at - 



and that is of such a nature as to produce rather delicacy 

 than strength, a chaste and frugal accuracy, rather than an 

 irregukir and exuberant boldness. The sciences address 

 themselves to the reason, a faculty which grows with their 

 growth and strengthens with their strength, the extent of 

 whose improvement is illimitable, and which we are led to 

 expect may continue its progress through an endless series of 

 ages. The Belles Lettres on the contrary appeal to the com- 

 mon sense, the passions, and that branch of the imagination, 

 where the train of thought is suggested rather by sensation 

 than reflection ; the first of which three is nearly the same 

 in the savage and philosopher, but in the other two, the 

 Celtic or Scandinavian bard has a great and evident advantage 

 over the refined versifyer of modern times. From these consi- 

 ^ derations it is abundantly evident that there is no occasion to 



have recourse to the hypothesis mentioned in the beginning of 

 this essay, but there are other circumstances, which, though 

 they are well known as the principal causes of the retarda- 

 tion of the ancients, it may not be proper entirely to omit.* 

 1st. In philosophical investigations they made no use of ma- 

 thematical reasoning, or of that species of induction, which 

 > since Lord Bacon's time has been justly called philosophical. 



' 2d. In pure mathematics they were too cautious in their me- 

 thods of demonstration, the foundations of mathematical 



* I have avoided mentioning any of the other causes enumerated by Bacon, because 

 ip5 they have been equally prejudicial to modern, as to ancient, writers; it would be easy to 



give instances, were it to the present purpose. 



