I have taken the freedom to address your Excellency in the enclosed Poem, and entreat your acceptance, though I am not insensible of its inaccuracies. Your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of the armies of North America, together with the fame of your virtues, excite sensations not easy to suppress. Your generosity, therefore, I presume, will pardon the attempt. Wishing your Excellency all possible success in the great cause you are so generously engaged in, I am Your Excellency's most obedient humble servant, PHILLIS WHEATLEY. Providence, Oct. 26, 1775. HIS EXCELLENCY GEN. WASHINGTON, Celestial choir! enthron'd in realms of light. The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair, Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates How pour her armies through a thousand gates, As when Eolus heaven's fair face deforms, Enwrapp'd in tempest and a night of storms; Astonish'd ocean feels the wild uproar, The refluent surges beat the sounding shore; Or thick as leaves in Autumn's golden reign, Such, and so many, moves the warrior's train. In bright array they seck the work of war, Where high unfurl'd the ensign waves in air. Shall I to Washington their praise recite? Enough thou know'st them in the fields of fight. Thee, first in place and honours,—we demand The grace and glory of thy martial band. Fam'd for thy valour, for thy virtues more, Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore! One century scarce perform'd its destined round, When Gallic powers Columbia's fury found; Besides the Boston edition, published by G. W. Light, to which we have alluded, we have before us one reprinted from the London edition by Barber and Southwick, for Thomas Spencer, bookseller, Market street, Albany, in 1793. A separate brief memoir, by B. B. Thatcher, was also issued at Boston, by Light, in 1834. + Washington mentions coming across Phillis Wheatley's poem and letter, "in searching over a parcel of papers," in a letter to Joseph Read, Camb., Feb. 10, 1776. Mr. Sparks says he has not been able to find the poem and letter among Washington's papers, and that "they have doubtless been lost. It might be curious," he adds, "to see in what manner she would eulogize liberty and the rights of man, while herself, nominally at least, in bondage."-Washington's Writings, iii. 299. The poem and letter were probably given by Washington to the printer. VOL. I.-24 And so may you, whoever dares disgrace Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side, MISS PHILLIS: Cambridge, February 2d, 1776. Your favour of the 26th October did not reach my hands till the middle of December. Time enough, you will say, to have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of important occurrences continually interposing to distract the mind and withdraw the attention, I hope will apologize for the delay, and plead my excuse for the seeming but not real neglect. I thank you most sincerely for your polite notice of me, in the elegant lines you enclosed; and however undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical talents; in honour of which, and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have published the poem, had I not been apprehensive that, while I only meant to give the world this new instance of your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of vanity. This, and nothing else, determined me not to give it place in the public prints. If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near head-quarters, I shall be happy to see a person so favoured by the muses, and to whom Nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations. I am, with great respect, your obedient humble servant, GEORGE WASHINGTON. The lines and letter of Phillis Wheatley were: published in the Pennsylvania Magazine or American Monthly Museum for April, 1776. In Jan., 1784, the year of her death, she wrote: an Elegy of fifty-two lines, To the Memory of that Great Divine, the Reverend and Learned Dr.. Samuel Cooper, a copy of which is preserved in the Boston Athenæum. It is dedicated To the Church and Congregation assembling in Brattle street, by their Obedient Humble Servant, Phillis Peters. We have also met with the following of the same year, in the American Antiquarian Society, in four small quarto pages printed at Boston by Warden and Russell: LIBERTY AND PEACE.. Lo freedom comes. Th' prescient muse foretold, E'en great Britannia sees with dread surprise, With heart-felt pity fair Hibernia saw The ample dome, high-wrought with curious toil, The two following are printed from the author's manuscript: TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, WROTE IN 1767. To you, bright youths, he points the heights of heav'n, To you the knowledge of the depths profound, Still more, ye sons of science! you've received He hears revilers with oblique regard- ON THE DEATH OF THE REV. DR. SEWALL, 1769. Ere yet the morning heav'd its orient head, Behold him praising with the happy dead. Hail! happy saint, on the immortal shore, We hear thy warning and advice no more; Then let each one behold with wishful eyes The saint ascending to his native skies, From hence the prophet wings his rapturous way To mansions pure, to fair celestial day. Then begging for the spirit of his God, And panting eager for the bless'd abode, Let ev'ry one with the same vigour soar To bliss and happiness unseen before; Then be Christ's image on our minds impress'd, | And plant a Saviour in each glowing breast, Thrice happy thou, arrived at joy at last, What compensation for the evil past! Thou Lord, incomprehensible, unknown To seare, we bow at thy exalted throne! While thus we beg thy excellence to feel, Thy sacred spirit in our hearts reveal, And make each one of us that grace partake, Which thus we ask for the Redeemer's sake. 'Sewall is dead," swift pinion'd fame thus cry'd. Is Sewall dead? my trembling heart reply'd. Lo! here a man bought with Christ's precious blood For this my monitor will not return. Now, this faint semblance of his life complete; The following are from the volume collected by the author: ON THE DEATH OF THE REV. MR. GEORGE WHITEFIELD, 1770. Hail, happy saint, on thine immortal throne Possest of glory, life, and bliss unknown. We hear no more the music of thy tongue, Thy wonted auditories cease to throng. Thy sermons in unequall'd accents flow'd, And ev'ry bosom with devotion glow'd: Thou didst in strains of eloquence refin'd Inflame the heart, and captivate the mind. Unhappy, we the setting sun deplore, So glorious once, but ah! it shines no more. Behold the prophet in his tow'ring flight! He charg'd its youth that ev'ry grace divine "Take him, ye wretched, for your only good, Wash'd in the fountain of redeeming blood, Great Countess, we Americans revere But, tho' arrested by the hand of death, A FAREWELL то AMERICA. To Mrs. Susanna Wright. I. Adieu, New England's smiling meads Adieu, the flow'ry plain; I leave thine op'ning charms, O spring, And tempt the roaring main. IL In vain for me the flow'rets rise, And boast their gaudy pride, While here beneath the northern skies I mourn for health deny'd. The Countess of Huntingdon, to whom Mr. Whitefield was Chaplain. IIL Celestial maid of rosy hue, O let me feel thy reign! I languish till thy face I view, Thy vanish'd joys regain. IV. Susannah mourns, nor can I bear V. Nor unregarding can I see Her soul with grief opprest: But let no sighs, no groans for me, Steal from her pensive breast. VI. In vain the feathered warblers sing, Breathes out her sweet perfumes. VII. While for Britannia's distant shore VIIL Lo, Health appears! celestial dame; IX. To mark the vale where London lies With misty vapours crown'd, Which cloud Aurora's thousand dyes, And veil her charms around. X. Why, Phoebus, moves thy car so slow? Give us the famous town to view XI. For thee, Britannia, I resign, New England's smiling fields; To view again her charms divine, What joy the prospect yields! XII. But thou, temptation, hence away, XIII. Thrice happy they, whose heav'nly shield And fell Temptation on the field Boston, May, 7, 1775. BENJAMIN THOMPSON, BETTER known by his title of Count Rumford, was a native of Woburn, Massachusetts. He was born March 26, 1753. After receiving a commonschool education, he was placed with a physician, Dr. Hay. He indicated an aptness for the mechanic arts, amusing himself by making surgical instruments, and afterwards, when employed as a clerk in a store, by manufacturing fireworks, the latter experiment leading to an explosion 1s which he was severely burned, and for a time. deprived of sight. He showed little taste for business pursuits. He attended the course of philosophical lectures established at Cambridge about 1769, as a charity scholar, walking nine miles and back every day for the sake of the instruction and pleasure they afforded him. a Bery & Thompson In 1772 he engaged in school-keeping in Bradford, Massachusetts, and soon after at Rumford, now Concord, N. II., where he improved his circumstances by marrying a widow, Mrs. Rolfe. He was with the American army at Lexington, and at Cambridge on the arrival of Washington as commander-in-chief, but afterwards became identified with the royalist side. He sailed for England in January, 1776. After a residence of several years in that country, where he became known as a scientific man, and held a post in the office of the department of American affairs, he was sent, near the close of the war, to New York, where he raised a regiment of dragoons and became a lieutenant-colonel. In 1784 he returned to England, and was knighted by George III. In consequence of his scientific reputation, he received an invitation from the Bavarian government to remove to that country. He accepted the proposal, and resided for some years in Munich, where he introduced several reforms in the police service. One of his most successful efforts was in the treatment of the beggars, with whom the streets of Munich were infested. On a given day, sallying out with a proper military force, he swept these vagrants from the streets, and by establishing houses of industry, brought many of them to adopt thrifty habits. He was made a Count by the Elector Palatine, the title Rumford being his own selection, in compliment to his former residence, and received decorations from many of the courts of Europe. Visiting England, he projected the Royal Institution, and suggested Humphrey Davy, then but twenty-two, as the head of its chemical department. In 1802, he went to Paris, and married a second wife,* the widow of Lavoisier, from whom he was soon separated. In the enjoyment of a pension from the King of Bavaria, he resided at Auteuil, near Paris, till his death, August 20, 1814. His funeral oration before the Institute was delivered by Cuvier.t 66 By his will he bequeathed one thousand dollars annually, and the reversion of other sums, to the University of Cambridge, in the State of Massachusetts, in North America, for the purpose of founding, under the direction and management of the Corporation, Overseers, and Government of that University, a new Institution and Professorship, in order to teach, by regular courses of academical and public lectures, accompanied with proper experiments, the utility of the physical and mathematical sciences, for the improvement of the useful arts, and for the extension of the industry, prosperity, happiness, and well-being of society." In December, 1816, the Runford Professorship was established in Harvard University, and Dr. Jacob Bigelow appointed the first professor. In his Inaugural, after reviewing the progress of physical science, and the advantages of New England culture, he pronounced a judicious eulogy on the founder, with this general summary of his various philosophical improvements in private and political economy :— "In the prosecution of them he was led to the observation of many curious phenomena of light and caloric, with which the world has been made acquainted. The application of these to use, and the various contrivances he originated, to increase the convenience, economy, and comforts of living, have given a character to his writings, and are everywhere associated with his name. His pursuits might even be embodied into a science, for their object is everywhere known; a science conversant with a multiplicity of details, but possessing unity of design; a science humble in the sphere of its operations, but noble in its ultimate destiny; a science which every man must practise, but which philosophers and philanthropists must extend; one, which should it ever demand a definition, would be found to be the science of clothing, of warming, and of nourishing mankind." His daughter, by permission of the King of Bavaria, bore the title Countess of Rumford. She came to America after her father's death, and lived at Concord, where she died in 1852. Her will secured the fine estate on which she resided to the purposes of an asylum for indigent children. His Essays, Political, Economical, and Philosophi cal, were published in London, and were reprinted in Boston, in 1798. The several chapters, which are somewhat curiously arranged, cover a wide sphere of philanthropy. There are speculations and calculations on the treatment of beggars, in which he gives an account of his experiences in Munich, of the foundation and regulation of the Houses of Industry established under his direction, the improvement wrought in morals Go, wanderer, and strive to equal him in genius and activity, and us in gratitude. * Essays, Political, Economical, and Philosophical. By Benjamin Count of Rumford, Knight of the Orders of the White Eagle, and St. Stanislaus; Chamberlain, Privy Counsellor of State, and Lieutenant-General in the Service of his Most Serena Highness the Elector Palatine, Reigning Duke of Bavaria: Colonel of his Regiment of Artillery, and Commander in Chief of the General Staff of his Army; F.R.S. Acad. R. Hiber. Berol. Elec. Boice. Falat, et Amer. Soc. The first American. from the Third London Edition Boston: Printed by Manning & Loring, for David West, March, 1798. and manners of the paupers by the kind treatment they received. A large space is devoted to a discussion of cheap food, one of the chapters on this subject being headed, "Of the Pleasure of Eating, and of the means that may be employed for increasing it." Joel Barlow, in the Mountains of Savoy, when he retired for a while from the luxuries of Paris, wrote a poem for the consolation of his frugal countrymen at home, on the joys and associations of Hasty Pudding. As a pendant to that quaint production, the reader may desire to possess himself of Count Rumford's scientific handling of the same article: In regard to the most advantageous method of using Indian Corn as food, I would strongly recommend, particularly when it is employed for feeding the poor, a dish made of it that is in the highest estimation throughout America, and which is really very good, and very nourishing. This is called hasty-pudding; and it is made in the following manner: A quantity of water, proportioned to the quantity of hasty-pudding intended to be made, is put over the fire in an open iron pot, or kettle, and a proper quantity of salt for seasoning the pudding being previously dissolved in the water, Indian meal is stirred into it, by little and little, with a wooden spoon with a long handle, while the water goes on to be heated and made to boil; great care being taken to put in the meal by very small quantities, and by sifting it slowly through the fingers of the left hand, and stirring the water about very briskly at the same time with the wooden spoon, with the right hand, to mix the meal with the water in such a manner as to prevent lumps being formed. The meal should be added so slowly, that, when the water is brought to boil, the mass should not be thicker than water-gruel, and half an hour more, at leas, should be employed to add the additional quantity of meal necessary for bringing the pudding to be of the proper consistency; during which time it should be stirred about continually, and kept constantly boiling. The method of determining when the pudding has acquired the proper consistency is this; the wooden spoon used for stirring it being placed upright in the middle of the kettle, if it falls down, more meal must be added; but if the pudding is sufficiently thick and adhesive to support it in a vertical position, it is declared to be proof; and no more meal is added. If the boiling, instead of being continued only half an hour, be prolonged to three quarters of an hour, or an hour, the pudding will be considerably improved by this prolongation. This hasty-pudding, when done, may be eaten in various ways. It may be put, while hot, by spoonfuls into a bowl of milk, and eaten with the milk with a spoon, in lieu of bread; and used in this way it is remarkably palatable. It may likewise be eaten, while hot, with a sauce composed of butter and brown sugar, or butter and molasses, with or without a few drops of vinegar; and however people who have not been accustomed to this American cookery may be prejudiced against it, they will find upon trial that it makes a most excellent dish, and one which never fails to be much liked by those who are accustomed to it. The universal fondness of Americans for it proves that it must have some merit; for in a country which produces all the delicacies of the table in the greatest abundance, it is not to be supposed that a whole nation should have a taste so depraved as to give a decided preference to any particular species of food which has not something to recommend it. The manner in which hasty-pudding is eaten with butter and sugar, or butter and molasses, in America, is as follows: The hasty-pudding being spread out equally upon a plate, while hot, an excavation is made in the middle of it, with a spoon, into which excavation a piece of butter, as large as a nutmeg, is put; and upon it, a spoonful of brown sugar, or more commonly of molasses. The butter being soon melted by the heat of the pudding, mixes with the sugar, or molasses, and forms a sauce, which, being confined in the excavation made for it, occupies the middle of the plate. The pudding is then eaten with a spoon, each spoonful of it being dipt into the sauce before it is carried to the mouth; care being had in taking it up, to begin on the outside, or near the brim of the plate, and to approach the centre by regular advances, in order not to demolish too soon the excavation which forms the reservoir for the sauce. Fireplaces and chimneys are one of his important topics, and a volume is in great part devoted to the construction of cooking apparatus, illustrated with diagrams and engravings. The style of these essays is plain but clear. His suggestions are extremely valuable, and anticipate many of the ideas of Soyer and other authors on dietetics of the present day. DAVID HUMPHREYS. DAVID HUMPHREYS, a soldier of the Revolution, who wrote patriotic and martial poetry in the camp, the friend and household companion of Washington, was born, the son of a Congregational clergyman, the Rev. Daniel Humphreys, in Derby, Connecticut, in 1753. He was educated at Yale College, where he fell in with Dwight and Trumbull, with whom he formed a personal and literary friendship, which was not neglected in after life. At the beginning of the war he entered the army, becoming attached to Putnam's staff as major, and in 1780 became aide, with the rank of colonel, in Washington's staff; or as he himself recites these military incidents of his career in verse: With what high chiefs I play'd my early part, To Putnam, Humphreys showed his gratitude by writing his life-a smooth and complimentary piece of biography, which certainly anticipates no modern doubts of the bravery of "Old Put." His intercourse with Washington did not end with the war. He accompanied him on his retirement to Virginia, residing with him more than a year, and again returning after his visit to Europe, to live in this privileged house in 1788, until Washington became President, when Humphreys travelled with him to New York. Of his *An Essay on the Life of the Honorable Major-General Israel Putnam: addressed to the State Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut. In the dedication to Colonel Wadsworth, which is dated Mount Vernon, in Virginia, June 4, 1788, the anthor says, "the inclosed manuscript justly claims indulgence for its venial errors, as it is the first effort in biography that has been made on this continent." Colonel Humph.es forgets the labors of the Mathers in this line. |