KNOWLEDGE
/ COMMUNICATION TO OTHERS
…the nature of the correspondence which is
carried on between societies instituted for the benevolent purpose
of communicating to all parts of the world whatever useful is
discovered in any one of them. These societies are always in peace,
however their nations may be at war. Like the republic of letters,
they form a great fraternity spreading over the whole earth, and
their correspondence is never interrupted by any civilized nation.
|
John
Hollins
19 Feb 1809 |
KNOWLEDGE
/ INQUIRY VERSUS IGNORANCE
Your favor of the 6th instant is just received,
and I shall with equal willingness and truth, state the degree of
agency you had, respecting the copy of M. de Becourt's book, which
came to my hands. That gentleman informed me, by letter, that he was
about to publish a volume in French, "Sur la Creation du Monde,
Un Systeme d'Organisation Primitive," which, its title promised
to be, either a geological or astronomical work. I subscribed; and,
when published, he sent me a copy; and as you were my correspondent
in the book line in Philadelphia, I took the liberty of desiring him
to call on you for the price, which, he afterwards informed me, you
were so kind as to pay him for me, being, I believe, two dollars.
But the sole copy which came to me was from himself directly, and,
as far as I know, was never seen by you.
I am really mortified to be told that, in the United States of
America, a fact like this can become a subject of inquiry, and
of criminal inquiry too, as an offence against religion; that a
question about the sale of a book can be carried before the civil
magistrate. Is this then our freedom of religion? and are we to have
a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold, and what
we may buy? And who is thus to dogmatize religious opinions for our
citizens? Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to
be cut or stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or shall a
layman, simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule for what
we are to read, and what we must believe? It is an insult to our
citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and
blasphemy against religion to suppose It cannot stand the test of
truth and reason. If M. de Becourt's book be false in its facts,
disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But, for God's
sake, let us freely hear both sides, if we choose. I know little of
its contents, having barely glanced over here and there a passage,
and over the table of contents. From this, the Newtonian philosophy
seemed the chief object of attack; the issue of which might be
trusted to the strength of the two combatants; Newton certainly not
needing the auxiliary arm of the government, and still less the holy
Author of our religion, as to what in it concerns Him. I thought the
work would be, very innocent, and one which might be confided to the
reason of any man; no? likely to be much read if let alone, but, if
persecuted, it will he generally read. Every man in the United
States will think it a duty to buy a copy, in vindication of his
right to buy, and to read what he pleases. I have been just reading
the new constitution of Spain. One of its fundamental bases is
expressed in these words: "The Roman Catholic religion,
the only true one, is, and always shall be, that of the Spanish
nation. The government protects it by wise and just laws, and
prohibits the exercise of any other whatever." Now I wish this
presented to those who question what you may sell, or we may buy,
with a request to strike out the words, "Roman Catholic,"
and to insert the denomination of their own religion. This would
ascertain the code of dogmas which each wishes should domineer over
the opinions of all others, and be taken, like the Spanish religion,
under the protection of wise and just laws." It would show to
what they wish to reduce the liberty for which one generation has
sacrificed life and happiness. It would present our boasted freedom
of religion as a thing of theory only, and not of practice, as what
would be a poor exchange for the theoretic thraldom, but practical
freedom of Europe. But it is impossible that the law of
Pennsylvania, which set us the first example of the wholesome and
happy effects of religious freedom, can permit the inquisitorial
functions to be pro posed to their courts. Under them you are surely
safe. |
N.
G. Dufief
19 Apr 1814 |
KNOWLEDGE
/ MEDICAL
I am sorry to hear of the situation of your
family, and the more so as that species of fever is dangerous in the
hands of our medical boys. I am not a physician and still less a
quack but I may relate a fact. While I was at Paris, both my
daughters were taken with what we formerly called a nervous fever,
now a typhus, distinguished very certainly by a thread-like pulse,
low, quick and every now and then fluttering. Doctor Gem, an English
physician, old and of great experience, and certainly the ablest I
ever met with, attended them. The one was about five or six weeks
ill, the other, ten years old, was eight or ten weeks. He never gave
them a single dose of physic. He told me it was a disease which
tended with certainty to wear itself off, but so slowly that the
strength of patient might first fail if not kept up. That this alone
was the object to be attended to by nourishment and stimulus. He
forced them to eat a cup of rice, or panada, or gruel, or of some of
the farinaceous substances of easy digestion every two hours and to
drink a glass of Madeira. The youngest took a pint of Madeira a day
without feeling it, and that for many weeks. For costiveness,
injections were used; and he observed that a single dose of medicine
taken into the stomach and consuming any of the strength of the
patient was often fatal. He was attending a grandson of Madame
Helvetius, of ten years old, at the same time, and under the same
disease. The boy got so low that the old lady became alarmed and
wished to call in another physician for consultation. Gem consented,
that physician gave a gentle purgative, but it exhausted what
remained of strength, and the patient expired in a few hours.
I have had this fever in my family three or four times since I have
lived at home, and have carried between twenty and thirty patients
through it without losing a single one, by a rigorous observance of
Doctor Gem's plan and principle. Instead of Madeira I have used
toddy of French brandy about as strong as Madeira. Brown preferred
this stimulus to Madeira. I rarely had a case, if taken in hand
early, to last above one, two, or three weeks, except a single one
of seven weeks, in whom when I thought him near his last, I
discovered a change in his pulse to regularity, and in twelve hours
he was out of danger. I vouch for these facts only, not for their
theory. You may on their authority, think it expedient to try a
single case before it has shewn signs of danger.
P. S. I should have observed that the same typhus fever prevailed
in my neighborhood at the same time as in my family, and that it was
very fatal in the hands of our Philadelphia tyros. |
James
Madison
13 Jan 1821 |
KNOWLEDGE
/ SCIENTIFIC / COURSE OF STUDY
…I trust, that with your dispositions,
even the acquisition of science is a pleasing employment. I can
assure you, that the possession of it is, what (next to an honest
heart) will above all things render you dear to your friends, and
give you fame and promotion in your own country. When your mind
shall be well improved with science, nothing will be necessary to
place you in the highest points of view, but to pursue the interests
of your country, the interests of your friends, and your own
interests also, with the purest integrity, the most chaste honor.
The defect of these virtues can never be made up by all the other
acquirements of body and mind. Make these, then, your first object.
Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself
and all it contains, rather than do an immoral act. And never
suppose, that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances,
it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so
it may appear to you. Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can
never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were
all the world looking at you, and act accordingly. Encourage all
your virtuous dispositions, and exercise them whenever an
opportunity arises; being assured that they will gain strength by
exercise, as a limb of the body does, and that exercise will make
them habitual. From the practice of the purest virtue, you may be
assured you will derive the most sublime comforts in every moment of
life, and in the moment of death. If ever you find yourself
environed with difficulties and perplexing circumstances, out of
which you are at a loss how to extricate yourself, do what is right,
and be assured that that will extricate you the best out of the
worst situations. Though you cannot see, when you take one step,
what will be the next, yet follow truth, justice, and plain dealing,
and never fear their leading you out of the labyrinth, in the
easiest manner possible. The knot which you thought a Gordian one,
will untie itself before you. Nothing is so mistaken as the
supposition, that a person is to extricate himself from a
difficulty, by intrigue, by chicanery, by dissimulation, by
trimming, by an untruth, by an injustice. This increases the
difficulties tenfold; and those, who pursue these methods, get
themselves so involved at length, that they can turn no way but
their infamy becomes more exposed. It is of great importance to set
a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is
no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits
himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second
and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies
without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing
him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in
time depraves all its good dispositions.
An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the
second. It is time for you now to begin to be choice in your
reading; to begin to pursue a regular course in it; and not to
suffer yourself to be turned to the right or left by reading
anything out of that course. I have long ago digested a plan for
you, suited to the circumstances in which you will be placed. This I
will detail to you, from time to time, as you advance. For the
present, I advise you to begin a course of ancient history, reading
everything in the original and not in translations. First read
Goldsmith's history of Greece. This will give you a digested view of
that field. Then take up ancient history in the detail, reading the
following books, in the following order: Herodotus, Thucydides,
Xenophontis Anabasis, Arrian, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus Siculus,
Justin. This shall form the first stage of your historical reading,
and is all I need mention to you now. The next will be of Roman
history. From that, we will come down to modern history. In Greek
and Latin poetry, you have read or will read at school, Virgil,
Terence, Horace, Anacreon, Theocritus, Homer, Euripides, Sophocles.
Read also Milton's Paradise Lost," Shakspeare, Ossian, Pope's
and Swift's works, in order to form your style in your own language.
In morality, read Epictetus, Xenophontis Memorabilia, Plato's
Socratic dialogues, Cicero's philosophies, Antoninus, and Seneca. In
order to assure a certain progress in this reading, consider what
hours you have free from the school and the exercises of the school.
Give about two of them, every day, to exercise; for health must not
be sacrificed to learning. A strong body makes the mind strong. As
to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives a
moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and
independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of
that nature, are too violent for the body, and stamp no character on
the mind. Let your gun, therefore, be the constant companion of your
walks. Never think of taking a book with you. The object of walking
is to relax the mind. You should therefore not permit yourself even
to think while you walk; but divert yourself by the objects
surrounding you. Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate
yourself to walk very far. The Europeans value themselves on having
subdued the horse to the uses of man; but I doubt whether we have
not ~ost more than we have gained, by the use of this animal. No one
has occasioned so much the degeneracy of the human body. An Indian
goes on foot nearly as far in a day, for a long journey, as an
enfeebled white does on his horse; and he will tire the best horses.
There is no habit you will value so much as that of walking far
without fatigue. I would advise you to take your exercise in the
afternoon: not because it is the best time for exercise, for
certainly it is not; but because it is the best time to spare from
your studies; and habit will soon reconcile it to health, and render
it nearly as useful as if you gave to that the more precious hours
of the day. A little walk of half an hour, in the morning, when you
first rise, is advisable also. It shakes off sleep, and produces
other good effects in the animal economy. Rise at a fixed and an
early hour, and go to bed at a fixed and early hour also. Sitting up
late at night is injurious to the health, and not useful to the
mind. Having ascribed proper hours to exercise, divide what remain
(I mean of your vacant hours) into three portions. Give the
principal to History, the other two, which should be shorter, to
Philosophy and Poetry. Write to me once every month or two, and let
me know the progress you make. Tell me in what manner you employ
every hour in the day. … |
Peter
Carr
19 Aug 1785 |
KNOWLEDGE
/ SCIENTIFIC
I have duly received your letter of the 8th
instant, on the subject of the stone in your possession, supposed
meteoric. Its descent from the atmosphere presents so much
difficulty as to require careful examination. But I do not know that
the most effectual examination could be made by the members of the
National Legislature, to whom you have thought of exhibiting it.
Some fragments of these stones have been already handed about among
them. But those most highly qualified for acting in their
stations, are not necessarily supposed most familiar with subjects
of natural history; and such of them as have that familiarity, are
not in situations here to make the investigation. I should think
that an inquiry by some one of our scientific societies, as the
Philosophieal Society of Philadelphia for example, would be most
likely to be directed with such caution and knowledge of the
subject, as would inspire a general confidence.
We certainly are not to deny whatever we cannot account for. A
thousand phenomena present themselves daily which we cannot explain,
but where facts are suggested, bearing no analogy with the laws of
nature as yet known to us, their verity needs proofs proportioned to
their difficulty.. A cautious mind will weigh well the opposition of
the phenomenon to every-thing hitherto observed, the strength of the
testimony by which it is supported, and the errors and
misconceptions to which even our senses are liable. It may be very
difficult to explain how the stone you possess came into the
position in which it was found. But is it easier to explain how it
got into the clouds from whence it is supposed to have fallen? The
actual fact however is the thing to be established, and this I hope
will be done by those whose situations and qualifications enable
them to do it. |
Daniel
Salmon
15 Feb 1808 |
KNOWLEDGE
/ SCIENTIFIC
I am very thankful to you for the description
of Redhefer's machine. I had never before been able to form an idea
of what his principle of deception was. He is the first of the
inventors of perpetual motion within my knowledge, who has had the
cunning to put his visitors on a false pursuit, by amusing them with
a sham machinery whose loose and vibratory motion might impose on
them the belief that it is the real source of the motion they see.
To this device he is indebted for a more extensive delusion than I
have before witnessed on this point. We are full of it as far as
this State, and I know not how much farther. In Richmond they have
done me the honor to quote me as having said that it was a possible
thing. A poor Frenchman who called on me the other day, with another
invention of perpetual motion, assured me that Dr. Franklin, many
years ago, expressed his opinion to him that it was not impossible.
Without entering into contest on this abuse of the Doctor's name, I
gave him the answer I had given to others before, that the Almighty
himself could not construct a machine of perpetual motion while the
laws exist which He has prescribed for the government of matter in
our system; that the equilibrium established by Him between cause
and effect must be suspended to effect that purpose. But Redhefer
seems to be reaping a rich harvest from the public deception. The
office of science is to instruct the ignorant. |
Robert
Patterson (Dr.)
27 Dec 1812 |
KNOWLEDGE
/ SCIENTIFIC / ABSTRACT RESEARCH
In the line of science we have little new here.
Our citizens almost all follow some industrious occupation, and,
therefore, have little time to devote to abstract science. In the
arts, and especially in the mechanical arts, many ingenious
improvements are made in consequence of the patent-right giving
exclusive use of them for fourteen years. But the great mass of our
people are agricultural; and the commercial cities, though, by the
command of newspapers, they make a great deal of noise, have little
effect in the direction of the government. They are as different in
sentiment and character from the country people as any two distinct
nations, and are clamorous against the order of things established
by the agricultural interest. Under this order, our citizens
generally are enjoying a very great degree of liberty and security
in the most temperate manner. Every man being at his ease, feels an
interest in the preservation of order, and comes forth to preserve
it at the first call of the magistrate. We are endeavoring, too, to
reduce the government to the practice of a rigorous economy, to
avoid burdening the people, and arming the magistrate with a
patronage of money, which might be used to corrupt and undermine the
principles of our government. I state these general outlines to you,
because I believe you take some interest in our fortune, and because
our newspapers, for the most part, present only the caricatures of
disaffected minds. Indeed, the abuses of the freedom of the press
here have been carried to a length never before known or borne by
any civilized nation. But it is so difficult to draw a clear line of
separation between the abuse and the wholesome use of the press,
that as yet we have found it better to trust the public judgment,
rather than the magistrate, with the discrimination between truth
and falsehood. And hitherto the public judgment has performed that
office with wonderful correctness. |
Pictet
5 Feb 1803 |
KNOWLEDGE
/ SCIENTIFIC / INVENTIONS
It has been some time since I have tried the
experiments for which you were so kind as to lend me your
dynamometer and the reconveyance by sea and under the care of some
passenger. This to New York never happens from our quarter, to
Philadelphia once or twice a year only, if I knew with whom to lodge
it there for you. To Washington I could more frequently send it. I
must, therefore, ask your instructions on this subject.
A Mr. Abraham Howard Quincy, number 108 Chatham street, New York,
informs me he has made an improvement in fireplaces, such as that
with one-tenth of the fuel ordinarily laid on a fire and that kept
up but one hour in five, maintains summer temperature in the room,
and he has requested me to ask some friend in whom I have confidence
to call on him and receive his demonstrations of it. I have no
acquaintance there whose turn is mechanical, of whom I could ask
this; but it occurs to me that you may possibly be there
occasionally, and that your affection to improvements in the arts
might induce you to take the trouble to examine this one, my
confidence in your judgment as to the reality of the improvement
would settle my Opinion. I would therefore ask you to give a leisure
moment to this examination. |
Robert
Fulton
8 Mar 1813 |
KNOWLEDGE
/ THEORIES VS OBSERVATIONS
I thank you for the extract of the letter you
were so kind as to communicate to me, on the antiquities found in
the western country. I wish that the persons who go thither would
make very exact descriptions of what they see of that kind, without
forming any theories. The moment a person forms a theory, his
imagination sees, in every object, only the traits which favor that
theory. But it is too early to form theories on those antiquities.
We must wait with patience till more facts are collected. I wish
your Philosophical Society would collect exact descriptions of the
several monuments as yet known, and insert them naked in their
Transactions, and continue their attention to those hereafter to be
discovered. Patience and observation may enable us in time, to solve
the problem, whether those who formed the scattering monuments in
our western country, were colonies sent off from Mexico, or the
founders of Mexico itself? Whether both were the descendants or the
progenitors of the Asiatic red men? |
Charles
Thomson
20 Sep 1787 |
KOSCIUSKO
(GENERAL)
I received duly your welcome favor of the 15th,
and had an opportunity of immediately delivering the one it enclosed
to General Kosciusko. I see him often, and with great pleasure mixed
with commiseration. He is as pure a son of liberty as I have ever
known, and of that liberty which is to go to all, and not to the few
or the rich alone.
Kosciusko has been disappointed by the sudden peace between France
and Austria. A ray of hope seemed to gleam on his mind for a moment,
that the extension of the revolutionary spirit through Italy and
Germany, might so have occupied the remnants of monarchy there, as
that his country might have risen again. |
Horatio
Gates (General)
21 Feb 1798 |
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