'14- CLINTONS 



was established in this city in 1807, (4) and another has been recently ht- 

 stituted in the county of Hcrkiraer. The medical profession has been 

 regulated and placed on a respectable footing. Theological seminaries 

 of great merit have been founded. The profession of the law has also 

 been attended to ; regular examinations are necessary to insure admis- 

 sion; the degree of counsellor has been separated from the vocation of 

 attorney ; and able reports of the decisions of the superior courts arc 

 regularly published. A Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, 

 and Manufactures, was instituted in 1791 ; and in 1804 it was reorgan- 

 ized under the name of the Society lor the Promotion of Useful Arts : 

 its meetings are held at Albany daring .the sessions of the legislature ; 

 *ind under tlie auspices of its late and much-lamented presiding officers* 

 Livingston and L'Hommedieu, and several other public-spirited men* 

 it has published many valuable papers and has greatly improved the 

 agriculture of the State. An Historical Society was also incorporated 

 in 1809, and an Academy of Fine Arts in 1808 ; which have made valua- 

 ble appropriate collections, and which want nothing but more encour- 

 agement from the public, and more attention from the members, to 

 become highly useful to the community .(5) Several works of great 

 usefulness have been published ; among which the Medical Repository, 

 the American Medical and Philosophical Register, and the Mineralogical 

 Journal, hold distinguished rank. And we have several intelligent and 

 enterprising booksellers, the natural and efficient patrons of literature in 

 all countries. 



A vast fund, amounting to a million and a half of dollars in value, has 

 been appropriated to the support of common schools ; and that wonder- 

 ful improvement, the laucasterian system, has obtained a firm footing. 

 Our academies and colleges are well endowed, and the blessings of edu- 

 cation are generally diffused ; and, to a considerable extent, within the 

 reach of the poorest children in the community. 



But, although there is avast mass of knowledge spread over the state, 

 yet it is, generally speaking, of the common kind : all know the elemen- 

 tary parts of instruction, but few know the higher branches of science 3 

 and there is not so much concentrated knowledge in so many individuals, 

 as in Europe. This arises from a number of causes which do not dispar- 

 age our intellectual character, and which, it is to be hoped, will cease 

 to operate after a short time. 



In the first place we have, with scarcely any intermission, been dis- 

 traeted by party spirit L in its bitterest forms of exacerbation. Our 

 ingenuity has been employed, not in cultivating a vernacular literature, 

 or i increasing the stock of human knowledge ; but in raising up and 

 pralliog dowu the parties Avhich agitate the community. This violent 

 spirit has split society asunder, has poisoned the intercourse of private 

 fife, has spread a morbid gloom over our literature, has infected th^ 



