352 On National. Character. 
many respects like the father of our country, 
the great king Alfred, was placed among 
them; he ‘taught them the arts of civilized 
life ; and the whole nation at once imitated 
them, so that when the Spanish ships arrived 
on their coast, drawings of them were made 
and sent by post to Mexico. But the history 
of that period is knéwn to you, Gentlemen, 
In referring to it you have only to ask the 
question, whether that people were not as far 
advanced in civilization as the Russians are 
now, and whether their civilization was not 
of the same description; whether it did not 
‘consist in imitation. When a nation has 
remained several generations in this degree 
of refinement, and the population again 
presses forward, further advances are made. 
The mind becomes stronger as it is more 
exercised, till step after step the highest, and 
the best state of man is attained. The limits 
of anessay, do not admit of a full discussion 
of the subject, or it might be shewn that 
every nation that has attained to a high 
degree of civilization, has passed through the 
gradations that have been mentioned. 
I must also call the society to a farther 
consideration than the limits of this paper 
will admit, of the physical change which civi- 
lization produces on its subject; a change 
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