Annuals.

ing year, 1834, "The Southern Literary Messenger was established in Richmond, Virginia. Poe was its editor till 1837. In 1847 John R. Thompson, an accomplished literary man who, unfortunately, has left very little of permanent value, took charge of this magazine, and under his direction its career was a brilliant one. Donald G. Mitchell's most successful works made their first appearance in it; as well as the early writings of John Esten Cooke, Paul Hamilton Hayne, and Henry Timrod. The important points in magazine history, from this time, are: the founding of "Harper's New Monthly Magazine,” New York, 1850; "Putnam's Monthly Magazine," New York, 1853; "The Atlantic Monthly," Boston, 1857; "Scribner's Monthly," New York, 1870 (became "The Century Magazine," 1881). With the great increase of the reading public, and the cheapening of printing, especially with the development of the art of reproducing engravings by photographic processes, the number of magazines has multiplied until it would require a volume to describe them all. The monthly magazine has been one of the great influences in our Literature. It has afforded an easy way of access to the public; and a very large proportion of all the Literature of the past fifty years has made its first appearance in the pages of one or another of these monthlies.

A peculiar feature of the publishing business of the early part of this period and the later part of the preceding was the "Annual." This was a collection of miscellaneous writings, stories, essays, and verse,

bound in attractive forms, usually illustrated with steel-plate engravings, and issued at about Christmas time. They were much used as inexpensive and graceful presents. They had such titles as "The Token," or "The Talisman," and some of them were issued for a number of successive years. Some of Hawthorne's earliest writings were first published in "The Token."

Leading in the movement for the diffusion of intelligence were the colleges and universities. Soon Colleges. after Harvard, 1636, followed the College of William and Mary in Virginia, 1693, and Yale, in Connecticut, 1700. During the Eighteenth Century, Princeton, 1746; Columbia, originally called King's, 1754; Brown, 1764; Dartmouth, 1769; Rutgers, 1770; and Hampden Sydney, 1775, were added to the list. From that time the growth of the institutions for the higher education was very rapid. In connection with the public school system, there grew up a large number of normal schools for the training of teachers. As largely instrumental in developing these institutions, and as a great force in the guidance of our educational progress in general, we should mention here the name of Horace Mann. There has been in the past fifty years, a strong tendency in the newer states to establish state universities and technical and agricultural schools. During the same period, the religious denominations have founded many colleges to insure the religious training of their youth, and the preparation of young men for their ministry. These two tendencies have resulted in a great and,

as many think, undue multiplication of institutions calling themselves colleges and universities. But an exceedingly valuable result of this has been the bringing of opportunities for more advanced study near to the youth of all parts of the country, and the establishment of centres of culture in every district. There can be no doubt that while the small colleges have tended somewhat to keep down the standard of scholarship, they have also tended powerfully to extend intelligence, and awaken the desire for thorough teaching and exact knowledge.

An important feature of the educational history of the latter part of this period is the development of Universities. the "University" idea. The founding of Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore in 1873, as an institution providing facilities for graduate study, gave a great impulse to this tendency; and we now have a large number of universities, in the sense of schools of advanced study, carrying on non-professional courses beyond the B. A. degree, and making provision for original scholarly research.

Our country has had its full share in the great scientific movement which so strongly characterizes the present century. With us, perhaps, even more emphatically than with any other people, it has tended to take the form of material invention. We have been foremost in the race to apply most rapidly the powers of steam and electricity to the service of industrial enterprise and domestic convenience. The enormous changes in our industrial and social life through such influences are clearly reflected in our

Literature. The scientific habit of mind, which takes nothing for granted, but investigates all things, has taken strong hold upon our national way of thinking, and has made its mark for good and for evil upon our writers.

dentalism."

A broad thought movement characterized the later "Transcenyears of the previous period, and the earlier years of this, the most conspicuous representatives of which were the writers and thinkers who were called "Transcendentalists." Many of those who were leaders of thought cannot properly be given this name; but the "Transcendentalists" were leaders in many directions, and their special type of thinking left a peculiarly deep impression upon our Literature. The movement called "Transcendentalism' was, first, reactionary, in philosophy, theology, and morals. It was a reaction from the "Materialism" of the eighteenth century. It interpreted the teachings of the German philosophers, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel; receiving their teaching, however, for the most part through Coleridge and Carlyle. It was, further, a reaction from negative theology, not returning, however, to older views, except in the case of some few of its leaders, as, notably, Orestes A. Brownson, who went from radical negation clear over to the Roman Catholic Church. It was finally a reaction from the limitations of "Puritanism" in conduct, and sought a broader, freer life.

The movement was, secondly, reformatory, looking to great improvements in social life. The most

Antislavery
Movement.

conspicuous illustration of this phase of it was the "Brook Farm" experiment. This was an attempt to form a "society" or "family" of intellectual people who should live together, and by sharing the necessary work, reduce it to a small amount, and so have leisure for studies and intellectual labor. George Ripley was the leader of the experiment, and George William Curtis, A. B. Alcott, O. A. Brownson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne were associated with him. Hawthorne wrote in regard to it: "I went to live in Arcady, and found myself up to my chin in a barnyard."

The movement was, thirdly, Literary. This has been its most enduring contribution to life. Its philosophy is not now very influential, and its reform proved impracticable. But in Literature, it stood for (a) ideality, recognizing the mystery of nature and life, and exalting the spiritual; for (b) hope, looking forward to better and greater days to come, and emphasizing the overruling power of good in the Universe; for (c) brotherhood, exalting man as man, and lending its support to all that tended to bring men together, and lift them toward what is higher. Of this aspect of "Transcendentalism," Emerson is the chief representative; and it would be difficult to estimate the extent of his influence on the younger writers of his time, and of the time closely following.

Another characteristic feature of this period, which made itself strongly felt upon Literature, was the antislavery contest. This question we have seen