From place to place, as me just now, From ANACREON. To a DOVE. O tell the maid, of me belov'd, She hear my pray'r with gracious mind, branch of filver-flow'ring palm. Bat, why fhould I thy flight delay ? Go, fleet, my herald, speed away, Horace, Ode 10. Book 2. imitated. W Hen tempefts fweep and billows roll, And winds contend along the pole; When o'er the deck ascends the sea, And half the fheet is torn away; To all the riches of the main. Thrice happy he! and he alone, Scarce feel which way the tempeft blew. Storms rend the lofty tow'r in twain, And bow the poplar to the plain; The hills are wrap'd in clouds on high, And feel th' artillery of the fky; When not a breath the valley wakes, Or curles the furface of the lakes. When ftorms on fortune's ocean lowr, And rolling billows lafh the fhore; When lov'd allies return to clay, And paltry riches wing their way; The faithless mob, the perjur'd whore, On the Report of Mr. Voltaire's being employed in writing a Commentary on the Bible. WIL ILL then Voltaire, grown wife at last Left Satan, as you've laugh'd at him, Mira and Colin, A new SON G. HE morn was fair, the fky ferene, TH A general VIEW of the IMPERFECTIONS of human Society, and of the Sources from whence they flow. Tcondition of mankind in every age, we fhall be more fully convinced, that hu- It must indeed be confeffed, that a great deal of magnificence and refinement have appeared, in fome particular ages and nations: At fome times mankind have made confiderable advances in virtue and in fcience. Yet a curious and exact obferver of what has paffed on the earth cannot but acknowledge, that human fociety has never attained to that magnificence and elegance, to that virtue, knowledge, and happiness of which it is truly capable, if men cultivated their genius with due care, and made a proper ufe of thofe riches which are in nature. What ftores of rich materials, for the use and ornament of human fociety, are to be found upon the surface and in the bofom of the earth! Nature has furnished the richest materials for our comfort, and bestows then on mankind with an amazing munificence. Neither is the wan ing in her inftructions to the fons of men, to make a proper improvement of fuch mighty advantages. She has endowed them with a difcerning fpirit and an acute genius, which teaches them to turn their riches to ufe, for procuring the general happiness of fociety, and of every individual member of this great community, 3 At what heights in virtue, knowledge, and felicity mankind may arrive by due culfrom the attainments of fome particular perture, may, in fome measure, be guessed at, fons or nations at fome particular times. However, if we only meature the improvewhich the most exalted of them have made ments of which men are capable by those hitherto, we fhall fall far fhort of the fum. This may easily be illuftrated by a few particular obfervations. As numerous as mankind are, or have been fo numerous as might justly have been ever been computed to be, they have never expected, confidering how early both fexes capacity continues, and how many ages have are capable of propagation, to what age this paffed fince their first appearance upon the earth. state of thofe countries of which we have the must have wanted a much greater quantity would would not have wanted more than it might have eafily produced with due culture. The earth has never been cultivated to the full extent of what it was able to bear; large tracts of it have produced little or nothing; no country has ever been fully cultivated; face has the fimallett tract been forced to do its utmoft, and to produce all that was poffible. However, we might be less concerned for the paucity of mankind, and for the bad culture of the earth, though evident proofs of human weakness, if those who have actually been the inhabitants of our globe had been fupported agreeably to the dignity of human nature, and had enjoyed that degree of felicity of which they were truly capable. But, alas the fcanty number of mankind who have actually exifted have been poorly provided for, and have been expofed to much wretchedness: A much greater number might have been supported in affluence, if there had been a proper diftribution of their labour and of its profits, and if they had happily confpired to promote their mutual felicity; but, instead of agreeing in fuch excellent fchemes, they have been fatally diverted to falfe purfuits, by a corruption of tafte, and have been woefully engaged in oppofing and destroying one another. As mankind have not been fupported with fufficient dignity, confidering their real grandeur, and their fuperiority to other animals, they have made but a small progrefs in fcience, compared with what they might have done, if they had been happily directed to right methods of study, and had got leifure fteadily to purfue them. The advancement of knowledge has been in a great degree left to chance; men's inquiries have been perpetually interrupted; of confequence, we know but little, either of nature or of art, in comparison of what is poffible to be known. Notwithstanding the mighty advances lat ter ages have made in aftronomy, our knowledge of the heavenly bodies is still very defective: The theory of comets will not be completed after several hundred years: We have not made regular obfervations of the alterations which have happened in the immenfe regions of the heavens in paft ages; we have not exact registers of the itars, which either appear or evanish at different periods; we are uncertain about the diftance of the fixed ftars, either from us or from one another: The law concerning the preceffion of the equinoxes, though the preceffion itself is an ancient discovery, has scarce been fully investigated hitherto. How many other varieties might be found out by accurate obfervations! Several things are wanted in the theories of the fun, of the primary and of the secondary planets; there is room for more exact obfervations of the inclination of the plane of the equator to the ecliptic, of the fpots and different appearan ces in the bodies of the fun, and of his furrounding fatellites; we do not know whether their real or apparent diameters are lefs or greater in different ages; whether their periods and distances from the earth, or from one another, or the mutual diftances of other heavenly bodies and their periods, are always the fame; whether the heat of the fun is conftant or variable; and, if variable, whether it increases or is diminished, and in what proportion; whether the planets and comets have interfered or juftled, or whether fuch a juftle may be expected or predicted. In fhort, after all our fearned labours, we still stand in need of more accurate observations and more exact aftronomical tables. As to the air, fufficient obfervations have not been made of the winds, rains, dews, froft, hail, fnows, thunder, aurora borealis, and other phenomena and alterations in this part of nature; exact registers of their variations in different ages and countries have not been regularly kept, communicated to diftant nations, and tranfmitted from age to age, to lay a foundation for discovering their laws. How fcanty are our observations of the body of the earth, and of the changes that have happened to it fince its first formation! We know not what incroachments have been made upon the land by the feas, lakes, and greater rivers, or what acceffions of land have been gained from the waters; whether the heights of the mountains above the neighbouring plains have been always the fame whether new mountains, iflands, lakes, and rivers have appeared, what old ones have decayed, or wholly evanished, or what ha voc has been made by earthquakes and eruptions of fire. The longitudes and latitudes of most places are not exactly known, nor whether they continue always the fame. A theory has been formed about the difference between the axis of the earth and the diameter of its equator; and, to the honour of our inquifitive age, obfervations have been carefully made in the moft diftant regions, which confirm this theory; but fcarce has any one fufpected that there may be a variation in the bulk of the earth itself, and that a great circle paffing through the fame points is not perhaps always of the fame largenefs. Many large tracts of the globe, after all our travels and voyages, are ftill unknown; for aught that we have learned, there may be many great iflands, or a vaft continent, about the fouth pole. We are almost wholly ignorant ignorant of the middle regions of Afric, of the northern and fouthern extremities of America, and of the east of Afia. The fouthern parts of Europe, and fuch other countries as lie at no great diftance from the Méditerranean fea, have been inquired into with fome curiofity; but the diftant lands towards every point have never been fearched with care; we have not even difcovered a north-eaft or north-west passage, nor can we determine whether either of these paffages is poffible. In truth, notwithstanding the accufations brought against human avarice and curiofity, by the philofophers and poets, fufficient experiments have not been made hitherto upon what is to be found on the furface, or what is contained in the bowels of the earth. Further, exact inquiries have not been made into the nature of animals and ve.. getables, and into the properties and virtues of thofe other bodies which are found on our globe. We are often as much at a lofs about the nearer and smaller, as about the more diftant and more bulky objects. We cannot tell how long many animals may, or actually do live; whether the length of their lives, their bulk, and their prolific virtue, have been always the fame; or whether, and in what proportion, they vary in different ages, climates, and foils. How little is known of giants and dwarfs, who are faid to inhabit fome diftant countries! How little curiofity has appeared to examine that visible diftinction of men into white and black, and to make ufeful and innocent trials of the variations which might be produced in a course of generations! Inftead of making proper inquiries, in order to inlarge our knowledge of the animal ceconomy, as if we were children, we only gaze at monfters and animals of an heterogeneous and uncommon fhape, though fome of them feem to approach to the human form. We are ignorant how far the brute animals are capable of inftruction, and at what degree of perfection they may arrive. Who can tell how long an oak and many other vegetables may remain in the earth, and what various proceffes they may undergo from a feed or root till the ftump is wholly rotten, and no traces of them appear ? How many experiments might be made, not only on vegetable but animal bodies, for penetrating deeper into their various ceconomies, for unravelling the operations of nature, for perfecting the art of medicine? I mean not experiments which may be reckoned whimfical, ufelefs, or cruel; the two firit kinds are trifling, the laft ought to be abhorred; but experiments which are merciful, useful, and ingenious. In fhort, nature is ftill a mystery, after all our accidental discoveries and most curious inquiries: Hitherto we know but little of the real powers and virtues that are continually operating in the universe. It cannot indeed be denied, that, partly by accidents, partly by the inquiries of ingenious men, many neceffary, useful, and agreeable arts have been discovered: Mankind have found out many excellent rules in agriculture, pafturage, and gardening; they have lighted upon many convenient methods of defending themselves from cold and other inclemencies of the air; they have made fine improvements in their languages; at fome particular times they have excelled in poetry, oratory, mufic, painting, ftatuary, architecture, geometry, arithmetic, and other ingenious arts: Yet they have never carried their researches fo far as their genius would have enabled them in a fituation truly proper for making the most important difcoveries. According to the best accounts which hiftory gives of the world, knowledge made but a flow progrefs during the early ages. This was agreeable to the natural course of things. It muft undoubtedly have been a long time before men found leifure and acquired a tafte for the study of philofophy and of nature. The investigation of the various powers and properties of natural things, by careful obfervation and experiment, though the moft neceffary of any thing for enabling men to acquire the most perfect dominion over nature, feems to have come latest into vogue, and to have met with the leaft encouragement from philofophers. Even after the world had been confiderably inlightened in other refpects, natural philofophy, confidered as an inquiry into all the parts of nature, was but little ftudied: It was certainly but little cultivated before the age of Socrates. However, as furprifing as it may appear, it seems evident, that it was better known in his days than ever it was afterwards, till the revival of learning within the last three hundred years. However, notwithstanding both ancient and modern advances in knowledge, the powers of nature are very imperfectly understood. If mankind had lived in fuch good correfpondence, and in fuch perfect eafe and fecurity, as would have fuffered them to form regular and extenfive plans for proper inquiries into all the parts of nature, and to carry their schemes into execution, in a courfe of ages they would undoubt edly have made much greater advances in the knowledge of nature than have been made hitherto; and, befides all the arts which which have already been difcovered, they would have invented many others, which muft have greatly contributed to the fupport and to the joys of human life. Thus human fociety has never arrived at that perfection of which, from the preparations of a wife Providence, it feems abundantly capable. We can at least form confiftent ideas of much higher improvements and enjoyments. With many, nothing is poffible but what they have actually feen or heard of, and all grand fchemes of improvement are thought romantic. According to fuch philofophers, the diforders of human appetites and paffions render all approaches to perfection in human fociety wholly impracticable. It is eafy, fay they, to paint agreeable fcenes. We may eafi ly conceive a different order of the natural and moral world. Poets have fung of a perpetual spring, and an air conftantly mild and ferene: They have fet rivers a running with milk and nectar, and made the earth produce fpontaneously all kinds of delicious food. We may fancy univerfal peace, friendhip, virtue, and wisdom. But thefe delightful fcenes have never existed, never fhall, nor can they exift but in the poet's brain, to furnish materials for writers of romance. If this is really the cafe, one cannot help being forry for it: However, the question, concerning the poffibility of fuch a happy flate is of too great importance to be flight ly paffed over. It deferves an accurate difcuffion, which will fufficiently reward our pains; for, though perhaps, after all our inquiries, we must reft contented without finding out what we could wish, yet by our fearches we fhall at leaft gain a more intimate acquaintance with the human affections and paffions; we shall fee farther into the nature of society, and penetrate deeper into the methods of the divine Providence. Mean while it is obvious, upon the flighteft view, that thofe political fyftems, and thofe maxims of education, which have prevailed univerfally hitherto, are altogether inconfiftent with a perfect state of human fociety. The bad correfpondence in which mankind live, the struggles for riches and power among the different nations into which human fociety is divided, the jealou fies among the great, the ambition of Kings and Princes, their interfering interests, and their bloody wars, deftroy millions, and prevent the earth's being fully peopled. Poverty, which difcourages great numbers from marrying, by rendering them unable to take proper care of families, is a great hindrance to the increase of mankind. Intemperance and debauchery have likewise a most fatal influence. In fo far as any prevailing cuftom, any religious or political maxims, or the inftability of public or private affairs difcourage marriage, this effectually prevents propagation. The earth can never be fully peopled or cultivated in the best manner, and every spot be made to exert its utmost ftrength, till it becomes the abode of peace, fecurity, and plenty: Every man must be in fuch favourable circumftances as to be able to marry to his liking, to maintain his children comfortably, and to place them in fuch circumstances as may also enable them to marry and to place their children in the fame happy condition. We must even suppofe a fcene, whence not only poverty, but the fear of it, is banished, and where the noife and alarms of war are not heard. As the complete culture of the earth requires vigorous endeavours, idlenefs must be banifhed, univerfal industry must be introdu ced and preferved, labour must be properly and equitably diftributed; every one mult be obliged to do his part, and the earth muft be cultivated by the united labours of all its inhabitants acting in concert, and carrying on a joint defign. In order therefore to carry human affairs to that height of magnificence of which we can form a confiftent idea, we must fuppofe government to be greatly altered, and new maxims of education to be introduced. It may be difficult indeed to form a perfect model of fuch a government or education; yet it is not impoffible to trace out fome of its principal lines and characteristics. At any rate the fpeculation will not be disagreeable, and a diligent fearch after a perfect conftitution, not unlike the fearch after the philofopher's ftone, will abundantly recompenfe our pains, though fuch a happy conftitution fhould at laft be found impracticable. The Political State of EUROPE, Sc. Journal of the War in Germany. From the GAZETTE. LL parties at war feem determined to try the fate of another campaign, and are making preparations accordingly. A In fpite of the weather and the roads, the corps under General Guafco, detached from the grand Auftrian army, continue their march to Egra, to join the army of the Empire. Mean while the Pruffians are very quiet; but they are raifing recruits with no lefs fuccefs than diligence; and are affembling their chief force at Leipfic, and on the Saale. This gives room to apprehend, that they have a defign to transfer the feat of the war into |