811 
LITER 
century, fotne of the learned, tired of perpetual conteft, 
endeavoured to combine two or more feveral fyftems, and 
thence obtained the name of Synkratijis ; but the fyitem of 
Synkratifm was loon overturned, partly owing to theend- 
Jefs contradictions which it was found to involve, and ltill 
more on account of the numerous phaenomena of nature, 
unknown to the ancients, but difcovered in the progrefs 
of fcience, with which it was fhoWn to be incompatible. 
This gave rife to the wifer practice of rejecting all that in 
the ancient fyftems was, by later experience, proved to be 
falfe, and of connecting with the new difcoveries all parts 
of them that could be retained; the fet of doCtrines thus 
formed conftituted what was called the EcleCtic Philofo- 
phy. Its firft great founder was Francis Bacon ; and it 
has been generally,predominant ever iince his time. For 
the opinions of Hobbes, des Cartes, Thomalius, Leib¬ 
nitz, Buddeus, Wolf, Hoilman, Crulius, Bentley, and 
others of this period, M. Meufel may be confulted with 
advantage : for us, it is fufficient to confider them as va¬ 
rious modifications of the fyftems already mentioned. 
Logic was cleared, during this period, from the thorns 
and briars of the ancient dialectics, by Ramus, Acontius, 
Bacon, des Cartes, Malebranche, and others; but little 
farther progrefs was made, or could be made, until our 
immortal Locke had paved the way, by pointing out the 
true origin of our ideas. The different branches of me- 
taphyfics, ontology, pfychology, &c. fo engroffed the ge¬ 
nius of the middle agep, as to leave little leifure for the 
ftudy of practical philofophy. For the knowledge of the 
rights of nature, and the law of nations, M. Meufel re¬ 
fers to Winkler, Grotius, Selden, Hobbes, Bacon, Puf- 
fendorf, &c. Though the ancients, particularly Plato, 
Arillotle, Dionyfius, Longinus, Quintilian, and others, 
have furnilhed us with many elegant and ufeful remarks 
on the beautiful in nature and art, yet the moderns have 
the merit of having firft eftablilhed any general theory of 
it on found philofophical principles. Baurngarten of Ber¬ 
lin, firft undertook the fubjeCt in this light, and gave to 
the new fcience the title of jEJUictics ; he has been fol¬ 
lowed by Salzer, Blankenburg, Abbt, Mendelflohn, Lef- 
fing, lord Kaimes, Kant, and others. 
Poetry, the nearer we approach to modern times, ap¬ 
pears to have become more and more the favourite purfuit 
of genius in all nations. To enumerate the great names 
of poets, as well as writers on the art of poetry, which il- 
luftrate this period, would be fuperfluous and tedious. 
We may content ourfelves with obferving, in general, 
that, fince the fifteenth century, the fpirit of poetry has 
extended itfelf, not only through thofe countries which 
it animated in the times of old, but alfo through the 
whole of the fouth and north of Europe. Denmark, 
Sweden, Lapland, Poland, Ruftia, have all felt its influ¬ 
ence, and have fignalized themfelves at fundry times, and 
particularly within the laft century, by productions of ge¬ 
nuine beauty and fublimity. Eloquence has alfo been 
ftudied with confiderable afliduity, and numerous treatifes 
on it have appeared in moll civilized countries; in Italy, 
by Patrizi and Corticelli ; in Spain, by Salinas, Nunez, 
Paton, and Majans; in France, by Lami, Fenelon, Rapin, 
Rollin, and Batteux ; in Germany, by MelanCthon, Vofs, 
Ernefli, Baledow, Lobel, and Maafs; in Great Britain, 
by Lawlon, Blair, Sheridan, Monboddo, Ward, See. In 
Italy, profe may be faid to have been created by 
Boccacio (1375), and to have been conduced to its 
greateft purity and perfection ,by Machiavelli (1482). 
This pure profe, however, made but flow progrefs in fo- 
ciety, and, till late in the eighteenth century, was only 
to be learnt from the writings of Boccacio, Machiavelli, 
and the reft of the Italian claffics. The two beft Italian 
orators have been Della Cafa and Speroni. In Spain and 
Portugal, the beft profe-writers lived in the fixteenth and 
part of the feventeenth centuries; they were chiefly hifto- 
riansand moralifts. ThatSpanifli pulpit-eloquence is very 
low, we learn from Franz de Ida, himfelf a Spanifh jefuit, 
in his Hiftoria del Fray Gerundio de Compazas, (1758,) 
ATURE. 
Of Portuguefe orators, no one is much known out of his 
own country, excepting the jefuit Vieyra, whole works 
were publiflied at Lifbon (1679-1718) in fourteen quarto 
volumes, of which the firft thirteen confift entirely of 
fermons. 
The hiftory of French, Englifh, and German, literature, 
is too well known to require notice in this place. See the 
articles England, France, and Germany. On a com¬ 
parative view of European literature, it may be obferved 
that the Italians, its firft reftorers, excel in poetry, hifto¬ 
ry, and other departments of the belles lettres; but about 
the year 1600, their tafte began to decline, and a mental 
effeminacy arofe, which is confpicuous in the fantaftic fo- 
cieties and academies, and in the extravagant flatteries 
which every writer thought due in politenefs to another; 
the term Illuftrious becoming as familiar as that of Signior 
and Madama, a wafte of literary fame, which rendered it 
of no value. The French even originally excelled in ro¬ 
mance and light poetry, and that pleafing and minute 
fpecies of biography called memoirs; they have produced 
few works of original genius, but yield to no nation in 
fcientific productions, and in literary difquifitions, written 
with good fenfe, precifion, and accuracy. Spanifh litera¬ 
ture forms a vaft treafure, little known to other nations; 
and fcarcely any department can be named, in which ex¬ 
cellent writers do not appear. The native German, Da¬ 
niil), and Swedifli, literature, is but of recent celebrity. 
To complete the foie intention of this parallel, the grand 
feature of Englifh literature, is original genius, tranfmit- 
ted even from Roger Bacon, to our Shakefpeare, Milton, 
Newton, and Locke; not to dwell here on claims more 
minute, but equally firm. In the fcientific departments, 
England mult yield to France, except in the various 
branches of mathematical knowledge; the inftitution of 
the Royal Society, and the genius of Newton, having at¬ 
tracted the greateft talents within their fphere, to the ne- 
gleCt of other departments of curious inveftigation. The 
Englilh clergy, who far exceed in learning any other body 
of that defcription in Europe, have always cultivated claf- 
fical literature, with diftinguiftied zeal and predilection. 
An old writer obferves, that during the civil war under 
Charles I. there were “ more good and more bad books 
printed and publifhed in the Englilh tongue, than in all 
the vulgar languages of Europe.” Perhaps Germany may 
now exceed our literary efforts; yet more novels are fup- 
pofed to be publilhed in England in one month than in 
all the reft of Europe in a year. Our literary journals, in 
which we may alfo claim a great degree of excellence, 
may indicate to foreigners the vaft extent of modern 
Englifh literature. 
The numerous important changes, whiijh have taken 
place in the principal governments of Europe within the 
laft three centuries, have afforded the materials of the 
theory of government. Of thefe events, none have been 
more fruitful of political inltruction than Luther’s refor¬ 
mation, the dilturbances in France and in the Netherlands 
during the latter half of the fixteenth century, and, in 
England, the rebellion againft Charles I. and the revolu¬ 
tion in 1688. The principal writers on this highly-in- 
terefting icience, mentioned by M. Meufel, are Machia- 
velli, Botero, Bodinus, Languet, (in his Vindicige contra 
Tyrannos, 1581,) Boucher, Raynald, Mariana, Grotius, 
Hobbes, Milton, Salmalius, Algernon Sidney, Locke, Bo- 
lingbroke, Liplius, Montefquieu, Rouffeati, and the abbe 
Raynal. The magnagement of the national refources, in¬ 
cluding political economy, the promotion of the apts and 
manufactures, See. was never fcientifically treated before 
the latter part of this period. A knowledge of the fub- 
jeCt, particularly of the financial branch of it, had been 
hitherto confidered, both in theory and in practice, as a 
ftate-fecret; indeed it was a very generally received pre¬ 
judice that fuch knowledge was to be obtained folely from 
practice, and theory was of courfe in a great meafure ne- 
gleCted. The political fyftems of Sully and Colbert are 
very deficient, on this fcore; more efpecially as they are 
built 
