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" depressed that noble flame, by which all the refined 

 " arts must be therished and cultivated. The military 

 " government, Avhich soon succeeded, rendered even the 

 " lives of men insecure and precarious, and proved de- 

 " structive to those vulgar and more necessary arts of 

 "agriculture, manufacture, and commerce; and, in the 

 " end, to the military art and genius itself; by Avhich 

 " alone the immense fabric of the empire could be su})- 

 " ported. The irruption of the barbarous nations, which 

 " soon followed, overwhelmed all human knowledge, which 

 " Avas already far on its decline; and men sunk every age 

 " deeper into ignorance, stupidity, and superstition, till 

 " the light of ancient sciences and history had nearly suf- 

 " fered a total extinction in all the European nations." 



One of the most stupendous and dreadful historical 

 events, with Avhich Ave are acquainted, is the deplorable 

 destruction of the Roman empire, by fierce barbarians. 

 The confusion of all the orders of society, the erasure of 

 all the arts of peace and elegance, all the institutions of 

 civilized humanity, all the fairest inventions of human in- 

 tellect and genius, from the face of the ravaged earth, Avas 

 the consequence. To renovate the vigour of our degraded 

 nature, it perhaps became necessary, that the arts of effe- 

 minate and slothful luxury, together Avith the beings, Avho 

 exercised and enjoyed them, should be swept away; and 

 that the milder and more finished tribes of men, Avho Avere 

 fated to disappear, to vanish, like a vapour or a dream, 

 together Avith their inventions, their monuments, their arts, 



their 



