60. If the reader be skeptical concerning the effects of a sufficient supply of materials and utensils, in diminishing the expense of diet, I would request him to read Count Rumford's Essays.
61. Pawn-brokers charge, I believe, about 20 per cent. The combinations of the working classes in societies, or unions, have lent their members small sums, if I well remember, at a rate nearly equal. I cannot, however, recollect my authority for these statements.
62. This is to be received as concerns our existence, limited to the earth and to time, the only light in which it can with propriety be considered, in these speculations. Were we to view it as belonging to the universe, and to eternity, action directed to the purposes referred to, would not be impeded from the considerations thus presented, but would, on the eontrary, derive from them freedom and energy.
63. Videtur inventovum nobilium introduetio inter acttones humanas longe primas partes tenere. LORD BACON.
64. We cannot read the romance or Peresiles and Sigesmundi published alter his death; it had more success than any of his works. "Jamais eel homme celebre," says one of his biographers," ne rut a sa veritable place: on dedaigne sea talens on meconnut ses vertus, on fut insensible a sa misere."65. "Satis est ad cohebendum augmentum scientiarum, quod hujusmodi conatus et industriae praemiis careant. Non enim pones cosdem est cultura scientiarum, et praemium. Scientiarum enim augmenta a magnis utique ingeniis proveniunt; at pretia et praemia scientiarum sunt penes vulgus aut principes viros, qui (nisi raro admodum) vix mediocriter docti sunt. Quinetiam hujusmodi progressus, non solum praemiis et beneficentia hominum, verum etiam ipsa populari laude destitutisunt. Sunt enim illi supra captum maximae partis hominum, et ab opinionum vulgarium ventis facile obruuntur et extinguuntur."66. Childe Harold.
67. It is strange that Cicero, as in the following passage, should seem to countenance this most common and dangerous of moral sophisms. "Quid? si Phalarim, crudelem tyrannum et immunem, vir bonus, ne ipse frigore conficiatur, vestitu spoilare possit; nonne faciat? Haec ad judicandum sunt facillima nam, si quid ab hemine ad nullam partem utili, tuae utililatis causa detraxeris: inhumane feceris, contraque naturae legem:
sin autem is tu sis, qui multam utilitatem reipublicae atque hominum societati, si in vita remaneas, afferre possis, si quid ob eam causum alteri detraxeris, non sit reprehendendum. -- Communis utilitatis derelictio contra naturam est, est enim injusta itaque lex ipsa naturae, quae utilitatem hominum censervat et continet, decernit profecto, ut ab homine inerti atque inutili, ad sapientem, bonum, fortemque virum transferantur res ad vivendum necessariae:
qui si occiderit, multum de communi utilitate detraxerit."-- De Officiis L. III.
Such reasoning, followed fairly out, would not stop until it assumed the form which Sir Waiter Scott has given it, in the speech of Anselmo.
"You are to distinguish, my son, replied the alchymist, betwixt that which is necessarily evil in its progress and in its end also, and that which being evil, is, nevertheless, capable of working forth good. If, by the death of one person, the happy period shall be brought nearer us~in which all that is good shall be attained, by wishing its presence, --all that is evil escaped, by desiring its absence, etc. If this blessed consummation of all things can be hastened by the slight circumstance, that a frail earthly body, which must needs partake of corruption, shall be consigned to the grave a short space earlier than in the course of nature, what is such a sacrifice to the advancement of the holy millenium."-- Kenilworth c. XXII.
A living author, in the character of Eugene Aram, gives also a striking picture of the dangerous tendency of the same sophistry.
68. Novum organum.
69. "Atque hac in parte nobis spondemus fortunam Alexandri Magni: neque quis nos vanitafis arguat~ antequara exiturn rel audiab qum ad exuendam orenero vanitatem spectat.
"Etenim de Alexandro et ejus rebus gestis Aeschines ita loquutus est:
Nos certe vitam mortalem non vivimus; sed in hoc nati sumus, ut postefitas de nobis portenia narret et praedicet: perinde ac si Alexandri res gestas pro miraculo habuisset.
"At aevis sequentibus Titus Livius rnelius rem advertit et introspexit, atque de Alexandro hujusmodi quipplam dixit: Eum non aliud quam bene ausurn vana contemnere. Atque simile etiam de nobis judicium futuris ternporibus facturn iri existirnamus: Nos nil magni fecisse, sed tanturn ca quae pro magnis habentur, minoris fecisse."70. [George I. 170. translated by Dickson, ancient husbandry.
71. In a Scotch ballad, I believe, in Allan Ramsay's collection, containing a catalogue of a peasant's furniture, perhaps two centuries since, "A timmer mell the bear to knock," is among the utensils enumerated. We yet speak of striking barley.
72. Fiunt etiam in fluminibus rotae eladem rationibus, quibus supra scriptum est. Circa earum frontes affiguntur pinnae, quae cum percutiuntur ab impetu fluminis, cogunt progredientes versari rotam;et ita modiolis aquam haurientes et in summum referentes, sine operarum calcatura, ipsius fluminis impulsa versatee, praestant quod opus est, ad usum. Eadem ratione etiam versantur hydraulae, in quibus eadem sunt omnia, praesterquam quod in uno capite axis habet tympanum dentatum et inclusum;id autem ad perpendiculum collocatum in cultrum, versatur cum rota pariter.
