42 Clinton's introductory discourse. 



but from Coke you must expect nothing but the dry, barren weeds of 

 scholastic subtlety, and Norman chicanery. 



Fourthly; the energies of our country have been more directed to 

 the accumulation of wealth than to the acquisition of knowledge. Our 

 enterprising spirit, as exhibited in the fisheries, in navigation, and in 

 commerce, is the admiration of the world ; and if it had soared to the 

 heavens in pursuit of knowledge, instead of creeping along the earth in 

 the chase of riches, America would have been as illustrious in the rolls 

 of fame as those states where literature has seen her Augustan ages. 

 There is nothing in the commercial spirit which is hostile to literature. 

 On the contrary, the wealth which it produces furnishes both incentives 

 and rewards. The illustrious family of the Medici were merchants in 

 their origin, and to them we are indebted for the resurrection of letters; 

 but let us fervently hope that after this passion, so energetic, is satiated 

 in its present pursuit, it may seek more sublime sources of gratification. 



To either India see the merchant fly, 

 Scar'd at the spectre of pale poverty; 

 See him, with pains of body, pangs of soul, 

 Burn through the tropic, freeze beneath the pole ! 

 W ilt thou do nothing for a noble end, 

 Nothing to make philosophy thy friend ? 



Fope's Imitation of Horace. 



Fifth and lastly ; in Europe, there is a literary corps who are authors 

 by profession. Here we have scarcely any person of this description, 

 and we have not much vernacular literature. The consequences are 

 obvious : while books are written beyond the Atlantic as a matter of 

 course, they are here the offspring of some accidental direction ; there 

 the seed is, at all events, thrown into the ground, and the harvest is 

 reaped ; while here we rely upon the fortuitous produce of the chase, 

 or the occasional supplies of the stream. This condition of things has 



