HISTORY of the SCIENCES.' 417 



be imagined, moreover, that nations who ex- 

 celled in architecture, could not be quite ignorant 

 of the other arts and fciences, though the length 

 of time has prevented any monuments of them 

 from coming down to us. 



V. There is one material remark we mufl 

 here make : It is aftoniihing to fee, in thefe 

 days, men of the greateft genius, and otherwife 

 of the mod philoibphic temper, poflefled with 

 the notion of the influence of climates, and 

 affign to cer ons, more or lefs torrid or 



temperate, an exclufive power of invention and 

 execution in the polite arcs of belles lettres. A 

 belief in fpe&res, in fympathies, and a thoufand 

 other chimeras that cannot be iupported by any 

 argument, is equally rational. Whoever will 

 take the trouble to reflecl on what we have faid 

 in the third and fourth fedtions, can no longer 

 entertain fo ridiculous an error. We are told 

 that the poetry, and all the other expreflions of 

 the eaftern nations, breathe a warmth, a certain 

 fire, an enthufiafm that is inimitable by the in- 

 habitants of the cold regions of the wed. In 

 the firft place, is there, in tact, any great merit in 

 this enthufufm ? Thofc H^-brail'ms, thofe ori- 

 ental exprcfiions, thole extravagant hyperboles, 

 forced companions, gigantic images, perpetual 

 that tumid ilyle, does it all together 

 pro:! cauty ? It fhould l, 



on the contrary, that the more fagacity mankind 

 have acquired, the more they have quilted this 

 L. III. D d falfc 



