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which often wearies the reader, notwithstanding the felicity of the metaphors and illustrations. His reputation, owing to the temporary interest of many of the subjects on which he wrote and spoke, has very much declined.—The historians and biographers of this period creditably illustrate the growing literature of the country, and several of their productions are still regarded as standard authorities. Among special local histories are those of New Hampshire by Jeremy Belknap (1744-'98), whose series of “American Biographical Sketches” were the precursors of the valuable works of Sparks; of Connecticut by Benjamin Trumbull (1735-1820); of Massachusetts by George R. Minot (1758-1802), being a continuation of that by Hutchinson; of Vermont by Samuel Williams (1761-1818); and of Pennsylvania by Robert Proud (1728-1813). Of more general interest are the histories of New England by Hannah Adams (1755-1832), and of the American revolution by William Gordon (1730-1807), an English clergyman long settled in America, and David Ramsay (1749-1815), who also wrote a history of South Carolina, a life of Washington, and other works, evincing much research and a conscientious spirit of inquiry. The “Annals of America,” by Abiel Holmes (1763-1837), has for more than half a century been considered a leading authority in American history. The most important biography produced during this period is the “Life of Washington” by Chief Justice Marshall (1755-1835). William Wirt (1772-1834), an accomplished forensic orator, produced a “Life of Patrick Henry,” and also a series of papers entitled “Letters of the British Spy,” written with much elegance and force; and the “Military Journal” of Dr. James Thacher (1754-1844), and “Memoirs” of Alexander Graydon (1752-1818), both officers in the American revolutionary army, contain many interesting and trustworthy accounts of the men and times which they illustrate. Of works of travel, the most important are the narrative of Jonathan Carver (1732-'80); the journals of the intrepid John Ledyard (1751-'89); the reports of Major Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1779-1813), the earliest American explorer of the head waters of the Mississippi and the Rio Grande; and the account of the expedition of Lewis and Clarke across the Rocky mountains to the mouth of the Columbia river, prepared by Nicholas Biddle and Paul Allen.—The theologians of this period are ably represented by Jonathan Edwards (1745-1801), son of the great metaphysician of the same name, and the author of a profound “Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity,” and of a treatise entitled “The Salvation of all Men Examined and Explained;” Samuel Hopkins (1721-1803), whose “System of Theology” presents a reflex of the progress of religious opinions in New England; Timothy Dwight (1752-1817), president of Yale college, whose principal work, “Theology Explained and Defended,” maintains moderate Calvinistic views with much dignity and eloquence, and has been extensively circulated in England and America; and Bishop William White (1747-1836), the earliest historian, of the Protestant Episcopal church in America. Other eminent clergymen and authors were Joseph Bellamy (1719-'90), John Smalley (1734-1820), Nathanael Emmons (1745-1840), John Mitchell Mason (1770-1829), Noah Worcester (1758-1838), Samuel Worcester (1771-1821), Edward Payson (1783-1827), Bishops John Henry Hobart (1775-1830) and Theodore Dehon (1776-1817), and John Murray (1741-1815), the father of Universalism in America. Prominent among the younger theologians was Joseph Stevens Buckminster (1784-1812), one of the earliest of the New England Unitarians, whose published sermons are remarkable for purity of thought and finish of style.—One of the first and most useful laborers in the field of science was David Rittenhouse (1732-'96), a great and self-educated genius, whose memoirs on astronomy and mathematics were published in the first four volumes of the “Transactions” of the philosophical society of Philadelphia. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) and James McClurg (1747-1825) were conspicuous as writers on medical science, the work of the former on the “Diseases of the Mind” being still a standard authority; and Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815), a naturalist, produced the first American elementary work on botany, and the first contribution to the ethnographical literature of the country. The most important contribution to natural history was the “Description of the Birds of North America,” by Alexander Wilson (1766-1813). Samuel Latham Mitchill (1764-1831) was one of the earliest writers on chemistry, and made valuable contributions also to zoölogy and botany. To these names may be added those of Lindley Murray (1745-1826), author of the well known “English Grammar” bearing his name, and the eminent physicist Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford (1753-1814), both of whom were Americans by birth and education.—The most distinguished poet of this period was Philip Freneau (1752-1832), many of whose productions, inspired by the revolutionary spirit, display vigor of language and considerable imaginative power. Contemporary with him were John Trumbull (1750-1831), author of a once popular poem in the Hudibrastic style entitled “McFingal,” in which the tories and other enemies to American liberty are satirized, and which presents a remarkably vivid picture of contemporary manners and opinions; Joel Barlow (1755-1812), who wrote a heavy epic entitled “The Columbiad,” which was well received, and was reprinted in London and Paris, and a humorous mock-heroic poem in praise of “Hasty Pudding;” Lemuel Hopkins (1750-1801), author of a satirical poem called “The Anarchiad;” and Timothy Dwight, the theologian, whose “Conquest