Brown's place in the history of fiction is due to the fact that he introduced the Gothic romance to American literature. He loved to subject the weird, the morbid, the terrible, to a psychological analysis. In this respect he suggests Hawthorne, although there are more points of difference than of likeness between him and the great New England romancer. In weird subject matter, but not in artistic ability, he reminds us of Poe. Brown could devise striking incidents, but he lacked the power to weave them together in a well-constructed plot. He sometimes forgot that important incidents needed further elaboration or reference, and he occasionally left them suspended in mid-air. His lack of humor was too often responsible for his imposing too much analysis and explanation on his readers. Although he did not hesitate to use the marvelous in his plots, his realistic mind frequently impelled him to try to explain the wonderful occurrences. He thus attempted to bring in ventriloquism to account for the mysterious voices which drove Wieland to kill his wife and children. It is, however, not difficult for a modern reader to become so much interested in the first volume of _Arthur Mervyn_ as to be unwilling to leave it unfinished. Brown will probably be longest remembered for his strong pictures of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, his use of the Indian in romance, and his introduction of the outdoor world of the wilderness and the forest. POETRY--THE HARTFORD WITS The Americans were slow to learn that political independence could be far more quickly gained than literary independence. A group of poets, sometimes known as the Hartford Wits, determined to take the kingdom of poetry by violence. The chief of these were three Yale graduates, Timothy Dwight, Joel Barlow, and John Trumbull. TIMOTHY DWIGHT (1752-1817).--Before he became president of Yale, Dwight determined to immortalize himself by an epic poem. He accordingly wrote the _Conquest of Canaan_ in 9671 lines, beginning:-- "The Chief, whose arms to Israel's chosen band Gave the fair empire of the promis'd land, Ordain'd by Heaven to hold the sacred sway, Demands my voice, and animates the lay." [Illustration: TIMOTHY DWIGHT] This poem is written in the rocking horse couplets of Pope, and it is well-nigh unreadable to-day. It is doubtful if twenty-five people in our times have ever read it through. Even where the author essays fine writing, as in the lines:-- "On spicy shores, where beauteous morning reigns, Or Evening lingers o'er her favorite plains," there is nothing to awaken a single definite image, nothing but glittering generalities. Dwight's best known poetry is found in his song, _Columbia_, composed while he was a chaplain in the Revolutionary War:-- "Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, The queen of the world, and the child of the skies."