f our party bickerings, and to the
universal eagerness for political texts and their _commentary_.... Amid
such 'wild uproar' the gentle voice of the Muse is scarcely audible." In
these early years of the century literature was wretchedly paid. John
Davis, the vivacious English writer of travels, offered, in 1801, two
novels to any bookseller in the country who would publish them, on the
condition of receiving fifty copies. The booksellers of New York could
not, he said, undertake them, for they were dead of the fever. It is
interesting to find Dennie writing in his introduction, "Literary
industry, usefully employed, has a sort of draught upon the bank of
opulence, and has the right of entry into the mansion of every
Maecenas.... Authors far elevated above the mire of low avarice have
thought it debasement to make literature common and cheap."

[11] The editor of the _Aurora_ retorted in kind, and dubbed the _Port
Folio_ "Portable Foolery."

The _Port Folio_ at once sprang into popular favor. In the life of
Josiah Quincy, by his son, we read, "The _Port Folio_ was very far
superior in literary ability to any magazine or periodical ever before
attempted in this country. Indeed, it was no whit behind the best
English magazines of that day, and would bear no unfavorable comparison
with those of the present time on either side of the water. Its
influence was greatly beneficial in raising the standard of literary
taste in this country, and in creating a demand for a higher order of
periodical literature and for more exact and careful editorship."

Dennie was a daring and devoted lover of England. He had no patience
with American innovations that, as it seemed to him, were certain to
lose history by being severed from the traditions of England. When the
doctrine of social equality was flaunted before him, or the glittering
clauses of the Declaration of Independence were quoted to him, his
indignation forgot all discretion. He was soon bandying hot words with
the _Aurora_, and marking with his scorn every new phase of Americanism.
Speaking in his editorial person he declared:

"To gratify the malignancy of fanatics he will not asperse the
Government or the Church, the laws or the literature of England.
Remembering that we are _at peace_ with that power--that the most
wholesome portions of our polity are modelled from hers--that we kneel
at shrines and speak a language common to both, he will not flagitiously
and foolishly