ceffary for man, being a school for improving every manly virtue; and Providence renders kings blind to their true in

tereft,

"fuftains the lofs of as many of his old subjects as he "acquires new, weakens in fact his power while he "aims at ftrengthening it: he increases the territory "to be defended, while the number of defenders is not "increased. Who does not know, that in the modern "manner of making war, the greateft depopulation is "not from the havock made in the armies? That in"deed is the obvious and apparent deftruction; but "there is, at the fame time, in the state a loss much "more fevere and irreparable, not that thousands are "cut off, but that thousands are not born: population

is wounded by the increafe of taxes, by the interrup❝tion of commerce, by the defertion of the country, "and by the ftagnation of agriculture: the misfortune "which is overlooked at first, is feverely felt in the e"vent; and it is then that we are aftonifhed to find "we have been growing weak, while increafing our 66 power. What renders every new conqueft ftill the "lefs valuable, is the confideration of the poffibility of "doubling and tripling a nation's power, without ex"tending its territory, nay, even by diminishing it. "The Emperor Adrian knew this, and wifely practi.

fed it. The numbers of the fubjects are the strength "of the prince: and a confequence of what I have "faid is this propofition, That of two ftates equal in "the number of inhabitants, that is in reality the "more powerful which occupies the smaller territory. "It is by good laws, by a falutary police, and great oeconomical fchemes, that a wife fovereign gains a "fure augmentation of strength, without trufting any thing to the fortune of his arms."

tereft, in order that war may fometimes take place. To rely upon Providence in the government of this world, is the wif dom of man.

Upon the whole, perpetual war is bad, because it converts men into beafts of prey perpetual peace is worse, because it converts men into beafts of burden. To prevent fuch woful degeneracy on both hands, war and peace alternately are the only effectual means; and these means are adopted by Providence.

SKETCH

SKETCH

VII.

Rife and Fall of Patriotifm.

HE members of a tribe in their ori

THE

ginal state of hunting and fishing, being little united but by a common language, have no notion of a patria; and fcarce any notion of fociety, unlefs when they join in an expedition against an enemy, or against wild beafts. The shepherdftate, where flocks and herds are poffeffed in common, gives a clear notion of a common intereft; but ftill none of a patria. The fenfe of a patria begins to unfold itfelf, when a people leave off wandering, to fettle upon a territory that they call their own. Agriculture connects them together; and government ftill more: they become fellow-citizens; and the territory is termed the patria of every perfon born in it. It is fo ordered by Providence, that a man's country and his countrymen, are to him in conjunction an object of a peculiar affection, termed amor patriae, or patriotifm;

patriotism; an affection that rifes high among a people intimately connected by regular government, by husbandry, by commerce, and by a common interest. "Cari funt parentes, cari liberi, propin66 qui, familiares; fed omnes omnium caritates patria una complexa est: pro

qua quis bonus dubitet mortem oppe* ?"

tere

In a man of a folitary difpofition who avoids fociety, patriotifm cannot abound. He may poffibly have no hatred to his countrymen; but, were he defirous to fee them happy, he would live among them, and put himself in the way of doing good.

The affection a man has for the place where he was bred, ought to be diftinguished from patriotifm, being a paffion far inferior, and chiefly vifible in the low people. A ruftic has few ideas but of external fense his hut, his wife, his children, the hills, trees, and rivulets around him,

* "Our parents are dear to us; fo are our chil"dren, our relations, and our friends: all these our "country comprehends; and fhall we fear to die for four country?"

compofe

compose the train of his ideas. Remove him from these objects, and he finds a dismal vacuity in his mind. Hiftory, poetry, and other fubjects of literature, have no relation to time nor place. Horace is relished in a foreign country as at home: the pleasures of converfation depend on perfons, not on place.

Social paffions and affections, befide being much more agreeable than selfish, are those only which command our esteem (a). Patriotifm ftands at the head of focial affections; and ftands so high in our esteem, that no actions but what proceed from it are termed grand or heroic. When that affection appears fo agreeable in contemplation, how glowing, how elevating, muft it be in those whom it inspires! Like vigorous health, it beats constantly with an equal pulfe: like the vestal fire, it never is extinguished. No fource of enjoyment is more plentiful than patriotifm, where it is the ruling paffion: it triumphs over every felfish motive, and is a firm fupport to every virtue. fact, where-ever it prevails, the morals

In

(a) Elements of Criticism, vol. 1. p. 113. edit. 5.

of