originals by thofe who can read the origi- nals, and in tranllations by thofe who cannot.
he is felf-taught. As an artifl he has ex- hibited as great a proof of mechanical genius as the world has ever produced. He has not indeed made a world; but he bas by imitation approached nearer its Maker than any man who has lived from the creation to this day*. As in philofophy and war, fo in government, in orato- ry, in painting, in the plaftic art, we might ihow that America, though but a child of yefterday, has already given hopeful proofs of genius, as well of the nobler kinds, which aroufe the beft feeUngs of man, which call him into aftion, which fubftan- tiate his freedom, and conduft him to happinefs, as of the fubordinate, which ferve to amufe him only. We therefore fuppofe, that this reproach is as unjuft as it Is unkind; and that, of the geniufes which adorn the prefent age, America contributes its full ftiare. For comparing it with thofe countries, where genius is * There are Various ways of keeping truth out of fight. Mr. Ritten- houfe's model of the planetary fyftem has the plagiary appellation of an Orrery; and the quadrant invented by Godfrey, an American alfo, and with the aid of wlilch the European nations traverfc the globe, is called Hadlcy's «piadranr.