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portionato exercise and development of the mind. But notwithKtaad- 

 ing human wants seem to multiply with the means of their gratifica- 

 tion, and what were first luxuries, next matters of ordinaiy convenience 

 and comfoi-t, finally come to be considered indispensable necessaries of 

 life — yet it cannot be denied that the rapid improvement in the 

 arts of production, has outstripped and is still rapidly outstripping this 

 tendency of our nature. And from the wonderful impetus which the 

 few last years have given to the progress of improvement in all the 

 arts and sciences, discovery following discovery, and invention succeed- 

 ing invention with ever increasing velocity, it might not appear entirely 

 Uutopian to predict that the time will yet arrive, when the improve- 

 ments in labor saving machinery and improved processes of production 

 will have reached that stage of perfection, that even the poorest of our 

 population may be able to obtain the necessaries and conveniencies of 

 hfe, without devoting more of their time to physical labor, than is 

 rec^uisite for their physical health — when the necessity for labor will be 

 regulated by the necessity for exercise; when the cultivation of the 

 intellect will form the business, and physical labor, the recreation of life. 

 This would be the highest state of mere human perfection and earthly 

 happiness of which our nature is susceptible. All that could then be 

 required of further invention and discovery, of further improvement in 

 the arts and sciences, would be so to multiply the productions of industry, 

 as to keep pace with the increase of population. But if such a state 

 of perfection is ever to be reached, it assuredly will not be by always 

 looking behind us, by studying the ancients, and by clinging to the 

 ideas of past ages. In everything which pertains to the arts of pro- 

 duction, or to the comforts of life — in everything which can contribute 

 to the progress of man, the study of antiquity is the study of the child- 

 hood of the race. It has been said with truth, that Ca3sar, in the 

 height of his ]X)wei', had neither glass to his windows, nor a shirt to hif, 

 back. But this gives but an imperfect idea of the deficiencies of that 

 most enlightened period of antiquity. Neither power nor wealth could 

 obtain powder to blast the rock, nor fire arms for hunting or defence ; 

 a watch to tell the hour, nor a compass to survey their lands, or guide 

 their mariners over the deep. No telescope had revealed to them the 

 wonders or the regidarity of the solar system, or enabled them, like tiie 

 moderns, to convert the heavens into a clock. They navigated their 



