pleasing literary portrayal of rural life and scenes in America. There is an idyllic simplicity and charm in his treatment of the natural beauties of American scenery and of the simple pastoral life of the American farmer. His interpretation is that of a pleased and interested observer rather than that of an advocate or partisan. From an esthetic and literary point of view Crèvecoeur's book is superior to any other prose volume of its kind written in America during the eighteenth century. In these more stirring years of the twentieth century we may read with peculiar interest Crèvecoeur's definition of an American and his prophecy of the future greatness of the American people. What, then, is the American, this new man? He is neither an European, nor the descendent of an European: hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great “alma mater." Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men,1 whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigor, and industry, which began long since in the east. They will finish the great circle. The Americans were once scattered all over Europe. Here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared, and which will hereafter become distinct by the power of the different climates they inhabit. The American ought therefore to love his country much better than that wherein either he or his forefathers were born. Here the rewards of his industry follow, with equal steps, the progress of his labor. His labor is founded on the basis of nature-self-interest: Can it want a stronger allurement? Wives and children, who before in vain demanded of him a morsel of bread, now, 1 This is doubtless the first use of the familiar metaphor of America as the melting-pot of the nations. fat and frolicsome, gladly help their father to clear those fields whence exuberant crops are to arise, to feed and to clothe them all, without any part being claimed either by a despotic prince, a rich abbot, or a mighty lord. Here religion demands but little of him,a small voluntary salary to the minister, and gratitude to God: can he refuse these? The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labor, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence. This is an American. THE POETRY Revolutionary ballads. The poetry of the Revolutionary period seldom rises above mediocrity. There were a number of ballads and patriotic songs which were popular in their day, and served well their purpose of amusing and cheering our ancestors, but hardly one of them is worthy of a permanent place in our literature. "The Song of American Liberty" by John Dickinson has already been mentioned. "Yankee Doodle," or "The Yankee's Return from Camp,” originally written by Edward Bangs, a Harvard student, had a typical experience in its transitions, being sung in several varied versions to the delight of citizens and soldiers during the hard struggle for independence. As a tune and as a popular ballad it still retains its hold on the public. The ballad, to which many additional stanzas have been added from time to time, begins as follows: Father and I went down to camp Along with Captain Gooding (CHORUS) Yankee Doodle, keep it up, And with the girls be handy. Another typical ballad in the meter of "Yankee Doodle," literally bubbling over with satisfaction and delight at the discomfiture of the British general, the Earl of Cornwallis, is called "The Dance," and begins, Cornwallis led a country dance, The like was never seen, sir, They rambled up and rambled down, The ballad of "Nathan Hale," or "Hale in the Bush," is a sort of refined or dressed up literary ballad, more dignified and self-conscious, hence less truly a popular ballad. It relates in a remarkably stimulating strain the capture and execution of the Revolutionary hero named in the title. The breezes went steadily through the tall pines, As stilly stole by a bold legion of horse, For Hale in the bush, for Hale in the bush. "Keep still!" said the thrush as she nestled her young, What bodes us no good, what bodes us no good."1 Francis Hopkinson: "The Battle of the Kegs." Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791) of Philadelphia, signer of the Declaration of Independence from New Jersey and holder of important political offices in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, among them the United States district judgeship for Pennsylvania, was the author of numerous satiric trifles and extended political allegories which brought him wide popularity. His satirical ballad, "The Battle of the Kegs," 1For excellent complete selections of this type of popular verse, see Boynton's American Poetry or Cairns's Early American Writers. is still delightful reading. It was written to satirize the British troops who, when they discovered certain "infernal machines" in the form of kegs sent down the river by the patriots to annoy the British ships at Philadelphia, bravely began to fire on every floating object they saw in the river. The cannons roar from shore to shore; The small-arms make a rattle, The kegs, 'tis said, tho' strongly made From morn to night these men of might And when the sun was fairly down, Such feats did they perform that day They'll make their boast and brags, Sir. His prose. Two of Judge Hopkinson's political allegories in prose were decidedly amusing to his contemporaries, and though they are rarely read today, they were of considerable importance in the development of American prose. "The Pretty Story" deals with the conflict between England, "the old farm," and America, "the new farm," and their "wives," the English Parliament and the colonial governments respectively. "The New Roof" is a presentation of the new form of government under the federal Constitution. Francis Hopkinson's son, Joseph Hopkinson (1770-1842), wrote in 1798 the words and music of the well-known patriotic song "Hail, Columbia." The Hartford Wits. A school of writers with a more or less well-defined literary purpose sprang up in Connecticut |