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Observations on the means of exciting a spirit of national industry
Observations on the means of exciting a spirit of national industry Author:James Anderson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: chapter{Section 4PREFACE. IF the writer of the following letters had known . lefs of the world, he would have offered them to the public with lefs reluctance ... more »than he now does. Youth is fanguine in its expectations, and hopes that mankind in general will enter warmly into any plan -for improvement that may be propofed with a rational profpecl: of fuccefs : but experience corrects thefe firft intemperate fallies, and throws a chilling damp upon the mind, when it recollects the many bars that unavoidably come in the way of every generous undertaking. It is vain to hope, that the inftitutions of fuch a fallible creature as man is, can ever be perfect; it is e- qually foolifh to expect that any propofed improvement will be faultlefs. There is, therefore, room for continual improvements ; but there is not at all times an equal chance for thefe improvements taking place. Every ftage in the progrefs of civil Ibciety, is naturally fitted to encourage fome peculiar paffions more than others. The nature of the predominant paflions determine the nature of the vices that moft a 3 prevail; prevail; and thefe neceffarily determine the nature of the virtues of the times. Hence it happens, that although truth and virtue remain for ever the fame; yet to us, who view them through the medium of thefe ever-varying paffions, they fecm to be perpetually changing. What obtained the higheft applaufe in one age, is viewed by the next with the utmoft indifference, and another fet of ideas comes to be accounted honourable, which were formerly held in abhorrence, or confidered as the difgrace of the human fpecies. In this manner although truth and reafon gradually prevail in fome particulars over prejudice and error, mankind in other particulars adopt new prejudices, and fall into errors formerly ...« less