Page:Hume - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects - 1809 - Vol. 1.djvu/63



all men, that distinguish themselves by memorable atchievementsachievements [sic], the first place of honour seems due to and founders of states, who transmit a system of laws and institutions to secure the peace, happiness, and liberty of future generations. The influence of useful inventions in the arts and sciences may, perhaps, extend farther than that of wise laws, whose effects are limited both in time and place; but the benefit arising from the former, is not so sensible as that which results from the latter. Speculative sciences do, indeed, improve the mind; but this advantage reaches only to a few persons, who have leisure to apply themselves to them. And as to practical arts, which increase the commodities and enjoyments of life, it is well known, that men's happiness consists not so much in an abundance of these, as in the peace and security with which they possess them; and those blessings can only be derived from good government. Not to mention, that general virtue and goods morals in a state, which are so requisite to happiness, can never arise from the most refined precepts of