No More Learning

Let us consider how many millions of these unhappy savages are dragged
from their native fields, and cut off for ever from all the hopes and
all the rights to which human birth entitled them. And who would
hesitate to pronounce that negro the greatest of patriots, who, by
teaching his countrymen the arts of society, should teach them to defend
themselves in the possession of their fields, their families, and their
own personal liberties?

Evident, however, as it is, that the voyages of Gama and Columbus have
already carried a superior degree of happiness, and the promise of
infinitely more, to the eastern and western worlds; yet the advantages
to Europe from the discovery of these regions may perhaps be denied. But
let us view what Europe was, ere the genius of Don Henry gave birth to
the spirit of modern discovery.

Several ages before this period the feudal system had degenerated into
the most absolute tyranny. The barons exercised the most despotic
authority over their vassals, and every scheme of public utility was
rendered impracticable by their continual petty wars with each other; to
which they led their dependents as dogs to the chase. Unable to read, or
to write his own name, the chieftain was entirely possessed by the most
romantic opinion of military glory, and the song of his domestic
minstrel constituted his highest idea of fame. The classic authors slept
on the shelves of the monasteries, their dark but happy asylum, while
the life of the monks resembled that of the fattened beeves which loaded
their tables. Real abilities were indeed possessed by a Duns Scotus and
a few others; but these were lost in the most trifling subtleties of a
sophistry which they dignified with the name of casuistical divinity.
Whether Adam and Eve were created with navels? and How many thousand
angels might at the same instant dance upon the point of the finest
needle without one jostling another? were two of the several topics of
like importance which excited the acumen and engaged the controversies
of the learned. While every branch of philosophical, of rational
investigation, was thus unpursued and unknown, commerce, which is
incompatible with the feudal system, was equally neglected and
unimproved. Where the mind is enlarged and enlightened by learning,
plans of commerce will rise into action, and these, in return, will from
every part of the world bring new acquirements to philosophy and
science. The birth of learning and commerce may be different, but their
growth is mutual and dependent upon each other.
They not only assist
each other, but the same enlargement of mind which is necessary for
perfection in the one is also necessary for perfection in the other; and
the same causes impede, and are alike destructive of, both. The
INTERCOURSE of mankind is the parent of each. According to the
confinement or extent of intercourse, barbarity or civilization
proportionately prevail. In the dark, monkish ages, the intercourse of
the learned was as much impeded and confined as that of the merchant. A
few unwieldy vessels coasted the shores of Europe, and mendicant friars
and ignorant pilgrims carried a miserable account of what was passing in
the world from monastery to monastery. What doctor had last disputed on
the peripatetic philosophy at some university, or what new heresy had
last appeared, not only comprised the whole of their literary
intelligence, but was delivered with little accuracy, and received with
as little attention. While this thick cloud of mental darkness
overspread the western world, was Don Henry, prince of Portugal, born;
born to set mankind free from the feudal system, and to give to the
whole world every advantage, every light that may possibly be diffused
by the intercourse of unlimited commerce:--

"For then from ancient gloom emerg'd
The rising world of trade: the genius, then,
Of navigation, that in hopeless sloth
Had slumber'd on the vast Atlantic deep
For idle ages, starting heard at last
The Lusitanian prince, who, Heaven-inspir'd,
To love of useful glory rous'd mankind,
And in unbounded commerce mix'd the world. "

THOMSON.

In contrast to this melancholy view of human nature, sunk in barbarism
and benighted with ignorance, let the present state of Europe be
impartially estimated. Yet, though the great increase of opulence and
learning cannot be denied, there are some who assert that virtue and
happiness have as greatly declined. And the immense overflow of riches,
from the East in particular, has been pronounced big with destruction to
the British empire. Everything human, it is true, has its dark as well
as its bright side; but let these popular complaints be examined, and it
will be found that modern Europe, and the British empire in a very
particular manner, have received the greatest and most solid advantages
from the modern, enlarged system of commerce. The magic of the old
romances, which could make the most withered, deformed hag, appear as
the most beautiful virgin, is every day verified in popular declamation.
Ancient days are there painted in the most amiable simplicity, and the
modern in the most odious colours. Yet, what man of fortune in England
lives in that stupendous gross luxury which every day was exhibited in
the Gothic castles of the old chieftains! Four or five hundred knights
and squires in the domestic retinue of a warlike earl was not uncommon,
nor was the pomp of embroidery inferior to the profuse waste of their
tables; in both instances unequalled by all the mad excesses of the
present age.