Clinton's introductory discourse. 43 



inculcated upon us the vast superiority of Europe, and has made us 

 despair of successful competition. America leans for literary support 

 upon Europe, and we have been too much in the habit of estimating the 

 value of books by the place of their origin. The time will surely 

 arrive when an eminent American author shall be no longer considered 

 an anomaly, deriving his celebrity more from the singularity, than the 

 merit, of his productions. 



Our colonial historian has, unadvisedly, stated that " the inhabitants 

 of this colony are, in general, healthy and robust, taller, but shorter lived, 

 than Europeans;"* and a French abbe,f who was attached to Count 

 Rochambeau's army, and who published a small book of travels, visited 

 some of our churchyards, and seeing, or fancying that he saw, on the 

 tombstones but few notices of persons who had attained considerable 

 longevity, has hazarded this general conclusion, that the Americans are 

 shorter lived than the people of Europe. Censuses have been taken of 

 this city and state, and of the United States, at various times, and with 

 unquestionable accuracy. Bills of mortality have been kept here, and 

 in Philadelphia, Boston, and some other towns; and tables of the num- 

 ber of births have also been collected in a few places. On comparing 

 the births with the whole population, the deaths with the whole 

 population, the number of births with the number of deaths, and 

 considering our rapid augmentation of inhabitants, doubling in some 

 states in thirteen or fourteen years, and upon a general average in 

 every twenty or twenty-three years, there can be no doubt but that 

 the United States have a decided advantage over the healthiest 

 parts of Europe. While in Paris, London, and Amsterdam, there are 

 more deaths than births, it is ascertained that, in our great cities, there 

 are, at least, two births to one death. The charges which have been 



* Smith's History of the Province of New- York. t Abbe Robin. 



