them heartless and indolent. Liberty indeed and many other advantages, were procured to them by the union of the two kingdoms; but these falutary effects were long fufpended by mutual enmity, fuch as commonly fubfifts between neighbouring nations. Enmity wore away gradually, and the eyes of the Scots were opened to the advantages of their present condition: the national spirit was roused to emulate and to excel: talents were exerted, hitherto latent; and Scotland at present makes a figure in arts and sciences, above what it ever made while an inde pendent kingdom *.

Another cause of activity and animation, is the being engaged in fome im

*In Scotland, an innocent bankrupt imprisoned 'for debt, obtains liberty by a procefs termed Ceffio bonorum. From the year 1694 to the 1744 there were but twenty-four proceffes of that kind; which fhows how languidly trade was carried on while the people remained ignorant of their advantages by the union. From that time to the year 1771 there have been thrice that number every year, taking one year with another; an evident proof of the late rapid progrefs of commerce in Scotland. Every one is roufed to venture his fmall ftock, tho' every one cannot be fuccessful.

portant

`portant action of doubtful event, a struggle for liberty, the refifting a potent invader, For the like. Greece, divided into fmall states frequently at war with each other, advanced literature and the fine arts to unrivalled perfection. The Corficans, while engaged in a perilous war for defence of their liberties, exerted a vigorous national spirit: they founded an univerfity for arts and sciences, a public library, and a public bank. After a long ftupor during the dark ages of Chriftianity, arts and literature revived among the turbulent ftates of Italy. The royal fociety in London, and the academy of fciences in Paris, were both of them inftituted after civil wars that had animated the people, and roufed their activity.

An useful art is feldom loft, because it is in conftant practice. And yet, tho' many useful arts were in perfection during the reign of Auguftus Cæfar, it is amazing how ignorant and ftupid men became, after the Roman empire was fhattered by northern barbarians: they degenerated into favages. So ignorant were the Spanish Chriftians during the eighth and ninth centuries, that Alphonfus the Great,

King of Leon, was neceffitated to employ Mahometan preceptors for educating his eldeft fon. Even Charlemagne could not fign his name: nor was he fingular in that refpect, being kept in countenance by feveral neighbouring princes.

As the progrefs of arts and sciences toward perfection is greaty promoted by emulation, nothing is more fatal to an art or fcience than to remove that fpur, as where fome extraordinary genius appears who foars above rivalfhip. Mathematics feem to be declining in Britain; the great Newton, having furpaffed all the ancients, has not left to the moderns even the faintest hope of equalling him; and what man will enter the lifts who defpairs of victory?

In early times, the inventors of useful

arts were remembered with fervent grati tude. Their history became fabulous by. the many incredible exploits attributed to them. Diodorus Siculus mentions the Egyptian tradition of Ofiris, that with a numerous army he traverfed every inhabited part of the globe, in order to teach men the culture of wheat and of the vine." Befide the impracticability of fupporting a numerous army where hufbandry is unknown,

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known, no army could enable Ofiris to introduce wheat or wine among ftupid favages who live by hunting and fishing ; which probably was the case, in that early period, of all the nations he visited.

In a country thinly peopled, where even neceffary arts want hands, it is common to fee one perfon exercising more arts than one in feveral parts of Scotland, the fame man ferves as a phyfician, furgeon, and apothecary. In a very populous country, even fimple arts are split into parts, and there is an artist for each part: in the populous towns of ancient Egypt, a phyfician was confined to a fingle disease. In mechanic arts that mode is excellent, As a hand confined to a fingle operation becomes both expert and expeditious, a mechanic art is perfected by having its different operations diftributed among the greatest number of hands: many hands are employ'd in making a watch; and a ftill greater number in manufacturing a web of woollen cloth. Various arts or operations carried on by the fame man, envigorate his mind, becaufe they exercife different faculties; and as he cannot be equally expert in every art or operation, he VOL. I. B b

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is frequently reduced to fupply want of skill by thought and invention. Conftant application, on the contrary, to a single operation, confines the mind to a fingle object, and excludes all thought and invention: in fuch a train of life, the opera tor becomes dull and ftupid, like a beast of burden. The difference is vifible in the manners of the people: in a country where, from want of hands, feveral occu pations must be carried on by the fame perfon, the people are knowing and converfable: in a populous country where manufactures flourish, they are ignorant and unfociable. The fame effect is vifible in countries where an art or manufacturé is confined to a certain clafs of men. It is vifible in Hindoftan, where the people are divided into cafts, which never mix even by marriage, and where every man follows his father's trade. The Dutch lint-boors are a fimilar inftance: the fame families carry on the trade from genera tion to generation; and are accordingly ignorant and brutifh even beyond other Dutch peafants. The inhabitants of Buckhaven, a feaport in the county of Fife, were originally a colony of foreigners, in vited hither to teach our people the art of

fishing.