Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/290

280 founded upon them, will ſurely find themſelves diſappointed.

The truth is, that though there are in that country few people ſo miſerable as the poor of Europe, there are alſo very few that in Europe would be called rich: it is rather a general happy mediocrity that prevails. There are few great proprietors of the ſoil, and few tenants; moſt people cultivate their own lands, or follow ſome handicraft or merchandiſe; very few rich enough to live idly upon their rents or incomes, or to pay the high prices given in Europe for painting, ſtatues, architecture, and the other works of art that are more curious than uſeful. Hence the natural geniuſes that have ariſen in America, with ſuch talents, have uniformly quitted that country for Europe, where they can be more ſuitably rewarded. It is true that letters and mathematical knowledge are in eſteem there, but they are at the ſame time more common than is apprehended; there being already exiſting nine colleges, or univerſities, viz. four in New-England, and one in each of the provinces of New-York, New-Jerſey, Pennſylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, all furniſhed with learned profeſſors; beſides a number of ſmaller academies; theſe educate many of their youth in the languages, and thoſe ſciences that qualify men for the profeſſions of divinity, law, or phyſic. Strangers indeed are by no means excluded from exerciſing thoſe profeſſions; and the quick increaſe of inhabitants every where gives them a chance of employ, which they have in common with the natives. Of civil offices, or employments, there are few; no ſuperfluous ones as in Europe; and it is a rule eſtabliſhed in ſome of the ſtates, that no office ſhould be ſo profitable as to make it deſirable. The 36th article of the conſtitution of