다. AN INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE,. &c. ENGIV. OF CALIFORNIA In compliance with the solemnity expected on this occasion, I rise to address this respectable audience. For the first time has an association been established and incorporated in this state, devoted to literature and philosophy. Although I have always ardently cherished the love of letters, yet I am fully sensible that neither my attainments nor my talents ntitle me to this place. On my zeal and my industry, however, the fullest reliance may be placed; for although not a minister officiating at the holy altar of science, yet you shall always find me a sincere and humble worshipper at the vestibule of the temple. It is with societies as it is with individuals; if the first impression be favourable, it gives a tone to character which is attended with the most auspicious effects in every future stage of existence: as somewhat of the colour of our social character may depend on this first appearance on the theatre of public observation, you may judge of my embarrassment on this occasion. The solemn considerations which grow out of an establishment of this nature must press upon our sensibility, with redoubled force, when we reflect upon the accusations which are brought against our country by the literati of Europe. The celebrated Buffon has declared that, in America, animated nature is weaker, less active, and more circumscribed in the variety of its productions, than in the old world; that there is some combination of elements and other physical causes; something that opposes its amplification; that there are obstacles to the developement, and perhaps to the formation of large germs; and that even those which, from the kindly influences of another climate, have acquired their com plete form and expansion shrink and diminish under a niggardly air and in an unprolific land! Dr. Robertson has also said, that "the principle of life seems to have been less active and vigorous here than in the ancient continent;" and that "nature was not only less prolific in the new world, but she appears likewise to have been less vigorous in her productions." Need we add to this the obloquy which has been cast upon our country by the herd of tourists and travellers who have attempted to describe it. With some of them, our soil is destitute of prolific power, our atmosphere teems with disease and death, our lives are comparatively short, our institutions are tottering under debility and decay, our national M 2713 science to aid, by its faculties, the agitations of party, little can be expected from energies thus perverted and abused. The annals of our colonial state present a continual controversy between the ministers of the crown, and the representatives of the people. What did the governor and judges care for a country where they were strangers? where their continuance was transient; and to which they were attached by no tie that reaches the human heart. Their offices emanated from another country;-to that source they looked for patronage and support, to that alone their views extended; and having got, what Archimedes wanted, another world on which to erect their engines they governed this at pleasure. The colonial governors were, generally speaking, little entitled to respect. They were delegated to this country not as men qualified to govern, but as men whose wants drove them into exile; not as men entitled by merit to their high eminence, but as men who owed it to the solicitations of powerful friends and to the influence of court intrigue. Thus circumstanced and thus characterized, is it wonderful to find them sometimes patroling the city disguised in female dress; at other times assailing the representatives of the people with the most virulent abuse, and defrauding the province by the most despicable acts of peculation; and at all times despising knowledge and overlooking the public prosperity? Justice, however, requires that we should except from this censure Hunter and Burnet. Hunter was a man of wit, a correspondent of Swift, and a friend of Addison.(2) Burnet, the son of the celebrated bishop of Salisbury, was devoted to literature; they were the best governors that ever presided over the colony. The love of fame is the most active principle of our nature. To be honoured when living,-to be venerated when dead,-is the parent source of those writings which have illuminated,--of those actions which have benefited and dazzled mankind. All that poetry has created, that philosophy has discovered, that heroism has performed, may be principally ascribed to this exalted passion. True it is, "When fame's loud trump hath blown its noblest blast, And glory, like the phoenix 'midst her fires, LORD BYRON. Yet, as long as man is susceptible of sublime emotions, so long will he commit himself to this master feeling of a noble nature. What would have become of the sublime work of Milton, if he had written for 66 the fifteen pounds which he received from the bookseller; and where would have been the writings of Bacon, if he had not aspired to immortal fame?" My name and memory," said this prince of philosophers, in his will, “I leave to foreign nations, and to my own countrymen after some time be passed over " When with one hand he demolished the philosophy of the schools, and with the other erected a magnificent temple dedicated to truth and genuine knowledge, he was animated in his progress, and cheered in his exertions by the persuasion that after ages would erect an imperishable monument to his fame. But in order that this passion may have its full scope and complete operation it is not only necessary that there should be a proper subject, but a suitable place and an enlightened public. The actor, in order to act well his part, must have a good theatre and a respectable audience. Would Demosthenes and Cicero have astonished mankind by their oratory, if they had spoken in Sparta or in Carthage? would Addison have written his Spectators in Kamtschatka, or Locke his work on the Understanding at Madrid? destroy the inducement to act, take away the capacity to judge, and annihilate the value of applause, and poetry sinks into dulness; philosophy loses its powers of research; and eloquence evaporates into froth and mummery. A provincial government, like ours before the revolution, was entirely incompetent to call into activity this ennobling propensity of our nature. A small population, scattered over an extensive country, and composed almost entirely of strangers to literature; a government derivative and dependent, without patronage and influence, and in hostility to the public sentiment; a people divided into political and religious parties, and a parent country watching all their movements with a stepmother's feel. ings, and keeping down their prosperity with the arm of power, could not be expected to produce those literary worthies who have illuminated the other hemisphere. History justifies the remark that free governments, although happier in themselves, are as oppressive to their provinces as despotic ones. was a common saying in Greece that a free man in Sparta was the freest man; and a slave, the greatest slave in the world. This remark may be justly applied to the ancient republies which had provinces under their controul. The people of the parent country were free, and those remote were harrassed with all kinds of exactions, borne down by the high hand of oppression, and under the subjection of a military despotism. The colonial system of modern times is equally calculated to build up the mother country on the depression of its colonies. That all their exports shall go to and all their imports be derived from it, is the fundamental principle. Admitting occasional departures from this system, is it possible that an infant country, so bandaged and cramped, could attain to that maturity of growth which is essential to the promotion and encouragement of literature? Accordingly we do not find in any colony of modern times any peculiar devotion to letters, or any extraordinary progress in the cultivation of the buman mind. The most fertile soil,-the most benign climate,-all that nature can produce and art can perfect, are incompetent to remove the benumbing effects which a provincial and dependent position operates upon the efforts of genius. These difficulties, so embarrassing, were augmented from other causes. The population of this colony was derived from several nations. The original emigrants were dutch. The next in order of time were from England. The revocation of the edict of Nantz, and the persecutions in the Palatinate, occasioned considerable migrations from France and Germany; Scotland and Ireland also furnished a great accession of inhabitants. Four different languages were for a long time used; and the people were separated from each other by a diversity of manners and opinions, and strong national prejudices. How, then, was it possible to combine their energies in any common effort? Two centuries have not entirely extinguished the lines of national separation. The dutch and german languages are still spoken in some settlements. Five or six generations have, in a great measure, amalgamated these discordant elements. National antipathies have subsided, a national character has been formed, and a national physiognomy is supposed to be established. The triumph and general adoption of the english language have been the principal means of melting us down into one people, and of extinguishing those stubborn prejudices and violent animosities which formed a wall of partition between the inhabitants of the same land. In a country whose population was thus composed, it was not to be expected that a great taste for literature would be considered an essential accompaniment. The government of Great Britain discountenanced emigrations. Transportation to the colonies was declared to be the punishment for many felonies. "It is a shameful and unblessed thing," said Bacon, "to take the scum of people; and wicked, condemned, men to be the people with whom you plant; and not only so, but it spoileth the plantation." This measure was, no doubt, the result of design, the dictate of policy. It inculcated upon the public mind that the colonies were a place of punishment, not a country enjoying the blessings of life; and it prevented that copious flow of migration which the necessities of the people, and the hope of enjoying better fortunes in another land, would have unquestionably effected. Although the relegation of convicts to this country could not seriously affect the morals of the american people, or materially disturb their internal tranquillity, yet it certainly injured our character in the general estimation of Europe. The british government has established one great settlement for convicts; there can be little doubt but that the same sentiment existed at one period, in the |