James Bowdoin and the Patriot Philosophers

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American Philosophical Society, 2004 - Biography & Autobiography - 274 pages
A history of the early years of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, & the life & career of James Bowdoin, the Academy's first president. The strength of the work rests in a combination of its subject matter & execution. The subject matter is both intrinsically interesting & simultaneously neglected. Neither the accomplishments of Bowdoin nor the contributions of the members of the Academy have been adequately studied, & the Manuel's careful exploration is a valuable addition to our understanding of the founding of the nation. Using primary manuscript sources, the work is, by turns, witty, learned, & often simply fascinating. An incomparable account of one of Revolutionary America's most elusive & fascinating figures.
 

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Page 257 - ... to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.
Page 247 - And the king said unto his servants, Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?
Page 107 - Cambridge, and the enemy, heard me with visible pleasure; but when I came to describe Washington for the commander, I never remarked a more sudden and striking change of countenance. Mortification and resentment were expressed as forcibly as his face could exhibit them.
Page 256 - Commonwealth ; and to annex reasonable fines and penalties to the breach of them, not exceeding the sum of twenty pounds, to be sued for and recovered by said Society, and to their own...
Page 5 - To promote and encourage the knowledge of the antiquities of America and of the natural history of the country, and to determine the uses to which the various natural productions of the country may be applied; to promote and encourage medical discoveries, mathematical disquisitions, philosophical inquiries and experiments; astronomical, meteorological and geographical observations, and improvements in agriculture, arts, manufactures and commerce...
Page 77 - These thoughts, my dear friend, are many of them crude and hasty; and if I were merely ambitious of acquiring some reputation in philosophy, I ought to keep them by me, till corrected and improved by time and farther experience. But since even short hints and imperfect experiments in any new branch of science, being communicated, have...
Page 255 - Society; and that they and their successors, and such other persons as shall be elected in the manner hereafter mentioned, shall be and continue a body politic and corporate by the same name forever.
Page 256 - ... shall have full power and authority, from time to time, to make...
Page 257 - College ; and that the said corporation shall be capable of having, holding and taking in fee simple or any less estate, by gift, grant, devise or otherwise, any lands, tenements or other estate, real or personal. Provided, nevertheless, that the annual clear income of the same shall not exceed the sum of six thousand pounds.
Page 256 - ... they may sue and be sued in all actions, real, personal and mixed, and prosecute and defend the same unto final judgment and execution, by the name of, The President and Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.