Recapitulation. 425 



ther accessible nor intelligible, but by a few who 

 had leisure, much previous information, and 

 perseverance." It is true, as will be presently- 

 acknowledged, that such as, at that time, pro- 

 fessed to devote themselves to study, were, in ge- 

 neral, at least equally, if not more learned, than 

 those who profess to belong to the same class at 

 the present day. But the number of those at the 

 end of the eighteenth century, who were in the 

 habit of reading a few books, and who possessed 

 a moderate and respectable share of information, 

 was certainly far greater than in former periods of 

 the history of man. 



Some modern zealots, indeed, have gone beyond 

 all just bounds, in describing the illumination and 

 refinement of this period. We are not so much 

 wiser than our forefathers, as the sanguine and ig- 

 norant would sometimes represent us. But there 

 is surely no extravagance in saying, that there 

 never was an age in which knowledge of various 

 kinds was so popular and so generally diffused, or 

 in which so many publications were circulated and 

 read. The elements of literature and science have 

 descended from the higher classes of society, and 

 from universities, to the middle, and, in some in- 

 stances, to the lower orders of men. Speculations 

 which were once, in a great measure, confined to 

 the closets of the curious, have gradually mingled 

 themselves with the most prevailing and familiar 

 doctrines of the day. Many modern females are 

 well informed, and a few extensively learned. The 

 common people read and inquire to a degree that 

 would once have been thought incredible. Semi- 

 naries of learning are multiplied beyond all pre- 

 cedent. The number of students which they con- 

 tain is, in general, much greater than formerly. 

 Modem books, even those on subjects of science, 

 are now divested of their former envelopements of 



VOL. II. 3l 



