HISTORY of the SCIENCES. 419 



For ever amid ft the buftle and din of war, have 

 neither furncient opportunity nor refolution to 

 apply thcmfelves to the itudy and the cultivation 

 of the arts. While . tiv m arms ; 



after Philip, Alexander, and their fuc, ellurs, were 

 poficficd with the fancy of being conquerors, 

 ,- barbarous and warlike i;ai ions entered 

 and citablilhed themfelvcs in Europe, the mufes, 

 flunned by the clair, nr rf war, fell into a pro- 

 found lethargy. The fccond caull is poverty. 

 A people t!. /unrounded by indigence, are 



too much occupied \vith their indiipenfable wants 

 to bufy them til ves with ftudy ; and if there are 

 any men of uncommon genius, who make the 

 moft happy advancements, they find in their 

 country neither emulation, encouragement, or 

 reward. In England and Holland, on the con- 

 trary, we lee the arts and iciences flourifh under 

 the ihadow of opulence, and in the mid ft of the 

 greateft commerce. The third caule is the 

 abuie that is made of religion, by dcbafing it to 

 fupedtition, to fanaticifm and tyranny ; than 

 which nothir, injurious to the progrefs 



of the human mind. Thoie fhackles, which the 

 clergy fometimes put on philolophy, prevent 

 all adv.. in ILJ.I nir:^. 1 IK- liiilory of 



id every people fhew tin 1 ef- 



fcds. A when the church once enjoys 



this kind of triumph. The annals of ti.e mid- 

 dle ai-e, and of the Grc, ;,ire in tlie eafl, 

 CufTiciently prove thi^ m. The fourth and 

 D 9 lait 



