UNIVERSITY OP ST. MARK. 



165 



never be expe6led from ignorance ; since, from an unacquain- 

 tance with evil, it may, with the purest and most sincere in- 

 tentions, persist in its pra6tice without inquietude or re- 

 morse. 



By an attentive survey of the history of every age, we shall 

 perceive that nations have been freed, by the vi6lorious per- 

 suasives of wisdom, from the barbarous and sanguinary cus- 

 toms by which their annals were disgraced. By breathing 

 sympathy, gentleness, and friendship, it obliges the ferocious 

 man to yield to the accents of its enchanting voice. It speaks 

 to him a soft and flattering language ; points out to him the 

 truth clad in the flowery ornaments of the graces ; embellishes 

 in the view of the intractable savage the scene of the new 

 world to which it condu6ts him ; gilds the chains it has pro- 

 vided to unite him with his fellow creatures ; and forms be- 

 tween them a mutual and beneficial correspondence of obliga- 

 tions and services. 



This advantageous progress would, however, be of little 

 duration and consistency, if, the seeds of fecundity being once 

 scattered, care were not taken to perpetuate their culture. It 

 is therefore the aim of literary bodies to preserve them by emu- 

 lation, by reward, and by competition. The light of truth 

 is preceded by faint glimmerings, by perilous systems, and by 

 a repetition of experimental researches. It is prepared and 

 announced by error itself. Observations, contestations, and 

 disputes, operate but slowly in dispersing the thick cloud by 

 whicli it is covered and surrounded, until at length the 

 huinbled spirit is forced to yield to the amiable yoke of virtue. 

 The vicious Polemon, perfumed with odours, entered the 

 school of Xenocrates, to insult that rigid philosopher in the 



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