Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/213

 chap, xxxviii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 181 service of domestic animals ; the methods of hunting and fish- ing ; the rudiments of navigation ; the imperfect cultivation of corn or other nutritive grain; and the simple practice of the mechanic trades. Private genius and public industry may be extirpated ; but these hardy plants survive the tempest, and strike an everlasting root into the most unfavourable soil. The splendid days of Augustus and Trajan were eclipsed by a cloud of ignorance ; and the Barbarians subverted the laws and palaces of Rome. But the scythe, the invention or emblem of Saturn, 13 still continued annually to mow the harvests of Italy : and the human feasts of the Lsestrygons 14 have never been re- newed on the coast of Campania. Since the first discovery of the arts, war, commerce, and re- ligious zeal have diffused, among the savages of the Old and New World, those inestimable gifts : they have been suc- cessively propagated ; they can never be lost. We may there- fore acquiesce in the pleasing conclusion that every age of the world has increased, and still increases, the real wealth, the happiness, the knowledge, and perhaps the virtue, of the human race. 15 13 Plutarch. QuaBst. Rom. in torn. ii. p. 275. Macrob. Satumal. 1. i. c. 8, p. 152, edit. London. The arrival of Saturn (or his religious worship) in a ship may indicate that the savage coast of Latium was first discovered and civilized by the Phoenicians. 14 In the ninth and tenth books of the Odyssey, Homer has embellished the tales of fearful and credulous sailors, who transformed the cannibals of Italy and Sicily into monstrous giants. 15 The merit of discovery has too often been stained with avarice, cruelty, and fanaticism ; and the intercourse of nations has produced the communication of disease and prejudice. A singular exception is due to the virtue of our own times and country. The five great voyages successively undertaken by the com- mand of his present Majesty were inspired by the pure and generous love of scienoe and of mankind. The same prince, adapting his benefactions to the different stages of society, has founded a sohool of painting in his capital, and has introduced into the islands of the South Sea the vegetables and animals most useful to human life.