Rise of Ameri

can Art. Vari

ous art-schools

and academies were founded

during the age, and several American painters acquired considerable distinction: Benjamin West (17381820), who passed most of his life in England; Washington Allston

all European and even some of the Oriental languages. Cooper, perhaps more than any other writer, may be said to have introduced the New World to the acquaintance of the Old World. His vivid representations of colonial, revolutionary, and pioneer life were enthusiastically received and pondered over by all classes of readers in England, Germany, and France, and a general European interest was aroused in the young American Republic. Among minor contributors to the "polite" literature of the age were the novelists Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810), Catharine M. Sedgwick (17891867), and William Ware (1797-1852); William Wirt (1779-1843), the (1772-1834), author of a "Life of Patrick Henry," "Lettets of a British Spy," etc.; Margaret FullerOssoli (1810-1850), the most intellectual woman of her age in the country; and Chief-Justice Marshall (1755-1835), who wrote a "Life of Washington." Books of travel were also published; Henry Reed (1808-1854) delivered eloquent lectures on literature; Dr. David Ramsay (1749-1815) industriously explored the field of history; and philological studies were actively pursued by Noah Webster (1758-1843), Joseph E. Worcester (1784-1865), and Lindley Murray (1745-1826).

poet; Thomas

Cole (18011848), a landscape painter, noted for his fine representations of American scenery; John Trumbull (1756-1843), President of the American

Academy of Fine Arts, and employed by the government to paint four national and historical pictures in the Rotunda of the Capitol at Washingtonthe Declaration of Independence, Surrender of Burgoyne, Surrender of

Rise of American Poetry.-American poetry may be said to have had its rise in this age; for though there had been a few versifiers among the Colonists, their strains were, for the most part, of a religious nature and generally monotonous. William Clifton Cornwallis, and (1772-1799) and Philip Freneau (1752-1832) wrote verses of considerable merit, and the patriotic songs of Robert Paine (1773–1811) and of Francis S. Key (1779-1843) gained great popularity; but it was with came more cel- Washington Allston (1779-1843) that loftier poetry began in the United States. Allston was an eminent painter, who resided many years abroad, where he was known as the American Titian. His small volume of poems, entitled "Sylphs of the Seasons, and other Poems," appeared in 1811, and was distin

Resignation of General Washington at Annapolis; and Samuel Morse, who subsequently be

ebrated as the inventor of the electric tele

graph.

panic, 1832.

guished for its poetic rhythm and sentiment. Other | Commercial
noted poets of the age were R. H. Dana (1787-1879),
author of the psychological poem "The Buccaneer"
(1827); Fitz-Greene Halleck (1795-1867), who estab-
lished his literary fame in 1827 by the production of a
small volume of poems containing "Alnwick Castle,"
"Marco Bozzaris," and other pieces, characterized by
a melodious versification and genuine feeling; Joseph
Rodman Drake (1795-1820), whose poems "The
American Flag" and "Culprit Fay" are well known ;
James Gates Percival (1795-1856), styled "The
Poet;" Charles Sprague (1791-1875), a polished ver-
sifier; James A. Hillhouse (1789-1841), the first dra-
matic American poet; and Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney
(1791-1865), a popular writer of both poetry and
prose. William Cullen Bryant produced during this
age some of his finest poems, including "The Ages"
and "Thanatopsis," which contains the majestic
lines-

"So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, which moves

To that mysterious realm, where each shall take

His chamber in the silent halls of death,

Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night

Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed

By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave

Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

Great fire at
New York,

loss estimated
at $20,000,000,
1835.

Longfellow, Whittier, and Emerson were rising into fame before its close; but the careers of these four writers belong essentially to the middle portion of the nineteenth century, and hence will be considered National debt in the discussion of the succeeding era.

BOOKS OF REFERENCE.

paid off, 1836.

S. A. Brooke's "Theology in the Eng- | Masson's Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, lish Poets."

and other essays.

Moore's "Life of Richard Brinsley E. P. Whipple's Essays on the Poets
Sheridan."
of the Nineteenth Century, and
Coleridge as a Philosophical Critic.

Medwin's "Life of Shelley."

A Study of Keats (Scribner, vol. xv.). E. Dowden's "Southey."

John Forster's "Life of Walter Sav- | M. Thiers's "History of the Consulate age Landor."

Grace A. Oliver's " A Study of Maria H. Grimm's

G. S. Bower's "David Hartley and Goethe's Götz von Berlichingen,"
James Mill."
translated by Sir Walter Scott.
Carlyle's "Schiller."

Thomas Carlyle's "French Revolu- J. Kennedy's "Modern Poets and tion."