5 
the time we separated from them ; and it was only when their ancestors 
were carried in chains to Rome, as painted savages, after making Caesar 
and his legions at times fight for life rather than victory, that ours were 
savages — hut no longer nor later. What, then, should be the difference 
between us and those parent nations as to progress in scientific affairs'? 
It is, I admit, all which flows from the facts, that we have been, for 
two centuries since, placed in a less cultivated country, and been tempted 
to engage more at first in the chase and fisheries, and a ruder agriculture, 
and that most of us have been left more dependant on individual means 
and energies; and, for the last three generations, have lived under a form 
of government more equal as to rights and property. When looking, there- 
fore, to scientific researches, remote in their advantages, or chiefly specu- 
lative in their tendency, it would be disingenuous for us to deny that 
some obstacles have arisen here to rapid advances in such researches, 
from the existence of the different circumstances before mentioned. Be- 
cause every profession and employment, as well as office, being here 
open to all, talent finds temptations and rewards more numerous than 
elsewhere, beside those which strew with attractions the paths of science; 
and the division of property is so equal among us, that a larger propor- 
tion must pursue what is immediately profitable and will yield a liveli- 
hood; and hence, if devoted to science, must mould it more frequently 
to objects of speedy profit, rather than glory or benefits not soon to be 
realized. 
But these differences, when duly considered, will be found not to have 
stripped our population at large of their former acquirements, nor of the 
power to transmit them, with many valuable additions, to their grateful 
children ; and though depriving a few in some scientific pursuits of so 
lavish a patronage as elsewhere, these differences have led to a more 
general education and elevation of the masses, which have enabled them 
to appreciate better all the fruits of science, and, instead of rendering 
those fruits undesired, unnecessary, or unrewarded, have, in some par- 
ticulars, caused a much wider and more encouraging demand for them, 
both in public and private enterprises. Thus, in our rapid career, the 
call for every thing conducive to practical utility has proved so strong, 
that science has been applied to enrich and strengthen us in ways far 
more numerous than many imagine, or than ever existed before. And 
we have not only seized on the improvements of others for this purpose, 
the world over, but have resorted to countless inventions of our own, and 
to some original tiiinking and laborious researches in cases where others 
appeared deficient, and the demand here was exciting. 
