Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/385

 Rome that wrote for some Time afterwards, that did not peck at something or other in his other Writings. This Emulation eminently appeared in the Order of the Jesuits, the main Design of whose Institution seems to have been to engross all Learning, as well as all Politicks, to themselves; and therefore, we see so many extraordinary Men amongst them for all sorts of things, thereby to give the World Occasion to think, that there must certainly be something more than ordinary in the Constitution of a Body, which every Day produced such excellent Persons. So that if one considers how far this Emulation went, which even yet is not wholly extinct, it is hard to say, whether Disputes in Religion have not rather helped to encrease the Stock of Learning than otherwise; at least, one may venture to say that they have not diminished it.

It is most certain, that the different Political Interests in Europe, have done it a mighty Kindness. During the Establishment of the Roman Empire, one common Interest guided that vast Body, and these Western Kingdoms amongst the rest. Rome was the Cen-