THOMAS COOMBE THOMAS COOMBE, who first appears in our literature as a translator of some of his teacher Beveridge's Latin poems, was a native of Philadelphia, and after concluding his course at the College, studied theology, and visiting England to take orders, was on his return appointed an assistant minister of Christ Church. He sided with the liberal party at the outbreak of the Revolution, but disapproving of the separation from England, joined after that event the tory party. He was, in 1777, banished with others, by the legislature, to Staunton, Virginia, but was allowed on the score of sickness to remain. He soon after went to England. The Earl of Carlisle made him his chaplain, and he finally became a Prebendary of Canterbury, and one of the royal chaplains.* In 1775, he published in London a short narrative poem, The Peasant of Auburn, or the Emigrant,† accompanied by a few smaller pieces. The tract is dedicated to Goldsmith, and seems designed as a continuation of the Deserted Village. It presents a lugubrious picture of the fortunes of au emigrant. We quote a few of its closing pages. Edwin, a wanderer on the banks of the Ohio, relates his mournful experiences. Much had I heard from men unus'd to feign, Is this, O dire reverse, is this the land, gore. Time was, blest time, to weeping thousands dear, And gore the nurturing breast they had ador'd. Fisher's Early Poets of Pa. 98. Far, far away the wretched owners roam, The prowling Indian snuffs his wonted prey, Ah my poor Lucy! in whose face, whose breast, When shall I cease to rue the fatal morn O haste and wuft him to those radiant plains, THOMAS HUTCHINSON. Tho-Wirtchmon The Peasant of Anburn, or the Emigrant. A Poem. By T. Coombo, D.D. "The short and simple annals of the Poor," Gray. Phil. Enoch Story, Jun. (no date.) Coombe was evidently, from some liues in his poem, a reader of Collins's Kologues as well as of Goldsmith, He was chosen a selectman of Boston in 1788, and appointed the agent of the town to visit London in the discharge of important business, a duty which he performed with great success. After his return, he was for ten years a member, and for three the speaker of the colonial House of Representatives, where he obtained a great reputation as a debater and efficient presiding officer. He was a member of the council from 1749 to 1766, and lieutenant-governor from 1758 to 1771. Ile was also appointed a judge of probate in 1752, and chief-justice in 1760. During the agitation which followed the passage of the Stamp-Act, in consequence of a report that he had expressed an opinion in favor of that unpopular measure, his honse was twice attacked by a mob. On the first occasion the windows were broken, and a few evenings after, on the 20th of August, the doors forced open, the furniture and woodwork destroyed, and the house remained in possession of the rioters until morning. A great number of public and private documents were also destroyed. The town passed resolutions condemnatory of the act, and some six or eight persons were imprisoned, who were speedily set at liberty by a company, who, by threatening the jailor, obtained the keys. Hutchinson was indemnitied for his losses by a public grant. A new subject of controversy arose in 1767 in consequence of his taking a seat in the council in virtue of his office as lieutenant-governor. He abandoned his claim to a seat, and was a few days after appointed one of the commissioners for settling the boundary line with New York, a duty which he discharged greatly to the advantage of the colony. On the departure of Governor Bernard, in 1769, the whole duties of the office fell upon his lieutenant. Fresh difficulties arose, and he had forwarded a request to England to be discharged from office, when he received the announcement of his appointment as governor. He accepted the office. He continued to increase in unpopularity with the council and people in consequence of the publication of the letters written by him to England, which were discovered and sent back by Franklin. The council and house voted an address for his removal, but his conduct was approved by the king. He was, however, removed after the destruction of the tea in Boston harbor, and General Gage appointed in his place. Although notified by Gage on his arrival, May 13, that the king intended to reinstate him as soon as Gage's military duties called him elsewhere, he sailed for England on the first of June following. He received a pension from the English government, which was inadequate to the liberal support of his family, and after, according to the account of John Adams, "being laughed at by the courtiers for his manners at the levee, searching his pockets for letters to read to the king, and the king's turning away from him with his nose up," lived in retirement at Brompton, where he died, June 3, 1780. Hutchinson was the author of a History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, from its First Settlement in 1628 to the year 1750, in two volumes, the first of which was published in 1760, and the second in 1767. A third, bringing the narrative down to 1774, was published from a manuscript left behind him after his decease, by his grandson the Rev. John Hutchinson, of Trentham, England, in 1828. He also published various pamphlets, and a volume of documents relative to the history of the colony in 1769. EARLY CAROLINA LITERATURE. THERE were comparatively few carly productions of the historic class in the Carolinas. The population was scant; the wonder of the early settlements had abated, and the settlers were not a writing people. Several historic tracts may be mentioned. T. A., Gent, (Thomas Ashe), clerk on board his Majesty's slap the Richmond, sent out in 1680, published on his return in 1682, Carolina; or a Description of the Present state of that country, and the natural excellencies therof; namely, the Healthfulness of the Air, Pleasantness of the Place, Advantages and Usefulness of those rich Commodities there plentifully abounding, which much encrease and flourish by the industry of the planters that daily enlarge that colony. It forms twenty-six octavo pages in the reprint in Carroll's Collections.* John Archdale, late Governor of the province, printed at London in 1707, A new description of that fertile and pleasant Province of Carolina; with a brief account of its discovery and settling, and the government thereof to this time. With several remarkable passages of Divine Providence during my time. It forms thirty-six pages of Carroll's Collection, and is chiefly occupied with the discussions arising under his administration.t In 1708, John Stevens published in his new collection of voyages and travels, a New Voyage to Carolina, with a journal of a Thousand Miles Travelled through several nations of Indians, by John Lawson, Surveyor General of North Carolina. It was published in a separate form in 1709.1 Lawson was captured while exploring lands in North Carolina, and sacrificed by the Indians in the war of 1712.§ The earliest literature in South Carolina was scientific, medical, and theological, and came from intelligent foreigners who took up their residence in the country. The education of the sons of the wealthy classes was carried on in Europe, and continued to be through the Colonial era. Dr. John Lining, a native of Scotland, in 1753, published at Charleston a history of the Yellow Fecer, the first which had appeared on this continent. He was a correspondent of Franklin, and pursued scientific studies. He died in 1760, in his fifty-second year, having practised medicine in Charleston for nearly thirty years. Dr. Lionel Chalmers, also a Scotchman, was long established in the state, and published an Essay on Fevers at Charleston in 1767. He was the author, too, of a work on the Weather and Diseases of South Carolina, which was issued in London in 1776, the year before his death. Dr. Alexander Garden was born in Scotland about the year 1728, and was the son of the Rev. Alex. Garden, of the parish of Birse, who, during the Rebellion in the years 1745 and 1746, was distinguished by his exertions in favor of the family of Hanover, and by his interposition in behalf of the followers of the house of Stuart after their defeat at Culloden. Dr. Garden studied philosophy in the Univer sity of Aberdeen, and received his first medical education under the celebrated Dr. John Gregory, He arrived in South Carolina about the middle of the eighteenth century, and commenced the practice of physic in Prince William's parish, in connexion with Dr. Rose. Here he began his botanic studies, but was obliged to take a voyage northward for his health. In 1754 he went to New York, where a professorship in the college, recently formed in that Historical Collections of South Carolina. By B. R. Carroll Harpers, New York. 2 vols. 8vo. 1886. It was separately reprinted by A. E. Miller, Charleston, 1822. Rich's Bib. Americana Holmes' Annals, 1. BUT, city, was offered him. On his return, he settled in Charleston, acquired a fortune by his practice, and a high reputation for literature. During that period he gave to the public An Account of the Pink Root (Spigelia marilandica), with its Uses as a Vermifuge; A Description of the Helesia, rend before the Royal Society; An Account of the Male and Female Cochineal insects; An Account of the Amphibious Biped (the Mud Inguana or Syren of South Carolina): An Account of two new Species of Tortoises, and another of the Gymnotus Electricus, to different correspondents, and published. In compliment to him, Linnæus gave the name of Gardenia to one of the most beautiful and fragrant flowering shrubs in the world. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and on his arrival there, in 1783, was appointed one of its council, and subsequently one of its vice-presidents. Dr. Garden's pulmonic disease, which had been suspended during his long residence in South Carolina, now returned upon him. He went for health to the continent, and received great kindness and distinguished compliments froin the literati everywhere, but did not improve in health. He died in London in the year 1792, aged sixtyfour years.* The Rev. Alexander Garden, who was also from Scotland, came to Charleston about 1720, and died there in 1756, at an advanced age. He was a clergyman of the Episcopal Church, learned and charitable. He published several theological writings, including Letters to Whitefield, and the Doctrine of Justification Vindicated. The Rev. Richard Clarke, from England, was Rector of St. Philip's, in Charleston, a good classical scholar. He published on the prophecies and universal redemption. The Rev. Isaac Chanler, and the Rev. Henry Haywood, two Baptist clergymen of the State, also published several theological writings. The distinguished naturalist, Mark Catesby, passed several years in South Carolina, engaged in the researches for his Natural History. He was born in England in 1679. He first visited Virginia, where some of his relations resided, in 1712, remaining there seven years collecting plants, and studying the productions of the country. Returning to England, he was led by his scientific friends, Sir Hans Sloane and others, to revisit America, and took up his residence in South Carolina in 1722. He traversed the coast, and made distant excursions into the interior, and visited the Bahamas, collecting the materials for his work, the first volume of which was completed in 1782, and the second in 1743. The plates, then the most costly which had been devoted to the Natural History of America, were completed in 1748. A second edition was pub·lished in 1754,† and a third in 1771. Catesby died in London in 1749. Ramsay's Blog. Sketches, appended to the second volume of his History of Fouth Carolina The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, containing the figures of Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Ser pents Insects, and Plants: particularly the Forest Trees, Shrubs, and other plants not hitherto described, or very incor rectly figured by authors, together with their Descriptions in English and French, to which are added Observations on the JOHN OSBORN. JOHN OSBORN was born in 1713 at Sandwick, a village on Cape Cod Bay. Ilis father was a schoolmaster, and subsequently a clergyman, but varied his scholastic by agricultural labors. The son received a similarly practical education, entered Harvard college at the age of nineteen, and after being graduated studied theology. At the expiration of two years he read a sermon before the assembled clergy of the neighborhood with a view of soliciting ordination, but the decision of his auditors being adverse to the doctrines, though laudatory of the literary merits of the discourse, he was refused their recommendation. He then studied medicine and was admitted to practice. He was offered a tutorship in Harvard college, but declined the appointment as a bachelorship was one of the conditions of its tenure, and he was about to become a married man. He soon after married Miss Doane, of Chatham, and removed to Middletown, Conn. In a letter to his sister in March, 1753, he complains of being confined to the house, "weak, lame, and uneasy," and of having "lingered almost two years, a life not worth having." He died May 31 of the same year, leaving six children. Two of these, John and John C., became eminent physicians and cultivated men. John published before the revolution a translation of Condamine's Treatise on Inoculation, with an Appendix; and Joel Barlow submitted his manuscript of the Vision of Columbus to his brother and Richard Alsop for review before its publication. Two brief poems, The Whaling Song and An Elegiac Epistle on the Death of a Sister, are supposed to comprise all that Osborn has written. One of these has enjoyed a very wide popularity among the class to whom it was addressed.* A WHALING SONG. When spring returns with western gales, Cape Cod, our dearest native land, Bold, hardy men, with blooming age, We speed our course away, Then as we turn our wondering eyes, Air, Boll, and Waters: with Remarks upon Agriculture, Grain, Pulse, Roots, &c., by the late Mark Catesby, F.R.8. Revised by Mr. Edwards, of the Royal College of Physicians, London. 8 vola, follo, Lond. 1754. • Kettell's Specimens; Thacher's Med. Blog.; Allen; Ellot, When eastward, clear of Newfoundland, We stem the frozen pole, We see the icy islands stand, The northern billows roll As to the north we make our way, Now see the northern regions, where One day and night fills up the year, We view the monsters of the deep, Great whales in numerous swarms; And creatures there, that play and leap, Of strange, unusual forms. When in our station we are placed, In haste we ply our nimble oars, The sea beneath us foams and roars, A mighty whale we rush upon, She sinks her monstrous body down And when she rises out again, We soon renew the fight; Enraged, she makes a mighty bound; She thrashes with her tail around, She breaks the air, a deaf'ning sound, From numerous wounds, with crimson flood, And gasps, and blows her latest blood, With joyful hearts we see her die, While all with eager haste apply, THE REV. JOHN ADAMS. THE publisher of the Poems on several occasions, Original and Translated, by the late Reverend and Learned John Adams, M. A.,* says in his prefatory address to the candid reader of his author, "His own works are the best encomium that can be given him, and as long as learning and politeness shall prevail, his sermons will be his monument, and his poetry his epitaph." The epitaph has proved more enduring than the monument, though even that has hardly escaped being thrust irrecoverably in "Time's Wallet." Poems on Several Occasions, Original and Translated, by the late Reverend and Learned John Adams, M. A. Пoo placuit semel, hoc decies repetita placebit. Hor. de Art. Poet Boston. Printed for D. Gookin, in Marlborough street, over agalust the Old South Meeting House. 1745. The Rev. John Adams's little volume is seldom John Adams thought of or seen, save by the literary student. It does not deserve the neglect into which it has fallen. His life, so far as known, may be narrated in a sentence. He was the only son of the Hon. John Adams, of Nova Scotia, was born in 1704, graduated from Harvard in 1721, was ordained and settled at Newport, Rhode Island, contrary, it is said, to the wishes of Mr. Clap, the pastor, whose congregation formed a new society, leaving Mr. Adams, who appears to have been an assistant, to officiate for two years, and then be dismissed. He was in great repute as an eloquent preacher, and is described by his uncle, Matthew Adams, as "master of nine languages." He died in 1740, at the early age of thirty-six years, at Cambridge, the fellows of the College appearing as pall-bearers, and the most distinguished persons of the state as mourners at his funeral. His volume contains a poetical paraphrase, chapter by chapter, of the Book of Revelation, and of some detached passages from other parts of the Bible. Like most well educated writers of verse, he has tried his hand on a few of the Odes of Horace, and with success. The original poems consist of tributes to deceased friends, penned with ingenuity and eloquence, a poem in three parts on Society, and a few verses on devotional topics. He was also the author of some verses addressed "To a gentleman on the sight of some of his Poems," published in "A Collection of Poems by Several Hands," Boston, 1744. They were addressed to the Rev. Mather Byles, and are stated in a MS. note in a copy of the collection, now in the possession of Mr. George Ticknor, to be by Adains. He was also the author of a poem on the Love of Money. His sermon delivered at his ordination in 1728 was published. The collection of his poems contains an advertisement that "a number of select and excellent sermons from his pen are ready for the press, and upon suitable encouragement will be shortly published." But the suitable encouragement seems to have never been received. FROM A POEM ON SOCIETY. By inclination, and by judgment led, Lodge in his breast, nor can ascend so high; To lash with steely whips, his hideous soul: Nor looks on human nature sunk below; But heavenly candor, like unsullied day, And universal darkness has o'er-spread The splendid honours of your aged head; Flames in his thoughts, and drives the clouds Let faith light up its strong and piercing eye, away. And all his soul is peaceful, like the deep, But, most of all, whose smooth and heavenly breast, Is with a calm of conscience ever blest: Whose piercing eyes disperse the flying gloom, But oh! what joys thro' various bosoms rove, Here each will find his friend a bubbling source, No common themes will grace their flowing tongues, A jubilee of rapture without end- With skill to guide, and strength to urge his wings: To lower strains, confine thy humble lays, In handling the following pathetic theme he touches the lyre with no trembling hand. TO MY HONOURED FATHER ON THE LOSS OF HIS SIGHT. Now Heav'n has quench'd the vivid orbs of light, By which all nature glitter'd to your sight, And in remoter realms new worlds descry: BORACE, BOOK I ODE L In crowded heaps the ripen'd grain, To plough, a future crop to yield; And trust him to the wind's command. |