4IO Me7nor{aI of George Brown Goode. 



It is somewhat unfortunate that the account book of national progress 

 was so thoroughly balanced in the centennial year. It is true that the 

 movement which resulted in the birth of our Republic first took tangible 

 form in 1776, but the infant nation was not born until 1783, when the 

 treaty of Paris was signed, and lay in swaddling clothes until 1789, when 

 the Constitution was adopted by the thirteen States. 



In those days our forefathers had quite enough to do in adapting their 

 lives to the changed conditions of existence. The masses w^ere strug- 

 gling for securer positions near home or were pushing out beyond the 

 frontiers to find dwelling places for themselves and their descendants. 

 The men of education were involved in political discussions as fierce, 

 uncandid, and unphilosophical in spirit as those which preceded the 

 French Revolution of the same period. 



The master minds were absorbed in political and administrative prob- 

 lems and had little time for the peaceful pursuits of science, and many 

 of the men who were prominent in science — Franklin, Jefferson, Rush, 

 Mitchill, Seybert, Williamson, Morgan, Clinton, Rittenhouse, Patterson, 

 Williams, Cutler, Maclure, and others — w^ere elected to Congress or were 

 called to other positions of official responsibility. 



IX. 



The literary and scientific activities of the infant nation were for many 

 years chiefly concentrated at Philadelphia, until 1800 the Federal capital 

 and largest of American cities. Here, after the return of Franklin from 

 France in 1785, the meetings of the American Philosophical Society were 

 resumed. Franklin continued to be its president until his death in 1790, 

 at the same time holding the presidency of the Commonwealth of Penn- 

 sylvania and a seat in the Constitutional Convention. The prestige of 

 its leader doubtless gave to the society greater prominence than its scien- 

 tific objects alone would have secured. . 



In the reminiscences of Doctor Manasseh Cutler there is to be found an 

 admirable pi^ ire of Franklin in 1787. As we read it we are taken back 

 into the very presence of the philosopher and statesman, and can form a 

 very clear appreciation of the scientific atmosphere which surrounded the 

 scientific leaders of the post- Revolutionary period. 



Doctor Cutler wrote : 



Doctor P'ranklin lives in Market Street, between Second and Third Streets, but 

 his house stands iip a court-yard at some distance from the street. We found him 

 in his garden, sitting upon a grass plat under a large mulberry tree, with several 

 other gentlemen and two or three ladies. When Mr. Gerry introduced me he rose 

 from his chair, took me by the hand, expressed his joy to see me, welcomed me to 

 the city, and begged me to seat myself close by him. His voice was low, his coun- 

 tenance open, frank, and pleasing. I delivered him my letters. After he had read 

 them he took me again by the hand and, with the usual compliments, introduced 

 me to the other gentlemen, who were, most of them, members of the Convention. 

 Here we entered into a free conversation, and spent the time most agreeably until 



