an old stone-house, bearing the date of
1688, the figures of which were formed by Holland
bricks, incorporated with the walls. The roof
was green with mossy honours, and the entire edifice
bore testimony, not only to the lapse of time, but to
the downhill progress of its inmates. Though not in
ruins, it was much decayed; and, though with a good
rousing fire in the broad capacious chimney, it was
comfortable enough in winter, it afforded nothing
without to indicate anything but the possession of
those simple necessaries of life, which fall to the lot
of those who derive their means of happiness from
the labours of their hands, the bounties of the earth,
and the blessing of a quiet soul. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 17 | Author: | Paulding
James Kirke
1778-1860 | Add | | | Title: | The old Continental, or, The price of liberty | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The old sugar-house to which our hero and his companion
in misfortune were consigned, is still standing[1]
[1]It has since been pulled down.
to remind us of the sufferings of our fathers, and the
price they paid for liberty. To those who have never
seen the building, it may not be amiss to state that it
is a large, massive, gloomy pile of red-stone, with narrow
grated windows, which gives it the air of a prison;
standing at the northeast corner of the yard of the
Dutch church fronting on Liberty street, which, during
the occupation of the city by the British, was used as
a riding-school. The aspect of the structure is forbidding,
corresponding with the recollections which will
long accompany its contemplation, by the descendants
and countrymen of many nameless and humble patriots
that here became the martyrs to the oppression of
a haughty parent, and a petty tyrant whose infamous
name is forever associated with the recollection of
their fate. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 19 | Author: | Austin
Jane G.
(Jane Goodwin)
1831-1894 | Add | | | Title: | Outpost | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | “The last day of October!” said the Sun to himself, —
“the last day of my favorite month, and the birthday of
my little namesake! See if I don't make the most of it!” “Since writing to you last month, I have been going on
with my studies under the Rev. Mr. Brown, as I then mentioned.
I do not find that it hurts me to study in the hot
weather at all; and I have enjoyed my vacation better this
way than if I had been idle. “We shall be at home on Wednesday evening, at six
o'clock, and shall bring some guests. You will please prepare
tea for eight persons; and make up five beds, three of
them single ones. Tell Susan to make the house look as
pretty as she can; and send for any thing she or you need in
the way of preparation. Yours of the 10th duly received, and as welcome as your
letters always are. So you have seen the kingdoms of the
world and the glory thereof, and find that all is vanity, as
saith the Preacher. Do not imagine that I am studying divinity
instead of medicine; but to-day is Sunday, and I have
been twice to meeting, and taken tea with the minister
besides. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 20 | Author: | Page
Thomas Nelson
1853-1922 | Add | | | Title: | The Old Dominion | | | | Published: | 2006 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | TO comprehend truly the achievement of
the settlement of Jamestown and what it
has signified to the world, and still signifies today,
if we but knew it, it is necessary to go back
among the forces that were at work in Western
Europe during the time when the Dark Ages
were giving way to the light of the New Learning.
Many forces combined to produce the results,
working with that patience which characterizes
the laws of Nature. The energies of
men had been engrossed by the exactions of
war, and of a civilization based on war. The
mind of man had been for ages monopolized
by war militant or spiritual. Person and intellect
alike lay under rule. Then gradually, after
long lethargy, men began to think. Historians
wrote; poets sang; statesmen planned; scientists
experimented. The mariner's compass, whether
brought by Marco Polo from the East, or invented
by the Neapolitan, Flavio Gioja, or by
some one else, came into use in Europe: other
nautical instruments were invented or improved.
Gunpowder was invented and gradually changed
the methods of war. The New Learning began
to sweep over Europe. The Art of printing
from movable types was invented. The ice was
broken up and the stream, long dammed, began
to flow. The Reformation came and men burst
the chains which had bound them. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 23 | Author: | EDITED BY
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH. | Add | | | Title: | Out of his head | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | “On the seventeenth of August, in the year
16—, the morning sun, resting obliquely on the
gables and roof-tops of Portsmouth, lighted up
one of those grim spectacles not unusual in New
England at that period. In Thomas Bailey Aldrich, whose death was briefly
announced in The Times of Wednesday, America has lost
the most brilliant man of letters of the generation that
succeeded the Concord group. He was born in Portsmouth,
New Hampshire, in November, 1836, when Longfellow
and Emerson were in their prime, and he reaped
the benefit of their labours by coming into an age which
they had familiarized with literature and cultivation.
Mr. Aldrich early became a journalist, and was connected
with the New York Evening Mirror, Willes's Home
Journal, and other papers. The outbreak of the war
saw him as newspaper correspondent, and in 1865 he
became the editor of Every Saturday. Nine years in
that post were followed by seven of miscellaneous work,
till in 1881 he reached the height of his career as
journalist by becoming editor of the Atlantic Monthly, a
position he held till 1890. Meanwhile he had written
much original matter both in prose and verse. His genius
was many-sided, and it is surprising that so busy an
editor and so prolific a writer should have attained the
perfection of form for which Mr. Aldrich was remarkable.
Among his novels “Prudence Palfrey” and “The
Stillwater Tragedy” are the best known. From his
country home at Porkapog, Mass., he sent out the charming
“Porkapog Papers,” as graceful and delicate as their
title was ungainly. He described with the skill of a
Hawthorne his native town by the sea, and in “Marjorie
Daw” and other works he proved himself an “American
humourist” of a characteristic type. One of his
books, “The Story of a Bad Boy,” has achieved
notable distinction; it has been translated into
French in a series entitled “Education et Récréation,”
and into German as a specimen of American humour. It
is, however, as a poet that Mr. Aldrich was chiefly
entitled to recognition, and on his poetry that his fame
will rest. Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman regarded him
as “the most pointed and exquisite of our lyrical craftsmen”;
and the words are well chosen. He was the
doyen and the leader of the school of American poetry
which is now being displaced by Mr. Bliss Carman and
others, who are apparently more virile than the preceding
generation. His was the poetry of exquisite finish and
not of great force or profundity. To say that his lyrics
are vers de société in the highest form is not to rate their
content too low nor their manner too high; and it is in
lyric song rather than in the longer poems, such as
“Wyndham Towers,” that Mr. Aldrich excelled. Some
of his poems—that on the intaglio head of Minerva,
“When the Sultan goes to Ispahan,” and “Identity”—
are in every anthology of American literature, and have
won their author fame throughout the English-speaking
world. Suddenly Loses Strength After Partially
Recovering From an Operation. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 25 | Author: | Stowe
Harriet Beecher
1811-1896 | Add | | | Title: | Oldtown folks | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | IT has always been a favorite idea of mine, that there is so much
of the human in every man, that the life of any one individual,
however obscure, if really and vividly perceived in all its aspirations,
struggles, failures, and successes, would command the
interest of all others. This is my only apology for offering my
life as an open page to the reading of the public. MY dear Brother: — Since I wrote you last, so strange
a change has taken place in my life that even now I
walk about as in a dream, and hardly know myself. The events
of a few hours have made everything in the world seem to me
as different from what it ever seemed before as death is from
life. My dear Sister: — I have read your letter. Answer it
justly and truly how can I? How little we know of each other
in outside intimacy! but when we put our key into the door of
the secret chamber, who does not tremble and draw back? —
that is the true haunted chamber! “My dear Sister: — I am a Puritan, — the son, the grandson,
the great-grandson of Puritans, — and I say to you, Plant
the footsteps of your child on the ground of the old Cambridge
Platform, and teach her as Winthrop and Dudley and the
Mathers taught their children, — that she `is already a member
in the Church of Christ, — that she is in covenant with God, and
hath the seal thereof upon her, to wit, baptism; and so, if not
regenerate, is yet in a more hopeful way of attaining regeneration
and all spiritual blessings, both of the covenant and seal.'*
* Cambridge Platform. Mather's Magnalia, page 227, article 7.
By teaching the child this, you will place her mind in natural and
healthful relations with God and religion. She will feel in her
Father's house, and under her Father's care, and the long and
weary years of a sense of disinheritance with which you struggled
will be spared to her. “MY DEAR Brother: — I am in a complete embarras what
to do with Tina. She is the very light of my eyes, — the
sweetest, gayest, brightest, and best-meaning little mortal that
ever was made; but somehow or other I fear I am not the one
that ought to have undertaken to bring her up. “Sister Mehitable: — The thing has happened that I
have foreseen. Send her up here; she shall board in the minister's
family; and his daughter Esther, who is wisest, virtuousest,
discreetest, best, shall help keep her in order. “Here we are, dear Aunty, up in the skies, in the most beautiful
place that you can possibly conceive of. We had such a
good time coming! you 've no idea of the fun we had. You
know I am going to be very sober, but I did n't think it was
necessary to begin while we were travelling, and we kept Uncle
Jacob laughing so that I really think he must have been tired. “I have had a dozen minds to write to you before now, having
had good accounts of you from Mr. Davenport; but, to say
truth, have been ashamed to write. I did not do right by your
mother, nor by you and your sister, as I am now free to acknowledge.
She was not of a family equal to ours, but she was too
good for me. I left her in America, like a brute as I was, and
God has judged me for it. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 29 | Author: | Akutagawa, Ryunosuke | Add | | | Title: | Okawa no mizu | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | Japanese Text Initiative | | | | Description: | 自分は、
大川端
(
おおかわばた
)
に近い町に生まれた。家を出て
椎
(
しい
)
の若葉におおわれた、
黒塀
(
くろべい
)
の多い横網の
小路
(
こうじ
)
をぬけると、すぐあの幅の広い川筋の見渡される、
百本杭
(
ひゃっぽんぐい
)
の
河岸
(
かし
)
へ出るのである。幼い時から、中学を卒業するまで、自分はほとんど毎日のように、あの川を見た。水と船と橋と
砂洲
(
すなず
)
と、水の上に生まれて水の上に暮しているあわただしい人々の生活とを見た。真夏の日の
午
(
ひる
)
すぎ、やけた砂を踏みながら、水泳を習いに行く通りすがりに、
嗅
(
か
)
ぐともなく嗅いだ
河
(
かわ
)
の水のにおいも、今では年とともに、親しく思い出されるような気がする。 | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 30 | Author: | Arishima, Takeo | Add | | | Title: | Oborekaketa kyodai | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | Japanese Text Initiative | | | | Description: |
土用波
(
どようなみ
)
という高い波が風もないのに海岸に
打寄
(
うちよ
)
せる
頃
(
ころ
)
になると、海水浴に
来
(
き
)
ている
都
(
みやこ
)
の人たちも段々別荘をしめて帰ってゆくようになります。今までは海岸の砂の上にも水の中にも、朝から晩まで、沢山の人が集って来て、砂山からでも見ていると、あんなに大勢な人間が一たい
何所
(
どこ
)
から出て来たのだろうと不思議に思えるほどですが、九月にはいってから三日目になるその日には、見わたすかぎり砂浜の何所にも人っ子一人いませんでした。 | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 32 | Author: | Izumi, Kyoka | Add | | | Title: | Onryo shakuyo | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | Japanese Text Initiative | | | | Description: | 婦人は、座の
傍
（
かたわら
）
に人気のまるでない時、ひとりでは
按摩
（
あんま
）
を取らないが
可
（
い
）
いと、
昔気質
（
むかしかたぎ
）
の誰でもそう云う。
上
（
かみ
）
はそうまでもない。あの
下
（
しも
）
の事を言うのである。
閨
（
ねや
）
では別段に注意を要するだろう。以前は影絵、うつし絵などでは、
巫山戯
（
ふざけ
）
たその光景を見せたそうで。――
御新姐
（
ごしんぞ
）
さん、……奥さま。……さ、お横に、とこれから腰を
揉
（
も
）
むのだが、横にもすれば、
俯向
（
うつむけ
）
にもする、一つくるりと返して、ふわりと柔くまた横にもしよう。水々しい
魚
（
うお
）
は、真綿、羽二重の
俎
（
まないた
）
に寝て、術者はまな
箸
（
ばし
）
を持たない料理人である。
衣
（
きぬ
）
を
透
（
とお
）
して、肉を揉み、筋を
萎
（
なや
）
すのであるから
恍惚
（
うっとり
）
と身うちが溶ける。ついたしなみも粗末になって、下じめも解けかかれば、帯も緩くなる。きちんとしていてさえざっとこの趣。……
遊山
（
ゆさん
）
旅籠
（
はたご
）
、温泉宿などで
寝衣
（
ねまき
）
、浴衣に、
扱帯
（
しごき
）
、
伊達巻
（
だてまき
）
一つの時の様子は、ほぼ……お互に、しなくっても
可
（
よ
）
いが想像が出来る。
膚
（
はだ
）
を左右に揉む拍子に、いわゆる
青練
（
あおねり
）
も
溢
（
こぼ
）
れようし、
緋縮緬
（
ひぢりめん
）
も
友染
（
ゆうぜん
）
も敷いて落ちよう。按摩をされる
方
（
かた
）
は、
対手
（
あいて
）
を
盲
（
めくら
）
にしている。そこに姿の油断がある。足くびの時なぞは、一応は職業行儀に心得て、
太脛
（
ふくらはぎ
）
から曲げて引上げるのに、すんなりと
衣服
（
きもの
）
の
褄
（
つま
）
を巻いて包むが、療治をするうちには双方の気のたるみから、
踵
（
かかと
）
を
摺下
（
ずりさが
）
って褄が波のようにはらりと落ちると、包ましい膝のあたりから、白い踵が、空にふらふらとなり、しなしなとして、按摩の手の
裡
（
うち
）
に糸の乱るるがごとく
縺
（
もつ
）
れて、
艶
（
えん
）
に
媚
（
なまめ
）
かしい
上掻
（
うわがい
）
、
下掻
（
したがい
）
、ただ
卍巴
（
まんじともえ
）
に降る雪の中を
倒
（
さかし
）
に
歩行
（
ある
）
く風情になる。バッタリ
真暗
（
まっくら
）
になって、……影絵は消えたものだそうである。 | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 33 | Author: | Kobayashi, Issa | Add | | | Title: | Ora ga Haru | | | | Published: | 1998 | | | | Subjects: | Japanese Text Initiative | | | | Description: | 昔たんごの國普甲寺といふ所に、深く淨土を願ふ上人ありけり。としの始は世間祝ひ
事してざゞめけば、我もせん迚、大卅日の夜、ひとりつかふ小法師に手紙したゝめ渡
して、翌の曉にしか％＼せよと、きといひをしへて、本堂へとまりにやりぬ。小法師
は元日の旦、いまだ隅々は小闇きに、初鳥の聲とおなじくがばと起て、教へのごとく
表門を丁々と敲けば、内よりいづこよりと問ふ時、西方彌陀佛より年始の使僧に候と
答ふるよりはやく、上人裸足にておどり出て、門の扉を左右へさつと開て、小法師を
上坐に稱して、きのふの手紙をとりて、うや／＼しくいたゞきて讀でいはく、其世界
は衆苦充滿に候間はやく吾國に來たるべし、聖衆出むかひしてまち入候とよみ終りて、
おゝ／＼と泣れけるとかや。此上人みづから工み拵へたる悲しみに、みづからなげき
つゝ、初春の淨衣を絞りて、したゝる泪を見て祝ふとは、物に狂ふさまながら、俗人
に對して無情を演るを禮とすると聞からに、佛門においては、いはひの骨張なるべけ
れ。それとはいさゝか替りて、おのれらは俗塵に埋れて世渡る境界ながら、鶴龜にた
ぐへての祝盡しも、厄拂ひの口上めきてそら％＼しく思ふからに、から風の吹けばと
ぶ屑家は、くづ屋のあるべきやうに、門松立てず、煤はかず、雪の山路の曲り形りに、
ことしの春もあなた任せになんむかへける | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 35 | Author: | Matsuo, Basho | Add | | | Title: | Oku no Hosomichi | | | | Published: | 1998 | | | | Subjects: | Japanese Text Initiative | | | | Description: | 月日は百代の過客にして行かふ年も又旅人也。舟の上に生涯をうかべ、馬の口とらえ
て老をむかふる物は日々旅にして旅を栖とす。古人も多く旅に死せるあり。予もいづ
れの年よりか片雲の風にさそはれて、漂白の思ひやまず、海濱にさすらへ、去年の秋
江上の破屋に蜘の古巣をはらひてやゝ年も暮、春立る霞の空に白川の関こえんと、
そゞろ神の物につきて心をくるはせ、道祖神のまねきにあひて、取もの手につかず。
もゝ引の破をつゞり、笠の緒付かえて、三里に灸すゆるより、松嶋の月先心にかゝり
て、住る方は人に譲り、杉風が別墅に移るに、 | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 36 | Author: | Miyamoto, Yuriko | Add | | | Title: | Ogai, Soseki, Toson nado: "Chichiue sama" o megutte | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | Japanese Text Initiative | | | | Description: | つい先頃、或る友人があることの記念として私に小堀杏奴さんの「晩年の父」とほかにもう一冊の本をくれた。「晩年の父」はその夜のうちに読み終った。晩年の鴎外が馬にのって、白山への通りを行く朝、私は女学生で、彼の顔にふくまれている一種の美をつよく感じながら、愛情と羞らいのまじった心でもって、鴎外の方は馬上にあるからというばかりでなく、自分を低く小さい者に感じながら少し道をよけたものであった。観潮楼から斜かいにその頃は至って狭く急であった団子坂をよこぎって杉林と交番のある通りへ入ったところから、私は毎朝、白山の方へ歩いて行ったのであった。 | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 38 | Author: | Miyamoto, Yuriko | Add | | | Title: | Ogai, Akutagawa, Kikuchi no rekishi shosetsu | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | Japanese Text Initiative | | | | Description: | 森鴎外の「歴史もの」は、大正元年十月の中央公論に「興津彌五右衛門の遺書」が載せられたのが第一作であった。そして、斎藤茂吉氏の解説によると、この一作のかかれた動機は、その年九月十三日明治大帝の御大葬にあたって乃木大将夫妻の殉死があった。夜半青山の御大葬式場から退出しての帰途、その噂をきいて「予半信半疑す」と日記にかかれているそうである。つづいて、鴎外は乃木夫妻の納棺式に臨み、十八日の葬式にも列った。同日の日記に「興津彌五右衛門を艸して中央公論に寄す」とあって、乃木夫妻の死を知った十四日から三日ぐらいの間に、しかもその間には夫妻の納棺式や葬儀に列しつつ、この作品は書かれたのであった。 | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 42 | Author: | Miyamoto, Yuriko | Add | | | Title: | "Otona no bungaku"ron no genjitsusei | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | Japanese Text Initiative | | | | Description: | 近頃、一部の作家たちの間に、日本の作者はもっと「大人の文学」をつくるようにならなければならない、という提唱がなされている。この頃一般人の興味関心は文学から離れつつある。その理由を、今日の作家は文学青年の趣向に追随して、その作品の中で人間はいかに生きてゆくべきかという生きかたを示さず、小説の書きかたに工夫をこらしているからであると見る評論家（小林秀雄氏）作家（林房雄氏）たちによって、「大人の文学」論がいわれているのである。 | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 44 | Author: | Yosano, Akiko | Add | | | Title: | Onna ga kite | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | Japanese Text Initiative | | | | Description: | 良人は昨日来た某警察署の高等視察のした話をＳさんにして居ました。私は手に卓上と云ふ茶色の表紙をした雑誌を持ちながら、初めて聞く話でしたから良人の言葉に耳を傾けて居ました。 | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 45 | Author: | Yosano, Akiko | Add | | | Title: | "Onna rashisa" to wa nani ka | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | Japanese Text Initiative | | | | Description: | 日本人は早く仏教に由って「無常迅速の世の中」と教えられ、儒教に由って「日に新たにしてまた日に新たなり」ということを学びながら、それを小乗的悲観の意味にばかり解釈して来たために、「万法流転」が人生の「常住の相」であるという大乗的楽観に立つことが出来ず、現代に入って、舶載の学問芸術のお蔭で「流動進化」の思想と触れるに到っても、
動
（
やや
）
もすれば、新しい現代の生活を
呪詛
（
じゅそ
）
して、
黴
（
かび
）
の生えた因習思想を維持しようとする人たちを見受けます。たとえていうなら、その人たちは後ろばかりを見ている人たちで、現実を正視することに
怠惰
（
たいだ
）
であると共に、未来を透察することにも臆病であるのです。そういう人たちは保守主義者の中にもあれば、
似非
（
えせ
）
進歩主義者の中にもあるかと思います。 | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 318 | Author: | Davis, Rebecca Harding, 1831-1910 | Add | | | Title: | One Week an Editor | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | TO preach a sermon or edit a newspaper were the two things in life
which I always felt I could do with credit to myself and benefit to
the world, if I only had the chance. As a lawyer I knew I had not
been a success; as a member of society I weighed little weight; as
librarian for the Antiquarian Society I was but a drudge, earning
bread and meat; my one chance, I was assured, lay in the pulpit or
editor's desk. The chance was slow in coming. Clergymen in even
the broadest of churches are not apt to open their pulpits to lay
old bachelors. Years ago I lobbied in one newspaper office and
another through New York to get a footing as manager, city or
financial editor, or even reporter; my friends pushed me as a young
man of "fine literary tastes," but all to no purpose. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 327 | Author: | Hume, David | Add | | | Title: | Of the Origin Of Government | | | | Published: | 2001 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Image of page
35, from David Hume's essay "Of the Origin of Government"
Man, born in a family, is compelled to maintain society, from
necessity, from natural inclination, and from habit. The same
creature, in his farther progress, is engaged to establish
political society, in order to administer justice; without which
there can be no peace among them, nor safety, nor mutual
intercourse. We are, therefore, to look upon all the vast
apparatus of our government, as having ultimately no other object
or purpose but the distribution of justice, or, in other words,
the support of the twelve judges. Kings and parliaments, fleets
and armies, officers of the court and revenue, ambassadors,
ministers, and privy-counsellors, are all subordinate in their
end to this part of administration. Even the clergy, as their
duty leads them to inculcate morality, may justly be thought, so
far as regards this world, to have no other useful object of
their institution. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 328 | Author: | Hume, David | Add | | | Title: | Of the Jealousy of Trade/ by David Hume | | | | Published: | 2000 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Image of page
347,from David Hume's essay "Of the Jealousy of Trade"
Having endeavoured to remove one species of ill-founded jealousy,
which is so prevalent among commercial nations, it may not be
amiss to mention another, which seems equally groundless. Nothing
is more usual, among states which have made some advances in
commerce, than to look on the progress of their neighbours with a
suspicious eye, to consider all trading states as their rivals,
and to suppose that it is impossible for any of them to flourish,
but at their expence. In opposition to this narrow and malignant
opinion, I will venture to assert, that the encrease of riches
and commerce in any one nation, instead of hurting, commonly
promotes the riches and commerce of all its neighbours; and that
a state can scarcely carry its trade and industry very far, where
all the surrounding states are buried in ignorance, sloth, and
barbarism. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 331 | Author: | Lewis, Sinclair | Add | | | Title: | Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man | | | | Published: | 2000 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THE ticket-taker of the Nickelorion Moving-Picture Show is a
public personage, who stands out on Fourteenth Street, New York,
wearing a gorgeous light-blue coat of numerous brass buttons.
He nods to all the patrons, and his nod is the most cordial
in town. Mr. Wrenn used to trot down to Fourteenth Street,
passing ever so many other shows, just to get that cordial nod,
because he had a lonely furnished room for evenings, and for
daytime a tedious job that always made his head stuffy. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 336 | Author: | Zitkala-Sa | Add | | | Title: | Old Indian Legends | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | IKTOMI is a spider fairy. He wears
brown deerskin leggins with long soft
fringes on either side, and tiny beaded
moccasins on his feet. His long black
hair is parted in the middle and wrapped
with red, red bands. Each round braid
hangs over a small brown ear and falls
forward over his shoulders. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 337 | Author: | Anonymous | Add | | | Title: | Octave Thanet | | | | Published: | 1999 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | WHEN, a decade ago, some one asked "Octave Thanet" to state
where she would like to live, her reply was: "Nowhere all the year
round." And if you care to make an attempt to trace Miss French's
whereabouts you will very likely discover that she is living up to her
declaration. A modern captain of industry
is not more at home anywhere than this
delightful writer of short stories — a literary lapidary she might well
be termed, so absolutely clean-cut and brilliant is her work. Miss
French has been complimented by pastmasters of the art of literary
criticism for work of a widely diversified character. She shows a
remarkable familiarity with life in our bustling west, as well as with
that of our less assertive south. We marvel at this, when we
consider that her birth and education is of New England. However,
the fact that fate compelled her to take up residence in Iowa, and
inclination led her to spend a part of the year in the south, accounts
for those characteristics in her work that are reflective of the
sections, and which might possibly puzzle an unsophisticated reader
concerning the personality of the author. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 338 | Author: | Antibiastes | Add | | | Title: | Observations on the slaves and the indented servants, inlisted in the army,
and in the navy of the United States. | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THE Resolve of Congress, for prohibiting the importation of
Slaves, demonstrates the consistent zeal of our rulers in the cause of mankind.
They have endeavoured, as early and as extensively as it then was in their
power, to reform our morals, by checking the progress of the general
depravation, which, sooner or later, proves the ruin of the countries, where
domestic slavery is introduced. From the liberal spirit of that resolve, which,
soon after, was most cheerfully supported by their constituents, it is natural
to infer that, had not the necessity of repelling the hostilities of powerful
invaders so deeply engaged the attention of the several legislative bodies of
our Union, laws would, long since, have been made, with every precaution, which
our safety might have dictated, for facilitating emancipations. Many Slaves,
however, too many perhaps, are incautiously allowed to fight under our banners.
They share in the dangers and glory of the efforts made by US, the freeborn
members of the United States, to enjoy, undisturbed, the common rights of human
nature; and THEY remain SLAVES! | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 339 | Author: | Bradford, Gamaliel | Add | | | Title: | An Odd Sort of Popular Book | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | MULTIPLICITY of editions does not
make a book a classic. Otherwise Worcester's
Dictionary and Mrs. Lincoln's
Cook-Book might almost rival Shakespeare.
Nevertheless, when a work
which has little but its literary quality to
recommend it achieves sudden and permanent
popularity, it is safe to assume
that there is something about it which will
repay curious consideration. As to the
popularity of The Anatomy of Melancholy
there can be no dispute. "Scarce any
book of philology in our land hath, in
so short a time, passed through so many
editions," says old Fuller; though why
"philology"? The first of these editions
appeared in 1621. It was followed
by four others during the few years preceding
the author's death in 1640. Three
more editions were published at different
times in the seventeenth century. The
eighteenth century was apparently contented
to read Burton in the folios; but
the book was reprinted in the year 1800,
and since then it has been issued in various
forms at least as many as forty times,
though never as yet with what might be
called thorough editing. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 340 | Author: | Burnett, Frances Hodgson | Add | | | Title: | One Day at Arle | | | | Published: | 1994 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | ONE day at Arle — a tiny scattered fishing hamlet on the north-western English coast — there stood at the door of one of the
cottages near the shore a woman leaning against the lintel-post and
looking out: a woman who would have been apt to attract a
stranger's eye, too — a woman young and handsome. This was what a
first glance would have taken in; a second would have been apt to
teach more and leave a less pleasant impression. She was young
enough to have been girlish, but she was not girlish in the least.
Her tall, lithe, well-knit figure was braced against the door-post
with a tense sort of strength; her handsome face was just at this
time as dark and hard in expression as if she had been a woman with
years of bitter life behind her; her handsome brows were knit, her
lips were set; from head to foot she looked unyielding and stern of
purpose. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 341 | Author: | Cather, Willa Sibert | Add | | | Title: | On the Gull's Road | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | You may open now the little package I
gave you. May I ask you to keep it? I gave it to you
because there is no one else who would care about it in
just that way. Ever since I left you I have been
thinking what it would be like to live a lifetime
caring and being cared for like that. It was not the
life I was meant to live, and yet, in a way, I have
been living it ever since I first knew you. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 343 | Author: | Chopin, Kate | Add | | | Title: | Ozeme's Holiday | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | OZÈME often wondered why there was not a special dispensation
of providence to do away with the necessity for work. There seemed
to him so much created for man's enjoyment in this world, and so
little time and opportunity to profit by it. To sit and do nothing
but breathe was already a pleasure to Ozème; but to sit in the
company of a few choice companions, including a sprinkling of
ladies, was even a greater delight; and the joy which a day's
hunting or fishing or picnicking afforded him is hardly to be
described. Yet he was by no means indolent. He worked faithfully
on the plantation the whole year long, in a sort of methodical way;
but when the time came around for his annual week's holiday, there
was no holding him back. It was often decidedly inconvenient for
the planter that Ozème usually chose to take his holiday during
some very busy season of the year. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 344 | Author: | Crane, Stephen, 1871-1900 | Add | | | Title: | "An Ominous Baby" | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | A BABY was wandering in a strange country. He was a tattered
child with a frowsled wealth of yellow hair. His dress, of a
checked stuff, was soiled and showed the marks of many conflicts
like the chain-shirt of a warrior. His sun-tanned knees shone
above wrinkled stockings which he pulled up occasionally with an
impatient movement when they entangled his feet. From a gaping
shoe there appeared an array of tiny toes. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 346 | Author: | Davis, Rebecca Harding, 1831-1910 | Add | | | Title: | An Old-Time Love Story | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | ON the shelves of the libraries of our historical societies are
many privately printed volumes, the histories of American families
whose ancestors settled here in early days. They usually are dull
reading enough, but we sometimes find in them fragments of real
life more strange and tragic than any fiction. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 347 | Author: | Du Bois, W. E. Burghardt | Add | | | Title: | Of the Training of Black Men | | | | Published: | 1994 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | FROM the shimmering swirl of waters where many, many thoughts
ago the slave-ship first saw the square tower of Jamestown have
flowed down to our day three streams of thinking: one from the
larger world here and over-seas, saying, the multiplying of human
wants in culture lands calls for the world-wide co-operation of men
in satisfying them. Hence arises a new human unity, pulling the
ends of earth nearer, and all men, black, yellow, and white. The
larger humanity strives to feel in this contact of living nations
and sleeping hordes a thrill of new life in the world, crying, If
the contact of Life and Sleep be Death, shame on such Life. To be
sure, behind this thought lurks the afterthought of force and
dominion, — the making of brown men to delve when the temptation of
beads and red calico cloys. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 348 | Author: | Watanna, Onoto, 1879-1954 | Add | | | Title: | The Old Jinrikisha | | | | Published: | 2004 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Now, before I begin
to tell you about the people who have
ridden in me, I would like to say a
few
little things about myself. Of
course, I understand that you would
far rather
hear about people than
me, for
that is natural, to wish first
of
all, to hear of your kind, but please
remember that I have that same
feeling. I
am far more interested in jinrikishas[1]
than I am in people, so you can
understand somewhat of my unselfishness, when
I
propose, after only a few words about
myself, to confine myself almost
entirely
to telling you about those happy or
hapless mortals in whose lives I have
played my part. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 350 | Author: | Watanna, Onoto, 1879-1954 | Add | | | Title: | An Oriental Holiday | | | | Published: | 2004 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | What Christmas is to the Westerners, New Year's is to the Japanese, although congratulations and greetings
are not merely confined to the first day of the New Year, but at any time between the first and fifteenth. This
is the time of universal peace and good will in Japan; when the inhabitants of the little Empire prepare to start
life anew, with all bad feelings done away with and fine promises and resolutions for the future. In fact, the
first of January bears the significant title of Gan-san (the Three Beginnings), meaning
the beginning of the year, the beginning of the month and the beginning of the day. One might be tempted to add
to this "The beginning of a new life," for so realistically and conscientiously do the Japanese try to observe
the almost national rule of striving earnestly to make themselves better at this time that it becomes an almost
literal belief with them that they have succeeded. That is a pretty truth, I think—that a good belief
generally tends to make the good reality. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 351 | Author: | Hodgson, Fannie E. | Add | | | Title: | One Day at Arle | | | | Published: | 1994 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | ONE day at Arle — a tiny scattered fishing hamlet on the north-western English coast — there stood at the door of one of the
cottages near the shore a woman leaning against the lintel-post and
looking out: a woman who would have been apt to attract a
stranger's eye, too — a woman young and handsome. This was what a
first glance would have taken in; a second would have been apt to
teach more and leave a less pleasant impression. She was young
enough to have been girlish, but she was not girlish in the least.
Her tall, lithe, well-knit figure was braced against the door-post
with a tense sort of strength; her handsome face was just at this
time as dark and hard in expression as if she had been a woman with
years of bitter life behind her; her handsome brows were knit, her
lips were set; from head to foot she looked unyielding and stern of
purpose. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 353 | Author: | Hume, David | Add | | | Title: | Of the First Principles of Government | | | | Published: | 2002 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Nothing appears more surprising to those, who consider human
affairs with a philosophical eve, than the easiness with which
the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission,
with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those
of their rulers. When we enquire by what means this wonder is
effected, we shall find, that, as FORCE is always on the side of
the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but
opinion. It is therefore, on opinion only that government is
founded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most
military governments, as well as to the most free and most
popular. The soldan of EGYPT, or the emperor of ROME, might drive
his harmless subjects, like brute beasts, against their
sentiments and inclination: But he must, at least, have led his
mamalukes, or praetorian bands, like men, by their opinion. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 357 | Author: | Lighton, William R. | Add | | | Title: | Omaha, the Prairie City | | | | Published: | 1994 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THUS wrote Peter Pindar; and Dr. Holmes, in kindred mood, said
that "fifty years make everything hopelessly old-fashioned, without
giving it the charm of real antiquity. There are too many
talkative old people who remember all about that time; and at best
half a century is a half-baked bit of ware." | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 358 | Author: | Lippmann, Walter | Add | | | Title: | An Open Mind: William James | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | WITHIN a week of the death of
Professor William James of Harvard
University, the newspapers
had it that Mr. M. S. Ayer of Boston
had received a message from his spirit.
This news item provoked the ridicule of
the people who don't believe in ghosts,
but the joke was on Mr. Ayer of Boston.
When, however, it was reported that
Professor James himself had agreed to
communicate with this world, if he could,
and, in order to test the reports, had left
a sealed message to be opened at a certain
definite time after his death, the incredulous
gasped at the professor's amazing "credulity." | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 361 | Author: | Oskison, John M. | Add | | | Title: | "Only the Master Shall Praise." | | | | Published: | 1994 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | ON the cattle ranges of the Indian Territory ten years ago he was
known as "the Runt," because he was several inches shorter than the
average puncher. His other title of "Hanner" had been fastened
upon him by a ludicrous incident in his youth. "Hanner the Runt"
was a half-breed Cherokee cow-boy, who combined with the stoicism
of the Indian something of the physical energy and mental weakness
of his white father. One of his shoulders was knocked down a
quarter of a foot lower than the other, two ribs had been "caved
in" on his left side, and a scar high up on his cheek-bone
indicated a stormy life. It was a matter of speculation in the
cow-camps as to the number of times Hanner had been thrown from
horses and discharged by his employers; he would have been called
the foot-ball of fate had these cow-boys been modern and college-bred. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 365 | Author: | Richardson, James | Add | | | Title: | Our Patent-System, and What We Owe to It | | | | Published: | 1994 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | We are a nation of inventors, and every invention is patented;
yet, curiously, there is no subject quite so void of interest to the
average gentle reader," as patents and patent-rights. Why, it is
hard to say; for there is no factor of modern civilization that
comes home to every one more constantly or more closely. Indeed, in
their ubiquity and unresting action, patents have been aptly likened
to the taxes which Sydney Smith described as following the overtaxed
Englishmen of his day from the cradle to the grave. Does the
comparison hold as well, as some assert, in respect to
burdensomeness? | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 367 | Author: | Torrey, Bradford | Add | | | Title: | On Foot in the Yosemite | | | | Published: | 1994 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | WHEN flocks of wild geese light in the Yosemite, Mr. Muir
tells us, they have hard work to find their way out again.
Whatever direction they take, they are soon stopped by the wall,
the height of which they seem to have an insuperable difficulty in
gauging. There is something mysterious about it, they must think.
The rock looks to be only about so high, but when they should be
flying far over its top, northward or southward as the season may
be, here they are once more beating against its stony face; and
only when, in their bewilderment, they happen to follow the
downward course of the river, do they hit upon an exit. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 368 | Author: | Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 | Add | | | Title: | Our Fellow Savages of the Sandwich Islands (version 1) | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Ladies and gentlemen: The next lecture in this course will be delivered this evening, by Samuel L.
Clemens, a gentleman whose high character and unimpeachable integrity are only equalled by his
comeliness of person and grace of manner. And I am the man! I was obliged to excuse the
chairman from introducing me, because he never compliments anybody and I knew I could do it
just as well. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 372 | Author: | Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937 | Add | | | Title: | Only a Child. | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | "The Press of May 27 publishes an account of
the suicide in the House of Refuge at Philadelphia
of a boy who was only twelve years old. He was
locked up in solitary confinement. They found him
hanging by the neck dead and cold. Tired of wait-ing for the release that never came, he had at last
escaped—from that House of Refuge!"—THE
WORLD. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 374 | Author: | Wilkins, Mary E. | Add | | | Title: | An Old Arithmetician | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | A STRONG soft south wind had been blowing the day before, and the
trees had dropped nearly all their leaves. There were left only a
few brownish-golden ones dangling on the elms, and hardly any at
all on the maples. There were many trees on the street, and the
fallen leaves were heaped high. Mrs. Wilson Torry's little door
yard was ankle deep with them. The air was full of their odor,
which could affect the spirit like a song, and mingled with it was
the scent of grapes. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
|
