The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1806-05-23


with her colonies and inaitu,ions.
III. Cold, poverty, and life of danger and IA
tgue, forty the trength and courage of Barbarans.
In every age they have oppreed the polite and peace
full nations OF China India, and Periia, who negea
ed, and Gill neglect, to concordance theie natu-
raj powers by the refourees of military The war
like iates of antiquity, Greece, Macedonia, and
Rome, educated 4 of folders exercied their
bodies, disciplined their courage, multiplied their for
ces by regular evoutions, and converted the iron,
which they poGeied, into ftrong and fervieeable
weapons But this fuperiority infenfibly declined
with their laws and manners and the feeble policy OF
ConRantine and his iuccefors armed and inltru4ed,
for the ruin of the empire, the rude valour of the
Barbarian nlercenaries. The military art has been
changed by the invention of gunpowder; which ena-
bss man to command the two moi powerful agents
OF nature, air and fire. Mathematics chymiltry,
mechanics, architecture, have been applied to the fer
vice of & the advere parties oppoie eachother
the mott elaborate modes of attack & of defence. Hii
torians may indignantly oblerve that the preparations
OF feige would found aud maintain fouriihiug
lony; yet be Duplicated, that the fubver-
iion of city f,oud be work of coa and difficulty;
or that indrsrious people ihoud he protected by
thoie which iurvive and fupply the decay OF mi
litary virtue. Cannon and Notifications form
iripregnable barrier againa the Tartar horle and
Europe is fecure from future Eruption Of Barba
rians; fnce, before they can conquer, they muff
| ceaie to be barharous. Their gradual advances in
the fcienee of war would always be accompanied,
we may learn from the example of Rulia, with pro-
portonable Improvement in the Of peace and civil
policy; and they themfeves nun deierve place a.
mong the poliihed nations whom they fubdue.
Should thee fpecuations be found doubtful or fall
lacious, there fill remains humble iource OF
comfort and hope 'The difcoveries of ancient and
modern navga,ors, and the domeiic hihory, or ira
dition OF the mot enlightened nations reprefent the
buraa jdvdge, naked both in mind and body, and def
ttute of laws, of arts, Of ideas and alnof of Ian
guage. From this abea condition, perhaps the pri-
mitive and univerfa fate Of man. he has gradually
riento command the animals, fcrti!iie the earth,
to traverie the ocean, and to meafure the heavens.
His progrefs in the improvement and exercife of his
mental and corporal faculties has been irregular and
various infinitely flow in the beginning, and increa
ling by degrees with redouhled velocity: ages of la
borous aicent have been followed by of ra-
Pid downfall and the feveral climates of the globe
have felt the viclitudes of light and darkness. Yet
the experience of four houland years ouldenarge our
| hopes and diminiih approximations: we cannot
determine to what height the human fpeces may AZ
pre- IN their advances towards perfection; bat it may
lately be prefumed, that people, unles the face of
nature is changed, will relaPfe into their original bar
oariim. The Improvement of fociety may be viewed
under threefold aPea. L: The poet or philosopher
luitrates his age and country by the efforts of Enpe
mind; but theie fuperor powers of reafon or fancy
are rare and spontaneous productions and the gent
so Homer, or Cicero, or Newton, would excite lels
admiration, il they could be created by the will of
prince, or the leflons Of preceptor 9: The benefits of
law and policy; of trade and manufactures of arts &
licences, are more fold and permanent & many indi-
viduals may be qualified by education and difcipline
to promote, in their REFLECTIVE tatons the intereft
OF the community But this general order is the eff
feet OF ikill and abour and the complex machinery
may be decayed by time, or injured by violence. g.
Fortunately for mankind, the ueful or at lea
more neceiary arts, can be performed without fupe-
rior talents, or national liberalization; without the
powers oto1e, or the union of many. Each village
each family, each individual mutt always polefs both
abihty and inclination, to perpetuae the ufe of FIRE
and OF metals; the propagation and lervce of domef-
TIC animals; the methods ofhunting and filming; the
rudiments OF navigation; the imperfect cultivation
OF corn, or other nutritve grain; and the iimple
Practice OF the mechanic trades. Private genius and
public ndutfry may be extirpated but there hardy
plants furvive the tempef, and hrke an everla(tiny
root into the moh unfavourable foil. The fplendid
days of Auguitus and Trajan were ecpfed by cloud
ofignorance; and the Barbarans fubverted the laws
and palaces of Rome. But the fcythe, the invention
or emblem OF Saturn lil continued annually to NOW
the harvelfs of Italy and the human feafs of the
Lacitrgons have never been renewed on the coat of
Campania. 9
Since the frh difcovery of the arts, war, COM
merce, and religious zeal have DILUTED, among the
favages of the Old and New World, thele inehimabIe
gifts; they have been fuecefively propagated they
can never be loft. We may therefore acqueCce in
the Pleaiing conciuGor that every age of the world
has increaied, and till ucreaies the real wealth the
happine the knowledge, and perhaps the virtue, of
the human race.