INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE. 18 



ever be temperate, and the atmosphere pure, through the greater part 

 of the continent."* 



With respect to the fertility of our soil, the excellence and abun- 

 dance of its products, and the luxuriant power of vegetation, there cap 

 be no dispute. Famine has never been heard of ; and if facility of sub- 

 sistence, salubrity and plenty of food, and all the comforts of life, can 

 produce that composure r.ud serenity which are generally necessary to 

 elicit the powers of the mind, there is no country \vhich can claim a su- 

 periority over the United States. 



The nature of our government and the constitution of our confederacy, 

 are admirably adapted to promote the interests of science. Free govern- 

 ments are the native soil of great talents. " Though a republic should 

 be barbarous," says Hume, " it necessarily, by an infallible operation, 

 gives rise to law even before mankind have made any considerable ad- 

 vances in the other sciences ; from law arises security ; from security 

 curiosity, and from curiosity knowledge."! That most profound politi- 

 cal writer, whom I have just quoted, with the vast volume of history 

 before his eyes, and aided by all the powers of an analyzing and 

 investigating mind, has laid down the following incontrovertible pro- 

 positions in relation to the influence of government upon the arts and 

 sciences. 



1. It is impossible for the arts and sciences to arise, at first, among any 

 people unless that people enjoy the blessing of a free government. 



2. Nothing is more favourable to the rise of politeness, and learning, 

 than a number of neighbouring and independent states connected together 

 by commerce and policy. 



3. Though the only proper nursery of these valuable plants be a free 

 government, yet taay they be transplanted into any government ; and a 

 republic is most favourable to the growth of the sciences, a civilized 

 monarchy to that of the polite arts.J 



Although this was published more than half a century ago, yet it suits 

 our situation so precisely that one would suppose the writer had the 

 United States fully in his view. Perhaps the flourishing condition of the 

 literature of Europe is, in a great degree, owing to the division of that 

 continent into a number of independent states. Each capital is a place 

 where letters are encouraged, and the different governments vie with each 

 other in rewarding the effusions of genius; but if Charles V., Lewis 

 XIV., or Napoleon, had succeeded in establiihing an universal monarchy 

 the dark ages of gothic barbarity would have revisited mankind. Thu ? 

 under the direction of an all-wise and beneficent God, the half-civilized 

 serf of Russia has become the unconscious guardian and protector of 



* Williamson on the Climate of America, p. 177. 

 ^Hume's Essays, vol. 1. Mtlj Esiay. i Ibid 



