Extract from the COLUMBIAN MAGAZINE for October, 1786,

REMARKS

ON THE

HAPPINESS OF AMERICA:

A POEM.

A LOVE of liberty, a spirit of enterprize, fortitude in diffi

culties, and a military turn of mind, are conspicuous traits in the American character. Those dispositions, if properly directed, will tend to the aggrandizement and prosperity of our infant republican empire.

America stands high, also, in literary reputation and so great is the spirit which now prevails in the United States, for the promotion of useful learning, and advancement of science, that, aided by the native genius of our people, we may reasonably expect to arrive at the highest degree of eminence in these respects. Nor have we cause to draw less favourable expectations from the specimens that have been already exhibited, of the natural taste and propensity of our countrymen for the liberal and polite arts.

Among the patriots, statesmen, heroes, philosophers, and artists of this country, we find names that would do honour to any age or nation. What a glorious constellation is formed by an assemblage of those worthies, whom America has the honour of enrolling among her sons!

Amidst the favourite pursuits of our countrymen, the Muses have had their votaries; nor have those coy maids been unsuccessfully courted. Their genius seems much delighted with our sylvan scenes. The face of nature, throughout the United States, exhibits the sublime and beautiful, in the most exalted degree. In almost every part of this country, we are surrounded with objects calculated to inspire the most elevated conceptions of the imagination. Our mountains, vallies, plains, and rivers, are formed upon a great scale; the extent of the country itself is great; and the whole is rendered magnificently beautiful, by the creating hand of the Almighty Architect! And if we contemplate the eminently

dignified part that has been recently acted on the vast national stage, with the scenes of magnanimity, wisdom, and patriotic virtue, which our gallant countrymen have exhibited thereon, we must allow, that nothing can afford more noble themes for our na tive bards.

Among the literary productions of American genius, “A Poem on the Happiness of America, addressed to the Citizens of the United States," by Colonel Humphreys, claims a superior station. The beauties of this piece do great honour to the author, and discover that he possesses a truly patriotic soul, as well as a mind animated with genuine poetic fire.

As this elegant piece, by some unaccountable circumstance, has not yet made its appearance in the shops of our booksellers, we beg leave to present the public with a few quotations from it; reminding them, at the same time, of the imperfect idea of its merit that mutilated parts of the piece must be supposed to convey.

As it is probable that a new edition of this Poem will speedily be published, the public will then have the gratification of reading it entire.

PREFACE

TO THE

NINTH EDITION OF THE POEM

ON THE

HAPPINESS OF AMERICA.

THIS Poem having passed through eight editions in little more than four years, without having been accompanied with any introduction or preface, the writer hopes he shall escape every uncandid imputation, in offering, with this edition, his acknowledgments for the flattering reception it has met with from the public, together with some of the motives which originally engaged him in this performance.

The writer is happy that he has chosen a subject more inter esting than almost any other to the feelings of his countrymen, and that the topics introduced in its discussion have not proved unsatisfactory to those for whose entertainment the work was designed. To these causes, rather than to its intrinsic value as a composition, he attributes the distinguished regard with which it has been honoured.

The United States of America, when first assuming their place as a nation among the nations of the earth, presented a momentous and awful spectacle to mankind; for the political welfare of the species seemed, in some sort, involved in the event. theatre was vast, the plot new, the parts important, and the con、

The

duct of the action for a long time so doubtful, as to produce distressing apprehensions respecting its termination. The Americans, whose exertions and sufferings had been rewarded by the acquisition of Independence, were, however, at the end of the war, surrounded with threatening prospects. In these circumstances the writer endeavoured to show his countrymen the superior advantages for happiness which they possessed; to dissipate their gloomy apprehensions, by the exhibition of consolatory anticipations; and to make them think favourably of their own situation when compared with that of other nations. Many circumstances conspired to give facility to the execution of the task he had imposed on himself. The ideas were principally suggested by the peculiarity of our condition. We began our political career, in a great measure, free from the prejudice, and favoured with the knowledge of former ages and other nations. The amiable innocence and simplicity of manners which resulted from the present state of society in America, offered a curious subject for philosophical contemplation. Our minds, imperceptibly impressed with the novelty, beauty, or sublimity of surrounding objects, gave energy to the language which expressed our sensations. While the shades of changing nature, which diversified the scenery through all the intermediate stages of settlement and population, from the rude grandeur of a wilderness to the pleasant landscapes of cultivation, afforded an extensive field for variegated description. To an assemblage of such magnificent images, so proper for poetry, were added, a multitude of incidents derived from the delights of agricultural life, the blessings of enlightened society, and the progress of human improvements. The author, by thus availing himself of circumstances, was enabled to gratify an early and decided propensity for contemplating the beauties of creation, especially under that point of view in which they are most conspicuously beneficial to his fellow men.

Since this Poem was written, by the establishment of a general government, and the concurrence of fortunate events, scenes of happienss have been realized in this country, which were considered by some altogether chimerical. And the prospects which are now expanding before our view, seem peculiarly calculated to excite us to greater exertions, not only for promoting the national prosperity, but even for producing such examples in civil policy, as will tend essentially to the amelioration of the human lot.

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