to lie on the ground and feed like the savage to be truly manly. The beggar who, behind the hedge, divides his offals with his dog, has often more of the real sensualist than he who dines at an elegant table. Nor need we hesitate to assert, that he who, unable to preserve a manly elegance of manners, degenerates into the petit maitre, would have been, in any age or condition, equally insignificant and worthless. Some, when they talk of the debauchery of the present age, seem to think that the former were all innocence. But this is ignorance of human nature. The debauchery of a barbarous age is gross and brutal; that of a gloomy superstitious one, secret, excessive, and murderous: that of a more polished one, not to make an apology, much happier for the fair sex[1], and certainly not so bad. If one disease has been imported from Spanish America, the most valuable medicines have likewise been brought from these regions; and distempers, which were thought invincible by our forefathers, are now cured. If the luxuries of the Indies usher disease to our tables, the consequence is not unknown; the wise and the temperate receive no injury, and intemperance has been the destroyer of mankind in every age. The opulence of ancient Rome produced a luxury of manners which proved fatal to that mighty empire. But the effeminate sensualists of those ages were not men of intellectual cultivation. The enlarged ideas, the generous and manly feelings, inspired by a liberal education, were utterly unknown to them. Unformed by that wisdom which arises from science, they were gross barbarians, dressed in the mere outward tinsel of civilization[2]. Where
- ↑ Even that warm admirer of savage happiness, the author of Histoire Philosophique & Politique des Etablissements, &c. confesses, that the wild Americans seem destitute of the feeling of love. In a little while, says he, when the heat of passion is gratified, they lose all affection and attachment for their women, whom they degrade to the most servile offices.—A tender remembrance of the first endearments, a generous participation of care and hope, the compassionate sentiments of honour; all these delicate feelings, which arise into affection and bind attachment, are indeed incompatible with the ferocious and gross sensations of the barbarian of any country.
- ↑ The degeneracy of the Roman literature preceded the fate of the state, and the reason is obvious. The men of fortune grew frivolous, and superficial in every branch of knowledge, and were therefore unable to hold the reigns of empire. The degeneracy of literary taste is, therefore, the surest proof of the general ignorance. However foreigners may justly despise our theatrical taste, the justice of their contempt by no means fixes a stain on the national. A London audience is chiefly composed of those ranks who never, in any country, had any pretension to lietrary taste. Manly criticism, and every discussion of philosophy never appeared in greater lustre than in the present age; and English literature is the study of Europe.
