ition, equally insignificant and worthless. Some, when they
talk of the debauchery of the present age, seem to think that the former
ages were all innocence. But this is ignorance of human nature. The
debauchery of a barbarous age is gross and brutal; that of a gloomy,
superstitious one, secret, excessive, and murderous; that of a more
polished one, much happier for the fair sex,[30] and certainly in no
sense so big with political unhappiness. If one disease has been
imported from America,[31] the most valuable medicines have likewise
been brought from those regions; and distempers, which were thought
invincible by our forefathers, are now cured. If the luxuries of the
Indies usher disease to our tables the consequence is not unknown; the
wise and the temperate receive no injury, and intemperance has been the
destroyer of mankind in every age. The opulence of ancient Rome produced
a luxury of manners which proved fatal to that mighty empire. But the
effeminate sensualists of those ages were not men of intellectual
cultivation. The enlarged ideas, the generous and manly feelings
inspired by a liberal education, were utterly unknown to them. Unformed
by that wisdom which arises from science and true philosophy, they were
gross barbarians, dressed in the mere outward tinsel of
civilization.[32] Where the enthusiasm of military honour characterizes
the rank of gentlemen that nation will rise into empire. But no sooner
does conquest give a continued security than the mere soldier
degenerates; and the old veterans are soon succeeded by a new
generation, illiterate as their fathers, but destitute of their virtues
and experience. Polite literature not only humanizes the heart, but also
wonderfully strengthens and enlarges the mind. Moral and political
philosophy are its peculiar provinces, and are never happily cultivated
without its assistance. But, where ignorance characterizes the body of
the nobility, the most insipid dissipation and the very idleness and
effeminacy of luxury are sure to follow. Titles and family are then the
only merit, and the few men of business who surround the throne have it
then in their power to aggrandize themselves by riveting the chains of
slavery. A stately grandeur is preserved, but it is only outward; all is
decayed within, and on the first storm the weak fabric falls to the
dust. Thus rose and thus fell the empire of Rome, and the much wider one
of Portugal. Though the increase of wealth did, in