Page:Essays, Moral and Political - David Hume (1741).djvu/189

 also the Decay of Letters, and spread a total Barbarity over the World. From these two Experiments, of which each was double in its Kind, and show'd the Fall of Learning in Despotic Governments, as well as its Rise in popular Ones, Longinus thought himself sufficiently justified, in asserting, That the Arts and Sciences could never flourish, but in a free Government: And in this Opinion, he has been followed by several eminent Writers in our own Country, who either confin'd their View merely to antient Facts, or entertain'd too great a Partiality in Favour of that Form of Government, which is establish'd amongst us.

what would these Writers have said, to the Instance of modern Rome and Florence; of which the former carried to Perfection all the finer Arts of Sculpture, Painting and Music, as well as Poetry, tho' they groah'd under Slavery, and under the Slavery of Priests: While the latter never made any Efforts towards the Arts and Sciences, till they began to lose their Liberty by the Usurpations of the