1825.] of Claude-Louis Berthollet 91 



secure to those who thought to tame the national spirit by with- 

 holding evTry means of defence. 



Nor were these expectations of the States who laid France 

 under their ban by any means ill-grounded. For that country, 

 naturally rich, while she produced abundance of grain at an 

 easy rate, and her wines returned her a large and certain 

 revenue that was reaped without difficulty, had nevertheless 

 allowed herself to fall far behind several neighbouring kingdoms 

 in many of the most useful arts. She had of course accustomed 

 herself to rely on the intervention of commerce for procurinf to 

 her many of those articles of comfort, which soon became the 

 necessaries of civilised life. When, therefore, she was consi- 

 dered a proscribed nation ; when her former princes at Coblentz 

 with her refugees, aided by the House of Austria with her allies, 

 locked her in on the side of Europe, and the fleets of Britain 

 swept every sea, and blockaded every port, France was obliged 

 to recoil upon her own resources. And on turning homeward 

 for that which was now denied her from abroad, she found 

 resources capable in time of high improvement, but the 

 demand was for immediate assistance, and the salvation of the 

 state depended upon its being immediately furnished. Arts 

 were not here ready to be improved on the instant ; — the very 

 foundation of arts was wanting. Manufactures, the soul of 

 resource, were scarcely known, or if known, were nowhere 

 found to exist among this hitherto agricultural and commercial 

 community. In so awful a crisis, the eager nation called upon 

 her men of science tu come forth from their seclusion and 

 retreats, to impart their knowledge, and become the instructors 

 of a wilhng people. And the call was ansv.'ered. Then those 

 individuals who knew nought, save the theory of an art, found 

 every where pupils to whom a hint sufficed, and new arts sprung 

 up at once, and flourished at the invocation of science. Former 

 processes were improved and abridged ; new resources were 

 discovered ; new manufactures were invented ; and at the 

 moment when it seemed that France must ftvU a defenceless 

 prey to her aggressors, she arose armed to the combat. At 

 first, it is true, ere these changes were fully developed, her 

 foes made some impression upon her, for the attack was sudden 

 indeed ; but even when a hostile army was for a short time 

 within forty leagues of the capital, not a man relaxed for one 

 moment from his exertions ; — not a citizen thought of deserting 

 his country. And full soon, to the astonishment of the world, 

 France displayed her new-found resources, her foes perished 

 round her impenetrable frontier, and she in her turn becoming 

 the assailant, tamed her continental enemies, and dictated to 

 them their terms of submission in the heart of their own con- 

 quered capitals. 



