On the Origin and Vicissitudes of Literature, Science and Art,: And Their Influence on the Present State of Society. A Discourse, Delivered on the Opening of the Liverpool Royal Institution, 25th November, 1817Harris and Company and sold by Cadell and Davis, London., 1817 - 79 pages |
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acquirements advantages advert afford amongst arts and sciences asserted attained attribute calamity causes century cerns Cicero circum civilization climate conduct cultivation deaden degradation degree delight derived despotic DISCOURSE discoveries distinguished effects Egypt elegancies eminent endeavour enjoy enquiries established excellence excite exertions extended favour feelings flourish former genius gratification Greece haps honour human race Hume idea importance improvement individual influence instance Insti intellectual Italy knowledge labours letters and arts liberal studies liberty literary live LIVERPOOL ROYAL INSTITUTION Louis XIV Low Countries mankind manner manufactures ment midst mind monarch moral character nation nature nius object observed obtain occupations opinion perfection perhaps pleasure present principles produce proficiency progress or decline proper racter refinement rived Rome rules of moral satis scientific society stances studies and pursuits studies of literature subjects subsists suppose tained take place tion ture utility Venice vernment vicissitudes wealth whilst WILLIAM ROSCOE writers
Popular passages
Page 15 - fair light, And thou enlightened earth, so fresh and gay, Ye hills and dales, ye rivers, woods, and plains, And ye that live and move, fair creatures, tell, Tell, if ye saw, how came I thus, how here ? Not of myself; by some great Maker, then, In goodness and in power pre-eminent ; Tell me, how may I know him, how adore, From whom I have that thus I move and live, And feel that I am happier than I know...
Page 31 - He governs the subjects with full authority, as if they were his own; and with negligence or tyranny, as belonging to another. A people, governed after such a manner, are slaves in the full and proper sense of the word; and it is impossible they can ever aspire to any refinements of taste or reason. They dare not so much as pretend to enjoy the necessaries of life in plenty or security. To expect, therefore, that the arts and sciences should take their first rise in a monarchy, is to expect a contradiction.
Page 61 - That breathed when soul was knit to soul, And heart to heart responsive beat ? What visions rise ! to charm, to melt ! The lost, the loved, the dead, are near ! Oh, hush that strain too deeply felt ! And cease that solace too severe ! But thou, serenely silent art ! By heaven and love wast taught to lend A milder solace to the heart, The sacred image of a friend.
Page 31 - It is impossible," says Mr. Hume, " for the arts and sciences to arise at first among any people, unless that people enjoy the blessing of a free government.
Page 47 - Of the connection that has, from the earliest ages, subsisted between commerce and intellectual improvement, the records of the human race bear constant evidence. The perfection and happiness of our nature arise in a great degree from the exercise of our relative and social feelings ; and the wider these are extended the more excellent and accomplished will be the character that will be formed. The first...
Page 72 - A man of benevolence, whose mind is enlarged by philosophy, will indulge the same agreeable anticipations with respect to society ; will view all the different improvements in arts, in commerce, and in the sciences, as co-operating to promote the union, the happiness, and the virtue of mankind...
Page 70 - ... object is to please, and who attribute the enjoyment we derive from them to the bounty of the Creator, who, throughout the whole of his works, has shown, that an attention to order, to elegance, and to beauty, corresponding to certain fixed principles in our constitution, forms a part of his great and beneficent plan. But whilst I admit the full force of this argument, I conceive that, in this instance, there exists no necessity for our separating the ideas of utility and of pleasure, and of...
Page 42 - ... their fruit. It would, in fact, be in vain to expect that the arts and sciences should flourish, to their full extent, in any country where they were not preceded, or accompanied, by a certain degree of stability, wealth and competency; so as to enable its inhabitants occasionally to withdraw their attention from the more laborious occupations of life, and devote it to speculative inquiries and the pleasures derived from works of art. Whenever any state has attained this enviable pre-eminence...
Page 43 - ... opening new sources of wealth and exertion, but by exalting the views, purifying the moral taste, enlarging the intellectual and even the physical powers of the human race, and conferring on the nation where they have once florished, a rank and a distinction in the annals of mankind, the most honorable and the most durable that can be attained. It is not merely on industry, but also on the proper application of industry, according to the nature, situation, and productions of a country, that its...
Page 44 - Hence it will follow1, that the pursuits of agriculture tend not only to procure that competency which is requisite to our individual support, but at the same time to inspire those dispositions and feelings which are the source of intellectual enjoyment, and result in the productions of literature and taste. Instances might be adduced, both in ancient and modern times, where the prosperity, and even the refinement, of a nation have been chiefly raised upon the basis of successful agricultural pursuits...