INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE. 7 



the fifteen pounds which he received from the bookseller ; and where 

 would have been the writings of Bacon, if he had not aspired to immor- 

 tal fame? "My name and memory," said this prince of philosophers, 

 jn his will, " I leave to foreign nations, and to my own countrymen after 

 some time be passed over " When with one hand he demolished the 

 philosophy of the schools, and with the other erected a magnificent 

 temple dedicated to trnth and genuine knowledge, he was animated in bis 

 progress, and cheered in his exertions by the persuasion that after ages 

 would erect an imperishable monument to his fame. 



But in order that this passion may have its full scope and complete 

 operation it is not only necessary that there should be a proper subject, 

 but a suitable place and an enlightened public. The actor, in order t 

 act well his part, must have a good theatre and a respectable audience. 

 Would Demosthenes and Cicero have astonished mankind by their ora- 

 tory, if they had spoken in Sparta or in Carthage ? would Addison have 

 written his Spectators in Kamtschatka, or Locke his work on the Under- 

 standing at Madrid ? destroy the inducement to act, take away the capa- 

 city to judge, and annihilate the value of applause, and poetry sinks into 

 dulness ; philosophy loses its powers of research ; and eloquence evapo- 

 rates into froth and mummery. 



A provincial government, like ours before the revolution, was entirely 

 incompetent to call into activity this ennobling propensity of our nature. 

 A small population, scattered over an extensive country, and composed 

 almost entirely of strangers to literature ; a government derivative and 

 dependent, without patronage and influence, and in hostility to the pub- 

 lic sentiment ; a people divided into political and religious parties, and a 

 parent country watching all their movements with a stepmother's feel, 

 ings, and keeping down their prosperity with the arm of power, could 

 not be expected to produce those literary worthies who have illuminated 

 the other hemisphere. 



History justifies the remark that free governments, although happier 

 in themselves, are as oppressive to their provinces as despotic ones, ft 

 was a common saying in Greece that a free man in Sparta was the freest 

 man ; and a slave, the greatest slave in the world. This remark may be 

 justly applied to the ancient republics which had provinces under their 

 controul. The people of the parent country were free, and those remote 

 were harrassed with all kinds of exactions, borne down by the high hand ot 

 oppression, and under the subjection of a military despotism. The co- 

 lonial system of modern times is equally calculated to build up the mo- 

 ther country on the depression of its colonies. That all their exports 

 skall go to and all their imports be derived from it, is the fundamental 

 principle. Admitting occasional departures from this system, is it possi- 

 ble that an infant country, so bandaged and cramped, could attain to that 



