Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/299

 Point, to make the greatest Use they were able of every Addition to their former Knowledge, which might accrue to them by the Discovery of the Usefulness of the Load-Stone in Navigation. His Words are these; (n) The vast Continents of China, the East and West-Indies, the long Extent and Coasts of Africa, ''have been hereby introduced into our Acquaintance, and our Maps; and great Increases of Wealth and Luxury, but none of Knowledge brought among us, further than the Extent and Situation of Country, the Customs and Manners of so many Original Nations. I do not doubt but many great and more noble Uses would have been made of such Conquests, or Discoveries, if they had fallen to the Share of the Greeks and Romans, in those Ages, when Knowledge and Fame were in as great Request as endless Gains and Wealth are among us now: And how much greater Discoveries might have been made by such Spirits as theirs, is hard to guess''. Sir William Temple here owns, that the Political Uses which can be made by such Discoveries, are inconsiderable; though, at the same Time, he confesses, that even those have not been neglected, since he acknowledges that Men have brought from those Barbarous Nations their Customs and Manners;