lO INTRODUCTION. 



attempts would no doubt be made to cultivate the hardicfl 

 of the Italian plants ; a convi£lion that thefe could be ma- 

 tured in liritain, would lead them to introduce others more 

 delicate ; the natives of the country, ftruck with thefe ad- 

 vantages, would foon learn to imitate an example that promif- 

 ed fo materially to better their fituation : The fame thing 

 would happen with regard to the other arts, which, by the 

 time the lloman forces were finally withdrawn from Britain, 

 had made fuch progrefs, as to place the country in a fituation 

 enviable, when compared to what it was before the conqueft. 

 From that sera we may with juftice date the introdudtion 

 of every thing conne£led either with the comfort or the ele- 

 gance of life. In the favage ftate, and even in the firft ftages 

 of clviiization, the labour and exertions of every individual 

 muft have been required, during the whole year, to procure 

 a fcanty and precarious fubfiilence, barely fufficient to pro- 

 lone a wretched exiftence: circumftances fo adverfe muft, 

 as has been already obferved, not only have operated as a bar 

 to the introduftion of other arts, but chilled and rendered tor- 

 pid every faculty of the human mind. Man, fo fituatcd, dif- 

 covers little of thofe rational powers, by which, in the more 

 advanced ftages of fociety, he is fo eminently diftinguifhed. 

 It is only in fituations where the means of fubfiftence are 

 ample, where tb.e labour of a certain part of the community 

 is fufficient to provide the neceffaries of life for the whole, 

 and where a confiderable proportion of the remainder are 

 placed beyond the necefllty of toiling to procure the firft ne- 

 ceflaries of life, that the powers of the mind develope them- 

 felves ; mental exertion and much bodily labour having, in 

 almoft every inftance, been found incompatible, efpecially in 

 cafes where the fole fupport of the individual depends upon 

 that labour. Accordingly, in the inferior walks of life, where 

 the individuals have received little or no original education, 

 and have, from their infancy, been doomed to a laborious em- 

 ployment, which has occupied the greateft part of their time, 

 we meet with innumerable inftances where the rational pow- 

 ers are nearly extinguiftied, and the individual, from never 

 having been accuftomeJ to think,- and excelilve hard labour, 



is 



