the discovery of the greater part
of the globe, because it opens a wider field for the master spirits of
the world to bustle in.

_Cadmus_.--There spoke the soul of Hercules. But if learned men are to
be esteemed for the assistance they give to active minds in their
schemes, they are not less to be valued for their endeavours to give them
a right direction and moderate their too great ardour. The study of
history will teach the warrior and the legislator by what means armies
have been victorious and states have become powerful; and in the private
citizen they will inculcate the love of liberty and order. The writings
of sages point out a private path of virtue, and show that the best
empire is self-government, and subduing our passions the noblest of
conquests.

_Hercules_.--The true spirit of heroism acts by a sort of inspiration,
and wants neither the experience of history nor the doctrines of
philosophers to direct it. But do not arts and sciences render men
effeminate, luxurious, and inactive? and can you deny that wit and
learning are often made subservient to very bad purposes?

_Cadmus_.--I will own that there are some natures so happily formed they
hardly want the assistance of a master, and the rules of art, to give
them force or grace in everything they do. But these heaven-inspired
geniuses are few. As learning flourishes only where ease, plenty, and
mild government subsist, in so rich a soil, and under so soft a climate,
the weeds of luxury will spring up among the flowers of art; but the
spontaneous weeds would grow more rank, if they were allowed the
undisturbed possession of the field. Letters keep a frugal, temperate
nation from growing ferocious, a rich one from becoming entirely sensual
and debauched. Every gift of the gods is sometimes abused; but wit and
fine talents by a natural law gravitate towards virtue; accidents may
drive them out of their proper direction; but such accidents are a sort
of prodigies, and, like other prodigies, it is an alarming omen, and of
dire portent to the times. For if virtue cannot keep to her allegiance
those men, who in their hearts confess her divine right, and know the
value of her laws, on whose fidelity and obedience can she depend? May
such geniuses never descend to flatter vice, encourage folly, or
propagate irreligion; but exert all their powers in the service of
virtue, and celebrate the noble choice of those, who, like you, preferred
her to pleasu