An unexercised genius soon contracts a kind of mossiness, which not only checks its growth, but abates its natural vigour. Like an untenanted house it falls into decay, and frequently ruins the possessor. From elegance they sunk to simplicity, from simplicity to folly, and from folly to voluptuousness. They have added to the dissolution of manners, and supported Venus against the Muses. America yet inherits a large portion of her first-imported virtue.
Degeneracy is here almost a useless word.
There is a happy something in the climate of America, which disarms them of all their power both of infection and attraction. But while we give no encouragement to the importation of foreign vices, we ought to be equally as careful not to create any. A vice begotten might be worse than a vice imported. Like a lover, it woods its mistress with unabated ardor, nor gives up the pursuit without a conquest. The first is a boundless path, the other an endless spring.