of the Ames publications came into my hands, with the contents of which I occasionally regaled my friends who appreciated the quaintness of the essays and other contents. Then I found later that Professor Moses Coit Tyler had devoted a portion of his History of American Literature to the endorsement of the merit of Nathaniel Ames as an author, and subsequent visits and correspondence with the historical societies at Providence, R. I., and Dedham, Mass., convinced me that the Ames Almanacks, if re-published, would interest more than the antiquarian; and these facts collectively constitute my, apology for the appearance of this work. In this connection I desire to express my thanks to the officers and members of the Rhode Island and Dedham Historical Societies, for the loan of books and documents which have been of material aid in the perfection of this work. Particularly am I under obligations to the Hon. Amos Perry, the secretary and librarian of the former, and Messrs. Don Gleason Hill, H. O. Hildreth, M. Gardner Boyd, Erastus Worthington and John H. Burdakin, of the latter, for many kindly courtesies extended. Mr. John Ward Dean, the librarian of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, has also served me by the loan of almanacks from their collection, for which, I trust I am duly grateful. For photographic views, original documents, copies of papers, and sketches for purposes of illustration, I am also indebted to Miss Sarah B. Baker, Miss Annie R. Fisher, and Mr. John F. Guild, of Dedham, whose aid in this direction is most thoroughly appreciated. And lastly, I desire to express my gratification to Professor Moses Coit Tyler, for the opportunity afforded me of confirming my own opinion and that of my associates, concerning the excellence of the Ames Almanack Essays, etc., by the perusal of his History of American Literature, and from which I shall largely quote in this volume. N almanack! There is very little, if any, inspiration in either the word or the book itself when viewed through modern spectacles. In the springtime it makes its presence felt by being lodged under the door mat, pushed into the mail receiver, or, by being tied up with the package of spring medicine purchased by pater familias on his way home Saturday evening, is thus surreptitiously introduced in the home circle. In these degenerate days it has to be forced into an existence, for but few ask for it, and a lesser number care for it. Its columns teem with the virtues of pills, potions and plasters, interspersed with views of our internal economy calculated to make the well man ill, and the invalid to relax his grasp on the thread of life. "But full is fickle Fortune's smile of guile; For Dan brought home one day, alack! A patent medicine almanack, And full of long and learned theses Upon the symptoms of diseases; Dan read the symptoms, great and small And HAD THEM ALL." How are the mighty fallen! It was not always thus. Far away in the dim vista of the past this humble vehicle of general knowledge was an honored guest at every fireside; the chimney corner was its throne, and its well-thumbed leaves gave evidence of the estimation in which it was held. Interleaved, it became a register of domestic occurrences and neighborhood happenings. Its predictions and weather wisdom were reverenced next to the sacred writings, and quite often was the only literature to be found in many homes where its annual visits were anxiously awaited. However, it is not the purpose of this chapter to lament the fate of the almanack, which has but attained the destiny of all created things, but it is intended merely to place this nowadays inconsidered trifle in its proper historical niche, and briefly sketch its inception, its life, and its decline as a prominent feature of literature. Almanacks have existed in some form from time immemorial, and almanack makers have always had a reputation entitling them to great respect and reverence from a very early day. In manuscript form they were known centuries before the invention of printing, and upon the advent of that invention they were among the first publications issued to the world from that very convenient machine. I have always had the notion that the "miraculous pillar of fire" which preceded the expedition of the Israelites toward the "promised land," was simply the comet of that season, possibly mentioned by the court astrologer of the previous year, as being of disastrous portent, which disaster was speedily taken advantage of by Moses, who immediately started his expedition. Those shepherds of the ancient day who looked after the stray lambs in the evening, doubtless were largely responsible for early astronomical lore, their opportunities for observations on the movements of the stars being largely due to their very convenient occupation, and a lack of other matters to distract their attention. They probably reported the "prodigies" which they noted, to the astrologers who compared notes, checked up the alleged causes and probable effects, and finally succeeded in inaugurating a system of predictions which enhanced the reputation of the soothsayers generally, bringing astrology to the front as a science. Nearly all the earlier nations were intimate with the study of the stars. The Chaldees were familiar with astrology, the Jews practiced it during the Captivity at odd hours, when their attention was not taken up with the construction of the Pyramids and such other little Egyptian necessities. Among the Hindus it was known, and the tribes of Arabia were adept in the art of forecasting the future by the stars. The Druids also possessed some knowledge of astronomy, and an ancient poem in the primitive Irish (Erse) tongue bears evidence that that nation had some astronomical knowledge at an early day. The Arabians, however, appear to have been the most advanced students of the sciences of astronomy and astrology, and this nation being at an early period (prior to their expulsion from Spain) the conservators of art and literature, were the first who introduced it into Europe, possibly about the same period with alcohol, (also of Arabic origin) that prominent factor in the elevation of the race. The history of written almanacks has not been traced farther back than the second century of the Christian era, at which period it is supposed that they were constructed by the Greeks of Alexandria. Lalande, an investigator of early astronomical works, did not find any express mention of almanacks anterior to those published by Solomon Jarchus, A. D. 1150. The earliest almanacks known to exist are in MS. of the twelfth century, and examples are to be found in the libraries of the British Museum, Cambridge and Oxford Universities. In the Savilian Library at Oxford is a manuscript copy of the almanack published about the year 1300 by Petrus de Dacia. Contemporary with this author are recorded the almanack productions of the Rev. Roger Bacon, of the Church militant, (reputed as the inventor of the Anglo-Saxon civilizer, gunpowder) who flourished about 1292; and those of Walter de Elvendene, 1327. z 18 gm hoze m grad Z4 8 1 z8 10 A Ciraumafio commi z b 4 Ditaua fandi Stepham 33 Ditaua fandi Johannis 4 d z Ditaua Innocentum se non 6f8 Epihania domini 7 9 7 S.Plidorus epifcopus 8 A 6 6.Erhardus epifcopus 9 E.Julianus cu focijs fuis to 4 S.paulus eremita 117 23 7 24 8 2 6 2 2 19 3 2 aquarius z 18 zo f 13 S.Fabianus et Sebastianus zig 12 S.Agnes virgo zz A 11 S. Omantius m z3 b 10 S. Emerentiana virgo 24 C zs 26 e 9 S Thimotheus discīpulus 7 S. Polica pus peclpiter 27 f 6 S.Johannes Crisoftimus 289 5 29 S.Valerius epifcopus 8 11 27 6 18 9 zo 12 28 10 3 10 44 0 48 17 1 16 14 30 10 29 10 Z7 119 13 29 10 16 12 15 31 11 13 n 10 1 23 11 23 1 26 129 27 0 19 1.35 1138 wwwwww w N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N --- Impreffum Olme per Johannem Zaimer Reduced fac-simile of a page from the Regio-Montanus Almanack printed at Ulm in 1478, by John Zainer. At Oxford, formerly the seat of British science, were issued the earlier standard almanacks. Here were published the productions of John Somers, 1380; Nicolas de Lynne, 1386, and many others. |