HISTORY OF VERMONT. 463 



founded at Cambridge, New Haven, Williams- 

 burg, Princeton, Philadelphia and New York. 

 But the genius of the country had not been em- 

 ployed in attempting any considerable produc- 

 tions in poetry, oratory, or the fine arts. In 

 one article however, the New England colonies 

 exceeded the customs and attainments of Eu- 

 rope : In every considerable town they had a 

 grammar school, and all the children were 

 taught to read, write, and go through the com- 

 mon rules of arithmetic ; and nothing was more 

 uncommon or disreputable, than to be unac- 

 quainted with these arts. This was the knowl- 

 edge the colonies most of all needed, and this 

 they had made universal ; much further they 

 could scarcely expect to go, while destruction 

 was every where around them. War, French 

 and Indian war and ravages, engaged the atten- 

 tion of the whole country ; exhausted her finan- 

 ces, and required her constant attention and ex- 

 ertion. And while this was the case, neither the 

 resources, the attention, or the genius of the 

 country, could be much applied to the pursuit 

 or cultivation of science. The men who sat 

 down to contemplate such matters, v/ould have 

 their attention forced to other subjects ; they 

 must fly, or like Archimedes be slain over their 

 problems ; and in almost every process they 



might say of their country, multo spuman- 



tem sanguine ccrno. 



The same cause that thus proved unfriendly 

 to morals and science, was also greatly injuri- 

 ous to tht population of the country. In the 

 English colonies it was found from the registers 

 of life and death which had been kept in some 



