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peace aud commerce ; and the exclusively favourable iutiueuce which 

 peace aud commerce exercise, not only upou the arts of industry, but 

 also upon literature and the fine aits. 



This opinion appears premature. It is high in favour with the 

 advocates of peace at all times, aud by all means ; but I do not think 

 that history affords any record wheu peace aud commerce, in conjunc- 

 tion, aud exclusively of war, have exercised the beneficial influence 

 ascribed to them. When commerce has been a party to the patronage 

 of literature, and of the fine arts and sciences, she has generally done 

 so in conjunction with, or under the influence of war. Drawing con- 

 clusions from the data furnished by past experience, it is more correct 

 to say that most of the progress effected in those departments of study 

 has been promoted, directly or indirectly, by war. This may appear a 

 broad aud startling assertion in the present state of public opinion in 

 this country ; but it may be not the less true, as there seems to be an 

 miduly pacific bias in the received opinion. 



After alluding to the stormy times which preceded the age of 

 Pericles, and prevailed during the earlier portion of his career, when 

 he was a successful general, the author gave the foUowiug quotation : 

 " From the age of Pericles to the time of Alexander the Great, Athens, 

 though almost constantly engaged in wars, had not neglected those 

 arts which have associated her name with civilization. Her public 

 buildings were continually increasing in number and magnificence, 

 which was mainly due to Lycurgus the orator, who built the Pauathenaic 

 stadium, and provided for the security of the city by the magazines in the 

 Acropolis, aud by the dockyards in the Peirisus." He then remarked — 

 Look now to the glorious galaxy of illustrious names with which this 

 period of history is gemmed ; a period, be it remembered, of intestine feuds 

 foreign invasions, " thirty tyrants," and sparse breathing times of peace. 

 There are Anaxagoras, Socrates, and Plato, in philosophy ; Xenophon 

 the historian ; ^-Eschiues and Nicias in the fine arts. Where these 

 more abstract pursuits, which are unnecessary to the ordinary routine 

 of material existence, were so studied and adonied, we may be sure 

 that the useful arts were not neglected ; and that in the magazines on 

 the Acropolis, the dockyards of the Peiraeus, and the wooden walls of 

 Athens was evidence of the practical ability of the Athenian mechanic. 

 The buildings that remain testify to this — the works that are gone 

 have no doubt carried away much testimony to the same eU'ect : but it 

 will be ohserved that with the exception of the thirty years' truce, in 

 the time of Pericles, tlie normal conditidu of .\tht'ns, during its most 

 • ivili/.ed period, was that of war iit one shape nr another; and that 



