heretofore. Cooper and Irving were
encouraged by England under a different state of things; and it is
safe to say, that under present circumstances there will be no more
Irvings and Coopers. I am surprised that American scholars submit with
such equanimity to grievances under which genius must languish and
emulation dies.

I have now in my mind the case of a man of learning--whom I should
rejoice to name--of whom this country might well be proud, but whom
she hardly knows; a man, of whom I venture to say, that had he been
born an Englishman, he would have bequeathed his country another
immortal name. He would have done as much to ennoble his native land,
had she known how to foster instead of depressing his early
enthusiasm. With a mind fitted for the deepest and most accurate
research, and an education, of which the perfection is attributable to
his natural love of learning, he undertook, in the prime of life, to
accomplish a certain literary work, still a desideratum. With untiring
zeal and diligence under many discouragements, he devoted to his grand
design the best years of his manhood. In the collection of
materials--doubly difficult by reason of the evils of which I have
spoken--he spent much time, and exhausted his patrimony. After
gathering a noble store, and traversing the ocean to perfect his
acquirements in foreign libraries, he at length completed his task,
and laid before competent judges the results. These were pronounced of
the richest intrinsic value, and the earnest of future works in the
same department of letters, yet more honourable to their author and
more important to learning. But the very devotedness with which my
admirable friend has pursued his one great object, has deprived him of
a popular reputation. Though by birth and habits of life a gentleman,
refined by intercourse with the choice society of Europe, and
furnished with the best introductions, his overtures to publishers
here were repulsed with a rudeness of negative, which would have
shocked the sensibilities of a footman. Who cared for him, with his
parcel of manuscript, when some European work, which had gone through
the experiment of success, could be produced with a smaller
expenditure, and without per centage to the author! Can it be wondered
at that Harpy & Co. refused to treat with him, when a new treatise on
the inside of the moon, for which lunatics in general were gaping, and
for which twenty guineas had actually been paid to