The invention of printing; the reformation; the
destruction of the feudal system, at least in its most objectionable,
degrading, and paralizing features; the contentions between the nobility
and the sovereigns, and between the latter and the people; gave a stimulus
to the human mind, and thus enlarged its capacities, desires, and views, in
such a manner, that the character of the human race assumed a loftier port.
From all these causes commerce benefited, and, as was natural to expect, it
benefited most in those countries where most of these causes operated, and
where they operated most powerfully. In Holland we see a memorable and
gratifying instance of this: a comparatively small population, inhabiting a
narrow district, won and kept from the overwhelming of the ocean, by most
arduous, incessant, and expensive labour,--and the territory thus acquired
and preserved not naturally fertile, and where fertile only calculated to
produce few articles,--a people thus disadvantageously situated, in respect
to territory and soil, and moreover engaged in a most perilous, doubtful,
and protracted contest for their religion and liberty, with by far the most
potent monarch of Europe,--this people, blessed with knowledge and freedom,
forced to become industrious and enterprizing by the very adverse
circumstances in which they were placed, gradually wrested from their
opponents--the discoverers of the treasures of the East and of the new
world, and who were moreover blessed with a fertile soil and a luxurious
climate at home,--their possessions in Asia, and part of their possessions
in America.
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