On Learning and the Arts, 439 
their virtues, whatever was attractive and enga- 
ing, are rescued from the grave; and acquire 
new splendour by being separated from every 
thing that offends. ‘But, while offence lives, it 
arrests our principal attention; it irritates our 
tempers; it crosses our pursuits ; it provokes 
our moral indignation; and therefore the vice 
of the day is the subject of everlasting complaint. 
But in all this ‘proceeding ineithér:ttuth nor 
justice is observed, and’ without ill-intentions 
we often defeat every good purpose. The good 
and the bad.of every day:ought tobe fairly stated,, 
and neither candour nor’ prejudice ought tojbe 
heard at the bar-of impartial justice. By ex~ 
aggerated ‘praise or exaggerated blame we give'a 
sanction to folly, to error and vice, while we 
throw discouragement on the ingenvous, pursuit. 
of wisdom, truth and virtue.. t byes 
In Rousseau we find a striking example.of in- 
temperate censure and intemperate praise... The 
preference’ of the past to the present, )of bar- 
barity to refinement, of ignorance to knowledge, 
is his favourite theme: it directly or obliquely 
insinuates itself into all his writings. . Barbarity 
with him is simplicity; it is nature in her pure 
ingenuous walk; while refinement;. taste and 
elegance are only the gilding of duplicity, fraud 
and vice. To know more than simple nature 
obtrudes upon us, is only to know the instruments 
VOL V. Q 
