1 790 RE^V. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 335 



liberties of America, at the bar of parliament, and his great services, 

 both at home and abroad, during the revolution, are too v»ell known to 

 need further mention in this assembly, or in the presence of so many of 

 his compatriots and fellow-laborers in the great work. I hasten, there- 

 fore, to consider Iiim in another illustrious point of view, viz. : 



Thirdly — As a citizen of the world — successfully laboring for the 

 benefit of the whole human race, by the diffusion of liberal science and 

 the invention of useful arts. 



Endowed with a penetrating and inquisitive genius, speculative and 

 philosophical subjects engaged his early attention; but he loved them 

 only as they were useful, and pursued them no farther than as he found 

 his researches applicable to some substantial purpose in life. His stock 

 of knowledge and the fruits of his investigations, he never hoarded up 

 for his own private use. Whatever he discovered — whatever he con- 

 sidered as beneficial to mankind — fresh as it was conceived, or brought 

 forth in his own mind, he communicated to his fellow-citizens, by 

 means of his newspapers and almanacs, in delicate and palatable mor- 

 sels, for the advancement of industry, frugality and other republican 

 virtues; and, at a future day, as occasion might require, he would 

 collect and digest the parts, and set out the whole into one rich feast 

 of useful maxims and practical wisdom. 



Of this kind is his celebrated address, entitled "77/<' Way to Wealth,^'' 

 wiiich is a collection or digest of the various sentences, proverbs and 

 wise maxims, which, during a course of many years, he had occasionally 

 published, in his Poor Richard' s Almanac, on topics of industry, fru- 

 gality, and the duty of ?niiiding one' s otun business. Had he never 

 written any thing more than this admirable address, it would have in- 

 sured him immortality as — TJie Farmer'' s Fhilosopher, the Rural Sage, 

 the Yeoman' s and Feasant' s Oracle. 



But greater things lay before him ! Although as a philosopher, as 

 well as a politician, he remained unconscious of the plenitude of his 

 own strength and talents, until called into further exertions by the mag- 

 nitude of future objects and occasions. 



There is something worthy of observation in the progress of science 

 and human genius. As in the natural w^orld there is a variety and suc- 

 cession of seeds and crops for different soils and seasons; so (if the 

 comparison may be allowed) in the philosophical world, there have 

 been different aeras for seed-time and harvest of the different branches 

 of arts and sciences; and it is remarkable that, in countries far distant 

 from each other, different men have fallen into the same tracks of 

 science, and have made similar and correspondent discoveries, at the 

 same period of time, without the least communication with each other. 

 Whether it be that, at the proper season of vegetation for those difterent 

 branches, there be a kind of intellectual or xwQXXtVil farina disseminated, 

 which falling on congenial spirits in different parts of the globe, take 



