vided for the votaries either of learning or science. Not a fellowship, as I heretofre observed, exists in any of the literary institutions in the United States. Nor do I know a single foundation on which an individual is supported for the mere purpose of enabling him to advance far in speculative pursuits.

In Great Britain also, particularly in England, the livings of the Clergy, especially of the superiour Clergy, and the mode of life to which they are destined, enable them to spend their whole time in study. In America the case is reversed. Here men are only paid for doing the business of their respective professions.

From all these facts you will readily perceive, that peculiar discouragements, and obstructions, of those speculative efforts, which have added so much distinction to the European character, exist in the United States. I am, Sir, yours, &c.

LETTER IV.

Opinion of the Edinburgh Review relative to the Literature of America-President Edwards-Rev. Dr. Edwards-Dr. Franklin-Dr. Rittenhouse and other Natural Philosophers-Ingenious and useful inventions-McFingal--Progress of learning in Great Britain from the eighth century.

Dear Sir,

FROM the observations in my last letter you may possibly be induced to believe, that whatever may be the deficiency of our genius and learning, it is not attributable to the causes alleged by Buffon, and de Pauw. In this I hope to convince you that amid all these disadvantages our character is not altogether such, as it frequently appears in the the observations of your countrymen.

In the Edinburgh Review of Ashe's Travels in America* is the following passage, "In short, Federal America has done nothing either to extend, diversify, or embellish, the sphere of human knowledge. Though all she has written were obliterated from the records of learning, there would (if we except the works of Franklin,) be no positive diminution, either of the useful, or the agreeable. The destruction of her whole literature, would not occasion so much regret, as we feel for the loss of a few leaves from an ancient classic."

These declarations are certainly uttered in a sprightly manner. But they are untrue. The late President Edwards has more enlarged the science of Theology than any divine, of whom either England or Scotland can boast; and the loss of his works would occasion more regret than these Reviewers, and I may add without any fear of sober contradiction, than the whole literary world, would feel for the loss, not of a few leaves only, but of the whole works, of half the ancient authors now extant. I do not intend that the Reviewers themselves would feel this regret; but that it would be felt by a vast multitude of mankind, to whom several writers in that review have been both openly and insidiously hos

*Vol. XV, p. 398. Amer. Edit.

tile: I mean christians. There is not a treatise, written by Mr. Edwards, except those which were merely occasional, which has not enlarged science. I particularly specify his treatises on Religious affections, on the qualifications for communion in the christian church, on Moral Agency, on Original sin, on God's last end in the creation of the world, and on the nature of true Virtue. The subjects of these discussions have long been acknowledged by the whole civilized world to be of the highest importance to man. They are, also, of the most abstruse nature; and require the profoundest thought and the most enlarged comprehension. Two of them are professedly replies to the ablest philosophers, who have written on the Arminian side of the question; that on Moral Agency; and that on Original Sin; and both appear to have terminated the dispute. They have now been published more than fifty years. On one side they have been steadily appealed to as immoveable standards of faith, so far as these subjects are concerned. On the other, they have been bitterly complained of; denounced as heretical; pursued with sarcasms, and sneers; and hunted down with contempt: but they have never been answered. Nothing can explain this fact but the acknowledgment, that they have hitherto been believed to be unanswerable.

I am aware, that it may, and will, be replied to a part of these observations, that I have here taken for granted a main point: viz. that the scheme of Mr. Edwards is true. Of its truth I have not a question; but I will not assume it here.

I am not ignorant

how many persons disbelieve it; nor how respectable the character is of some, who are in this number. Nor am I ignorant on the other hand, that it is the scheme substantially adopted by all those distinguished men, who, under GOD, produced the reformation; nor that it is substantially found in the creeds, confessions, and catechisms of all the protestant churches, particularly in the articles, and homilies, of your own church; and, let me add, in the prayers also. It was the glory of this great man, that he had no love for innovation. He did not believe that theology was, like philosophy, left in such a situation, that ages might pass on, during which

the honest inquirers in the church would be necessarily, and invincibly, ignorant of its fundamental truths. Nor did he think it proper to sacrifice common sense to metaphysics. Though probably the ablest metaphysician, who has appeared, he never warped from the path of common sense. To the Scriptures he yielded the most profound reverence, and the most implicit confidence. At the same time he treated his antagonists with a civility, candor, and moderation, which very few of them, or their followers, have exhibited in return.

The first of my positions is not at all affected by the supposition, that Mr. Edwards' opinions are erroneous: viz. that the loss of his writings would awaken more regret than the loss of a few pages of an ancient author, or even of half the works of all the ancient authors now extant. The question here, is merely concerning a matter of fact. You may say, perhaps, that I assert merely my own opinion. I confess it. The reviewer also asserts nothing but his opinion: and I am fairly warranted to believe, that my own regret for the loss of Mr. Edwards' works would be greater than his for the loss of a few pages of an ancient author, or the whole of many ancient authors. Such a loss would be the loss, perhaps, of a few facts; some of them in a degree interesting to mankind: as the case might be, of a few opinions, and doctrines, of considerable value, or possibly of a fine narrative, or interesting description.

His subjects are the most important in the universe; and his discussions are the clearest, the ablest, and the most decisive, elucidations of them, which the world has ever seen. He has elicited from the Scriptures, truths which have escaped other men; has illustrated them by arguments, which were never before discovered; and has shown their dependence, connexion, and importance, with a comprehensiveness of view, which elsewhere will be sought for in vain.

With regard to the principal subject under examination, principal I mean, with respect to the present debate, the admission, that Mr. Edwards' doctrines are erroneous, will only exhibit it with still higher advantage. What must have been the talents, VOL. IV.

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which could have placed errour in such a light, that all the distinguished men, who have appeared on the side of truth during the last fifty years, not only in Great-Britain, but in the whole Christian world, have been unable to detect his errours? Does truth in its own nature labour under such disadvantages? Or did Mr. Edwards possess such singular and transcendant powers?

Indifference to the subject cannot here be pleaded, nor contempt for Mr. Edwards. The numerous complaints, made of his writings in Great Britain, and the numerous specimens of ill-nature, with which he has been assailed, prove beyond debate, that they have been regarded with far other feelings than indifference. That they would have been answered, had those, who disrelished them so strongly, been able to answer them, there can be no doubt. Look into Boswell's Life of Johnson, and mark the gloom, with which the biographer was distressed, from fear that the system of Mr. Edwards should be the truth; and, what I principally intend, observe the dread, with which Johnson himself regarded the subject of his appeal to him, and the caution with which he avoided reading the book, so pathetically complained of, although Boswell ardently wished him to read it, and although he regarded the Americans with even more contempt than he felt towards the Scots.

Suffer me to add, that in his History of Redemption, and in his treatise on God's last end in the creation of the world, there is a sublimity of thought, to which since the days of the Apostles there has been no rival. I do not intend here, sublimity of imagination. I intend Intellectual sublimity; vast and elevated conceptions of Truth. Both of these works, too, were only collections of his sermons, delivered as a part of his ordinary course of preaching; and the former of which, was published after his decease.

At the same time Mr. Edwards was a most powerful preacher. It is believed, that no preacher, who has appeared in this country, ever engrossed the attention of his audience so often, so long, and to so great a degree, except Mr. Whitefield. Yet his voice was low; and he was destitute of gesture. During the first third