EFFECTS OF THE SCIENCES ON CIVIL LIBERTY.

IT must be acknowledged, that the most enlightened ages have not always been the most happy. It has even been said, that in proportion as knowledge encreases, the mind becomes corrupted. But what inference ought we, in justice, to form from this general assertion, admitting it to be true? Not, surely, that knowledge is a thing in itself bad; but that there is nothing upon earth good that can remain long exempted from the abuse of man. Though the sciences are so far from being of necessity the parents of power and felicity, that a mediocrity of both talents and fortune is found to be more calculated to render men happy than an abundance of either wealth or knowledge; yet, in the political world, a revolution has happened which renders, at least, a relative advancement in the study of them requisite. From the time that politics became reduced into a complex system; from the time that light succeeded to darkness; that the nature and ends of government began to be understood; that the gaining of battles no longer depended on strength and courage, but on the art of fighting; from that time skill and knowledge became the engines of power, and governed all its principles. So strictly true are these positions, that if we examine the present state of Europe, we shall not find the nations that have formed the grandest settlements, to be those which are either the strongest or the most populous, but those in which the arts and sciences have chiefly flourished.

Before men were united in society, intelligence was not necessary for them. As mere existence was their only object, instinct was sufficient. Afterwards, however, new springs of action arose; plans of legislation were settled; different classes were created; different orders were formed; different powers were established. In order to preserve a general equilibrium, an additional weight was given to some, at the expence of others. Every attention was necessary to the maintenance of civil and political order, and to the preservation of the public safety. These various objects required not only minds enlightened and improved, but (so to express it) a general assortment of knowledge. To an inequality of national knowledge has been ascribed the origin of most European wars.

In a word, that union, which, while it diffuses a harmony throughout the body politic, serves to connect all its parts, is a system highly complicated; and barbarous is every government reputed to which it is unknown.

POETRY.

ODE FOR THE YEAR 180c.

THE world's horizon, still with gloom o'ercast,
Incites the Muse in pensive verse to sing ;
Such as accords with War's destructive blast,
Whose countless ills the worst afflictions bring.
Bellona, grac'd with Vict'ry's pompous train,
Attendant choirs may greet, but sorrow marks the strain.
E'en now the drum and fife invite

War's steady champions to the fight,
And Britons to defend their right.

Oft hath a sire his much lov'd son to mourn;
Oft duteous sons to weep a father slain ;
The wife's fond breast with anxious care is torn,
Fearful that pray'rs for her lord's life are vain.
These, dread ally of Death, experience shews,
Form but few lines in thy long catalogue of woes!
The virgin, weeping for her swain,

Joins with the matron to complain
Of thy unfeeling iron reign.

Hail, op'ning year, thrice hail thy natal morn,
If in thy days we meet long absent Peace,
(Welcome, as comfort to the wretch forlorn),
And Ceres gilds our fields with rich increase,
Pouring her plenteous stores with lib'ral hand
On Britain's fertile, free, and highly favour'd land!
Then will our country beam with joy,
Returning peasants dance and toy,

And Commerce more our cares employ. Strike, strike, in quicker time the jocund lyre, Let livelier chords announce the happy birth; Let every Muse to raise the tune aspire,

And loudest pœans echo through the earth.
Charm'd by the voice of melody and love,
Then shall we antedate the bliss of souls above :
Where in eternal joyful lays

Unnumber'd Saints their voices raise,
To sing their great Creator's praise.

W.P.H.

10 A YOUNG LADY,

COMPLAINING THAT WINTER HAD RETURNED FOUR TIMES.

OH! CELIA, why should you complain

That WINTER in his icy chain

Hath four times bound the earth?
Those snows which you call so unkind,
Are destin'd by th' Eternal Mind
To give the Spring its birth.
What greater cause have I to grieve,
Whom cruel Fates ordain to live
Without one ray to cheer?-
For all those fond, impassion'd sighs,
Which from my love-fraught bosom rise,
With cold neglect you hear.
Ere long in smiles shall rosy MAY
Banish these wintry storms away,

And all its treasures bring:

But MAY, altho' with roses crown'd,
Shall find me still in Winter bound,
And ne'er to end in Spring!

1

C.