at that time, pretty much alike. Where the labourers and artifans are accustomed to work for low wages, and to retain but a small part of the fruits of their labour, it is difficult for them, even in a free government, to better their condition, or confpire among themfelves to heighten their wages. But even where they are accustomed to a more plentiful way of life, it is easy for the rich, in an arbitrary government, to confpire against them, and throw the whole burthen of the taxes on their fhoulders.

It may feem an odd pofition, that the poverty of the common people in FRANCE, ITALY, and SPAIN, is, in some measure, owing to the fuperior riches of the foil and happiness of the climate; yet there want not reasons to justify this paradox. In fuch a fine mould or foil as that of those more fouthern regions, agriculture is an easy art; and one man, with a couple of forry horfes, will be able, in a season, to cultivate as much land as will pay a pretty confiderable rent to the proprietor. All the art, which the farmer knows, is to leave his ground fallow for a year, as foon as it is exhausted; and the warmth of the fun alone and temperature of the climate enrich it, and restore its fertility. Such poor peasants, therefore, require only a fimple maintenance for their labour. They have no ftock or riches, which claim more; and at the fame time, they are for ever dependant on their landlord, who gives no leafes, nor fears that his land will be spoiled by the ill methods of cultivation. In ENGLAND, the land is rich, but coarse; must be cultivated at a great expence; and produces flender crops, when not carefully managed, and by a method which gives ' not the full profit but in a course of several years. A farmer, therefore, in ENGLAND muft have a confiderable ftock, and a long leafe; which beget proportional pro

fits. The fine vineyards of CHAMPAGNE and BURGUNDY, that often yield to the landlord above five pounds per acre, are cultivated by peasants, who have fcarcely bread: The reafon is, that such peasants need no ftock but their own limbs, with inftruments of hufbandry, which they can buy for twenty fhillings. The farmers are commonly in fome better circumstances in those countries. But the grafiers are moft at their ease of all those who cultivate the land. The reafon is ftill the fame. Men must have profits proportionable to their expence and hazard. Where fo confiderable a number of the labouring poor as the peasants and farmers are in very low circumstances, all the reft muft partake of their poverty, whether the government of that nation be monarchical or republican.

We may form a fimilar remark with regard to the general hiftory of mankind. What is the reason, why no people, living between the tropics, could never yet attain to any art or civility, or reach even any police in their government, and any military discipline; while few nations in the temperate climates have been altogether deprived of these advantages? It is probable that one cause of this phænomenon is the warmth and equality of weather in the torrid zone, which render clothes and houses lefs requifite for the inhabitants, and thereby remove, in part, that neceffity, which is the great spur to industry and invention. Curis acuens mortalia corda. Not to mention, that the fewer goods or poffeffions of this kind any people enjoy, the fewer quarrels are likely to arise amongst them, and the lefs neceffity will there be for a fettled police or regular authority to protect and defend them from foreign enemies, or from each other.

ESSAY II.

L

Of REFINEMENT in the ARTS.

UXURY is a word of an uncertain fignification,

and may be taken in a good as well as in a bad fenfe. In general, it means great refinement in the gratification of the fenfes; and any degree of it may be innocent or blameable, according to the age, or country, or condition of the perfon. The bounds between the virtue and the vice cannot here be exactly fixed, more than in other moral subjects. To imagine, that the gratifying of any sense, or the indulging of any delicacy in meat, drink, or apparel, is of itself a vice, can never enter into a head, that is not disordered by the frenzies of enthusiasm. I have, indeed, heard of a monk abroad, who, because the windows of his cell opened upon a noble prospect, made a covenant with his eyes never to turn that way, or receive fo fenfual a gratification. And fuch is the crime of drinking CHAMPAGNE or BURGUNDY, preferably to fmall beer or porter. These indulgences are only vices, when they are purfued at the expence of fome virtue, as liberality or charity; in like manner as they are follies, when for them a man ruins his fortune, and reduces himself to want and beggary. Where they entrench upon no virtue, but leave ample fubject whence to provide for friends, family, and every proper

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proper object of generofity or compaffion, they are entirely innocent, and have in every age been acknowledged fuch by almost all moralifts. To be entirely occupied with the luxury of the table, for inftance, without any relish for the pleasures of ambition, study, or conversation, is a mark of ftupidity, and is incompatible with any vigour of temper or genius. To confine one's expence entirely to fuch a gratification, without regard to friends or family, is an indication of a heart deftitute of humanity or benevolence. But if a man reserve time fufficient for all laudable purfuits, and money fufficient for all generous purposes, he is free from every fhadow of blame or reproach.

Since luxury may be confidered either as innocent or blameable, one may be furprized at those prepofterous opinions, which have been entertained concerning it; while men of libertine principles beftow praises even on vicious luxury, and reprefent it as highly advantageous to fociety; and on the other hand, men of fevere morals blame even the most innocent luxury, and represent it as the fource of all the corruptions, diforders, and factions, incident to civil government. We fhall here endeavour to correct both thefe extremes, by proving, first, that the ages of refinement are both the happieft and most virtuous'; fecondly, that wherever luxury ceases to be innocent, it alfo ceafes to be beneficial; and when carried a degree too far, is a quality pernicious, though perhaps not the moft pernicious, to political fociety.

To prove the firft point, we need but confider the effects of refinement both on private and on public life. Human happiness, according to the most received notions, feems to confift in three ingredients; action, pleasure, and indolence: And though these ingredients ought to

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be mixed in different proportions, according to the particular difpofition of the person; yet no one ingredient can be entirely wanting, without destroying, in fome measure, the relish of the whole compofition. Indolence or repofe, indeed, seems not of itself to contribute much to our enjoyment; but, like fleep, is requifite as an indulgence to the weakness of human nature, which cannot support an uninterrupted course of business or pleasure. That quick march of the spirits, which takes a man from himself, and chiefly gives fatisfaction, does in the end exhaust the mind, and requires fome intervals of repofe, which, though agreeable for a moment, yet, if prolonged, beget a languor and lethargy, that destroys all enjoyment. Education, cuftom, and example, have a mighty influence in turning the mind to any of these pursuits; and it must be owned, that, where they promote a relish for action and pleasure, they are so far favourable to human happinefs. In times when industry and the arts flourish, men are kept in perpetual occupation, and enjoy, as their reward, the occupation itself, as well as thofe pleafures which are the fruit of their labour. The mind acquires new vigour; enlarges its powers and faculties; and by an affiduity in honeft induftry, both fatisfies its natural appetites, and prevents the growth of unnatural ones, which commonly fpring up, when nourished by eafe and idleness. Banifh those arts from fociety, you deprive men both of action and of pleasure; and leaving nothing but indolence in their place, you even deftroy the relish of indolence, which never is agreeable, but when it fucceeds to labour, and recruits the fpirits, exhaufted by too much application and fatigue.

Another advantage of industry and of refinements in the mechanical arts, is, that they commonly produce