Population is far from come to its equilibrium, and knowledge {14} is
farther distant still. Russia and America, in particular, are both behind
in population, and the inhabitants of the latter country are far from
being on a par in knowledge with the rest of Europe; when they
become so, the balance will be overturned, and must be re-established
anew.

The great discoveries that have taken place in knowledge and
geography have been connected.

While navigation was little understood, the borders of the
Mediterranean Sea, and the islands in it, were naturally the first places
for wealth and commerce.

The discovery of the compass, and others that followed, rendered

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{14} By knowledge is only meant the knowledge of the arts that make
men useful, =sic= such as agriculture, manufactures, legislation, &c.
-=-

[end of page #11]

the navigation of the open ocean, more easy and safe than that of the
circumscribed seas. This laid a great foundation for change and
discovery; it brought Britain into importance, ruined Italy, Genoa,
Venice, &c. and has laid the foundation for further changes still.

As for discoveries in arts, it would be bold and presumptuous indeed
to attempt to set any bounds to them. Discoveries, however, that alter
the relations of mankind very materially, are probably near at an end.
In arts they give only a temporary preference. {15} If a method should
be discovered to cultivate a field with half the trouble, and to double
the produce, which seems very possible, it would be a great discovery,
and alter the general state of mankind considerably; but it would soon
be extended to all nations, as the use of gunpowder has been. New
produce, or means of procuring the old more easily, are the things
chiefly sought after. Potatoes, coffee, tea, sugar, cotton, silk, distilled
spirits, are new productions, unknown to the Romans. Glass,
gunpowder, printing, windmills, watermills, steam-engines, and the
most part of spinning and weaving machines, are new inventions, but
they can be extended to all countries. The mariners compass changed
the relative position of places, and no new invention of the same
importance, as to its effects on nations, probably can take place.
Navigation does not admit of a similar improvement to that which it
has received. If goods could be conveyed for a quarter of the present
price it would not produce the same sort of effect. To render
navigating the ocean practicable was a great