should be managed for account of the Government, and the object in view for the first year should be rather to instruct, and form female reelers, and male directors or overseers of filatures,than to make silk for sale.I would expend as little as possible in mechanical apparatus, and adjourn the employment of Gensoul's machinery; it is only good for saving fuel in large establishments, and when old experienced females can be obtained, for raw silks of three and four cocoons fit for Organzine, but which are entirely useless for the raw silks employed in making sewing silk and singles; the overseer may teach the art to grown women, and employ to turn the wheel girls from 12 to 15 years of age, who after a few months of exercise, will try to reel under the superintendence of the elder reelers; who will turn the wheel for them some hours in the day. It is thus that the thing is practised in the best filatures of France. All those who have devoted themselves to the filature of silk, have imagined that the greatest merit was to be able to reel from three to four and from four to five cocoons, and to produce a thread regular to the eye, but it is recognized by old reelers that it is easier to reel fine silk, than silk of 12 to 15 and 15 to twenty cocoons. The most essential quality of raw silk is to be easily wound or thrown and twisted, the more waste results from those operations, the more imperfect the silk is, and the more expensive the throwing; in my opinion the overseer, in order to hasten the instruction of the female reelers, should only permit them at first to reel threads of from 15 to 29 cocoons, the next day he should put another reeler at the basin, and employ the former in winding off the silk she had reeled the day before on bobbins, such as are used by the makers of sewing silk, so that it might be sold to them ready wound off. That your filature may reach the desirable degree of perfection for raw silk of from 15 to 20 cocoons, it would be necessary that like that of Bengal, called Cossimbusar, they should suffer in throwing only a waste of one half per cent. or like the French silks of Alais and the Department of Gard, only one or two per cent; all other silks in the world from 15 to 20 cocoons, are worse reeled. Those of Bursa, in Asiatic Turkey, lose from 6 to 8 per cent, those of Calabria, called Girelle 1 8 to 12; those of Spain, called Tramas of Valencia, from 6 to 8; those of Syria, from 15 to 25. Those of Salonki and the Morea are still worse. Instead of attempting to reel silk of every quality, the United States should supply the trade with raw silks of from 15 to 20 cocoons, in bales of the weight of one hundred Kilograms, (about 200 lbs.) Some years afterwards the same reelers might spin 10 to 15, afterwards 8 to 10 and 6 to 8 for trams; in about ten years only, you might reel 5 to 6 and 4 to 5 for Organzine, if the cocoons have nerve enough to bear twisting. [SEPTEMBER oversee and watch the reelers, the more attention they will pay to their threads and to their basins. The broken threads must be tied up, and marriages (when two threads accidentally join by passing through the same hole in the traversing bar) must be taken off. This is done in reeling silks of 3 to 4 cocoons, and still better in these of 15 to 20. They have been for some years in the kingdom of the Netherlands and in England, attending to the culture of the Mulberry. Experiments have been made for raising silk worms, and it is pretended that they produce superb silks for their brilliancy. I am inclined to believe it, because in those damp countries, vegetation being quicker and the worm better fed, they must yield more abundant crops, but this speculation is only founded on experiments on a small scale. Mr. Christian asserts that a pound of silk may be made out of eight pounds of cocoons, while ten are commonly employed in silks uf from 15 to 20; eleven in those from 10 to 15; twelve in those from 7 to 8; thirteen in those from 5 to 6 and 6 to 7; and fourteen in those from 3 to 4 and 4 to 5 cocoons; but I think it is an error, produced by the dryness of the cocoons at the time of making the experiments. In fact 12 lbs. of cocoons, just out of the nursery, produce some months after only 8 lbs. because the humidity which is in the gum evaporates, and the chrysalis itself loses of its weight by the baking of the cocoons, to prevent the moth from escaping. In cold damp countries the feeding of the silk worms is very uncertain; because the leaves wet by the rain, occasion diseases among the insects, and the white frost may in one single night destroy all the leaves, which is less likely to happen in Italy and the south of France. In those countries one half only of the eggs on hand is put to hatch, to divide the chance of an adverse temperature, and some weeks afterwards the other half is put out, if both succeed, the crop is more abundant; it rarely happens that the two crops fail. If you think that this letter contains any thing that may be useful to your honourable friend, Mr. Du Ponceau, you may transmit it to him-if it should be agreeable to him, I shall continue with him this correspondence on the subject of silk. I would recommend to him to begin on the small scale his Essays on filature; he has nothing but the reel and the basin to purchase, to begin to reel. I annex to this letter a sample of Spanish raw silk, reeled in the neighborhood of Valencia, of the quality called Trams, of from 15 to 20 cocoons. This is only fit for thick stuffs or fine sewing silk. Raw silk of from 15 to 20 cocoons, is best fitted for sewing silk. There is a great deal more to be said on the subject of filature; but I am obliged for a beginning to confine myself to what appears to me the most urgent, Accept, Monsieur le Chevalier, My respectful civility. L. J. BOUCHER. PROCEEDINGS OF COUNCILS. The skeins of Bengal silk are of the weight of two ounces with a good traversing bar to the reel, they might without inconvenience be made of 4 to 5 ounces. The skein must be all of one single thread, and so that it may be fastened by crossing the first and the last end. There must be a good deal of twisting or crossing the threads in reeling, and the slabs or gouts must not be suffered to pass through. The selecting or separating of the cocoons is a most essential thing, all the double cocoons that we call dupions are to be put aside to be separately reeled, the stained are to be separated in like nut street wharf, on Schuylkill, made the following reMr. Worrell, as chairman of the committee on Chestmanner, The yellow and white cocoons must be sepa-port, accompanied with the annexed letter from Mr. rately reeled, to obtain a lively yellow and a pure white. The silk will be handsomer, if the cocoons are first stirred in a basin of hot water of from 60 to 80 degrees, (167° to 212° Fahr.) then carried to the reeler's basin, the heat of which may be only 30 degrees (99° Fahr.) You will thereby prevent the water being colored by the decoction of the chrysalis, and the silk from being tarnished. The water in the reeler's basin must be changed at least four times a day. The more persons there are to THURSDAY EVENING, Aug. 25, 1831. for regulating Cherry street between Broad and SchuylSELECT COUNCIL.—Mr. Fox presented a petition kill Eighth street, which was referred to the paving committee. Grover. To the Select and Common Councils of the City of made in part, relative to the improvement of the city That agreeably to the instruction of Councils, they *This sample was never received. have extended their views and inquiries as to the further improvement of that property, and submit the annexed plan and estimate, showing that the southernmost section, including the Chestnut street front and the old basin, is susceptible of great improvement, containing two wharves in the Schuylkill of sixty-five or sixty-eight feet each, with a dock on the south line of eighteen feet in width, by sixty-two feet in depth, and also an inlet into the basin as a flood gate, with a water harbour or landing dock thereon of about forty-five feet in width by two hundred feet in depth; capable of containing craft or boats of trade at all times, for the purpose of loading or unloading articles of merchandize, and at the same time leaving a space of ground on the north side of fifty feet, and on the south side of thirty-five feet, clear of the street line; and a landing at the upper end of fifty-two feet to Beach street, thereby leaving a landing and passage for porterage all around the basin. The estimate of expense for building or erecting the two wharves, and the dock on front of the Schuylkill, including the wharfing or banking up the basin, as estimated by T. D. Grover (herewith submitted), is set at seven thousand dollars, exclusive of the filling in, and for which purpose it does appear to your committee there is earth sufficient in the immediate vicinity. All of which is respectfully submitted, in connexion with the original report of the committee. 151 Mr. Johnson as Chairman of the paving committee, made the following report, ordinance and resolution, which were agreed to. The paving committee to whom was referred the petition of sundry citizens, praying that Gaskill street may be re-paved and the width of the cartway from Second to Third street be reduced to eight feet, and that of the footways increased to six feet. Report, that having viewed the said street, they are of the opinon, that the prayer of the petitioners ought to be granted: they therefore ask leave to offer the accompanying ordinance and resolution. Resolved, By the Select and Common Councils, that the City Commissioners be and they are hereby directed to cause Gaskill street from Second to Third streets to be re-paved. and charge the expense to appropriation No. 1. Mr. Johnson offered the subjoined resolutions which were agreed to. Whereas the lot of ground owned by the city on Schuylkill Front and Second streets, between Chesnut & High streets, are rendered (in their present state) useless, for any purpose owing to their surface being so much below the regulation of the city plots: Therefore, Resolved by the Select and Common Councils that the City Commissioners be and they are hereby directed to cause said lots to be filled up with earth, at such times and to such extent as the paving committee may direct, and charge the expense to ap PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 20th, 1831. THOS. D. GROVER. Resolved, by the Select and Common Councils, That the city commissioners, in conjunction with the paving committee, be and they are hereby requested to make, or cause to be made, a strict examination of the common sewer in Dock street, throughout its whole extent, and report the result of their inquiry at the next stated meeting of Councils, together with a plan and estimate of any repairs or improvements, which, in their opinion, ought to be made. Mr. Duane offered the following resolution, which was also agreed to by the Select Council, and Messrs. Duane and Toland were appointed by the Select Coun cil: Resolved, by the Select and Common Councils, That a committee, composed of two members of each Council, be appointed to inquire and report, whether any measures ought to be adopted by Councils, in order to procure a regulation of the rate at which steam-boats should pass along the Delaware front of the city and liberties of Philadelphia. The Select Council concurred in discharging the committee on Markets, from the further consideration of building a new Market House in High street from Eleventh to Thirteenth street. The Select Council also concurred in the resolution, from the Common Council, relative to Will's Hospital. Resolved, That the committee on Wills' Legacy, be authorised to offer a premium of one hundred dollars for the best, and fifty dollars for the second best plan of a building for an asylum for the lame and blind, agree ably the intentions of the testator, and that Councils shall decide upon the plan to be adopted, on or before the 1st of January, 1832. COMMON COUNCIL.-Mr. Wetherill presented a similar petition to the one presented by Mr. Fox in the Select Council, Resolved, by the Select and Common Councils, that the City Commissioners be, and they are hereby directed, to cause Tenth street, from Sassafras to Vine street, and Spruce street from 13th to Broad street as soon as the iron pipes shall have been there laid to be repaved and charge the expense to appropriation No. 1. Mr. Johnson presented a petition for the regulation of Third street from Walnut to Spruce streets which was referred to the paving committee. Resolved, by the Select and Common Councils, that the City Commissioners under the direction of the paving committee be, and they are hereby directed, to cause Schuylkill Second street from Spruce to Walnut street, to be graduated in such manner as to make a free and easy access to the intersections of Spruce, Locust and Walnut streets, and charge the expence to appropropriation No. 2. Mr. Oldenburg made the following report on the petition of Moses Isaacs, with a resolution, which was adopted. The committee to whom was referred the petition of Moses Isaacs, for leasing the lot of ground situated between Market and Filbert streets, on the river Schuylkill, and also for permission to to make an opening into the culvert in Arch street, beg leave to report, That having duly considered his plans and proposition, deem it inexpedient to lease the same, they therefore respectfully offer the following resolution: Resolved, That the committee be discharged from the further consideration thereof.-Phil. Gaz. SINGULAR ARRIVAL.-Arrived in a common Susquehanna ferry boat at Mauch Chunk, on Wednesday evening last [3d instant], Dr. (by courtesy) Joseph Parke, an eccentric character, of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. He left that county six weeks previous to his arrival here-for what purpose we cannot exactly saybut he was armed and equipped with six grubbing hoes to extract medicinal roots, a gun and a dog. Before he reached here, his grubbing hoes, gun and five dollars in money were stolen, and his dog taken and killed by the rascally Philadelphian dog catchers so that the poor man was handsomely "cleaned out." He went down the Susquehanna river, passed via Delaware & Chesapeake canal into the Delaware river; thence to Easton, and then by the Lehigh canal to this place. His intention was to have proceeded by water to Stoddartsville, but finding it impossible to stem the current of the Lehigh, he cast anchor, sold his boat, and proceeded by stage to Berwick.-Mauch Chunk Cou. 152 EARLY POETS AND POETRY OF PENNSYLVANIA. From the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. EARLY POETS AND POETRY OF PENNSYLVANIA. [SEPTEMBER their rustic votaries, and this was quite encouragement enough. During the early part of the eighteenth century, several poets flourished in Pennsylvania, whose lines merited the approbation of their contemporaries. Few of these productions are now to be discovered, and By JOSHUA FRANCIS FISHER-Read at a Meeting of the those which are found in print were, it is probable, by Council, July 15, 1829. "s Quam multi tineas pascunt blattasque Poeta."-Mart. In the following account of the early poetry of Pennsylvania, I have endeavoured to collect all the facts still extant, which can illustrate this interesting department of our literary history. Although I have had access to but few sources of information, I shall at least be able to present a longer catalogue of poets than has yet been published, and to mention several productions which have met with unmerited neglect. It was, at first, my intention to select specimens from the poems of each author, and to copy some of the best anonymous pieces, which from time to time appeared in the periodicals; but the present paper may he considered too long even without these extracts; and per haps, its object will be best answered by directing the attention of others to the original publications, from which every native Pennsylvanian cannot fail to derive a high gratification.* The cultivation of poetry seems, at least in the British race, the strongest evidence of refinement. Among them, it was not the growth of a barbarous age, and it never was the pleasure of the humble. To discover, therefore, amongst our colonists a taste for poetry, will do much to vindicate their claim to literary advancement and intellectual refinement. That this taste existed, is to be proved, not so much by adducing one or two brilliant displays of genius, as by naming numerous and successive efforts, which, although only partially successful in their day, and altogether unworthy at the present of our admiration, establish nevertheless the fact of the constant cultivation of the art; and assure us that the best poetry of England was sought for, read, admired, and imitated, not only frequently, but constantly, by men who have been stigmatized as unpolished, illite rate, and rude. The first twenty years of our colonial history produced, it is probable, but little poetry-nothing which deserves the name has descended to us. The exalted and cultivated minds of some of the first settlers were, no doubt, often possessed with sublime imagination, inspired by the native grandeur of the wilderness; or, when recollecting the beautiful homes of their youth, were filled with tender emotions nearly allied to poetry-but their duties were imperious, the hours spared from private labour were engrossed by public affairs; and, while we thank them for the institutions they have established, we must regret that little remains of theirs but an honourable name. no means the best. We must look for them in the Almanacs a strange place to seek for poetry-but at that early day, they were the only publications to which rhymes could obtain admittance; and certainly never since have Almanacs been embellished with better ver ses. They are for the most part greatly deficient in poetic graces, but some of them may certainly with justice be commended for sprightliness and ease. The want of a periodical sheet was felt by those modest geniuses, who, not confident of the intrinsie merit of their pieces, would have been happy to trust to the generosity of the public an unfathered offspring, which might not obtain favour for an acknowledged author. The invitations of the editors of our two earliest news papers, were eagerly accepted by a score of nameless sons of Apollo. Scarcely a week passed that some new attempt at rhyming was not made; or, to speak more appropriately, that our ancestors did not hear some young Orpheus beginning to take lessons on the lyre. These first strains certainly were not always melodious. The first poetry of Pennsylvania, may generally be characterised as inelegant, unharmonious, and spiritless; yet, there were several brilliant exceptions, which surprise us by their sweetness and vivacity, and were beyond a doubt the productions of cultivated and refined minds. There are many verses which would not discredit any English author of the last century, and still may be read with pleasure; and although, perhaps, they have not enough of originality or brilliancy to deserve a reproduction, in an age overstocked with all the lighter kinds of literature, may certainly be noticed with satisfaction, and referred to with pride. The earliest rhythmical production of our province, which was committed to print; at least, the first of which we have any notice, has the following title: "A Paraphrastical Exposition on a Letter from a gentleman in Philadelphia to his friend in Boston, concerning a certain person who compared himself to Mordecai." It was printed in the year 1693, in a small quarto of eight pages. It is to be regretted, that neither the name of the author nor of the printer is attached. The piece is of extreme rarity; and all the criticism that I am able to furnish is, "That it was a bitter attack upon Samuel Jennings, and that the lines are destitute of the spirit, and almost without the form of poetry." charges of the assembly, which he wrote previous to his In James Logan's defence of his conduct, against the embarkation for England in 1709, I find mention of a WILLIAM RAKESTRAW, who, two years before (1707), had published "several scurrilous libels and rhymes But the second generation, relieved from the toils of against the proprietor" and his secretary; for which, settlement in the forest-reposing under liberal esta- Of these libellous rhymes, we have no further notice, he was judicially sentenced "to make satisfaction." blishments, and laws framed by the enlightened wisdom and their recovery I presume is not to be hoped for. of the founder and his companions-and reaping plenty from rich and beautiful fields, cleared by the labour of Washington's army, and a gentleman of classical acquireWe are indebted to Mr. John Parke, an officer of their fathers-first, turned their eyes to Heaven in thank-ments and cultivated taste, for the preservation of a fulness, and then to Parnassus for inspiration to celebrate the beauty and delights of their happy country. Although it cannot be denied, that the tuneful inhabitants of that sacred hill rarely descended into the green valleys of our province, or that erubuit sylvas habitare Thalia; still their smiles were not altogether withheld from *I must therefore observe, in justice to the memory of our early poets, as well as to my own taste, that the verses which may be quoted in the following pages, have been selected only as illustrative of the narrative, and are in no instance to be considered as specimens of our best provincial poetry. poetic translation of some of Anacreon's Odes, and of two of Ovid's Elegies, "by the learned aud facetious DAVID FRENCH, Esquire, late of Delaware counties" (now state). "They had been consigned," says Mr. Parke, "to oblivion, through the obliterating medium of rats and moths, under the sequestered canopy of an antiquated trunk." Some of them were written as early as 1718, and are therefore amongst the earliest, as they are of the best colonial poetry we are likely to discover. They are, undoubtedly, the composition of a man of learning and of taste. They discover a familiar acquaintance with the classical authors, and are so elegant and fluent in their style, that we cannot but believe Mr. French to have been a practised writer of English poet 1831.] EARLY POETS AND POETRY OF PENNSYLVANIA. ry. Fame, however, has been for once unjust, and posterity has none of his original verses to admire. All that I find of his history, is contained in the following postcript of a letter, dated August 25th, 1742: "David French was buried yesterday in Chester church by the side of his father, and Mr. Moxon succeeds him as prothonotary" (of the court at New Castle). His father was, doubtless, Col. John French, a gentleman very distinguished in the lower counties, and whose name frequently occurs in our early annals. AQUILA ROSE has been often named, as one of the first who gained reputation as a poet in Pennsylvania. He was an Englishman by birth. At an early age, and in great poverty, he emigrated to this province, where he found employment and a wife. He was the principal workman in Bradford's printing office, and was clerk to the assembly when he died, the 24th of the 4th month (June), 1723, aged twenty-eight years. Franklin says, "he was an ingenious young man, and of an excellent character, highly esteemed in the town, and also a very tolerable poet." It may be regretted that although, in the words of one of his admirers, we have received "his name, Preserved to late posterity by fame," we have no opportunity to judge of his verses. Keimer, in his elegy, says that he was master of 153 Franklin's delightful auto-biography, he is not to be passed unnoticed in an account of our early poets. Little is known of his early life. He promised, in one of his publications, "to present to the world for its entertainment an account of his sufferings, under the character of the white negro;'" but soon afterwards he quitted the province, and probably never accomplished the work. He received, if we may believe himself, a learned education—and in a very scurrilous piece, printed in the Mercury, January, 1726, Jacob Taylor particuularly ridicules his charlatanism and boasting, and thus addresses him: "Thy constant care and labour is to be thought a finished philosopher and universal scholar, never forgetting to talk of the Greek and Hebrew, and other oriental tongues, as if they were as natural to thee as hooting to an owl." He learnt the business of a compositor in London, and was for some time established there as a printer. But he appears to have been unfortunate in trade, and over-burthened with the support of a wife. During the great excitement, which the preaching of the first Methodists produced in Great Britain, he became as one of "the French prophets,' an unsuccessful rival of those preachers, who were destined to effect the most extensive schism which has unfortunate in his new employment. He suffered with ever mortified the church of England. He was equally his fellow-impositors, and was glad to escape from his "The French and Latin, Greek and Hebrew too," but I cannot rely upon the eulogium given in that curi-wife and persecution together, in a vessel bound to ous production-as I am inclined to suspect that Keimer was guided in his praises by the exigencies of his rhymes rather than by the character of his friend. It may be considered some compensation for the loss of Aquila Rose's poetry, that his death gave occasion to no less than three Elegies, which have descended to us. The first we meet with is a kind of eclogue, printed in the Mercury, June 25th, 1724, which was "done by Elias Bockett of London." It is written in what Keimer calls "a melting florid strain," but as a composition is far superior to his. In February 23d, 1723-4, another piece does honour to the memory of our poet. It is presumed that the bashfulness of some native Pennsylvanian, introduces his "Elegy on the sight of Myris' tomb," by the following preface: "The following lines were left with the printer by an intimate friend of A. R. deceased, who, touching at Philadelphia, on his way to Great Britain, had but time to hear a relation of his friend's death, view the place of his interment, and write, without revising 'em, the following lines. He begins with the most pathetic lamentations, and an appeal to almost every deity of antiquity. He then descends to the dryads and naiads, and thus apostrophises our river: "With pleasure we behold, O Delaware! Thy woody banks become the Muses' care, The panegyric on Myris is very extravagant. He possessed, of course, every virtue, and his poems every grace. We might do the latter more than justice, were we to credit all the encomiums in this elegy. "Love," it informs us, was "Myris' favourite theme;" and although his poetry was no doubt "able to persuade the fair" of our then rural city, it might run the risk of being pronounced, by our more fastidious tastes, rather pretty than "elegant," more affected than "tender." The well known elegy of Keimer's, remarkable as having never been written, but "set in types, as the verses flowed from his muse," may be read with some amusement-and we may derive from it some curious traits of early manners. It has lately been reprinted, and it deserved it as a curiosity. [See Reg.vol. II. p. 263]. SAMUEL KEIMER was a remarkable character; and although his history is familiar to every one who had read VOL. VIII. 20 Philadelphia. Here he arrived, it is probable, late in the year 1721; and the first notice we have of him, is an advertisement of February 5th, 1722, which I shall quote entire: for, whether it were, as his enemies asserted, that his only object was notoriety, or that he was really actuated by benevolent motives, the first attempt to elevate the character, and meliorate the condition of an oppressed race, well deserves to be recorded. All serious persons, "Take notice.-There is lately arrived in this city, a person who freely offers his service, to teach his poor brethren the MALE NEGROES to read the Holy Scriptures, &c. in a very uncommon, expeditious, and delightful manner, without any manner of expense to their respective masters or mistresses. whether Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, Water-Baptists, or people called Quakers, who are truly concerned for their salvation, may advise with the said person at his lodgings (relating to the time and place of his so instructing them), at the dwellinghouse of John Read, carpenter, in High street, at Philadelphia, every morning till eight of the clock, except on the SEVENTH DAY." The advertisement ends with the following verses, which may be considered a favourable specimen of Keimer's poetry: "The Great JEHOVAH from above, Whose Christian Name is LIGHT and LOVE, And wash poor Hagar's BLACK MOOR white. Let none condemn this undertaking, By silent thoughts, or noisy speaking; They 're fools whose bolt's soon shot upon The mark they 've looked but little on." Whether he carried his scheme into execution, I have not been able to discover-he certainly kept it in view three years afterwards; for, from some wretched rhymes which form part of the piece of Taylor's above referred to, it seems he was at that time making application for a room, in which to teach his black pupils; on which occasion, he is thus assailed by his enemy: "A school for thee! a most commodious place To nod, and wink, and point with such a grace- To realms of science, Keimer at their head." 154 EARLY POETS AND POETRY OF PENNSYLVANIA. [SEPTEMBER and, it is said, was at the same time a successful practitioner of physic. He was at one time Surveyor General of the province-but appears to have soon retired from office, and during the latter part of his life was a resident in Chester county. Through his whole sojourn in our province, he seems to have been borne down by poverty and disasters; and the constant object of ridicule. In a paragraph of his paper, written after his release from prison, to which he had been dragged from his bed by his creditors, he gives the following account of his persecutions by cal- His chief reputation was as an almanac maker, and umny and misfortunes: "It certainly must be allowed before the publication of Franklin's well known producsomewhat strange, that a person of strict sincerity, re- tion, his almanac was the best and most popular of sefined justice, and universal love to the whole creation, veral issued by the Philadelphia press. In his Epheshould, for a series of near twenty years, be the con- meris for 1736, when he was in extreme old age, he stant butt of slander, as to be three times ruined as a says, "It is now forty years since I published astronomaster printer, to be nine times in prison, one of which mical calculations, which I have frequently continued, but was six years together, and often reduced to the most not without several intermissions." He died shortly afwretched circumstances, hunted as partridge upon the ter the publication of this almanac. I have already mountains, and persecuted with the most abominable quoted some lines of Taylor's, which formed part of an lies the devil himself could invent or malice utter; and attack on Keimer, who had, without authority from the yet all this while, never any wise, good, or even honest former, affixed his name to what he denominates “a man, has been his enemy, or knew any evil of him, filthy foolish pamphlet, called a compleat Ephemeris." bating the little mistakes or peccadilloes of human na- He continues his attack on Keimer with any thing but ture." With all these professions, it must be believed the calmness of an astronomer; and he, perhaps, surthat he was a knave at heart; and yet he turned his passes the poor printer, in what he calls his "matchless knavery to little account, for as long as we can trace his talent at scandal, without a grain of common sense or history, he was equally wretched, and when he fled from modesty." Taylor appears to have been the contribuBarbadoes he was again a bankrupt. Franklin tells antor, not only of the astronomical calculations, but of the anecdote of Keimer, so characteristic of them both, that poetic embellishments of the almanacs published under I shall, I am sure, be excused for quoting it. "He his name; and some of the pieces have considerable formed," says Franklin, "so high an opinion of my tal-merit; but his imagination does not seem to have caught ents for refutation, that he seriously proposed to me to from his favourite study any high degree of inspiration, become his colleague in the establishment of a new re- for its flights were never remarkable for their vigour or ligious sect. He was to propagate the doctrine by sublimity. preaching, and I to refute every opponent. "When he explained to me his tenets, I found many absurdities which I refused to admit, unless he would agree in turn to adopt some of my opinions. Keimer wore his beard long, because Moses had some where said, "Thou shalt not mar the corners of thy beard.' He likewise observed the Sabbath; and these were with him two very essential points. I disliked them both; but I consented to adopt them, provided he would agree to abstain from animal food. I doubt, said he, whether my constitution will be able to support it. I assured him, on the contrary, that he would find himself the better for it. He was naturally a glutton, and I wished to amuse myself by starving him. He consented to make trial of this regimen, if I would bear him company; and in reality we continued it for three months. I continued it cheerfully; poor Keimer suffered terribly. Tired of the project, he sighed for the flesh-pots of Egypt. At length he ordered a roast pig, and invited me and two of our female acquaintances to dine with him; but the pig being ready a little too soon, he could not resist the temptation, and eat it all up before we arrived." I have noticed several of Keimer's rythmical productions. Several other pieces remain, but they are beneath criticism. Some of his verses were, however, neither rude nor inelegant, and in harmony and spirit nearly approached to the poetry of standard authors. The longest of his pieces is entitled "Pennsylvania," and was published in 1728. It may be considered one of the best descriptive poems, which the beauties and blessings of our province inspired. In the "Story of Whackum," he ridicules in a lively manner the country quacks, who, in spite of the increase of regular physicians, retained their influence amongst the illiterate vulgar. And in another poem, which is one of his best, he attacks the professors of judicial astrology, of which it seems there were several in the colony. To "Bachelor's Hall," a poem by George Webb, are prefixed some of Taylor's verses in praise of its author-but they have little merit. I shall add some lines, written by a contemporary, containing a character of our astronomer's poetry-though I am not satisfied that the criticism is just With years oppress'd and compass'd round with woes, These lines are part of a satirical production, entitled "The Wits and Poets of Pennsylvania," Part I. which unfortunately was afraid to subscribe his name; and we was printed in the Mercury, April 1731. The author have still more to regret, that he speaks of five only of his fellow-votaries of the Muses. The poem itself holds a respectable place among the native productions of the day; and I shall make use of it in my notice of the three following bards. That BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was the author of verses, is somewhat surprising, for there has, perhaps, rarely existed a genius less poetical than his. The only one of his pieces deserving any commendation, which I have seen, is a kind of jeu d'esprit, entitled "Paper." Those who recollect it, need not be told that even this is not very remarkable for its poetry or its wit. In his autobiography he speaks of some ballads, which he wrote The first poet in this catalogue, is JOSEPH BRIENTwhen a boy; and an examination of his almanacs would ber of the society of Friends. He was, I believe, the NALL-a scrivener by profession,and a respectable memreward the search, with a number of short pieces by our first secretary of the City Library Company, and is naphilosopher, which, though they have very small pre-med amongst the earliest members of the Junto. In tensions, have certainly as little merit. The mind of Dr. Franklin, was, without doubt, richly endowed with useful qualities; but it possessed no imagination, and little enthusiasm, and had he been ambitious of the fame of a poet, he could only have diminished his reputation as a moralist and a philosopher. The name of JACOB TAYLOR has already been mentioned. He is supposed to have been originally a printer; for, in the year 1712, he was sent for by the House of Representatives, and consulted about printing the laws. He afterwards kept a mathematical school in this city; his account of that club, Franklin thus describes him: "He was a middle aged man, of a good natural disposition, strongly attached to his friends, a great lover of Poetry, reading every thing that came in his way, and writing tolerably well, ingenious in many little trifles, and of an agreeable conversation." He continued, in a which Franklin had written the first five; and we may, creditable manner, the essays of the "Busy Body," of Market street, which forms part of the 18th No. Some I presume, attribute to him the rhymed description of * See Register, vol. III. page 299. |