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“One leading French naturalist, the Comte de Buffon, famously proposed that climate and other conditions in the New World had led to the inevitable degeneration of its fauna and flora. Buffon’s more enthusiastic readers extrapolated from this argument to call into question the virility and intelligence of both America’s European settlers and its native inhabitants, the Indians. That sparked a rousing defense of American virtue and vigor from Jefferson, spelled out in his only published book, Notes on the State of Virginia.20”
― Jonathan Lyons, The Society for Useful Knowledge: How Benjamin Franklin and Friends Brought the Enlightenment to America

“The People have a Saying, that God Almighty is himself a Mechanic, the greatest in the Universe; and he is respected and admired more for the Variety, Ingenuity and Utility of his Handiworks, than for the Antiquity of his Family.”
― Jonathan Lyons, The Society for Useful Knowledge: How Benjamin Franklin and Friends Brought the Enlightenment to America