n physical powers and mental faculties, than any difference of
innate genius, or adventitious circumstances; so, in the early days of
the world, when it was young in knowledge, and scanty in population,
priority of settlement gave a great advantage to one nation over others,
and, of consequence, enabled them to rule over others; thus the
Assyrian and Egyptian empires were great, powerful, and extensive,
while the nations that were beyond their reach were divided into small
states or kingdoms, on the most contemptible scale.

Time, however, did away the advantages resulting from priority of
establishment.

Local situation was another cause of superiority, of a more permanent
nature; but this, also, new discovery has transferred from one na-

---
{13} It is not meant, by any means, to enter into an inquiry, much less
controversy, respecting the antiquity of mankind; but it is very clear
that the knowledge of arts and sciences can be traced to an infant state
about two thousand years before the Christian aera.
-=-

[end of page #10]

tion to another. Qualities of the soil and climate are counteracted by
the nature and habits of the inhabitants, which frequently, in the end,
give the superiority where there was at first an inferiority.

If ever the nations of the world come to a state of permanence, (which
in all probability will never be the case,) it must be when population is
nearly proportioned to the means of subsistence in different parts;
when knowledge is nearly equally distributed and when no great
discoveries remain to be made either in arts, science, or geography.

While the causes from which wealth and power rise in a superior
degree, are liable to change from one nation to another, wealth and
power must be liable to the same alterations and changes of place; so
long any equal balance among nations must be artificial. But when
circumstances become similar, and when the pressure becomes equal
on all sides, then nations, like the particles of a fluid, though free to
move, having lost their impulse, will remain at rest.

If such a state of things should ever arrive, then the wealth and power
would be only real, not comparative. The whole might be very rich,
very affluent, and possess great abundance of every thing, either for
enjoyment or for defence, without one nation having an advantage
over another: they would be on an equality.

But this state of things is far from being likely soon to take place.