lation, and continues to produce them without intermission.

In all that relates to facts, either as to number or certainty, or the use to be made of them, there can be no comparison. Geography, Chronology, Natural History, and even civil History, have partaken largely of the general improvement. However interesting and valuable may be the historical productions of antiquity, nothing can be more evident than that they abound in contradictions, obscurities, and falsehoods, from which extensive research accurate habits of weighing evidence, and the increased communication of different countries, render modern records comparatively exempt.

In Oratory and Statuary, the palm must be conceded to Greece. Their religion, government, and perhaps climate, led them to early excellence. But the nature of these arts precludes progression by their admitting something like absolute perfection, which may be soon attained, and can never be surpassed. Painting has limits, from the same cause, although it was reserved for a later age to reach them.

As to the general condition of society, Hume remarks that, "to one who considers coolly of the subject, it will appear, that human nature, in general, really enjoys more liberty at present, in the most arbitrary governments of Europe, than it ever did during the most flourishing period of ancient times." Some very brief extracts from his Essay on the Populousness of Ancient Nations must here be allowed me. "The custom of exposing old, useless, or sick slaves in an island of the Tyber, there to starve, seems to have been pretty common in Rome. The ergastula, or dungeons, where slaves in chains were

beat to work, were very common all over Italy. Nothing so common in all trials, even of civil causes, as to call for the evidence of slaves; which was always extorted by the most exquisite torments. In ancient history we may always observe, where one party prevailed, whether the nobles or people, that they immediately butchered all of the opposite party they laid their hands on, and banished such as had been so fortunate as to escape their fury. No form of process, no law, no trial, no pardon. Trade, manufactures, industry, were no where in former ages so flourishing as they are at present in Europe. The only garb of the ancients, both for males and females, seems to have been a kind of flannel, which they wore commonly white or grey, and which they scoured as often as it grew dirty. I do not remember any passage in any ancient author, wherein the growth of any city is ascribed to the establishment of a manufacture. The commerce which is said to flourish is chiefly the exchange of those commodities for which different soils and climates were suited."

For ancient morals, both in theory and practice, see Priestley's Institutes, Part ii. Ch. i.; and, on the Improvement of Mankind, Part iii. Ch. v. "On the Future Condition of the World in general;" also, Law's Theory of Religion; Aspland's Sermon on the Power of Truth; Murray on the Character of Nations and Progress of Society; Price's "Evidence for a future Period of Improvement," &c.

NOTE (*)-Page 243.

The rude destroyers of the Roman empire reaped blessings which they little expected, or at first knew how to

value, from the vanquished: the effect of their embracing the Christianity, such as it was, of that age, is thus deScribed by Gibbon :

Poste Christianity, which opened the gates of heaven to the barbarians, introduced an important change in their moral and political condition. They received at the same time, the use of letters, so essential to a religion whose doctrines are contained in a sacred book, and, while they studied the divine truth, their minds were insensibly enlarged by the distant view of history, of nature, of the arts, and of society. The version of the Scriptures into their native tongue, which had facilitated their conversion, must excite, among their clergy, some curiosity to read the original text, to understand the sacred Liturgy of the Church, and to examine, in the writings of the Fathers, the chain of ecclesiastical tradition. These spiritual gifts were preserved in the Greek and Latin languages, which concealed the inestimable monuments of ancient learning. The immortal productions of Virgil, Cicero, and Livy, which were accessible to the Christian barbarians, maintained a silent intercourse between the reign of Augustus and the times of Clovis and Charlemagne.

"The emulation of mankind was encouraged by the remembrance of a more perfect state; and the flame of science was secretly kept alive, to warm and enlighten the mature age of the western world. In the most corrupt state of Christianity, the barbarians might learn justice from the law, and mercy from the gospel and if the knowledge of their duty was insufficient to guide their actions, or to regulate their passions; they were sometimes restrained by conscience, and frequently

:

punished by remorse. But the direct authority of religion was less effectual than the holy communion which united them with their Christian brethren in spiritual friendship. The influence of these sentiments contributed to secure their fidelity in the service, or the alliance of the Romans, to alleviate the horrors of war, to moderate the insolence of conquest, and to preserve in the downfall of the empire a permanent respect for the name and institutions of Rome. In the days of Paganism, the priests of Gaul and Germany reigned over the people, and controuled the jurisdiction of the magistrates; and the zealous Proselytes transferred an equal, or more ample, measure of devout obedience, to the poutiffs of the Christian faith. The sacred character of the bishops was supported by their temporal possessions; they obtained an honourable seat in the legislative assemblies of soldiers and freemen; and it was their interest as well as their duty, to mollify, by peaceful counsels, the fierce spirit of the barbarians. The perpetual correspondence of the Latin clergy, the frequent pilgrimages to Rome and Jerusalem, and the growing authority of the popes, cemented the union of the Christian republic; and gradually produced the similar manners and common jurisprudence which have distinguished, from the rest of mankind, the independent, and even hostile nations of modern Europe." (Decline and Fall, Ch. xxxviii.)

Thus it is that the greatest blessings come upon mankind incidentally and unexpectedly. From the zeal of modern missionaries to Calvinize the South-Sea Islanders, much spiritual good is not perhaps to be expected, but, together with the Assembly's Catechism, they have carried something much better to that degraded race. Who

would have conjectured, twenty years ago, that now a printing-press would be at constant work in Otaheite ? The world owes much to the men who have done this, though it was not the primary object of those zealous and enduring efforts which, whatever be their opinions, are truly Christian, and deserving of the highest commendation.

NOTE ()-Page 250.

On the probable dissolution of whatever institutions may obstruct the spread of Christianity, and the improvement of mankind, see Hartley on Man, Part ii. Ch. iv. Sect. 2: "Of the Expectation of Bodies Politic, the Jews in particular, and the World in general, during the present State of the Earth."

3

No evils seem so deeply or generally to have impressed the minds of political speculators, as those caused by the inequalities of private property. Its equalization or destruction is the basis of most of the imaginary republics which have been presented to the world by ingenious men, from Plato to Sir Thomas More, from More to Harrington, and from Harrington to Wallace. Swift, (Gulliver, Part iv. Ch. vi.,) Mably (de la Législation), and Godwin, with his disciples or coadjutors, have attacked it with powerful reasoning. Paley (in his celebrated Illustration of the Pigeons) has made the objection more striking than the reply-and Price (Four Dissertations on Providence, &c. p. 137, Note) was inclined to place its extinction amongst the future improvements which he so ardently anticipated.