INTRODUCTION. 35 



multiplied means of contact of nations with each other are 

 all brilliant results of the intellectual progress of mankind, 

 and of the amelioration of political institutions, in which 

 this progress is reflected. The picture presented by modern 

 history ought to convince those who are tardy in awakening 

 to the truth of the lesson it teaches. 



Nor let it be feared, that the marked predilection for the 

 study of nature, and for industrial progress, which is so charac- 

 teristic of the present age, should necessarily have a tendency 

 to retard the noble exertions of the intellect in the domains of 

 philosophy, classical history, and antiquity ; or to deprive the 

 arts by which life is embellished of the vivifying breath 

 of imagination. Where all the germs of civilisation are 

 developed beneath the a?gis of free institutions and wise 

 legislation, there is no cause for apprehending that .any one 

 branch of knowledge should be cultivated to the prejudice of 

 others. All afford the state precious fruits, whether they 

 yield nourishment to man and constitute his physical wealth, 

 or whether, more permanent in their nature, they transmit in 

 the works of mind the glory of nations to remotest posterity. 

 The Spartans, notwithstanding their Doric austerity, prayed 

 the gods to grant them " the beautiful with the good." * 



I will no longer dwell upon the considerations of the influ- 

 ence exercised by the mathematical and physical sciences on 

 ah 1 that appertains to the material wants of social life ; for the 

 vast extent of the course on which I am entering forbids me 

 to insist further upon the utility of these applications. Accus- 

 tomed to distant excursions, I may, perhaps, have erred in 

 describing the path before us as more smooth and pleasant 

 than it really is, for such is wont to be the practice of those 

 who delight in guiding others to the summits of lofty moun- 

 tains : they praise the view even when great part of the 

 distant plains lie hidden by clouds, knowing that this half- 

 transparent vapoury veil imparts to the scene a certain charm 

 from the power exercised by the imagination, over the domain 

 of the senses. In like manner, from the height occupied by 

 the physical history of the world, all parts of the horizon will 

 not appear equally clear and well-defined. This indistinct- 



* Pseudo-Plato. Alcib. xi. p. 184, ed. Steph. j Plut., Instituta 

 Laconica, p. 253, ed. Hutten. 



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