SOUTH CAROLINA 211 



brought into activity sundry persons of consequence 

 and of such decided talents that in a measure America 

 has gained in the item of learning, although the war 

 itself interrupted for some time the cultivation of the 

 sciences. Before that period the sons of America, in- 

 clined to ease and quietude, could dispense with the 

 trouble of study, Europe supplying almost all the 

 men necessary in public office and affairs. During the 

 war itself the young men were occupied in other ways, 

 and since it was freedom that was being fought for, 

 the education of the young, and learned institutions, 

 could not engage the whole attention of the several 

 governments and yet in those unquiet times various 

 measures were adopted for the furtherance of the 

 sciences. At Philadelphia, even before the peace, the 

 University was placed upon a better footing, and the 

 Philosophical Society was equipped with a new char- 

 ter which gave it renewed activity; and other states 

 besides, amid the tumult of arms made dispositions for 

 schools and educational establishments. 



Since the time when America was settled by Euro- 

 peans, who brought with them arts and sciences, Amer- 

 ica itself has contributed little to the augmentation and 

 embellishment of what it has received. So far it can 

 boast of but one philosopher, one mathematician, and 

 one painter of recognized and emphatic reputation.* 

 I know not whether it can show one passable poet, but 



obliged to give their institution a changed form; the article 

 touching heritable rank was omitted, with other items causing 

 suspicion, and it was promised that in future merely personal 

 friendship should be the bond of the society ; however the 

 fixed meetings, the treasury and tokens of the Order were 

 kept as before. 



* Namely, Franklin, Rittenhouse, and Peal. 



