her to lament that she was not able to read it; but the At idle, for she afterwards devoted her time to fishing, at which she was very expert, and even at this late period, when her sight had so entirely left her, she would frequently row herself out into the middle of the stream, from which she seldom returned without a handsome supply for her master's table. About the one hundred and second year of her age, her sight gradually returned, and improved so far, that she could perceive objects moving before her, though she could not distinguish persons. Before she died her hair became perfectly white, and the last of her teeth dropt sound from her head at the age of 116 years. At this age she died, (1802) at Bristol, in Pennsylvania. LENGTH OF THE SQUARES IN CITY PLOT. An account has lately been published in different papers respecting the size of the squares, which gives an ncorrect result-stating the distance from Delaware to Schuylkill at 4,893 feet. We, therefore, publish the following statement, which we believe to be more nearly correct. The distance on Cedar street is somewhat greater than on High street. Square Willow st. Beech st. Ashton st. Front st. Square Second st. Square Fourth st. Fifth st. Square Sixth st. Square Seventh st. Broad st. Square 50 396 620 5067 113 495 50 396 396 396 396 396 250 250 Square Fifth st. Square 50 749 4622 6 5,371 6 City, and the Commissioners of the Districts, to approIt is respectfully suggested to the Councils of the priate a certain sum, to ascertaining the number of hou ses and families within those limits. As persons will shortly be engaged by the Marshal to take the census, we presume, that for a small additional compensation, they would undertake to obtain this information also, which would be interesting, and lead to some desirable calculations connected with the Census. If an account of the various manufactories, could also be added, the result, we have no doubt, would be very gratifying to our citizens. We will make one more suggestion connected with this subject: It is very desirable to know exactly the increase of the City by new buildings annually, and we can think of no better plan than requir Length of Squares East and West; Beginning at Schuylkill low water mark on CEDAR st. ing every person intending to build, to report to the 396 Thence to Water st. 400 60 50 620 Square 396 267 396 Tenth st. Commissioners' office, the number and size of each 240 Ninth st. 273 Square 396 Seventh st. 50 50 50 Total in feet, 50 50 50 50 Square Third st. Square 50 60 Front st. 50 Penn st. 396 396 50 Viz: From Schuylkill to Broad, 395.9 500 402 130 78 1501 10847.3 2,794 barrels of Flour, weighing 105 barrels of Whiskey, 367 barrels of Fish, Tons, 5687 6548 3 113 50 90 50 32 50 44 51 235 50 51 370 400 3 396 396 Account of articles that passed on the Union Canal from the 30th of April, to the 7th of May in 100 boats. 43 empty boats passed during the same time to Middle397 6 town, for loading. 400 473 3 282 tons. cwt. qrs. lbs. 0 322 12 15 0 23 12 2 423 18 0 156 00 0 49 112 51 00 3 0 13 1 19 000 73 0 1626 13 2 19 THE REGISTER OF PENNSYLVANIA. DEVOTED TO THE PRESERVATION OF EVERY KIND OF USEFUL INFORMATION RESPECTING THE STATE. VOL. V.-NO. 21. HISTORICAL NOTES, EDITED BY SAMUEL HAZARD. NO. 125 JAMES LOGAN, Of Stenton-near Germantown. country with Penn, he came to it as a place to hide him self from the cares of life, and with no wish or expecta tion to advance his fortune among us; but the reasons which he gives, in more advanced years, for changing his mind, are instructive, as they show that a religious I once had the privilege to see an original MSS. of man may moderately desire a measure of wealth with four pages, at Stenton, in the hand writing of James sincere purposes to make himself a better man, by atLogan, wherein he gave "his parentage and early life." taining the proper means of becoming most useful. His It appears that his father, Patrick, was born in Scot- words strike me as sufficiently sensible and very impres land, and there educated for a clergyman. For some sive, to wit: "When he was a young man, and Secretatime he served as a chaplain, but turning Quaker by ry to Penn, he felt an indifference to money, and deemconvincement, was obliged to go over to Ireland, and ed this a happy retirement for cultivating the Christian there to teach a Latin school; afterwards he taught at graces; but after he had some experience in life, findBristol, in England. While yet in Scotland, he marri-ing how little respect and influence could be usefully ed Isabel Hume; her family was related to the Laird of exerted without such competency as could give man a Dundas, and the Earl of Panmar. ready access to good society, he thenceforward set himself seriously to endeavor, by engagements in com. Besides those facts, related by James Logan, I have met with other facts of the early antiquity and distinc-merce, (a new track to him) to attain that consequence tion of his family, which, as it is but little known, I shall and weight which property so readily confers." In the inscribe from the Scotsman's Library, and from the me- same connection, he adds, "he never had the wish to moirs of the Somervilles, to wit: leave any large possessions to his posterity, from the be "The name of Logan is one of those derived from lo-lief that moderate fortunes were more beneficial legacality, and hence deemed the more honorable. It ap-cies than large ones." It is probably from these views pears in Scotch history at the early period of William of moderate bequests to heirs, that he was so libthe Lion, and throughout subsequent ages is connected eral to bestow his large library and other gifts to public with important national transactions. The Chief was purposes, rather than to his immediate heirs. Baron of Restalrig, and this house was connected by various intermarriages with most of the noble families in the kingdom, and even with Royalty itself, one of them having married a daughter of Robert 11. who granted him the lands of Grugar, by a charter addressed "militi dilecto fratri suo." In personal appearance James Logan was tall and well proportioned, with a graceful yet grave demeanor. He had a good complexion, and was quite florid, even in old age; nor did his hair, which was brown, turn grey in the decline of life, nor his eyes require spectacles. According to the fashion of the times he wore a powdered wig. His whole manner was dignified, so as to abash impertinence; yet he was kind and strictly just in all the minor duties of acquaintance and society. The engraved portrait is taken from a family piece now in the Loganian Library. As a man of learning, he stood pre-eminent. His business never led him off from his affections to the muses. He maintained a correspondence with several of the literati in Europe, and fostered science at home.— His aid to Godfrey the inventor of the quadrant, is in proof to this point; and his literary intercourse with Governor Hunter, Dr. Colden, Col. Morris, Dr. Johnstone, Dr. Jenny, Governor Burnet, and others, at New York and elsewhere in our country, show how much his mind was turned to the love of science, and to its disciples wherever found. In the year 1699, then in his twenty-fifth year, he was solicited by William Penn to accompany him to Pennsylvania, as his Secretary, &c. where, in time, he fell into the general charge of all his business; but from motives of tenderness to his harrassed principal, he never charged but £100 a year for all his numerous services, for many years. This was itself a lively proof of his liberality and disinterested zeal for a good man, and showed him at once a faithful and generous friend. Steadfast as he was to his honored principal,it is hardly possible to conceive how irksome and perplexing his duties, so moderately charged, always were. In his MSS. book of letters to the proprietaries is preserved a long detail of them, such as they were in general, drawn up by him about the year 1729, as reasons to show why he so earnestly prayed to be excused from further ser-him long to his home. He there endeavored to fortify vitude, saying, it injured his health, and much trespass-his mind, like Cicero before him, in cultivating the best ed upon the time due to his proper business as a mer-feelings of old age, by keeping his mind and attachments chant, &c. young and cheerful. To this cause he translated CiceWhen James Logan first consented to come to this ro de Senectute into English, a work which when pub VOL. V. 41 As he advanced in life, he much desired to give up the cares of business. He retired altogether to his country place at Stenton, hoping there to enjoy himself otium cum dignitate. Still, however, Penn's business and official employs were occasionally pressed upon him; especially in cases of Indian affairs; because, in them he had merited the peculiar affection and confidence of the Indian tribes, they often visiting his grounds and remaining there some time under his hospitality. As he grew in years, he met with the injury of a limb, which confined James Logan had several brothers and sisters, but none of them lived long, except his brother William, who became a physician of eminence in Bristol. James Logan was born at Lurgan in Ireland, on the 20th October, 1674; he had learned Latin, Greek, and some Hebrew, even before he was thirteen years of age. While in Bristol, he assisted his father as a teacher. In his sixteenth year he instructed himself in the mathemat ics, a science in which he afterwards showed much ability in our country, as a scientific correspondent. At nineteen years of age he had studied French, Italian, and Spanish. lished was imputed erroneously to Dr. Franklin, who was only the printer. He died in 1751, aged 77 years, and lies interred at Friends' Arch street ground. [Vil. Tel. have not removed the strong probability of future pecuniary need. Upon the munificence of philanthropic citzens, the Managers still anxiously depend for ability as well to meet its increasing necessities, as to expand the circle of its benefits. It requires constant replenishment to supply the loss of books unfit for use, by accidental or unavoidable injuries, and the accession of current works of sterling and enduring value. The mem AN ADDRESS, Delivered, at the request of the Board of Managers of the APPRENTICES' LIBRARY COMPANY, of Phil-bers on whose annual contributions of two dollars each, adelphia, in the Hall of the Franklin Institute, on the 26th of March, 1830. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: Br J. R. TrYSON. the library chiefly relies for present succour and future augmentation, fluctuate in number from year to year.Since the yearly report for 1829, though nearly 1500 volumes have been added to the collection, its friends have no assurance of its prospective growth, commensu rately with the increase of applications. Without impropriety it may therefore be remarked, that an estab lishment which promises so much honour to this City, and such high Seneficial consequence to the country at large, strongly addresses itself to the patronage of all, and irresistibly to those whose benevolence has prompt ed them to explore the distant regions of Greece and Africa, for the dispensation of eleemosynary blessings. I appear before you in compliance with an invitation of the Board of Managers of the Apprentices' Library, to make some brief remarks on the subject of their institution. What, it may be demanded, can be said in favor of an establishment so meritorious which cannot readily be anticipated?-It can hardly be necessary for the purpose of recommending a public library to patronage, to advert to the effect of knowledge upon the general happiness of life, to insist that it is important to the social comforts of a free people, or that the permanence of our civil polity depends upon its diffusion. The age and country in which we live offer subjects These are truths of universal sanction, and require nei- for reflection and remark in connection with such an inther enforcement or defence. But, as Cicero has em- stitution as the Apprentices' Library. If the present phatically pronounced, the effort to instruct and infuse age be distinguishable from the generations which have virtuous principles into the youthful mind, "the highest gone "with those beyond the flood," it is in the rapid benefaction that can be rendered to one's country," the advancement of practical science, and the happy explo question may be seriously asked, whether an institution sion of ancient errors in regard to the subject of educa whose aim and object are the moral and intellectual im- tion. Art is overcoming the immensity of nature by provement of the junior portion of society-an institu- rendering the correspondence between distant and hithtion, which of all the means employed, is the most like-erto almost incommunicable regions as easy as between ly to produce this result, be deserving of neglect or in- neighboring parts of the same territory. Nature predifference? sents no impediments too untoward and formidable for The Association of the Apprentices' Library, formed resistance and conquest; rivers and inland seas are made about ten years ago, has struggied through many em- so many bighways to facilitate commerce, and minister barrassments which, while they have contracted the to the mutual necessities and luxuries of remote counsphere of its usefulness, sometimes disheartened the entries. Science has already abridged the quantity of terprising and benevolent individuals who have direct manual labour in the articles of use and comfort; it is ed its operations. From very slender beginnings the penetrating into every business, and furnishing light and library has grown to the number of 6000 volumes.-aid to most of the diversified operations of society. The These have been selected with competent judgment, spirit of improvement is not merely observable in the and the most scrupulous care to exclude all of a perni- march of profound or experimental science; its influ cious or questionable tendency, They comprise the ence is silently perceptible upon opinions concerning most valuable standard writers in the English Language, equal rights and universal education. Nations suppos on the various subjects of science and art; of history, ed for ages to be dead in slavery, are springing into biography, and travels; of good poetry and elegant lit political life. Liberal notions of human dignity and nat erature. Works of the light and grave cast, of the ele-ural equality are spreading over every clime; and edu mentary and profound character, are judiciously min- cation to secure them is beginning to be cultivated. gled. The library offers books which would furnish a Shall the people of this country take the van or the rear Sound and healthful repast either to the lettered and in this march of intellect? Shall only the common mind scientific, or the illiterate and uncientific student. Here languish and feel no revival in this general impulse?may be found materials for accomplishing the mind with Shall we supinely enjoy the diversified blessings scatuseful knowledge, and imbuing the heart with honour- tered so prodigally around us, and show, by neglecting able sentiments and virtuous resolves. From it may be the means to preserve them, that we are unworthy of supplied the nutritious aliment which will nourish the their continuance? It is here knowledge should erect child of genius, and sustain him already advanced in sta- her temple, and gather around her the sons of freedom. fure. Who can calculate the vast blessings which may Here schools and libraries should be established be diffused through the instrumentality of such a libra- far and wide the seeds of intelligence and virtue. ry? The number of boys and young men rescued from Knowledge should be the inseparable attribute of man. indulgence in dissipated habits and evil companionship Without it he can neither fulfil the high purposes, not by the instructive lessons of its volumes, and the thirst ascend to the proper elevation of his being. It should of information which their circulation must excite? The not therefore be confined to men of opulence and lei benefits which will result to individuals, families and so- sure; to the learned professions and the mercantile class; ciety by a transformation of their moral&intellectual cha- but, common as the breath of heaven, it should be libe racter? Little aid from fancy is required to suppose, that rally dispensed to the lowest employment in the scale of of the 6000 individuals who are said to have partaken of manual labour. the advantages of this library, many, who, from the mere destitution of the means of knowledge, would have grown To prevent misconception, I may here, in passing, up in ignorance, and vice, its almost inseparable con- an intention to exclude from it those who were not at comitant, have imbibed a taste for liberal studies, and quiring a mechanical business. The term, 'Apprenti. are laying the foundation for future respectability and ces,' as applied to the Library, was used in a more libe usefulness. The public spirited legacies of John Gran-ral and extensive sense. Its volumes were designed to dom and William McKenzie, constitute the only perma- be, as they always have been, accessible to young men nent fund to which the association can look beyond the of every walk in life, who are desirous of improvement. year with confidence; and though these have certainly revived the prospects of the institution, and relieved it from the pressure of a part of its embarrassments, they BOW had great acquirements are unattainable in the busy transac An opinion has sometimes been whispered, that as TYSON'S ADDRESS. 1830.] tions of life, all attempts at mental cultivation would 323 led by a constant and assiduous culture." The hideousness of the moral aspect of Turkey where learning is in disrepute, is very extensively known. The hapless conditions of ill-fated Greece and oppressed Ireland confessedly arise from the same fruitful source of violence and crime. Examples need not be multiplied; for the experience of every nation, the observation of every day, proclaim the benefits of universal education. "A little learning is a dang'rous thing,-" But while I contend for the compatibility of knowlwith the humblest offices of society, I admit that there is a sort of reading indulged in, which would prob ably interfere with the creditable but laborious duties of the mechanic. I mean novels, plays, and poetry of the sickly or dreamy cast. They produce a morbid sensibility and false delicacy, vitiate the intellectual appetite, and undermine every manly trait of character. Pernu-haps most of the two former are mischievous, even when read for amusement; they frequently do harm and seldom do good. But these are objections which apply to that species of reading in reference to all ranks in society; if a difference exist, it must refer to those only who are engaged in the active walks of life, in which a wholesome perception of plain realities, unmixed with fantastical chimeras about the present, and romantic visions of the future, is requisite to the integrity of their practical views and purposes. All inordinate excitement of the imagination is positively injurious. It makes us dissatisfied with our present condition, destroys the If it be esteemed an authority favourable to ignorance, which usually give pleasure, blunt the edge of sensibileffect of those ordinary occurrences of domestic life that of the poet Campbell can be produced in opposiity to real enjoyment or woe, and is adverse to the usetion, for he has directly impugned the sentiment. But I humbly submit that the popular acceptation of the passage is erroneous. The remaining verse of the distich, "Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring;" plainly shows that he referred to poetical taste and judgment, which, in truth, were the drift and theme of the elegant poem from which it is extracted. Independent ly of the sage legal maxim "qui hæret in litera, hæret in cortice," and the explanation given by the context, a single consideration will discover the impropriety of a literal interpretation. A tyro in letters has "a little learning," and Pope who was a votary of knowledge, could not despise what the studious adventurer in the beginning of his inquiries, must unavoidably possess.And yet this notion of denouncing incipient efforts, is as much countenanced by the phraseology of the couplet, as the belief that he wished to exclude those from reading altogether whose fortune or pursuits do not justify that uninterrupted devotion of mind, so necessary to success in exploring the secrets of science. As an admirer of truth, a lover of recondite study, and zealot in the cause of mental expansion, he might inveigh against crude opinions and superficial research. False reasoning in criticism, he might be sensible, was the result of partial inquiry and imperfect light,and that these were the parents of foolish pride or incurable error in questions of literature; but he could not suppose that the practical benefits of the latter were countervailed or extinguished. ful faculties of the mind; the attention, memory, and "quæ non fecimus ipsi But it has been urged by the enemies of this library that cultivation of the mind is at variance with the requisitions, and inimical to the interests, of the manual employments. If indeed the education of mechanics is to be approached as an abstract question of suitableness or expediency, to say nothing of the exertions of our New England brethren, the experiments of Germany and Scotland remove every difficulty. Knowledge is Act well your part, there all the honour lies." there diffused with an undistinguishing liberality. No It must be acknowledged, that if the laboring class individual is too humble to be denied its advantages.- have sunk into comparative disesteem, the cause has And where shall we find in Europe such persevering in- arisen in a great measure from themselves. Many indi dustry, unambitious content, tenacious honesty, and ar- viduals whose early life was spent, or who are actually dent love of country, as mark the lower orders of Ger- engaged in the manual operations of society, are distinmany and Scotland? Vice on the contrary is usually as-guished for the respectable character of their general sociated with ignorance. We have the elegant testimo- attainments, their enterprize in laudable undertakings, ny of Addison, that "the mind which lies fallow for a their stern sense of honour, and disinterested public spi. single day, sprouts up in follies that are only to be kil-rit. But very many, from the neglect which it is the object of this institution to alter, of intellectual and moral culture, cannot aspire to social participation with others of their brethren. By due improvement of the individuals composing the class, it will assume a station entitling its professors to increased regard, and commanding adequate influence. pia. Under the friendly tutelage of this learned and amiable gentleman, Godfrey became a profound mathematician. He has added credit to the genius of his country, by the invention of the instrument since known by the unjust appellation of Hadley's Quadrant.-David Rittenhouse was born in Montgomery county, and folTalents are not confined to wealth and noble ances- lowed the plough till his eighteenth or nineteenth year. try. Of the geniuses who have adorned the different His biographer informs us, that when at this employages of the world, perhaps more have come from the ment, the handles and every portion of the plough as humble, than the exalted walks of life. The annals of well as the fence at each end of the furrows, were alGreece and Rome, and of modern Europe, teem with ways filled with geometical figures. He suffered much men of low origin or rigorous pursuits, whose names inconvenience, from the want of books in the early pehave shed an imperishable lustre over their respective riod of his career. But overcoming every barrier, he countries. Epictetus, Esop, Phædrus, and Terence distinguished himself for his daring inquiries into the were originally slaves, and indebted either to accident, profoundest truths of philosophy. Learned bodies in or the indulgence of their masters, for their manumis- this country and abroad, tendered him the honor of felsion. Demosthenes, perhaps the greatest orator of an- lowship, and he preceded Franklin in the chair of the cient or modern times, was the son of a blacksmith, and American Philosophical Society. His Planetarian will being deprived of his estate by the cupidity of his guar-long be regarded as a monument of mechanical genius, dians, owed his education to his own exertions and assi- while his labours in other respects have largely contri duity. Horace himself was poor and the son of a freed-buted to the cause of science, and added much to the man, and Plautus, at an early age, entered into the fam intellectual reputation of his country.-Robert Fulton ily of a baker, as a menial servant. It is well known was born and educated in Lancaster county. Though that many of those who have conferred intellectual re- not a mechanic by profession, yet as his patrimony was nown on modern Europe, sprung from the humblest of so slender that he is always said to have been "the artithe people. They almost equal the stars of the firma- ficer of his own fortune," and while a youth, was so dement in number. If we limit ourselves to the last cen- voted to the mechanic arts as to be almost constantly in tury, we have Dodsley, the author of The Economy of the shops of the neighbourhood, he may fairly be enuhuman life," Simpson, Ferguson, Edmund Stone, Men-merated. He remained in this state till his 21st year, delsohn, Herschell, and a multitude of others whose ear- when at the solicitation of his friends, he embarked for ly indigence and parental obscurity are lost in the splen- England, to cultivate his talents for the fine arts, under dour of their future fame. The poverty of the English West, his illustrious countryman. His genius was soon Poet is so proverbial, that the garret is assigned by com unfolded,& he has rendered his name immortal, in the suc mon consent, as his proper abode. Cowley, Shakspeare, cessful application of steam to navigation.—The poverBen. Johson, Otway, Butler, Robert Burns, and a host ty and orphanage of John Watson, seemed to oppose of others, were as remarkable for their obscure origin, insuperable bars to distinction, by means of knowledge. or humble pursuits in early life, as their fine genius af. He was placed at the age of twelve, with a man who terwards rendered them illustrious and great. kept both a store and tavern, in the interior of Pennsyl vania. In this situation he remained till his 19th year, alternately engaged behind the counter and in the bar, Being forbidden to use any of a collection of books, owned by his mistress, he abstracted them secretly, and read them by stealth. This practice being discovered, the book case was locked, and the key secured. But no obstacle could repress or abate his ardor for knowledge. He broke down every impediment, and became one of the greatest scholars of his time. Besides an intimate acquaintance with history, the Belles Lettres, moral philosophy and metaphysics, he added extensive philological learning. He combined with a familiar knowledge of the Roman and Greek tongues, the Hebrew and Arabic, and the Italian, French, and Spanish. The biography of our own country is pregnant with similar instances. Of the very Committee selected by the First Congress, to draft a Declaration of Indepen. dence from Great Britain, were two individuals, originally poor mechanies. I allude to Roger Sherman and Benjamin Franklin. The former was a shoemaker, and wrought at that employment till his 23d year. While at labour, with his last upon his knee, it is related, he placed before him or at his side, a book which was the constant object of his study. Sherman afterwards became eminent as a lawyer and a statesman; was elected a member of the First Continental Congress; assisted in framing the Constitution of the United States; and held a seat under it successively in the lower and upper houses of Congress. Benjamin Franklin, first a soap-boiler and tallow-chandler, and then an apprentice to the Printing business, afterwards enjoyed some of the most elevated stations in the gift of the nation. Added to his political honours, he became President of the American Philosophical Society, and lived to see his name connected with those who were destined to be cherished in grateful recollection, as the champions of liberty, and the benefactors of science. Nor has our own state been wanting to furnish a due contingent.ly eligible. This library is not established to foster inThe names of Godfrey, Rittenhouse, Fulton, and Wat-dolence under the pretence of unfitness; but to encour son, protrude themselves in bold relict from the multi-age industry and to make it well-directed and intellitude. Thomas Godfrey was a native of Germantown. gent. It is to enable young persons to prepare themAfter learning to read and write, and acquiring "a little selves by practical information and sound principles, for Arithmetic," he was placed an apprentice with a very pursuing in after life with propriety their respective oc poor man to be taught the trade of a Glazier. Happen- cupations; and to fulfil all the relative, social, and reli ing to meet with a mathematical book, owned by his gious duties pertaining to them as men and Christmaster, he pored over it without an instructor, and after ians. devouring that and every treatise which he could find To apprentices, therefore, who partake of this libra in English on the mathematics, he applied himself with- ry, I would especially say, let the acquisition of your out aid, and under every imaginable discouragement,to respective trades be the leading object of your study. the acquisition of Latin. James Logan, with whom he Learn the various branches of your several callings, so was contemporary, relates that when he was able to un- far as they can be known, during the period of appren derstand authors in that language, on his favourite sub-ticeship. Attend to each branch, for each must be use jec', he solicited from him the loan of Newton's Princiful. By this course you will infallibly secure esteem; In citing these as examples of the success of great abilities in vanquishing the obstacles of fortune, I must not be understood as recommending them to the imita tion of all. These are individuals above the popular lev el, whom nature intended for distinction and excellence, They were designed for a different sphere than that in which untoward adversity had placed them. But in the great plurality of cases, inclination and capacity coincide to render a manual employment entirely fit and special |
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