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ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS,
DELIVERED TO THE
SCHOOL OF LITERATURE AND THE


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November 23, 1814.
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ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS.
       Gentlemen—
  You have equal  reason  with myself, to  regret tlie
absence of that distinguished  member,* to whom was
assigned the delivery  of an oration on this evening.
having, so  recently,  been appointed his successor, I
should not veuture to  exhibit my  erude and desultory
performance, which has been  hastily executed in the
midst of pre-existing engagements, hut for a conviction,
that his removal has imposed on every member an obli-
gation to augmented industry.   Under this impression,
and to the hope of  your indulgence, I shall proceed
with ennfidenee in the execution of my task.
  Our first year's labors were closed, by the  interesting
discourse, which has just been read.  During that pe-
riod,  we have  assembled,  for  literary exercise, more
than twenty times; and our President has delivered, on
Astronomy and Natural Philosophy, a variety of Lec-
tures, equally eloquent and perspicuous.  He has de-
dueed from them sentiments both amiable and exalted,
snch as a philosophical survey of  the works of  God
invariably excite; and  has interspersed them with many
impressive recommendations of  the  pleasure conferred
by the acquisitions of  knowledge*   Thus, from his la-
bel's have resulted both instruction of the understand-
ing, and improvement  of the heart.  The object's and
character of our infant association  have  been Tieftacd
and established ; an impetus has been  given  it,  and
regular exertion only is wanting, to  raise it  into notice
and respectability.
  The essays of the members, if less learned and pro-
found, have equalled all reasonable expectation.  Soaie
* Josiah Meigs, Esquire. 
4
 of them consist chiefly of original matter, while others
 manifest a degree of research, which is honorable to
 their authors, and auspicious to the School.
   It would be amusing to review  their contents, but be-
 ing restricted to limits too narrow for that undertaking,
 L Will sabstitute a catalogue of their titles,  that, by a
 single glance we may see the number and diversity of
 the subjects  to which our attention has been directed.
 I shall enumerate them in the order of their delivery :
 -  1 An Essay en Education—2 on the Earthquakes of
 18 u, I8t2aud 1813—3 on Light—4  on Carbon—3 on
 Air—G on the Mind—7 on Agriculture—8 on Caloric
 —9 on  Gravitation—10  on  Instinct—li Notice* of
 the Aurora ISoreales of the 17th  of April and llth of
 September, 1814—12 an Essay ou Water, considered
 chemically and hydrostatically— 13 on Gammon Sense
 —11 on Heat—\5 on the Mechanical Powers—16 on
 the Theory of Earthquakes—17 on  Enthusiasm—18
 oo the Geology of Cincinnati  and  its vicinity, illustra-
 ted with mineral specimens and a vertical map—19 oa
 the Internal Commerce of the United  States—20 on
 Hydrogen—21  on Rural Eeonomy—23 on the Geology,
 of some parts of New-York—23 on General Commerce.
  The third  and subordinate  portion of our exercises,
 poetical recitation, has been  strictly  performed; and
 our Album of.poetry already exhibits specimens indi-
 cative  of a cultivated taste.  The proposition to con-,
nect with the pieces recited,  such critical remarks as
they may suggest, has received  some attention, and
promises to give to this branch of our  performances an
interest and dignity which were not originally  antici-
pated.
  Such, briefly, is the character «f our introductory la-
bors-   Their retrospection cannot fail to excite a por-
tion of complacency and hope in ourselves, tho from our
fellow  citizens they may extort neither the meed of ap-
probation,nor the humbler reward  of occasional attfcnd'-.
ance.   These, however, are certainly attainable, f Our
lot, g$u4J^m,eti, is east in a region  abundant in but few
things, except the products of a rich and unexhausted
 soil.  Learning, philosophy and taste, are yet in early 
                         5
Infancy, and the standard of excellence in literature and
science  is  proportionably low.  Hence, acquirements,
which in older and more enlightened countries  would
scarcely  raise an individual  to  mediocrity, will here
place him in  a commanding  station.  Those  who at-
tain to  superiority in the  community of which they
are  members,   are relatively  great.   Literary ex-
cellence in Paris, London or Edinburgh is incomparable
with  the same  thing  in  Philadelphia,  New-York or
Boston:  while each of these, in turn,  has a standard of
merit, which may be contrasted, but cannot  be compa-
red, with that of Lexington or Cincinnati.  Still, com-
parative superiority in Europe, the Atlantic states, or
Back-woods, is  equally gratifying; and gives to  him
who possesses it, the  same influence  over the commu-
nity to which he belongs.
   But it will, perhaps, be asserted, that in a state so
young as this, no literary distinction is attainable, that
would outvalue its cost; that academies and  colleges
are as yet  scareely instituted; that libraries, philoso-
phical apparatus and scientific teachers are equally rare
and  imperfect  ;  that  associations for  improvement,
animated and impelled by a persevering spirit, can find
no habitation in these rude and chequered settlements ;
and, lastly, that our countrymen are accustomed to look
with  frigid indifference on  every  species of literary
effort.  This  is, indeed,  pouring cold water on the
flame of literary ambition :  but that noble passion  is
not to be thus extinguished ; and if a single spark re-
main, it will enable us  to perceive, through the Gothic
darkness which envelopes onr  literature and science,
the certain tho narrow paths to a brighter region.
  New countries, it is true, cannot afford the elegancies
and refinements of learning; but they are not so unpro-
pitious to the growth of intellect, as we  generally sup-
pose.   The facilities of improvement which they fur-
nish, differ from those of an old country,  more in kind,
than degree." In new countries, the e*mpire of prejudice
is comparatively insignificant; and the  mind, not de-
pressed by  the dogmas of licensed  authority,  nor fet-
tered by the chains  of inexorable custom, is "left i'rt^ to
                       A 2 
0
expand, according to its original constitution.  But the
sources of information are fewer, than in old countries ;
and in balancing between the exemptions of one and the
advantages  of the other,  it must  be acknowledged
that the latter has a great ascendancy.   New countries,
however, possess some positive and peculiar aids to the
developernent of understanding.   Of these, the princi-
pal are to be found in the composition  of their society.
St. Pierre, in the preamble to his Arcadia, has made a
beautiful allusion to this, when depicting an imaginary
community of immigrants, assembled on the river of the
Amazons.
   "They abjured  (says he)  the  national  prejudices
which had rendered them, from infancy, the enemies of
other men ;  and especially that  which  is the source of
all the animosities of the human raee,aud which Europe
•instils with "the  mother's milk into each of her sons—
the desire of being foremost.   They adopted, under the
immediate  protection  of the Author  of  Nature, the
principles of universal toleration : and by that act of
general justice, they fell back without interruption into
the unconstrained exercise of their particular character.
The  Dutchman there  pursued  agriculture and com-
merce into the very bosom of the morasses ; the Swiss,
iip to the vety summit of the rocks ; and the Russian,
dexterous in  managing the hatchet, into the centre of
the thickest forests.  The Englishman there addicted
himself to na\igalion, and  to  the  useful arts, which
constitute thy strength  of  states ; the  Italian, to the
liberal arts, which raise them to a flourishing condi-
tion ; the Prussian, to military exercises;  the Poles, t«
those of horsemanship ; the reserved Spaniard,  to the
talents which require  firmness ; the  Frenchman, to
fhose which  render life agreeable,  and to  the  social
instinct which qualifies him  to  be the bond of union
among all nations.  All these men, of opinions so very
different, enjoyed,  through the medium of toleration and
intercommunication, every thing that was best in their
several characters, and tempered the defects of one by
the redundancies  of another.  Thenee resulted from
f(!ijcation, from laws, and from habits, a  combination 
of arts, of talents, of virtues, and of religious principles,
which formed of the whole but one single  people,  dis-
posed to exist internally in  the most perfect harmony,
to resist every external  invader, and  to  amalgamate
with all the rest of the human race."
   A state of soeiety analogous to this is actually pre-
sented by Ohio.  In no  country  of  the  same age  and
numbers, do  the  immigrants exhibit more diversity.
The sister states, from Georgia to Maine—the Canada*
and West-Indies'—the united kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland,   and  the empires of  Europe, from  the
shores of the Baltic to the Mediterranean, have contri-
buted to increase and variegate  our  population.   With
the currents  of emigration from those countries, have
flown  into this, many peculiar  customs, maimers  and
sentiments, which furnish the elements of anew nation-
al character, and display, if not the works of each, at
least  the principles  on  which they were designed  and
executed  A society,  thus compounded, has uitltin
itself no indiffereut substitute for travelling; and exhi-
bits, in the lapse of time, what  belongs  naturally to
change of place.
   It requires but little  reflection on the  comparative
influence of these causes, aud tho9e, operating  among
a people regulated by a confirmed system of laws  and
customs, where the  national character is uniform  and
the authority of precedent  indisputable,  to perceive,
that the developemeuts  of mind which  they effect, are
on very different principles ;  and that the  former have
many advantages over the  latter.   To illustrate their
relative effects by  a metaphor, it may be said, that the
operations of intellect, in an old eountry, are like the
waters of a deep canal,  which,  flow ing  between  artifi-
cial banks, pursue an  equable and uniform  course ;
while in a uew country, they resemble the stream which
euts its own channel in the wilderness; rolls successively
in every direction ; has a current, alternately swift  and
slow; is frequently shallow; but always free, diver-
sified  and natural.  The former is eminently useful for
a single purpose—the latter can  be made  subservient
to meny.    .  / 
8
  For these differences, gentlemen, an additional rea-
son may be assigned.   Old states are  abundant in  the
means of imparting elementary knowledge ; new ones,
in occasions for applying it practically.  This is  pre-
eminently the case in the natural sciences, and to these
chiefly I propose to advert.  The larger and more com-
mon objects of a country are soon described ; but these
are not always the most wonderful or numerous.  Pro-
ductions exhibiting great complexity of structure,  and
connected with each other and with man by very sur-
prising and complicated relations, are frequently  mi-
nute, or  neglected.   In  Great Britain,  the  strata,
which had for centuries sustained the  footsteps of suc-
cessive tribes of geologists, have recently yielded,to the
observations of  Mr. William Smith,  results equally
new and interesting.  In France, the vicinity of Paris
afforded to Jussieu, more than  a hundred new plants,
after having been explored for forty years by the pene-
trating eye  of Tournafort.  More recently, the envi-
rons of the same city, for a thousand years the metropo-
lis of the empire of physical science, have rewarded the
genius and industry of Cuvier, with a  rich museum of
quadruped remains, the living archetypes of which  the
world cannot at this time furnish.  If,  in Europe, such
enviable  conquests were  reserved for the  naturalists
of the present  day, what vast acquisitions may  not be
made in the region of  the Ohio, where  the germs of
civilization have  not been planted more than half a
century !
  On this subject,  gentlemen, our  enthusiasm   can
scarcely rise to excess.   We are surrounded by a bound-
less region, redundant in ohjects the most novel and in-
viting—where the strong may exhaust  their mightiest
energies;  and the weak may find, in the luxuriauce of
the harvest, a substitute for strength—where gleaning
is neither necessary nor practicable, and the time else-
where employed in search of  fruitful fields, is devoted
to selection in the midst of universal plenitude.   But
let  us descend to particulars.—The  climate of  this
country exhibits many singular phenomena:  To  note
and compare them with those of other climates,  and * 
9
thereby to ascertain the laws peculiar to each and com-
mon to all, are ebjects of great interest to the Meteoro-
logist, and remain to be accomplished.  To observe
the symptoms peculiar to our diseases, investigate their
causes, and assign their remedies ; to mark the succes-
sion of epidemic^, and point out the means of prevent-
ing endemics, are duties of the first consequence,  which
the physicians of this country have yet to perform.  To
analyze and compare the varieties in our soil, and as-
sign to each its appropriate species  of culture;—to
ascertain the extent and diversities of the great  calca-
reous strata which support  this region,  classify their
marine exuvia, and investigate their marbles, their sa-
line deposits and metallurgic precipitates;  to explore
the tracts of sandstone which are occasionally  found,
and bring to light their beds of coal; to survey and dis-
integrate our extensive alluvions,determine the process
of  tlieir formation,  their richness in iron ore, in cop-
peras, alum, clays and ochres, their antiquity, and their
vegetable and animal remains;—to collect and arrange
specimens  of the granite, mica-slate, gneiss and other
primitive stones; which, detached from their kindred
strata in  the depths  of the earth, are  here scattered
over the surface  in profusion j to discover  the  region
front which they were derived, and assign the species of
convulsion which transported them hither;—to examine
and point out, to the infirm and  disordered,  those
mineral  springs  which posse>s a healiug  power;—
and lastly, to analyze the  waters of our salines, and
increase their  utility,  by extracting from  them, the
sulphates of soda and magnesia,  with other valuable
medicines, are objects which offer to the Geologist and
Chemist,  and to society  generally,  a recompence of
the highest order.  To discover, examine and describe
the plants peculiar to this region ; to compare its gene-
ral botany with that of other countries between the same
parallels ; to determine the latitudes of  certain  plants
common to this  and  other  states;  to investigate and
bring into notice such of  our indigenous vegetables as
would be useful in medicine  and the arts  ; to search for
species, which, by proper cultivation, would become ar- 
10
 tides of nourishment; and lastly,  to enrich our pas-
 tores with some  of the numerous grasses which adorn
 our fertile prairies, would immortalize  the names of a
 greatei number of Botanists than the United States can
 at present boast.  Finally, our Zoology, in the classes
 of quadrupeds and birds,  would not furnish  much no-
 velty; but in the departments containing the more im-
 perfect animals, many curiosities might  unquestionably
 be found.  Our fishes, reptiles,  insects  and vermes re-
 main to be examined; and promise to those  who under-
 take it, the reward of a distinguished reputation.
   These, gentlemen, are some of the desiderata in our
 Natural  History.  Their number, variety  and magni-
 tude are scarcely surpassed by those of any country of
 the earth.  They are at once the objeets and stimuli of
 industry, the  springs of ambition,  and  the fuel of
 enthusiasm.
   To the Naturalist, they furnish the means not only
 of applying, but of extending, correcting and improving
 his elementary knowledge.
   To the Philosopher of expanded vieirs, they offer a
 theme for the sabiimest contemplation.  Directing his
 eye to the strata on which he  treads, their  mariue  ori-
 gin is obvious, and he is instantly carried back in asto-
 nishment, to the era, when this great  region, now over-
 shadowed by lofty forests  or embellished nvith farms
 and villages, presented nothing but a deep and inter-
 minable  waste-of waters.   While eagerly attentive to
 the process, by which the habitations of its animals
 were converted into stone, at the  bottom of this ocean,
 he is interrupted  and  suddenly called to speculate on
 the causes which*produeed  its entire  dispersion.  The
 surface of the  new made earth being exposed to view,
 his cariosity is excited  by the  formation  of rivers.
Where the grand  and'stately Missouri, Ohio and Mis-
sissippi now roll  their  currents, he sees nothing bnt
depressions, abounding in ponds and morasses.  Swelled
fry copious  rains,  he perceives these waters surmount
their barriers,  and accumulate in the south,  until by
their irrcsistable weight, all obstacles are borne down,
 aj»4  the  impetuous torrent mingles  with  the  oceau. 
11
descending from this period, he is occupied in contem-
plating the plants and animals of the  new continent.
Where submarine groves of red coral but lately grew,
he  sees  forests of  majestic oak  arise.   Where the
sponge attached its slender forms, he perceives the lux-
uriant maize*  shoot forth, to nourish  future nations.
The tracts which were once encumbered with myriads
of  shell-fish,  he now sees verdant  with shrubs and
herbage, infested with the rattle-snake and wolf, enlir
vened with deer and elkj  or pressed by the gigantic
forms of the elephant and mammoth, longsince extinct.
Lastly, in the lapse  of time he is  brought to contem-
plate the-arrival ef man.  Observes, his progress from
the north-west, his temporary locations by the way, and
more lasting settlements on the banks of the Ohio. His
enclosures of earth ior permanent residence,—mounds
for the erection of temples—embankments for defence ;
and his manufactures of $lay and shells, of stone and
copper, constituting  the achme of his  perfection in the
arts.   Finally, to the unwilling view is presented the
gloomy spectacle of  exterminating wars, and decline in
civilization; with his  ultimate degradation into the
present savage, his exile to some distant country, or
entire annihilation.
   Such, gentlemen,  is the series of amazing and inex-
plicable events* whieh this country presents for exami-
nation ;  and which cannot /ail to  attract much  of our
attention.  There are, however, many  other subjects,
which, if less brilliant, are of equator  greater utility.
Whatever relates to the improvement of onr agriculture,
manufactures  and commerce ; to  the perfection  of our
political and social institutions ; to the economics, sta-
tistics and history of our infant state, is  of the greatest
consequence.   But 1 have only time to expatiate on the
last a single moment.  Were the most intelligent young
men of Ohio interrogated concerning .the Indian war
which closed in 1793, they could scarcely do more than
relate, that Harjnar.was repulsed  ; that St. Clair was
disastrous; and that Wayne conquered.  With tho?e
* The Indian name for corn. 
IS
details in which all/njcknowledgc consists, they have no
acquaintance, nor tan they  at present obtain it.   With
the schemes and  stratagems, the inroads, murders and
plundering of the enemy ; with the cruel and insidious
co-operation of Great Britain ; the extensive combina-
tions among the tribes,and their ferocious perseverance;
with the captivities and suffering of our mothers and
sisters; the watchfulness and intrepidity of our fathers
and brethren ;  the hardships and courage, the defeats
and victories of onr troops ; the character of our com-
manders, and the expenditures  of our government, du-
ring that predatory and barbarous war,  most of us are
less acquainted, than with the campaigns of Bonaparte
or Alexander.
  To collect  from the surviving actors in those tra-
gical scenes, and from other authentic sources, the ma-
terials necessary  for a true  and minute history of that
period, would be an undertaking worthy of an older in-
stitution than  ours.  Those who accomplish it, will
appease the manes of many neglected  heroes slain  in
battle; they must receive the gratitude  of society, for
supplying a great desideratum, and in future times will
be honored, as  the fathers of our history.

       Gentlemen of the town—
  The members  of the School of  Literature and the
Arts solicited the honor of your company this evening,
to exhibit before  you a specimen of their labors ;  and to
make you acquainted with the plan and objects of their
humble association.  They  have done this, fearless  of
the imputation of vanity, for the sole purpose  of enga-
ging your good  will  towards an institution, which, if
continued, may,  under abler guidance, be made of pub-
lic utility.
  That you will  not withhold the cheering reward  of
commendation, when their labors deserve it, your con-
duct this evening, with your general character, is an
ample pledge.   With  that encouragement, they will
diligently fan  the spark that  has been  kindled, untU
it shall rise into a more bright and durable flame.