the deeper impreffion by a retrospect to recent calamities, roufed the national fpirit, and produced ardent application to arts and literature. The restoration of the royal family in England, which put an end to a cruel and envenomed civil war, promoted improvements of every kind: arts and induftry made a rapid progress among the people, though left to themfelves by a weak and fluctuating adminiftration. Had the nation, upon that favourable turn of fortune, been bleffed with a fucceffion of able and virtuous princes, to what a height might not arts and sciences have been carried! In Scotland, a favourable period for improvements was the reign of the firft Robert, after fhaking off the English yoke but the domineering fpirit of the feudal fyftem rendered abortive every attempt. The restoration of the royal family, mentioned above, animated the legiflature of Scotland to promote manufactures of various kinds: but in vain; for the union of the two crowns had introduced defpotifm into Scotland, which funk the genius of the people, and rendered them heartless and indolent. Liberty, indeed, and many other advantages, were procured procured to them by the union of the two kingdoms; but these falutary effects were long fufpended by mutual enmity, fuch as commonly fubfifts between neighbouring nations. Enmity wore away gradually, and the eyes of the Scots were opened to the advantages of their prefent condition: the national spirit was roufed to emulate and to excel: talents were exerted, hitherto latent; and Scotland, at present, makes a figure in arts and sciences, above what it ever made while an independent kingdom*. Another caufe of activity and animation, is the being engaged in fome imporfant action of doubtful event, a struggle for liberty, the refifting a potent invader, or the like. Greece, divided into finall ftates, In Scotland, an innocent bankrupt imprifoned for debt, obtains liberty by a procefs termed ceffio bonorum. From the year 1694 to the 1744, there were but twentyfour proceffes of that kind, which fhows how languidly trade was carried on while the people remained ignorant of their advantages by the union. From that time to the year 1771, there have been thrice that number every year, taking one year with another; an evident proof of the late rapid progrefs of commerce in Scotland. Every one is roused to venture his small ftock, though every one cannot be successful. frequently frequently at war with each other, advanced literature and the fine arts to unrivalled perfection. The Corficans, while engaged in a perilous war for defence of their liberties, exerted a vigorous national spirit: they founded an university for arts and fciences, a public library, and a public bank. After a long ftupor during the dark ages of Chriftianity, arts and literature revived among the turbulent ftates of Italy. The royal fociety in London, and the academy of fciences in Paris, were both of them inftituted after civil wars that had animated the people, and roused their activity. An useful art is seldom loft, because it is in conftant practice. And yet, though many useful arts were in perfection during the reign of Augustus Cæfar, it is amazing how ignorant and stupid men became, af¬ ter the Roman empire was shattered by northern barbarians: they degenerated in¬ to favages. So ignorant were the Spanish Christians during the eighth and ninth centuries, that Alphonfus the Great, King of Leon, was neceffitated to employ Mahometan preceptors for educating his eldest fon. Even Charlemagne could not fign his name: nor was he fingular in that respect, being kept in countenance by several neighbouring princes. As the progress of arts and sciences toward perfection is greatly promoted by emulation, nothing is more fatal to an art or fcience than to remove that fpur, as where fome extraordinary genius appears who foars above rivalship. Mathematics feem to be declining in Europe: the great Newton, having furpaffed all the ancients, has not left to the moderns even the fainteft hope of equalling him; and what man will enter the lifts who defpairs of victory? In early times, the inventors of useful arts were remembered with fervent gratitude. Their history became fabulous by the many incredible exploits attributed to them. Diodorus Siculus mentions the Egyptian tradition of Ofiris, that with a numerous army he traverfed every inhabited part of the globe, in order to teach men the culture of wheat and of the vine. Befide the impracticability of supporting a numerous army where husbandry is unknown, no army could enable Ofiris to introduce wheat or wine among ftupid favages who live by hunting and fishing; which probably probably was the cafe, in that early period, of all the nations he vifited. In a country thinly peopled, where even neceffary arts want hands, it is common. to see one perfon exercising more arts than one: in several parts of Scotland, the same man serves as a physician, furgeon, and apothecary. In a very populous country, even simple arts are split into parts, and there is an artift for each part in the populous towns of ancient Egypt, a physician was confined to a single disease. In mechanic arts, that mode is excellent. As a hand confined to a fingle operation becomes both expert and expeditious, a mechanic art is perfected by having its different operations distributed among the greateft number of hands: many hands are employed in making a watch; and a still greater number in manufacturing a web of woollen cloth. Various arts or operations carried on by the fame man, envigorate his mind, because they exercise different faculties; and, as he cannot be equally expert in every art or operation, he is frequently reduced to fupply want of skill by thought and invention. Conftant application, on the contrary, to a fingle opeVOL. I. ration, B b |