Note 622 — Chapter IV

Morse’s first acquaintance with Robison’s volume is thus explained by him: “The first copies which were sent to America, arrived at Philadelphia and New York, at both which places the re-printing of it was immediately undertaken, and the Philadelphia edition was completed ready for sale in the short space of 3 weeks. This was about the middle of April. Happening at this time to be in Philadelphia, and hearing the work spoken of in terms of the highest respect by men of judgment, one of them went so far as to pronounce it the most interesting work that the present century had produced; I was induced to procure a copy, which I brought home with me….” (Independent Chronicle, June 14, 1798.) In Sprague’s Life of Jedediah Morse, pp. 233 et seq., it is affirmed that Dr. Erskine, one of Morse’s Scottish correspondents, wrote Morse in January, 1797, informing him of the alarm which had sprung up in Europe with respect to the “conspiracy”, and calling attention to Robison’s volume which was then being prepared for the press.