LINDLEY MURRAY AND BENJAMIN WEST. Taught moral happy life, whate'er can bless THOMSON. WHEN former British writers, in a spirit that I am glad to see is now fast passing away, contemptuously asked, "Who reads an American book?"* they were not aware, probably, of the pointed answer that might have been given them; namely, that *This sarcasm from the mouth of an habitual (I was about to say, professional) jester, like Sydney Smith, was hardly worth the attention or the indignation it excited. It was, probably, dropped carelessly from his lips or pen, without his considering that, in uttering it, he was charging a whole nation with imbecility, or, at least, with an utter want of literary genius. It may, moreover, be said, in Smith's partial extenuation, that, at that time, but few of those great intellects that have adorned American literature, had yet appeared,-Irving, Channing, Cooper, Prescott, Longfellow, and the rest. Still, the spirit in which the sarcasm was uttered, was inexcusable. Smith's countrymen, however, it must be acknowledged, have striven to make the amende honorable, having repeatedly confessed the beauty and power of American productions; and in regard to one work, in particular, by an American authoress,-the world-renowned "Uncle Tom's Cabin," the sentence may be said to have been fairly reversed, "Who is there that has not read an American book!" nearly every educated boy and girl in Britain reads an American book,-and not only so, but first learned to read out of an American book; and from the same source learned to write and speak their own language correctly. They forgot, or did not know, that Lindley Murray, the author of the standard English Grammar and popular English Reader, was an American. 66 It was observed to me, by a friend in England—a lineal descendant, by the way, of the poet Shenstone -as somewhat remarkable, that America, young as she is in literature, had already produced the best Grammar, and the best Dictionary, of the English language. This fact is certainly a source of just pride to us. Webster is acknowledged by all English scholars to be among the first of lexicographers; and one high British authority has pronounced him to be as far beyond Johnson, as Johnson was beyond his predecessors." This is probably not more than the truth. Johnson wrote for the booksellers and for a livelihood: his dictionary occupied six years in its composition. Webster's great work was a labour of love, and he spent upon it more than twenty years; indeed it was the labour of his whole life. Johnson's acute intellect appears well in the definitial part of his Dictionary; but his etymological learning was not profound. Webster devoted ten years to the single task of comparing the roots and radical letters of words in more than twenty different languages, European and Oriental, thus laying the foundation of his work on the solid basis of first principles. The admirable Introduction to his Dictionary, shows how thorough had been his explorations, and how extensive and accurate was his knowledge.* To return to Lindley Murray. His history is this. He was born at Swatara, near Lancaster, in the State of Pennsylvania, in the year 1745. His parents belonged to the denomination of Friends or Quakers, and were persons in a middle station of life. He received the rudiments of his education at Philadelphia, in the academy of the Society of Friends. In 1753, his father removed, with his family, to New York, where Lindley was placed at a good school. At an early age, he entered a counting-house, being destined for the mercantile profession; but, having been severely chastised for a breach of domestic discipline, he privately left his father's house, took up his abode in a seminary at Burlington, New Jersey, and there contracted a love for books and study. When brought back, after some time, he prevailed upon his father to procure a classical tutor for him, under whom he applied himself with diligence and success. From the precepts and example of his parents, he imbibed lasting sentiments of morality and religion. He * Dr. Webster's "American Dictionary of the English Language was first published at New York and Boston in 1828, in two large quarto volumes. The author affirmed that, while composing his great work, he became often so excited by the discoveries he made, that his pulse, which ordinarily beat only sixty, rose to eighty or eighty-five. This good and great man was born in the State of Connecticut, in October, 1758, and died in May, 1843, in his eighty-fifth year, having spent his whole life in the service of his country and mankind. When told that death was near, he replied, "I am ready; I know in whom I trust; I have no fears or terrors." now undertook the study of the law in the office of a distinguished counselor, the celebrated John Jay being his fellow-student. At the age of twenty-one or twenty-two, he was called to the bar, and soon obtained practice. Within two years, he married a lady with whom he lived in the tenderest union for more than half a century. He was very sedulous and successful in his profession as a lawyer, until the war broke out between Great Britain and the Colonies. About that time, the decline of his health induced him to remove into the country, about forty miles from New York. In this retreat he passed four years; and, at the expiration of this time, he was driven back to the city (then in possession of the British) by the necessity of procuring means for the subsistence of his family. The profession of the law being no longer lucrative, he again turned his attention to mercantile pursuits, and accumulated property enough to enable him to retire from business, about the period of the establishment of American independence (1783). He then purchased a beautiful country-seat, on the banks of the river Bellevue, about three miles from New York. But a severe illness, through which he soon after passed, brought on a general debility of the muscles, for the cure of which he was induced to go, with his family, to England. He was then about forty years of age. His intention was to remain in England only about two years; but the local attachments which he formed, together with his bodily infirmities, detained him in that country for the remainder of his life. He purchased a small estate at Holdgate, near York. Here, rendered sedentary by the weakness of his muscles, he employed himself chiefly in reading and composition. His first work was entitled "The Power of Religion on the Mind;" it appeared in 1787. It was published anonymously, but gained much reputation, and was so highly esteemed that it passed through no fewer than seventeen editions. His next work was the Grammar, which was published in 1795. It was greatly enlarged and improved in successive editions, and has not yet been surpassed or superseded. He afterwards published the "English Exercises and Key," intended to illustrate the Grammar; also his " English Reader," which became very popular, and was widely used both in Great Britain and America. In 1809, he completed an interesting memoir of his life, which was published after his decease. He lived upwards of sixteen years from that period, a martyr to bodily infirmities, which he bore with exemplary fortitude and Christian resignation. He died on the sixteenth of February, 1826, in the eighty-first year of his age.* From this account it will be seen, that it was owing simply to the accidental circumstance of Murray's visit to, and detention in, England, in consequence of ill health, that his valuable Grammar and other works were first published there, instead of in his native country. Another distinguished American, cotemporary with Lindley Murray, a native, too, of the same State, Pennsylvania, and, what was remarkable, belonging to the same religious denomination, that of the Quakers,-spent, in like manner, a large part of his * Encyclopædia Americana. |