old world, with respect to this country, as now prevails here in relation to Botany Bay and what respectable man could be induced to remove to that place? what encouragement would it afford to the cultivation of literature? the pierian spring and the parnassian mount are not to be expected in the den of Cacus. The idea of a country appropriated as the residence of men whose lives have been polluted with crimes, is associated with all that is shocking and appalling; and we consider it in the same light as the poet represents the entrance into the infernal regions: "Luctus, et ultrices posuere cubilia curæ, ENEID, lib. VI. The combined and pernicious effects of this complication of causes were to be traced in the general want of education-in the debased condition of the learned profession,-in the neglect of seminaries of learning-and in an universal apathy with regard to the interests of science. The influence of printing, upon knowledge, is well understood. During the dutch government no press was established. Governor Dongan was instructed, in 1686, to allow no printing press in the province. The first established was 1693, and the first newspaper published was on the 16th of October, 1725. Whatever may be thought of the following remarks of sir William Temple in other respects their justice, in relation to the medical profession, must be universally acknowledged. "It is certain, however," says that distinguished writer, "that the study of physic is not achieved in any eminent degree without very great advancements in the sciences; so that whatever the profession is, the professors have been generally very much esteemed on that account as well as of their own art ; as the most learned men of their ages and thereby shared, with the two other great professions, in those advantages most commonly valued and most eagerly pursued; whereof the divines seem to have had the most honour-the lawyers the most money-and the physicians the most learning." B Hippocrates was profoundly skilled in natural knowledge before he commenced the study of medicine; and it has become a common saying that, where the natural philosopher ends the physician begins. The laws which regulate other material substances, apply to the human body. Chymistry is all essential to a physician. "I do not hesitate to pronounce," said Fourcroy," that modern chymistry has done more, in twenty years, for medicine, than all the united labours of preceding ages." The materia medica is supplied from the three kingdoms of nature. Without a knowledge of botany, mineralogy, and zoology, a physician cannot understand the medicines he prescribes; and as the nomenclature of his profession is derived from the learned languages, and principally from the greek, he ought to be a classical scholar in a word, he should have a general acquaintance with all the departments of human knowledge, in order to compose that learned man which is expected from an able and accomplished physician. With this elevated idea of the medical character, how must we be mortified to find the low state of the profession during the greater period of the colonial government. It was totally unregulated; and the apothecary, physician, and surgeon, were united in the same individual. “Quacks,” said the colonial historian, “ abound like locusts in Egypt.” A periodical writer, who published in 1752, estimated the number of families in this city to be two thousand, and the number of physicians to be forty; which would make one physician for every fifty families; and he further stated that he could show, by "probable arguments, that more lives are destroyed in this city by pretended physicians, than by all other causes whatever."* Nor was the profession of the law on a more respectable footing. As there was no distinction of degrees, the attorney and the counsellor were blended together; and the profession was disgraced by the admission of men not only of the meanest abilities, but of the lowest employments. While the theological profession exhibited a more respectable appearance from the transatlantic education of many of our divines, the state of our seminaries of learning displayed a most humiliating spectacle. "Our schools," says the colonial historian, "are in the lowest order. The instructors want instruction; and through a long, shameful, neglect of all the arts and sciences, our common speech is extremely corrupt; and the evidences of a bad taste, both iu thought and language, are visible in all our proceedings, public and private." And, at that time, there were instances of some magistrates who were totally ignorant of the first rudiments of instruction. Amidst the intellectual darkness which covered the land, some corruscations of light were to be seen darting through the gloom. A prolific * Independent Reflector soil and an enterprising spirit had, in some degree, surmounted the disadvantages of a colonial state; and the general ease and plenty which prevailed through the province, called off the attention of many from the pursuits of laborious occupations to the cultivation of the mind. The value of education was estimated as the privation of it was experienced; and many young men were sent to the colleges of the eastern colonies, and to the universities of Great Britain, for the benefits of education. Some of our lawyers were brought up in the Inns of court, and some of our physicians were instructed in the celebrated schools of London and Edinburgh. This nisus of the human mind, to emancipate itself from the slavery of ignorance, appeared in a variety of other shapes. In 1754 a public library was founded in this city. On the 31st of October, in the same year, King's (now Columbia) College received its charter; and the first commencement was held in 1758. A faculty of medicine was annexed to that institution in 1769, and Clossy, Bard, Jones, and Middleton, men of great eminence, were appointed to direct its destinies. A general taste for science and literature began to exhibit itself. At the head of those distinguished men, who devoted themselves to the interests of knowledge, may be justly placed Cadwallader Colden a man of great mental acumen and of extensive acquirements; he was, for a long time lieutenant governor of the province; and he spent a great portion of a long life in the cultivation of letters and in a literary correspondence with Linnæus, Franklin, and the other illustrious savans of the age. He illustrated the botany of this country, composed many interesting works, was, intimately acquainted with the newtonian philosophy, and was learned in his profession as a physician. A history of the colony was written by William Smith, whom dr. Robertson has denominated the ingenious historian of New-York. Attempts were made to emulate the periodical writings which adorned the literature of Great Britain. In 1752 several weekly essays were published under the title of the Independent Reflector. Although at this day there appears nothing exceptionable in them, yet they did not suit the temper of the times; they excited the resentment of some of the leading men; and a clergyman denounced the writer from the pulpit, and compared him to Gog and Magog. The printer was finally menaced into a discontinuance of the publication, and it expired with the 52d number. In 1755 a series of well-written essays, under the title of the Watch-Tower, was published in the New-York Mercury printed by Hugh Gaine. The public attention was, however, principally engrossed in religious controversies. In the time of governor Fletcher the episcopalians were favoured with a partial establishment in this and three of the neighbouring counties. This exceptionable measure excited much uneasiness; and a proposition to establish bishops in America, although reasonable in itself, was resisted with great zeal; and produced a song and violent polemic war, which was conducted with great talents. Our dutch an cestors were agitated about a question relative to their own church: whether their clergy might be ordained in this country without the sanetion of the classis of Amsterdam: and the french and presbyterian churches were also torn asunder by internal feuds. Some of these jealousies and controversies affected literary objects and procrastinated, for a considerable time, the establishment of a college. Pamphlets were written not only as to the government, but the scite of the institution;—whether it should be under the control of a particular sect, whether it should be in the city or county were questions debated with great earnestness. Although these agitations had a beneficial effect in exciting the mind to action, yet it is to be regretted that such talents and powers were expended in a way so little calculated to subserve the solid interests of science. From this barren soil no substantial harvest of improvement could be reaped; and if the same quantity of intellect, which has been appropriated to unproductive and interminable controversies, had been applied to the promotion of genuine science, the boundaries of knowledge would have been greatly enlarged and the honour and happiness of the human race would have been essentially promoted. Mental, in many cases, acts directly the reverse of corporeal vision; and magnifies objects, not in proportion to their propinquity but in the ratio of their distance. This obliquity of the human mind springs from a variety of causes, and operates in a variety of directions. It incessantly magnifies the talents and morals of the past, at the expense of the present times; and its wanderings never appear in a more striking view than in its judgments of men. By its magic influence the dwarf of antiquity starts up into a giant; and, like the phenomenon called the Mirage, it translates the men and the things of this earth to the skies. These remarks are made, not to depreciate those who have gone before us, but to warn us not to depreciate ourselves. The panegyrics which have been pronounced upon the works of some of our predecessors appear strange, when we consider their writings with an unprejudiced mind; and, perhaps, the same observation may, without arrogante, be applied to many of the divines, the p3ysicians, the jurists, and the statesmen whose praises have reached us through the organ of tradition, and whose memories have descended to us adorned with the laurels of genius: but let not this discourage exertion:what they are to us! many of you will deservedly be to future generations; and the pious feelings of posterity may cherish your worth with equal ardour and embalm you in their hearts with equal affection. The spring which was given to the human mind; the improvement which seminaries of education produced; and the general, extensive, and augmented popularity of intellectual illumination, paved the way for .those political discussions which ushered in the american revolution, and finally dismembered the british empire. The study of the law as a libcral profession, necessarily leads to investigations with regard to the origin of government, the constitutions of states, and the objects of jurisprudence. The influence of this profession upon the political events of the times could not escape the sagacity of Burke: he assigns it as one of the causes of the revolution. "This study," says he, "render men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defence, full of resources. In other countries the people, more simple and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in government by an actual grievance: here they anticipate the evil, and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the badness of the principle; they augur misgovernment at a distance, and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze."'* The statesmen who appeared at the dawn of the revolution attracted the admiration of Europe; and the masterly state papers which our state convention, and the general congress promulgated, breathed the genius of Greece and the invincible spirit of Rome; and covered with glory the american name. "When," said the elder Pitt, "when your lordships look at the papers transmitted us from America;-when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause and wish to make it your own. For myself I must declare and avow, that in all my reading and observation,—and it has been my favourite study, (I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master states of the world,) that, for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the general congress at Philadelphia."† The convulsions, devastations, and horrors which attended the revolution were ill calculated to cherish the interests of science. Our seminaries of education were broken up; and all our attention was occupied in resisting the calamities which pressed upon our country. The restoration of peace opened brighter prospects; but an unsettled government,. and a variety of other obstacles, prevented for a time much attention to literature. In imitation of the Royal-Society of London, which was established at the close of the civil wars, an attempt was made to found a philosophical society in this city in 1784; but it perished in embryo. King's-College was revived on the 13th of April, 1784, under the name of Columbia-College. Union-College was founded in 1795. Hamilton-College, in 1812; and there are now near forty incorporated academies dispersed over the state, which probably contain about three thousand scholars. A Botanic-Garden was founded in the vicinity of this city in 1801.(3) A College of Physicians and Surgeons *Speech on conciliation with America. Speech on a motion to remove the troops from Boston. |