TION. and is perpetually renewed in the successive generations INTRODUCwho inhale, during the ardour of youth, the maxims and the spirit of classical freedom. The whole face of society has been modified by this mighty discovery; the causes of ancient decay seem counteracted in a powerful manner by new principles of vitality, derived from the multitudes whose talents are brought to bear on the fortunes of the state; and the influence of despotic power shaken, by the infusion of independent principles even into the armies which are destined to enforce its authority. 47. But it is not unmixed good which has arisen from the diffusion of knowledge. If the principles of improvement And dangers. have acquired a hardier growth, those of evil have been more generally disseminated; the contests of society have grown in magnitude and increased in violence, and the passions of nations have been brought into collision, instead of the ambition of individuals. Vice has here, as elsewhere in human affairs, fearfully put forth its influence to mar the benefits of this great discovery, and continued in the most advanced ages that struggle between virtue and sin, which has been the lot of man from the beginning of the world. The visions of inexperience, the dreams of philanthropy, at first anticipated the entire extirpation of evil from the extension of knowledge, and an unbroken progress of improvement from the spread of education; forgetting that the heart is the fountain from which the issues of life, the direction given to the acquisitions of science, flow; and that unless it is purified, it is of little moment what is put into the head. In the midst of these entrancing prospects, human iniquity mingled with the current; the new powers thus acquired were too often applied to the basest purposes; crime and corruption increased with the extension of desires, and vice multiplied with the enlarged means of compassing its ends which instruction had afforded. It is to a general appreciation of this bitter but wholesome truth that mankind are at length awakening, after INTRODUC- the enchanting dreams which were followed by the dreadTION. ful nightmare of the French Revolution. Yet, while 48. experience has now demonstrated the utter fallacy of all benefits of expectation of increased individual virtue, or augmented knowledge. social felicity, from mere intellectual cultivation, it is far Ultimate from discouraging more cheering prospects of the ultimate effect of moral elevation and spiritual enjoyment on the race of man. Vice is generally victorious over virtue in the outset, but it is as often vanquished by it in the end. The pleasures of sin are at first fearfully alluring, its passions vehement, its gratifications intense. But both lead to disappointment and satiety; the beautiful image of the poet"a moment white, then lost for ever," is true, not merely of sensual but of all merely worldly enjoyment. Nothing permanently floats down the stream of time but what is buoyant from its elevating tendency. In the progress of ages the most injurious elements in human affairs are gradually extinguished, while the causes of improvement are lasting in their effects. The contests of the Greek republics, the cruelty of the Athenian democracy, have long ceased to trouble the world; but the maxims of Grecian virtue, the works of Grecian genius, the charms of Grecian art, will permanently continue to elevate mankind. The turbulence, the insecurity, the convulsions to which the extension of knowledge to the lower orders has hitherto given rise, will in time be forgotten; but the 1 Hume, vi, improved fabric of society which it has induced, the 100. Mign. increased vigour which it has communicated, may ultii. 32. mately compensate all its evils, and permanently bless and improve the species.1 Rev. Franc. 49. of gunpow ed the III. But it would have been in vain that the influence Discovery of religion weakened the bonds of slavery, and the extender destroy- sion of knowledge enlarged the capacity of freemen, had no power of the change occurred in the ARMS by which the different classes of society combat each other. While the aristocracy of the country were permanently trained to combats, and the robber chivalry were incessantly occupied in devastation, nobility. TION. the peaceable inhabitants of cities, the rude labourers of INTRODUCthe fields, were unable to resist their attacks. With the exception of the shepherds of the Alps, whose hardy habits early gave their infantry the firmness and discipline of veteran soldiers, the tumultuary levies of the people were, during the middle ages, every where crushed by the steel-clad bands of the feudal nobility. The insurrections of the commons in France, of the peasants in the time of Richard II., in England, of the citizens of Ghent and Liege in Flanders, and of the serfs in Germany, were all suppressed by the superior arms and steadier discipline of the rural chivalry. But with the discovery of GUNPOWDER, this decisive supremacy was destroyed. The feudal array, invincible to the spears or halberts of the peasantry, yielded to the terrible powers of artillery; defensive armour was abandoned, from a sense of its insufficiency against this invisible assailant; and the weight of the aristocracy was destroyed, by the experienced inability of its forces to combat the discipline which laborious industry could bring into the field. The wealth of Flanders in vain contended with the lances of France on the field of Resebecque; but the armies of Charles V. were baffled by the artillery of the United Provinces. The barons of Richard easily dispersed the rabble who followed the standard of Wat Tyler; but the musketry of the English yeomanry overthrew the squadrons of the Norman nobility at Marston Moor. Firearms are the greatest of all levellers; like the hand of death, they prostrate equally the ranks of the poor and the array of princes. Wealth soon became essential to the prosecution of war, from the costly implements which were brought into the field; industry indispensable to success, from the rapid consumption of the instruments of destruction which attended the continuance of the contest. By Fan. this momentous change new elements were brought into x. 533, 543. action, which completely altered the relative situations of 10. Bar. the contending parties: industry ceased to be defenceless, i. 131. because it could purchase the means of protection;1 violence 1 Planta's Switzer land, i. 297. Hume, iii. i. 295. Hal. INTRODUC- lost its ascendency, because it withered the sinews by TION. which its forces were to be maintained. 50. luxury tended to the same effect. IV. The introduction of ARTIFICIAL WANTS, and the Increase of progress of luxury, completed the destruction of the feudal power. When the elegancies of life were comparatively unknown, and the barons lived in rural magnificence on their estates, the distribution of their wealth kept a multitude of retainers round their castles, who were always ready to support the authority from which they derived their subsistence. But by degrees the progress of opulence brought the nobility to the metropolis, while the increase of luxury augmented their expenses. From that moment their ascendency was at an end. When the landed proprietor squandered his wealth in the indulgence of artificial desires, and seldom visited the halls of his ancestors but to practise extortion upon his tenantry, his means of maintaining war were dissipated, and the influence he possessed over his people was destroyed. Interest ceased to be a bond of union, when no reciprocity of mutual services existed; affection gradually expired, from the absence of the objects on which it was to be exerted. Debt, contracted to satisfy the cravings of urban desires, became overwhelming. Embarrassments either led to the alienation of estates, or the insolvency of their possessors. The new purchasers had no historic names or ancient influence to back their fortunes. Newly transplanted into the soil, they required several generations to overshadow it by their expansion. Such recent proprietors form an important element in the balance of political power; and as they speedily imbibe the feelings, from being actuated by the interests, of the landed aristocracy, they are of great consequence in steadying the movements of the social body; but they are scarcely ever formidable to general liberty. The old families are too jealous of their wealth, to permit of any dangerous union being formed between them: the mass of the people have not been so long trained to respect, as now to fear them. The power of the feudal nobility was TION. long the object of apprehension, after its real influence INTRODUChad been dissolved, from the remembrance of its terrors in former times. The importance of this change, like that of all others introduced by nature, was not perceived till its effects were manifested. The artistocracy of France was still the object of antiquated dread, when it stood on Wealth of the brink of destruction; and the people were doubtful of 345. their ability to resist its power, when it sank without a struggle before the violence of its enemies.1 Nations, i. 51. tion of these causes in French Re From the revival of letters in the commencement of the sixteenth century, and the dawn of the Reformation, Combinathese causes had been silently operating; and time, the greatest of all innovators, was gradually changing the face inducing the of the moral world. The stubborn valour of the reform-volution. ed religion had emancipated an industrious people from the yoke of Spain, and the stern fanaticism of the English Puritans had overthrown the power of the Norman nobility. The extension of knowledge had shaken the foundations of arbitrary power, and public opinion, even in the least enlightened countries, moderated the force of despotic sway. The worst governed states in Europe were constitutional monarchies compared to the dynasties of the East; and the oppression even of Russian severity was light in comparison of the cruelties of the Roman emperors. But it was not till the commencement of the French Revolution that the extent of the changes which had occurred was perceived, and the weakness of the arms of despotism felt, when brought into collision with the efforts of freedom. Standing armies had been considered as the most fatal discovery of sovereigns, and the history of former ages appealed to as illustrating their tendency to establish despotic authority; but the changes of time were wresting from the hands of tyranny even this dreaded weapon, and, in the next convulsion, it destroyed the power which had created it. The sagacity of the French monarchs had trained up these formidable bands as a counterpoise to the power of the aristocracy, and |