Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

This commonplace book, marked Volume II, contains extracts of newspapers and books, largely from the Philadelphia area, but also including London and other locations. The subject matter is wide-ranging, from "Aphorisms on Man" by Johann Lavater to copies of an article on the unearthing of human remains at Hanover, Pennsylvania. A portion of the articles pertain to agriculture, including methods of preserving seeds, methods of keeping mice from eating grain, and notes on high-yielding crops.

This commonplace book, marked Volume II, contains extracts of newspapers and books, largely from the Philadelphia area, but also including London and other locations. The subject matter is wide-ranging, from "Aphorisms on Man" by Johann Lavater to copies of an article on the unearthing of human remains at Hanover, Pennsylvania. One respects a Springfield neighborhood cat that would return with captured quails and rabbits. A portion of the articles pertain to agriculture, including methods of preserving seeds, methods of keeping mice from eating grain, and notes on high-yielding crops.

Among the newspapers represented are the Pennsylvania Mercury, Philadelphia Gazette, Columbian Magazine, Federal Gazette, London General Advertiser, Dunlap's and Claypool's Daily Advertiser, and Universal Magazine.

The following list suggests the breadth of subjects that interested the compiler:

• French Revolution (Pennsylvania Mercury, February 1, 1791)
• Publius Lentulus's letter to Caesar describing Jesus Christ (apparently published in a newspaper, June 1, 1791)
• Aphorisms on Man by Johann Lavater
• A Thomas Paine letter in answer to Burke's attack on the French Revolution (Columbian Magazine, April 1791)
• Available returns of the census (Federal Gazette, August 31, 1791)
• An article on a London woman, age 117 ("a London paper")
• An article on Forsyth's discovery of a process of regenerating trees (London General Advertiser, July 9, [1791?])
• Relationship between the style and substance of a composition
• "An etemporal [sic.] Sermon on Malt. preached at the request of two Scholars, by a lover of Ale, out of a hallow Tree"
• "Out of W. Robertson's Charles V," American edition, volume II, page 352.
• An article on a Philadelphia man, age 108 (Pennsylvania Gazette, December 26, 1792)
• A review of William Coxe's Travels in Switzerland
• "Cyder," a brief article on apple trees that produced extraordinary amounts of apples ("Boston," October 7, 1793)
• Notes on the births and deaths of prominent French persons (Dunlap's and Claypool's Daily Advertiser, January 31, 1794)
• An article on a Springfield neighborhood cat that would return with captured quails and rabbits (Dunlap's Paper, February 3, 1794)
• An article on an enslaved mother who gave birth to a child with two heads--one white, one black (Philadelphia Gazette, March 12, 1794)
• A description of the development of Cooperstown (Philadelphia Gazette, May 2, 1794)
• On the incomprehensibility of 270,000,000 (London Morning Chronicle, 1794)
• A method of preserving seeds (Universal Magazine, November 1793)
• A method of preventing mice from eating grain
• Values of states' exports (Philadelphia Gazette, June 9, 1794)
• A poem on whiskey (Philadelphia Gazette, August 13, 1794)
• Temperatures at New Milford, Connecticut (July 22)
• Brief notes on a bean plant that produced 250 pods at Scituate (September 25, 1794)
• An earthquake at Smyrna (Dunlap's Paper, October 23, 1794)
• The unearthing of human remains at Hanover, Pennsylvania (General Advertiser, January 14, 1795)
• On matrimony (Philadelphia Gazette, February 23, 1795)

This collection is comprised of five volumes of copied passages from magazines, newspapers, speeches, and other literary sources, on subjects such as religion, history, philosophy, economics, science, and fiction. Also included is a handwritten essay on "Physical and Moral Courage," and a Wilmington, Delaware, bond related to the estate of Edwin A. Wilson, April 1, 1859.

This collection is comprised of five volumes of copied passages from magazines, newspapers, speeches, and other literary sources, on subjects such as religion, history, philosophy, economics, science, and fiction. Also included is a handwritten essay on "Physical and Moral Courage," and a Wilmington, Delaware, bond related to the estate of Edwin A. Wilson, April 1, 1859.

The creator of these commonplace books, writing in a dense, consistent hand, recorded passages from a wide range of authors that include Plato, Aristotle, Tertullian, Geoffrey Chaucer, Martin Luther, Nathanial Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, Baden Powell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and others. Publication notices and excerpts of literary reviews are frequently noted. Passages often include references to the author or the publication source. Latin, Greek, and Hebrew words or lines periodically appear as well.

Included in the collection is a handwritten essay, titled, "Physical and Moral Courage", exploring these ideas within the framework of Ancient Spartan society, as well as their relationship to the legacy of Julius Caesar. A partially-printed bond dated April 1, 1859, from Joseph C. Seed to David Craig and William Tatnall in Wilmington, Delaware, pertains to the estate of Edwin A. Wilson.

• The Atlantic Monthly
• The British Quarterly Review
• The Christian Examiner
• Debow's Review
• The London Lancet: A Journal of British and Foreign Medical and Chemical Science, Criticism, Literature, and News
• The London Quarterly Review
• The National Review
• The New York Tribune
• The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, and Science
• The Spectator
• The Weekly Caucasian
• The Westminster Review