were neither
poets, painters, nor historians, bred within its walls; buffoons and
fiddlers could get more money than philosophers, and they had more
saleable talents. Had Virgil not found an Augustus, had he lived three
centuries later, he must either have written ballads and lampoons, or
have starved; otherwise he must have quitted Italy.

When Rome was full of luxury, and commanded the world and its
wealth, there was not an artist in it capable of executing the statues of
its victorious generals. {94}

Some Greek island, barren and bare, would breed artists capable of
making ornaments for imperial Rome.

---
{94} They were obliged to cut the heads off from ancient statues, as
their artists were only sufficiently expert to carve the drapery of the
body.
-=-

[end of page #112]

It is an easy matter, in a rich country, to pay for a fine piece of art,
But a difficult matter to find a price for the bringing up a fine
artist. {95}

The fine arts have not, indeed, any intimate or immediate connection
with the wealth or strength of a nation. The balance of trade has never
been greatly increased by the exportation of great masterpieces of art,
nor have nations been subdued by the powers of oratory; but the
knowledge and the arts, by which wealth and greatness are obtained,
follow in the train of the finer performances of human genius.

Where money becomes the universal agent, where it is impossible to
enjoy ease or comfort for a single day without it, it becomes an object
of adoration, as it were. To despise gold, which purchases all things, is
reckoned a greater crime than to despise him to whose bounty we are
indebted for all things; consequently, ambition, without which there
never is excellence, is, at an early period of life, bent towards the
gaining a fortune. A man, indeed, must either be of a singularly odd
and obstinate disposition, or very indifferent about the opinion of
others, and even about the good things of this world, (as they are
termed,) to persevere in obtaining perfection in science or art, while
without bread, when he might, with a tenth part of the care and study,
live in affluence, and get money from day to day. There are few such
obstinate fools; and without them, in a wealthy country, there can be
found few men profound in science, or excelling in any of the arts.

The augmentation of taxes, by rendering the produce of industry
dearer than in other countries, tends to cut off a nation of