16
faculties of
the
taste.
The works
of
which
the
libraries
then
consisted,
treated
of
useful
and
practical
subjects.
It
W35
the
p0liCY
of
the
wiser and better ;
mankind
Quakers to make
and
they thought that,
springs
as the passions are the
of
all
moral
evil
when
in a state of
excitement,
whatever
tends to awaken
them
is
unfavourable
to
that placid tenour of
wished
mind which they
to
S68
diffused
"throughout
the
world.
This
notion is prudent,
perhaps judicious ;
but
works
of
imagination
m?1Y
be
rendered
subservient
t0
the safne purpose. Every thing in Pennsylvania
was thus unpropitiousA to the fine arts. There
were
HO
cares
in
the
bosoms
of
individuals
to
require
pubHc
diversions,
HOT
any
emulation
in
the expenditure of
wealth to encourage the orna-
mental
manufactures.
In
the
whole
Christian
world no spot was apparently so unlikely to pro-
duce a painter as Pennsylvania. It might, indeed,
be
supposed,
according
to
El
Popular
opinion,
that a youth, reared among the concentrating
elements ofa new state, in the midst of bound-
tremendous Waterfalls, and mountains
less forests,
" the lightest
were inaccessible to
Whose summits
foot and wildestwing,"
W215
the
most favourable