Travels Through North America 



frontiers. They are under the jurisdiction of the 

 bishop of London. 



Arts and sciences are yet in their infancy. There 

 are some few persons who have discovered a taste 

 for music and painting*; and philosophy seems not 

 only to have made a considerable progress already, 

 but to be daily gaining ground. The library society 

 is an excellent institution for propagating a taste for 

 literature; and the college well calculated to form 

 and cultivate it. This last institution is erected 

 upon an admirable plan, and is by far the best school 

 for learning throughout America. It has been chiefly 

 raised by contributions; and its present fund is about 

 10,000 1. Pennsylvania money. An account of it may 

 be seen in Dr. Smith's (the president's) Discourses. 

 The Quakers also have an academy for instructing 

 their youth in classical learning, and practical mathe- 

 matics: there are three teachers, and about seventy 

 boys in it. Besides these, there are several schools 

 in the province for the Dutch and other foreign 

 children; and a considerable one is going to be erected 

 at Germantown. 



The Pennsylvanians, as to character, are a frugal 

 and industrious people: not remarkably courteous 

 and hospitable to strangers, unless particularly 

 recommended to them; but rather, like the denizens 

 of most commercial cities, the reverse. They are 



* Mr. Benjamin West, president of the Royal Academy, was, I 

 believe, a native of Pennsylvania, if not of Philadelphia. 



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