te of his own nature, to Logan and to
Philadelphia when he wrote: "The Greek and Roman authors, forgotten on
their native banks of the Ilissus and Tiber, delight by the kindness of
a Logan the votaries to learning on those of the _Delaware_." The
eagerness of Philadelphia social circles for each new thing in
literature enabled booksellers to import large supplies from England and
to undertake splendid editions of notable books. Dr. Johnson was made to
feel amiable for a moment toward America on being presented with a copy
of _Rasselas_ bearing a Philadelphia imprint.

The first American editions of Shakespeare and of Milton, of "Pamela"
and of "The Vicar of Wakefield" were printed in Philadelphia. In the
same city, in 1805, Aristotle's "Ethics" and "Politics" were published
for the first time in America. A little later came the costly
"Columbiad" and the great volumes of Alexander Wilson. Robert Aitken, at
the Pope's Head, issued the first English Bible in America in 1782, and
his daughter, Jane, printed Charles Thomson's translation of the
Septuagint in four superb volumes in 1808. Robert Bell successfully
compiled Blackstone's _Commentaries_ in 1772, "a stupendous enterprise."
Bell did much by his good taste and untiring industry to advance the
literary culture of the city. "The more books are sold," he declared in
one of his broadsides, "the more will be sold, is an established Truth
well known to every liberal reader, and to every bookseller of
experience. For the sale of one book propagateth the sale of another
with as much certainty as the possession of one guinea helpeth to the
possession of another."

"The Philadelphiad" (1784) gives us a glimpse of the motley society that
loitered in Bell's Third Street shop.

"Just by St. Paul's, where dry divines rehearse,
_Bell_ keeps his store for vending prose and verse,
And books that's neither--for no age nor clime,
Lame, languid prose, begot on hobb'ling ryme.
Here authors meet who ne'er a sprig have got,
The poet, player, doctor, wit and sot;
Smart politicians wrangling here are seen
Condemning Jeffries or indulging spleen,
Reproving Congress or amending laws,
Still fond to find out blemishes and flaws;
Here harmless _sentimental-mongers_ join
To praise some author or his wit refine,
Or treat the mental appetite with lore
From Plato's, Pope's, and Shakespeare's endless store;
Young blushing writers, eager for the bays,
Try here t