187 



fi beau are as productive of happiness in the sense I take 

 that word, as those of a mathematician blessed with a com- 

 petent fortune. His original assertion may well be doubted, 

 for when knowledge is fashionable, thousands will endeavour 

 to attain it; the metaphysical lectures of A belard allured 

 3000 3'oung men into the dcsarts of Champagne, from Paris, 

 Flanders, England and Germany ; the mathematician 

 D'Alembert, though possessed of a very moderate income, 

 refused a much greater offered him by the empress of Rus- 

 sia, if he would attend her court. How many mathemati- 

 cians and men excelling in every branch of science has 

 France produced since science has been there honoured and 

 encouraged ? Numbers would equally be excited in other 

 countries to the attainment of science, in circumstances 

 equally favourable ; consequently, fondness for science 

 does not entirely depend on a particular frame of mind, 

 though it must be owned that some minds are more eagerly 

 prompted to its pursuit than others. 



Lastly, it has been said by Maupei-tuis and others, that 

 the evils of every condition far surpass its pleasures; in 

 proof of which they say that few would consent to renew 

 })recisely the same coarse of life through which they had 

 already passed. Yet 1 believe that mani/ in the situations 

 above mentioned, as most productive of happiness, and 

 mani/ in the middle classes of society would, with the ex- 



2 B 2 ccption 



