Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/102

92 from the creation to this day. As in phyloſophy and war, ſo in government, in oratory, in painting, in the plaſtic art, we might ſhow that America, though but a child of yeſterday, has already given hopeful proofs of genius, as well of the nobler kinds, which arouſe the beſt feelings of man, which call him into action, which ſubſtantiate his freedom, and conduct him to happineſs, as of the ſubordinate, which ſerve to amuſe him only. We therefore ſuppoſe, that this reproach is as unjuſt as it is unkind; and that, of the geniuſes which adorn the preſent age, America contributes its full ſhare. For comparing it with thoſe countries, where genius is moſt cultivated, where are the moſt excellent models for art, and ſcaffolding for the attainment of ſcience, as France and England for inſtance, we calculate, thus: The United States contain three millions of inhabitants France twenty millions; and the Britiſh iſlands ten. We produce a Waſhington, a Franklin, a Rittenhouſe. France then ſhould have half a dozen in each of theſe lines, and Great-Britain half that number, equally eminent. It may be true, that France has: we are but juſt becoming acquainted with her, and our acquaintance ſo far gives us high ideas of the genius of her inhabitants. It would be injuring too many of them to name particularly a Voltaire, a Buffon, the conſtellation of Encyclopediſts, the Abbé Raynal