Literature, Principally Belletristic - University of Tennessee, Knoxville

· Literature,
Principally Belletristic .
writer continued in the December 2 3 issue with further reflections on the
same topic. On February 17, 1748, appeared a serious essay on the use of
ridicule as a remedy for pride. Beginning with a quotation from Horace,
the favorite Roman poet of the moral essayists, it declares, "Ridicule is an
universal Ingredient in Conversation ... the Salt and Seasoning of Life."
On February 24 Philo-Musaeus (Dr. Adam Thomson ) prefaces one of
his poems with a Horation quotation and a prose discussion of the uses of
satire. On June 29 was printed Hamilton's dream-vision critical essay on
the belletristic writers of Maryland, already considered as an interesting
example of satire. The August 2, 1749, "Reflections on Immoderate Drink­
ing" may or may not be of provincial origin.
In the January 24, 1750, issue "Nic. Turntype" traces the history of
printing, especially English, from Caxton's press in a "Chapel" of West­
minster Abbey. This semi-serious piece is addressed to printer Green and
begins with a quotation from Virgil. Quite different is "A. Buckskin's"
(Landon Carter's? ) "reflections" in response to a French author's obser­
vations on the American colonies. Both oratorical and rhetorical, it urges
resistance to aggression. 2 04 Another strongly written and in part politically
motivated piece from Alexandria, Virginia, signed "G.J." seems a strong
attack on the Church of England and the Reverend Mr. Brogden. There
are replies and counter-replies. In form a letter-essay, the first Alexandria
piece appeared on February 26, 1756, and is of interest here only for its
straightforward prose and reference to Henry Fielding.
Probably some of the earliest eighteenth-century Virginia single essays
were never published at all, for there is a manuscript collection written as
class exercises by students of the Dawsons and perhaps by others who were
professors at William and Mary. Surviving are fragments of a discourse
"Of Polite Learning," an address to the House of Burgesses on "Public
Education" (this one perhaps by a faculty member? ), "To Mrecenas" (on
the various pursuits of man), and a number of pieces in Latin. Among the
writers were Samuel Clayton, Edward Taylor, Mann Page, Philip Grymes,
Joseph Hornsby, Thomas Munford, and others whose names are still
familiar in Virginia. 20 5
In earlier issues of the Virginia Gazette are the provincially authored
essays on specific and timely subjects, such as creditors who seize posses­
sions, the opening of other people's mail at the post office, opposition to
a plan to move the capitol from Williamsburg, a proposal for opening a
Virginia bank, and a discussion of possible indigo cultivation in Virginia,
all these between 1737 and 1755. The medical and other scientific essays
have been noted in Chapter VII. There are a few original biographical
sketches of rogues and noblemen and one on Louis XIV. A belletristic
form, the dream-allegory, was used for arguing an economic subject--of
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