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utinals true, 't is there. They might produce, Upon their o nadmission, ait the treasures of knowledge, accumulated throughtheir unuarying history, Unimpatred. Ιf We were to eXamine Our nature by this singular empire, we should conclude it to beStationary rather than progressive. That it shali long continue in that state we cannot insuit Our race by bringing ourselvesto bolievs. Though tho bolt fastens itself more tenacioiasty byrusting in iis place, by that very rust it consumes aWay l
armaments Which Were piat in motion and manoeuvred in batile: the scyth chariot: the boat-bridge: combine to display something more than merely uncivilised existence. But Babylon isu sublime monument of the fact. The temple of Belus appears to have been a prodigy of architecture. The fosses, the Walis, the palaces, the hanging gardens, the braZen galeS,-eVince askill and perseverance, a taste and ambition, geldom eXcelled. Astronomy here found iis earliest home. Observatories Were
constructed for iis pursuit. But Unhappily astrology corrupted the study, and cast thoso blighting and ominous influences ontho Oarth whicli it blindly imputed to the phases and consigurations of the heavenly orbs. For ages this proud cityssotariShed, receiving continued accessions and embellistiments om iis successivo kings. Nor should iis friendly competitorbe forgoiten, sor Νinevoli is as Worthy of record for iis eleganceas Babylon Was for iis splendoUr. Phenicia must not bo omitted in this rapid enumeration. The colonising system Whicli this peopte adopted, does notresemble those dispersions whicli osten took place in a rudor age, Sometimes in quest of Dod, and somelimes in Dar of dopr dation ,-but appears to have been a scheme enlightened and consistent. Navigation must be followed to this fource: and that it Was sonio at scientisic must be inforred froni the longiliand hagard of their voyages. Whether Horace Were Serious or
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not, in the celebrated ode to his frienti on the potnt of embarkation, no nation deserved his censure more than this for their successsul attempis to unite countries severed by the dissociatingocean. The heavens Wore studied by them With this design. Commerce Was their reWard. They were invited to aid distant underia hings as artificers. Tyre and Sidon greW to ama-Zing extent anil grandeur: While Tyrian became proverbialfor princely Wealth, Sidonian hecame as much so sor correct
Egypt may nexi challenge our attention, as a retreat an dcentre os science. FeW names excite more thrilling associations.
It is of venerabis antiquity, though We are disposed to rejectthe origin of this people and the fource of their river as belligin tho skies. The art of embal ming has never been detected With convincing certain ty, nor imitated With continuod success. It may sui prise iis that the human body could be so prepared asto resist for thirty centuries iis tendency to decay. This processe uid bo conducted With so much facility and so litile expenso,
that it was probably applied to that dense population. The
colourod sillis and linens in Whicli the munimies are Wruppedreta in a gloWing richness : the gilding is in a stato of the most perfeci preServation: and certain gla8s ornamenis, that stud disserent partS, prove that there must have been great si ill in cuttingand staining that substance. Engraving must have reached great proficiency; and the instruments for it been weli understood. Chomistry could not have been Wholly Unknown: aStronomy Wasstudied, geometry taught. On the subject of their obelissis and pyramidS, We can only echo the applauses of the civilised worid.
These masses of indestructibie architecture are monuments Ofan age and people, determined, it Would seem, never to bo for-gotten. Thales, the founder of the Ionio school, had visitod Egypt: and for the great encouragement of those sober mindswhich would blend philosophy With commerce, he it recorded, that he not only returned With the eXaci measurement of the Pyramids, but made an excellent speculation in the olivo fruit os his native country. He introduced philosophy into Greece. Hetaught the duli Baeotiam to thirili, throw a glory over Thebes
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OF THE HUMAN SPECIES CONSIDERED, ETc. 131
Stance favoured the prosecution of philosophy and of the liberalaris. The climate WaS Serene, the Scenery picturesque, While thenumerous states Whicli covered the surtace, though sussiciently friendly for the purposes of mutuat defence, Were also Sum-
ciently jealous for active competition. The philosophy of oneos iis principal secis has been commonly received during the greater part of eighteen hundred years. Poetry and eloquence,
sculpture and statuary, acquired a perfection never subsequently attained : and furnished future ages With modeis of themost severe simplici ty and most elaborate excellence. SyracuSe Sustained no mean part in the history of the oldworid. The most eminent men here found a refuge froni theenVy and OUtrage of their own country. Plato dignised iis couri With his presence, and aided it by his counseis: Timoleon, Who had appeared beneath iis Walis as a Warrior, reStored iis
liberty, multiplied iis population, and then, returning hom legi8lation and military command, he became the private citiZen ariddied most passionalely lamented by his adopted country. In this place Archimedes also resided, indisput ly the sirst mathematiciari and mechanisi of his age. As Syracuse Was ostenbesieged, it summoned him hom his studies to plan iis defences, -and his poWerfui genius added much to the glory of iis mural
tated by schemes of aggrandisement and visions os conquest: and they lost in a nearly accurate proportion an intellectUal, forwhat they acquired of a martiat, glory. The eternat city does not rank very high sor even iis architecture, sor iis modeis Wereborrowed froni Greeco. It was indebled for iis philosophy to the Same soUrce. Iis eagerness to obtain the Egyptian obelisti, even in the reigii of Augustus, betrays a dissatisfaction with iis oWn productions. There is a tacit admission of this in riority
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in the speech of Anchises to his son during their intervieW intho Elysian Shades
Excudent alii spirantia mollius Ber3, Credo equidem : vivos ducent e marmore vultus ;Orabunt causas melius : coelique meatus Describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent: Tu regere imperio populoS, Romane, memento ;Hae tibi erunt artes t
Tho literature of Rome, hoWever, arrived at a nobie elevation.
Bygantium, Dom iis siluation on the Propontis, as the approach to east and west, does not appear to have improvedin the meastare of iis advantages. Νor did it rise, as mighthave been expected, on the transfer of the Imperial govertamentio it. Iis principat interest depends upon this tact. It reflectodiast tho splendour of that political luminary which had sprea diis day through the Worid, but here set for over lThe middie ages, as the ages are usualty designated whichoxtond Doni the fifth to the fifteonth of our sera, are generallyrogarded as the darkest and most retrograding in the history of man. Dolabiless they sortii a section os time whicli it is most dissiculi, in some particulars, to reconcite With the great onward plan. But though in many instances they may be uiaequat toothers Which have preceded them, yet, perhaps, in none WaS the
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OF THE HUMAN SPECIES CONSIDERED, Eaec. 133
State of man in generat so favola rabie and so improved as during these. We cannot, indoed, exhibit in the progress of theseageS, SceneS to rival the last periods of Greece and Romo: butwe caii potnt to a diffusion of knowledge, a distribution ofright sentiment, throughout these ages, whicli the best periods of Greece and Rome never bellet d. We thinti only os barbarismand sacrilego in reading of Huns, Goths, and Vandals : but Weformi that men now began to Dei and reflect as they novor didbosors, and that, is these hordes Were the enenates of improve-ment, they Were noW in Sensit,ly b oming the subjects of it. These Woro tho millions Whicli the philosophic masters of man-kin 1 had degraded by enflaving, and exasperated by oppressing :yet though their movenient Was most terrific, the mischiose theyemcted could not be compared to tho benesis whicli theyeXtended to others and received themselves. As a proof that the course of improvenient Was not hopetessiV barred, So early asthe eighth century, Chartemagno collectod libraries and Dunded schoois in that very north Dom Whicli these Savage irruptions had issued. Ηe en tered upon the digestion os laWs, PropoSed tho junction of the Rhino and Danube, and neglecting barbaric peari and gold, surrounded his throne With the wise and
appear detrimental to the interesis of knoWledge,-burying itin celis, and chaining it to cloistors. But had this knowledgo been exposed to the multitudo, it Would probably have been extinguished in the fierce contentions of those times. Is themonastery confined knowledge, it also preserved it. - Chii aDyis deseruing of attention. All must regret itS Sanguinary Character and despise iis silly gallantry. But let iis not suppose itto be the absurdi ty whicli tho champion of the Dulcinea dei
Toboso made it. The manners of men were rude and violent. Woman was depressed Dom her rank in society. The two facts Were inseparabie. Chivalry is but a concession to the necessityof semale influence ovor the state of manners: and it ted to abetter viow and truer confirmation of her sociat rights than
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armed lisis could even have established.-The Crusades must not be sorgoiten. Their history is writton in blood. Buttiisy drow to them the attention of Europe, an effori most con duci vo to the intellectual thriving of man. There Was somethinggrandiy disinterested in their motive, calculated to OVerpowertho sordidness which debases the mind. The intercourse belweenthe two continents Was facilitated, and a mixture of nations necessarily produced.-The learning of that period is too frequently disparaged. Νo person can thinh in ore mea ly than myseis of the school-logic as a method of eliciting, or a test ofexamining, truth. But let ias do justice to the system os dialectios. The mind must have been most active in their employment: hoW retentive the memory, hoW quick the attention, howadroit the judgment, must have been i We are remindod of tho expressive lines of WordsWorth, though disserently applied :
Tho inuontions of that period Were also most important. The use of the compass Was noW sirst observed. Oil paintingwas introduced instead of the fresco, untii then in invariablepractice. The art of mahing Paper Was discovered, whilo thoinvention os printing, unqueStion ly the most important to
poiso ali the injuries on letters and aris Which tho middie agos had inflictod. And here and there We See a PhiloSOPher, a Poet,and, in the best sense, a political oeconomist, - an Alcuin, a Bacon, a Chaucer, a GrotiUS, inining at Various intervais, assolitary watch-toWers, through a night of stornis. That tho revivat os letters should create a revolution in alltho thinhing habits of civilised man, habiis strengthenod byages, cannot but astonish us. A DW Greeli classios, brought into Italy by a band of refugees, changed the face of society, and shook to iis centro the fabric of that vain philosophy whicli,
hoWever admirabie as u dream of genius or a Web of sophistry had so long rostrained iis discipies hom the investigations
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OF THE HUMAN SPECIES CONSIDERED, Eaec. 135
os truth. There must be, there re, in those WrilingS, Something strongly provocative os improvenient. We know, that for the pui pose of his tyranny, Caligula orice attempted tobanish Homer, his busis and his poems : he knew he must destroy ali taste, ali fine sentiment, ali lony emotion, ere hecould Diter the human mind.-When these Writings Were reStOred, the minds whicli contained the seeds and elements of great-ness, seli that there Was a standard sor sentiments whicli theyhad hithorto thought it wrong to cheristi and imprudent todisclose: congeniat spiriis caught the inspiration the enthusiasm spread: and Europe beheld iis most venerable solandations sinking away, and the intellect of man standing erect after the prostration os ages. In this revolution the nantes of Leo and of tho Aledicean family must not be sorgoiteri : letters and aris
never kneW more munificent Patron S.
The Reformation, Dom iis conflict with the passions and interesis of men, daWned not as a Sost SuiariSe Upon the nations, but shook the Dundations of society as by an earlhquake. It was an aWful concussion, and the Worid stili vibrates With it. It must have been potent for good or ill, and could have lennelther ineri as they wero besore. Is it is to be bewailed, somust every Step in the previous gradations. For the revivat ofletters, the gro vili os liberty, the excitement os en luiry, the intermixture of people, ali paved iis Way and hastened iis accomplistiment. Viewing it apari hom iis religiolis meriis and bear-ings, great Was the impetus it gave to the public minii. Besoroit sed the age of puerile conceiis and circular argumentationS.It overcamo the litileness of taste and the bondage of reason. Μan soli his right to think. Tho dilating intellect forced and threw ofr iis uaackles. The principies of this stupendous eventhave never been admitted into any country but they have provedinstruments of iis eXaltation. Advantages of every kind have crowded in Upon it. Α new vigour has entered into iis institutions, and probably they have eXpanded into nobier fornis. Froedom has sinitten the human heari With iis passiora, and taught it to bound high at iis name. The s aut of mighty empires has been evoked froni iis buried depilis, and has risen with
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ali the poWer of a neW-born iiD. Μanners have acquired a justin dependetice. The spirit os truth, of generosity, of ingenuous ness, has gone fortii, insphered in these principies. Wo disse reflect. There is no artifice to serve, no question to evade. We
searching beam. So long as these principies are retained, So faras they shali reacti, emth is released Dom iis tyranny and manis loosened froni his thrali lΗaving presented this rapid epitome of some of the most interesting histories in this progress, it Will be necessary toreturn to the examination os other causes by whicli it has besen
There is one not a litile curious, and not a littio dissiculi todesine. Certain enigmas have constantly sXed the attention ofmankind. HOW they arose We are ut a perfeci loss to discover :Whether they contain the rudiments of science under allegoricalnameS, We are at an equat loSS to ascertain. They have seemed
though their veiled meanings have not been penetraled, many useful resulis have sprung Dom the research. The philosopher'ssione has not been found , nor has alchemy arrived at the Secretos making gold : but the idea gave birili to studies which have proved to be sussciently attractive and useful Without this chimerical eXpectation.--Perpetuat motion Was a nother desideratum, which diroctod the attention os ali Who Were devoted to mecha Dical enquiries, and though Unattained, some of the most deli cate and beautiful movemenis os mechanism may be attributedio this pursuit. The elixir vitae silled tho human mind withthe liope of terrestriat immortality, but this Was not only a stirring thought, it must also have induced a more accurate examination os substances Which Wore imagined to be necessaryingredients in it, and a closer inspectiori of that frame Whose yoUth it Was for ever to preserve. The anima mundi and vis inertiae are not brought to light, but they len an impression onthe human mind that there mero hidden principies of nature, Which Was never effaced, untii Newton unsolded them in all
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OF THE HUMAN SPECIES CONSIDERED, Eaec. 137
their simplicity and grandeur of agen cy. - The Tertium quid
vas never traced, but it excited attention to the connections belWeen cause and effeci, so much requirod in the rigid conductos present science. How large a portion of human knowledge
and improve them. What detraction is it Dom the discovory os gravitation and the invention of the telescope, that Newton saWan apple drop hom a tree, or Galileo a tube in tho hand of achild 8 For such incidenis had frequently occurred : but theassociation of such trifles With Hl that is vast in the universe, shows intelloet of mightier mould than is nono had suggested
There is a certain elasticity in the human character Whichmust not be overtooked in the e quiry. Let this character have uncontroited liberty of action and enga gement, and itonen sinks into stupor und lethargy. But resistance Willcati it sortii : henco those magnificent bursis of energy whicli history narrates. It may appear strange to iis that impedimentsto intellectual progress should have been allowed to remain solong; yet had they not, We must have lost some of the finest displays of our nature, and must have fallod of some of thomost gigantic strides in iis Career. Diversities of nationat character have also been beneficiat. Theso diversities osten depend upon the scenery, and HWVS Upon the institutions, os a country. Were man uniform in his habiis and pursutis, he would bo held in no check and roused tono emulation. There Would be no addition to tho stock of national ideas froni foretgn travel Or history : the World Would have one leves, and the species be crowded into one undistinguished mass. But noW the iaste and bent of nations differ :and the result is that accessions are made to the great common- wealth of knowledge, as various, a8 they are important.
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There has generalty been also a certain scantling of great miniis dispersed through the world : minds formed to dictato wisdom and virtve. Every people has iis sage. To thom this progress is greatly indebled. For nations can never rouse Domtheir stupor of themsel Ves: the ardent coian seis, the great eXamples, of the wise and the good, must be the encitemenis. Andis wo bellove our first dramatist, that spiriis are not finelytouchod but to fine issues, we shali conclude that this distribution is not a fortuitous, but 6Xed, arrangement for scaltering the seeds of improvement through every tribe and variety of man. In illustration os this remark, We may observe thelioniage Whicli ancient monarchs paid to intellectual greatness. Philip made Aristolle preceptor to his son. Antigonus honoured Zeno by asking him to his colari, and Ptolemy sent him theroyal compliment of an embassy. Dionysius welcomed Plato and consulted him on the most intricate assairs. Αnd Alexander devoted a superi, casket, Whicli ho obtained froni the treasure of Darius, to hold his savourite Homer,-a casket Which Was evenborno by him in tho midst os batile. A love to native country is inconceiv ly valvabie in this respect. We ali admit the wildness of that civism Whicli, in iis assected love to the species, overtooks ali iis delatis and distinctions. A peopte must identi0 itself with a locat habitation, or it never can be illustrious. A Wandering tribe cari have no care for any permanent institutions or any splendid Works. How boautiful is a filial patriotismi The country whicli is iis object can never sink into entire debasement. Nor does this more confined attention to our native soli distraci the plan ofgenerat improvement: by this method only can the aggregatebo increa sed. Who can forget the pathos os recollection when Anthores dios Θ Dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos.' 'l' We find this passion sonening the breast of heroes as they rusti totho combat: even the sterii Achilles remembers his parenis and his country ore he marches fortit to avonge his friend.