7729. SCIENCE, American field of.—
What a field have we at our doors to signalize
ourselves in. The Botany of America is far
from being exhausted, its Mineralogy is untouched,
and its Natural History or Zoology,
totally mistaken and misrepresented. As far as
I have seen, there is not one single species of
terrestrial birds common to Europe and America,
and I question if there be a single species
of quadrupeds. (Domestic animals are to be
excepted.) It is for such institutions as that
[Harvard] over which you preside so worthily
to do justice to our country, its productions
and its genius. It is the work to which the
young men whom you are forming should lay
their hands. We have spent the prime of our
lives in procuring them the precious blessing
of liberty. Let them spend theirs in showing
that it is the great parent of science and of
virtue; and that a nation will be great in both,
always in proportion as it is free.—
To Dr. Willard. Washington ed. iii, 16.
(P.
1789)
