produced a fingle reformation in the manners of Europe. To what other caufe can we fo juftly afcribe the point of honour, and that humanity in war, which characterize modern manners (a)? Are peace, luxury, and selfishness, capable of producing fuch effects?

That man should be the only animal that makes war upon his own kind, may appear ftrange and unaccountable. Did men liften to cool reafon, they never would make war. Hear the celebrated Rouffeau on that fubject. "Un prince, qui pour "reculer fes frontiers, perd autant de fes anciens fujets qu'il en acquiert de nouveaux, s' affoiblit en s' agrandiffant; parce qu'avec un plus grand efpace à "defendre, il n'a pas plus de défenseurs. "Or on ne peut ignorer, que par la ma"niere dont la guerre fe fait aujourd'hui, "la moindre dépopulation qu'elle produit "eft celle qui fe fait dans les armées : "c'est bien-là la perte apparente et sen"fible: mais il s'en fait en même tems. "dans tout l'état une plus grave et plus irreparable que celle des hommes qui meurent, par ceux qui ne naiffent pas, (a) Dr. Robertfon's history of the Emperor Charles V.

86

VOL. II.

Rr

par

l'in

par l'augmentation des impôts, par "terruption du commerce, par la défer"tion des campagnes, par l'abandon de "l'agriculture; ce mal qu'on n'apparçoit "point d'abord, fe fait fentir cruellement "dans la fuite: et c'eft alors qu'on eft é"tonné d'être fi foible, pour s'être rendu "fi puiffant. Ce qui rend encore les con"quêtes moins intéreffantes, c'eft qu'on "fait maintenant par quels moyens on " peut doubler et tripler fa puiffance, non "feulement fans étendre fon territoire, "mais quelquefois en le refferrant, comme fit très fagement l'Empereur Adrien. "On fait que ce font les hommes feuls qui font la force des Rois; et c'est une propofition qui découle de ce que je viens de dire, que de deux étas qui nour"riffent le même nombre d'habitans, ce"lui qui occupe une moindre étendue de terre, eft réellement le plus puissant. "C'eft donc par de bonnes loix, par une

66

66

fage police, par de grandes vues écono

miques, qu'un fouverain judicieux est "sur d'augmenter fes forces, fans rien donner au hazard*." But war is ne

ceffary

"A prince, who in extending his territories "fuftains

ceffary for man, being a fchool for improving every manly virtue; and Providence renders kings blind to their true in

tereft,

"fuftains the lofs of as many of his old fubjects as he "acquires new, weakens in fact his power while he "aims at ftrengthening it: he increases the territory "to be defended, while the number of defenders is not "increased. Who does not know, that in the modern "manner of making war, the greatest depopulation is "not from the havock made in the armies? That in"deed is the obvious and apparent deftruction; but "there is, at the fame time, in the state a lofs much "more fevere and irreparable, not that thousands are "cut off, but that thousands are not born: population "is wounded by the increase of taxes, by the interrup❝tion of commerce, by the defertion of the country, "and by the ftagnation of agriculture: the misfortune "which is overlooked at firft, is feverely felt in the e"vent; and it is then that we are aftonifhed to find "we have been growing weak, while increafing our 66 power. What renders every new conqueft ftill the "lefs valuable, is the confideration of the poffibility of "doubling and tripling a nation's power, without ex"tending its territory, nay, even by diminishing it. "The Emperor Adrian knew this, and wifely practi

fed it. The numbers of the fubjects are the ftrength "of the prince and a confequence of what I have "faid is this propofition, That of two flates equal in "the number of inhabitants, that is in reality the "more powerful which occupies the fmaller territory. "It is by good laws, by a falutary police, and great "oeconomical fchemes, that a wife fovereign gains a "fure augmentation of ftrength, without trufting any thing to the fortune of his arms."

tereft, in order that war may fometimes take place. To rely upon Providence in the government of this world, is the wif dom of man.

Upon the whole, perpetual war is bad, because it converts men into beafts of prey perpetual peace is worse, because it converts men into beafts of burden. To prevent fuch woful degeneracy on both hands, war and peace alternately are the only effectual means; and thefe means are adopted by Providence,

SKETCH

SKETCH

VII.

Rife and Fall of Patriotifm.

HE members of a tribe in their ori

THE

ginal state of hunting and fishing, being little united but by a common language, have no notion of a patria; and fcarce any notion of fociety, unless when they join in an expedition against an enemy, or against wild beafts. The fhepherdftate, where flocks and herds are poffeffed in common, gives a clear notion of a common intereft; but ftill none of a patria. The fenfe of a patria begins to unfold itfelf, when a people leave off wandering, to fettle upon a territory that they call their own. Agriculture connects them together; and government ftill more: they become fellow-citizens; and the territory is termed the patria of every perfon born in it. It is fo ordered by Providence, that a man's country and his countrymen, are to him in conjunction an object of a peculiar affection, termed amor patriae, or patriotism;