they despised them. They were not arrived at that
state of society, when those faculties of the human mind which have
beauty and elegance for their objects begin to unfold themselves. They
were strangers to most of those wants and desires which are the parents
of ingenious invention; and as they did not comprehend either the merit
or utility of the Roman arts, they destroyed the monuments of them, with
an industry not inferior to that with which their posterity have since
studied to preserve or to recover them. The convulsions occasioned by
the settlement of so many unpolished tribes in the empire; the frequent
as well as violent revolutions in every kingdom which they established;
together with the interior defects in the form of government which they
introduced, banished security and leisure. They prevented the growth
of taste, or the culture of science, and kept Europe, during several
centuries, in that state of ignorance which has been already described.
But the events and institutions which I have enumerated produced great
alterations in society. As soon as their operation, in restoring liberty
and independence to one part of the community, began to be felt; as soon
as they began to communicate to all the members of society some taste
of the advantages arising from commerce, from public order, and from
personal security, the human mind became conscious of powers which it
did not formerly perceive, and fond of occupations or pursuits of which
it was formerly incapable. Towards the beginning of the twelfth century,
we discern the first symptoms of its awakening from that lethargy in
which it had been long sunk, and observe it turning with curiosity and
attention towards new objects.

ROBERTSON.

[Notes: _Francis I_. (1494-1547). King of France; the contemporary of
Henry VIII. and of Charles V., Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The
constant rivalry and ever recurring wars between Francis and the latter,
occupy a great part of European history during the first half of the
16th century.

_His more temperate rival, i.e.,_ Charles V.

_At the time when their empire was overturned, the_ _Romans, &c._ In 410
A.D., by the incursions of the Goths.]

* * * * *

THE PASSIONS.

(AN ODE FOR MUSIC.)

When Music, heavenly maid, was young,
While yet in early Greece she sung,
The Passions