Beside this art, others innumerable have been invented within the space of a few years by mankind, that extend their sway over air and water, over Earth and Heaven. And when we reflect, that but few nations were engaged in this contest of mental activity, while the greater part of the rest slumbered in the lap of ancient custom; when we reflect, that almost all our inventions were made at very early periods, and scarcely any trace, scarcely any ruin, of an ancient structure, or an ancient institution, exists, that is not connected with our early history; what a prospect does this historically demonstrated activity of the human mind give us for the infinity of future ages! In the few centuries during which Greece flourished, in the few centuries of modern improvement, how much has been conceived, invented, done, reduced to order, and preserved for future ages, in Europe, the least quarter of the Globe, and almost in its smallest parts! How prolific the seeds, that art and science have copiously shed, while one nourishes, one animates and excites the other! As when a string is touched, not only everything that has music resounds to it, but all its harmonious tones reecho the sound, till it becomes imperceptible; so the human mind has invented and created, when an harmonious point of its interior has been hit. When a new concord was struck, in a creation where everything is connected, innumerable new concatenations followed of course.
But, it may be asked, how have all these arts and inventions been applied? Have practical reason and justice, and consequently the true improvement and happiness of the human species, been promoted by them? In reply I refer to what has recently been urged respecting the progress of disorder throughout the whole creation: that, according to an intrinsic law of nature, nothing can attain durability, which is the essential aim of all things, without order. A keen knife in the hand of a child may wound it: yet the art that invented and sharpened the knife is one of the most indispensable of arts. All that use such a knife are not children; and even the child will be taught by pain, to use it better. Artificial power in the hand of a despot, foreign luxury in a nation without controlling laws, are such pernicious implements: but the very mischief they do will render men wiser; and, soon or late, the art, that created luxury as well as despotism, will first confine both within due bounds, and then convert them into real benefits. The heavy ploughshare wears itself out by long use: the slight teeth of new watchwork gain merely by their revolution the more suitable and artful form of the epicycloid. Thus in human powers abuses carried to excess wear themselves down to good practices: extreme oscillations from side to side necessarily settle in the desirable mean of lasting fitness in a regular movement. Whatever is to take place among mankind will be effected by men: we suffer under our faults, till we learn of ourselves the better use of our faculties, without the assistance of miracles from Heaven.
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