lu no species of literary composition have the people of the United States exhibited greater or more diversi fied know ledge, or more real abilities, than in the wri ting of essays upon the various interesting subjects of the clay. The chamber of the press may be considered as a great national forum, co-extensive with our domi nions, in which, from its substantial freedom, every per son is at liberty to rise and deliver his sentiments, for the consideration and judgment of his country. With minds, as free and firm as our institutions, it is easy to believe, that writings of the most precious value, may thus appear. Nothing can be suppressed. Every thing may be discussed. Truth, which is ordained even from infantine minds, flows often here front the untutored pen, while genius and learning have also their full oppor tunity to instruct and to inform.
Errors, however supported, may be ultimately ex ploded by means so potent and free, though interest may govern and modify the conduct of influential and powerful individuals.
Considering how much the history of this country was involved in that of our late entire empire till 1776, it is a strong fact, upon the subject under consideration, that fourteen histories, general or partial, on the American subject, have been written in this country, and per haps more.
It is considered that geographical dictionaries, manu als, and systems, as well general as American, for pue rile and juvenile instruction, and for the information of mature and strung minds, have been compiled and writ ten with uncommon correctness in this country.
In the poetic walk, the general appearances are yet rather symptomatic than decisive. Tne taste in poetry, particularly in our own language and in the Latin, is discriminating, correct, refined and elevated.
Literature and science have intimate and important relations to the theory and practice of medicine. The range of study, requisite to the formation of a successful, and particularly of a learned physician, is undoubtedly more extended than that, which is necessary even to the more important character of a minister of religion, as well as to those of a practitioner of the law, a judge or a chancellor. There is no department of learned com position, to which the United States have recently ap plied greater attention, than that connected with the healing art, and the philosophy of medicine. We may safely claim a very considerable share of the requisite talents, in this benign, indispensable, and elevated branch of human affairs. Many of the physicians of the United
States have studied in Europe, in the schools and under the direction of Linnxus, Hunter, Cullen, Munro, Four t roy and Chaptal, and other eminent teachers in medi cine, and now exhibit a successful combination of the genius and practice of the new world, with the learning and experience of the older nations.
From the form and nature of our governments, the communications, reports, and correspondence, of the principal officers, arc voluminous and frequent. They dis play an intimate knowledge of the right theory and Kar e of public affairs.
The American character, on the subject of interesting and much injured woman, is nature ameliorated and re filled by reason, humanity, morals, and religion. The seraglios and nunneries, which respectively injure the character and happiness of Turkey and Italy, are both here unknown. Woman, in America, receives more justice, enjoys freedom, and is the best and truest friend of man. Not only our hearts, but our just minds confess their merits ; and since virtue is wisilwn, we are led to question, in their favour, the superior sense of men, whose characters are imbued with rapine, voluptuous ness, tyranny, crafty devices, and wild ambition. The influence and authority of woman is most high in that religious society, which approaches as near as any other to the true standard of religion, morals, and public use fulness ; or in other words, to the most sound criterion of public and private wisdom and virtue. One happy and conclusive evidence of the real merits and of the strong influence of the women of this country, is to be found in the rarity of conjugal infidelity in that part of society, in which it is most frequent in the old world. The in creasing attentions of parents, brothers, guardians, and husbands, to female education and improvement, and the progressive amelioration of our laws on the female subject, are substantial proofs of a reflected attachment to our mothers, our wives, our daughters, and our sis ters. Not only the feudal system, but every minute fragment of that scheme, which considered women as noughts in the creation, is abrogated in America. Consi dering woman as subjected to a variety of injuries, by her defenceless and attractive nature, the American cha racter, upon this subject, is not less estimable, than that of any other people of former ages, or of the present time.