m earliest days most friendly.
There was much polite exchange of compliments; the intelligence of the
public was always mightily flattered and shown up in a very civil
fashion in such manner as this:

"A New Edition of the really beautiful & sentimental Novel Armine
and Elvira Is this day published price 9d sewed in blue paper. To
the Ladies in particular and others the lovers of Sentiment and
Poetick Numbers this Novel is recommended, to them it will afford a
delightful Repast. To others it is not an object."

"For the pleasing entertainment of the Polite Part of Mankind I
have printed the most beautiful Poems of Mr. Stephen Duck the
famous Wiltshire Poet. It is a full Demonstration to me that the
People of New England have a fine Taste for good Sense and polite
Learning having already sold 1200 of these Poems."

Though Stephen Duck appealed to polite and literate New Englanders just
as he became the rage in old England, his name is now almost forgotten.

It must have inclined the public most favorably to a book to be told
that the volume is "intended only for the highly virtuous;" that "the
glowing pen of the author brought this token into life solely from
Admiration of a community fitted by amazing Intelligence to receive it:"
that

"'Tis said with truth by a secret but ingenious New England
minister that no town is so worthy the vendue of this pleasing book
as these polite gentlemen and gentlewomen to whom it will be on
Friday offered."

Authors, if not authoresses, were treated with much respect and
encouragement. Indeed, they were urged to write. Books printed by
subscription were the rule, and, as an inducement, the names of
subscribers were printed in a list at the end of the book, and an extra
copy was given for every six numbers subscribed for. The "undertakers"
did not always trouble themselves to deliver the book when printed. A
notice was posted, or printed in a newspaper, advising subscribers
pretty sharply that their copies (which had apparently been paid for in
advance) must be sent for within a certain time or the books would be
"sold to others desiring." One American poet, the author of "War--An
Heroic Poem," a work which has been lost to us, threatened to prosecute
his patrons for not taking his book. Sometimes the printer of the book
also seized the opportunity of the large circulation to drum up
delinquent citizens who had