Journal of a Tour in Unsettled Parts of North America - In 1796& 1797 #246871

I take on myself the responsibility of recommending the publication of this Journal, which completes a remarkable biography. So far as our own country is concerned, it is printed for those who remember its author, and for those who take interest in the early life of men of science. That others may be amused or instructed by it as a book of travels is an additional reason for its appearance; and, as regards the United States, a sufficient reason.<br><br>On looking at a posthumous work of the present kind the question naturally arises. What would the author have said to its publication? On this point there is full right to infer that he left nothing behind him on which the possibility of publication had not presented itself to his mind. He had been an ardent controversialist, and had lived through many scientific disputes, in correspondence with those who were as warmly engaged as himself. Nevertheless, among the thousands of his letters which I have examined, I remember but one which so much as alludes to a charge of even scientific misconduct against a scientific man - and that one contains the writer's verdict of acquittal. He must, therefore, systematically have destroyed papers which he wished not to meet other eyes.