28 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



that France has ; we are but just becoming acquainted with her, 

 and our acquaintance so far gives us high ideas of the genius 

 of her inhabitants. 



" The present war having so long cut oft' all communications 

 with Great Britain, we are not able to make a fair estimate 

 of the state of science in that country. The spirit in which she 

 wages war is the only sample before our eyes, and that does not 

 seem the legitimate offspring either of science or civilization. 

 The sun of her glory is fast descending to the horizon. Her phi 

 losophy has crossed the channel, her freedom the Atlantic, and 

 herself seems bearing to that awful dissolution whose issue is not 

 given human forethought to scan."* 



This was one phase of public sentiment. Another, no less 

 instructive, is that shown forth in the publications of Jefferson's 

 fierce political opponents in 1790, paraphrased, as follows, by 

 McMaster in his "History of the People of the United States :" 



" Why, it was asked, should a philosopher be made President? 

 Is not the active, anxious, and responsible station of Executive illy 

 suited to the calm, retired, and exploring tastes of a natural phi 

 losopher? Ability to impale butterflies and contrive turn-about 

 chairs may entitle one to a college professorship, but it no more 

 constitutes a claim to the Presidency than the genius of Cox, the 

 great bridge-builder, or the feats of Ricketts, the equestrian. Do 

 not the pages of history teem with evidence of the ignorance and 

 mismanagement of philosophical politicians? John Locke was a 

 philosopher, and framed a constitution for the colony of Georgia, 

 but so full was it of whimsies that it had to be thrown aside. 

 Condorcet, in 1793, made a constitution for France, but it con 

 tained more absurdities than were ever before piled up in a system 

 of government, and was not even tried. Rittenhouse was another 

 philosopher ; but the only proof he gave of political talents was 

 suffering himself to be wheedled into the presidency of the Demo 

 cratic Society of Philadelphia. But suppose that the title of phi 

 losopher is a good claim to the Presidency, what claim has Thomas 

 Jefferson to the title of philosopher? Why, forsooth ! 



u He has refuted Moses, dishonored the story of the Deluge, 

 made a penal code, drawn up a report in weights and measures, 

 and speculated profoundly on the primary causes of the difference 

 between the whites and blacks. Think of such a man as Presi 

 dent ! Think of a foreign minister surprising him in the act of 

 anatomizing the kidneys and glands of an African to find out why 

 the negro is black and odoriferous ! 



* Notes on Virginia, 1788, pp. 69-71. 



