but the Turks and Greeks keep
as distinct to this day as at the first, and this is probably owing to the
nature of the Turkish religion.
---

[end of page #68]

Germany, Poland, and Russia; but that time is now over, and it owes
its present existence to the jealousy of other powers. It is possessed of
a greater quantity of good territory than all the leading nations of
Europe, Russia excepted; and it is not the interest of men living in less
favoured climates, to endeavour to renovate the country of Alexander,
and of the other great nations of antiquity.

The Turkish nation is represented as greatly on the decline, but, soon
after its establishment, it had every vice that could well exist in a
government, and its greatest weakness now arises more from the
alteration produced in other nations for the better, than in itself for the
worse. The difficulty of keeping people in ignorance is becoming
every day greater; and when the Ottoman throne falls the usual order
of things will be reversed. For, as other governments may attribute
their destruction to corruption of manners, and to ignorance, the
Turkish government looks there for its security; and the day that any
reasonable degree of light breaks in amongst its subjects will be its
last.

To endeavour tracing the causes of decline in a state that owes its
existence to its defects, and is in every respect different from other
nations, would be useless in the present Inquiry, it has only been
noticed to shew, that, in the infinite variety of things, some may owe
their existence to what is in general the cause of destruction. [end of
page #69]

CHAP. VII. [=sic=--error in printer's copy, should read VIII.]

_General View and Analysis of the Causes that operated in producing
the Decline of all Nations, with a Chart, representing the Rise, Fall,
and Migrations of Wealth, in all different Countries, from the Year
1500, before the Birth of Christ, to the End of the Eighteenth Century,
--a Period of 3300 Years_.

From the revolutions that have taken place amongst wealthy and
powerful nations to the present time, though the origin has been owing
to very different causes, and the decline and removal from one place
to another has been attended with circumstances not similar; yet the
same leading cause for that decline may not only be traced easily and
distinctly, but is so evident that it is impossible for it to be overlooked
or mistaken.

Local situation, or te