The nation can do little more than read the works and admire the beauties of the original authors, who have adorned the preceding ages. A few, ambitious of fame, or driven by necessity, croud their names into the catalogue of writers, by imitating some celebrated model, or by compiling from the productions of genius. Nothing marks more strongly the declension of genius in England, than the multitude of plays, farces, novels and other catchpenny pieces, which swell the list of modern publications; and that host of compilers, who, in the rage for selecting beauties and abridging the labor of reading, disfigure the works of the purest writers in the nation. Cicero did not waste his talents in barely reading and selecting the beauties of Demosthenes; and in the days of Addison, the beauties of Milton, Locke and Shakespear were to be found only in _their works_. But taste is corrupted by luxury; utility is forgotten in pleasure; genius is buried in dissipation, or prostituted to exalt and to damn contending factions, and to amuse the idle debauchees that surround a licentious stage.[84] These are the reasons why we should not adopt promiscuously their taste, their opinions, their manners. Customs, habits, and _language_, as well as government should be national. America should have her _own_ distinct from all the world. Such is the policy of other nations, and such must be _our_ policy, before the states can be either independent or respectable. To copy foreign manners implicitly, is to reverse the order of things, and begin our political existence with the corruptions and vices which have marked the declining glories of other republics. FOOTNOTES: [61] Misused. [62] Kenrick, who was not guided solely by the fashion of the day, but paid some regard to the regular construction of the language. [63] Sheridan has repeated with approbation, a celebrated saying of Dean Swift, who was a stickler for analogy, in pronouncing _wind_ like _mind_, _bind_, with the first sound of _i_. The Dean's argument was, "I have a great m[2i]nd to f[2i]nd why you pronounce that word _w[2i]nd_." I would beg leave to ask this gentleman, who directs us to say _woond_, if any good reason can be _foond_ why he _soonds_ that word _woond_; and whether he expects a rational people, will be _boond_ to follow the _roond_ of court improprieties? We acknowlege that _w[2i]nd_ is a deviation from analogy and a corruption; but who pronounces it otherwise? Practice was almost wholly against Swift, and in America at least, it is as generally in favor of the analogy of _wound_. A partial or local practice, may be brought to support analogy, but should be no authority in destroying it. [64] _Government_, _management_, retain also the accent of their primitives; and the nouns _testament_, _compliment_, &c. form another analogy.