NOTES ON VIRGINIA.
93
ſelf, &c. &c. We therefore have reaſon to believe ſhe can produce her full quota of genius. The preſent war having ſo long cut off all communication with Great-Britain, we are not able to make a fair estimate of the ſtate of ſcience in that country. The ſpirit in which ſhe wages war, is the only ſample before our eyes, and that does not ſeem the legitimate offspring either of ſcience or of civilization. The ſun of her glory is faſt deſcending to the horizon. Her philoſophy has croſſed the channel, her freedom the Atlantic, and herſelf ſeems paſſing to that awful diſſolution, whoſe iſſue is not given human foreſight to ſcan.[1]
- ↑ In a later edition of the Abbé Raynal's work, he has withdrawn his cenſure from that part of the new world inhabited by the Federo-Americans; but has left it ſtill on the other parts. North America has always been more acceſſible to ſtrangers than South. If he was miſtaken then as to the former, he may be ſo as to the latter. The glimmerings which reach us from South America enable us only to ſee that its inhabitants are held under the accumulated preſſure of ſlavery, ſuperſtition and ignorance. Whenever they ſhall be able to raiſe under this weight, and ſhow themſelves to the reſt of the world, they will probably ſhow they are like the reſt of the world. We have not yet ſufficient evidence that there are more lakes and fogs in South America than in the other parts of the earth. As little do we know what would be their operation on the mind of man. That country has been viſited by Spaniards and Portugueſe chiefly, and almoſt excluſively. Theſe going from a country of the old world remarkably dry in its ſoil and climate, fancied there were more lakes and fogs in South America than in Europe.
