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LETTERS 
 
 T O A 
 
 Young Nobleman, 
 
 
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LETTERS 
 
 .5- . ' 
 
 T O A 
 
 Young Nobleman. 
 
 Givis et egregius patrib contingis ovinti, 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand, 
 
 M DCC LXH, 
 

 
 
 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 Letter 
 
 I. 
 
 N Study in general. 
 
 Page* 
 
 I 
 
 II. 
 
 On the Study of Hiflory ? 
 
 7 
 
 III. 
 
 On the fame fubjecl. 
 
 21 
 
 IV. 
 
 On Biography, 
 
 53 
 
 V. 
 
 Of Tafte; and of feme diftinguifhing 
 circumftances of London and Paris, 75 
 
 yi. 
 
 On the Influence of Liberty upon Tafle ; 
 and of the Age of Augustus, 96 
 
 yil. On the Influence of Liberty upon Tafle ; 
 and of the Age of Lewis XIV, 153 
 
 ¥ 111 . Why Poetry has flourifhed more in Eng- 
 land than Sculpture or Painting, 197 
 
LETTER I. 
 
 On Study in general. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 Y OUR Lordfhip’s high rank and qua- 
 lity, your fortune and profpefe 
 in the world, will make abundance 
 of people delirous of your company, fond 
 of appearing with you at public places, and 
 of being of your parties at every gay fcene 
 of diverdon, pleafure and amufement. Allow 
 me, my Lord, to have another ambition, and 
 to make ufe of that correfpondence you 
 have defired me to trouble you with, to be- 
 come the companion of your mod: private 
 hours and lead didipated moments. 
 
 I hope your Lordfhip has a great many 
 fuch hours $ for, though you are now enter- 
 £ ing 
 
1 
 
 LETTER t 
 
 ing upon that period of life, which none, 
 but furly, morofe, and foolifh pedants, 
 would debar from gaiety and diverfion, yet 
 upon the manner in which you employ your 
 prefent time, does your future figure and 
 character in the world depend. As well might 
 a hulbandman, who fhould be altogether idle 
 in feed-time, expe<51 to reap a plentiful crop, 
 as one who trifles away the fpring of his life, 
 in foolifh diffipation or vitious riot, to at- 
 tain to honour and renown, or to acquire 
 the character of a wife and great man. 
 
 Look around you, my Lord,, and obferve 
 who have attained to a high reputation for 
 wifdom and abilities, then enquire how they 
 fpent their youth : turn over the annals of 
 hiflory, mark the names which have been 
 transmitted down to poflerity with honour 
 and applaufe, read the lid of patriots and 
 heroes, iiudy their lives, and you will find 
 that their behaviour during their youth, 
 when they were preparing themfelves for ap- 
 pearing upon the theatre of the world, laid 
 the foundation of whatever figure they made. 
 
 or 
 
On Study ifi general. -g 
 
 @r whatever glory they acquired, when they 
 came to a£t their different parts in life. 
 
 *Tis the duty of all young people, my 
 Lord, to improve their minds, and to fit’ 
 themfelves for the world ; but in a particu- 
 lar manner, ’tis the duty of young noble- 
 men, as upon their characters much depends, 
 and they have many helps and advantages 
 which thofe of inferior rank are deprived 
 of. Others muff labour to acquire know^ 
 ledge and fkill in thofe different profeffions 
 by which they propofe to make their for- 
 tunes in the world ; their thoughts muff be 
 principally employed about particular de- 
 tails ; only a part of their time, and fome- 
 times a very fmall part of it, can be fpared 
 to ftudy what may improve them in a gene- 
 ral knowledge of men and manners, and 
 in a graceful and eafy politenefs. But thofe, 
 whom fortune has placed in fach circum- 
 fiances as your Lordfhip’s, have all the time 
 they could wifh for, to make themfelves ac- 
 eomplifhed gentlemen. 
 
 B % Be- 
 
4 LETTER L 
 
 Besides, my Lord, the paths of know- 
 ledge, your ffation calls upon you to pur- 
 fue, are not rugged, dull, or difagreeable y 
 on the contrary, they are the moff fmooth, 
 chearful and entertaining imaginable. To 
 read the works of thofe immortal authors, 
 who have expreffed the nobleff fentiments in 
 the finefl language ; to ffudy the hiflory of 
 mankind, and to become acquainted with 
 what has happened in the different countries 
 and ages of the world ; to obferve the gra- 
 dual rife and decline of arts and fciences, 
 
 \ 
 
 to reflect upon their caufes, to ffudy the con- 
 fiitution of your country, and to confider 
 what alterations have happened in it, and how 
 thefe haye been brought about ; what is there 
 in all this that does not promife the highefl 
 entertainment ? The lawyer muft have many 
 years in reading reports and ads of parlia- 
 ment 5 the phyfician muff fpend much time 
 in fixing in his memory the names and pro- 
 perties of medicines, and in ffudy ing the 
 fnechan ifm of the different parts of the hu- 
 man body y in every profeflion much infipid 
 drudgery muff be undergone, k before one 
 
 can 
 
On Study in general. 
 
 can poffibly exped to become eminent. But 
 to arrive at that knowledge, which is necef- 
 fary to make a man of rank and fortune 
 iifeful in the world, happy and agreeable in 
 himfelf, a fupport and delight to his friends, 
 a guardian and ornament to his country, no 
 fuch drudgery is neceffary. He can hardly 
 ever employ his time in a manner proper for 
 his improvement, without fpending it in 
 fuch a way as mull afford him more real plea- 
 fure, even when he is alone and bufy, than 
 any idle trifler can poffibly enjoy in his ir- 
 rational and foolilh parties of diffipation. 
 
 I was juft going to fay, that if the ways 
 which would lead a.youngman of quality to 
 honour and glory befoeafy and agreeable, how 
 inexcufable mud: their folly be who widely 
 wander from the enlightened road of wifdom, 
 to follow the dark paths of ignorance, which 
 lead to infamy and reproach. But, my 
 Lord, when I refled upon your Lordfhip’s 
 good difpofitions, methinks I have already 
 faid too much, and that I ought to make an 
 apology for what I have written. 
 
 B 3 
 
 If 
 
 
6 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 If my correfpondence can be any way 
 agreeable to you, much more if it can be 
 ufeful, I lhall reckon myfelf extremely hapr 
 py, and fhall omit no opportunity of com- 
 municating my thoughts to you, whenever 
 it appears to me, that they may poffibly be 
 of any advantage, or afford entertainment tQ 
 your Lordlhip. 
 
 1 am, &c„ 
 
 L E T~ 
 
[ 7 ] 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 On the Study of History. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 S OME knowledge of hiftory is expedL 
 ed of every one, who pretends to a cha- 
 racter above that of the meaneft vulgar. Of 
 thofe indeed whom fortune has, 
 
 Doom'd to fcythes and fpades. 
 
 And all thofe hard laborious trades 
 
 And whofe fituation in life affords them no 
 opportunities of inftruCtion, a knowledge of 
 any thing beyond the bounds of their own 
 narrow circle is not expe&ed. But they, to 
 whom fortune has been more liberal, whofe 
 
 * Fable of the Bees. 
 
8 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 fpirits are not oppi*effed by corporeal labour, * 
 and who have leifure to open the fair book 
 of knowledge, hardly deferve the name of 
 men, if, fatisfied with every trifling incident 
 that occurs to them in their own little fphere 
 of action, their curiofity never prompts them 
 to enquire what has been done- in ages and 
 countries different from their own, or to re- 
 view thofe great events which have happened 
 on this terreflrial globe in its various periods. 
 The age of man, if extended to its utmoft 
 duration, is but a very confined period, and 
 fo much of it paffes away in the though tlefs 
 play-time of infancy, fo much of it is fwal- 
 lowed up by the violent paffions of youth, 
 fo much of it is entirely loft in fleep and ne- 
 ceffary reft ; that the remaining part, even 
 though we were to fuppofe every moment 
 employed in reflection and obfervation, muff 
 be reduced to a very fmall point. That 
 knowledge, therefore, which is derived from 
 perfonal experience alone, muff be confined 
 within very narrow limits. Hence the uti- 
 lity of hiftory is obvious, which by carrying 
 us back through a chain of events, to that 
 
 sera 
 
 
On the Study of History. 
 
 9 
 
 sera when truth is loft in fable, lengthens out, 
 as it were, the period of human life ] and 
 puts us in poffeflion of obfervations drawn 
 from the experience of fucceflive ages *. I 
 do not mean to inftnuate however, that the 
 trueft wifdoijL is not the fruit of experience, 
 but only that the beft method of enabling us to 
 make juft reflexions, and to draw true con- 
 cluftons from what happens to ourfelves, 
 or falls within our own obfervation, is to 
 become acquainted with what has happened 
 to others, and with what their condliX has 
 been in circumftances fimilar to our own. 
 
 We muft often, my Lord, find ourfelves, 
 efpecially at our fetting out in life, in filia- 
 tions new to us, and quite different from any 
 thing we have experienced before ; thofe, there- 
 fore, who are uninftruXed how others have 
 
 Nec enim fuam tantum aetatem bene tuentur * 
 omne .aevum fuo adjiciunt. Quicquid annorum ante 
 
 illos adhim eft, illis acquifitum eft nullo nobis feculo 
 
 interdicium eft: in omnia admittimur ; et ft magnitu- 
 dine animi egredi humanae imbecillitafis anguftias li~ 
 bet, multum per quod fpatiemur temporis eft. 
 
 Senec. 
 
 aXed 
 
 \ 
 
 2 
 
io LETTER II. 
 
 adled in fuch circumftances, muft be bleft 
 with uncommon judgment and quicknefs, not 
 to be liable to fall into errors, and fome- 
 times into fuch errors, as may have a fatal 
 influence upon their future condudl. 
 
 Many examples might be brought to 
 prove, that the Study of Hiftory may in 
 fome meafure fupply the want of experience. 
 Allow me to put you in mind of the known 
 ftory of Lucullus; who, though he went 
 from Rome, ignorant of the art of war, yet 
 by fpending the time of his journey and 
 voyage partly in afking queftions of men 
 of knowledge, and partly in reading the 
 Hiftory of former adUons*, came to Afia 
 -with fuch a charadber, and performed fuch 
 exploits as obliged the great Mithridates to 
 confefs, that he had found him to be an 
 abler general than any of thofe concerning 
 whom he had read ■f*. The example, I own, 
 
 * Partim in percunctando a peritis, partim in rebus 
 geftis legend is. 
 
 f Hunc a fe majorem ducem cognitum, quam quen- 
 quam eorum quos legilTet. 
 
 k 
 
On the Study of History. 11 
 
 is trite; but it is taken from an author who can- 
 not be too often quoted ; and I am perfuaded 
 your Lordfhip will review the whole paftage,at 
 the beginning of the fecond Book of Tully’s 
 Academical Queftions, with a great deal of 
 pi afure. 
 
 To this I might add a numerous lift of 
 other examples, but I am perfuaded you are 
 already convinced how much a careful and 
 judicious ftudy of the condu<51 of others, 
 as exhibited in hiftory, may enable us to a£t 
 in a proper manner : permit me only to men- 
 tion one modern, as I did one antient ex-< 
 ample of this truth t does not Europe at pre- 
 fent, with admiration, behold the condu<ft 
 of a great prince and general, who prepared Xj 
 himfelf for illuftrious actions by indefatiga- 
 ble ftudy, particularly of hiftory ; and hath 
 even fhewn, that as he can perform a£Uons 
 which will for eyer make a figurp in the an- 
 nals of mankind, fo he can relate * thofe which 
 were performed by others, in a truly rnafter- 
 Jy manner ? 
 
 * Memoires de Brand 
 
 Be- 
 
12 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Beginning to a6l our parts in life, with- 
 out enquiring how others have trode the dage 
 before us, is as abfurd, as to travel to a fo- 
 reign country without knowing any thing 
 of the language or manners of the people 
 whom we are to vifit, and will expofe us to 
 as many improprieties of conduct, and er- 
 rors in judgment. How much quicker mud 
 his improvement be, and with how much 
 greater certainty and facility mud he make 
 obfervations about any country, who is ac- 
 quainted with its language, geography, cuf- 
 toms and hidory, than he who fets out un- 
 filled, and ignorant of all thefe things ? 
 Your Lordfhip will readily agree with me 
 that the difference mud be great ; jud fuch 
 a difference is there between him who ven- 
 tures to a 61 his part in the world, ignorant 
 of every thing that has happened before him, 
 and one who has joined to a knowledge of 
 arts and fciences, a knowledge of hidory, of 
 the mod remarkable aftions which men have 
 performed, of the characters ofthofe who per- 
 formed them, of the fprings which gave rife 
 
 to 
 
On the Study of History, 13 
 
 to thofe a&ions, and of the confequences 
 which were derived from them, either to the 
 a£tors themfelves, to their country, or to the 
 world. 
 
 I obferved before, that fome knowledge of 
 Hiftory is expected from every one who is of 
 a rank above that of the lowed: mechanic, 
 but it is not neceftary for every one, 
 who is above that rank, to be equally well 
 acquainted with it. Some may read the 
 tranfacftions of former ages, to entertain and 
 unbend their minds, after a ftudious applica- 
 tion to the proper bufinefs of their different 
 profeftions ; fome may do it to amufe them- 
 felves, and to acquire fuch a fhare of 
 knowledge as may make them entertain- 
 ing companions, and fit them for the 
 converfation of men of fenfe and learning. 
 But, my Lord, you will be convinced that 
 Hiftory is the proper ftudy of a nobleman, if 
 you reflect that it is principally taken up in 
 relating great a&ions, or the adions of great 
 men. 
 
 4 
 
 The 
 
*4 LETTER 1L 
 
 The chief fubje&s of Hrflory, are fucli 
 events as peculiarly intereft the fuperior part 
 of mankind, and in producing or preventing 
 which, their flation obliges them to have 
 fome ihare. The rife and fall of kingdoms 
 and fiates, the eftablifhment of liberty and 
 laws, of the encroachments of flavery and 
 defpotifm, the flourilhing of arts and fcien- 
 ces, or the prevalence of ignorance and bar- 
 barity 3 the enervating effects of luxury and 
 vice, or the happy influence of temperance 
 and virtue : Thefe, my Lord, are the con- 
 
 tents of the hifloric page, and in thefe men 
 of quality and fortune are deeply interefled, 
 as their conduct muff neceffarily have great 
 influence in promoting the grandeur and 
 happinefs, or preventing the fall and mifery 
 of their country. A man of fortune and 
 fank cannot poflibly be an idle fpediator of 
 human affairs ; one way or other he mull do 
 good or harm. He can never be fo retired 
 as not to have fome influence ; and indeed 
 when he wholly abflradts himfeif, and be- 
 comes entirely regardlefs how affairs are ma- 
 naged, he not only ads a mean, but in fome 
 
 meafure. 
 
 8 
 
On the Study of History. 15 
 
 meafure, a criminal part, as every nobleman 
 is bom to take a fhare in governing the 
 world, and by becoming quite carelefs of its 
 concerns, he, as it were, forfakes and negle&s 
 that po ft, which it was his duty to watch and 
 guard. . . 
 
 If then hiflory chiefly relates fuch actions, 
 as the firft men of a country have had, and 
 muft have, a principal fhare in ; when a young 
 nobleman is reading hiftory, tracing back 
 the great events and revolutions of human 
 affairs to their fprings and caufes, confider- 
 ing the characters of legiflators and heroes, 
 and comparing what they did with their va- 
 rious methods of acting, he is as much bu- 
 lled and employed in fludying his own pro- 
 feffion, as a watchmaker, who is viewing 
 the machinery of a clock, and conlidering 
 its fprings and movements 5 or an anatomift, 
 who is differing a human body, and obferving 
 the ufe of all its parts, and how they produce 
 thofe effe&s for which nature intended them 5 a 
 knowledge of the individual human frame is 
 not more the anatomiiVs bufinefs, than that of 
 
 the 
 
16 LETTER li. 
 
 the whole complex political body of man- 
 kind is the bufinefs, and ought to be the fludy 
 of every one who is born to a fuperior rank 
 in any country ; but chiefly, my Lord, in a 
 free country, where all authority does not 
 center in one perfon, but where every member 
 of the commonwealth has feme influence ac- 
 cording to his rank ; thofe of your qua- 
 lity are born to be fenators, counfellors, and 
 guardians of the dignities and prerogatives 
 of the fcvereign, and of the privileges of 
 the people. In fuch a country, and fuch a 
 one is Great Britain, his more efpecially the 
 duty of a nobleman to fludy Hiflory, as by 
 it alone, he can learn how tyrants have en- 
 deavoured to fap the foundations of liberty* 
 by what methods they have attempted to en- 
 11a ve their fubjedts, and by what means fub- 
 je£ls have been enabled to refill their lawlefs 
 attempts, to fecure their own freedom, and 
 fix their rights upon more determinate and 
 lafting foundations. 
 
 Whence, but from the fludy of Hiflory, 
 can your Lordihip acquire fuch a fund of 
 
 know- 
 
Oil the Study of History. i 7 
 
 knowledge as will enable you to be an in- 
 ftruclive and perfualive fpeaker in the Britifh 
 fenate ? ’Tis a common opinion that we mull 
 be born poets, but that we may become 
 orators ; “ nafcimur poetae, fimus oratoresT 
 And undoubtedly though to become a perfect 
 orator, one mud be endued by nature with a 
 
 genius fuperior to that of the bulk of men, 
 
 ■ 
 
 yet pains and indudry may make any one of 
 a good judgment and ordinary imagination 
 a tolerable fpeaker, efpe’cially if he begins 
 to improve himfelf when young : and how 
 can this be better done than by making our- 
 felves mailers of the great events,, and of the 
 principal characters, which are handed down 
 to us in hidory. This is one of thofe ways 
 by which one may become an orator, and lay 
 in fuch a ilore of knowledge, as will be ready 
 at hand almod on all oceaflons. c< Condo et 
 compono quae mox depromere poffim 5 ’-— « 
 may with great propriety be applied by a 
 young nobleman to himfelf, when he is ern^ 
 ployed in dudying Hidory i 
 
 C Is? 
 
i8 
 
 LETTER It 
 
 If one makes himfelf mafter of his fubje^L 
 and has his mind flocked with ideas proper 
 to be brought out, it will not be found fo 
 difficult, as fome may imagine, to exprefs 
 them in a proper manner : for as Horace, 
 whom I beg leave to quote once more to you,, 
 has it, verba— praevifam rem baud invita fe~ 
 
 quentur ; which may furely as Well be faid 
 of a public Ipeaker, as of a poet. 
 
 But Hiflory will not only furnifh you with 
 the befl materials and ground-work of pub- 
 lic fpeaking ; it will alfo prefent you with the 
 nobleft models : not even the rapid oratory of 
 Demofthenes, nor that flowing eloquence 
 which charms us in Tully’s Orations, exceed 
 fome of thofe fpeeches which we find in Livy, 
 Salufl, and other hiflorians. Befides, thofe 
 fine fpeeches, which we meet with when read- 
 ing Hiflory, have this additional advantage, 
 that we come to read them at a time, when 
 the hifiorian has interefied us in thofe events 
 which gave rife to them, and when our ima- 
 ginations are warmed, and receive a deeper 
 
 mu 
 
On the Study of History . 19 
 
 impreflion. Thus, being more flruck, we 
 remember them better, and remember them 
 too in fuch a way* that we can eafily make 
 ufe of them on a proper occafion ; for the 
 hiftorical narration making us acquainted 
 with the events of the times, and the oration 
 being a fort of commentary upon the fa£h 
 and circumflances of the hiftory, they mu- 
 tually throw light upon each other, and enable 
 us to form a more certain judgment of the 
 fubje< 5 t we are coniidering. 
 
 ? Tis not only in dlaflic hiftories that we 
 meet with excellent fpeeches, even modem 
 hiftory will prefent you with fuch as will de- 
 light and inftruft you; but chiefly in the 
 hiftory of your own country you will find* 
 both in its remote and latter periods, fuch 
 fpeeches as neither Greece nor Rome would 
 have had any reafon to have been afhamed of 
 Liberty, my Lord, is an animating fubje<ft * 
 and as it has warmed the breaft of many 
 Britifh fenators, fo what they have fpoke in 
 the caufe of freedom has ftirred up the pa- 
 triot flame in the bofoms of others, and in- 
 C 2 fpired 
 
20 
 
 LETTER IL 
 
 fpired them to purfue the bed: meafures In 
 fupport of the honour of their king, and the 
 welfare of their country. 
 
 Thus, my Lord, a young nobleman has 
 every motive to fludy Hiftory : his own amufe- 
 ment, the good of his country, and what 
 has always great influence with a virtuous 
 mifich, the applaufe of his countrymen, by 
 being an ornament to his own rank, a wife 
 counfellor to his king, and an able guardian 
 of the rights of the people* 
 
 I am, 
 
 L E T- 
 
 i 
 
21 
 
 LETTER III 
 
 On the Study of History. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 E N are fo much the fame in all ages* 
 and in all countries, that the hiftory 
 of whatever nation you read, will afford you 
 fome opportunities of comparing what hap- 
 pened there, with what has been tranfa<ffed 
 in your own country, and of forming proper 
 principles for the regulation of your future 
 conduct : though the nearer the conftitution, 
 climate, and fituation of the people, whofe 
 hiffory you read, approach to the circum- 
 ffances of your own country, the more ample 
 field will there be 'for drawing comparifons, 
 and for making ufeful and interefting obfejv 
 rations. 
 
 C 3 
 
 ORE, 
 
LETTER III. 
 
 %2 
 
 Before one begins to ftudy the hidory of 
 any particular nation in the detail, a general 
 Idea of the hidory of mankind at large ought 
 to be acquired. This opens the mind, re- 
 moves prejudices, and convinces us how ill 
 founded thofe extravagant ideas are, which 
 mod young people are apt to entertain of the 
 fuperior grandeur and confequence of their 
 own times, and of that part of the world in 
 which their own country is fituated. 
 
 When your Lprdlhip views in hidory the 
 mighty actions of the great Empires which 
 flouridied in the mod remote periods of an- 
 tiquity, you will be adoniflied at the gran- 
 deur and virtue of the antients, and be almod 
 tempted to look down with contempt upon 
 the littlenefs of modern times. There is no- 
 thing tends more to enlarge our ideas, than a 
 yiew of the magnificence of the antient 
 world : the nearer we approach to that pe- 
 riod, when men were fird placed on this earth 
 to be its principal inhabitants, the more drik- 
 jpg pidhires do we meet with of that grand 
 
 fijmr 
 
 /• — ' 
 
On the Study of History. 23 
 
 fimplicity, which is the charaederidic of the 
 primitive ages of the world. 
 
 The fird, the mod venerable, and facred of 
 all books, gives us the nobled reprefentations 
 of the native fimplicity of the original fa- 
 thers of the human race. This informs us ? 
 and ail other hidories confirm the truth, that 
 men and empires fird appeared in the eaft. 
 Here flourifhed thofe heroes and demi-gods 
 of whom the antients have faid fo much, and 
 with whofe exploits one would choofe to be 
 acquainted, was it for no other reafon, but 
 that we might be able to read the antient 
 poets with tade, and to didinguidi the inge- 
 nious remains of antient art. This, we 
 muff be altogether unable to do, without a 
 competent knowledge of the hidory of thofe 
 fabulous and heroic ages ; from which pain- 
 ters and datuaries have been fupplied with the 
 mod beautiful, and the greated number of 
 the fubje&s that have employed their various 
 talents, and which are the foundation of the 
 nobled paintings, and mod exquifite datues 
 that adorn the world, and are the admiration 
 C 4 of 
 
 / 
 
%4 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 all good judges of the fine arts. A gentleman 
 who fhould feem to know little about the fub^ 
 jedfs whence thefe are taken, would make but 
 a poor figure, and have no great reafon to 
 value himfelf upon having had a liberal edu- 
 cation. 
 
 Besides, there is fomething grand and 
 pleafing in the dories of thofe fabulous times ; 
 the labours of Hercules, Thefeus and Jafon, 
 the judice of Minos and Radamanthus, and 
 the various atchievements of fo many others, 
 pleafe the mind, and amply repay that fmall 
 portion of time which is fpent in becoming, 
 tolerably well acquainted with their dories. 
 For, to fpend a deal of piEie in grammatical 
 and critical refearches concerning their genea- 
 logies, and the dilputable parts of their hif- 
 tory, is perhaps a wading of time in any one ; 
 but would be much, more fo in a young no- 
 bleman, than in a profeded grammarian or 
 antiquary. • 
 
 The great empires which dourifhed in the 
 ead, the Egyptian, the Adyrian, the Baby- 
 
 Ionian* 
 
On the Study of History. 25 
 
 Ionian, and the Perfian, will undoubtedly 
 claim your attention, afford you much amufe- 
 ment, and furprize you with the accounts of 
 many of thofe great exploits, which their 
 kings and princes performed, of the great 
 works which they executed, and of thofe 
 ftupendous monuments which they ere&ed, 
 and which ftiil remain to be the wonder of 
 our times, and amazing proofs of what great 
 undertakings the antients were capable of at- 
 tempting and finifhing. 
 
 But whatever amufement and inftru&ion, 
 the hiftory of thofe eaftern empires may af- 
 ford you, and however proper it be, that you 
 fhould become fomewhat acquainted with their 
 hiftory, it would be far from being fo, that * 
 you lhould fpend as much time and dwell as 
 long upon it, as upon that of other nations, 
 which will afford you far more inftru<5Uon, 
 and the circumftances of whofe affairs will 
 appear far more interefting to a Britifh no- 
 bleman : for, leaving thofe eaftern countries 
 behind you, and following arts and fciences 
 in their courfe weftward, you will naturally 
 
 come 
 
z6 LETTER III. 
 
 come to Greece, a country, which though of 
 no great extent, compared to thofe vaft em- 
 pires, yet, under the aufpicious influence of 
 freedom, made far greater improvements in 
 arts and fciences, and civil life. 
 
 The hiftory of Greece claims your atten- 
 tion on many accounts : one may with great 
 propriety addrefs to young noblemen of your 
 rank, that advice which Horace gives in his 
 art of poetry, 
 
 Vos exemplaria Graeca 
 
 No&urna verfate manu, verfate diurna. 
 
 The Greeks were a free people, and among 
 them we find models of governments inclin- 
 ing to all the different kinds. Monarchy, A- 
 riftocracy, and Democracy. You will fee 
 what tended to preferve thefe conftitutions 
 in their firfl purity, what tended to overturn 
 them, and at laft bring ruin upon the whole 
 country: you will have various occafions of 
 applying what happened in Greece to what 
 lias happened, or may happpen, in Great 
 
 Britain : 
 
On the Study of History. 27 
 
 Britain : for though none of their govern- 
 ments was exactly the fame with ours, yet 
 in all countries, where liberty prevails, there 
 are fo many refemblances and iimilar ch> 
 cumftances, that the hiftory of one free 
 country becomes peculiarly interefting to the 
 inhabitants of another, efpecially to fuch of 
 them, as by their fiation are called upon 
 to have fome lhare in the government. 
 
 Besides, that liberty which flourilhed in 
 Greece, infpired the people with a quicknefs, 
 elegance and vigour of genius, more than 
 has yet appeared in any other nation. Thus 
 not only their ftatefmen and warriors a&ed 
 with wifdom and vigour, but their philofo- 
 phers reafoned acutely, their poets were in* 
 fpired with a truly poetic fpirit, their artifts 
 executed with genius and elegance, and their 
 hiftorians narrated the actions of their coun* 
 trymen in the nobjeft manner. 
 
 The hiftory of Greece, therefore, is par- 
 ticularly inflrudive and agreeable, not only 
 
 on 
 
LETTER III. 
 
 £8 
 
 on account of the events which are the fubje6t 
 pf it, but alio the manner in which thofe events 
 are narrated. When we read the befl Grecian 
 HiRorians, the writer’s art makes us fancy we 
 are acquainted with the perfons whofe cha- 
 ra&ers he draw's ; and the power of imagina- 
 tion carries us back, and makes us, as if we 
 were members of fome one of the Grecian 
 Rates, become intereRed in its affairs, anxious 
 for the fate of a battle, and concerned for the 
 effect which the harangues of fome of their 
 orators fhall have upon the affembly of the 
 people. 
 
 And here, my Lord, allow me to make 
 this obfervation, that to be converfant in the 
 HiRory of thofe free Rates, to know how 
 their affairs were managed, and how 
 their popular affemblies were influenced, is, 
 as it were, being acquainted with bufinefs, 
 and tranfacRing affairs in theory and {pecula- 
 tion, before one comes to be concerned in 
 fuch matters in life and pra&lce : on which 
 account a Rudy of the Grecian- and Roman 
 jrfiflories, which commonly go hand in hand, 
 
 ought 
 
On f the StCjdy of Hi£toiCy. 29 
 
 ©ught very juftly to make, as they generally 
 do, a confiderable part of a young nobleman’s 
 education. 
 
 The Hiftory of the Roman people is full 
 of the moft interefling and furprizing events, 
 that are exhibited to us in the annals of 
 human kind ; whether we conlider their fmall 
 and inconliderable beginnings, or the exten- 
 five Empire to which they at laft attained ; 
 whether we conlider the internal conftitution 
 of their government, or the mighty provinces 
 they fubdued, and the maimer in which they 
 civilized and incorporated them with the 
 main body of the Empire. No Hiftory is 
 more fertile in grand events, or prefents us 
 with greater examples of bravery, patriotifm, 
 and integrity of manners, or of wifdom in 
 debate, manly eloquence and confummate art 
 in managing the heads, and influencing the 
 hearts of a free people. 
 
 The Romans too have produced a number 
 of writers, who in the nobleft manner have 
 tranfmitted down to pofterity the wife con- 
 duct 
 
go LETTER III. 
 
 du£t and brave exploits of their renowned 
 countrymen. There are two or three of their 
 Hiftorians, who alone, if ffudied judicioully, 
 and with a true fpirit of making obfervations, 
 might furnifh out an excellent fyftem of po- 
 litical knowledge, and afford examples of 
 almoft every thing that can happen in 
 iuch a country as Great Britain. Livy, Sa- 
 luff, Tacitus, authors, who, though they 
 write in very different manners, are yet each 
 of them excellent in their own way, and have 
 been the delight and admiration of all good 
 judges from their own, down to our times, 
 and will continue to be fo, while genius and 
 letters are cultivated among men. 
 
 Whether the Grecian or the Roman Hif- 
 torians are the beft, is perhaps doubtful, and 
 is certainly immaterial to be determined. 
 Quintilian, one of the mod: maderly critics 
 whoever wrote, is of opinion, that his country- 
 men, in writing hiffory, were not inferior to 
 the Greeks *, and that one need not be afraid 
 to oppofe Saluff to Thucydides, and Livy to 
 
 * Hiftoria non cefierit Grascis. 
 
 Hero- 
 
6u the SfuDY of History. 3 i 
 
 Herodotus. No Hidorian is more worthy of 
 your fludy than Livy : the grandeur of his 
 fubjedf, the length of that period of time 
 which his narration comprehends, the rich- 
 nefs the beauty and purity of his ffyie, 
 his art in interefting and moving the affec- 
 tions and paffions, and that admirable elo- 
 quence with which he transmits to us the 
 principal of thofe orations which were fpoken, 
 or which he fuppofes were fo, on the moll re- 
 markable occafions, which occur in the courfe 
 of his narration, make every one of tafte 
 agree with the critic whom I juff now men- 
 nioned, in allowing him to be eloquent in his 
 fpeeches beyond expreffion f, and recom- 
 mend him as one of the beft authors for a 
 young nobleman to fludy, and make himfelf 
 thoroughly maffer of. 
 
 The comprehenfive brevity of Saluft, thofe 
 fententious obfervations and moral maxims 
 with which he interfperfes his writings, and 
 
 * Livii laffea ubertas. 
 
 f In concionibus fupra quanj narrari poteft eloquen- 
 tsm. ' v 
 
 which 
 
32 LETTER HI. 
 
 which render them peculiarly animated and 
 inftru&ing, cannot fail of making us highly 
 value thofe precious remains which we have 
 of him, and regret that the greateft part of 
 his works is loft. Every line of him that 
 we have entire, affords matter for reflexion, 
 and the oftner you read him, the more you 
 will be perfuaded that his writings, which 
 unfortunately are fo fmall, contain a vaft 
 fund of entertainment and inftru<ftion. 
 
 We may very properly chara&erife Tacb 
 tus, one of the deepeft geniufes that ever ap- 
 peared among men, by thefe lines in which 
 Shakefpear defcribes Caftius. 
 
 He is a great obfervef ; and he looks 
 
 Quite through the deeds of men 
 
 Seldom he fmiles 
 
 Seldom indeed does he prefent to us- the fmib 
 ing ftde ; but often expofes to our view the 
 dark and gloomy fhades of that pi&ure which 
 he draws of human* affairs ; like the Duke de 
 la Rochefoucault, who is known to have been 
 4 
 
 a 
 
Oil the Study of History. 33 
 
 a great admirer of him, he Is by many 
 people thought too fevere in his cenfures, 
 and too apt to attribute a61ions to bad mo- 
 tives. Eut the great depravity and cor- 
 ruption of the times in which he lived, and 
 of thofe, whofe annals and Hiilory he writes, 
 may plead an excufe for his, perhaps too 
 refined, fufpicion concerning the interefted 
 motives of human conduct : and his mailerly 
 obfervations, his wife maxims, and that con- 
 cife energy, with which he draws the charac- 
 ters of men, and defcribes the manners and 
 cufloms of nations, have placed him in the 
 Temple of Immortality, and will make him 
 for ever be regarded as one of the ablefl and 
 mod inflruclive of all writers. 
 
 I have mentioned thefe three, becaufe 
 they are the flower of the Roman Hitforians, 
 and have been the admiration of almofl all 
 the great men, who have been eminent in 
 civil life finee their times. If you enquire 
 into the charadlers of thofe who have made 
 the moil fhining figure in the Britifh fenate, 
 you will find that moil of them were able 
 D mailers 
 
LETTER III. 
 
 34 
 
 matters of clattical learning, that they were 
 well acquainted with thefe Hiftorians in par- 
 ticular, and that from them they have drawn 
 many examples and maxims, which they 
 have with great propriety applied to the cir- 
 eumttances of their own country. 
 
 It is the obfervation of a polite writer % 
 that it is unpardonable even in the ladies not 
 to be acquainted with the Greek and Romaic 
 Iliftories. Whether a great many ladies of 
 fafhion are utterly unacquainted with them, 
 and think it no reproach to be fo, I fhall not 
 fay 5 but for a young gentleman, who has 
 had a liberal education, and can have re- 
 eourfe to the original authors, to be ignorant 
 in thefe articles, would imply a mod reproach- 
 ful negligence and want of inclination to im- 
 prove himfelf. For though one may acquire 
 a tolerable knowledge of Greek and Roman 
 affairs from modern tranttations and compi- 
 lations, yet they, who are able to go to the 
 original fountains, from which the bett of 
 thefe moderns drew their knowledge, will 
 * Mr. Hume^Mor. and Polit, Effays. 
 
 find 
 
On the Study of History. 
 
 35 
 
 find what a difference there is between that 
 pure water, which one drinks at the fpring- 
 head, and that which, by running a long 
 way through various channels, has become 
 confufed and muddy by a mixture of lefs pure 
 dreams. Indeed the ftudy of fome modern 
 works will greatly facilitate your knowledge 
 of thefe Hiflories, if read along and com- 
 pared with the original authors. Hook's 
 Roman Hidory, fo far as it has gone, and 
 we hope he will carry it down farther, with 
 the writings of fome others concerning Ro- 
 man affairs, do honour to the Engliili lan- 
 guage ; and there are feveral French writers, 
 who are extremely valuable. One * genius in- 
 deed of that nation has, beyond all others, 
 in the mod maderly manner, pointed out the 
 caules of that grandeur and empire to which 
 the Romans arrived, as well as thofe which at 
 lad occafioned their declenfion and fall. 
 
 f 
 
 And here I beg leave to obferve, that no- 
 thing claims your attention more, when you 
 are reading the Hidory of any nation, than 
 * Prefident Montefquieu 0 
 
 D 2 thofe 
 
L E T T E R 
 
 III. 
 
 3 6 
 
 thofe circumdances by which it became, 
 great, rich, and free, and thofe by which it 
 lod its grandeur, riches, and freedom. What 
 has happened in one nation, may happen in 
 another : if the Romans, by bravery, by 
 temperance, by a warm love of their coun- 
 try, of liberty and truth, attained to great- 
 nefs and empire : if, when they became effe- 
 minate and luxurious, if, when a regard to 
 private intered and pleafure prevailed over 
 that of their country and freedom, they fell 
 a prey to the ambition of an enterprizing ge- 
 nius, and at lad became the conqued of thofe 
 hardy and incorrupt people, whom they def- 
 pifed and contemptuoufly named Barbarians, 
 their fate may ferve as a light to warn others 
 from driking upon the fame rocks, and ought 
 to infpire every man of influence in any coun- 
 try to dudy with attention thofe remarkable 
 changes of manners and of governments 
 which are exhibited to us in Hidory, and to 
 rede<d upon their caufes and confequences, 
 that he may be enabled to conduct himfelf in 
 fuch a manner as may bed prevent his own 
 country from arriving at fuch a date as 
 
 has 
 
On the Study of History. 
 
 37 
 
 has never failed to bring ruin upon 
 others 
 
 The downfal of that mighty Empire, 
 which the Roman bravery had been fo many 
 ages in erecting, as it was effeHed by thofe 
 fwarms of uncivilized and hardy Barbarians 
 who came from the northern countries, fo it 
 overrun Europe with the unpolifhed and bar- 
 barous manners of thofe people, who, to ufe 
 the words of a mafterly writer p, ££ under the 
 C£ feveral names of Goths, Vandals, Huns, 
 “ Bulgars, Francs, Saxons, and many others, 
 ££ broke in at feveral times and. places upon 
 ££ the feveral Provinces of the Roman Em- 
 c£ pire, like fo, many tempefts, tore in pieces 
 ££ the whole fabric k of that government, 
 
 . c£ framed many new ones in its room, chang- 
 ££ ed the inhabitants, language, cuftpms, laws, 
 
 * Hoc ill ud efl prsecipue in cognitione rerum falubre 
 a,c frugiferum omnis te exempli documenta in illuflri 
 pofita monumento intueri : inde tibi tuseque reipubl'i- 
 cm, quod imitere, capias ; inde fcedum inceptu, feed urn 
 exitu, quod vites. Liv. 
 
 f Sir William Temple. 
 
 i> 3 
 
 the 
 
3 8 LETTER III. 
 
 “ the ufual names of places, and of men, 
 (e and even the very face of nature, where 
 “ they came, and planted new nations and 
 e? dominions in their room.” 
 
 The view of thofe governments which 
 were eftablifhed upon the ruin of the Roman 
 Empire ; and the Hiffory of the people who 
 lived in them, will afford you but fmall en- 
 tertainment ; and that knowledge which We 
 can acquire about them, unintereffing and 
 inflpid as it is, muff originally be fought for 
 in the ridiculous and ungracious annals and 
 chronicles of fuperftitious Monks. So that 
 as the Greek and Roman Hiftories, as I ob- 
 ferved before, claim your attention on a 
 double account, both the grandeur of the 
 fubjedi, and the elegant manner in which they 
 are wrote ; one may perhaps have a double 
 excufe fqr being lefs attentive to the Hiffory 
 of thofe times, and lefs careful of being in- 
 timately acquainted with the manners and 
 ^tchieyements of fuch rough and favage 
 ripple, 
 
 And. 
 
On the Study of History. 
 
 39 
 
 And yet, my Lord, one would not choofe 
 to be altogether ignorant of the tranfablions 
 of the dark ages, or to leave fo great a blank 
 in our knowledge of human affairs. Every 
 perfon who would wifh to be acquainted with 
 the fource and original of our laws and cuf- 
 toms, and to form a general idea of our Hif- 
 tory, muft go back to thofe difiant times, 
 as we like to look at old tapeflry which re- 
 calls tp our minds the modes and cuftoms of 
 our forefathers. 44 II faut conveni.r que tout 
 44 homme qui fera curieux de remonter. a la 
 44 fource de nos loix, ou de nos ufages, et qui 
 44 voudra fe former une idee generate de 
 44 notre Hiftoire, aimera a repaffer fur ces 
 4 4 terns eloignes, comme on aime a voir d’ 
 44 anciennes tapiiferies, qui nous rappellent 
 44 les modes et les coutumes des nos peres/ J 
 as the accurate and fenfible author of the 
 Chronological Hiftory of France obferves, 
 with refpeH to the Hiflory of his own coun- 
 try, and which is no lefs true with rqfpedt 
 to that of ours. 
 
 D 4 
 
 
 Tis 
 
40 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 ? Tis by a knowledge of the governments 
 which were eftablifhed, and the. cuftoms which 
 prevailed in Europe during thofe periods, that 
 we can alone acquire a juft idea of the va- 
 rious conftitutions, under which the European 
 nations now live, and the laws and cuftoms by 
 which they are at prefent governed : for they 
 may be traced up to thofe times, and however 
 much they have been changed and altered, 
 as choice, accident, climate, or the genius 
 of fome leading characters gave an opportu- 
 nity at different times and in different na- 
 
 r J < 
 
 tions, they derive their original from the 
 manners which prevailed in Europe in the 
 barbarous ages. „ Even that noble fyftem of 
 Britilh liberty, which has been fo many ages 
 in perfecting, owes its original to fome of the 
 laws and cuftoms of thofe wild and favage na- 
 tions ; this beautiful fyftem was found in the 
 woods : <e ce beau fyfteme a ete trouve dans 
 tc les bois”, to ufe the words of prefident 
 Montefquieu, in that chapter of the Spirit of 
 Laws, in which he delineates the Englifh con- 
 ftitution, alluding to fome of its nobleft in- 
 
 ft i tut ion 
 
4i 
 
 / 
 
 On die Study of History. 
 
 flitutions, which are evidently derived from 
 die manners of the antient Germans, who 
 lived not in polifhed cities, but were fcatter- 
 ed about in an uncultivated and woody 
 country. 
 
 Besides, the Hiffory of the various arts, 
 which, in thofe dark ages, the haughty ty- 
 rants of the Roman See, made ufe of to ac- 
 quire and maintain an unjuft and pernicious 
 fupremacy over all the chriftian world, and 
 to keep mankind bound in the chains of igno- 
 rance and fuperftition, though it offers to 
 our view a pidlure of human affairs, that 
 is gloomy and difagreeable to the laft degree, 
 may be of conffderable ufe, by railing in 
 our minds a deieftation of fuch a tyrannical 
 fuperffition, which aim off extinguished every 
 generous principle of the human heart, and 
 fo reff rained and debafed the genius and un- 
 derftandings of men, that there remains no 
 monument of thofe ages, which does not 
 give us reafon to conclude that the genera- 
 lity of Europe was then as grofly ftupid 
 
 and 
 
LETTER III. 
 
 4 *. 
 
 and barbarous, as the mod: remote and 
 unpolifhed parts of it are at this day. 
 
 We need hardly indeed wonder that they, 
 who mud have been confcious of perverting 
 a god-like and humane religion to the mod 
 ungod-like, and mod inhuman purpofes, 
 loved darknefs rather than light , and drove hard 
 to prevent thofe clouds of ignorance and error 
 which overwhelmed the minds of men, from 
 being difpelled. They knew well that, when 
 thefe fhould be removed, the craft and 
 wickednefs of their fchemes would be feen 
 through, and the world no longer kept under 
 fubjebtion to their tyrannic yoke. In fa£l, 
 this happened ; for when feveral concurring 
 circumdances, but efpecially the invention 
 of the art of printing, which was found out 
 about the middle of the fifteenth century, 
 made it impoffible to keep mankind longer 
 in the dark ; the genius of Europe dione 
 forth, arts and fciences began to douridi, 
 the precious remains of antiquity were dudied, 
 the fpirit of the antients was admired and 
 
 imitated ; 
 
On the Study of History. 4^ 
 
 imitated 5 fuperftition could not ftand before 
 fuch opponents ; idle legends fell into dif~ 
 credit, the written oracles of heaven were 
 rationally examined ; men found out by them 
 what was truly of divine and what of human 
 origin, and religion was, in a great part of 
 Europe, reformed according to the unerring 
 flandard of facred writ. 
 
 The Hiftory of Europe, from the time 
 of the reformation, and for above a century 
 before it, becomes peculiarly interefting both 
 on account of the fuperior knowledge and 
 improvements which have prevailed fince that 
 time, and alfo becaufe the general policy of 
 Europe, and of its particular governments 
 began to change nearly at that period : the 
 authority of fovereigns, and the rights of 
 the bulk of the people gained ground, and 
 were better afcertained : the haughty pride 
 of inferior tyrants fubmitted to the power of 
 kings, and the people fupported and pro- 
 tected by their fovereigns, affumed a fpirit 
 which difdained to be opprelTed and trampled 
 
 upon 
 
 6 
 
44 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 upon by thofe to whom formerly they be- 
 longed as mere haves. The face of Europe 
 was changed, and her governments gra- 
 dually took that form in which they have 
 fmce appeared ; in fome of them the im- 
 provements were greater, in others lefs ; in 
 fome they were more rapid, in others more 
 flow : in fome the power, of which the gran- 
 dees were deprived, fell principally into the 
 hands of the king, as in France 5 in others, 
 the bulk of the people acquired a confiderable 
 fhare of it, as in England. 
 
 To point out the methods by which thofe 
 alterations were brought about, and to ex- 
 plain how the intereh both of kings and 
 people concurred to prompt them to fet 
 bounds to the power of thofe, who, being 
 abfolute in their own domains, could be con- 
 trouled by no law but that of force, and 
 were only obedient to that hate to which they 
 owed allegiance, when it was their intereh: 
 to be fo, or when they durh not rebel : tp 
 point out how the natural htuation of one 
 
 Coun- 
 
On the Study of History. 45 
 
 country, tending to enlarge its commerce and 
 enrich the bulk of the people, made the com- 
 mons acquire a fway, which was not intend- 
 ed by thole who broke the power of the great 
 Barons ; and to fhew how in another the mi- 
 litary difpolition of the Hate, and their litua- 
 tion with refpe(5f to neighbouring powers, 
 retarded the progrefs of trade, and by keep- 
 ing the people poor, prevented them from 
 becoming fharers of that authority which their 
 kings affumed, would far exceed the bounds 
 of a letter, and has already been often done 
 in a maderly manner. 
 
 President Montefquieu, who has well 
 merited the noble title of legillator of the 
 world *, hath with his ufual abilities traced 
 out and developped in his Spirit of Laws the 
 caufes of the great changes, which have hap- 
 pened in the governments and circumdances 
 of every nation of the world : no book is 
 
 *L’efprit des loix eft lecode de tous les peuples, etle 
 prefident de Muntefquieu eft le legiftateur de Tunivers. 
 
 Mes Penfees . 
 
 ? more 
 
4 6 LETTER III. 
 
 more worthy of your ftudy, none contains 
 a greater fund of knowledge proper for a 
 Britifh nobleman* Henaut, in the concluding 
 Remarks on his hiftory of France, hath in a 
 few mod; inftru&ive pages explained the means 
 by which the French Monarchy acquired its 
 prelent form ; and, though he coniines him- 
 felf to the police of his own country, natu- 
 rally leads us to form proper reflexions upon 
 that of others. There are few things wrote 
 with more judgment and concife neatnefs, or 
 that in fuch fmall bounds prefent us with fo 
 many ufeful ideas, as his Chronological Hi- 
 ftory of France. 
 
 The Hiftory of one’s own country claims, 
 indeed, a fuperior regard to that of any o- 
 ther, efpecialiy thofe periods of it, in which 
 its government underwent confiderable alte- 
 rations ; when its civil or religious policy took 
 a different form; when thofe privileges, which 
 men hold fo dear, were acquired ; and when 
 fuperftition and tyranny, which had long 
 made mankind groan under their oppreliive 
 
 yoke. 
 
On the Study of History. 
 
 47 
 
 yoke, gave way to the happy influence of 
 true religion and freedom. By fludying how 
 thefe advantages and privileges were acquired, 
 we can beff learn how they may be maintain- 
 ed, and, perhaps (for there never was a per- 
 fect human fyflem of any kind) improved 
 and confirmed. 
 
 How much religious and civil freedom are 
 worth preferving, and what a glorious in- 
 fluence they have upon human affairs, you 
 will be convinced by comparing what Europe 
 has been lince the reformation with what it 
 was before that period ; and that the improve- 
 ments in every kind, which have taken place 
 fince that time, are chiefly owing to this 
 caufe will appear evident, if you refleft that 
 thofe improvements have only taken place in 
 countries where men have thrown off the 
 papal yoke, or where there are great numbers 
 of the people who would with, and have at- 
 tempted, to do it. “ It has been faid that 
 “ without Defcartes, Newton would perhaps 
 <c never have been ; it might have been faid 
 with greater propriety that without Luther 
 
 “ and 
 
4^ LETT R R III, 
 
 c<r and Calvin, Defcartes would perhaps never 
 “ have been *. 
 
 <c Voltaire has more than once taken no- 
 ce tice, that it was a pity fuch middling ge- 
 cc niufes as Luther and Calvin fhould have 
 ee made fo many profelytes, while Locke 
 ec and Newton have made fo few : but he for- 
 “ gets to obferve that Locke and Newton 
 <e have had no difciples but in thofe countries 
 * e where Luther and Calvin have been fol- 
 cc lowed, and that they are unknown where- 
 cc ever the dodrine of thofe middling geniufes 
 cc has been profcribed. 
 
 * On dit que fans Defcartes, Newton n’auroit peut- 
 e-tre pas ete, et je dis que Defcartes n’auroit peutetre 
 pas ete fans Luther et Calvin. 
 
 M. de Voltaire a dit et redit qu’il etoit trifle que 
 d’auffi mediores efprits que Luther et Calvin euffent 
 faits tant de Profelytes, tandis que Locke and Newton 
 en ont fait fi peu. Mais il ne prend pas garde que 
 Locke et Newton n’ont eu des fe&ateurs que dans les 
 pais ou Luther et Calvin ont ete fuivis, et qu’ils font 
 jnconnus par tout ou la dodlrine de ces efprits mediocres 
 a ete profcrite. Mes Perfect, CXLIV. 
 
 There 
 
On the Study of History. 
 
 49 
 
 These are the words of a fmart writer; 
 2nd undoubtedly that rational inquiry, which 
 the reformation not only permits but approves 
 of, has had, and mufl have, a wonderful in- 
 fluence in enlarging the genius and under- 
 ftandings of men. 
 
 From this period men gradually improved 
 in real knowledge, fludied nature both phy- 
 fical and moral in a more manly and rational 
 manner ; and at different times, by the 
 ffrength of fome fuperior geniufes, whofe 
 minds were now at liberty to follow 
 truth wherever fhe fhould lead them, great 
 lights were flruck out. The bewildering me- 
 thods of reafoning taught by the fchool-men 
 of the dark ages began to fall into difrepute : 
 men could not, however, all at once throw 
 off the yoke of fcholaftic fopperies. One 
 folly gave way, and then another, till at 
 laft a profound genius of this country (Lord 
 Bacon) taught men how they fhould ffudy 
 nature, and fome time after, Sir Ifaac New- 
 ton unravelled the fyftem of the univerfe, 
 and explained its laws with a penettation in- 
 
 E finitely 
 
LETTER HE 
 
 6 ° 
 
 finitely beyond what had been done before, 
 or, indeed, could have been conceived before 
 his time; guided by uncommon modefty; 
 as well as judgment and genius, he built his 
 fyflem upon fuch experimental principles as 
 will hand the teft of ages, and not, like the 
 fanciful fchemes of other philofophers, give 
 way to more faihionable dreams. At the 
 fame time, mechanics were fludied and ap- 
 plied to the purpofes of civil life : by this 
 means labour was made eafier, and men were 
 enabled to make a better ufe of thofe mate- 
 rials with which this earth is fo plentifully 
 provided for their comfort and pleafure. 
 Navigation was improved, and an intercourfe 
 between the different nations of the world 
 rendered more fafe and eafy. Society was 
 gradually more polifhed, and the manners 
 of men civilized ; the groffiiefs of the pre- 
 ceding ages was cleared away, and that of 
 Lewis XIV. of the revolution, of Sir Ifaac 
 Newton, or call it by what * other name you 
 pleafe, was fo much refined, as to, claim the 
 privilege of being ranked among thofe few 
 which have - merited to be called golden 
 
 ones 
 
On the Study of History. Cl- 
 ones better than that which actually was , 
 fp. 
 
 In fuch enlightened times has your Lord- 
 fhip been born ; perhaps the golden age is 
 not yet over 5 arts and fciences are not, we 
 hope yet ready to take their flight to regions 
 hitherto not fo highly favoured by the mufes 
 as this iiland. Let us howeyer beware of 
 treating them with negledl; if they be dis- 
 dained or undervalued, they will fly to more 
 worthy votaries, accompanied with every 
 thing that is ingenious and valuable, and leave 
 nothing behind them but ignorance and 
 barbarifm. Then will Britain be, what it 
 once was, the defpifed region of fiercenefs 
 and barbarity, and not the envied feat of li- 
 berty and knowledge. The very idea is 
 (hocking enough to infpire every one to do 
 all he can to prevent or retard fo difmal a 
 change. The higher one’s rank is, the more 
 one can do. But here I have done; your 
 Lordihip does not Band in need of any 
 arguments to prompt you to do all you 
 E 2 can 
 
52 LETTER III. 
 
 can to prevent your country from falling 
 again into fuch a Hate of barbarity, as 
 Hiftory reprefents it once to have been over- 
 run with. 
 
 ./ v • - , , , . X / , r 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 * 
 
 LET- 
 
[ *3 3 
 
 
 LETTER IV, 
 
 ' ' \ _ ■ , ( 
 
 On Biograph ys 
 
 Lord, 
 
 np H E pleafure your Lordfhip takes in 
 JL reading the lives of illufirious men, 
 is a very happy and a very natural one. As 
 you find it an agreeable and entertaining 
 amufement, fo nothing can tend more to your 
 improvement and inftru&ion. We become 
 interefted in thofe perfons who make a figure 
 in hiflory, and have performed a&ions wor- 
 thy of being tranfmitted down to pofterity 
 and of being admired $ we have a natural 
 curiofity to be acquainted with the mo ft re- 
 markable circumftances of their lives, and 
 to know what their condu& was in private 
 as well as in public, as men as well as citi- 
 zens 3 but this curiofity, the rules of compo- 
 E 3 fitlon 
 
54 LETTER IV. 
 
 fition permit not an hiftorian, who propofes 
 to write the general Hiflory of any country, 
 to gratify. As his fubjeH is the general Hif- 
 tory of the country, that of individuals can 
 only be brought into it fo far as they had an 
 influence upon public affairs, or helped to 
 bring about thofe events which are the fub- 
 jeH of the hiftoric page. The juflnefs of this 
 rule may be illuftrated by the analogy it holds 
 with what is obferved in the compofition of 
 other works. 
 
 In painting, the artift pitches upon fome 
 particular adlion to be the fubject of his piece, 
 and no circumftances can with propriety be 
 brought into that piece, which are unnecef- 
 fary to add llrength and fpirit to the principal 
 fubjeH. A picture reprefenting the choice 
 of Hercules can with propriety admit of no 
 circumflance of that hero's life, but that 
 - fxiigle one of his being addrefTecf by the god- 
 defies of virtue and pleafure, exhorted by the 
 one to purfue the manly road of temperance 
 • and virtue, allured by the other to follow the 
 luxurious paths of indolence and vice : .every 
 
 other 
 
 4 
 
On E I O G R A P H Y« gg 
 
 other part of the Hiftory of Hercules is 
 foreign to the fubje<ft, and if brought into 
 that piece, would break the unity of the de~ 
 ftgn, divert the attention from the main 
 fubjeft, and render the work irregular and 
 abfurd. 
 
 In a tragedy which fhould have for its fub- 
 jeH, the death of Cato, none of the actions 
 of that great man could with propriety be 
 exhibited upon the ftage, but thofe, which 
 accompanied his death, and which have an 
 effedl to render that event more ftriking. 
 
 The rule holds equally well in Hiftory j 
 nothing can with propriety be brought into 
 that of any particular nation, but what tends 
 to give us a juft idea of the genius, manner 
 and cuftoms of the people, of their laws and 
 conftitution, of their exploits in war and po^ 
 licy in time of peace, or of whatever elfe is 
 hecelfary to make us properly acquainted with 
 their Hiftory as a nation. The aHions of 
 particular men can be related only fo far as 
 E 4 they 
 
56. LETTER IV. 
 
 they had an influence upon the general af- 
 fairs of their country; and no other part of 
 their lives, however admirable and worthy 
 of being known, falls properly under the no- 
 tice and obfervation of a writer who pro- 
 pofes to relate the Hiflory of a nation in 
 general. 
 
 But yourLordfhip will readily own, that 
 thofe afiions of men, which have an influence 
 Upon public affairs, are not the only actions 
 worthy of being known, and that the more 
 private circumflances of their lives are often 
 no lefs fo, nay perhaps are more interefling, 
 and offer to our obfervation more frequent 
 oceafions of improvement and inffrudfion. 
 Hence the utility of Biography appears, 
 which, having the Hiflory of an individual 
 -for its fubjedl, with propriety relates every 
 remarkable circumflance of the life of that 
 individual, confiders his private as well as his 
 public conduct ; his behaviour among a circle 
 of friends, as well as his appearances in a 
 public alfembly 3 views him at the head of a 
 
 fa- 
 
On Biography* 57 
 
 family, as well as at that of an army * follows 
 him from the fenate-houfe to his private 
 fiudy ; and in a word, endeavours to find 
 out and exhibit the real chara&er and por- 
 trait of the man as well as of the citizen* 
 
 The happinefs of the world depends no 
 lefs upon the conduct of men in their pri- 
 vate than in their public capacities : indeed 
 they who have many opportunities of being 
 ufeful and of doing good in the one, have 
 generally no fewer in the other. They who 
 have it in their power to become eminently 
 ferviceable to their king and country by un- 
 fhaken loyalty and patriotifm, have common- 
 ly at the fame time a large fphere in which 
 they may exercife their private virtues, and 
 muft become a blelling or a fcourge, and 
 contribute to the profperity and happinefs, 
 or to the diftrefs and uneafinefs of many of 
 their fellow creatures. That fpecies of hif- 
 tory then, which can with propriety enlarge 
 upon the private, benevolent, and amiable 
 qualities of illuftrious men 5 and by drawing 
 an engaging pi&ure of their virtues, incite 
 
 others 
 
 / 
 
) ' - 
 
 S3 LETTER IV. 
 
 others to imitate them in their goodnefs, mull 
 certainly have a friendly influence upon hu- 
 man affairs, and be highly ufeful. They 
 indeed mull be infenflble to every virtuous 
 emotion, who have never felt their hearts 
 fired with a love of virtue and an admiration 
 of great and generous actions, when they 
 were reading the hiffory of great and good 
 men wrote by an able Biographer. 
 
 To fucceed well in Biography, conflderable 
 talents are required : the writer muff have a 
 genius that is quick, and fenflbly ffruck by 
 fiuch circumftances as are charadteriftic * of 
 the perfon whofe hlftory he writes, and know 
 
 * In a performance, which the author modeftly en- 
 titles a Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of 
 England, more light is thrown upon fome characters in 
 a few pages, by a judicious choice of a few dtftinguiftl- 
 ing circumftances, than had been done before in fome 
 volumes. 
 
 “ J’aimerois mieux avoir fait l’hiftoire de qut 
 
 “ n’a pas plus de dix pages, que la belle, I’admirable* 
 
 “ l’immortelle hiftoire de qui a dix gros volumes.” 
 
 • Mes PenJeeSy CCXLV. 
 
 4 
 
 how 
 
On Biography/ 59 
 
 how to feparate thefe from fuch as are com- 
 mon to him with a thoufand others. He 
 muft have that difcernment which can look 
 through the deeds of men, and is not apt to 
 be impofed upon by fallacious appearances : 
 he muft neither be enthufiaftically fond of his 
 Hero, nor too cool in his intereft : he mult 
 have that impartiality which is fo rarely to 
 be found in Biographers, efpecially thofe who 
 write the lives of perfons who have been co- 
 temporary with themfelves, or lived near 
 their own times. If the life of one who lived 
 in a diftant period be the fubje<ft, much pains 
 and accuracy are required in reading the 
 authors of that age, and in fearching thofe 
 antient monuments which are necdfary to 
 give a juft idea of the fubjecft, and to throw 
 light upon it. 
 
 When I read the life of an illuftrious man 
 well wrote, and reflect what trouble it muft 
 have given the author to clear away a heap 
 of rubbifti that he might prefent us with an 
 elegant work, I cannot but reckon myfelf 
 
 obliged 
 
LETTER IV; 
 
 obliged to one by whofe labour I enjoy fo in- 
 firu&ive and fo agreeable a pleafure *. 
 
 I believe it will be found true by moft 
 readers, that they have feldom been more 
 pleafed, or lefs tired with any work, than 
 when they were reading the life of a particu- 
 lar perfon, efpecially if it was the life of one* 
 whofe turn of mind was fomewhat fimilar to 
 their own * and I have often thought that it 
 was a good way to find out one's genius, to 
 obferve what fort of lives pleafe us moft, which 
 we like belt to talk of, and which make 
 the firongefi: imprelfion upon our minds* 
 They who difcover a greater admiration 
 of the rapid and ungovernable bravery 
 of a Charles XII. than of the fedate and con- 
 fummate conduct of a Marlborough, and 
 take more pleafure in reading the hiftory of 
 fuch as bear a nearer refemblance to the 
 Swede, thaii to ,the Englifh hero, will pro- 
 
 * Ad res pulcherrimas, ex tenebris ad lucein erutas 
 alien q laborededucimur. Sense, 
 
 bably 
 
On B I O G R A P H Y. 61 
 
 jbably be found in fad more fit to head a def- 
 perate attack than to condud a rational en- 
 terprize. They, who find themfelves lefs 
 tired when reading the life of an able and 
 wife chancellor, or of a great and learned 
 prelate, than of a celebrated general or com- 
 mander, are, ’tis to be prefumed, formed by 
 nature to wear the facred or civil gown with 
 a better grace, than they could wield the ge- 
 neral's fiaff. I believe, I may add, that thofe 
 who are more charmed with accounts of fuch 
 perfons as lived in elegant retirement, far re- 
 moved from the hurry of courts and bufmefs, 
 than of thofe who fpend their lives amidft 
 the buflle and intrigues of the world, will 
 find themfelves improperly placed, when 
 they entirely forfake their more private way 
 of life, and enter deeply into affairs and pub- 
 lic management. 
 
 This then is one way by which we may 
 find out what path our genius points out to 
 us to purfue, what courfe it warns us not to 
 follow, and makes us feel to be contrary to 
 pur natural difpolition. Hence it appears 
 
 ex- 
 
LETTER IV, 
 
 62 
 
 extremely proper that young gentlemen fhould 
 have the lives of men of various characters 
 put into their hands before they fet out in 
 life, that thus they may have an opportunity 
 of difcovering what beft fuits their own turn 
 of mind ; for fuch as aflume a character, 
 that nature never gave them, will hardly ever 
 make a figure in life, be happy in thcmfelves, 
 or ufeful to the world, 
 
 But of all accounts of the actions of great 
 men, thofe which were wrote by the actors 
 themfelves are the mot ufeful and agreeable. 
 Partiality natural to one’s felf, may indeed 
 fometimes tempt the writer to varnilh over 
 fuch parts of his conduct as might appear 
 difhonourable, or render his fame lefs glo- 
 rious j but that fpirit which generally ap- 
 pears in them, that warmth with which a re~ 
 membrance of what they once acted, infpires 
 the writers 5 and that intimate knowledge, 
 which they muft have of their fubject, com- 
 penfate other difadvantages, trike the reader 
 with greater force, and make him enter more 
 feelingly into the interefts of one who is 
 
 both 
 
On Biography. 63 
 
 both the a& or and writer, than the lefs ani- 
 mated performances of compilators can pof- 
 fibly do. 
 
 Your Lordiliip will eafily recall to your 
 memory examples of this both among the an- 
 tients and moderns. Who could have wrote 
 the adlions of Julius Caefar with a thoufandth 
 part of that eloquence and fpirit that he him- 
 felf does in his admired commentaries ? or 
 who could have made us follow Xenophon and 
 his ten thoufand Greeks, with fuch eager 
 anxiety and attention, in that maflerly re- 
 treat which they made though a vaft tradf of 
 country amidft every difadvantage and diffi- 
 culty, as he himfelf has done, in his Anaba- 
 fis, with no lefs fkill than he conducted the 
 enterprife. 
 
 Among the moderns, we meet with many 
 examples of memoirs of the lives of great men 
 written by themfelves in the moh lively and in- 
 Brudive manner. Need I mention Sully’s Me- 
 moirs, from which one can certainly form a 
 
 jufter 
 
t 
 
 64 LETTER IV, 
 
 jufter idea of the great goodnefs, confummate 
 abilities, and heroic qualities of his mafter 
 Henry IV. and of his own capacity and integrity, 
 than can be done from any other of the nume- 
 rous hiftories of thofe times. Cardinal de Retz, 
 that great genius, pufhed headlong into af- 
 fairs and intrigues of every kind by the a&ive 
 impetuofity of his difpoiition, has drawn in 
 his memoirs, one of the ftrongeil: portraits 
 of an extraordinary character that the world 
 ever faw. By fairly laying before us both 
 his good and bad qualities, by expofmg his 
 own foibles more freely than any one elfe 
 could have done, as I have feen it fomewhere 
 obferved, he hath made his faults ufeful to 
 the world, and pointed out the dangers and 
 vexatious confequences, which attend that 
 headilrong ambition which can throw every 
 thing into confulion, but knows not how to 
 quiet or compofe the liorm it has raifed 5 qui 
 fgait brouiller, mais pas denouer, as the 
 French fometimes exprefs themfelves when 
 fpeaking of fuch characters : there are a great 
 many other memoirs in feveral modern lan- 
 guages, which are extremely amufing, and 
 
 make 
 
Of B i O G & A P H Y* 6$ 
 
 make us acquainted with the chara&ers of fe- 
 veral great men in a way that comes nearefh 
 to perfonal intimacy. 
 
 Allow me to add as a proof of tne agree- 
 able and interefting nature of this fpecies of 
 writing, that the mere Romahce-writer finds 
 no better method of narrating his flory in a 
 pleating and entertaining manner, than by 
 making his hero himfelf relate his own adven- 
 tures. 
 
 An t> fiiice I have happened to name ro- 
 mances, I mud beg leave to fay that this 
 fpecies of artificial Biography, when execut- 
 ed in a maftetly manner, does not want its 
 advantages. Freed from a chain of real 
 events, the author is at liberty to choofe fuch 
 as appear to him mofl: proper to convey 
 whatever moral or inftru&ion he pleafes. 
 The landfcape-painter, who accurately draws 
 a fcene which really exifis in nature, deferves 
 to be praifed for his fkill and labour ; but 
 certainly he> wfcosE eye, as one, who had 
 F him- 
 
66 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 himfelf * a moft creative fancy, exprelTes it 
 with his ufual energy, 
 
 In a fine frenzy rolling, . 
 
 Doth glance from heaven to earth, from 
 earth to heaven ; 
 
 And, as imagination bodies forth 
 
 The forms of things unknown,—— 
 
 Turns them to lhape, 
 
 And with a mafterly hand reprefents a fcene a- 
 domed with flriking beauties, which his fancy 
 enabled him properly to affemble, merits ap- 
 plaufe both on account of the execution and of 
 the genius necefTary for producing fuch a piece. 
 Thus too, a writer who gives us the hiftory of 
 a fictitious perfon, and fills up his life with 
 great or inftru&ive events, and by the pro- 
 bability of his narration makes us forget we 
 are reading a romance, interefis our paflions, 
 and ftrongly moves every affection of the 
 human mind, muff have a genius and talents 
 highly worthy of efleemf. 
 
 * Shakefpear. 
 
 f Ille per extenfum funem mihi pofle videtur. 
 
 Ire, meum qui pectus inaniter angit, 
 
 Irritat, mulcet, falcis terroribus implet. 
 
 I 
 
 I HOPE 
 
On Biography. 67 
 
 I hope you do not fufpeft me of recom- 
 mending the common run of thofe filly things 
 which are offered to the public under the 
 name of romances and novels. Vitious and 
 foolifh, they can only pleafe the debauched, 
 the lazy, the ignorant ; and are below the 
 contempt of a man of fenfe and virtue. But 
 there have been fome of another ftamp. Since 
 Don Quixote was wrote in Spanifh, and Gill Bias 
 in French, feveral performances of this kind 
 have appeared in foreign languages as well as 
 in our own, from which we may learn a good 
 deal of the manners of the world, and by 
 laughing at the folly of others be taught how 
 to avoid becoming, ridiculous ourfelves. 
 
 There is one account of the life of an 
 illuftrious perfon, not indeed a modern one, 
 which I cannot help mentioning to you here, 
 both becaufe that divine elegance with which 
 it is wrote, made it antiently be faid, that the 
 mufes * fpoke by the mouth of the author, 
 
 * Xenophontis voce mufas quafi locutas ferunt. Cic. 
 
 F 2 and 
 
68 
 
 BETTER IV. 
 
 and becaufe the generality of critics have been 
 of opinion, that it is not a real but an ideal 
 Hiftory of the Life of Cyrus ; and all agree 
 that, however true the principal fads may 
 b<e, the author hath added every circumftance 
 which could embellifh it, or render it a per- 
 fed model of a religious, a wife and heroic 
 prince. No book defer ves to be more warm- 
 ly recommended to a young nobleman than 
 the Cyropaedia. The world has few fuch 
 books to boaft of. No hiftory can have a 
 greater influence in forming the heart to truly 
 noble and generous principles, or prefent the 
 underfianding with a more excellent pattern 
 of virtuous and wife conduct. An admirable 
 example, what a ufeful and charming work 
 may be produced by a writer of true genius, 
 who, not ftridly confined to the narration of 
 real fads, gives his imagination fcope to 
 invent fuch as appear fitted: to convey 
 ufeful inftrudion in the moil agreeable 
 manner. 
 
 Therx 
 
There is one way of becoming ac- 
 quainted with the characters of great men, 
 that has always been reckoned among the 
 bed methods of acquiring a true idea of their 
 real principles, and of thofe motives which 
 influenced their conduct and were the fprings 
 of their adfions : reading their familiar let- 
 ters. When one is writing to a friend, the 
 heart is open, and difclofes thofe opinions 
 and fentiments, which prudence makes it im-- 
 proper that all the world fhould be acquaint-* 
 ed with, or which perhaps lefs honourable 
 motives make men cautioufly conceal. 
 
 Of all the advantages and pleafures, that 
 flow from friendfhip, none is more agreeable, 
 or gives a more pleafing relief to a mind full 
 of anxious cares, than to have one, into 
 whofe bofom we may pour all our fecrets, 
 and whofe fidelity we are entirely affured of, 
 prxparata pedfora in qux tutofecretum omne 
 “ defcendat, quorum concientiam minus 
 “ quam tuam timeas”, as Seneca finely expref- 
 fes it : fo great is this pleaf\\re, that when ab- 
 F 3 fent 
 
LETTER IV. 
 
 70 
 
 fent from our friends we ftill endeavour to en- 
 joy it, and communicate to them by writing 
 thofe thoughts, thofe fentiments, thofe ideas, 
 which we cannot have the happinefs of doing 
 by perfonal converfation. Letters that 
 patTed between friends muft more than any 
 thing have that turn, and breathe that fpirit 
 which thofe who wrote them had in com- 
 pany, and by thefe tranfcripts of their hearts, 
 we are, as it were, introduced into their ac- 
 quaintance, and become familiar with them. 
 
 When we read Tully’s Epiftles, and thofe 
 of his friends, we cannot help thinking our- 
 felves intimate with thofe perfonages; we enter 
 into their ways of thinking, we conceive what 
 their fentiments would have been in cer- 
 tain circumftances, and are enabled to form a 
 jufter idea of their principles and the mo- 
 tives of their conduct, than we could poffibly 
 be by any other method. Mr. Melmoth has 
 lately given a proof of this, and fhewn what 
 light may be thrown upon a character by 
 accurately comparing and examining familiar 
 
 letters. 
 
On Biography. 71 
 
 letters, in his ingenious remarks on thofe of 
 Cicero : one would wifh indeed that it had 
 turned out as much to the honour of the 
 orator, as it has done to the ingenuity of his 
 elegant tranHator, and that a man of Tully’s 
 abilities and real goodnefs of heart had not 
 fullied them by a conduct fo unfteady. 
 
 I observed before, that, by dudying to 
 become acquainted with the Hidory of great 
 men, by reading their memoirs, their letters, 
 or accounts of their lives wrote by able Bio- 
 graphers, we fomehow become acquainted 
 with themfelves, and may thus be faid to be 
 introduced into the bed company. Of what 
 confequence this is, mud be readily acknow- 
 ledged by every one. Not only the difpoli- 
 tions and hearts of men take a tin£lure from 
 thofe with whom they are mod: intimate and 
 dri&ly connected, but even their heads and 
 underdandings form themfelves fomewhat into 
 a level with thofe of the people they converfe 
 with, and men in fome meafure become weak 
 or able as the perfons are with whom they fpend 
 the greated part of their time. 
 
 f 4 
 
 How 
 
*]% LETTER IV. 
 
 How much does one improve in fome peo- 
 pled company, how little can we learn in that 
 of others ? How many v ifits may one make 
 without meeting with any thing but dull cere- 
 pony or infipjd chit-chat about trifling fub- 
 jeCts ? Drefs, equipage, game ! from how 
 many people does one return difgufled and 
 out of humour ? How dangerous are fome 
 focieties, how conftrained are we obliged to 
 |>e in them, and how much on our guard ? 
 But in that illuffrious fociety of great men, 
 into which Biography introduces us, we can 
 never receive any hurt,, and may often 
 reap much benefit ; even faults which were 
 prejudicial to their cotemporaries may he of 
 advantage tp us, by teaching us how we may 
 !>eft efcape errors into which others fell, 
 and not be impofed upon by fimilar characters, 
 that may happen to exift within the circle 
 pfour pwn acquaintance. None of Plutarch’s 
 herpes will lead us into any foolifh party, 
 none of their converfations will be dangerous, 
 liope of their friendfhips fatal ; an intima-* 
 gy with them will not be ruinous or expem 
 five : they v/ill always be at home to receive 
 
 ns, 
 
73 
 
 On B i o.cha? h -Y. 
 
 us, and in fuch a manner as will make us 
 leave them with a warmer affedion for them, 
 and a higher efteem of their virtues : the 
 more inftrudion we receive from them, the 
 greater reafon will we have to be convinced 
 that we may receive Hill more. How happy 
 muft he be, who hath contraded fuch friend- 
 fhip, and put himfelf under the diredion of 
 fuch guardians, who will be able to advife 
 him about the greateft and fmalleft affairs, 
 from, whom he will hear truth without info- 
 lence, be commended without flattery, and 
 after whofe example he may form himfelf i 
 
 Allow me, my Lord, to conclude this let- 
 ter with tranfcribing a few lines from an * 
 author, whom 1 have juft now had in my eye, 
 whofe noble fentiments, and lively manner of 
 writing, never fail to warm the heart with a 
 love of virtue, and of whofe very faults, it 
 hath with great propriety been faid, that they 
 
 are agreeable *j\ <c horum nemo non va- 
 
 “ cabit, nemo non venientem ad fe beatio- 
 f6 rem, amantioremque fui demit tit node 
 
 * Sen#. f Dulcibus abundat vitiis. uintiL 
 
 con- 
 
74 LETTER IV. 
 
 <c convemri et interdiu ab omnibus mortali- 
 
 cc bus pofTunt horum nemo annos tuos 
 
 ee conteret, fuos tibi contribuet : nullius ex 
 c< his fermo periculofus erit, nullius amicitia 
 
 <c capitalis, nullius fumptuofa obfervatio 
 
 feres ex his quidquid voles, per illos non 
 cc Habit quo minus quantum plurimum cce- 
 ec peris, haurias. Quae ilium felicitas quam 
 pulchra fene£lus manet, qui fe in horum 
 clientelam contulit ? habebit cum quibus 
 cc de minimis maximifque rebus deliberet, 
 quos de fe quotidie confulat, a quibus au- 
 diat verum fine contumelia, laudetur fine 
 adulatione, ad quorum fe fimilitudinem ef- 
 fingat*” 
 
 l am, &c. 
 
r 75 j 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Of TASTE; 
 
 And of fome diftinguifhing Circumftances 
 of London and Paris. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I T muft appear evident to any one, who* 
 without prejudice, examines the figure 
 which this country has made in its moft ad- 
 mired periods for learning and politenefs, that 
 a depth of judgment, folidity of underffand- 
 ing, and a power of expreffing firong paflions 
 with remarkable energy, have been far more 
 its diftinguifhing chara&eriftics, than deli- 
 cacy or refinement of Tafte. 
 
 A Bacon, a Newton, a Locke, have an 
 indifputable title to the palm in profound and 
 
 rationaj 
 
LETTER V. 
 
 75 
 
 rational philosophy. Milton and Shakefpear 
 have conceived the noblett ideas, feen through 
 every winding of the human heart, drawn 
 the chara<tt ers of men, and defcribed every ob- 
 je<tt in nature with a force and expredion equal 
 to the greatett matters of antiquity, and beyond 
 any of their modern rivals. But with regard 
 to exa&nefs or refinement of Tatte, it will 
 hardly be faid, that we do not oftener meet 
 in Milton and Shakefpear with what appears 
 extravagant and improbable, than in Cor- 
 neille, Racine or Voltaire. This laft, taking 
 notice of that want of decency and regula- 
 rity, which may with too much juftice be re- 
 proached to the Englilh ttage, confettes the 
 great marks of genius which appear in our 
 tragedies, and which, if thofe irregularities 
 were removed, would foon make the Englilh 
 excel the Grecian or French Drama One 
 
 * En Angieterre, la tragedie eft veritablement une 
 action ; et ft les auteurs de ce pays joignoient a l’a&ivite 
 qui anime leurs pieces un ftile naturel avec de la de- 
 cence et de la regularite, ils remporteroient bien tot 
 fur les Grecs et fur les Francois. 
 
 Volt. Elf. fur le Poem. Epiq. 
 
 mutt 
 
 2 
 
Of T A s r & 
 
 n 
 
 mull indeed have imbibed firong prejudices, 
 who does not perceive and acknowledge that 
 defied in point of chaftity and corrednefs of 
 tafle, which is confpicuous in the befl and 
 firongeft geniufes among the Englifh writers. 
 
 Whence this arifes, and how it happens, 
 that the Englifh are more remarkable for 
 depth of undemanding and fublimity of ge- 
 nius, the French for a certain gentility of 
 manner, and accuracy of Tafte, may be 
 rworth enquiring into ; and as we go along, 
 
 I may perhaps have fome opportunities of 
 pointing out to you, how a nobleman may 
 have it in his power to improve the manner 
 and corred the tafte of his country. 
 
 You are, I am perfuaded, far above the 
 low prejudices of thofe who cannot bear to 
 be told that the French excel in any thing. 
 I juft now quoted one of their writers, allow- 
 ing the Englifh to be preferable in fome 
 things ; may not we allow his countrymen 
 to be fo in others ? Truth ought to be the 
 foundation of all our opinions ^ and as it is 
 
 ab- 
 
?8 LETTER V. 
 
 abfurd, fo nothing can difcover a more vul- 
 gar and narrow difpolition of mind, than to 
 refufe to any country whatever merit truly 
 belongs to it„ 
 
 As the tafle of the metropolis muft always 
 have the greateff influence upon that of a 
 whole country, the chara&er of a nation with 
 refpecl to this article, will commonly be 
 found to be what might be expecled from the 
 peculiarly favorable or unfavorable cir- 
 cumflances of its capital. ’Tis generally 
 indeed in the chief city of a country, that 
 thofe works are produced which deter- 
 mine its character for genius and tafle. In 
 every metropolis there muff be more incite- 
 ments and opportunities to improve one’s ge- 
 nius than in provincial towns $ hence they 
 become the centers whither all naturally 
 tend, whofe minds prompt them to ac- 
 quire the friendlhip of eminent men, to en- 
 deavour to become eminent themfelves, to 
 improve their talents, or to enlarge their 
 knowledge and cultivate their underffandings : 
 
 “ Alios 
 
Of TASTE. 
 
 79 
 
 « Alios liberaliunti ftudiorum cupiditas, alios 
 « fpe&acula, quofdam traxit amicitia, quof- 
 <c dam induftria latam offendendse virtuti 
 “ nacffa materiam*.’’ By comparing, there- 
 fore, the circumftances of the capitals, and 
 the opportunities of improvement which they 
 afford, we may form a probable conjecture 
 concerning the caufes of that difference of 
 Tafte which prevails in any two nations. 
 
 London and Paris, the capitals of two 
 rival kingdoms, the two largeft cities, and 
 the principal feats of arts and fciences in Eu- 
 rope, no lefs famous in modern, than Rome 
 and Athens were in ancient times, are go- 
 verned by cuftoms, and diftinguifhed by cir- 
 cumftances more different than thofe which 
 took place in the capitals of the Athenian and 
 Roman Republicks. 
 
 London is the greateft trading city in the 
 world : Paris has no trade but that of its ele- 
 gant toys, and ingenious manufactures. Pa- 
 ris is the feat of a famous and great univer- 
 * Senec, 
 
 fity. 
 
8d L £ t T E R V. 
 
 fity, and of foCieties for the improvement of 
 the Belles Lettres, and the Arts ; there are no 
 fuch focieties eftablifhed in London, nor 4s 
 it the feat of an univerfity. Paris is well 
 provided with public libraries, and with coL 
 le&ions of pictures, ffatues, &c. open to the 
 ftudy-and infpe&ion of every one : there are 
 few public libraries, &c. in London : London 
 is the metropolis of a free, Paris of an 
 abfolute government- Thefe are fome of the 
 principal circumftances which diflinguifh 
 London and Paris. By reflecting a little upon 
 each of them, we may perhaps be enabled 
 to account for the difference of tafle in thofe 
 two cities. 
 
 Commerce, which is attended with fa 
 many advantages, and which diffufes plenty, 
 independence and happinefs among the bulk 
 of a people, is, however, lefs favourable to 
 certain accomplishments, and lefs conducive 
 to an elegancy of tafte and manners, than to 
 perhaps more folid and general bleflings. By 
 turning the attention of men chiefly to gain, 
 and by continually employing them in purfuit 
 
 of 
 
Of T A S T E. • ' 8i 
 
 of this object, it leaves them lefs time to fludy 
 the arts, and to admire the productions of 
 genius and taffe. 
 
 Nor, confidering it merely with refpect 
 to the influence it may have upon taffe, 
 can it be fuppofed a circumflance favourable 
 to that of the Britifh metropolis, that London 
 is the greateft fea-port in the world* The 
 intercourfe which this muff create between 
 vafl numbers of its inhabitants and fea-faring 
 people, may even be thought to communi- 
 cate a little of that roughnefs which is 
 more the characterise of the common run 
 of bailors than politenefs and refinement. 
 Hence, perhaps, by attributing it to a corn- 
 plaifance to the prevailing humour of their 
 audience, we may account for the low fcenes 
 and vulgar wit we meet with in fome of 
 our dramatic writers, and for that odd drol- 
 lery which difiinguifhes the performances of 
 a neighbouring maritime nation. 
 
 Every advantage is attended with fome in- 
 convenience : let the Parisians, who live in a 
 
 G city 
 
8 2 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 \ 
 
 city which is no fea-port, which has no trade 
 but that of fome elegant manufactures, and 
 is alone fupported by a paffion for- living 
 perpetually in the capital, fo univerfal 
 among the French nobkjfe ; boaft of the po- 
 litenefs and refined taife of their metropolis : 
 the citizens of London may glory in what is 
 more fubftantial, and contributes more to the 
 happinefs of its inhabitants, a fhare of wealth 
 and independence^, diffufed by liberty and com- 
 merce among all ranks of men, which pre- 
 vents the meaneft individual from being en- 
 flaved by the greateft, and enables vaft mul- 
 titudes to enjoy thofe bounties of heaven, 
 which in other places are confined to a fmali 
 number of mankind. But certainly if we 
 confider commerce only fo far as it may 
 have an influence upon tafte, it can never be 
 thought to be an advantage ; nor can it befup- 
 pofed a very favourable circumstance to that of 
 this country, that a confiderable part of the 
 trade of England is tranfaded in the metropolis. 
 That of France is carried on in her pro- 
 vincial towns, and the inhabitants of Paris 
 • chiefly confifl of the mblejje , and of thofe, 
 5 who. 
 
 
Of T A S T E. 83 
 
 who, living on their fortunes and not being 
 hurried by bufinefs, have leizure to improve 
 their tafte, and to cultivate the fine arts. 
 
 Universities, I believe it will be denied 
 by none, are the principal feats of Learning 
 and Knowledge in every country. Even in 
 thofe ages, when univerfity-learning was of 
 the mod ridiculous fort, foppifh and bewilder- 
 ing as it muft be confelfed to have been, it 
 was, however, the beft the world then had, 
 and the members of univerfities were more 
 enlightened and lefs ignorant than their coun- 
 trymen. Though there is a certain fiiffnefs 
 and pedantry that fometimes attends men of 
 great erudition, and which gives their manners 
 an aukward look to the people of active life $ 
 yet ftill we may, without being thought partial, 
 affirm, that they muft in all probability have 
 a more correct tafte ; and, by being accu- 
 ftomed to fiudy the noblefi: models, be more 
 readily ftruck with the irregularities of 
 works that deviate from the rules obferved 
 by the beft writers, than other perfons 
 G 2 can 
 
34 LETTER Y. 
 
 can be fuppofed to be, whofe way of life has 
 not led them to improve their tade, or to 
 correcd it by thofe rules, which were obferv- 
 ed by the bed geniufes of all ages, but efpe- 
 cially by the antients. We may even fup- 
 pofe that converfation with men of learning 
 mud be of advantage to others ; that in places 
 where there are great numbers of men of let- 
 ters, a certain proportion of learning mud 
 by them be communicated to the people ; and 
 that there mud be a greater chance of meet- 
 ing with perfons who have taken fome pains 
 to correct and improve their tades. 
 
 ’Tis a nice quedion, whether or not it 
 tends more to the advancement of real fcience, 
 that univerfities and feminaries for the edu- 
 cation of youth diould be placed in great and 
 populous cities, than in remote and didant vil- 
 lages : the practice of the antients feems to 
 countenance the cudom of having them d- 
 tuated in the metropolis, and of educating 
 the youth of falhion in fuch places, and in 
 light of fuch fcenes as they mud be con ver- 
 dant 
 
Of T A S T E. 85 
 
 iant with and deeply interefted in, when they 
 come to perform their different parts in life. 
 Epaminondas, the laft year of his life, faid, 
 heard, faw, did the fame things as at that 
 time of life when he began to be intruded. 
 
 Epaminondas la dernier e anne de fa vie, 
 cc difoit, ecutoit, voyoit, faifoit les memes 
 “ chofes que dans l’age ou il avoit com- 
 “ mence d’etre inftruit.” This obfervation 
 made by a very good judge **, when fpeaking 
 of the difference of antient and modern edu- 
 cation, and illuffrated by naming one of the 
 greateff chara&ers that ever appeared in 
 the world, as an example of it, muft give a 
 great fan&ion to the antient manner of edu- 
 cation * 
 
 But whether upon the whole it may be of 
 advantage, or not, that young gentlemen 
 fhould be educated in great cities, or in places 
 retired and confecrated to the mufes alone, 
 is not neceffary to be determined to prove 
 what I cannot help being perfuaded of, that 
 the univerfity of Paris has had a mighty in- 
 * Montefquieu. 
 
 g 3 
 
 fiuence 
 
86 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 fluence in correding and improving the tafle 
 of the French metropolis, and in diffufing a 
 fort of critical accuracy among its inhabi- 
 tants ; while at the fame time the members of 
 the univerfity, by living in fo great a city, 
 and converfmg with people of adive life, 
 have many opportunities of improving in 
 politenefs and a knowledge of the fine arts, 
 which can be met with no where but in the 
 capital of a kingdom. 
 
 The univerfity of Paris is a great body, 
 and endued with very ample privileges : 
 it confifis of about ten colleges, which enjoy 
 the full rights of the univerfity, and I be- 
 lieve, about thirty others, whofe rights and 
 privileges are not fo great. It can hardly 
 be fuppofed that fuch foundations, confe- 
 crated to the arts and fciences, will have 
 no influence in communicating a tafle for 
 the mufes to a city, whofe inhabitants muft 
 have fo much intercourfe with learned mem 
 Let us fuppofe the colleges which are now 
 placed at Oxford or Cambridge to have beei} 
 ereded in different parts of London, can it 
 
 be 
 
Of TASTE. 87 
 
 be Imagined that this would not have had a 
 great influence in communicating knowledge 
 and tafte to the whole city, or that the con- 
 verfation of fo many men of learning and ge- 
 nius would not have had a good effeCf ? 
 
 But belides the univerfity, there are feve- 
 ral focieties eflablifhed in Paris exprefly for 
 the improvement of tafte. The French aca- 
 demy for the improvement of eloquence and 
 poetry : The royal academy of InfcriptionS 
 and Belles Lettres, eftablifhed in 1663, for 
 cultivating the Belles Lettres, explaining 
 antient monuments, and tranfmitting to 
 pofterity the remarkable events of the Mo- 
 narchy by medals, &c. The royal academy 
 of Painting * and Sculpture, under the go- 
 vernment of a dire&or, who is appointed by 
 
 the 
 
 * It is with the greatefl pleafure we obferve the good 
 effects of the Society for the encouragement of arts? 
 manufactures and commerce. A fociety which, without 
 neglecting what tends more immediately to the improve- 
 ment of agriculture, and the necefiary arts of life, gives 
 the moft honourable encouragement to thofe that are 
 G 4 elegant 
 
88 LETTER V. 
 
 the king, a chancellor, four re&ors, one of 
 whom attends every quarter, and twelve 
 profehbrs, who attend each of them a month 
 by. turns, direCt the ftudies of the pupils, 
 propofe models to them, and correct their 
 defigns. 
 
 There is alfo a royal academy for the 
 improvement of architecture, in which in- 
 
 ftruCtions 
 
 elegant and ornamental. Had fuch a fociety been in- 
 Jtjituted thirty years ago, London would, by this time, 
 have been the grand feat of arts, as it is the envied feat 
 of freedom. From the exhibitions that have already 
 been made, we may conceive what twenty years gra- 
 dual improvement will produce. Some of the drawings— 
 prints— landscapes — and^ven Hiftory -pieces, expofed 
 to public yiew, difcovered both genius and execution. 
 The premiums muff excite emulation, which is all 
 that Englifhmen want to enable them to fhine in any 
 art. The experience of a few years will demonftrate, 
 that genius is not wanting, that liberty is favourable to 
 Tafte, and that it was owing to fome accidental cir- 
 frumftances that the Englifh have not excelled as much 
 jn the fine arts, as in profound fcience. What may we not 
 ^xped under the aufpicious reign ofa Prince, who h^s 
 
 him- 
 
Of TASTE. 8 9 
 
 lirudions are given gratis, and prizes annual- 
 ly diftributed to incite the emulation of the 
 ftudents. 
 
 Among the different circumftances which 
 diftmguifh London and Paris, none is more 
 remarkable than this, that the latter is well 
 fupplied with great public libraries, with large 
 collections of pictures, jftatues, prints, and 
 every curiofity of nature or art *, open to the 
 
 infpeCtion 
 
 himfelf a diftinguifhed tafte for the fine arts, and has af~ 
 tended the throne at a time when the genius of his fub- 
 jeCts is turned that way, and only Hands in need of royal 
 and generous protedlion to convince the world, that in a 
 free country every art may be brought to perfe£Uon. 
 *Tis with the greateft pleafure we perceive that it de« 
 pends upon ourfelves to make every thing here as fa- 
 vourable to the fine arts as in Paris, and then the ef- 
 fects of liberty will appear confpicuous. When this letter 
 was wrote, though the Society for Arts wasfet on foot, 
 it was not much known, and no proofs of its happy 
 influence had been given, which is now with the ut- 
 fnoft joy feen and acknowledged. 
 
 * Every circumftance now becomes favourable, and 
 every thing that was wanting to make London as po* 
 Sifhed and elegant as it is rich and great, will gradually 
 
 be 
 
LETTER V. 
 
 90 
 
 inflection of every one ; and which, by 
 being fo common and of fuch eafy accefs , cam 
 not fail of fometimes giving young people an 
 opportunity of difcovering that they have a 
 genius, which in other countries, where the 
 generality of the world feldom have an op- 
 portunity of viewing the noble productions 
 of art, thofe who are endued with equal ca- 
 pacities never have it in their power to dif- 
 cover or perhaps even to feel , You may 
 eafily conceive that there are many in this 
 great city of London, who, if they had an 
 opportunity of viewing collections of the 
 works of the great matters, would fed that 
 nature had given them talents to relifh the 
 fine arts, and perhaps to become celebrated 
 artitts themfelves, who at prefent, having no 
 
 be fupplied. The Britifh Mufeum exceeds any thing 
 of the kind in Paris, and is worthy fo large and opu- 
 lent a city as London. Magnificent at prefent, it mu ft 
 be ftill encreaftng by the donations of the curious and 
 learned. Its plan is extenfive, its regulations good. 
 The ftudious may read, and philofophers examine the 
 productions of nature : there is fomething to fuit every 
 pne, and all have as eafy accefs to this public collection, 
 as is confiftent with order and propriety. 
 
 fuch 
 
Of TASTE, 9 i 
 
 fucli opportunity? pafs obfcurely through life, 
 without bringing to light thofe talents with 
 which they were endued, and which, if pro- 
 perly cultivated, might have been an orna- 
 ment to the world. 
 
 Any one who has been at Paris may re- 
 member what fine collections of pictures are 
 open to the public infpeCtion, and what 
 numbers of young people he muft often have 
 met with at the Luxembourg paiace, viewing 
 its famous gallery, as well as the noble col- 
 lections of the works of great mafters, which 
 are to be feen in its other apartments. The 
 Duke of Orleans's colled ion at the Palais- 
 Royal, one of the befi: on this fide the Alps, 
 is not fullenly fhut up from public view, or 
 open only to thofe who give high bribes to 
 his fervants but at particular hours any one, 
 who has a tafie for enjoying the beauties of 
 the painter's art, may have an opportunity 
 of viewing capital pieces of the moil famous 
 hands of the different fchools, and of fuch 
 as are of the moft oppofite ftyles. And for 
 |hpfe who have a curiofity to form an idea of 
 
 pictures? 
 
9 2 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 pi&ures, ftatues, edifices, gardens, and of 
 whatever elfe the ingenious art of engraving 
 can give us a notion, there is a public col- 
 lection of prints and drawings, fo ample as 
 can hardly fail to gratify the wifhes of the 
 moft curious and inquifttive. Befides thefe 
 public collections, the private houfes of a great 
 many noblemen contain fomething worth 
 feeing, and any one can have eafy accefs to 
 mofi of them. 
 
 Of what advantage this muft be, you will 
 readily conceive, and how much it muft 
 tend not only to give true geniufes an oppor- 
 tunity of difcovering their talents, but to 
 improve the tafte of thofe who have no ex- 
 traordinary capacity : by being accuftomed 
 frequently to look at what is excellent, one 
 becomes in fome degree a judge, and is apt 
 to be difgufted at the fight of what is unnatural 
 and bad; as by often hearing good mufic, even 
 thofe, who have no remarkable tafte that way, 
 acquire a delicacy of ear, which is fhocked 
 with what is difcordant and unharmonious. 
 
 Be- 
 
/ 
 
 Of T A S T E. 93 
 
 Besides, one can feldom fail to meet at 
 thofe places with fome people ; who, being 
 themfelves fenfibly flruck with beauties or 
 faults, are prompted by their ftrong natural 
 feelings to make pertinent obfervations, and 
 thus help to form the judgments of others to a 
 right talle, and are themfelves improved by the 
 converfation and remarks of thofe around 
 them. 
 
 Nothing furprizes foreigners who come to 
 London more than the fcarcity of fuch public 
 collections in fo great a city, and the difficulty 
 and expence of procuring a fight of what is in 
 the private houfes of the great ! What vail 
 fums are expended in buying pictures and 11a- 
 tues, and how are they afterwards buried and 
 made ufelefs for the improvement of talle ! Per- 
 haps were thefe more expofed to public view, 
 it might help in fome meafure to correCt the 
 talle, and prevent the great and opulent of 
 this nation from being fo often impofed upon* 
 in thefe articles. 
 
 6 
 
 A 
 
LETTER t. 
 
 94 
 
 A nobleman of the higheft rank hath in- 
 deed lately fet a generous example, by open- 
 ing a room containing a colle&ion of models 
 of the antique flatues, and by permitting any 
 one to enjoy the pleafure of viewing models 
 of thefe precious remains of antient art, and 
 aftids to copy from them : it were to be w idl- 
 ed that this example was followed ; the lovers 
 of the fine arts would then have reafon not 
 only to admire what the Duke of Richmond 
 himfelf has done, but to be grateful to him 
 for leading the way, and giving a truly noble 
 example to others of treating the arts and ar- 
 fifls in a generous manner. 
 
 Such indulgence would foon make Britain 
 not only the feat of profound philofophy and 
 "folid knowledge, but of tade and refinement 
 in the elegant arts. In vain, will the climate 
 be obje<ded to this wilhed-for pre-eminence ; 
 London and Antwerp are fituated in the fame 
 degree of north latitude. But where were Ru- 
 bens and Vandyke born? and though, per- 
 haps, it fhould be allowed that the climate is 
 
 not 
 
 1 
 
I 
 
 Of TASTE. 95 
 
 not fo favourable as that of fome other places, 
 the capital of Great Britain has one advan- 
 tage which may well be fuppofed to compen- 
 fate fmaller ones, which attend other cities, 
 particularly the metropolis of the French 
 Monarchy : London is the capital of a free, 
 Paris of anabfolute government. But the con- 
 fideration of the influence this naturally has 
 upon tafte, would open too large a. field to 
 enter upon at the conclufion of a letter. I 
 mufl therefore delay it, till I do myfelf the 
 honour of writing to you again. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 L E T- 
 

 [ $6 3 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 On the Influence of Liberty 
 upon Taste, and of the Age of 
 Augustus. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I N a letter which I lately did myfelf the 
 honour to write to your Lordfhip, I took 
 notice of fome circumftances which diflin- 
 guifh Paris from London, and which, coil- 
 fidered only fo far as they have an influence 
 upon the Belles Lettres and Tafte, feem favour- 
 able to the metropolis of France. I lhall in 
 this, as I promifed, endeavour to fhew what 
 influence the different degrees of freedom en- 
 joyed by the two countries, of which Lon- 
 don and Paris are the capitals, may naturally 
 be imagined to have upon thefe articles. 
 
 I DONT 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 97 
 
 I don’t know how it hath become a pretty 
 common opinion that the firongeff efforts of 
 genius will probably be made by thofe, who 
 enjoy Liberty, and are infpired by its ani- 
 mating influence ; but that juftnefs and refine- 
 ment of Tafle will generally be found to be S 
 more improved among the fubjedts of an ab- 
 folute, than among thofe of a free govern- 
 ment. 
 
 That the firff of thefe proportions 
 is true, I fhall readily own ; the Hifiory of 
 all ages, the noble monuments of all free 
 countries, confirm the truth, that Liberty ap- 
 peal's attended with whatever is great, fpirited, 
 or ingenious : that the fecond is falfe, I am 
 perfuaded, may be proved from Hiftory too, 
 as well as from the nature of the thing ; and 
 the fame monuments bear witnefs that free- 
 dom has alfo in her train, genuine elegance, 
 fevere juflnefs of tafle, natural, fimple, and 
 unaffedled truth. 
 
 Mr. Pope himfelf, who was as remarkable 
 for his judgment as poetical genius, feems in- 
 H ad- 
 
89 LETTER VI. 
 
 advertently to have given countenance to 
 the opinion, that an abfolute government is 
 more favourable to the improvement of 
 Tade, than a free one, in thofe lines of his 
 Efiay on Criticifm, where he touches upon 
 the progreffion of the fine arts when they 
 were banifhed from Italy. 
 
 But foon by impious arms from Latium chas'd 
 Their antient bounds, the banifh’d mufes pafs’d ; 
 Thence arts o’er all the northern world ad- 
 vance. 
 
 But critic learning flour ifh’d mod in France : 
 The rules a nation, born to ferve, obeys. 
 
 And Boileau dill in right of Horace fways* 
 
 Mr. Pope’s authority judly claims the 
 highed refpe£t - } but whatever regard is due 
 to fo great a name, let it never carry us 
 fo far as to believe that thofe who are 
 born to ferve , naturally obey rules in the 
 fine arts and Belles Lettres (for of thefe he 
 is talking) better than thofe who are born 
 free. 
 
 This 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 99 
 
 This opinion that refinement and elegance 
 will probably be more ftudied and improved 
 among the fubjeds of an abfolute, than 
 among thofe of a free government, feems to 
 have taken rife from a partial obfervation of 
 the date of Tafle in the French Monarchy 
 in modern times, and of what happened in 
 Rome, when Odavius made himfelf mader 
 of her liberties and of the world. 
 
 But, notwithdanding that polite figure 
 which the ages of Augudus and Lewis XIY. 
 will for ever make in the annals of the world, 
 I am perfuaded it may be laid down as a cer- 
 tain maxim, that in every country, not only 
 genius, but Tade alfo, will be found to be 
 in proportion to freedom, unlefs the influence 
 of this general law be counteraded by 
 inferior circumdances and accidents, as any 
 general law, either in the phyfical or moral 
 world, may be obferved to be in many parti- 
 cular indances. 
 
 To deny the truth of this aflfertion, one 
 itmft forget in what countries the bed mo- 
 ld 2 dels 
 
100 L E T T E R VI. 
 
 dels of natural and elegant compofitlons 
 of all kinds were produced ; at what time ge- 
 nuine Tafte began to be cultivated in thofe 
 countries, when it was carried to its utmoft 
 perfection, and when it began to decline and 
 give way to what was unnatural and falfe. 
 
 When did the inhabitants of any, even 
 the moft civilized abfolute monarchy that 
 ever exifted under heaven, difcover fo re- 
 fined, fo elegant, fo correct a Tafte, as the 
 citizens of the free ftates of Greece did ? 
 Did ever any one who was born the fubject 
 of an abfolute prince more ftrictly obey and 
 feverely follow thofe rules which good fenfe 
 and nature pointed out to be juft, than they 
 did, who in thofe ftates were born free f It 
 cannot be faid with any juft ice that they did : 
 nor did ever any one appear, who was born 
 after the Roman emperors had eftablifhed 
 their power upon the ruins of Liberty, that 
 could dilpute for the prize of elegant and 
 juft compofnion with thofe who were born 
 and educated in better days. 
 
 As 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. iqi 
 
 As the age of Auguflus is prior in time to 
 that of Lewis XIV. I fhail firft endeavour to 
 obviate the argument againff the friendly in- 
 fluence, that Liberty undoubtedly has upon 
 Tafle, which may be brought from the ele- 
 gance and exquifite beauty of the works of 
 the Auguflan age ; and to fhew that we are 
 indebted, for the noble compofitions of that 
 age, not to the influence of Auguflus’s Su- 
 preme Power, but to the influence of that 
 Liberty, which, unfortunately for the world 
 and true Tafle, he overthrew, and which had 
 already made Rome the feat of genius and re- 
 finement, before fortune had raifed Oddavius 
 to imperial fway, or he had aflumed to him- 
 felf thofe powers, which formerly were di- 
 vided among the different ranks of the Ro- 
 man people. 
 
 Liberty indeed cannot alone, or all at 
 once, refine the genius or Tafle of mankind : 
 other circumftances muff concur, but Liber- 
 ty is flill the animating caufe, and a total de- 
 privation of it would foon be found to ex- 
 tinguifh every fpark both of genius and Tafle. 
 
 H 3 A 
 
*102 LETTER VI. 
 
 A people may be free, and yet rough and un- 
 poliihed in their Tade as wed as manners; 
 but a nation of Jlaves muji either difcover no 
 Tade at all, or a vitiated and falfe one. The 
 Romans long retained a certain roughnefs of 
 manner, and defpifed elegance and refinement. 
 Their fird attempts in compofition, like thofe 
 of every other nation, that begins to extend 
 its dominion and confequence in the world, 
 and to form its government and laws, were 
 rude and barbarous, and their fird produc- 
 tions in the fine arts rough and unpolifhed. 
 But when their conditution was fully eda- 
 blilhed, when their Tade in eloquence began 
 to be refined, when Carthage and the world 
 bowed before the Roman Eagle, when the 
 governors of conquered provinces brought 
 immenfe wealth to Rome, and raifed fami- 
 lies whofe great opulence enabled them to 
 cultivate and encourage every thing that was 
 elegant and fine, and when the mufes had for- 
 faken Greece, no longer now the feat of Li- 
 berty ; then did the Romans, under the di- 
 rection of the learned who came from that 
 country, begin to dudy the elegancies of 
 
 Tade ? 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 103 
 
 Tafte, to love the arts, and to polifh the 
 roughnefs of their ffyle and manner. 
 
 It will in vain be obje&ed againff the happy 
 influence of Liberty, that the Romans, or any 
 other free people, were for a long time rough 
 and unpolilhed. A multiplicity of caufes may 
 retard improvements in elegance and the line 
 arts. The Lacedemonians were free as well as 1 
 the Athenians ; but as among the firft every 
 refinement was difcouraged, and among the 
 latter every thing ingenious and polite was held 
 in the highefi efteem, their characters for learn- 
 ing and politenefs are extremely different. The 
 rufficity of the antient Romans proves nothing. 
 But if we conflder how fliort a period inter- 
 vened from their beginning to ftudy the arts, 
 till they loff their freedom ; and reflect that the 
 defpotifm of their emperors put a fudden and 
 unnatural flop to further improvement, it will 
 afford a convincing proof, that liberty is fa- 
 vourable and arbitrary power unfavourable to 
 the liberal arts. That this was the cafe will 
 appear evident from the beft authorities. 
 
 H 4 There 
 
io4 LETTER VI. 
 
 There is a remarkable paiTage in Tully 
 (De Claris oratoribus) in which {peaking of 
 M. Cato, after having highly commended 
 his great and various talents as an orator, 
 he owns that his ilyle was antiquated, and that 
 he made ufe of fome barbarous words, for fo, 
 fays he, they then fpake and confeffing 
 that he was not fufficiently polifhed, he adds, 
 as a reafon or excufe for it, that with refpedt 
 to the age in which they lived, Cato was fo 
 old that there remained no writing of any 
 one who was more antient, that was worth 
 reading Yet M. Cato, as we are exprefs- 
 ly told in the fame Dialogue, died only 
 eighty three years before Cicero was con- 
 ful +. 
 
 * Antiquior ell ejus ferroo, et qusedam horridiora 
 verba, ita enim turn loquebantur. 
 
 f Nec vero ignore, nondum efle fatis politum hunc 
 oratorern . . . . quippecumita fit, ad noftrorum tempo- 
 rum rationem vetus ut nullius feriptum extet dignurn 
 quidem le<Stione, quod fit antiquius. 
 
 % Qui mortuus eft annis LXXXIII. ipfis ante me 
 confulem. 
 
 Thus 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 105 
 
 Thus It appears evident from the opinion 
 of the belt judges, the moft eloquent of the 
 Romans themfelves, that the Roman ftyle 
 and manner remained long rough and unpo- 
 lifhed. A&ive and warlike, living perpetu- 
 ally amidft the din of arms, or interefted and 
 bulled in forming their government and fix- 
 ing their laws, they had no time to apply to 
 what was elegant and refined ; “ nec enim 
 cc in conftituentibus rempublicam, nec in 
 cc bella gerentibus nafci cupiditas dicendi fo- 
 “ let ’Twas after their republic had ac- 
 quired its juft form, and the enemies, which 
 furrounded them on every hand, were fub- 
 dued, and no longer in a condition to keep 
 them in a perpetual alarm, and after the 
 haughtieft of their rivals were humbled, 
 that the Romans, now bleft with fome fhare 
 of quiet and fecurity, began to ftudy what 
 was refined, and not only to be careful to fay 
 what v/as true and juft, but to fpeak and 
 write in an elegant manner. 
 
 * Cic. de Clar. Orat, 
 
106 LETTER VI. 
 
 Before this time, indeed, while they were 
 bulled in forming their conftitution, and re* 
 ducing each flat e in Italy, one after another, 
 to a dependency; upon that of Rome, we 
 muft fuppofe that a certain fort of ora- 
 tory, fuch as their language, yet unpolifh- 
 ed, could afford, and capable of affe&ing a 
 rough and brave people, flourifhed among 
 them. We know that this was a&ually the 
 Cafe, and that many of the citizens acquir- 
 ed great authority by fpeaking ^ but it was 
 not by an eloquence that would have charm- 
 ed them in their politer days, but by a 
 plain fort of rhetoric, like that of L. Caf- 
 lius, who had great influence, not by 
 his eloquence, but yet by what he faid, 
 6C Multum potuit, non eloquentia, fed di- 
 cendo tamen,” as Tully obferves for the 
 people knew he was a man of fevere virtue, 
 and on this account he had great credit 
 with themf. ’Twas the chara&er of the 
 man, and what he faid, not the manner 
 
 f Cic. de Clar. Orat; f Severitate popularis. Ibid, 
 
 in 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 10J 
 
 In which he faid it, that had an influence 
 upon the martial and honed: fpirits of the 
 Romans in thofe days of incorrupted inte- 
 grity. 
 
 But though we find that it was late before 
 the Romans began to fludy the elegancies of 
 dyle and compofition, when they adlually 
 applied the force of their genius to ac« 
 quire thefe accomplifhments, the high Ro- 
 man fpirit, nurfed by freedom, and made 
 manly and bold by that independence, and 
 fhare of confequence in the date, which 
 every citizen of Rome pofTeffed, enabled 
 them to make as rapid a progrefs in oratory 
 and the fine arts, as they had formerly done 
 in conquering the world. In the fame dia- 
 logue, in which the great mader of Roman 
 eloquence informs us, that no writings of any 
 one before the age of the elder Cato were 
 worth reading, he gives it as his opinion that 
 the Latin tongue had arrived to full maturity, 
 and Roman eloquence attained its almod ut- 
 mod perfection, in the perfon of L. Cradus, 
 i^vho, in an oration much admired by all good 
 
 judges. 
 
*io8 LETTER VI. 
 
 judges, which he made in the 34th year of 
 his age, the very year that Tully was born, 
 gave eminent proofs of his confummate abi- 
 lities, as an accomplifhed orator *. 
 
 Thus we fee that for about a century be- 
 fore the birth of Cicero, while Rome was 
 yet free, eloquence was continually making 
 rapid progrefs to perfe&ion, ’till at laft con- 
 fummated in the perfon of {his great man, 
 the fame tyrannic ftroke, that fevered Tul- 
 ly ? s head from his body, gave a fatal and fi- 
 nifhing blow to the Roman liberty and elo- 
 quence; and, as Seneca fays of Cato and 
 freedom, eloquence and liberty, which it 
 was impoffible to feparate from each other, 
 perilbed and were extinguished together, 
 <e fimulque extin&a funt, quse nefas erat di- 
 “ vidi; ?? for from that moment, oratory had 
 
 * Hasc Crafll cum edita oratio eft, quam te faepe 
 legifTe certofcio, quatuor & triginta turn habebat annos, 
 totidemque anriis mihi aetate praeftabat. His enim coff. 
 earn legem fuafit, quibus nati fumus : quod idcirco 
 pofui, ut, dicendi latine prima maturitas in qua astate 
 extitiffet, pofTet notari, et ut inteliigeretur jam ad Turn- 
 mum pcene jeffe perdu<ftam 0 
 
 fallen 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 109 
 
 fallen from its perfection, and gradually be- 
 came more and more falfe, unnatural, and 
 widely different from the chafte model of the 
 true and genuine eloquence of the days of 
 freedom. 
 
 That the Roman eloquence muff have had 
 a mighty influence in improving a good 
 Tafte in every thing elfe can hardly be que- 
 ftioned. The ffudy of this art has by the bell 
 judges been allowed to be naturally conne&ed 
 with whatever is graceful and elegant, or can 
 tend to improve or embellifh the powers of 
 the human mind. In every country where 
 eloquence is a neceffary accomplishment for 
 thofe who expe<ft to make a figure in the 
 ftate, or to be eminent among their fellow 
 citizens, it may reafonably be fuppofed, that 
 as the tafle in oratory improves, the general 
 Tafte of the nation muff at the fame time 
 be corrected, and its genius prepared for pro- 
 ducing noble and juft works of every kind, 
 whenever the attention of the people Shall be 
 turned to the ftudy of the fine arts. 
 
 But, 
 
ii6 LETTER VI. 
 
 But, befides the natural tendency of that 
 perfe&ion in oratory to which the Romans 
 had attained in the days of freedom, there 
 were feveral other circumftances that con- 
 tributed to refine the Taffe of Rome, and to 
 form thofe immortal writers who flourifhed 
 in the laff age of the republic. 
 
 The conqueff of Greece difcovered to the' 
 Romans, fcenes very different from any 
 they had yet feen in the various countries 
 they had formerly fubd'ued. By creating 
 an intercourfe, and making them acquaint- 
 ed with the mod: ingenious and elegant 
 people that ever exifted upon earth, it 
 muff have had a mighty influence to form 
 their genius, and to give them a tafte for 
 what was polite and refined. That this was 
 a&ually the cafe you will find to have been 
 the opinion of the beft judges among the Ro- 
 mans themfelves, and you will meet with 
 various proofs of it in almoff all their claflie 
 writers. “ Multas (artes) ad animorum cor- 
 “ porumque cultum nobis eruditiflima omni- 
 6e um gens invexit,” to ufe the words of the 
 
 5 § reat 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. hi 
 
 great Roman Hiftorian *. ’Twas the Greeks 
 who taught the Romans aim oft every genteel 
 and graceful exercife, and every liberal and 
 elegant accomplishment. 
 
 Before the time of the firft Macedonian 
 war, the Romans had little intercourfe with 
 the Greeks. Their ambalTadors had indeed, 
 about twenty years before that period, ap- 
 peared for the firfl: time in the principal cities 
 of Greece, and they had entered into a league 
 againft Philip, as auxiliaries to the dEtolians 
 in a war which was carried on againft that 
 king during more than ten years immediately 
 preceding the firli Macedonian war. 
 
 But from the time that this latter war was 
 concluded, that is, from about ninety years 
 before the birth of Cicero, and about four 
 after the end of the fecond punic war, the 
 Romans had more and more intercourfe with 
 the Greeks, travelled into their country 3 and 
 ftudied Arts and Sciences under Grecian 
 mailers. The confequences of this war gave 
 * Liv. Lib. 39, f Liv. Lib. 26. cap. 24. 
 
 occalion 
 
1 1 2 LETTER VI. 
 
 occafion to feveral embaffies to Rome from 
 Macedon, and from feveral of the Hates and 
 cities of Greece 5 and the behaviour of the 
 Roman general, after he had conquered Phi- 
 lip, Teems to have been the moH proper 
 imaginable to conciliate the minds of the 
 Greeks to make them conceive a favour- 
 able opinion of the Romans, and wifh to 
 cultivate a friendly correfpondence with them. 
 He infilled with the fenate, and at laH obtain- 
 ed his requeH, that freedom fhould be reflor- 
 ed to all the cities of Greece, and at the Iflh- 
 mian games, when vafl multitudes were ga- 
 thered together from all parts, and with the 
 moft anxious expedition waited to hear what 
 was to become of Greece, and what their 
 fortune was to be, the Roman general, in his 
 own name, and in that of the Senate, order- 
 ed freedom, and a liberty of living accord- 
 ing to their own laws and inHitutions to be 
 proclaimed to all the Hates of Greece that 
 had been fubjedled to the dominion of the 
 kings of Macedon : “ liberos, immunes, 
 
 fuis legibus effe jubet Corinthios/' &c. But 
 your Lordlhip will read the whole paHage 
 
 with 
 
On the Influence ofLiBERTY, &c. 113 
 
 with a great deal of pleafure, as it is moil 
 charmingly related by Livy in his thirty third 
 Book : You will there fee, with what rapture 
 the Greeks heard the dear names of liberty 
 and freedom proclaimed, with what grateful 
 embraces they had almoft ftifled the Roman 
 Conful, what eulogiums they beftowed upon 
 the Romans ; and from thence be eafily led to 
 conceive what a favourable opportunity this 
 muft have been for beginning a mutual in- 
 tercourfe and correfpondence. 
 
 The inhabitants of Italy, who went to 
 Greece upon this expedition, muft have ac- 
 quired fome knowledge of the Greek lan- 
 guage as well as of the Grecian manners and 
 cuftoms ; and a great number of Roman 
 captives, who had been taken during the war 
 with Hannibal and fold as flaves, and who 
 had now lived feveral years in different parts 
 of Greece *, being reftored to liberty, and 
 returning to Rome with Flaminius, we may 
 imagine would diffufe among their country - 
 
 * Liv. lib. 34. cap. 50. 
 
 I 
 
 men 
 
ii4 Letter vl, 
 
 men a knowledge of the Greek language, and 
 a tafte for the refinements of Greece hitherto 
 unknown in Italy ; befides, a great many cap- 
 tives and hofiages of high rank adorned his 
 triumph *, and during their refidence at Rome 
 could not fail to have much influence in in- 
 fpiring the Romans with a relilh for the po- 
 litenefs of their country. 
 
 Not long after this, when the unhappy 
 Perfeus was defeated by Paulus iEmilius, the 
 inhabitants of Rome had flill greater oppor- 
 tunities of improving by converfation with 
 Greeks ; for when fEmilius returned in 
 triumph, a great many ingenious men came 
 with him to Rome. Thefe, in all probability, 
 were the befl men of Greece, who being re- 
 prefented by vile informers and betrayers of 
 their country as enemies to the Roman in-* 
 terefl, were called upon to appear at Rome } 
 and anfwer for their conduct T. Paufanias, 
 
 * Ante currum multi nobilescaptivi obfidefque, inter 
 qtios Demetrius regis Philippi filius fuit, & Armenes, 
 Nabidis tyranni filius, Lacedaemonius. Liv, lib. 37. 
 
 t Liv. lib, 45. cap. 31. 
 
 m 
 
On the Influence ofLiBERTY, &c. lig 
 
 in his account of Achaia, makes their num- 
 ber to have been more than a thoufand 5 and 
 among thefe were the famous Hitlerian Poly- 
 bius and his father Lycortas, praetor of the 
 Achaeans, a fon and father worthy of each 
 other, and of the friendfhip of Philopaemen. 
 Such men, we* may naturally fuppofe, mult 
 have had a great influence to infpire the Ro- 
 mans with a love of Greek letters, and to 
 improve their tafle; and we know that this 
 was the cafe 3 for to the inftrudfions of a 
 Polybius did the Romans owe one of the 
 greatefl: and moil accomplifhed men their 
 country ever produced 
 
 The Romans themfelves too muff have re- 
 turned to Rome, after the defeat of Per feus, 
 with a high admiration of Greece, and great- 
 
 * Omnibus belli et togae dotibus 3 ingeniique et Au- 
 diorum eminentiffimus fui fasculi. 
 
 Scipio tarn elegans liberalium Audiorum omnifque 
 dodlrinae et au£tor et admirator fuit, ut Polybium, Panse- 
 iiumque, prascellentes ingenio viros domi militiaeque 
 fecum bahuerit. Veil. Paterc. Lib. 1. 
 
 I 2 ly 
 
ii 6 LETTER VI. 
 
 ly improved in their tafte by a view of the 
 elegant productions of that country. Huni- 
 lius, accompanied with his fon Scipio, then 
 a youth in his feventeenth year, had found 
 leifure after his victorious campaign to make 
 a tour through Greece *, and to take a view 
 of the beautiful monuments of antient art 
 with which it abounded. In this tour, as 
 Plutarch informs us, 44 He eafed the people's 
 44 grievances, reformed their government , 
 44 and bellowed gifts upon them $” which 
 could not fail to make him and his attendants 
 as agreeable to the Greeks, as a view of the ex- 
 quifite beauties of their country feems to have 
 been to him. Both Plutarch and Livy take 
 notice of the rapture with which jEmilius 
 himfelf beheld the fine works of the Gre- 
 cian artifts : the former tells us, that when 
 in Olympia he viewed the ftatue of Jove, 
 he uttered thefe celebrated words, 64 This 
 44 Jupiter of Phidias is the very Jupiter of 
 44 Homer," and Livy, in his manner, thus 
 
 ftrongly exprdfes it 44 Jovem velut prae- 
 
 « c . fentem intuens, motus animo eft," both 
 * Liv. lib. 45. cap. 27. 
 
 which 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. i i 7 
 
 which accounts may convince us with what 
 extreme feniibility iEmilius perceived the 
 beauties of the imitative arts, and with what 
 au improved tafte and relifh for them, he and 
 his attendants muft have returned to Rome. 
 For though the behaviour of iEmilius him- 
 felf only is mentioned, we may eafily imagine 
 that many of his train were druck with the 
 fame beauties, and carried with them to 
 Rome, and propagated among their fellow- 
 citizens, a high opinion of the noble and 
 elegant genius of the Greeks. AEmilius in- 
 deed, as Livy fays, made this tour with no 
 great croud of attendants *, but we may na- 
 turally fuppofe that they were the mod inge^ 
 nious and learned of his army, and the mod 
 capable of making ufeful obfervatjons for the 
 improvement of their own country. 
 
 About ten years after the triumph ofiEmi-r 
 lius, the Athenians fent Carneades and fome 
 other philofophers ambadadors to Rome, 
 Upon their arriyal the mod: dudious and 
 
 * Profe&us cum haud magno comitatu. Lib. 45. 
 
 I 3 inge- 
 
iiB LETTER Y. 
 
 Ingenious of the Roman youth waited 
 upon them, heard them with inexpreffible 
 pleafure, and were charmed with the elo- 
 quence of Carneades in particular *, We may 
 from this infer, that the Greek language was 
 pretty commonly underflood among the mofl 
 Ingenious of the Romans even at that time, 
 elfe how could they be fo charmed with the 
 Orations of Carneades who fpoke in Greek ? 
 But from this period the genius of the Ro- 
 mans feems to have been fo much turned to 
 the fludy of the Greek language, philofophy, 
 and eloquence, that they were confidered as 
 eiiential parts of a liberal education among 
 them, and alnaoft every man of fafhion at Rome 
 could fpeak and write in Greek. This tafle 
 feems to have made fuch rapid progrefs, that 
 even the rigid Cato, who had alarmed the 
 Roman Senate about the dangerous influence 
 of Carneades, and the bad effe6ls which might 
 arife from the fludy of the Greek language 
 and philofophy f, could not himfelf refill 
 the charm, but in his old age applied to the 
 
 * Pint, in Cat. 
 
 j Piut. in Vita Cat. 
 
 fiudy 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. i 19 
 
 ftudy that tongue From this time it became 
 more and more uncommon to meet with any 
 one in Rome, but of the loweif rank, who 
 was not pretty well acquainted with Greek. 
 
 During the Mithridatic war, a great 
 number of the principal and moil polite of 
 the Athenians came to Rome, driven from 
 home by the miferies of their own country. 
 Converfation with fuch people muil have af- 
 forded the Romans the beil opportunities of 
 improvement. This we find was actually the 
 cafe : Tully wholly applied himfelf to cul- 
 tivate his taile and manner under fuch 
 mailers fy and as Cicero himfelf certainly 
 
 owed 
 
 * Cic. Acad. Quaeft. Lib. 2. 
 f Eodem tempore cum princeps academiae Philo cum 
 Athenienfium optimatibus, Mithridatico bello, domo 
 profugifTet Romamque veniflet totum me ei tra- 
 didi. 
 
 Commentabar declamitans (fic enim nunc loquunt-yr). 
 faepe cum M. Pifone, et cum Q. Pompeio, aut cum 
 aliquo quotidie; idque faciebam multum etiam Latine, 
 fed Graece faepius; vel quod Graeca oratio plura or- 
 
 I 4 namenta 
 
120 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 owed a great deal to the inftru&ions he got 
 from them, fo we may reafonably conclude 
 that the fine writers of the Ciceronian age 
 were greatly improved by converfation with 
 Greeks, reading Greek authors, and view- 
 ing the exquifite productions of Grecian 
 art. 
 
 As in the laff century of their republic, 
 the Romans became acquainted with the in- 
 genious men of Greece, fo at different times 
 of the fame period the works of the fine wri- 
 ters who had flourifhed in that country in its 
 free and beft days, and the elegant and inimi- 
 table productions of Grecian art were brought 
 to Rome, and became models for the Romans 
 to ftudy and improve by. 
 
 Before the famous fiege of Syracufe, 
 which happened during the time of the fecond 
 punic war, “ Rome had never feen or known 
 
 namenta fuppeditans, confuetudinem fimiliter Latine 
 dicendi afferebat, vel quod a Grascis fummis do&oribus, 
 nifi Graece dicerem, neque corrigi polfem neque doceri. 
 
 Cic. de Clar. Orat. 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 121 
 
 “ any fuperfluous curiofities, nor were any 
 “ rarities or exquifite pieces of art that fhew- 
 v ed an elegant and polite tafle to be found 
 <c there ,’ r but after this city was taken, 
 Marcellus, by carrying to Rome the fine 
 ftatues and paintings with which Syracufe 
 abounded, “ firfi taught the Romans to ad- 
 mire and value the Grecian arts, and gave 
 “ them a tafle and relifh for thofe exquifite 
 “ performances which never had been under- 
 “ flood before 
 
 When Flaminius triumphed over Philip, 
 he brought to Rome feveral elegant pieces of 
 fculpture in marble and brafs, and a great 
 many vafes carved with exquifite art. Mofl 
 of thefe he had taken from the king, and 
 lome of them from the ftates and cities through 
 which he pafied, but all of them, ’tis proba- 
 ble, were the workmanfhip of Greek ar- 
 iifis f. 
 
 * Plut. in Vit. Marcel. 
 
 f Signa aerea et marmorea tranftulit, plura Philippo 
 adempta, quam quae ex civitatibus coeperat. 
 
 *■ — Vafa multa omnis generic, caelata pleraque, 
 
 quaedam eximiae artis. Liv. Lib. 34. 
 
 What 
 
122 LETTER VI. 
 
 What an immenfe collection of pictures 
 and datues adorned the famous triumph of 
 P. PEmilius, is well known : they were drawn 
 upon feven hundred and fifty carriages, and 
 a whole day was hardly fufficient to give the 
 Romans time to behold this iplendid fhow. 
 At the fame time, a vad number of vetiels, 
 valuable as well for their largenefs as the 
 beauty and flrong relievo of their engraved 
 work, were brought to Rome and the firfb 
 library in that city confided of books, which 
 JJmilius permitted his fon to take from Per- 
 feus 'f*. Many of the inhabitants of Rome 
 mud have had an opportunity of improving 
 by reading thefe books. The fird intimacy 
 between Scipio and Polybius, as this Hidorian 
 himfelf informs us, took its rife from a mu- 
 tual intercourfe, occadoned by his borrow- 
 ing fome of them from Scipio, who politely 
 lent them to him, and took great pleafure in 
 converting with fo fentible a man concerning 
 the fubjecls of which they treated. 
 
 * Plut. in Vit. ^Emil, 
 
 if Id, et ibid. 
 
 About 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 123 
 
 About twenty years after this, when the 
 Conful Mummius took Corinth, with what 
 an additional number of noble pieces of Gre- 
 cian art Rome was adorned from the fpoils 
 of that elegant city, every one knows $ and 
 the famous rufticity and want of tafte of 
 Mummius, who, when he was about to 
 tranfport the pictures and ftatues of the great- 
 eft mafters to Italy, told thofe who were to 
 carry them, that if any of them were loft* 
 they fliould find new ones in their place, will 
 for ever be remembered, and perhaps afford 
 a fufpicion, that at that time there were ftill 
 fome remains of rufticity among the Ro- 
 mans, elfe how can we fuppofe that any man 
 of fo high a rank could be fo extremely ig- 
 norant and unpolifhed ?* 
 
 What I have hitherto mentioned, happen- 
 ed before the birth of Cicero. I fhall only 
 
 * Mummius tarn rudis fuit, ut, capta Corintho, cum 
 maximorum artificum perfeffos manibus tabulas, ac fta- 
 tuas in Italiam portandas locaret, juberet prsdici con- 
 ^ucentibus, fi $as perdidiiTent, novas eos reddituros . 
 
 Veil. Paterc. 
 
 take 
 
124 LETTER VL 
 
 take notice of one addition to the literary 
 treafure of Italy, which was made about 
 twenty years after Tully was born, the Li- 
 brary of Appellicon, that Sylla brought 
 from Athens, and which contained a fine cob 
 legion of books, particularly the original 
 works of Aridotle and Theophradus*, au- 
 thors the fitted of any to promote a genuine 
 and elegant tafie, the greated and bed critics, 
 and among the bed writers which Greece had 
 produced. The works of Aridotle have ever 
 been, and will continue to be, the great dam 
 dard of jud criticifm in compofitions of every 
 kindf. 
 
 Thus 1 have given you a fhort iketch of 
 the growing intercourfe which the Romans 
 had with the inhabitants of Greece, of the 
 
 * Plut. in Vit Syl. 
 
 t Peripatetici autem etiam haec ipfa, quae propria 
 oratorum putas efle adjumenta, atque ornamenta di- 
 cendi ab fe peti vincerent oportere : ac non folum me- 
 liora, fed etiam multaplura Ariftotelem Theophraftum- 
 que de his rebus, quam omnes dicendi magiftros, 
 fcripfiffe. Cic. de Orat. Lib. i. 
 
 pro- 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 125 
 
 progrefs their language made at Rome, and 
 of the importation of the works of Greek 
 writers and ingenious artifis with which Italy 
 was enriched at different times, from the 
 concluflon of the firft Macedonian war,- 
 till fome time after the birth of Cicero. 
 That thefe circumftances mufl have been 
 favourable for promoting a genuine tafle 
 among the Romans, will hardly be denied. 
 
 Horace obferves with a feeming regret, 
 that it was late before his countrymen applied 
 the force of their genius to the ftudy of the 
 fine writings of Greece ; but perhaps they began 
 to attend to, and relifh thofe noble models at 
 a time the moft proper to enable them to ex- 
 cel, or produce works capable of rivaling their 
 charming exemplars. Had they done it fooner, 
 their language, yet unformed, had been in- 
 capable of producing what was excellent, 
 and their manners and genius, too rough and 
 unpolifhed, had been lefs happily prepared 
 for relifhing the beauties of the elegant com- 
 pofitions of Greece, and for cultivating the 
 
 fine 
 
 5 
 
i2$ LETTER VI. 
 
 fine arts. We know ’tis no favorable circuit! - 
 fiance to the improvement of an individual* 
 that one begins too early to ftudy any art 
 or fcience* Incapable of making any pro- 
 grefs at a premature period of life, the mind 
 retains a difguft and unwillingnefs to re- 
 new the attempt at a more proper feafon. 
 What happens among individuals, may 
 happen in a complex fociety or political 
 body. 
 
 The fird application of the induflry of 
 men mud be to procure the necedaries of life 5 
 by agriculture to fupply themfelves with 
 food ; by fimple manufactures to furniih 
 themfelves with cloaths * by furrounding their 
 towns with wails, to defend themfelves from 
 fudden attacks ; and by edablifhing laws, to 
 fecure their property, and the peaceable en- 
 joyment of the fruits of their labour. When 
 fome progrefs is made in thefe articles, and 
 when human ingenuity has found out me- 
 thods of facilitating labour, by which one 
 man can do a great deal more than is necef- 
 6 fary 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, See . 1I7 
 
 fary to fupply Ills own wants, and thus fome 
 of the fociety become exempted from cor- 
 poreal toil, the human mind, dimulated by a 
 love of excelling and being didinguiihedj 
 begins to think of improvements, and to add 
 what is convenient to what is neceffary 5 ’till 
 at lad the views of men being extended, and 
 their genius and tade refined, the elegancies 
 and pleafures of life come to be thought of, 
 the productions of men of fuperior talents 
 are fought after, poems are read with plea- 
 fure, and pictures and datues are beheld with 
 delight. 
 
 Navigia atque agri culturas, maenia, leges, 
 Arma, vias, vedes, & caetera de genere horum, 
 Prxmia, delicias, quoque vitae funditus omnes, 
 Carmina, picturas & daedala figna polire, 
 
 Ufus &; impigrae fimul experientia mentis, 
 Paulatim docuit pedetentim progredientes ; 
 
 Sic unum quicquid paulatim protrahit xtas 
 In medium, ratioque in luminis eruit oras : 
 
 Namque 
 
128 LETTER VI. 
 
 Namquealiud ex alio clarefcere corde videmus 
 Artibus ad fummum donee venere eaeumen *. 
 
 I could not forbear tranferibing thefe lines 
 from a poet of a mod; original and beautiful 
 genius, whofe work, though the main prin- 
 ciples of his favorite fydem are the mod ab- 
 furd imaginable, will be an immortal proof 
 to what perfection poetry was brought among 
 the Romans, by one who died before OCla- 
 vius was born, or Julius Caefar created perpe- 
 tual dictator. 
 
 One indeed mud belittle acquainted with 
 the Hidory of the bed Roman writers, who 
 does not know that the nobled compofitions 
 which Rome ever produced, were the works 
 of thofe who were born in the days of free- 
 dom. I diall name only a few of the mod 
 eminent of them ; writers, who, by the con- 
 curring tedimony of all good judges, have been 
 allowed to be the mod perfect and finifhed in 
 their different ways. 
 
 * Lucret. Lib. 5. 
 
 I 
 
On the Influence ofLiBERTY* &c. 129 
 
 I have already taken notice of Lucretius, 
 the greateft of all didaflive poets. I ought 
 to have mentioned before him, becaufe he 
 was prior in time, Terence, the beautiful 
 iimplicity and elegant correftnefs of whofe 
 compolitions have always been admired. The 
 works of this writer, while thofe of other 
 comic wits fall into oblivion and difrepute 
 with the modes and fafhionable follies 
 of the times for which they were wrote, 
 will ftill be read and admired while men 
 are men* or the great ftrokes of human cha- 
 rafters continue to be the fame. Terence 
 died an hundred and ten years before the 
 battle of Pharfalia, 
 
 Salust the Kiftorian, and Catullus the 
 poet, whofe great merit in their different ways 
 is fo well known, and fo little difputed, that 
 to do any more than name them would be 
 an unneceffary talk, were born much about 
 the fame time, thirty eight years before the 
 battle of Pharfalia, as is commonly thought, 
 and were both dead before the viftory at 
 K Aftiuni 
 
130 LETTER VI. 
 
 Acftium had eftablifhed the empire of Auv 
 guflus. 
 
 Horace was eighteen years of age at the 
 time of the battle of Pharfalia ; he was fent 
 to Rome by his father when he was, young, 
 and had an education equally liberal with thofe 
 who were of a much higher rank ; 
 
 — Puerum eft aufus Romam portare do- 
 cendum 
 
 Artes quas doceat quivis eques, atqiie fenator 
 
 Semet prognatos. 
 
 From the genteel manner in which he was 
 taken care of, as appears from the lines, 
 that immediately follow thofe I have juft 
 now tranfcribed, we may naturally fuppofe 
 he was upon a footing of equality with the 
 moft liberal of the Roman youth, and in 
 fuch lociety had his heart warmed with a love 
 of freedom, and with fuch principles as 
 .afterwards made him appear at the battle of 
 Philippi among the friends of Brutus and of 
 liberty 
 
 * See Shaft Advice to an author. 
 
 Virgin 
 
 * 
 
Oh the Influence of Liberty, &c. i 3 1 
 
 Yirgil was about five years older than 
 Horace, and in all probability educated in the 
 fame principles 5 though, peaceful and gentle 
 in his difpolitions, we do not find that he 
 took up arms againft O&avius. 
 
 Livy, it muft be acknowledged, wrote his 
 Hiftory during the reign of Auguftus, and 
 even furvived that emperor about four years 5 
 but as he died in an advanced age, in his fe- 
 venty fixth year, thd republic may claim the 
 honour of having educated and formed this 
 mafterly Hiftorian, fince he muft have been 
 twenty eight years old, when the victory of 
 A<ftium put an end to the refiftance that was 
 made to O&avius, and fully eftablifhed his 
 fupreme power. Unfortunately, indeed, that 
 part of his Hiftory, which related the noble 
 ftruggles in defence of liberty, during the 
 laft period of the republic, is loft ; but from 
 the teftimony given of it, in the wofks^of 
 another great Hiftorian, we may eafily con- 
 ceive the fpirit it breathed. This elegant 
 
 and candid writer, though he enjoyed a fhare 
 of the friendlhip, which Auguftus had the 
 K 2 prir* 
 
132 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 prudence to fhow to all the great geniufes who 
 flourifhed in his time, yet was true to the caufe 
 of liberty. He was fo far from branding the 
 names of Brutus and Caffius with the odious 
 appellations of robbers and parricides, which 
 were afterwards given them out of flattery 
 to the emperors, that he often mentioned them 
 as iliuftrious men, and bedowed fuch praifes 
 on Pompey, that Auguflus ufed to call him a 
 Pompeian *. 
 
 The birth of Ovid and Tibullus is com- 
 monly fuppofed to have been in that year, 
 when Hirtius and Panfa were confuls ; and 
 Propertius is thought to have been born a few 
 years before. Some people indeed imagine, 
 they have probable reafons to conclude that 
 Tibullus was born twenty years before that 
 
 * Titus Livius elcquentiae et fidei praeclarus in primi?, 
 Cn. Pompeium tantis laudibus tulit, ut Pompeianum 
 eum Auguftus appellaret : ncque id amicitiae eorum 
 ©fFecit. Scipionem, Affranium, hunc ipfum Caflium, 
 hunc Brutum nufquam latrones et Parricidas , quae nunc 
 voeabula imponuntur, faepe ut infignes viros nominat. 
 
 Tacit. Ann. Lib. 4. 
 
 period; 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 133 
 
 period $ if fo, more than half his life was 
 fpent, when Rome was yet free. But even 
 bringing his birth down as low as that of his 
 friend Ovid, this triumvirate of poets and 
 friends, whofe works, written with true ele* 
 gance, will be admired in every polifhed age, 
 were born, while Julius Casfar was ftill alive, 
 and fo far from having any reafon to be real 
 and hearty friends to Augudus, that they had 
 much caufe of refentment againd him. Ti- 
 bullus and Propertius, born and educated 
 among thofe who drenuoufly oppofed the law- 
 lefs attempts of O&avius, mud have imbibed 
 in their mod tender years a love of liberty, 
 and hatred to Augudus. ’Tis probable 
 that the father of Tibullus was killed fighting 
 againd O&avius, and that his edate became 
 a prey to the rapacious foldiers. ’Tis the com- 
 mon opinion that the father of Propertius 
 was one of thofe three hundred Roman citi- 
 zens, whom Augudus, after he had taken 
 Perufia, and they had furrendered to his mercy, 
 inhumanly facrificed at the altar of Julius, 
 and to whofe petitions for pardon, and apo- 
 logies for their conduct, he made no other 
 K 3 anfwer 
 
i 3 4 L E T T E R VI. 
 
 anfwer than this, They mujl die*. That Pro* 
 pertius loft his fortune too, in the caufe of 
 freedom, is apparent from his works f. 
 
 Though Ovid never bore arms againft 
 Auguftus, and wifhed him well, as he him* 
 felf informs us J, when few of his country- 
 
 * Perufia capta, in plurimos animadvertit, orareve- 
 jiiam vel excufarefe conantibus una voce occurrens, ma- 
 rt endum ejfe. Scribunt quidam trecentos ex dedititiis 
 ele&os utriufque ordinis ad aram divo Julio extru&am 
 idibus Martiis ma&atos. Suet, in Auft. 
 
 To this Propertius himfelf probably alludes in the 
 lafl Elegy of his firft Book. 
 
 Si Perufina tibi patriae funt nota fepulchra 
 Jtaliae duris funera temporibus. 
 
 Cum Romana fuos egit difcordia cives; 
 
 Sit mihi praecipue pulvis Etrufca dolor. 
 
 Tu projetta mei perpeifa es membra propinqui 
 Tu nullo miferi contegis olfa folo. 
 
 f tua cum multa verfarent rurajuvenci, 
 
 Abftulit excuitas pertiea triftis opes. Lib. 4. Eleg. j. 
 
 j Nec contraria dicor 
 
 Arma, nec hoftiles effe fecutus opes. 
 
 Optavi peteres cceleftia fidera tarde, 
 
 f arfque fuit turbae parva precantis idrtn. 
 
 Ovid. Trift. Lib. 2. 
 
 men 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 135 
 
 men did fo, yet he incurred the difpleafure 
 of the emperor, and without being allowed 
 to ftand a trial before the fenate *, or any 
 proper judge, was banifhed to a diftant 
 and difagreeable country. His offence yet 
 remains a fecret, but that it was rather a 
 fault than a crime is highly probable : the 
 punifhment he fuffered was therefore certainly 
 fevere, as well as arbitrary, and notwithftand- 
 ing Auguftus’s boafted lenity, Ovid was very 
 little obliged to him. 
 
 If to the celebrated names of Terence, 
 Lucretius, Salmft, Catullus, Virgil, Horace, 
 Livy, Ovid, Propertius and Tibullus, we add 
 thofe of Tully and Julius Caefar himfelf, the 
 admired lift of the geniufes of what is called 
 the Auguftan age, will be compleat; for 
 though the names of many, and fome fmali 
 pieces or fragments of feveral others, are handed 
 down to us, yet thofe I have mentioned are 
 
 * Nec mea decreto damnafti fa&a fenatus, 
 
 Nec mea, fele&o judice, jufla fuga eft. Ibid. 
 
i 3 6 L E T T E R VI. 
 
 the principal, and to their luftre ’tis owing 
 that the age, in which they lived, fhines, and 
 will for ever lhine forth with fuch diftinguifh- 
 ed brightnefs in the annals of mankind. 
 
 It may feem odd that I mention Julius Cae- 
 far among thofe writers who were formed by 
 freedom, and who are quoted as examples of 
 the happy influence of liberty upon elegance 
 and tafte, flnce he himfelf overthrew the free 
 conftitution of his country. But though 
 Caefar, pufhed on by ambition and a too vio- 
 lent love of power, by force of arms became 
 perpetual dilator, and trampled upon the 
 conftitution of his country, his tafte was 
 formed and corrected by freedom. ’Twas 
 liberty, ’twas the talents neceflary to make 
 one become eminent and powerful in a free 
 ftate, ’twas the ftruggles which Caefar had in 
 his youth with a multitude of free and illufl* 
 trious antagonifts, and the ambition he had 
 to excel In every thing, that formed his ge- 
 nius, his tafle, and thofe various abilities, 
 which, unfortunately for freedom itfelf, ena- 
 bled 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 237 
 
 bled him to get the better of all oppofition, 
 and make himfelf mafter of the republic. 
 
 No fooner were the Romans fubje&ed to 
 the arbitrary will of an emperor, than the 
 genius and tafte of Rome were at a ftand. 
 The prote&ion Auguftus gave to the great 
 geniufes, who were formed in the time 
 of liberty, and who flourifhed when fortune 
 raifed him to imperial fway, prevented, in- 
 deed, for fome time, the bad effects, that his 
 power naturally had upon tafte from becoming 
 apparent. From the Iketch I have given, you 
 fee that the Auguftan age was rendered im- 
 mortal by thofe, who were born before that 
 period ; nay, that one half of the great writers 
 I have mentioned died before ever the name 
 of Auguftus was heard of in the world : for 
 among them, I may reckon Tully and Cae- 
 far, the laft of whom only faw him a mere 
 boy, and the firft was cruelly put to death, 
 when Octavius was yet no more than an am- 
 bitious youth, affociated with others for the 
 deftru&ion of freedom ; but ’twas not till 
 fixteen years after the death of Cicero, that 
 
 he 
 
i3* LETTER VI. 
 
 he afiumed the title of Augufius, and the fu- 
 preme dominion of the Roman empire. 
 However, I do not know how it happens, that, 
 people include, though ’tis very inaccurate, 
 in the catalogue of writers of the Auguftan 
 age, all the fine geniufes of the laft age of the 
 republic. 
 
 If we reflet uppn the ihortnefs of that pe- 
 riod which intervened from the firft dawn- 
 ings of elegance and tafie among the Ro- 
 mans, till the deftru&ion of their liberty, 
 and confider that their genius and tafie were 
 at their greatefi perfection, when they loft 
 their freedom; and could never afterwards 
 be equalled by any of thofe who were born 
 in the times of fiavery ; we muft be convinc- 
 ed that the decay of genius was owing to the 
 iofs of freedom, and be obliged to confefs the 
 intimate connection which fubfifis between 
 liberty and true tafie. The power of Au- 
 guftus was fo far from creating genius, or 
 correcting tafie, that it certainly put a ftop 
 to their improvement. Perhaps the very au- 
 thors who wrote in his time, but were born 
 
 in* 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &e. 139 
 
 in the days of the republic, would have been 
 more perfeft, had they not furvived the ruins 
 of liberty. I cannot indeed conceive the lyre 
 to have been touched with more exquifite Art 
 than it was by Horace ; but had Virgil wrote 
 before Rome was fubje&ed to an imperial 
 Lord, his compofitions would perhaps have 
 been animated with a nobler fire, and his 
 own majefty might have been united with all 
 the original fjpirit of Homer. 
 
 Horace obferves, that the Roman genius, 
 fublime and lively, was naturally well enough 
 calculated for tragedy ; but from the account 
 he gives of their own tragedians, it appears 
 that they were far from being perfeft, and 
 that though they difcovered fome beauties, 
 yet thefe were tarniihed by abundance of 
 faults. Their tranflations from the Greek too, 
 as he informs us in the fame place, were not 
 fufficiently correct *. 
 
 To 
 
 * Quaerere ccepit 
 
 Quid Sophocles, et Thefpis, etdEfchylus utile ferrent, 
 Tentavit quoque rem, fi digne vertere polfetj 
 Et placuit fibi, natura fublimis et acer ; 
 
 1 
 
 Nam 
 
i4o LETTER VI. 
 
 To what caufe then lhall we afcribe this 
 fa d, that among the Roman dallies we meet 
 with no tragedian that we can compare with 
 the Grecian iEfchylus, Sophocles, or Euri- 
 pides ? indeed that we meet with none at all 
 of the claflic age ? for thofe which they 
 had, have not been preferved from the ruins 
 of time ; but from the charader given of 
 them by the bed judges among the Romans 
 themfelves, we may be certain that they were 
 infinitely inferior to the Greek tragedians. This 
 remarkable deficiency, this want of tragic 
 writers among the Roman clafiics, can only be 
 accounted for by aferibing it to the altera- 
 tion, which was made in the confiitution of 
 Rome 5 a period was put to the liberty of the 
 Romans, at the very time, when, by the na- 
 tural progrefs of improvement, they would, 
 if they had continued free, have excelled in 
 tragedy,. “ A perfed tragedy is the nobleit 
 46 production of human 'nature,”, to ufe the 
 
 Nam fpirat tragicum fatis, et feliciter audet ; 
 
 Scd turpem putat in feriptis metuitque lituram* 
 
 Epift. Lib. 2. 
 
 words 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 141 
 
 words of Mr, Addifon.* What is beft and 
 nobleft cannot be firft, but muft come laft, 
 and be produced among thofe who are al- 
 ready accomplifhed. Sophocles and Euripi- 
 des were preceded by Homer ; and, had the 
 Romans continued longer free, Virgil would 
 have been followed by tragedians worthy of 
 the high Roman fpirit, and the Latin tongue 
 might have boafted of writers in that way, 
 very different from a Seneca •f', who wrote 
 after Rome had been fully enflaved, her ge - 
 nius decayed, and her tade corrupted. 
 
 In vain do we look among the Romans, 
 after this, for writers equal to thofe of the 
 Ciceronian age. cc Sint Mecaenates, non dee- 
 tf runt, Flacce, Marones may do very well 
 in an epigram, but it will not be found to an- 
 fwer in fa< 5 h The liberty, the fpirit, and know- 
 ledge of an age, muft form the genius and tafte 
 of the writers of that age. ’Twas not owing 
 to the patronage of Mecxnas that Virgil was 
 
 * Spe&ator, No. 39. f Not the philofopher. 
 
 % Martial. 
 
142 LETTER VL 
 
 fuch an excellent poet, or to the want of fuch 
 patrons that none comparable to him appeared 
 afterwards. The noble genius, that dwelt 
 among the free citizens of Rome, difdained 
 to inhabit an enflaved country, or to attend 
 upon the fubje&s of a defpotic emperor. The 
 protection, that Mecsenas gave the fine wri- 
 ters, who flourifhed when he became miniffer 
 of the Roman empire, hath indeed rendered 
 his name immortal, and made the generality 
 of people believe that he was a man of taffe, 
 the very reverfe of which is true : for as he 
 was the firfd miniffer of arbitrary power, fo 
 he gave the firft example among the Romans 
 of the fatal influence of defpotifm upon tafle, 
 by his own vitiated compolitions. Had Rome 
 remained free, he perhaps might have been a 
 great pattern of Roman eloquence, but too 
 much profperity and luxury corrupted his 
 taftp, unnerved his genius, and rendered his 
 eompofitions quite unmanly. “ Ingeniofus 
 “ vir ille fuit, magnum exemplum Romans 
 4C eloquentiae daturus, nifi ilium enervaffet, 
 44 felicitas, imo, caffr-airet,” as Seneca fays 
 
 of 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 143 
 
 ®f him in his nineteenth epiftle *. Thus the 
 firft minifter of Auguftus, notwithflanding 
 all the favour of the emperor, notwithftand- 
 ing all his ambition to be reckoned a man of 
 
 wit 
 
 * Befides what is quoted above, there are many paf- 
 fages in Seneca, which demonftrate the bad tafte of 
 Mecaenas. 
 
 Thefe lines of his which he cites Epift. 101. 
 
 Debilem facito manu 
 Debilem pede, coxa 5 
 Tuber adftrue gibberum, 
 
 Lubricos quate dentes 5 
 Vita dum fupereft, bene eft- 
 Hanc mihi vel acuta 
 Si fedeam cruce, fuftine. 
 
 Are wretched, and demonftrate that his pretended ad- 
 miration of Virgil muft have been mere affixation; 
 The author of thefe lines could never fincerely admire 
 the TJfque adeone morl miferum ejl , of that poet. In- 
 deed, as Seneca fays, one would hardly think he had 
 ever heard Virgil recite this line. Shakefpear, who 
 never makes one fpeak out of chara&er, has put ftmila r 
 fentiments in the mouth of a coward, who was willing 
 to purchafe life by tffacrifice of his filler's virtue. 
 
 Th e - 
 
144 LETTER VL 
 
 wit and genius, and notwithstanding nature 
 had originally endued him with a confider- 
 able fhare of parts, became an unchafte finical 
 writer, and gave a ftriking proof, how little 
 
 The wearieft and moft loathed worldly life. 
 
 Which age, ach, penury, imprifonment. 
 
 Can lay on Nature, is a paradife. 
 
 To what we fear of death, 
 
 Meafure for Meafure. 
 
 Senecayin his 114th Epiftle, after having given a fpe- 
 cimen of the obfcure, involved, licentious ftyle of 
 Mecamas, fhews at great length, how it arofe from his 
 character and circumftances. Hoc ifiae ambages com- 
 pofitionis, hoc verba tranfverfa, hoc fenfus magni qui- 
 dem faepe, fed enervati dum exeunt, cuivis manifeftum 
 facient, motum illi felicitate nimia caput ; quod vitium 
 hominis efie interdum, interdum temporis folet. See alfo 
 Epifh 92. at the end. Thecalamiftra (Curling Irons) of 
 Mecaenas are taken notice of by the author of the dia- 
 logue on the caufes of the decay of Roman eloquence. 
 How infinitely inferior are fuch falfe ornaments to the 
 fimple drefs of genuine eloquence ! One would rather 
 choofe that an orator fhould wear the rougheft garb, 
 than the gaudy and vitious drefs of luxury and effemi- 
 nacy. Malim hercule C. Gracchi impetum, aut L, 
 Crafli maturitatem, quam calamiftros Meaenatis aut 
 tinnitus Gallionis, adeo malim oratorem vel hirta toga 
 induere, quam fucatis et meretriciis veftibus infignire. 
 
 in- 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 145 
 
 influence the favour of Auguflus, even when 
 moft laviihly beftowed, could have in pro- 
 moting genius or correcting tafle, 
 
 Augustus indeed perceived, and ufed to 
 ridicule the effeminate and 'affeCted Ayle of 
 his favourite *, yet he himfelf fell into a man- 
 ner no lefs vitiated. Letters written with his 
 own hand, as Suetonius informs us, difcovered 
 what ridiculous phrafes he made ufe of , and 
 how foppifhly he attempted to alter fome 
 words. To exprefs the velocity of anything 
 done in a hurry, by faying it was done 
 more quickly than afparagus is boiled , was 
 undoubtedly fomething the very reverie of 
 the fublime ; to exhort one to bear prefent 
 calamities, by faying, let us bear this Cato, 
 was certainly a wretched conceit, and yet 
 thefe were the phrafes of Auguflus . There 
 
 is 
 
 * Exagitabat nonnunquam in primis Meaenatem 
 fiium, cujus myrobrecheis (ut ait) concinnos ufquequa- 
 que perfequitur, et imitando per Jocum irridet. 
 
 Suet, in Vit. Auguft. Cap. 86. 
 
 * Cum hortatur ferenda effe praefentia qualiacunque 
 fint, contenti fimus hoc Catone, et ad exprimendam 
 
 L feflinats 
 
t 4 & LETTER Ifif. 
 
 is fomething very remarkable in the laft of 
 them : the awful name of Cato muft have 
 
 been extremely odious to him, and the re* 
 membrance of his tirtues difagreeable. The 
 glorious ftfuggles of this brave citizen, in 
 defence of freedom and virtue, muft have re- 
 minded him of his own bafenefs in betraying 
 both. Nothing can be more infupportable 
 to fuch men as Auguftus than characters like 
 that of Cato : hence the origin of this phrafe,- 
 which, as phrafes often do, betrays the fecret 
 and heart-felt fen t invents of its author. Such 
 a baneful influence had the fpirit of flavery 
 upon its firft great patrons among the Ro- 
 mans. An intimate familiarity with fuch men 
 might have corrupted, but could never im- 
 prove, the tafte of any one. Nothing can 
 be more abfurd and trifling, than to afcribe 
 the merit of the fine writers of thofe times 
 to the patronage of the emperor or his mi- 
 
 feflinatae rei velocitatem, velocius quam afparagi co- 
 quantur: ponit aflicfue pro flulto baceolum, et pro 
 pullo, puleiaceum, et pro cerito v; cerofum, et vapide 
 fefe habefe, pro male, et betizare pro languere, &c. 
 
 Suet, in Aug. Cap. 87, 
 
 nifier 0 
 
 \ 
 
 
t)n the Influence of Liberty, &c. J47 
 
 O ilfer. They knew well how to make a proper 
 life of thofe geniufes who then flourished, 
 but who had been formed in other times and 
 by converfation with different men. Taffe 
 Was at its greateff height in Rome when 
 Auguffus came to the helm of affairs, 
 and from that moment began to decline. ? Twas 
 not all at once indeed extinguished ; human fo- 
 ciety and the genius of men muff be poliflled 
 or made barbarous by degrees. But aS the' 
 Romans, from the period when they began 
 to be civilized, had made the moff rapid 
 progrefs in taffe j and, in all probability, 
 would have attained to a far greater degree 
 of perfe&ion, at leaf! in fome branches, had 
 not the abfolute power of the emperors check- 
 ed their genius $ fo, from the time that a pe- 
 riod was put to their liberty, they as rapidly 
 declined, and the fatal effects of the change 
 of their conffitution upon taffe became vi- 
 lible. Some writers appeared indeed, in the 
 days of the emperors, of extraordinary merit* 
 They were however few in number, an 4 
 lived not in a period fo diffant from the Ci- 
 ceronian age, but that we may naturally 
 L 2 fup* 
 
148 L E T T E R VI. 
 
 fuppofe, the noble fpirit of that age might 
 have been communicated to them, and the 
 animating genius of liberty not yet altoge- 
 ther extinguiihed in Roman breads. 
 
 In a dialogue, thought by fome to have 
 been written by Tacitus, but, as others think, 
 by Quintilian, one of the fpeakers obferves, 
 that he does not know, why Caefar and Ci- 
 cero fhould rather be claffed among the an- 
 tient orators, than among thofe of their 
 times, fince the fame perfon might have heard 
 Cicero, and been prefen t alfo at fome of theiff 
 own orations. He indeed brings the example 
 of a man, who lived to a great age ; but cer- 
 tainly the orations which the fpeakers in that 
 dialogue made in their youth, might have 
 been heard by one who had been prefent 
 when Tuily ipoke, and they might all have 
 been formed under thofe, who lived fome 
 time in the Ciceronian age 
 
 Thus, 
 
 * Sed Ciceronem et Csefarem, &c. cur an. 
 
 tiquis temporibus potius adfcribatis quam noftris non 
 video. Nam ut de Cicerone ipfo loquar, Hirtio nempe 
 
 et 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 149 
 
 Thus, the age of Tacitus, fo far from 
 being very diftant from that of Cicero, may 
 in fome meafure be reckoned the fame 5 and 
 in this age flourilhed the laft of the great 
 Roman authors ; for Quintilian, the Pliny’s, 
 and Juvenal were cotemporary with him. 
 After this, even all the favour of emperors, 
 who were both good men and great philofo- 
 phers, could not keep up the antient fpirit, 
 
 et Panfa confulibus, ut Tiro libertus ejus fcribit VII. 
 Idus Decemb. occifus eft, quo anno Divus Auguftus 
 in locum Panfte et Hirtii fe et Q i Pedium coff. fuffecit. 
 Statue Viet L annos, quibus mox divus Auguftus 
 remp. rexit : adjice Tiberii XXIII. et prope quadrien- 
 nium Caii, ac bis quaternos denos Claudii et Neronis 
 annos, atquejpfum Galbae etOthonis, et Vitellii unum 
 annum, ac VI. jam felicis bujus principatus ftationem 
 qua Vefpaftanus remp. fovet. C et XX anni, ab interitu 
 Ciceronis in hunc diem colliguntur, unius hominis 
 aetas. Nam ipfe ego in Britannia vidi fenem, qui fe 
 fateretur et pugnae interfuilfe, qua Caefarem inferentem 
 arma Britanniae, arcere littoribus, et pellere agrefti 
 funt : ita ft eum, qui armatus C. Casfari reftitit, vel 
 captivitas, vel voluntas, vel fatum aliquod in urbem 
 pertraxiflet, idem Caefarem ipfum et Ciceronem audire 
 potuit et noftris quoque aflionibus interefte. 
 
 Dialog, de Cauft Corrupt. Eloquent. 
 
 L 3 
 
 or 
 
i5o LETTER VI. 
 
 or produce writers comparable to thofe of 
 the days of freedom* 
 
 Despotism and a falfe tafte feem to have 
 gone hand in hand, ’till both appeared in 
 their genuine colours. Some appearances 
 were kept up in the days of Auguflus : even 
 in the days of Tiberius there were fome re- 
 inains of dying liberty, €t manebant etiam 
 tunc veftigia morientis libertatls, ,, as Ta- 
 citus fays in thefirfl Book of his Annals. The 
 * good emperprs, who came after thofe mon- 
 gers that fucceeded Tiberius, revived the 
 drooping fpirit of the Romans, and in their 
 time we meet with fome ufeful writers, but 
 of a tafle much inferior to that of the age of 
 freedom. As defpotifm approached, tafte 
 and genius retired from among the Romans^ 
 till at laft we do not even meet with a faint 
 fefemblance of what they once were ; free- 
 dom of fpirit gave way to mean flattery, 
 noble ideas to wretched conceits, a Ample 
 and nervous ftyle to a florid unmanly one, 
 and a fevere corre&nefs to a relifh for what- 
 ever was vitious, tawdry or foppiih. 
 
 Thus, 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 151 
 
 Thus, my Lord, I have endeavoured to 
 anfwer the arguments that may be brought 
 for the fuperior advantages, which tafte is 
 by fome people thought to have in an ab- 
 folute government, from the common opi- 
 nion about the influence of the prote&ion 
 which Auguftus afforded the mules. By a 
 fhort Iketch I have lhewn that the laft age of 
 the republic formed the great writers of the 
 Auguftan age, that the emperor’s power put 
 a flop to farther improvement, that, in all 
 probability, had the Romans continued longer 
 free, they would have arrived at a much 
 higher degree of perfection, atleaft in fome 
 branches, and that arbitrary power and bad 
 tafte gained ground at the fame time, till at 
 laft defpotifm was fully eflablilhed, and tafte 
 thoroughly depraved. 
 
 I intended tp haye aofwered the objections 
 y/hich are broyght from the age of Lewis 
 XIV. but this I muft delay : the prefent letter 
 has been much longer than I thought it would 
 have been, but I lhall make no apology, as 
 L 4 J tis 
 
152 letter vl 
 
 J tis wrote in vindication of the honours which 
 juftly belong to freedom, and in defence of 
 her caufe, a caufe which I hope you will ever 
 revere in your heart and fupport by your 
 condudh 
 
 I am, &c* 
 
 L E T- 
 
[ *53 1 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 On the Influence of Liberty 
 upon Taste, and of the Age of 
 Lewis XIV. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 E VERY gentleman ought to build his 
 opinion of nations, of men, and of 
 the different ages of the world, upon rational 
 principles $ one ought however efpecially to 
 be careful to reafon juftly with refpe6t to 
 thofe ages which have certainly been the moff 
 accomplifhed, and from which, maxims will 
 often be drawn, and examples brought of 
 whatever is mo ft hurtful or beneficial to man- 
 kind. I have endeavoured to fhew in a former 
 letter how far the common opinion with re- 
 gard to the influence of Auguftus’s power upon 
 
 ge- 
 
%sa letter tn. 
 
 genius and tafle is unjuft, and how much the 
 generality of people, milled by the delicate 
 flattery paid to him and Mecaenas by writers 
 farmed in the days of liberty, but who fur- 
 yived the republic, and were the greateft or- 
 naments of the court of Auguftus, have mif- 
 taken the real genius of this emperor and his 
 minifter, and the influence of their power 
 upon true tafle. I fhall npw offer you fome 
 obfervations concerning the age of Lewis 
 XIV. They are fuch as have occurred to 
 me in reading the celebrated writers and 
 hiftorians of that age. 
 
 Persuaded of the truth of this general 
 proportion, that in proportion as a country 
 is free, true tafle will flourifh, unlefs the happy 
 influence of freedom be counterbalanced by 
 Other unfavourable circumftances, and that 
 the protection of no lingle man can create 
 genius or tafle, which mufl be formed by 
 the peculiar circumflances of the nation and 
 age in which men of tafle and genius appear ; 
 i am convinced fufficient reafons may be 
 given for the figure which the French writers 
 
 pf 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 155 
 
 of the age of Lewis XIV. make, and will for 
 ever make ir> the annals of the world, with- 
 out having recqurfe to the influence of hi$ 
 fupreme power, or drawing a conclufion un- 
 favourable to liberty. If I fhall not be fo 
 happy as to point out the circumftances 
 which enabled the fine geniufes of France in 
 that age to adorn their works with fo much 
 elegance and corre£inefs, without afcribing 
 it principally to the patronage which their 
 monarch gave to the fciences and arts, your 
 Lordlhip muft impute it to my want of fkilL 
 and not to the badnefs of the argument which 
 I endeavour to fupport. 
 
 It hath often been obferved that there was 
 a great refemblance between the courts of 
 Auguflus and Lewis, and that many fimilar 
 jcircumftances contributed to immortalize thq 
 reigns of both. A great deal of common- 
 place flattery has been mofl lavifhly offered 
 up, and virtues and talents afcribed to both, 
 which perhaps neither of them had any title 
 to lay claim to* 
 
 But 
 
156 LETTER VII. 
 
 But that they were both fortunate, is un- . 
 doubtcdly true. The noble# fortune that an 
 emperor or king can attain to, is to become 
 fovereign of a people at a time when they 
 are eminent for their accomplifhments, for 
 the illuftrious figure they make in the world, 
 and for the improvements they have made in 
 whatever can tend to embellifh life, or render 
 foclety more rational and polite. Such were 
 the Romans and French, when Auguftus 
 and Lewis came to fupreme power. Rome 
 had produced her Lucretius, Salluft, Cicero 1 
 Paris had produced her Corneille, Molliere, 
 Pafcal ! I have mentioned thefe three, be- 
 caufe it is allowed by every one, that both 
 the French poetry and profe were carried by 
 them to a degree of elegance and perfection, 
 perhaps unequalled, but certainly not excell- 
 ed by any, who have appeared fince their 
 time, and becaufe the youngeft of them 
 (Pafcal) was born fifteen years before I ewis, 
 and publifhed his famous Provincials when 
 that prince was only fixteen years of age, and 
 cannot be fuppofed to have had any in- 
 5 fluence 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 157 
 
 fluence in forming or promoting a good 
 tafte in France, 
 
 It may indeed be faid, and with- much 
 appearance of reafon too, what is this to the 
 purpofe, and how does this fhew that an ar- 
 bitrary government is unfriendly to tafte ? 
 lince his equally the fame, whether thefe 
 writers were born in the time of Lewis 
 XIV. or in that of the kings his predeceftors. 
 But, my Lord, his not the fame. I fhall en- 
 deavour to fhew that the period, when the 
 French tafte was gradually improving, and 
 attained to fuch perfection, was a period when 
 real liberty was gaining ground $ when, though 
 the kings of France became more powerful, 
 the rights of the bulk of the people were en- 
 larged, their fpirits animated, and a delire of 
 knowledge and a freedom of inquiry highly 
 prevalent in France. 
 
 It does not follow that in proportion 
 as the powers of the fovereign are encreafed, 
 the people become haves : That nation is 
 
 moft 
 
moffc free where moft people are free, t a ufe 
 words which, I have heard it faid, were fpoke 
 by a man of great learning and experience 
 upon a bill to take away certain jurifdidtions, 
 that prevented the happy influence of freedom 
 from reaching to the remote parts of this 
 ifland. The kings of France had for a 
 long period of years been endeavouring to 
 overthrow that fyftem which put it in the 
 power of a few great men to defpife their 
 fovereign, to throw their country into con- 
 jfuflon, whenever their pride prompted them 
 to it, and to trample upon the generality of 
 the people. The methods which thofe mo- 
 iiarchs found it necelfary to take to eflablifh 
 their own authority, happily for the bulk of 
 the people, were calculated in fome mea- 
 sure to promote their independence and li- 
 berty. 
 
 The adminiflratioil of juflice is of the 
 higheft confequence in every country. They 
 who have it in their power to determine con- 
 cerning the lives and property of the people 
 
 mtift 
 
t)ii the Influence of Liberty, &g. 
 
 muft have the higheft authority, and if they 
 &re not obliged to judge according to a cer- 
 tain fydem of law, but as their own wills 
 dilate, mud become arbitrary and defpotic. 
 Such were the great Lords in France during 
 the prevalence of the Feudal government: 
 Leaders and captains in the fields $ they wer d 
 fupreme judges in time of peace, and, by 
 having every thing in their difpofal, were 
 the abfolute and uncontroulable mailers of 
 the people who could have recourfe to none' 
 but them for the prefervation or recovery of 
 their property, and thus were indeed their mere 
 
 Haves. cc Ce n’etoit plus des fubjets* 
 
 “ que des peuples qui pouvoient etre armes 
 “ contre le roi par leur feigneurs, et qui, 
 “ pour conferver leur bien, ne connoifibient 
 “ d ’autre Tribunal que celui de ce meme 
 
 feigneur a fhort but an accurate and 
 comprehenfive defcription of the feudal fyf- 
 tem. To appoint judges, who fhould take 
 cognizance of the determinations of thofe 
 tribunals, redrefs the grievances of the people* 
 
 * Henaut, Remarques fur la troifieme race. 
 
 and 
 
i6o LETTER VII. 
 
 and judge according to law, was at once to 
 free the commons from oppreffion, to extend 
 the power of the fovereign, and to eftablifh 
 a regular fyftem of laws ; in a word, ’twas 
 to diffufe liberty among the bulk of the peo- 
 ple, and, as Mr. Voltaire in his lively man- 
 ner expreffes it, to give five hundred thou- 
 fand families reafon to rejoice at what perhaps 
 fifty murmured 
 
 That this was the method the kings 
 of France actually took, you will be con- 
 vinced by reading their hiliories; particu- 
 larly the concife and accurate one of 
 Henaut, every page of which will infiruft 
 you, and enlarge your ideas, efpecially 
 on this fubjedh I have only taken notice 
 of this alteration of the French govern- 
 ment in general, becaufe his an illuftrious 
 proof that liberty is friendly to genius and 
 tafte, fmce that period, in which the French 
 
 * C’eft a lui (Louis XI.) que le peuple doit le pre- 
 mier abatement des grands. Environs cinquante fa- 
 milies en ont murmure, et plus de cinq cens milles du 
 s’en feliciter. Hid, Gener. Louis XI. 
 
 were 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. i6x 
 
 were making a gradual progrefs in learning 
 and politenefs, was alfo a period in which 
 freedom was gaining ground, and the bulk 
 of the people emerging from the meanefi fer- 
 vitude. In this period parliaments were efta- 
 blifhed, and judges appointed, who by de- 
 grees became more and more refpeclable, able 
 to defend the people from oppreffion, the 
 awful difpenfers of juflice, and the guardians 
 of law. The noble and generous itruggles, 
 which the parliaments of France, particular- 
 ly that of Paris, have lately, and for many 
 years paft, made in defence of the fundamen- 
 tal laws of their country, have merited and 
 obtained the applaufe of all Europe*, and 
 made it no rath affertion to affirm that their 
 inftitution and growing power hath been a 
 favourable circumilance to the liberty of 
 France, 
 
 * Le parlement de Paris, s’eil conduit depuis pres de 
 deux ans avec une fermite et une prudence qui lui on 
 valu des remercimens du prince, l’affedion de tous ies 
 bons Francois, et I’eftime de toute l’Europe. 
 
 Mes Penfeeu 
 But 
 
 M 
 
1 62- LETTER ¥11. 
 
 But not only had the alteration which was- 
 made in the adminiflration of juftice an in- 
 fluence to enlarge the freedom of the people 5 
 that which was made in military affairs had 
 the fame effect, and equally tended to pro- 
 mote tafle. While the feudal fyftem pre- 
 vailed, the Great, retired in fullen pride, fhut 
 tip in their gloomy caflles, defended by their 
 valla, Is and haves, and entertained by mar- 
 tial feats, by tournaments and favage com- 
 bats, were utterly ignorant of every thing 
 that was elegant and polite. When they 
 had taken the field againfi a neighbouring ri- 
 val, or appeared with their vahfals in the ge- 
 neral army of their country, they returned 
 as foon as war was at an end to their own do- 
 mains, accompanied with their followers, and 
 never lived at court or among their equals* 
 Flattered by, and proudly didating to, their 
 inferiors, his eafy to conceive what an influ- 
 ence this mufi have had to encourage the Great 
 in their follies, to debafe the minds of the 
 people, and to prevent both from making 
 any improvements in knowledge or tafle. 
 
 By 
 
t)n the Influence ofLtBERTY, &c. 163 
 
 By deflroying this fyftem, the bulk of the 
 people were freed from a perpetual and fer- 
 tile attendance upon their fuperiors ; the 
 Great, having lefs employment at home, were 
 attracted to court their Tafle was changed, 
 genteel amufements took place of rougher 
 exercifes, themfelves and their country were 
 gradually improved, leading became fafhion- 
 able, and fociety grew more rational and po- 
 lite. In vain were thefe improvements at- 
 tempted to be made, during the continuance 
 of the Feudal fyflem, a fyflem, of all others, 
 the leaft friendly to the fine arts, or to the 
 liberties of the bulk of mankind, which are 
 always connected. Kings in vain encouraged 
 letters : in vain did Charles V. of France 
 fcolle< 5 t a library of nine hundred Volumes, 
 a great number before the art of printing was 
 invented : the genius of his country was 
 againft him, and defeated the influence of 
 that protection and encouragement he gave 
 to learning and arts ■f*. The liberality of 
 
 princes 
 
 * Hen. Rem. fur la troifieme face, 
 t Le roi de France Charles V. qui raflenfrbla envi- 
 rons 900 Volumes, cens ans avant que la Bibliothequs 
 M a du 
 
1 64 LETTER VII. 
 
 princes can have but: a very fmall effect, in pro* 
 moting genius or tade, among a people whofe 
 minds are debafed by fervitude. The kings of 
 ' France, by dedroying the Feudal fydem, and 
 thus altering the genius of the people, and giv- 
 ing fpirits to the minds of men, did more to 
 promote knowledge and tade, than all the re- 
 wards ard protection, that could be given to 
 the learned and ingenious, before that fydem 
 was overturned, could podibly do. 
 
 Francis L whofe reign is the great epoch 
 of the revival of letters in France, did not 
 hold learning in higher edeem, or more 
 liberally encourage fcience and arts than 
 Charles V. whofe memorable anfwer to 
 one that murmured at the honours which 
 he diewed to men of learning, cc Science and 
 the learned cannot be too much honour- 
 4t ed i while learning is honoured in this 
 
 du Vatican fut fonclee par Nicolas V. encouragea en 
 Vain Ies talents : le terrain n’etoit pas prepare pour por- 
 ter de ces fruits etrangers. 
 
 Volt, tom. 2d, See alfo Kenaut Charles V. 
 
 king- 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 165 
 
 £ ‘ kingdom, it will continue in profperity, but 
 " when it fhall be defpifed, the kingdom. 
 
 will decline and fall *,’ J ought for ever to be 
 remembered with applaufe. But the genius 
 of their times was different : the one lived 
 before, and the other after, Lewis XI. who, 
 though a bad man and a cruel prince, laid a 
 foundation for the improvements of arts and 
 fciences, by freeing the bulk of the people 
 from that dependence and fervitude in which 
 they were kept, during the prevalence of the 
 Feudal fyftem. 
 
 Another memorable event, that hap- 
 pened about a century before the birth of 
 Lewis XI V. muft have had the greatcft influence 
 to animate the minds of men, and give a fpur 
 to genius 3 I mean the reformation, an event 
 intimately connected with a fpirit of liberty, 
 
 * Quclq* un murmuroit de l’honeur qu’il portoit aux 
 gens des lettres, appelles dans ces terns clercs ; il refpon- 
 dit 5 Us clercs , ou la fapience , Ton ne peut trop honorer; 
 €t tant que fapience fera honored en ce royaume, il 
 continuera en profperite, mais quand deboutee y’fera, 
 il decherra. Henaut . 
 
 M 1 and 
 
$66 LETTER VII. 
 
 and a freedom of enquiry. In a letter, which 
 I wrote to you feme time ago, I took notice 
 of the happy influence this had upon human 
 affairs, and the liberties of Europe in gene- 
 ral *. I fhall at prefent only obferve, that, 
 in no country, where the reformation did not 
 adiually take place, were the proteftants 
 more numerous or conflderable than in 
 France. Men of the moft eminent abilities, 
 who made a figure in the cabinet, and in the 
 field, feveral princes of the blood, and many 
 of the noblejfe , as well as a vafi number of the 
 commons, were of the protefiant party. The 
 firuggles which they made in their own de- 
 fence, and which were often fuccefsful ; the 
 difputes which they had with the catholics, 
 not only in the way of arms, but of argu- 
 ment and debate, could not fail of having a 
 ponfiderabie effect to enlarge the underftand- 
 Ings of men, to correfl their judgments, and 
 to infpire their imaginations and fancies, with 
 a vivacity and jufinefs, to be acquired only 
 t>y practice, and by being often put to the 
 
 t Ses page 41, 42, 43, 47, 48, 49. 
 
 pecefiity 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 167 
 
 neceflity of defending favourite, or of at- 
 tacking odious opinions, by being warmly 
 interefled, and by having an occafion of ex- 
 ercifing every faculty of the human mind, and 
 power of the human body, in defence of our- 
 felves, our country, or our friends. 
 
 This naturally leads me to take notice 
 of a circumftance which certainly had the 
 greatefl: influence to form the ages both 
 of Auguflus and Lewis, I mean, the civil 
 wars and contentions, to which they fuc- 
 ceeded. What an exertion of great talents 
 muA there have been in Rome, when the 
 Catos, the Ciceros, the Pompeys, the Cae- 
 fars, and the Antonys, were at the head of 
 different parties, and, with all their abilities, 
 .endeavouring to fupport their own, or to 
 weaken that of their enemy’s ! What a noble 
 Aruggle mufl it have been in France, when 
 the Henrys the Sullys, the de Mornays,, 
 the Condes, the Turennes, the De Retzs, the 
 R.ochefoucaults, the Richlieus, and the Ma- 
 
 * Henry IV. 
 
 M 4 ?arins. 
 
i68 LETTER VIE 
 
 zarins, drew their fwords and made ufe of 
 their eloquence to fupport the interefts of 
 contending, parties, and to defend the prin- 
 ciples of oppoiite fyllems % 
 
 Thus, my Lord, I have endeavoured to. 
 prove that in France, during the reigns of 
 feveral kings preceding Lewis XIV. the rights 
 of the bulk of the people were enlarged, their 
 underftandings improved by a freedom of en- 
 quiry, their fpirits animated, and their tafte 
 made manly and bold by perpetual flruggles 
 about independence and freedom, both fa- 
 cred and civil : in a word, that a fpirifc 
 of liberty prevailed and formed thofe ge- 
 niufes, who flourilhed when he came to the 
 throne, and during the laft years of his fa- 
 
 t Ces deux princes fortoient des guerres civiles, de 
 ce tems^ ou les peoples, toujours armees, nourris fans 
 ceffe au milieu des perils, entetes des plus hardies 
 defeins, nevoyentrien ou ils ne puififent atteindre, de 
 ce terns au les evenements heureux et malheureux, 
 mille fois repetees, etendent les idees, fortifient fame a< 
 force d’Epreuves, augmentent fon refifort, et lui donnent 
 ce defir de gluire qui ne manque jamais de produire de 
 
 grrandes chofes* Henaut . 
 
 © 
 
 ther’§ 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 169 
 
 Cher’s reign. I fay, during the laft years of 
 his father’s reign 5 for it is of importance to 
 remember that, in the time of Richlieu’s ad- 
 miniftration, genius and tafte had attained to 
 the higheft perfection j an unanfwerable proof, 
 that a fpirit of liberty, and the circumftances 
 of the times, have a greater influence to 
 form the great writers and artifls of the times,, 
 than even the protection of a court and a mi* 
 nifter, fince fome of the 1110ft eminent of them 
 met with no encouragement either from the 
 court or miniftry, but rather the contrary. 
 
 The great Corneille received no favours 
 from Richlieu ; nay, ’tis well known that he 
 met with oppofltion from him, and that too 
 much complaifance to that minifter made the 
 academy condemn his famous Cid. But other 
 circumftances tended to elevate his genius 
 more than this could deprefs it. Born in an 
 a&ive and illuftrious age, himfelf endued 
 with great talents, and admired by men, to 
 whom nature had been no lefs bountiful, need 
 we vfonder at the fublimity to which he at- 
 tained ? 
 
*70 L E T T E R VII, 
 
 tained ? need we wonder at the grandeur of 
 his fentiments, when we refledl upon the fern- 
 fibility of his applauding audience ? What 
 an incitement muft it have been to write well, 
 to perceive a generous tear drop from the 
 great Conde at the pronouncing of a noble 
 and generous fentiment \* 
 
 A little anecdote concerning the man- 
 ner in which the fon of this Conde entertain- 
 ed Marihal Turenne, during a vifit of two 
 days, which he made to Chantilli, will give 
 you a very different idea of the way in which 
 the illuftrious men of France were then re- 
 galed, from what is to be feen in more mo- 
 dern times, and make you eafily perceive 
 how great the tafte for learning and fine com- 
 pofitions muft have been in France at that 
 time, and how natural it is to expe<ft to meet 
 with fine writers in an age, and among a peo^ 
 pie, whofe manners were fo polite, and whofe 
 
 * Le grand Corneille faifant pleurer le grand Conde, 
 d’admiration, eft une epoch bien celebre dans Thiftoire 
 ds Fefprit humain. Volt. 
 
 en° 
 
0 n the Influence of Liberty, &c. 171 
 
 entertainments were fo rational and inftruc- 
 tive. “ The duke (fon to the great Conde) 
 “ wanting to give an entertainment to M. 
 <c De Turenne in which nothing fhould be 
 f c omitted that could be agreeable to that 
 “ great general, confulted Mr. Defpreaux 
 ? e about what was mod proper to read to 
 cc him. The fatyrift (M. Defpreaux) was 
 ^ himfelf engaged to read three Cantos of his 
 “ Lutrin ; but there were other vacant hours 
 “ to fill up, during thofe two days, when they 
 ■ e hoped to have the pleafure of entertaining 
 <£ M. De Turenne. Defpreaux propofed 
 * c to read the Provincial Letters, which the 
 fi duke had not feen. They read one of 
 them for a trial, which his highnefs was fo 
 66 charmed with, that he took the book, and 
 could not leave off, ’till he had read them 
 “ all. M. De Turenne was no lefs delighted 
 5C with thofe letters, which he chofe to hear 
 ■ c read again and again Does not this put 
 us in mind of the fympofiums of Greece, or 
 
 * See a difcourfe prefixed to the provincial letters, 
 Paris, 1753. 
 
 of 
 
1 72 LETTER VII. 
 
 of the tafte of thofe focieties at Rome, to 
 which old Cato often reforted, and which he 
 valued, not on account of exquifite difhes 
 and rich wines, but of good company and 
 ingenious converfation. 64 Neque enim ip- 
 44 forum conviviorum dele&ationem volup- 
 44 tatibus corporis, magis quam baetu amico- 
 64 rum etfermonibus metiebar *. When fuch 
 a tafte prevailed at Athens, Rome, and Paris, 
 need we wonder that works were produced, 
 which will render the ages, in which they 
 were wrote, immortal ? need we wonder that 
 among the great number of learned, high- 
 fpirited, and illuffrious men in every way, 
 with which France then abounded, there 
 arofe fome, with geniufes capable of reform- 
 ing tafte, and of fixing its ftandard, by pre- 
 fenting the public with elegant and noble 
 models ? certainly we need not ; nor need we 
 be furprifed that the fublimity and genuine 
 elegance of thofe writers have not been ex- 
 celled by any who have appeared fince the ad- 
 miniftrations of Richlieu and Mazarin. By 
 
 * Tull. Cat. Maj. 
 
 ye-* 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 173 
 
 reflecting upon the flate of France, imme- 
 diately before thefe minifters came to the 
 helm of affairs* by confldering their conduct 
 and the alteration they made in the confuta- 
 tion of their country, the principle I have 
 been endeavouring to eftablifh, will be il- 
 luflrated, and confirmed. 
 
 Henry IV. the beft and moft amiable of 
 princes, who enjoyed the greateft happinefs, 
 that can fall to the fhare of a mortal, and 
 which moft refembles that of the Divinity, 
 the heart-felt pleafure of making millions 
 happy, of diffufing plenty and joy, and 
 of ufing power to execute the dilates of good- 
 nefs, was at once the fovereign and friend of 
 his people. Intimately connected, when a 
 prince of the blood, with the fupporters of 
 liberty on the throne, he was the prote&or 
 of freedom. Educated a Proteftant, he con- 
 tinued after he became a Catholic to be the 
 patron of the reformed, and his principal 
 minifters were of that profeflion. Generous 
 and free in his own principles, he endeavoured 
 to promote a fpirit of love and charity among 
 4 his 
 
i 74 LETTER Vtt. 
 
 his fubje< 5 ts, to allay all bitternefs and animd- 
 iity, arid to put an end to all perfecution. He 
 called together the effates of his kingdom, 
 not to force them to a compliance with his 
 own will, nor to defpife their counfels, but 
 with a fincere intention to follow them. All 
 his actions difcovered a greatnefs of mind, 
 all his words were the unfeigned pictures of a 
 generous heart : pofferity will for ever re- 
 member them with virtuous applaufe ; with 
 what emotions of gratitude then muff they 
 have infpired the breaffs of his fubje&s, with 
 what admiration muff they have beheld his 
 adfions, and with what rapture muff they have 
 heard the benevolent expreffions of his affec- 
 tionate regard to the intereffs of his country, 
 and of mankind in general ! Such qualities 
 would have appeared amiable at all times, but 
 if you refle<£f upon the ffate of France for 
 fome years before Henry came to the throne,- 
 you will be convinced, that he muff have ap- 
 peared like an angel, fent from heaven to 
 blefs mankind ; or, as the antients related of 
 their Apollo, to infpire men with great and 
 beautiful ideas, to make the voice of the 
 
 mufes 
 
Oii the Influence of Liberty, &c. 175 
 
 *nufes be heard, by putting an end to the 
 horrid noife of inhuman war, and to refcue 
 the people from cruel famine. 
 
 Hie bellum lacrymofum, hie miferam 
 famem 
 
 Peftemque a populo aget ** 
 
 That Henry came to the throne, at a 
 time, when the French had been expofed to 
 the moft dreadful effe<51s of thefe fevereft 
 fcourges of human kind, is well known. 
 Not infpired by a generous principle of fup- 
 porting their liberties and laws, or of defend- 
 ing their country again# a foreign enemy, 
 but inhigated by inhuman fuperftition, the 
 catholics of France had taken up arms to im- 
 brue their hands in the blood of their fellow 
 citizens. The malfacre of Paris, and the fa- 
 mous fiege of that city, which happened fomc 
 years after, will be remembered as eternal 
 proofs, what fuperftition can prompt its bi- 
 gotted votaries to do, and fuffer. Neither age, 
 nor fex, nor beauty, nor merit, could make 
 * Hor, 
 
 2 
 
 the 
 
i 7 6 LETTER VIL 
 
 the dagger fall from the hand of the barba^ 
 rous affadin : nor could a famine, fo dread- 
 ful as even to indigate a wretched mother to 
 eat her own child, oblige the Parilians to 
 furrender their city to one whom they were 
 taught to look upon as aecurfed. 
 
 Henry, however, overcame every obda- 
 cle. *Twas impodible for the mod bigoted to 
 keep up a league again# him, that could any 
 longer prevent his afeending the throne. Hap- 
 py was it for France that he became king. To 
 the mod: cruel and tumultuous fucceeded 
 times the mod: peaceful and generous. Se- 
 cured in the poffedion of their rights and 
 privileges, and of every thing that they held 
 mod: dear, no one was any longer afraid of 
 falling a victim to the cruelty of a bafe af- 
 faffin, or to the indolence of a haughty mi- 
 nion of power. 
 
 The minds of men, which had been agi- 
 tated during the preceding reigns, and ob- 
 liged to make ufe of every effort for felf-pre- 
 fervation and defence, being now no longer 
 
 kept 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 177 
 
 kept in perpetual alarm, had leizure to apply 
 that vigour and a&ivity which they had ac- 
 quired to the embellishment of life, and to 
 the improvement of whatever was elegant and 
 polite. What great things Henry did for the 
 eafe, the plenty, and fecurity of his people, 
 is well known ; what more he might have 
 done, had not an infamous wretch put an un- 
 timely period to his glorious career, may be 
 conjectured from what he did. But that, dur- 
 ing this reign of freedom and joy, a founda- 
 tion was laid, for that high reputation the 
 French afterwards acquired for genius and 
 tafte, which, as I obferved before, appeared 
 in their utmoft luftre, during the adminiftra- 
 tions of Richelieu and Mazarin, cannot be 
 doubted. Nor is it abfurd to fuppofe, that, as 
 the fpirit of liberty, and the freedom, which 
 prevailed in France before they came to the 
 helm of affairs, contributed greatly to form 
 the fublime tafte of the illuflrious writers of 
 their times, fo a check w r as given to farther 
 improvement, by the large ftrides which they 
 made towards arbitrary power. 
 
 N 
 
 Every 
 
i 7 8 LETTER VIL 
 
 Every body knows with what intrepid 
 boldnefs the firtt, and with what confummate 
 art the latt of thefe minifters aggrandized the 
 power of their matters, and paved the way to 
 defpotifm. 
 
 Richelieu, Mazarin, minittres immortelles ; 
 Jufqu’ au Trone eleves de 1’ ombre des autels s 
 Enfans de la fortune et de la politique. 
 Marcher ont a grands pas au pouvoir defpo- 
 tique *. 
 
 To enter minutely into the alterations which 
 they made in the conftitution of France 
 would require more time than I can at prefent 
 beftow upon it : befides, the fa£l is allowed 
 on all hands, and there are not more or better 
 helps for acquiring a thorough knowledge of 
 the tranfa&ions of any country in any pe- 
 riod, than of thofe of France at that time. 
 The principal acfors were men of great abi- 
 lities every way, and being capable of writ- 
 ing, as well as of acting with fpirit, the world 
 
 * Volt. Hen. 
 
 is 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 179 
 
 is furnifhed with ample materials to judge of 
 the conduct of all parties, and to form their 
 opinions from the accounts of thofe who were 
 bed: acquainted with the tranfadUons of the 
 times. Your Lordfhip will be greatly in- 
 ftrucded and amufed with the original me- 
 moirs of that period ; but that you may fee 
 how far the Conftitution of France was then 
 altered, and its liberty abridged, I fhall give 
 you the trouble to read fome Sentences, trans- 
 cribed from eminent French writers, which 
 in a few words will Shew you what thefe al- 
 terations were, better than I could do, and 
 at the fame time prove the truth of what has 
 been affirmed, that the French government 
 at that period became more abfolute than it 
 had formerly been 
 
 I COULD 
 
 * Ce miniflre (Richelieu) dont la politique abfolue 
 avoit viole les anciennes loix du royaume pour etablir 
 l’authorit iimmcderce de fon rnaitre, dont il etoit difpen- 
 fateur ; avoit confidere tous les reglemens de cet etaf, 
 comme des concefiions forcecs, et des bornes impofees 
 a la puiffance des roys, plutot que de fondemens folides 
 pour bien regner j et comme fon adminiffiation tres 
 N 2 longue 
 
i8o LETTER VII. 
 
 I could produce a great many more au- 
 thorities to prove what I have afTerted, but 
 
 thefe 
 
 longue avoit ete autborifee, par de grands fuccez pen- 
 dant la vie du feu roy, il renverfa toutes les formes de 
 la jufiice et des finances, et avoit introduit pour la 
 fouverain tribunal de la vie et les bien des hommes, 
 la volonte royale. Mem. de M. de la Rochefoucault. 
 
 Le Cardinal de Richelieu fit, pour ainfi dire, un fond 
 de toutes les mauvaife intentions et de toutes les ignorance 
 des deux derniers fiecles, pour s’en fervir felon fes in- 
 terets. II les deguifa en maximes utiles et neceflaires 
 pour etablir 1’autorite royale, et la fortune fecondant 
 fes defleins, par le defarmement du parti proteftant en 
 France, par les vi&oires des Suedois, par la foiblefle 
 de l’empire, par Tincapacite d’Efpagne, il forma dans 
 la plus legitime des monarchies la plus fcandaleufe et 
 la plus dangereufe tyrannie, qui ait peut-etre jamais 
 aflervi un etat. Mem. deRetz. 
 
 II (Richelieu) fit un coup d’etat, en abbaiflant les 
 grands feignieurs, de maniere qu’il n’y on a plus au- 
 jourd-hui. Il fit un coup d’etat, en otant aux religion- 
 aires, leurs places de furete. Il fit un coup d’etat en 
 eloignant des affaires les princes du fang, et en les re. 
 duiflant a la condition de fimples fujets. 
 
 
 Mais 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 181 
 
 fhefe are enough, and perl] aps indeed more 
 than enough : for your Lordihip may poflibly 
 think that I have brought myfelfinto a ftrange 
 dilemma, either of denying that the French, 
 lince the times of Richelieu and Mazarin have 
 been eminent for genius and tafte, or of con- 
 tradicting the principle I have taken fo much 
 pains to eftablifh, that thefe cannot fubfift 
 in a defpotic government. But I hope I am 
 neither fo partial, nor fo utterly void of dif- 
 cernment, as not to allow the French of the 
 prefent times to be confpicuous both for ge- 
 nius and tafte ; and I hope too, that I ihall 
 be able to account for it, confidently with 
 my opinion about the influence of liberty. 
 
 It muft be carefully rementbered that the 
 greateft geniufes the French can boaft of, 
 the Corneilles and Molieres, the Bofluets and 
 
 Mais n’etendoit-il pas, n’affermifloit-il afiez par ces 
 difpofitions l’autorite royale ? etoit-il necelfaire de la 
 rendre abfolue ? ne precipita-t-il pas les chofes cfun 
 exces dans un autre ? n’altera-t-il pas la conftitutfon 
 fpndamentale du royaume ? Mes Penfees. 
 
 N 3 Ro'* 
 
LETTER VII. 
 
 182 
 
 Rochefoucaults , the Pduffms and Le Bruns, 
 and a great many more of their illuftrious 
 cotemporaries * were born before the efforts 
 of Richelieu had fully eftablifhed the power 
 of the French monarchs, and were formed 
 in times, when that minifler had not as yet 
 given, what Cardinal De Retz, in his animated 
 manner, calls a movement of rapidity to the 
 royal authority f. 
 
 Had Richelieu been followed by a fuccef- 
 iion of miniflers, who, bold and fuccefsful 
 as himfelf, had been able to make the torrent 
 of royal power flow with increafing velocity, 
 
 * Corneille was born in 1606, Moliere in 1620. 
 BofTuet in 1627. Rochefoucault in 1613. Pouffin in 
 15^4. Le Brim in 1619. Richelieu may be faid to 
 have attained to the height of his power, after having 
 ^educed Rochelle in 1628, or rather after having de- 
 feated the intrigues againft him, and got the better of 
 all his antagonifts in 1632. 
 
 f Le mouvement de rapidite que Mr. le Cardinal 
 Richelieu avoit donne a Pautorite royale. 
 
 Mem. De Retz. 
 
 and 
 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 183 
 
 and fweep away eyery inferior obflacle with 
 its impetuous fir earn, the French would in- 
 deed have become mere flaves, and genius 
 and true tafle would quickly have difappear- 
 ed 5 but after his death they got a breathing 
 time, and during the weaknefs of a mino- 
 rity, curbed the power of his fucceffor, in- 
 vefled the magistrates and laws with fomewhat 
 of their former dignity, and fhewed a Spirit, 
 that obliged Mazarin to leave the kingdom 
 for fome time, and made him, after his re- 
 turn, cautious how he meddled with the 
 rights of a people, which he found had {till 
 fome power and much inclination to oppofe 
 him. It required all his art not to Suffer 
 the crown to lofe that power, which Richelieu 
 had acquired : to increafe or carry it fur- 
 ther was an attempt beyond his courage or 
 genius. 
 
 That Lewis XIV. was abfolute cannot be 
 denied ; but he was fo, more by his great per - 
 fonal character, and by the voluntary obe- 
 dience that his admiring fubjefts paid him, 
 N 4 than 
 
1 84 L E T T E R VII. 
 
 than by any alteration he made in the con- 
 flitution beyond what Richelieu had done. 
 
 What the lituation of France has been 
 under his fucceffor is well known. The 
 firmnefs and integrity of the magiftrates hath 
 given force and dignity to the laws ; the pru- 
 dent and feafonable remonftrances of the par- 
 liaments have fupported the credit of their 
 body, and prevented great encroachments 
 from being made upon the fundamentals of 
 the conflitution, by a feeble admtniftration, 
 and a prince whom even his friends will not 
 pretend to be of an elevated or enterpriiing 
 character. When the members of the par- 
 liament of Paris were lately banifhed on ac- 
 count of the religious difputes, which have 
 fo long prevailed in France, It was found im- 
 practicable to carry on the bufi.nefs of the na- 
 tion by an arbitrary council fubftituted in 
 their place. Without making concefiions, 
 or giving up the point in difpute, they were 
 recalled, and have fince, to their immortal 
 honour, continued to defend the liberties of 
 
 France, 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. iB$ 
 
 France, and to punilh thofe priefts, who re- 
 fufe the facraments to fuch as will not de- 
 clare their full aflent to the conftitution Uni- 
 genitus, by which thefe worthy magiftrates 
 have demonflrated that liberty is not entirely 
 abolilhed in France, 
 
 Thank heaven, we in Great Britain are 
 bleft with a freedom unequalled by that of 
 any other nation in the world. Of this happy 
 freedom we have reafon to boaft, but we 
 ought not rafhly to pronounce that other na- 
 tions are mere Haves, and to talk as if we 
 made no diftin<5lion between the llavery of 
 Turkey and France. They indeed muft be 
 utterly unacquainted with this latter country, 
 who don't know, that among the French, 
 juftice is regularly adminiftred, and pri- 
 vate property Secured by the guardians 
 of the law, who are a great and reSpec- 
 . table body, which they never are in a des- 
 potic government ; and that though the in- 
 habitants of France do not enjoy a freedom 
 comparable to that of Britain, yet they are 
 
 certainly 
 
1 86 L E T T E R VII. 
 
 certainly more free than the enflayed Afiatics, 
 or even than feveral European nations. 
 
 The argument, upon the whole, may be 
 fummed up in a few words. The period, 
 in which the French tafte was gradually im- 
 proving, was a period when the rights of the 
 bulk of the people were gaining ground , 
 genius and lade were carried to their greateft 
 perfection by thofe who were born at the very 
 time when France was mod free. Since the 
 adm migration of Richelieu, the government 
 hath been more arbitrary, and tafte hath not 
 made any advances, perhaps hath not been 
 kept up with an equal degree of elegance 
 and fpirit. But though it fhould be allowed 
 that it has, even this cannot greatly invali- 
 date the argument in favour of the happy 
 influence of liberty, fmce the French are 
 certainly not fo utterly deprived of freedom, or 
 fo much opprefled by the iron rod of flavery, 
 as to be rendered incapable, like the fubjeCls 
 of defpotic emperors, to be animated and 
 improved by other favourable circumflances. 
 
 5 It 
 
On the Influence ofLiEERTY, &c. 187 
 
 It would, indeed, be ftrangely unreafon- 
 able and bigotted to pretend, that liberty 
 alone is fufficient to improve the tafte of a 
 nation, or that better opportunities, or more 
 care may not make a people, that enjoys 
 a fmaller fhare of freedom, excel one which 
 pofieftes a greater, but is not bleft with equal 
 advantages in other refpe£ls, or has not had 
 its attention fo long turned to objects of tafte. 
 There are degrees of freedom as of other 
 things ; every one is not endued with equally 
 good parts $ but pains and better opportu- 
 nities often enable the man of middling talents 
 to make a greater figure than one of far fu- 
 perior natural abilities, who wanted thefe 
 opportunities, or made a bad ufe of fuch as 
 he had. There is, however, a certain ftupidity 
 in fome individuals, and defpotifm prevails fo 
 thoroughly in fome countries, as to baffle 
 every attempt to improve , or at leaft every 
 effort to excel . 
 
 In a letter which I formerly wrote to your 
 Lordfhip *, I took notice of fome circum- 
 
 tfc See letter 5 th. 
 
 fiance 
 
188 LETTER VII. 
 
 dances favourable to the tafle of France, arif- 
 ing from the peculiar genius and fituation of 
 its metropolis ; but there are alfo other ad- 
 vantages that the French in general enjoy, 
 which, it can hardly be denied, muft have a 
 happy influence. 
 
 Their language has become almoft the 
 univerfal language of Europe : their pro- 
 ductions are read, tranflated, approved of, 
 or criticized every where : the befl books of 
 other nations too are tranflated into French : 
 the moft ingenious of all countries vifit theirs, 
 are defirous of becoming acquainted with their 
 celebrated men, and of communicating their 
 own fentiments to them. Though there are 
 reftraints upon the prefs at Paris, yet they 
 fall upon ways of eluding them, or, if in 
 fame cafes they fail, Holland fupplies 
 them with whatever they want, and books of 
 all kinds may be procured in France : no 
 country is better ftored with them, and no 
 where does reading more generally prevail. 
 
 If 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. 189 
 
 If ’tis univerfally allowed that the inven- 
 tion of printing, by making the noble pro- 
 ductions of Greece and Rome be read by vafl 
 numbers, contributed greatly to diffufe the 
 genuine tafte and freedom of fpirit which be- 
 gan to prevail in the fixteenth eentury 5 may 
 it not with equal reafon be owned, that the 
 French, by having an opportunity of read- 
 ing, in their own language, the bed: works 
 of every country, are poifelTed of great op- 
 portunities of improvement, and of having 
 their minds enlarged, and their prejudices 
 corre&ed ? How many Frenchmen have been 
 the pupils of Bacon, of Locke, and of other 
 illuftrious geniufes, formed in this ifland, as 
 well as in other free countries abroad ? The 
 univerfality of the French language hath almoft 
 made the French, citizens of the world, and 
 put it in their power to catch the fpirit, to 
 imbibe the fentiments, and to acquire the 
 ideas, which prevail among the ingenious 
 men of every country. 
 
 It has alfo had another effeft ; it has open- 
 ed an ealy accefs to Frenchmen into every 
 
 country 
 
l 9 o LETTER Vll. 
 
 country of Europe, and made the Inge- 
 nious of that nation be well received every 
 where ; as people are fond of becoming 
 acquainted with the eminent men of a coun- 
 try, which has fo long acquired the lead in 
 polite accomplifhments, and whofe language 
 every court in Europe makes ufe of, when 
 tranfa&ing bufinefs with foreign ftates. Con- 
 fcious of this advantage, the free fpirits of 
 France are more independent at home than 
 they would otherwife be, as they are fure of 
 a retreat in foreign countries, if their free- 
 dom fhould happen to difoblige the gover- 
 nors of their own, or make it difagreeable 
 for them to remain in France. When bi- 
 gotry and envy had raifed a party to get 
 prefident Montefquieu debarred from thofe 
 honours which his merit gave him a title to 
 lay claim to, he told the miniffry, that if 
 fuch an injury fhould be done him, he would 
 leave his native country, and accept of that 
 fecurity and thofe honours which foreigners 
 liberally offered him *. This, in all proba- 
 
 * See an account of his life in the Encyclop. 
 
 bility. 
 
On the Influence of Liberty, &c. i 91 
 
 bility, prevented his being excluded from the 
 French academy, and emboldened him to 
 write with ftill more freedom in his fpirit of 
 laws, than he had done in the Perfian letters , 
 which at that time gave offence. 
 
 In fa&, do not we know that foiiie of the 
 greateft men, whom France can at prefent 
 boaft to have given birth to, live abroad, 
 honoured and careffed ? I need only name 
 two of them, Maupertius * and Voltaire, 
 the firft of whom is at the head of his Pruf- 
 fian majefty’s academy, and the fecond, hath 
 at lad fixed his abode in the territories of a 
 free fiate, where independent, he lives be- 
 yond the reach of arbitrary power, infpired 
 by that goddefs eternally adored by man- 
 kind, the animating foul of every grand 
 attempt, the object of noble vows, which, 
 when prefent, every mortal with joy embraces, 
 or, if abfent, longs for and anxioufiy re- 
 calls, which lives in every heart, and whofe 
 
 * Maupertius died fince this letter was written. 
 
 facred 
 
192 LETTER VIL 
 
 facred name is filently worfhipped even in the 
 courts of tyrants * By liberty— to borrow his 
 own fentiments, 
 
 — : — C*eft fur ces bords heureux 
 Qu’ habite des humains la deefs eternelle, 
 L’aime des grands travaux, I’objeft des 
 noble voeux, 
 
 Que tout mortel embraffe, ou defire,* ou 
 rapelle, 
 
 Qui vit dans tous les coeurs, et dont le nom 
 facre 
 
 Dans les cours des tyrans eft tout bas adore. 
 La liberte.™ 
 
 Lines which 1 could not help tranfcribing 
 from an admirable epiftle, written by him, 
 when he arrived at his Villa near the lake of 
 Geneva. 
 
 There is a mighty difference between the 
 Hate of Europe at prefent, and what it was, 
 when the Roman emperors became mafters 
 of the world. Their fway was univerfal, their 
 fubje&s could caft their eyes upon no neigh- 
 bouring 
 
On the Influence ofLiEE&TY, &c. 193 
 
 bouring free country, where they might be 
 fheltered from oppreflion, and a view of 
 whofe liberty might give them the ani- 
 mating hopes of recovering their own. 
 All, bended beneath the yoke of Rome and 
 her tyrants* 'Tis otherwife in modern times. 
 Every country in Europe, where arbitrary 
 power prevails, is furrounded by fuch as are 
 free, which produces thefe different effects, 
 it keeps ambitious men within bounds, and 
 makes them afraid to proceed to extremities ; 
 it animates the minds of the people, and 
 makes them hope to be what their neighbours 
 are * ; it fpreads the principles of liberty over 
 all Europe, and prevents the vital fpark from 
 being utterly extinguilhed in any country. 
 
 This might almofi alone account for the 
 unequal influence of the abfolute power of the 
 kings of France, and the Roman emperors, in 
 
 * II eft utile, qu’il-y ait un peuple libre, quand ce 
 ne feroit que pour appreildre aux autres qu’ils peuvent 
 Fetre. Mes Penfes, 
 
 O 
 
 de- 
 
% 9 4 LETTER VIL 
 
 depreffing genius and vitiating tade, even al- 
 lowing them to have been equally defpotic, 
 which is far from being the cafe. All the dates 
 in Europe are fo nicely ballanced, have fo 
 many interfering intereds, and fo much ne- 
 ceffary communication with each other, 
 that there is a fort of interchange of the 
 opinions, principles and moral fentiments, 
 as well as of the natural productions, and 
 various manufa&ures of the different coun- 
 tries. In computing the freedom, the libe- 
 ral fpirit and tade, which may be fuppofed 
 to prevail in any nation, we ought not only 
 to take into the account the advantages* 
 they derive from their own conditution* but 
 likewife thofe which arife from their com- 
 munication with other countries, and that 
 proteClion which they may hope to dnd 
 abroad, if they are oppreffed at home. If 
 we condder the circumdances of the French 
 in thefe refpe&s, we mud certainly own, they 
 are extremely favourable. 
 
 With 
 
On the Influence ofLiBERjrY, &c. 19,5 
 
 With this I fhall conclude what I had 
 to offer in anfwer to the objections, that 
 may be brought againft the happy influence 
 of liberty upon taffe as w^ell as genius, from 
 what has happened in France in modem times. 
 The natural influence of freedom to improve 
 every faculty of the human mind, might indeed 
 be proved by abffrad principles, but argu- 
 ments of that fort are always lefs entertaining 
 than thofe which are deduced from hifforical 
 fads. Similar reafonings and obfervations, 
 made upon the circumftances and fituation 
 of other nations, when your Lordfhip is 
 reading the General Hiffory of the world, 
 may be fuccefsfully employed to refute all 
 the objections that • can be brought againft 
 the principle, here attempted to be eftablilli- 
 ed from the Hate of taffe in any other coun- 
 try, even in modern Italy itfelf. 
 
 Your Lordfhip’s genius will enable you 
 to do this with much more advantage and 
 pleafure to yourfelf than I could do. The 
 active exertion of one’s own talents is always 
 O a more 
 
i 9 6 LETTER VIL 
 
 more agreeable and improving, than tedi*» 
 oufly to follow the reafonings of another. 
 But this puts me in mind that it is high time 
 to conclude my letter, and to aik pardon for 
 having made it fo long. 1 am. 
 
 My Lord, 6 tc. 
 
 L E T- 
 
I J 97 3 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Why Poetry has flourished more 
 in England, than Sculpture or 
 Painting. 
 
 My Lord* 
 
 I F liberty, as I endeavoured to prove In 
 fome former letters, be favourable to ge- 
 nius and tafte, and if Britain be the happy ille. 
 
 Where, long foretold, the people reigns $ 
 Where each a vaffal’s humble heart difdains 
 
 * Dr. Akenfide’s ode to the earl of Huntingdon, 
 
 o 3 
 
 it 
 
x 9 * l e t t e R VIII. 
 
 it may feem furprifmg that in fome things we 
 have been excelled, and in others fo nearly e- 
 qualled, by our lefs free neighbours. Can this 
 be attributed to the genius of the people ? 
 It certainly cannot. That we have produced 
 phiiofophers of fuperior merit, whofe great 
 efforts enabled them to attain to the higheft 
 pinnacle of the temple of wifdom, from 
 whence they could behold thofe of other na- 
 tions every where groping in the dark, and 
 widely erring from the paths of truth and real 
 fcience, * is undoubtedly certain : the awful 
 name of Newton puts it beyond difpute. 
 But, my Lord, it does more, it proves that 
 this country muff have produced geniufes, 
 which, if properly encouraged, might have 
 been capable of any thing. There is a na- 
 tural connection between all the faculties of 
 the human foul ; an age and nation that pro- 
 duces great men in one way, might in 
 
 * — Sapientum templa ferena, 
 Defpicere unde queas alios, pailimque videre 
 Errare. — ^ Lucret . 
 
 ano 
 
On POETRY, &c. 
 
 199 
 
 another; if its genius were turned to that 
 objedt. What power of the human mind 
 can we fuppofe not to have been poifeflf- 
 ed by one, who could penetrate into the 
 laws of nature, and unravel the amazing 
 pi dd of the univerfe with fuch perfpicuity 
 as Sir Ifaac Newton ? Depth of judg- 
 ment was not alone fufficient, the firongeft 
 imagination muft have been nec.effary to en- 
 able one to conceive how the fame force, which 
 caufes a Rone to fall to the ground, makes 
 the planets gravitate to each other, and to 
 comprehend how the various laws of nature 
 regulate the appearances and motions of thofe 
 bodies, which the great Creator of all things 
 hath exhibited to our view in the immenfrty 
 of fpace ! If Newton difeovered lefs relifh 
 and tafte for inferior beauties and harmonies, 
 ? twas becaufe his mind was occupied by a 
 grander beauty, and a more divine harmony, 
 that of the univerfe and the fpheres. When 
 men, eminent in that fcience in which he ex- 
 celled, condefcend to treat of inferior arts, 
 they can convince the world how much they 
 O 4 are 
 
200 LETTER VIII. 
 
 are capable of outgoing the reft of man- 
 kind even in thefe; a finking proof of which 
 Dr. Smith has lately given in his Harmonics* 
 a work, in which the true principles of mu- 
 fic are allowed, by the beft judges, to have 
 been better explained than they ever were. 
 
 But not only in the fublime and philofo-* 
 phic fciences, even in arts which are allowed 
 to depend more intimately upon the powers 
 of imagination and a fine tafte, Britain has 
 produced fuch examples as may convince any 
 one, that the inhabitants of this ifland, 
 whenever they are properly encouraged, and 
 apply to them, may excel in all the polite 
 arts. Did the grand productions of Mi- 
 chael Angelo, in architecture, painting and 
 ftatuary, require a greater fublimity of ima- 
 gination than the Paradife Loft ? Do the 
 works of any landfcape-painter difcover a 
 fancy more forcibly ftruck, or capable of 
 defcribing natural objeCts with more truth or 
 energy, than the fiiolurefque pen of Thomfon 
 has done in his Seafons, a poem, which con- 
 
 fidered 
 
On POETRY, &c. 
 
 201 
 
 fidered in this light is admirable, the ideas of 
 almoft every page of which, exhibited upon 
 canvas, would, without any addition, make 
 a Hr iking landfcape, equal perhaps to any of 
 the mo ft famous mafters, Has not England 
 produced writers of the comic kind of the 
 greateft merit ? We can indeed at prefent 
 boaft of a painter in this way, whofe ta- 
 lents are unequalled and inimitable : Mr. 
 
 Hogarth need not be named to let you 
 know who this original genius is. 
 
 Whence then can it arife that, with a ge- 
 nius capable of excelling in all, the Englifh 
 have been eminent only in fome particular 
 branches of the fine arts, and that Britain has 
 produced fo many good poets, and no pain- 
 ters or ftatuaries capable of contending with 
 Pouftin, Le Brun, and Girardon ? I do not 
 mention thefe, as if I meant to fay that they 
 are the greateft mafters in their different ways j 
 I know the Raphaels, the Rubens, the Mi- 
 chael Angelos have greatly excelled them 5 
 
 but 
 
202 LETTER VIII. 
 
 but I have named them, becaufe they are 
 the boaft of a country that has fo long rivall- 
 ed this ifland in every thing : but which the 
 inhabitants of Great Britain have a genius 
 capable of excelling, if proper encourage- 
 ment was given to it, and proper methods 
 taken to cultivate and improve it. This I 
 ihall endeavour to illuftrate, and to offer fome 
 reafons that may throw light upon the quef- 
 tion, Why England has produced fo many 
 great poets, and no capital painters or fta- 
 tuaries ? 
 
 To anfwer the firft part of the queftion, 
 one need only put another : why have the 
 mufes had votaries in every country upon 
 earth ? Among barbarous and uncivilized 
 nations, they have been worfhipped by rough 
 unpolifhed bards, and in every polite and 
 civilized country, by fuch as were infpired 
 with a genius and tafte more fuitable to the 
 dignity and elegance of thofe Deities ? The 
 firft writers almoft in every country were 
 poets, one reafon of which may have 
 
 been 
 
On POETRY, &c. 
 
 203 
 
 been this : a fentiment, well exprefied in 
 harmonious verfe, might perhaps never be fo 
 elegantly exprefied again, even by the perfon 
 who firft uttered it 5 one word, nay the placing 
 of a word, or the arrangement of a fentence, 
 being forgot, the harmony is loft, and the 
 pleafure we enjoyed, when liftening to the 
 fweet founds, is felt no more. Hence thofe, 
 whofe genius enabled them to relate any ad- 
 venture in elegant verfe, or to fing of any 
 fubje<5t in pleafing ftrains, confcious of the 
 admiration with which they were heard, 
 and afraid that thefe harmonious fentences 
 ftiould flip out of their memory, wrote them 
 down, that they might have it in their power 
 to pleafe again with words, which they had 
 found to pleafe before. Emulation, and a 
 defire of excelling, natural to man, prompted 
 others to afpire to the fame applaufe. As every 
 country grew civilized, and its language ele- 
 gant and correct, poets by degrees became 
 more excellent, and their verfes more po« 
 lifhed and refined. ’Tis an entertaining {pe- 
 culation to reflect upon the gradual improve- 
 ments 
 
204 LETTER VIII. 
 
 xnents of nations and men ; to trace the ef- 
 forts of the Britifh mufe from the fongs of 
 the antient Druids to the fublime poetry of 
 Milton, and the elegant and fenfible verfes 
 of Pope. 
 
 Since knowledge and arts, forfaking the 
 eaftern regions of this globe, have deigned 
 to viflt the weftern world, Britain has been 
 eminent for learning and fcience : its inhabi- 
 tants have long vied with all their neighbours, 
 and in latter ages have produced geniufes of 
 fuch fuperior merit, as has rendered the 
 vi&ory in thefe articles, even in the opinion 
 of the bed judges among our rivals, immor- 
 tal. Mr. Voltaire owns, that, if we con- 
 fi der the great and ufefui difcoveries in phi- 
 lofophy, that age, which he edeems to have 
 been the mod: enlightened of any, may with 
 as much propriety be called the age of Eng- 
 land, as of Lewis XIV Poffeded too of a 
 
 lan- 
 
 *. Ced de fon fein (la Societe Royale) que fortiresit 
 de nos jours les decouverts fur la lumiere, fur le prin- 
 
 cipe 
 
On POETRY, & c . 
 
 20g 
 
 language originally copious and bold, and 
 at lafl by many efforts highly improved* 
 Britain has produced poets of a genius more 
 refembling the noble fpirit of the antients, 
 than perhaps any other country in modem 
 times. I fay refembling the fpirit of the an- 
 tients, for it cannot be denied that their cri- 
 tical accuracy has been more copied by the 
 writers of feme other nations. To the ge- 
 nius of the people, and that elevated fpirit 
 which liberty infpires, we owe our excelling 
 in the firft : to our negligence, and to the 
 fuperior care bellowed upon criticifin in a 
 neighbouring country, ’tis owing that we are 
 excelled in the fecond. 
 
 It has often been obferved, with a feeming 
 depth of judgment, that academies and fo~ 
 cieties, eflablifhed for the encouragement of 
 
 cipe de la gravitation, fur {’aberration des etoiles fixes, 
 fur la geometric tranfeendante, et cent autres inven-r 
 tions, qui pourraient a cet egard faire appeller ce 
 fiecle, le fiecle des Anglois, auffi bien que celui de 
 Louis XIV, 
 
 fciences 
 
206 LETTER VIII. 
 
 fciences and arts, for judging of the merit of 
 works, and bellowing rewards and honors 
 upon thofe who excel, in fad does more 
 harm than good *. This obfervation, as it 
 contradids what appears to be at firft evident* 
 feems ingenious, but if we confider it, ’twill 
 be found to be over-refined, and unjuft. 
 s< In France, fays Dr. Brown, the feverities 
 of the academy have utterly quenched the 
 high tragic fpirit •f’\ However, this can 
 hardly be allowed, when we refled that even 
 tranflations of Zara, and fome other French 
 tragedies of modern date, are favourite and 
 ftock-plays upon the Englilh ftage, and feem 
 to be at leaft as fpirited as feveral performan- 
 ces of our own tragic writers of the pre- 
 fent times. 
 
 But though it were allowed that the high 
 tragic fpirit had utterly forfaken the French, 
 
 * Les academies, inftitues pour etendre le Genie, 
 mais bien plus propres a le borner, ont fbnde des prix, 
 kc. Mgs Penfes . 
 
 f Ef%s on the Charaderiftics, p. 34. 
 
 ano- 
 
On POETR Y, &c. 
 
 207 
 
 another and a better reafon might be given 
 for it 5 it might be fuppofed that the elevated 
 fpirit of tragedy would decay in a country 
 where power has made fuch encroachments 
 upon liberty. This would certainly have 
 been the cafe, had not other favourable cir~ 
 cumftances in fome meafure prevented it : 
 among thefe, I cannot help being perfuaded 
 that the efforts of the academy ought not to 
 be omitted, and that its inffitution may be 
 faid to be one reafon, (befides thofe which 1 
 took notice of in a former letter) that has 
 enabled the French to bear up again# the 
 mifchievous influence of arbitrary power upon 
 genius and tafle. 
 
 If the natural effedfc of a gay and thought- 
 lefs court be to promote a tafle for every 
 thing that is frivolous and fantaflical, and a 
 relifh for luxury and filly amufements, ra- 
 ther than manly pleafures and rational enter- 
 tainments, can we conceive any thing better 
 calculated to ferve as an antidote again# this 
 relaxing poifon, than the eflablifhment of a 
 
 fociety 
 
 6 
 
2o8 
 
 LETTER YIII. 
 
 fociety of men eminent for their parts-, and 
 among whom they alone can make a figure, 
 who improve their talents and feverely cor- 
 rect the irregularities of fancy and tafte ? 
 If an admiffion into this fociety be afpired 
 to as an honour by the greateft men of the 
 country, both for abilities and rank, mufl it 
 not naturally have this double effe£I ? to excite 
 every perfon of genius to endeavour to 
 merit a place in it by cultivating his talents, 
 and to render the fociety itfelf fo refpe&able 
 and illuflrious, that its decifions will be re- 
 garded with veneration, and its tafle, formed 
 by a fludy of what is natural and juft, and 
 by being converfant with the fentiments of 
 the greateft men both among the living and 
 the dead, become fo authoritative as even to 
 be able to oppofe that of a diflipated and un- 
 thinking court. 
 
 If in fome countries, particularly in France, 
 very fmall or perhaps no improvements have 
 been made in the fine arts fince the eflablifh- 
 ment of focieties to promote and encourage 
 5 them. 
 
I ' \ 
 
 On ?OfeTRf, kc. 209 
 
 them, it mud have proceeded from fome 
 Circumfiances lefs friendly to genius and 
 tafte than fuch academies can poffibly be 
 fuppofed to be; or perhaps they had ah* 
 ready been brought to the greated per- 
 fection the genius and language of the 
 people were capable of. But without taking 
 a great deal for granted, we may affirm, that, 
 in all probability, had it not been for thefe 
 infiitutiohs, a decay of genius, and a corrup- 
 tion of tade would have been both more real 
 and apparent. Such focieties concurring 
 with other favourable circumdances can never 
 be difadvantageous. What was that affembly, 
 in Greece, which at the fead of Minerva, 
 didributed rewards and conferred honours 
 upon the bed: poets, hidorians, and artids, 
 but a fociety of learned men, (for it Confided 
 of a feleCt number) who, having improved 
 their own talents, were capable of judging of 
 the works of others, and of teaching the mul- 
 titude to place their admiration upon worthy 
 objeCts ? Did not the honors, that were 
 bellowed upon Herodotus, fire the mind of 
 P Thu- 
 
210 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Thucydides, then a boy, and prompt him to 
 apply all the force of his genius to emulate 
 or excel the father of Hiflory ? Can we fup- 
 pofe that this inftitution had a bad effedf, nay 
 that it was not one of the principal caufes of 
 that genuine elegance and corredtnefs of tafte 
 which rendered the works of Greece fo ini- 
 mitably beautiful ? 
 
 If, indeed, fuch focieties are not eRablifh- 
 ed kill genius be vifibly on the decline, they 
 may be of little ufe. ’Tis too late to fend a 
 horfe to the manage when his fire and vigour 
 is gone, or after bad ufage has broke his 
 fpirits ; but certainly if he be taken w r hile he 
 yet ftaweth in the valley and rejoiceth in his 
 Jlrength , and fent to be trained in a proper 
 manner, it will not be faid that the fkill of 
 a mailer may not add a grace to all his mo- 
 tions, and corredf the fury and irregularity 
 of his unmanaged efforts, without making 
 him a bit the lefs a fpirited and noble animal. 
 Care and Rudy does not extinguifh genius and 
 fire, but makes them burn with, a more equal 
 S and 
 
On POETRY, & c . 
 
 21 I 
 
 and illuminating flame. Nothing can be 
 better calculated to corredff the irregular Tal- 
 lies of an ingenious people, and to reduce 
 their compofitions to a graceful form, 
 than a fociety invefted with dignity, and ap- 
 pointed to cultivate and promote the liberal 
 arts. Had fuch a fociety been eftablilhed in 
 London, when Shakefpear wrote, the works 
 of that great man would not have afforded, 
 ec as Mr. Pope owns they do*, the moft nu- 
 4£ merous as well as mofl: confpicuous in- 
 cc ftances both of beauties and faults of all 
 ec forts.” The firfl; indeed his genius would 
 have abundantly fupplied him with, but the 
 lafl: he would have been taught and encou- 
 raged to avoid, by having the ' countenance 
 of good judges, and being fupported againft 
 “ the tafte and humour that then prevail- 
 
 “ ed+”. 
 
 Here then, we may perceive one reafon 
 why our neighbours with much lefs genius 
 
 * Preface to Shakefpear. 
 
 f Id. et ibid. 
 
 P 2 
 
 have 
 
2i2 LETTER VIII. 
 
 have excelled us in corredhiefs of tade. 
 They have edablilhed in their metropolis, 
 focieties to fuperintend and dire£l the pub- 
 lic approbation, while we have allowed the 
 humours of the people to be the fovereign 
 arbitrator. In dramatic performances, the 
 Pit has always been able to condemn or ap- 
 prove, and this has generally been led by a 
 few ; who, without perhaps any other qua- 
 lification but a larger fhare of brifknefs and 
 conceit than the red, have taken upon them 
 to diredt the judgment of the town. The 
 univerfities, removed at a didance, could not 
 have much induence : in thefe a foundation 
 might be laid for excelling, by dudying the 
 originals of all beauty ; but when works came 
 to be offered to the town, dwas found that a 
 cladical fpirit was lels calculated to pleafe, 
 than one more adapted to the tade of a place 
 where no fuch learned focieties were indituted, 
 and where a different tade prevailed. Were 
 a fociety, like the French academy, eda- 
 blidied in London, of fuch dignity as to 
 make the mod accomplifhed among the Great, 
 
 am- 
 
On POETRY, &c. 
 
 213 
 
 ambitious of being members of it, it could 
 not fail of having a happy influence. Not 
 only would it ferve to promote a good taile, 
 it would alfo give a fpur to genius, and en- 
 courage many people to cultivate talents, 
 which at prefent they negledh What an ad- 
 ditional ornament would fuch a fociety be 
 to the Britifh metropolis ! What an honor 
 would it be to its Founder , and to thofe whofe 
 intereft and rank might give them an 
 opportunity of promoting fuch an inflitu- 
 tion ! This would make corredlnefs of tahe 
 as much the charadteriflic of the Englifh 
 writers, as freedom and genius have hitherto 
 been, and foon enable the Britifh mufes to 
 become as fuperior to the French in the former 
 as they are by all good judges allowed to be 
 in the latter. 
 
 To the genius then of the people, and to 
 that of liberty, to the boldnefs and copiouf- 
 nefs of our language, we may afcribe the 
 elevated fpirit of Britifh poetry $ to the want 
 of any learned focieties, eflablilhed in Lon- 
 don, we may attribute thofe extravagant 
 P 3 flights. 
 
£t4 L E T TER VIIIc 
 
 flights, and that irregularity, which, it muff 
 be owned, are too confpicuous in fome of 
 the greateft names among the Englilli poets. 
 But t what, my Lord, can it be afcribed, 
 that England has produced no painters or fta- 
 tuaries, whofe productions have been known 
 beyond the limits of their own country; while 
 Italy, the Low Countries, and France have 
 produced mafters in that way, whofe works 
 have become precious over all the world, and 
 for which immenfe fums are every where 
 given ? This muft arife from fome caufe or 
 other in the circumftances or genius of the 
 people. I fhall give you my conjectures about 
 it : probability is all one can expect in fuch a 
 fubject, though undoubtedly, among a people 
 fo remarkable for genius in other refpects as 
 the Englilh, fuch a deficiency muft have 
 arifen from moral caufes, and not from any 
 natural inability of excelling in that particu- 
 lar art. 
 
 When was it that England began to he 
 eminent for a good tafte, and to boaft of 
 great poets ? was it not about the time of 
 5 the 
 
 i 
 
On POETRY, &c. 
 
 215 
 
 die reformation ? An event in every other 
 refpedl of the happieft confequence to this 
 ifland, but which naturally gave a check to 
 improvements in fculpture and painting, by 
 taking away the greateft encouragements and 
 motives to excel in thefe arts. In Italy, at 
 the reftoration of politenefs and arts, poets 
 and painters appeared at the fame time. 
 
 A Raphael painted, and a Yida fung % 
 
 In England, Spenfer and Shakefpear, much 
 greater poets than Vida, were accompanied 
 with no painters of any fame, much lefs able 
 to enter the lifts with Raphael the greateft 
 mafter of his art, the modern world can 
 boaft of ; and ever fince the revival of letters 
 and arts. Great Britain hath been left infinitely 
 behind in painting by Italy, and other Ro- 
 man Catholic countries, while our poets have 
 fung with a nobler fire, and catched the free 
 and manly fpirit of the antients, more per- 
 
 * Pope’s Elfay on Criticifm. 
 
 F 4 
 
 I 
 
 haps 
 
216 LETTER VIII. 
 
 haps than has been done by thofe of any 
 other country in modern times. 
 
 There are no paffions of the human mind 
 capable of being worked up to greater heights, 
 or of producing dronger efFedts, than fuper^ 
 dition and enthufiafm ; hence we may eafily 
 conceive, what an influence the confecrating 
 of datues and pi&ures, as objects of adora- 
 tion in Roman Catholic countries, mud have 
 upon the minds of the people, and for what 
 reafons no pains are fpared, and no ex-* 
 pence grudged, to procure pieces of the 
 mod driking beauty and expredio.n to adorn 
 pppifh altars, and to animate the devotion 
 of fuperditious votaries. Fa6f and expe- 
 rience, as well as reafon and theory, 
 confirm this opinion, and naturally account 
 for thofe drong powers of fancy which Ro- 
 man Catholic painters have difcovered, and 
 for that great encouragement they have met 
 with from the religious. The fird and the 
 Jad works of almod all the great maders have 
 been devotional pieces, and done too for 
 fome religious houfe. 
 
 Cim«9 
 
217 
 
 On POETRY, &c. 
 
 Cimabue, the father and refiorer of paint- 
 ing in modern times, when a boy, ufed to 
 ffep from fchool and fpend his hours in view- 
 ing thofe painters, which the governors of 
 Florence had brought from Greece, and who 
 were at work in the chapel of the family of 
 Gondi, in the church of Sanffa Maria No- 
 vella *. There he firffc had his imagination 
 warmed, and formed thofe ideas of an 
 art, he afterwards carried to a degree of 
 perfection, which, though far inferior to 
 what it has fince arrived at, was infinitely fu- 
 perior to that in which he found it. A pic- 
 ture of the Blefted Virgin done by him for 
 that very church was beheld with fuch ad- 
 miration, that all the people of Florence 
 went to receive it from him at his houfe, 
 and conducted it with extraordinary demon- 
 ff rations of joy, with great pomp and the 
 found of trumpets, to the church where it was 
 to be placed f. Such honors muft have 
 
 power^ 
 
 * Felib. Vies de Peint. 
 
 f Les ouvrages qu’il fit parurent fi admirables in 
 comparifon des autres qu’on voyoit en ce terns la, qu’- 
 
 ayant 
 
218 LETTER VIII. 
 
 powerfully incited others to endeavour to 
 excel in an art that could acquire one fo much 
 applaufe. 
 
 The Hidory of the mod: famous modern 
 painters is principally taken up with accounts 
 of the encouragement they received from Popes, 
 and of the pictures they did for churches and 
 religious houfes Raphael was fo highly 
 honoured by Julius II. and Leo X. that he 
 even hoped to have been made a Cardinal . 
 His greated and bed pieces were done for 
 churches, and the fubje6ls of them are taken 
 from faered hidory. The Transfiguration, 
 his lad and mod perfect performance, fhews 
 how much his imagination was elevated 
 above vulgar conceptions by a dudy of the 
 fublime padages of Scripture, fince he has 
 
 ayant peint un vierge pour metre dans l’Eglife de Santa 
 Maria Novella de Florence, tout le peuple fut prendre 
 ce tableau chez lui, et avec une joye extraordinaire, le 
 porta en pomp, au bruit de trompettes, jufq’au lieu ou il 
 devoitetre pofe. Felib. Vies de Peint. 
 
 * Felib. Vies des Peint. palfim. f Id. 
 
 given 
 
On POETRY, &c. 
 
 219 
 
 given fuch a divine refplendence to the figure 
 of our Saviour, as is allowed to be indeed 
 wonderful, and makes a fine writer fay, that 
 he exerted a laffc and great effort, to fhew the 
 power of his art, in conveying an idea even 
 of things which are inexprefiible But his 
 unneceiTary to fhew what motives to excel, 
 and how much employment the image wor- 
 th ip of the church of Rome gives to painters 
 and datuaries 5 this is fo evident as to Rand 
 in need of no illudration. I fhall only add, 
 that the fine pictures and datues, with which 
 the PQpilh altars are adorned, and to which 
 their religion commands the people to fix 
 their eyes with devout attention, mud; give an 
 opportunity of viewing fine pieces, and of 
 having one’s fancy often warmly druck 
 with the charming productions of fculpture 
 and painting, which is not to be met with 
 in Protedant countries, and confequently 
 mud afford young people many occafions of 
 
 * 11 afaitun dernier effort, pour montrer la puifFance 
 de fon art dans les chofes meme qui ne fe peuvent ex- 
 primer, Felib. Vies des Peint. 
 
 feeling 
 
220 LET T E R VIII. 
 
 feeling the power of their genius, and of dif- 
 covering their tafte for the imitative arts. 
 Eefides, a piddure, which devotion bids one 
 behold v/ith veneration, mud: make a far 
 deeper imprellion upon the mind, and affedd 
 it with a more fenfible rapture, than it could 
 poffibly do, were one only to look at it as a 
 common piece of art, or from no other mo- 
 tive but to gratify tafte or curiofity. Strange 
 things have been told of the ftrong impref- 
 iions made by images upon the imagination, 
 and of the effedd of fuch impreftions. The 
 ingenious Malbranche tells us, \ think, for I 
 have not got his book by me, of a woman 
 who bore a child with a face exaddly re- 
 fembling the image of an old Saint, to 
 which ihe had conftantly paid her de- 
 votions during the time of her pregnancy. 
 If this ftory be true, it is a ftriking proof 
 with what fallibility piddures are fometimes 
 beheld by thofe who kneel to popilh ilirines. 
 And if the theory, that every fentiment of 
 the mother is in fome meafure communicated 
 to the foetus, be juft, it proves too, that the 
 
 
On POETRY, &c. 
 
 i 
 
 impreffion, made by a pidure upon the fancy 
 of the mother, mud in a imall degree affe<d 
 the child’s, and damp an original tade for 
 painting upon its imagination. Thus the 
 circumdances that are favourable to the arts 
 of painting and fculpture in Roman- catho- 
 lic countries may be traced back even to the 
 mod: didant and primitive impreffions that are 
 damped upon the human mind. 
 
 Here, however, I cannot help taking no- 
 tice that, though it mud be owned that the 
 fenfible objects, which are confecrated by the 
 church of Rome to excite the devotion of 
 the people, give a fuperior advantage to coun- 
 tries, where that religion prevails, to excel in 
 the pladic arts, ’tis no argument for us to 
 fall in love with popery, or to become lefs 
 zealous againd its fuperdition. The produc- 
 tions of painting and fculpture have often been 
 made ufe of by defigning men to work up de- 
 votion to wild enthufiafm, and a reverence for 
 the fupreme Being to abjedt and cruel fuperdi- 
 tion. Beiides, the rapture, which one feels, 
 
 when 
 
 6 
 
222 LETTER VIII. 
 
 when viewing exquifite pieces of art, attaches 
 the mind almoft wholly to fenfible obje&s, 
 and obfcures thofe intellectual conceptions of 
 the divinity, which are alone proper, efpe- 
 cially when we approach to worfhip the fa- 
 ther of the univerfe, who is a fpirit, and muff 
 be worfhipped in fpirit. Struck with the vi- 
 able image, the mind forgets the invifible 
 Being, and like jEmilius when he beheld the 
 Jupiter of Phidias, is apt to imagine that it 
 fees Jove himfelf 
 
 I cannot help being perfuaded that the 
 fituation of Great Britain has been another 
 reafon why fculpture aiid painting have made 
 fo fmall progrefs in this country. Living in 
 an illand, and almofl feparated from the reft 
 of the world, the inhabitants of England 
 have been lefs vifited by foreigners of dif- 
 tinfiion than thofe of any other part of Eu- 
 rope of equal confequence, and thus have 
 wanted one motive to encourage arts that are 
 
 * Jovem velut pnefentem. Llv . fee above, page 
 216. 
 
 or- 
 
On POETRY, &c. 
 
 223 
 
 ornamental, the vanity of difplaying grand 
 works to Grangers. The ftates on the Conti- 
 nent, being as it were thorough-fares to each 
 other, and often viewed not only by foreigners 
 who come to refide in them, but by thofe who 
 pafs through them in their way to neighbour- 
 ing countries, have been incited by a natural 
 defire of making their country look fine in 
 the eyes of Grangers, to cultivate thofe arts, 
 which have always been allowed to conduce 
 moft to the ornament and embellishment of a 
 nation j architecture, fculpture, and paint- 
 ing. To what other caufe can we afcribe it, 
 that the chief towns of fome fmall ftates abroad 
 have more public ornaments than this great 
 and opulent city ? In modern times indeed 
 the number of foreigners who live and do 
 bufinefs in London is immenfe, but even now 
 we are perhaps lefs vifited out of curiofity, 
 and by people of faihion who travel for im- 
 provement alone , than any other confiderable 
 nation in Europe, certainly much lefs fo than 
 inoft of them. 
 
 But 
 
224 LET T E R YIlL 
 
 But whether the want of that emulation, 
 which Is naturally excited by being yifited 
 by Ingenious foreigners and people of diE 
 tin&ion has been one caufe or not why the 
 plaftic arts have been little cultivated here, what 
 I am going to mention will certainly be owned 
 to have been a principal reafon of it. The 
 Englilli nobility and people of fafhion have 
 reflded lefs in London, than thofe of the 
 fame rank in other nations have done in the 
 capitals of their different countries. I fhali 
 not enter into the difpute how far this may 
 have been of advantage to the kingdom in 
 general, or what bad effects may arife from 
 the tafte for living in town, or near it, that 
 has of late prevailed fo much among people 
 of rank and fortune beyond what it did in 
 former times : whatever bad confequences 
 may flow from this humour in other refpe&s, 
 it muft be allowed to have a natural ten- 
 dency to improve and polifh the manners of 
 the people, to promote a tafte for what is 
 elegant and fplendid, and to afford the. great- 
 eft encouragement and opportunities to cul- 
 tivate 
 
On POETRY, &c. 225 
 
 tlvate the fine arts. The truth of this ob- 
 fervation may be proved from reafon as 
 well as from experience. In every nation, 
 that has made a figure for politenefs, the 
 capital has been the principal residence of 
 all who have been eminent for the accom- 
 plifhments of their minds, and the elegance 
 of their tafles. Plow, indeed, fhould it be 
 otherwife ? Man is a focial creature : there 
 is a natural and fir on g attraction, by which 
 thofe of fimilar characters and purfuits are 
 drawn together. ? Tis not in every village or 
 country-neighbourhood, that one, who has 
 been well educated, and taken care to improve 
 his talents, can meet with many who are able 
 to gratify that delire, which all have of con- 
 trading frienblbips with perfons whofe know- 
 ledge and fentiments are upon a level with 
 their own. 
 
 Hence men become defirous of living in ca- 
 pitals and populous cities, where the largenefs 
 and extent of fociety gives the greater chance 
 of meeting with perfoiis of a turn of mind 
 Q fuited 
 
LETTER VIII. 
 
 226 
 
 fuited and agreeable to their own. It is al- 
 together unneceifary to endeavour to prove 
 how much fociety and the converfation of 
 fenhbie and ingenious men correct every er- 
 ror and improve every talent of the human 
 mind. This is felt and acknowledged by 
 every one capable of improvement, but by 
 none more than by thofe, who have a tafte 
 for the fine arts. In the retired fhades of a 
 college, abftra<51 fcience and profound learn- 
 ing may flouriih more than in the gay fun- 
 fhine of a brilliant metropolis ; but ’tis not 
 fo with the imitative arts, particularly fculp- 
 ture and painting. ’Tis among the ruins of 
 the large cities of antiquity, that the precious 
 remains of ancient art are to be found. Nor 
 will thefe arts ever be greatly improved in 
 any country, ’till a taide for embellilhing the 
 metropolis arifes, and a truly elegant one can 
 never arife ’till thofe of rank and fortune re- 
 fide fome part of the year in the capital. A 
 nobleman, who lives generally in the coun- 
 try, may fpend a great deal of money in 
 adorning his country -feat, but after he has 
 
 done 
 
On POETRY, &c. 
 
 227 
 
 done all that he poftibly can to make it grand 
 as well as elegant, it will not have fo fenfible 
 an effetft to diffufe a good tafte, as a houfe 
 built (at much lefs expence) in a city would 
 have. In towns every thing is criticifed, and 
 approved or condemned, the number of ar- 
 tills, their tafte and their emulation, the mul- 
 titude of fpe&ators, indeed every circum- 
 ilance contributes to inlpire thofe, who are 
 to execute any piece of work, that is to be 
 expofed to the eyes of the public, to do all 
 they can to corredl their deftgns, avoid cen- 
 fure, and merit the approbation of good 
 judges. O11 the other hand, fine works, by 
 being expofed to the view of many, have a 
 confiderable influence to give juft ideas of 
 what is beautiful or grand. 
 
 But not only does this improve artifts 
 themfelves : they who employ them receive 
 much improvement, and are taught what 
 is really elegant, and what is not fo. What- 
 ever a nobleman does in a remote part of 
 the country is admired and praifed by thofe 
 
 Q^2 around 
 
228 
 
 L E T TER VIII. 
 
 around him : ill cities this does not happen* 
 Thofe who are upon a level with the Great, 
 or independent, will not fcruple to find fault 
 with their tafte. Men are aihamed of being 
 thought vulgar or unpolifhed in any thing 5 
 hence the natural effect of people of fafhion’s 
 living in town is, that both the external ap- 
 pearance of their houfes, and the ornaments 
 within, are gradually improved and become 
 elegant and fine : pictures and ftatues, as the 
 nobleft embellifhments, become almoft ne- 
 ceftary to every houfe of tafie : great en- 
 couragement is given to the art of painting, 
 and this promotes emulation among the pro- 
 feftors of that art, the neceftary confequence 
 of which is improvement and fkill. 
 
 This reafdning is certainly juft, but a 
 view of what actually has happened greatly 
 confirms it. 
 
 Since London became the general refi- 
 dence of people of rank for a conliderable 
 part of the year, what improvements have 
 
 been 
 
On POETRY, &c. 
 
 229 
 
 been made, and are daily making ! To name 
 particulars is unneceffary ; they are known 
 to every one, and I am perfuaded that in a 
 few years this metropolis will be as famous 
 for its elegant buildings, and for artifts that 
 excel in painting and fcuipture, as it is at 
 prefent for its opulence and trade. The en- 
 couragements that hath been lately given to 
 thefe arts, has already had a fenfible effect, 
 and will in time convince the world, that it 
 was not owing to any want of genius, but 
 to other circumflances, that the Englifh have 
 excelled lefs in fcuipture and painting than 
 in poetry. Succefsful in war, and fuperior 
 to our rivals in arms, many favourable cir- 
 cumflances give us the befl grounds to hope, 
 that we lhall foon be equally fo in every 
 other refpedf. While their fpirits are de- 
 preffed, ours muff rife : while their govern- 
 ment, chagrined with repeated difappoint- 
 ments, will in all probability grow more fe- 
 vere ; we have the happy profpedl of feeing 
 religion, virtue, liberty, fcience and arts 
 encouraged and flourilhing amongft us. In- 
 
 fpired 
 
230 L £ T TER VIIL 
 
 fpired by Royal Example, thofe of dt- 
 dlinguifhed rank, will be incited to promote 
 every thing that tends to the good, the ho- 
 nour, and the improvement of their country. 
 The fpirit of the times in which your Lord- 
 imp has the happlnefs to be called upon to 
 a 61 your part in life, will be an additional 
 motive to prompt you to do it in that noble 
 and generous manner whiph fp much be- 
 comes your high rank, and is fo agreeable to 
 your natural tafte and good difpofitions. 
 
 I am, 
 
 My Lord, &c. 
 
 F INIS. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 6 1. I. 15. for fpend , read /pent. 
 
 1 1 9. 1 . 2. for ftudy that , read Jludy of that * 
 159. 1. 8. for fields , read field , 
 
 173. 1. 19. after liberty , put a ; 
 
 1 9 1 . for Maupertius , read Maupertuis . 
 
 192. 1. 6. for l'aime 9 read/’^/w. 
 
 206. 1. 4. for does , read 4/0, 
 
pec; au §io- 
 
 ^ u z* c? S 
 
 i mm