The History of American Literature comprises the literature that has been produced in America in the English language. It began with the first settlement on the Atlantic coast, and is actively going on at this moment. Although we have reason to be proud of the progress of our literature in the past and are hopeful of its future, we must not make the mistake of thinking it to be a new literature, different altogether from that of England. Our literature is a continuation of English literature: it is English literature in America. It should never be forgotten that our prose and poetry when at their best are true to the great traditions of English thought and English style. The New Continent.-The great work of American civilization was begun in Virginia in 1607. JAMES THE FIRST was on the throne of England, and English literature was at its height. SHAKESPEARE was still living, and BACON had just completed the first sketch of his greatest work, The Novum Organum. American literature was therefore fortunate in the time of its beginning. The

language came over just when it was richest and most flexible.

The thought of a vast continent, rich and fertile, beyond the ocean, impressed the imagination of English writers. They waited impatiently to hear from the handful of colonists who, by royal permission, had gone to explore and to plant the wilderness. One English poet at this time called Virginia "Earth's only Paradise," and another, Michael Drayton, prophesied the birth of poetry in the new land. The wreck of one of the ships of the early explorers suggested to Shakespeare the plot of The Tempest.

The first writings in the new continent were news-letters, hastily composed, and telling to friends at home the strange features and necessary labors of the new land.

Our First Century is the period of our literary dependence upon England. Our earliest poets did not change their style because they had changed their country, but rather clung with greater affection to the literary habits in which they had been educated. What Lowell wittily said of a much later time is especially true of our first writers:

"They stole Englishmen's books and thought Englishmen's thought, With English salt on her tail our wild eagle was caught."

American literature was a sprout from the great parenttrunk in England, and it was detached from a particularly vigorous portion of the trunk.

There was little time in our first century for the arts of literature. The energies of the settlers were required to cut down the forest, to cultivate the soil, and to prepare defences against the Indians. To obtain food, clothing, and shelter, to build the homestead, the school-house, and the church, engaged all the efforts and all the time of the colonists. They were on the edge of an unexplored wilderness full of mysterious perils.

Not only was the progress of literature impossible be

cause of the severe and unceasing toil of the settlers, but it must be remembered that they were men without a country. There was nothing to inspire in them that spirit of national pride and devotion which always finds expression in popular literature.

It required a hundred years of unwritten heroism and industry to establish the people securely in their new home.

The Colonial Period, or first era of our literary history, may be said to extend from 1607, the date of the first settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, to 1765. The latter date marks the time when a great change came over the fortunes of the English people in America-when those people, aroused to resistance to the foreign authority of Great Britain, and inspired by the passion for liberty, were approaching the struggle of the Revolution. The Revolution altered the current of men's thoughts and set new subjects before the minds of writers.

Beginning with the year 1607, it is important to remember the group of English colonies planted along the eastern edge of the continent during the seventeenth century. They were, in chronological order-Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, South Carolina, Pennsylvania.

There were remarkable differences between these colonies. They represented different elements of society and of culture. Their founders came hither for different purposes, and for a century the colonies held little intercourse with each other. The most important of the colonies were Virginia and Massachusetts. They are the sources of all that is best and strongest in American history. From the latter we gather almost everything that is valuable in our colonial literature.

The writings of the colonial times, or from 1607 to 1765, have for us only an historic interest. They are important

so far as they illustrate the character of the founders of our nation. But they have not, in themselves, any literary interest or value. They were not written either to interest or amuse. Their authors were too seriously occupied with the actual conquest of the soil and the forest, with building homes and repelling the dangers of the wilderness, to give time to the arts and graces of literature.

The works of the first immigrant authors, therefore, whether they are rude descriptions of hardship in Virginia or collections of tedious New England sermons, are curious and interesting precisely as a broken plate that came over the sea in the Mayflower's cabin, or a battered sword worn by the side of some valiant Pilgrim in Plymouth, and which perchance knocked against the heels of Miles Standish himself, is curious and interesting.

The Colonists in Virginia were chiefly of the Royalist party and of the Church of England. They had crossed the ocean to repair their fortunes with the gold which they imagined must abound in the New World. Unlike the Puritans of Massachusetts, they had no quarrel with England, and no desire nor intention to found a new order of society here. No intensity of feeling nor high resolves determined them to seek an asylum in Virginia. They therefore did not identify themselves permanently with the interests of the country; and the writers among them, unlike those of New England, in most cases after a brief sojourn returned to Europe.

For several reasons the Virginian colony was not favorable to the growth of literature and culture.

1. The people of New England settled in groups of families forming centres of rapidly-growing towns and cities; the "town-meetings" of citizens and the constant intercourse of neighbors resulted in improvements in industry and trade, the increase of schools and churches, and "facility in the interchange of books, letters, and the like." The people of Virginia did not found villages, but lived distant

from each other on large estates. No clusters of houses were to be seen. In Jamestown, the capital, there were only eighteen private dwellings. The natural result was the absence of all co-operation and all progress in trade, education, and civil affairs. The planter, grown rich by the cultivation of tobacco, surrounded himself with his slaves and lived a careless, hospitable life, occupying his leisure with the English sports of fox-hunting, horse-racing, and cock-fighting.

2. Another serious consequence of the wide separation of the settlers in Virginia was the impediment it offered to common education. Schools were rare, and indeed until the year 1688 "no mention is anywhere made in the records of schools or of any provision for the instruction of youth."

3. Not only were schools discouraged, but even printing was forbidden. Sir William Berkeley, governor of the colony, said, "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing; and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them and libels against the best government. God keep us from both!" No printing-press was set up permanently in Virginia until 1729.

Literature in Virginia.—The earliest writings of Virginia were descriptions of the new and strange things of the country, and of the prosperity or mishaps of the settlers, written to satisfy the curiosity of friends in England. These writings, or "news-letters," were, in every instance, printed in England. Mingled with them were certain other more scholarly works, such as the translation of OVID'S Metamorphoses, by GEORGE SANDYS, treasurer of the Virginian colony and son of the archbishop of York.

Among the narratives and descriptions of the country were Good News from Virginia, by ALEXANDER WHITAKER, published in London in 1613; and Leah and Rachel (i. e.