ooksellers had good libraries. Parson Hooker left
behind him L300 worth of books in an estate of L1,336. Parson Wareham
had L82 worth in an estate of L1,200. Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton left, in
1717, books which made one thousand lots in an auction, for which the
first book catalogue ever compiled in New England was printed. Even by
1723 the library of Harvard College contained none of the works of
Addison, Bolingbroke, Young, Swift, Prior, Steele, Dryden, or Pope. In
1734, the catalogue of T. Cox, a prominent Boston bookseller, did not
contain the "Spectator" nor the works of Shakespeare or Milton. The
literary revival of the time of Queen Anne was evidently but little felt
in New England during its inception. The facile and constant quotation
from the ancient classics show how constantly and thoroughly the latter
were studied.

Among early New England publications we must not fail to speak of the
omnipresent almanac. Ere there was a New England Psalm-Book there was a
New England Almanac, and succeeding years brought new ones forth in
flocks. Though Charles Lamb included almanacs in his catalogue of "books
which are no books," and the founder of the Bodleian Library would not
admit that they were books and excluded them from the shelves of his
library, when New England philomaths and philodespots numbered such
honored names as Mather, Dudley, Sewall, Chauncey, Brattle, Ames, and
Holyoke, New England Puritans must have deemed almanacs to be books, and
so do we. In many a colonial household where the Bible and psalm-book
formed the sole standing library, the almanac was the only annual
book-comer that crossed the threshold and lodged under the roof-tree. On
a nail by the side of the great fireplace hung proudly and prominently
the Family Almanac, the Ephemeris. This Family Almanac was a guide,
counsellor, and friend; a magazine, cyclopaedia, and jest-book; was even
a spelling-book. It was consulted by every member of the household on
every subject, save possibly religion--for that they had the best of all
books. The planters learned from it meteorological, astronomical,
thaumaturgical, botanical, and agricultural facts--or rather what the
editor stated as facts. Social customs and peculiarities and ethics were
also touched upon in a manner suited to the requirements and capacity of
the reader; medical and hygienic advice were given for man and beast,
ending with the quaint warning to use before and after taking that
unfashi