EFFECTS OF THE SCIENCES ON CIVIL LIBERTY. IT must be acknowledged, that the most enlightened ages have not always been the most happy. It has even been said, that in proportion as knowledge encreases, the mind becomes corrupted. But what inference ought we, in justice, to form from this general assertion, admitting it to be true? Not, surely, that knowledge is a thing in itself bad; but that there is nothing upon earth good that can remain long exempted from the abuse of man. Though the sciences are so far from being of necessity the parents of power and felicity, that a mediocrity of both talents and fortune is found to be more calculated to render men happy than an abundance of either wealth or knowledge; yet, in the political world, a revolution has happened which renders, at least, a relative advancement in the study of them requisite. From the time that politics became reduced into a complex system; from the time that light succeeded to darkness; that the nature and ends of government began to be understood; that the gaining of battles no longer depended on strength and courage, but on the art of fighting; from that time skill and knowledge became the engines of power, and governed all its principles. So strictly true are these positions, that if we examine the present state of Europe, we shall not find the nations that have formed the grandest settlements, to be those which are either the strongest or the most populous, but those in which the arts and sciences have chiefly flourished. Before men were united in society, intelligence was not necessary for them. As mere existence was their only object, instinct was sufficient. Afterwards, however, new springs of action arose; plans of legislation were settled; different classes were created; different orders were formed; different powers were established. In order to preserve a general equilibrium, an additional weight was given to some, at the expence of others. Every attention was necessary to the maintenance of civil and political order, and to the preservation of the public safety. These various objects required not only minds enlightened and improved, but (so to express it) a general assortment of knowledge. To an inequality of national knowledge has been ascribed the origin of most European wars. In a word, that union, which, while it diffuses a harmony throughout the body politic, serves to connect all its parts, is a system highly complicated; and barbarous is every government reputed to which it is unknown. POETRY. ODE FOR THE YEAR 180c. THE world's horizon, still with gloom o'ercast, War's steady champions to the fight, Oft hath a sire his much lov'd son to mourn; Joins with the matron to complain Hail, op'ning year, thrice hail thy natal morn, And Commerce more our cares employ. Strike, strike, in quicker time the jocund lyre, Let livelier chords announce the happy birth; Let every Muse to raise the tune aspire, And loudest pœans echo through the earth. Unnumber'd Saints their voices raise, W.P.H. 10 A YOUNG LADY, COMPLAINING THAT WINTER HAD RETURNED FOUR TIMES. OH! CELIA, why should you complain That WINTER in his icy chain Hath four times bound the earth? And all its treasures bring: But MAY, altho' with roses crown'd, 1 C. |