national taste, and has palsied the general prosperity. Whatever apologies may be made for these political discussions, by ascribing them to an honest difference in opinion, there can be none offered for the style and manner in which they are conducted. In reading the classical works of the ancients, we are astonished at the violations of decorum which appear in their most polite and accomplished authors, who frequently use expressions that no modern writer dare adopt without the certainty of condemnation. But if we excel the ancients in this respect, we are far behind them in other branches of literary good morals. The style of our political writings has assumed a character of rude invective, and unrestrained licentiousness, unparalleled in any other part of the world; and which has greatly tended to injure our national character. This has principally arisen from the indiscriminate applause that has been conferred upon certain eminent political writers. We imitate what we are taught to admire, and unfortunately we have aped their boldness of invective, and fierceness of denunciation, without exhibiting those fascinations of genius, which operate like the cestus of Venus, conceal deformity, and heighten all the charms of beauty and grace. Junius arose in the literary, like a comet in the natural, world, menacing pestilence and war, and denouncing, in a style of boldness and invective before unknown and unheard of, the constituted authorities of Great Britain. When we analyze his writings, we find no extraordinary power of imagination—no uncommon extent of erudition—no remarkable solidity of reasoning. His topics are few; but he was master of his subject. He possessed, in a singular degree, the vivida vis animi:* his conceptions were distinct and luminous, and he expressed them with peculiar point and sententious compression; but the polished keenness of his invective * Lucretius. too often degenerated into vulgar scurrility. His importance was greatly enhanced by the mystery which surrounded his person---the panic which followed his denunciations--and the celebrity which was attached to his literary antagonists. He created a new era in political writing; his works have become the architype and the text book of political authors; and every juvenile writer, who enters the political lists, endeavours to bend the bow of Ulysses, and in striving to make up in venom what he wants in vigour, mistakes scurrility for satire, ribaldry for wit, and confounds the natron of Egypt with the salt of Attica. Secondly; after expressing my profound regret that those exalted and highly cultivated minds which have been engaged in polemic controver sies, had not bent more of their attention to literary investigations, I consider it my duty to remark, with every sentiment of respect and regard, that the medical profession, instead of making one harmonious and undivided effort in favour of enlarging the dominion of knowledge, have hitherto been called away from this opus basilicum, this sublime operation, by the prevalence of intestine feuds and animosities. It is unnecessary to explore the cause; perhaps it is inherent in the profession. The sources of most diseases are concealed from observation, and can only be the subject of conjecture. Add to this, that the same prescription which has succeeded in one case, may fail in another, owing to different constitutions, different seasons, and the action of other causes. "The matter is evident," says the profound Buffier," from the different arguments of physicians, and from their various opinions in the daily consultations. Nothing is more uncommon than to find physicians united in the same sentiments."* This constant and habitual tendency to collision has been seriously felt in this city. Instead of erecting one Treatise on First Truths, p. 60. grand temple dedicated to the healing art, we have had, at one time, three different seminaries in operation for medical instruction. Thirdly; there have been great inertness and backwardness, on the part of the legal profession, to encourage general literature. After the forms of a preliminary education are passed, the lawyer is too apt to devote himself exclusively to the learning of his profession; and, as many of our lawgivers and statesmen are derived from this source, we cannot but perceive and regret this dearth of general knowledge in our legislatures, as well as in our forums. How seldom do we hear those classical allusions, those literary references, which enliven the tedium of abstract discussion, and illustrate, with streams of light, the darkest topics of investigation! and this defect is exhibited in many of our state papers, which resemble more the technical discussions of the advocate, than the luminous productions of the diplomatist. The greatest intellectual luminary that ever rose in a benighted world was Francis Bacon, a lawyer by profession. His rival and antagonist at the bar was Coke. They were both eminent in their profession, and attained its highest honours, and most lucrative emoluments. Bacon became a Lord High Chancellor, and Coke a Chief Justice. The former had ascended the empyreal heights of literature--the latter had plunged into the learning of Norman lawyers, and had become the oracle of the common law. The works of Bacon are referred to as the oracles of truth and knowledge, and as the revelation of genuine philosophy; while the black letter learning of Coke is an Eleusinian mystery to all out of the pale of the profession. The difference between a mere lawyer great in his profession alone, and a great lawyer eminent in literature and science, can never be more forcibly illustrated than in the intellectual exhibitions of these celebrated men. Bacon enlivened, enriched, and embellished every subject upon which he wrote: even flowers sprung up under his feet in his journey through the thorny paths of legal investigation; but from Coke you must expect nothing but the dry, barren weeds of scholastic subtlety, and Norman chicanery. Fourthly; the energies of our country have been more directed to the accumulation of wealth than to the acquisition of knowledge. Our enterprising spirit, as exhibited in the fisheries, in navigation, and in commerce, is the admiration of the world; and if it had soared to the heavens in pursuit of knowledge, instead of creeping along the earth in the chase of riches, America would have been as illustrious in the rolls of fame as those states where literature has seen her Augustan ages. There is nothing in the commercial spirit which is hostile to literature. On the contrary, the wealth which it produces furnishes both incentives and rewards. The illustrious family of the Medici were merchants in their origin, and to them we are indebted for the resurrection of letters; but let us fervently hope that after this passion, so energetic, is satiated in its present pursuit, it may seek more sublime sources of gratification. To either India see the merchant fly, Scar'd at the spectre of pale poverty; See him, with pains of body, pangs of soul, Burn through the tropic, freeze beneath the pole ! Wilt thou do nothing for a noble end, Nothing to make philosophy thy friend? POPE'S Imitation of HORACE. Fifth and lastly; in Europe, there is a literary corps who are authors by profession. Here we have scarcely any person of this description, and we have not much vernacular literature. The consequences are obvious: while books are written beyond the Atlantic as a matter of course, they are here the offspring of some accidental direction; there the seed is, at all events, thrown into the ground, and the harvest is reaped; while here we rely upon the fortuitous produce of the chase, or the occasional supplies of the stream. This condition of things has inculcated upon us the vast superiority of Europe, and has made us despair of successful competition. America leans for literary support upon Europe, and we have been too much in the habit of estimating the value of books by the place of their origin. The time will surely arrive when an eminent American author shall be no longer considered an anomaly, deriving his celebrity more from the singularity, than the merit, of his productions. Our colonial historian has, unadvisedly, stated that "the inhabitants of this colony are, in general, healthy and robust, taller, but shorter lived, than Europeans;"* and a French abbe,† who was attached to Count Rochambeau's army, and who published a small book of travels, visited some of our churchyards, and seeing, or fancying that he saw, on the tombstones but few notices of persons who had attained considerable longevity, has hazarded this general conclusion, that the Americans are shorter lived than the people of Europe. Censuses have been taken of this city and state, and of the United States, at various times, and with unquestionable accuracy. Bills of mortality have been kept here, and in Philadelphia, Boston, and some other towns; and tables of the number of births have also been collected in a few places. On comparing the births with the whole population, the deaths with the whole population, the number of births with the number of deaths, and considering our rapid augmentation of inhabitants, doubling in some states in thirteen or fourteen years, and upon a general average in every twenty or twenty-three years, there can be no doubt but that the United States have a decided advantage over the healthiest parts of Europe. While in Paris, London, and Amsterdam, there are more deaths than births, it is ascertained that, in our great cities, there are, at least, two births to one death. The charges which have been *Smith's History of the Province of New-York, ย + Abbe Robin. |