ared to me to be written with great clearness,
and neatness of definition.

It appears extraordinary that a people who loudly declare their
respect for science, should be entirely without observatories.
Neither at their seats of learning, nor in their cities, does any
thing of the kind exist; nor did I in any direction hear of
individuals, given to the study of astronomy.

I had not the pleasure of making any acquaintance with Mr.
Bowditch, of Boston, but I know that this gentleman ranks very
high as a mathematician in the estimation of the scientific world
of Europe.

Jefferson's posthumous works were very generally circulated
whilst I was in America. They are a mighty mass of mischief. He
wrote with more perspicuity than he thought, and his hot-headed
democracy has done a fearful injury to his country. Hollow and
unsound as his doctrines are, they are but too palatable to a
people, each individual of whom would rather derive his
importance from believing that none are above him, than from the
consciousness that in his station he makes part of a noble whole.
The social system of Mr. Jefferson, if carried into effect,
would make of mankind an unamalgamated mass of grating atoms,
where the darling "I'm as good as you," would soon take place of
the law and the Gospel. As it is, his principles, though happily
not fully put in action, have yet produced most lamentable
results. The assumption of equality, however empty, is
sufficient to tincture the manners of the poor with brutal
insolence, and subjects the rich to the paltry expediency of
sanctioning the falsehood, however deep their conviction that it
is such. It cannot, I think, be denied that the great men of
America attain to power and to fame, by eternally uttering what
they know to be untrue. American citizens are not equal. Did
Washington feel them to be so, when his word outweighed (so
happily for them) the votes of thousands? Did Franklin think
that all were equal when he shouldered his way from the printing
press to the cabinet? True, he looked back in high good humour,
and with his kindest smile told the poor devils whom he left
behind, that they were all his equals; but Franklin did not speak
the truth, and he knew it. The great, the immortal Jefferson
himself, he who when past the three score years and ten, still
taught young females to obey his nod, and so became the father of
unnumbered generations of groaning slaves, what was his matin and