turn it adorned, ftrengthened, and harmonized the community.

But as the mind is vigorous and active, and experiment is dilatory and painful, the fpirit of philofophy being excited, the reafoner when deftitute of experiment, had recourfe to theory, and gave up what was useful for refinement.

Critics, fophifts, grammarians, rhetoricians, and commentators, now began to figure in the literary commonwealth. In the dawn of fcience fuch are generally modeft, and not entirely ufelefs; their performances ferve to mark the progress of learning, though they feldom contribute to its improvement. But as nothing but fpeculation was required in making proficients, in their refpective departments; fo neither the fatire nor the contempt of the wife, though Socrates was of the number, nor the laws levelled at them by the state, though Cato was in the legiflature, could prevent their approaches.* Poffelled of all the advantages of unfeeling dullness, laborious, infenfible, and perfevering, they ftill proceeded mending, and mending every work of genius, or to fpeak without irony, undermining all that was polite and useful. Libraries were loaded, but not enriched with their labours, while the fatigues of reading their explanatory comments was tenfold that which might fuffice for underftanding the original, and their works effectually increased our application, by profeffing to remove it.

Ágainst fo obftinate and irrefragable an enemy what could avail the unfupported fallies of genius, or the oppofition of tranfitory refentment? In fhort, they conquered by perfevering, claimed the right of dictating upon every work of tafte, fentiment, or genius, and at last, when deftitute of other employ

ment,

* Vide Sueton. Hift. Gram.

ment, like the fupernumerary domeftics of the great, made work for each other,

They now took upon them to teach poetry to those who wanted genius; and the power of difputing, to those who knew nothing of the fubject in debate. It was obferved, how fome of the most admired poets had copied nature. From these they collected dry rules, dignified with long names, and fuch were obtruded upon the public for their improvement. Common fenfe would be apt to fuggeft, that the art might be ftudied to more advantage, rather by imitation than precept. It might fuggeft that thofe rules were collected, not from nature, but a copy of nature, and would confequently give us ftill fainter refemblances of original beauty. It might ftill fuggeft that explained wit makes but a feeble impreffion, that the obfervations of others are foon forgotten, thofe made by ourselves are permanent and useful. But, it feems, understandings of every fize were to be mechanically inftructed in poetry. If the reader was too dull to relish the beauties of Virgil, the comment of Servius was ready to brighten his imagination; if Terence could not raife him to a smile, Evantius was at hand, with a long-winded fcholium to increafe his titillation. Such rules are calculated to make blockheads talk, but all the lemmata of the Lyceum are unable to givę him feeling.

But it would be endless to recount all the abfurdities which were hatched in the schools of thofe fpecious idlers; be it fufficient to fay, that they increased as learning improved, but fwarmed on its decline. It was then that every work of tafte was buried in long comments, every ufeful fubject in morals was diftinguifhed away into cafuiftry, and doubt and fubtilty characterifed the learning of the age. Metrodorus, Valerius Probus, Aulus Gellius, Pedianus, Boethius, and an hundred others, to be acquainted

with whom, might fhew much reading, and but little judgment; thefe, I fay, made choice each of an author, and delivered all their load of learning on his back; fhame to our ancestors! many of their works have reached our times entire, while Tacitus himself has fuffered mutilation.

In a word, the commonwealth of literature was at laft wholly overrun by these ftudious triflers. Men of real genius were loft in the multitude, or, as in a world of fools it were folly to aim at being an only exception, obliged to conform to every prevailing abfurdity of the times. Original productions feldom appeared, and learning, as if grown fuperannuated, beftowed all its panegyric upon the vigour of its youth, and turned encomiaft upon its former atchievements.

It is to these then, that the depravation of ancient polite learning, is principally to be afcribed. By them it was feparated from common sense, and made the proper employment of fpeculative idlers. Men bred up among books, and feeing nature only by reflection, could do little, except hunt after perplexity and confufion. The public, therefore, with reafon rejected learning, when thus rendered barren, though voluminous; for we may be affured, that the generality of mankind never lofe a paffion for letters, while they continue to be either amusing or useful.

It was fuch writers as thefe, that rendered learning unfit for uniting and ftrengthening civil fociety, or for promoting the views of ambition. True philo fophy had kept the Grecian ftates cemented into one effective body, more than any law for that purpofe; and the Etrurian philofophy, which prevailed in the first ages of Rome, infpired thofe patriot virtues which paved the way to univerfal empire. But by the labours of commentators, when philofophy became abftrufe, or triflingly minute, when doubt was prefented inftead of knowledge, when the orator

was

was taught to charm the multitude with the mufic of his periods, and pronounced a declamation that might be fung as well as fpoken, and often upon fubjects wholly fictitious; in fuch circumstances, learning was entirely unfuited to all the purposes of government, or the defigns of the ambitious. As long as the fciences could influence the ftate, and its politics were ftrengthened by them, fo long did the community give them countenance and protection. But the wifer part of mankind would not be impofed upon by unintelligible jargon, nor, like the knight in Pantagruel, fwallow a chimera for a breakfaft, though even cooked by Ariftotle. As the philofopher grew useless in the ftate, he also became contemptible. In the times of Lucian he was chiefly remarkable for his avarice, his impudence,

and his beard.

Under the aufpicious influence of genius arts and fciences grew up together, and mutually illustrated each other. But when once pedants became lawgivers, the fciences began to want grace, and the polite arts folidity; thefe grew crabbed and four, those meretricious and gawdy; the philofopher became difguftingly precife, and the poet, ever ftraining after grace, caught only finery.

<;

Thefe men alfo contributed to obftruct the progrefs of wisdom, by addicting their readers to one particular fect, or fome favourite fcience. They generally carried on a petty traffic in fome little creek within that they bufily plied about, and drove an infignificant trade; but never ventured out into the great ocean of knowledge, nor went beyond the bounds that chance, conceit, or lazinefs, had first prescribed their enquiries. Their difciples, inftead of aiming at being originals themfelves, became imitators of that merit alone, which was conftantly propofed for their admiration. In exercises of this kind, the most stupid are generally moft fuccessful; for there

is not in nature, a more imitative animal than a

dunce.

Hence ancient learning may be diftinguished into three periods. Its commencement, or the age of poets; its maturity, or the age of philofophers; and its decline, or the age of critics. In the poetical age commentators were very few, but might have in some respects been useful. In its philofophical, their affiftance muft neceffarily become obnoxious, yet, as if the nearer we approached perfection, the more we ftood in need of their directions, in this period they began to grow numerous. But when polite learning was no more, then it was thofe literary lawgivers made the moft formidable appearance. Corruptiffima republica, plurimæ leges. TACIT.

But let us take a more diftinct view of thofe ages of ignorance, in which falfe refinement had involved mankind, and fee how far they resemble our own.

CHAP. III.

A view of the obfcure ages.

WHATEVER the skill of any country may be in the sciences, it is from its excellence in polite learning alone, that it must expect a character from pofterity. The poet and the hiftorian are they who diffuse a luftre upon the age, and the philofopher fcarcely acquires any applaufe, unlefs his character be introduced to the vulgar by their mediation.

The obfcure ages, which fucceeded the decline of the Roman empire, are a ftriking inftance of the 'truth of this affèrtion. Whatever period of those ill-fated times we happen to turn to, we fhall per