Page:Henry Adams' History of the United States Vol. 1 (wikilinked).djvu/85

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74
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.
Ch. 2.

continent to civilize, they could not afford to waste time in following European examples, but must de­vise new processes of their own. A world which as­sumed that what had been must be, could not be scientific; yet in order to make the Americans a successful people, they must be roused to feel the necessity of scientific training. Until they were satisfied that knowledge was money, they would not insist upon high education; nor until they saw with their own eyes stones turned into gold, and vapor into cattle and corn, would they learn the meaning of science.