32 on the internal state of America. Nov. 14. 
where they reject so disdainfully the imputation of 
political servitude, they fhould patiently submit.to a 
literary one. Perhaps; the difsolution of manners 
having effected a corruption of taste in the nation, they 
are willing to enjoy their favourite authors without 
that interruption of their pleasures, that reasonand re- 
ligion, addrefsed to them by men of severe virtue, 
would create; and hope to accomplifh this more easily 
by vesting a censorfhip of letters in an unprincipled 
society, rather than by leaving to the prefs its pro- 
per liberty.. If Europe has pafsed the meridian of 
her virtue, fhe will also have pafsed that of her sci- 
ence ; anda declining age, leaving the improvements 
that have already been made in the arfs, without any 
further accefsions, some future revolution will pro- 
bably give them in that state to nations of more har- ‘ 
dy and simple virtue, who will make additions to 
them, similar to those which our fathers have made. 
"to the arts of Greece and Rome. Revolutions may 
be unhappy events when we consider merely the 
ease and pleasures of mankind; but when we consi- 
der that human society can advance only to a cer- 
tain period before it becomes corrupted, and begins to 
decline, and that letters always decline with virtue, 
revolutions are perhaps the necefsary scaffolding by 
which science and human nature must gradually ar- 
rive at their summit. The present age values it- - 
selfupon understanding the philosophy of society, and 
the philosophy of man. We indeed enjoy some pe- 
culiar advantages for contemplating the progrefs of 
civil society ; but whether we understand the real 
principles and motives of mens actions, better than 
