fliould this reproach be ftill true, we will enquire from what unfriendly caufes it has proceeded, that the other countries of Europe and quarters of the earth fhall not have hifcribed any name in the roll of poets*. But neither has America pro- duced ' one able mathematician, one man of genius in a fingle art or a fmgle fcience.' In war we have produced a Wafhington, whofe memory will be adored while liberty fhall have votaries, whofe name will triumph over time, and will in future ages aflume its juft ftation among the mofl: celebrated worthies of the world, when that wretched philofophy fliali be forgotten which would have arranged him among the degeneracies of nature. In phyfics we have produced a Franklin, than whom no one of the prefent age has made more important difcoveries, nor has en- riched philofophy with more, or more ingenious folutions of the phenomena of nature. We have fuppofed Mr. Ritten- houfe fecond to no aftronomer living: that in genius he muft be the firft, becaufe * Has the world as yet produced more than two poets, acknowledged to be fuch by all nations? An Englifhman, only, reads Milton with de- light, an Italian Taflb, a Frenchman the Henriade; a Portuguefe Canoens:
but Homer and Vixgil have been the rapture of every age and nation: they arc read with enthufiafm in their