language alfo, I mean the French, in which all the tranfactions are to be published, and questions debated in this there was an error. As I have already hinted, the language of the natives of every country fhould be alfo the language of its polite learning. To figure in polite learning, every country fhould make their own language from their own manners; nor will they ever fucceed by introducing that of another, which has been formed from manners which are different. Befides, an academy compofed of foreigners muft ftill be recruited from abroad, unless all the natives of the country to which it belongs, are in a capacity of becoming candidates for its honours, or rewards. While France therefore continues to fupply Berlin, polite learning will flourish; but when royal favour is withdrawn, learning will return to its natural country.

CHAP. VI.

Of polite learning in Holland and fome other countries of Europe.

HOLLAND, at first view, appears to have fome pretenfions to polite learning. It may be regarded as the great emporium, not lefs of literature than of every other commodity. Here, though deftitute of what may be properly called a language of their own, all the languages are understood, cultivated and fpoken. All ufeful inventions in arts, and new difcoveries in fcience, are published here almost as foon as at the places which first produced

them.

them. Its individuals have the fame faults, however, with the Germans, of making more ufe of their memory than their judgment. The chief employment of their literati is to criticife, or anfwer the new performances which appear elfewhere.

A dearth of wit in France or England naturally produces a fearcity in Holland. What Ovid fays of Echo, may be applied here, Nec loqui prius ipfa didicit nec reticere quenti. They wait till fomething new comes out from others; examine its merits and reject it, or make it reverberate through the rest of Europe.

After all, I know not whether they should be allowed any national character for polite learning. All their tafte is derived to them from neighbouring nations, and that in a language not their own. They fomewhat resemble their brokers, who trade for immenfe fums without having any capital.

The other countries of Europe may be confidered as immerfed in ignorance, or making but feeble efforts to rife. Spain has long fallen from amazing Europe with her wit, to amufing them with the greatness of her catholic credulity. Rome confiders her as the most favourite of all her children, and fchool-divinity ftill reigns there in triumph. In fpite of all attempts of the Marquis D'Enfanada, who faw with regret. the barbarity of his countrymen, and bravely offered to oppofe it by introducing new fyftems of learning, and fuppreffing the feminaries of monaftic ignorance, in fpite of the ingenuity of Padre Feio, whose book of vulgar errors fo finely expofes the monkifh ftupidity of the times, the religious have prevailed. Enfanada has been banifhed, and now lives in exile; Feio has incurred the hatred and contempt of every bigot whofe errors he has attempted to oppofe, and feels no doubt the unremitting difpleasure of the priesthood. Per

fecution

fecution is a tribute the Great muft ever pay for preheminence.

It is a little extraordinary, however, how Spain, whofe genius is naturally fine, fhould be fo much behind the rest of Europe in this particular; or why school-divinity fhould hold its ground there for nearly fix hundred years. The reafon must be, that philofophical opinions, which are otherwife tranfient, acquire ftability in proportion as they are connected with the laws of the country, and philosophy and law have no where been fo closely united as here.

Sweden has of late made fome attempts in polite learning in its own language. Count Teffin's inftructions to the prince, his pupil, are no bad beginning. If the Mufes can fix their refidence fo far northward, perhaps no country bids fo fair for their reception. They have, I am told, a language rude but energetic; if fo, it will bear a polifh; they have also a jealous fenfe of liberty, and that ftrength of thinking peculiar to northern climates, without its attendant ferocity. They will certainly in time produce fomewhat great if their inteftine divifions do not unhappily prevent them.

The hiftory of polite learning in Denmark may be comprised in the life of one fingle man; it rofe and fell with the late famous Baron Holberg. This was, perhaps, one of the moft extraordinary perfonages that has done honour to the prefent century. His being the fon of a private fentinel did not abate the ardour of his ambition; for he learned to read, though without a mafter. Upon the death of his father, being left entirely deftitute, he was involved in all that diftrefs which is common among the poor, and of which the Great have fcarcely any idea. However, though only a boy of nine years old, he fill perfifted in purfuing his ftudies, travelled about from school to school, and begged his learning

learning and his bread. When at the age of feventeen, instead of applying himself to any of the lower occupations, which feem beft adapted to fuch circumftances, he was refolved to travel for improvement from Norway, the place of his birth, to Copenhagen the capital city of Denmark. He lived there by teaching French, at the fame time avoiding no opportunity of improvement, that his fcanty funds could permit. But his ambition was not to be reftrained, or his thirft of knowledge fatisfied until he had feen the world. Without money, recommendations or friends he undertook to fet out upon his travels, and make the tour of Europe on foot. A good voice, and a trifling skill in mufic were the only finances he had to fupport an undertaking fo extenfive; fo he travelled by day, and at night fung at the doors of peasants houfes to get himself a lodging. In this manner, while yet very young, Holberg paffed through France, Germany, and Holland, and coming over to England, took up his refidence for two years in the univerfity of Oxford. Here he fubfifted by teaching French and mufic, and wrote his univerfal hiftory, his earliest, but worst performance. Furnished with all the learning of Europe, he at last thought proper to return to Copenhagen, where his ingenious productions quickly gained him that favour he deferved. He compofed not lefs than eighteen comedies; thofe in his own language are faid to excel, and those which are tranflated into French have peculiar merit. He was honoured with nobility, and enriched by the bounty of the king; fo that a life begun in contempt and penury ended in opulence and esteem.

Thus we fee in what a low ftate polite learning is in the countries I have mentioned, either past its prime or not yet arrived at maturity. And though the sketch I have drawn be general, yet it was for

the

the most part taken upon the fpot. I am fenfible, however, of the impropriety of national reflexion; and did not truth bias me more than inclination in this particular, I should, inftead of the account already given, have prefented the reader with a panegyric on many of the individuals of every country, whofe merits deferve the warmest ftrains of praise. Apoftol Zeno, Algarotti, Goldoni, Muratori, and Stay, in Italy; Haller, Klopftock, and Rabner, in Germany; Mufchenbrook, and Gaubius, in Holland; all deferve the higheft applaufe. Men like thefe, united by one bond, purfuing one defign, spend their labour and their lives in making their fellow-creatures happy, and in repairing the breaches caufed by ambition. In this light the meaneft philofopher, though all his poffeffions are his lamp or his cell, is more truly valuable than he whofe name echoes to the fhout of the million, and who flands in all the glare of admiration. In this light, though poverty and contemptuous neglect are all the wages of his good will from mankind, yet the rectitude of his intention is an ample recompence; and felf-applaufe for the prefent, and the alluring profpect of fame for futurity, reward his labours. The perfpective of life brightens upon us, when terminated by an object fo charming. Every intermediate image of want, banifhment, or forrow, receives a luftre from its diftant influence. With this in view, the patriot, philofopher, and poet, have often looked with calmnefs on difgrace and famine, and rested on their ftraw with cheerful ferenity. Even the last terrors of departing nature abate of their feverity, and look kindly on him who confiders his fufferings as a paffport to immortality, and lays his forrows on the bed of fame,

CHAP.