1.
Edmund De Berry Covington Papers, SHC. The diary is a paginated
volume measuring 7 1/2 by 12 1/8 inches. The front flyleaf is inscribed
"The Literary 'Multi-Flora'/or/A Literary Miscellany/Devoted to Extracts,
prose and poetry,/English and Latin quotations, quaint/And pointed remarks,
Original/Compositions, Strange and unusual/Circumstances/'Legere sine calamo est dormice.'/Quintilian/Qui legit, in antiquis
temporibus, vivit/Norman.– /Nemo, nisi amicus, legat has literas./
E
D. Covington
.– /
A garden in which spring up the flowers of fancy/and the stout
shubery of fact.– Enter and pluck while yet it is unforbidden.
–
Norman/Commenced September 25th 184
2
1." The pages of the
diary are numbered from 1 to 206, but there are several gaps in pagination.
Covers and blank pages were discarded at some point. The earliest entry, dated
September 25, 1841,
Covington's
birthday, appears on page 113. The latest
entry is dated September 26, 1843. The journal includes compositions, poetry
written by
Covington
or copied from other sources, "Gleanings
from my reading," and several "Phillippics" addressed to his
mathematics professor
James
Phillips
. The September 25, 1843, entry appears on page 167 of the
journal; the October 3, 1843, "Papers," on pages 69 to 70.
Covington
(1823-45) graduated in 1844 and died the
following year of pneumonia.
2.
John
Abercrombie,
Inquiries Concerning the Intellectual Powers, and
the Investigation of Truth, with additions and Explanations to Adapt the Work
to the Use of Schools and Academies, by
Jacob
Abbott
(Boston: Otis, Boarders, [1833]).
7. The "next page" of
Covington's
journal has not survived. The first issue of
The North Carolina University
Magazine
appeared in March 1844 with eight articles, two poems, and
a "Publisher's Department" that reprinted short pieces drawn from
newspapers.