mind too torpid and inactive. But the contemplation of mind in a variety of aspects, the view of differ ent habits, manners, and opinions, at once set the thinking powers in motion, and furnish them with ample materials on which to act. They free the mind from the chains of inveterate habit. By destroying that blind submission which a man was disposed to pay to the preju. dices of country and education, they lead him to form his judgment upon rational and systematic principles. Out of the variety of ha. bits and opinions which are thus presented to him, he will probably learn at last to select those which are best; or, which is still better, will be enabled to trace them by the efforts of his own mind.

If we consider the effect of this principle upon literature and the arts, we shall soon perceive its influence to be powerful, beyond, perhaps, that of any other. In all those ages which receive the ap. pellation of classic, it will be found existing in the highest activity.

We have only to cast our eyes upon the map of Greece, to perceive how completely nature has divided it into a variety of separate communities. It is entirely broken down into islands and peninsulas; intersected by rivers, mountains, straits, narrow seas, all those bar riers by which nature separates pations, without widely disjoining them; which, while the means of artificial communication are yet imperfect, form insurmountable ob. stacles to the union of different states into one; but not to such an occasional, and even frequent, intercourse, as may conduce to their mutual improvement. Another cause is afforded by that spirit of emigra.

tion, animated by which, Greece, during her earlier ages, poured nu. merous colonies upon the fertile shores of Italy and the Lesser Asia. All these states, spread to such an extent, and shooting into such a variety of forms, were still united by the same name, the same origin, and the same language; which last circumstance, in particular, must have powerfully facilitated the communication of ideas. Greece, therefore, (under which name I would comprehend Peloponnesus and the shores of the Egean Sea,) had under her immediate eye, as it were, every various aspect under which it was possible for man to be viewed. Within herself, the rude and simple Arcadia; the stern and hardy Lacedemon; the lively' Athens; the voluptuous Corinth. On one side, the splendid and opu....... lent cities of Græcia Major and Sicily; on the other, the refined and effeminate Ionia. Immediately beyond lay Egypt, an ancient and great people, among whom religion, laws, and government, were first formed into a regular system, and were delivered over to Greece to be refined and perfected. Persia pre. sented a military despotism and barbarous luxury. To the north, the boundless forests of Scythia and Thrase, exhibited a view of man in his simplest and rudest condi. tion. To Greece, as to a common centre, ideas flowed from all these various sources.

Rome, at the time when her ge nius was at its height, held in tercourse with all nations of the known world, either as subjects, as allies, or as enemies. Her great men, engaged in continual missions to the different provinces of her empire, returned laden with the

arts and luxuries of every climate; while the princes or people over whom their donsinion extended, were sending continual embassies, either to court or to purchase her favour. Greece, where all the schools of learning were then centered, was visited with peculiar frequency. It was by studying its writers, and listening to its teach. ers, that her most illustrious writers prepared themselves for the business of the commonwealth.

The sphere of Roman observation was wider. Besides all the countries with which Greece was connected, it included the coast of Africa, then covered with splendid and flourishing cities, Spain, and the northern kingdoms of Europe. The communication, however, was not so close, or so intimate. The nations of Italy, with whom alone she came into immediate contact, either originally resembled the Ro. mans, or had been moulded, by long subjection, into a similar character. To this circumstance it may be partly owing, that Roman literature, while it maintains a more uniform and dignified character, fails of exhibiting the variety and versatility of Grecian genius.

The safes of modern Italy were in a situation so very similar to that of Greece, that there can be less occasion to enlarge on them. Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, Ferrara, were states all differing in manners and government, yet all united by the ties of country and language. Her political, and still more her ecclesiastical condition, gave rise to an almost perpetual intercourse with every other kingdom in Eu. rope. Italy, too, had the rare felicity of collecting the last lights of

science, which were just extinguish. ing in the west; and which found refuge here, in their flight from the terrors of Mahometan desolation.

The states of modern Europe have enjoyed a greater extent of intercourse than was known to any of the nations of antiquity. They form within themselves a consider... able number of nations, differing ■ manners, government, and national character, yet holding frequent intercourse, and connected by certain common principles of union. If they do not lie so close together as in Greece and Italy, this disadvantage is compensated by the im proved means of communication. We may add the great extension of maritime intercourse, by which Lew worlds and new forms of society have been opened, whose existence was not even suspected at any for. mer period.

On naming France and England, it must immediately occur, that these are the states which have extended their connections most widely, both with the rest of the European commonwealth, and with other parts of the world The po sition of the former. is peculiarly happy. In the very centre of Eu rope, she had for her immediate neighbours all the four nations most distinguished for power and civilization. The busy and diplo matic character of her court, with the universality to which the lan. guage had attained, led her to avail herself to the utmost of these advantages. England, it is true, stands more in a corner of Europe; but this has been compensated both by variety within herself, and by the wide diffusion of her maritime in. tercourse.

III.-Wealth.

There is no point on which men are more completely agreed, than with regard to the corrupting influence of wealth.

The immediate effect of the pos session of wealth, is to stimulate to, an unbounded indulgence in sensuality. It naturally produces an eager desire of pleasure; and, among a rude people, the pleasures of sense alone have any powerful at traction. It tends also to engross the mind with frivolous pursuits, and to withdraw the attention from those objects which are really interesting and important. The con-, sideration which fortune ensures, frees its possessor, in a great mea. sure, from that restraint of public opinion, which is so necessary for. the bulk of mankind. It naturally induces pride; which, on the least contradiction, is exasperated inte fierceness. Wealth tends to obliterate the distinctions of merit and worth; to make men be esteemed by themselves and others, less according to their intrinsic desert, than to the adventitious circumstapices by : which they are surrounded. Nor is its influence less fatal on those, who, though desti. tute of fortune themselves, are placed in its immediate vicinity. They are tempted by the view of those indulgences of which they see others in possession. Dazzled by the splendour which surrounds wealth, by the accommodations which it procures, and by the bomage which is paid to it, they are seized with the amor sceleratus ha bendi; they learn to consider every other object as secondary, and to scruple at no means of amassing it, however mean and criminal

Among the early moralists, who viewed this principle in its first operation, before the arrival of that refinement which it gradually introduces, the detestation of wealth is completely unanimous. By the ancient teachers of wisdom, contempt of fortune was always the first lesson inculcated. The con versation of Solon sufficiently shews, how little value he set upon it; though he did not, like Lycurgus, proceed to the desperate extremity of entirely rooting it out; doubtless, the chief circumstance which gave such an extraordinary perma nency to the institutions of that severe legislator..

Never perhaps was there so sudden a transition from poverty to the most extreme opulence, as in Rome, after the fall of Carthage, and when the reduction of Greece had laid open the wealthy provinces of Asia to proconsular rapacity. Her senators, formerly so poor and hardy, became suddenly possessed of imperial fortunes, the spoils of the conquered world. The abun dance of this wealth, and the pro. fusion with which it was lavished, seem to surpass every conception which we can form. Mountains were leyclled, seas were enclosed, at the expence of private indivi duals. Sallust makes Catiline de scribe them as oppressed by the weight of their fortunes, and labouring by every means, but in vain, to get rid of them. Here, therefore, we may form some esti. mate of the effects arising from wealth newly introduced. Now we find all the great writers of the age labouring for words to express their utter detestation of it. Auri sacra fames; Amor sceleratus habendi; Opes irritamenta malorum; N4

those

these are only a few of many simiFar expressions; and the feeling and eloquent manner in which they always touch upon this subject, proves how deeply they were penetrated by it. These sentiments, indeed, scem to be fully justified by that unparalleled profligacy to which it gave rise. The conspiracy of Catiline seems to have consisted wholly of men, who had either made an ill use of their own wealth, or were inflamed by seeing it in the possession of others.

Such are the first effects of wealth; but very different are those which it produces, after having subsisted for a certain length of time. It then becomes one of the great sources of civilization and refinement. All the highly civilized nations have been opulent. This refinement gradually inspires a disgust at those vices to which wealth had originally prompted; while the politeness and humanity, which are in the same manner introduced, soften down those harsh inequalities to which it had given rise.

Those gross indulgences to which the votary of wealth had at first addicted himself, soon pall upon the senses. A wish then arises to seek for more refined sources of enjoyment, which if any one can invent, wealth supplies the means of amply rewarding him. Hence

an impulse is given to the cultiva. tion of poetry and the arts. For some time, indeed, these pursuits may not seem much to diminish the empire of sensuality. They are then employed chiefly in throw. ing a veil over its grossness, and relieving the satiety which it had before inspired. By a repetition, however, of the same process, the pleasures of a refined society are more and more disengaged from this alloy; greater value is placed on those higher and purer gratifi. cations, in which mind holds the chief place, and which can be indulged in, with innocence and dig. nity. In consequence, too, of the close connection between the dif. ferent faculties, the cultivation of those subservient to pleasure naturally leads to that of others of a higher description. Poetry, where. ever there is no check on the natural progress of society, is, if not the attendant, at least the precursor, of philosophy. The moral sense, too, which is intimately connected with the refinement of taste, and the improvement of reason, fails not to share in the general progress. Thus wealth becomes ultimately the means of raising human nature to a state of higher dignity, than that which it was originally the means of defacing.

POETRY.