420 UN IVERSAL ERUDITION. 



laft caufe is, when a fuccefiion of ftupid, indo- 

 lent, ignorant, trifling, and, at the fame time, 

 defpotic fovereigns, who are enemies to the pro- 

 ductions of the mind, reign over a nation for a 

 long time together. The reafons are too ob- 

 vious, and the examples too odious to be recited 

 here. 



VIII. Place, on the contrary, a nation under 

 whatever climate you pleafe , let them enjoy 

 continual peace , introduce wealth and plenty 

 among them , confine the authority of the clergy 

 within due bounds , place on the throne a dif- 

 cerning prince j or give them able and learned 

 minifters and magiftrates, and you will foon fee 

 arife, as it were from the earth, men of the 

 greateft genius, confummate mafters in every art 

 and fcience. Thefe are the natural caufes of the 

 improvement or decadence of the arts : the man 

 of fenfe will find them without labour, without 

 forming hypothefes, or having recourfe to illu- 

 fions and occult caufes, or the different nature 

 of climates. But let us return to our fub- 

 jeft. 



IX. ^be fecond age, or bright period of the 

 arts and fciences, was the time that preceded the 

 reign of Philip, that pafied under his reign, and 

 during the firft years of that of Alexander : a 

 period at which there flourifhed, in Greece alone, 

 fuch men of exalted genius as Plato, Arif- 



totle, 



