8 i 3 
LITER 
foremofl, and next to them the Netherlander. Mean¬ 
while, the feudal law in its feveral departments was llu- 
dioufly inveftigated, purified by degrees from whatever 
was mod opprelfive to the fubjefl, and gradually melted 
down, in various forms, into the conditutions of the dif¬ 
ferent dates of Europe. The penal laws alfo began in 
•mod countries to affume a milder character. By Luther’s 
reformation, the rights of the church underwent a very 
eilential change, but dill not fuch as totally to overthrow 
the Romidi canon-law; thepnnids, however, were necelfi- 
tated to exert themfelves in etlablilhing, on better grounds, 
its pretenfions to fupremacy; and the whole code was di¬ 
ligently revifed. 
The dudy of the Bible, and the expounding of its doc¬ 
trines, had hitherto been ifo fadly negledted, that many 
old and refpeflable divines, even fo late as the beginning 
of this period, had dill to learn the contents of the New 
Teftament; but now the art of printing, and the revived 
lade tor literature, had introduced a more active fpirit of 
invedigation, highly favourable to the right underdand- 
ing of the fcriptures. The publication of the Complu- 
tenfnjn Polyglott,'the critical labours of Reuchlin, Eraf- 
mus, and others, and, more than all, Luther’s tranflation 
of the entire Bible, excited a zeal for the dudy of the tit¬ 
ered writings, which neither the anathemas of the church 
nor the coercive powers of the laws were able to fupprefs. 
Though the thoughts of the generality of theologians 
were dill immoderately occupied by polemic divinity, yet 
editions of the Bible were continually multiplied ; and by- 
degrees the original text of the Old and New Tedament 
became not lefs ftudied than the cladical writings of Greece 
and Rome. Dogmatic divinity kept pace with the in- 
creafing knowledge of the fcriptures: Melanfthon, fo 
early as 1521, publifhed his Loci Communes Theologici; 
and the practice foon grew very general. Morality, for its 
intimate connection with this fubjefl, was thus much more 
extenfively inculcated; and we may fafely affirm that, from 
the few dogmatical works of Melanclhon, Luther, Weller, 
the two Riviers, See. more found moral inftruflion may be 
collected than from all the fyftems united of the ancient 
philosophers. Yet ltill, as a regular fcience, moral phi- 
lofophy was on the whole but little underdood before the 
Seventeenth century, when Calixtus fir ft feparated it from 
dogmatic divinity, and treated of it diffinflly by itfelf. 
This important work, which Calixtus did not live to per¬ 
fect, was carried on by his fcholars with no fmall fuccefs; 
snd, doubtlefs, their fuccefs would have been much more 
rapid, had they not unfortunately chofen to drefs up their 
new fcience in the diff drapery of fclioladic argumentation. 
The later moralids have adopted a more natural and more 
pleafing method; the pattern of which was given by Baum- 
garten and Mofheim. 
Thus have we finifhod our fketch from this very’’ ufeful 
work, which we cannot too ftrongly recommend to the 
attention of fuch of our readers as are converfant in the 
German language. We have preferred a foreign work 
for our ground-work in this inquiry, becaufe the defici¬ 
encies which mud naturally occur in every fuch inquiry 
will be mod readily fupplied by the Englilh reader, while 
many particulars will be found which no Englifh work 
could fupply. 
Few engines can be more powerful, and at the fame 
time more falutary in their tendency, than literature. 
Without inquiring into the caufe of this phenomenon, 
it is Sufficiently evident in faCt, that the human mind is 
ftrongly infected with prejudice and millake. The vari¬ 
ous opinions prevailing in different countries, and among 
different claffes of men, upon the fame fubjefl, are aliiiod 
innumerable ; and yet of all thefe opinions, only one can 
be true. Now the effeflual means for extirpating thefe 
prejudices and midakes feems to be literature. Literature 
lias reconciled the whole thinking world refpefting the 
great principles of the fyftem of the univerfe, and extir¬ 
pated the dreams of'romance and the dogmas of fuperdi¬ 
tion. literature has unfolded the nature of the human 
Vox... XII. No, 673. 
A T U R E. 
mind ; and Locke, and others, have edablidied certain 
maxims refpefting man, as Newton has done refpefting 
matter, that are generally admitted for unqueitidnable.. 
DifcujTion has afeertained, with tolerable peripicuity, the 
preference of liberty over (lavery; and the Mainwarings, 
the Sibthorpes, and the Filmers, the race of Speculative 
reafoners in favour of defpotifm, are almoft extindl. Lo¬ 
cal prejudice had introduced innumerable privileges and 
prohibitions upon the fubjefl of trade; fpeculation has 
nearly afeertained that per feed freedom is mod favourable 
to her prqfperity. If in many indances the collation of 
evidence have failed to produce univerfal conviction, it 
mud however be confidered, that it has not failed to pro¬ 
duce irrefragable argument, and that fulfehood would 
have been much fhorter in duration, if it had not been 
protefled and inforced by the-authority of polirical go¬ 
vernment. Indeed, if there be fuch a thing as truth, it 
mu ft infallibly be ftruck out by the collilion of mind with 
mind. The rettlefs aflivity of intellefl will for a tune be 
fertile in paradox and error; but thefe will be only di- 
urnals, while the truths that occafionaliy fpring up, like 
llurdy plants, will defy the rigour of feal'on and climate. 
In proportion as.one reafoner compares his deduftions 
with thofe of another, the weak places of his argument 
will be detefled, the principles he too haftily adopted will 
be overthrown, and the judgments, in which his mind 
was expofed to no knitter influence, will be confirmed. 
All that is requifire in thefe difculfions is unlimited /pe¬ 
culation, and. a fufficient variety of fvlteins and opinions. 
While we only difpute about the bell way of doing a 
thing in itfelf wrong, we fnal! indeed make but a trifling 
progrefs ; but, when we are once perfuaded that nothing 
is too facred to be brought to the touchilone of examina¬ 
tion, fcience will advance with rapid ftrides. Men, who 
turn their attention to the boundlefs field of inquiry, and 
dill more who recoiled the innumerable errors and ca¬ 
prices of mind, are apt to imagine that the labour is with¬ 
out benefit, and endlefs. But this cannot be the cafe, 
if truth at lad have any real exidence. Errors will, dur¬ 
ing the whole period of their reign, combat each other; 
prejudices that have pafl'ed utifufpeded for ages, will have 
their era-of deteflion ; but, if in any fcience we difeover 
one folitary truth, it cannot be overthrown. 
Such are Come of the arguments that may be advanced 
in favour of literature ; the reader’s imagination will lug¬ 
ged many more. We Ihall at preient advert-but to one ; 
namely, convenience. Since authorlhip has become a trade, 
the love of gain has operated in the literary as it has ever 
operated in the mercantile world, and books have been 
produced in proportion to the demand for them. In 
former times, when the foie incitement to publifh was the 
defire of fame, or the hope of inltrucling mankind, books 
appeared in finall numbers, and were only of certain de- 
feriptions ; now, lince the motive which impels to au- 
thordiip is different, lince avarice is more adive and pre¬ 
dominant than ambition, books have been Ihowered on us 
in the larged abundance; diverlified in their charader, 
and unlimited in the variety of their fu’ojeds. That 
evils have accompanied this abundance cannot be denied 5 
the fears of public cenfure and the hopes of public ap- 
plaufe have been-weakened by the love of gain; fome of 
the books which have appeared add nothing to truth, 
many contain fallehood, and few amply repay the toil of 
perufal. Such evils were indeed to be forefeen; for it 
would be ahfurd to expett that a building, ereded accord¬ 
ing to the circumdances of the moment, or in the view 
of prefeht gain, fhould have the foiidity and perfection of 
one which was deftmed to lad through all time. If, how¬ 
ever, we balance oppofite arguments, and compare the 
good with the evil that has refulted from this change of 
motive, mankind will appear perhaps to have gained by 
it. Our treatises on certain fubjeds may be lefs profound 
than they were formerly, but they are more numerous ; 
and we may be allowed to hope that there is no author 
who vvili not contribute Jomeihing to the .common dock of 
9 it,. kapwlfedge . 
