462 APPENDIX. 



co..-'''-y f"";een hundred miles in length, and two hundred in width ; th« 

 wildtriiefs, never touched before by the hand of cuhivjtion, has becniurn-? 

 «d into CoutiHiing cities, or fruitful villages and fields, fettled b> fix mtl- 

 lions of inhabitants, and affording food for as many more Europeans. In 

 jio country, and at no period of time, has agriculture ever before perform- 

 ed fuch exploits and wonders in fo fhoria period of time. lncommercc» 

 no fooncr was America delivered fr< m the fhcickles of the Briiifti naviga- 

 tion afts, than fhe carried hti comrnerce into the rrioff dilUnt parts of 

 the jlobe : And thofe India voya((es which the Britifh m-ichanti had ea- 

 dcavored to itnprcveJormorc than two centuries, werein mcdiaieiy perfor- 

 med »a lefs than half the time, & at lefs than haif the expcnfc, to which the 

 Europeans h.id been accuftomcd. In the mechanic arts, confeffini; our fu- 

 periority, the Britifh workmen have fent lor the .American mechanics, to 

 teach th^m the art cf giving (trengih a'jd durability to tlieir : ridrtt ; And, 

 in no kirid of mechanical employment, is i; the cafe that the European 

 ■workmen will perform one hilf of the burinels, which is done by the A- 

 inerican laborers in the fame time. 



But in thofe arts and fciences which are merely fpeculative, theoretic, 

 or ornajncntal, the cafe i* not tlie fame: Here the rubjedls of ai;cient and 

 wealthy monarchies aie before the citizens of a mw country Wnile the 

 latter are employed in rendering their country rich, happy, and flouiifh- 

 ing, the former, forbid to meddle with the affairs of go'crumeiit or reli" 

 gion, are allowed to cuUivsie the languages, poeLrv,arid mathematics: 

 And thefe the Abbe Raynal fecms to conlidei asthe only mark* ot gca- 

 ius. flrengih of mind, or excellency of underUandiiiff. Trained up inn 

 country where every thing bore the marks and tlfcdts of dclpotifm, he had 

 no ideas of any impiovtments among the people, or that ifie body of the 

 citizens ever were to arife to any thing great or good. And hence he W3S 

 looking for the cxillence and evidence of gctiius in a few tenoarkable 

 poets, philofophcrs,and matr'ematicians, in the imitators of Homer, Thco- 

 critus, Anacreon, Archimedes, or Newton, 



Was there ever any idea of genius and eminence lefs juft, or more per-, 

 feftly monaichicd' tfian this ? It is allowed ipecubtive ftiente ami the 

 ■fine arts deferve the ;ittf-niion and Goltivationof every ct>ontry : iiut furcly 

 they are not the primirv or mod imponant purfuits ; tior do they bear 

 any proportion in point of utility to thole arts, in which the ncceffifies 

 and convcnicrxic'^of all men are concerned. When Homer wrote his 

 Iliad, and when Milton favored the world with his Paradile Loft, tfiefe 

 poets did that vthir.h difplaved the greattfi force and extent ot the ima- 

 gination, atid defctved the approbation of all loen. When Newton di»- 

 covcred the la\v of aitritftion, and invetligatcd the principles of Piuxions, 

 •he difcovered a firength ot mind honorable to human nature, atid wlnca 

 could not tall to engage the atteniion ot all the mathtinaiicMSins in Euiope. 

 But neither in the one nor in the other of thefe difcoveries, were the body 

 of mankind much concerned, nor have they received much advantage fionri 

 eitiier of them. The duties and the enip'.oynicnis of men were the fame 

 before and alter the dit'covery of the new planet ; and the body of man- 

 kind had precifely the fame air to breathe in, bcfoie Piicllly Uifcovcrcd 

 that it might be produced in various mctfods, and had different tfTcfls. 

 It is not thtrefoie by the difcoveries of a few matliematii.ians, or by the 

 imaginations of a few poets, that a country is made to thrive, that huinaa 

 happine'^s is moft of all promoted, or that the body of mankind are to be 

 mofl improved. Ii is no mark, therefore, of degradation in the peopleof 

 Amcrie',j ilnttih- Ab'^c i-'.aynal does not tind them gcncially endcavoriiig 



