Prior centuries leading up to the 18th were period of time where profit ranked higher percentages rather than sufficiency. In the 16th century profits were 5% where as the sufficiency was the remainder of 95%. As the centuries progressed by the profits began to take over. In the early centuries, the mind frame was that one had to survive before one could make a living. Little did the people of the time know if only they were able to survive to the 18th century where change reigned.
The American colonists of the 18th century were slow to develop academic and artistic pursuits upon the influx in time allotted within the concentrations of literature and science; colonist began to rapidly refine their academic and artistic pursuits. Literature dominated this trend change but another concept was science. In 1743, Ben observed that northeast storms begin in the southwest. He thought it was odd that storms travel in an opposite direction to their winds. He predicted that a storm’s course could be plotted. Therefore, in a way, Ben was a weatherman too!
He even printed weather forecasts in his Almanack. Since Ben spent so much time sailing to Europe across the Atlantic Ocean, he became very interested in both ocean currents and shipbuilding. Ben was actually one of the first people to chart the Gulf Stream. He measured its temperature on each of his eight voyages and was able to chart the Stream in detail. In June of 1752, Franklin was in Philadelphia, waiting for the steeple on top of Christ Church to be completed for his experiment (the steeple would act as the “lightning rod”).
He grew impatient, and decided that a kite would be able to get close to the storm clouds just as well. Also at age 46, Franklin developed another device to help him understand electricity, called lightning bells. These bells would jingle when lightning was in the air. Franklin wore glasses, and after the age of 40, he needed another pair for reading. To solve that problem, he split the lenses of each pair of glasses, such that the top half was for distances and the bottom half was for reading. In this way, he would not have to constantly change his glasses.
This was the invention of the bifocal glasses. Ben examined medicine and invented the medical instrument known as a catheter in order to treat his ill brother. He also formulated theories about the circulation of blood in humans. Franklin was always noticing problems or irritations and trying to solve them. For example, when he noticed the problem of heating houses, Franklin invented a type of stove that would do the job more effectively. This was called the Franklin stove. Another famous scientific figure was John Bartram.
Bartram is considered the “father of American Botany”, and was one of the first practicing Linnaean botanists in North America. His plant specimens were forwarded to Linnaeus, Dillenius and Gronovius and he assisted Linnaeus’ student Pehr Kalm during his extended collecting trip to North America in 1748-1750. The 18th century in Europe was The Age of Enlightenment and literature explored themes of social upheaval, reversals of personal status, political satire, geographical exploration and the comparison between the supposed natural state of man and the supposed civilized state of man.
Edmund Burke, in his A Vindication of Natural Society (1757), says: “The Fabrick of Superstition has in this our Age and Nation received much ruder Shocks than it had ever felt before; and through the Chinks and Breaches of our Prison, we see such Glimmerings of Light, and feel such refreshing Airs of Liberty, as daily raise our Ardor for more”. Self-Reliance is an essay written by American Transcendentalist philosopher and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
It contains the most solid statement of one of Emerson’s repeating themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. Emerson’s ideas are considered a reaction to a commercial identity; he calls for a return to individual identity. Writing types such as political essays, essays, journals, newspaper, and magazines. Obvious was the slight English influence on the colonist literature, which probably could have been deduced.
Cotton Mather played apart in the Salem witch trial. With the 1774 publication of Wheatley’s book Poems on Various Subjects; she “became the most famous African on the face of the earth. ” Voltaire stated in a letter to a friend that Wheatley had proved that black people could write poetry. John Paul Jones asked a fellow officer to deliver some of his personal writings to “Phyllis the African favorite of the Nine (muses) and Apollo. ” Many of America’s founding fathers also honored her, including George Washington.
Thomas Paine has a claim to the title The Father of the American Revolution because of Common Sense, the pro-independence monograph pamphlet he anonymously published on January 10, 1776; signed “Written by an Englishman”, the pamphlet became an immediate success. [17], it quickly spread among the literate, and, in three months, 100,000 copies sold throughout the American British colonies (with only two million free inhabitants), making it a best-selling work in eighteenth-century America. 18] Paine’s original title for the pamphlet was Plain Truth; Paine’s friend, pro-independence advocate Benjamin Rush, suggested Common Sense instead. Paine was not expressing original ideas in Common Sense, but rather employing rhetoric as a means to arouse resentment of the Crown. The pamphlet probably had little direct influence on the Continental Congress’s decision to issue a Declaration of Independence, since that body was more concerned with how declaring independence would affect the war effort. Propaganda also flourished as literary movement pursued.
Phil Gazette, which is a play on where we receive the word Gazetteer. Thomas Jefferson though an extremely popular political figure also forwarded the literature movement by publishing his political letters, announcements, and essays. Emily Dickenson alongside what we now know as the “Big 6” of literature was extreme individuals of the literature movement. Other naval and political figures contributed to literature. Literature is just the beginning to record data of what people have to say. Political figures such as John Adams, Crevecoeur, Ben West, and GW played tribute to literature.
Clearly, the subjects of literature and science sped up the development of the academic and artistic pursuits of the 18th century. This theme applies to modern day society in which survival is met by the responsibility of all stable family guardians so children of the 21st century are allowed and culpable to develop a skill in the arts scientifically or in any possible interest one might hold. The trend of literature allowed for the current world reading in order to study the basis and the origin of how their world came to be, through what major political events and also major works written by high officials.
