f La Place has been
translated and commented upon by Bowditch.

Our knowledge of the geography and topography of the American continent
has been rapidly extended by the labor and science of the officers of
the United States army, and discoveries of much interest in distant seas
have resulted from the enterprise of the navy.

In 1807, a survey of the coast of the United States was commenced, which
at that time it was supposed no American was competent to direct. The
work has, however, grown within the last few years, under a native
superintendent, in importance and extent, beyond any enterprise of the
kind ever before attempted.

These facts conclusively prove that a great advance has been made among
us, not only in the application of science to the wants of ordinary
life, but in science itself, in its highest branches, in its adaptation
to satisfy the cravings of the immortal mind.

In respect to literature, with the exception of some books of elementary
education, and some theological treatises, of which scarcely any but
those of Jonathan Edwards have any permanent value, and some works on
local history and politics, like Hutchinson's Massachusetts, Jefferson's
Notes on Virginia, the Federalist, Belknap's New Hampshire, and Morse's
Geography, and a few others, America had not produced a single work of
any repute in literature. We were almost wholly dependent on imported
books. Even our Bibles and Testaments were, for the most part, printed
abroad. The book trade is now one of the greatest branches of business,
and many works of standard value, and of high reputation in Europe as
well as at home, have been produced by American authors in every
department of literary composition.

While the country has been expanding in dimensions, in numbers, and in
wealth, the government has applied a wise forecast in the adoption of
measures necessary, when the world shall no longer be at peace, to
maintain the national honor, whether by appropriate displays of vigor
abroad, or by well-adapted means of defence at home. A navy, which has
so often illustrated our history by heroic achievements, though in
peaceful times restrained in its operations to narrow limits, possesses,
in its admirable elements, the means of great and sudden expansion, and
is justly looked upon by the nation as the right arm of its power. An
army, still smaller, but not less perfect in its detail, has on many a
field exhibited the military aptitudes and prow