tutor in Yale, which position he filled for two years, discharging the duties with great success. He then joined his grandfather as the latter's colleague in the ministry at the village of Northampton, Massachusetts, where his time was given wholly to study and the duties. of his profession.

Edwards first gained fame as a writer by his treatise on Original Sin. His chief work, and also his most profound, is An Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will. It is indeed a "masterpiece of metaphysical reasoning." Among his other works may be mentioned A Treatise concerning Religious Affections, The Nature of True Virtue, and The History of Redemption.

Edwards followed his profession as a Congregational minister until the year 1757, when he was elected President of the College of New Jersey at Princeton, where he died of small-pox in the following year.

CRITICISM ("CHAMBERS'S CYCLOPEDIA"). EDWARDS was a proficient in classic and Hebrew literature, physics, mathematics, history, chronology, mental philosophy, and ethics. His greatest work was written in four and a half months, during which he carried on the correspondence of the mission, and preached each Sabbath two sermons in English and two by interpreters to two Indian congregations, besides catechising the children of both tribes. His neglect of style as a writer is to be regretted. His works were printed very much as first written, yet a marked improvement was effected in his later years. The style of the Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will (written, as has just been said, in so short a time) is considered by competent judges to be as correct as that of most metaphysical treatises.

MEANING OF THE PHRASE "MORAL INABILITY." NOTE.-The following short selection from Edwards's treatise on the Freedom of the Will illustrates his style and method of thought

....

IT must be observed concerning moral inability, in each kind of it, that the word inability is used in a sense very diverse from its original import. . . . . In the strictest propriety of speech, a man has a thing in his power if he has it in his choice or at his election; and a man 5 cannot be truly said to be unable to do a thing when he can do it if he will. It is improperly said that a person cannot perform those external actions which are dependent on the act of the will, and which would be easily performed if the act of the will were present. And if 10 it be improperly said that he cannot perform those external voluntary actions which depend on the will, it is in some respects more improperly said that he is unable to exert the acts of the will themselves; because it is more evidently false, with respect to these, that he can-:5 not if he will; for to say so is a downright contradiction: it is to say he cannot will if he does will. And in this case, not only is it true that it is easy for a man to do the thing if he will, but the very willing is the doing;

ANALYSIS.-1. concerning. Give the grammatical construction. 3. diverse. Modernize.

import. What is the meaning here?

5. Give the meaning of election in this line. 7. What is the meaning of will as here used? 7-10. Analyze the sentence.

10. Give the grammatical construction of present. 14. exert the acts. Explain.

15. Dispose of the word more.

16. Give the grammatical construction of to say.

17. not only is it true. How is not only used here? 18. Give the grammatical construction of to do. 19. Parse very.

when once he has willed, the thing is performed, and 20 nothing else remains to be done. Therefore, in these things to ascribe a non-performance to the want of power or ability is not just, because the thing wanting is not a being able, but a being willing. There are faculties of mind and capacity of nature, and everything else 25 sufficient, but a disposition; nothing is wanting but a will.

ANALYSIS.-20. when once he has willed, the thing is performed. Which is the modifying clause?

21. Dispose of the word else.

23. Dispose of the word wanting.

24. a being able, but a being willing. Give the grammatical construction of being able, being willing.

25, 26. Dispose of each of the following words: everything, else, sufficient.

26, 27. nothing is wanting but a will. Dispose of nothing, wanting, but, will.

CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS.

Rev. Increase Mather (1612-1672).--A very learned man, and for some years President of Harvard College. Wrote Remarkable Providences.

Rev. Cotton Mather (1663-1728).-Son of Rev. Increase Mather. Graduated at Harvard when only fifteen years of age. Wrote Magnalia Christi Americana, The Wonders of the Invisible World, and Memorable Providences relating to Witchcraft.

Rev. John Eliot (1604–1690).—A missionary to the Indians. Translated the first Bible into the Indian dialect, which translation was also the first Bible printed in America.

Mrs. Ann Bradstreet (1612–1672).-The first female American poet.

Elements.

Wife of Governor Bradstreet. Wrote The Four

THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.

1760-1830.

THE American Revolution, which resulted in the establishment of the United States as a nation, disturbed the literary as well as the political world. Most of the pamphlets and books written during this period had only a temporary interest, because they related to the struggle in which the colonies were engaged, and few of them were preserved. The orations, though spirited, were mainly of a political and patriotic character, and most of them never were printed. It was not, indeed, until we felt that our liberties were secure that literature began to receive much encouragement. The age, therefore, has but few representatives of note.

2. JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE,

1795-1820.

JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE, a poet of great promise, who was stricken down by consumption at the early age of twenty-five, was born in the city of New York on the 7th of August, 1795. His father died while the oct was yet quite young, and left the family, consisting of Joseph and three sisters, in comparative poverty. Drake, however, obtained a good education, and completed the study of medicine under the direction of his warm personal friend, Dr. Nicholas Romayne. Soon after obtaining his degree, in October, 1816, he married

Sarah Eckford, whose wealth placed him in affluent circumstances. After his marriage, in company with his wife and his brother-in-law, Dr. De Kay, Drake visited Europe. Having returned, and finding his health much impaired, he spent the winter of 1819 in New Orleans; but his fatal disease had already laid hold on him, and he returned to New York in the spring of 1820, only to die on the following 21st of September.

Drake was a poet from boyhood. It is said he produced excellent verses at the age of fourteen. He was the warm personal friend of the poet Halleck, and together they published the Croakers, a series of poems, in the Evening Post. The series consisted of about thirty poems, nearly half of them, including The American Flag, having been written by Drake.

The Culprit Fay, Drake's most finished poem, was written in the summer of 1819. It was the result of a discussion in which Cooper the novelist and Fitz-Greene Halleck, in speaking of the adaptation of the Scottish streams to the uses of poetry by their romantic associations, claimed that such was not the case with American streams. Drake, naturally a disputer, took the opposite view, and to prove his position set to work, and taking the Highlands of the Hudson as the place. in which to locate his scene, produced in three days The Culprit Fay, a most exquisite poem.

CRITICISM.

ONE who knew Drake well says of him: "His ferception was rapid and his memory tenacious. He devoured all the works of imagination. His favorite poets were Shakespeare, Burns, and Campbell. He was fond of discussion among his friends, and would talk by the