Thomas Barrow

“ If they could contrive to live in peace and plenty at home, and pass among their customers, their neighbours, and their friends, for honest, industrious, good-humoured folks, they thought themselves at liberty to employ their leisure-hours in what studies they pleased, and looked no further. They had no notion of political refinements, of those delicate and nicer sensations we feel for the public. ”

“ It is, nevertheless, very certain, they all considered music not only as an important, but as an indispensable part of the qualifications of a politician; Non igitur, frustra, Plato civili viro, quem politicon vocant, necessariam musicen credidit, says Quinctilian. It was one of the fundamental laws of the republic of Arcadia, that every man should learn music until he was thirty years of age. Themistocles the Athenian was treated as a vain boaster, for pretending that he could make a great kingdom of a small one, without availing himself of its assistance. ”

“ Formerly, indeed, they seem to have been read and approved by here and there a man; and some small encouragement was not wanting to writers, even of this stamp; but this was in quiet and peaceful times, times of good government and perfect security, when men were not universally called upon by the superior duties they owe to their country, when the constitution was in its full vigour, and wanted not the zealous and united efforts of whole legions of political labourers, to vindicate and assert its invaluable privileges. ”

“ The immense wealth acquired by these means within these few years, and scattered with generous profusion over the whole kingdom, is not more remarkable, nor more amazing, than the rapid progress which the arts of painting, sculpture, building, gardening, music, engraving, &c. have made in the same period. Our artists begin already to rival [Pg 11] and surpass the most celebrated artists of Europe, and bid fair to confer on their country as much honour and renown, as those in the ages of Leo X. and Lewis XIV. did on France and Italy. ”

“ Let us not, therefore, shut our ears to the cries of the streets, nor turn away our eyes from the lamentations of the news-papers. Let us not be cozened by the arts of crafty and designing men, who maliciously and falsely represent them as the counterfeit tears, the groans and wailings of hired mourners ”

“ Many a man too may remember how much he was surprized at the novelty of a book, which, with the most mortifying scorn, contradicted every opinion and principle that he had imbibed from his mother, or had been taught by his father, or his schoolmaster ”

“ The advantages we derived from this union, by the abilities and virtues of their statesmen, the valour, skill, thirst of glory, and spirit of enterprize of their sailors and soldiers; the genius, wit, taste, eloquence, and learning of their divines, philosophers, historians, poets, lawyers, physicians, &c., the inventions of their artists; the industry of their merchants, &c. had been, until lately, manifest to all men, and were freely acknowledged by all men, who possessed or pretended to candor and impartiality. ”

“ But they reflected at the same time that these people were not formed to live long together on any good terms of mutual friendship, and confidence, being neither born under the same climate, nor of the same colour, nor educated in the same principles of manners, morals, nor government, nor speaking the same language, nor worshipping the same god. ”

“ The humble and obscure writer of a Pamphlet cannot, however, if he happens to mistake his talents, be justly blamed for impertinence. He may be pitied for his [Pg 2] misfortune; but for his faults as an author, he is answerable to no man: for there is scarce any man, who has dealt in this sort of reading, that has not had fair warning; it being more than an hundred to one, that he has bought an impertinent Pamphlet, some time, or other, in the course of his studies. He cannot well fail of knowing that such things are sometimes published; neither the writer nor the bookseller compels him to buy ”

“ It is manifest, likewise, that the very people themselves had, for [Pg 14] many years together, possessed the same opinion of them; that they were universally beloved, honoured, and revered, until they were dismissed or had resigned, and that after their executions or deaths, they were as universally and sincerely lamented.
If the great affairs of the world were uniform and consistent, the opinions of the people would, no doubt, have been suffered to remain so too ”

“ Part of the Roman, and even part of the Grecian art of politics, happily escaped the injuries of time and accident, and continued, for many hundred years, the constant theme, admiration, and example of all writers on politics; but as we lament the irreparable loss of the greater part of the productions of those wise and venerable ancients in philosophy, history, poetry, &c. ”

“ Hæ tibi erunt artes,——
was an ingenious compliment paid by Virgil to his countrymen; a grave, serious, sober, virtuous people, like ourselves, devoted to the great interests of their country, absorbed in public affairs, and preferring the study of government, or the art of politics, to all other arts whatever: to this art they were indebted for their prudence, [Pg 12] generosity, fortitude, and magnanimity; for their excellent laws and institutions; for their admirable skill in negociations ”

“ The times are now changed; merit is no longer in danger of pining in obscurity; [Pg 10] the high road to wealth and fame is open to all their votaries; whether a political writer be inspired by the genuine spirit of patriotism, inflamed with a fervent zeal for the honour of his king and his country ”

“ Besides, no Pamphlet can fairly be said to be wholly useless: it may be always made to serve, at least, some purpose; whereas I believe there is hardly any body but may remember to have been present, perhaps once in their lives, at a conversation, or a pleading, or a speech, or a sermon, that could serve no manner of purpose but to tire the audience, and make the speaker ridiculous: and this must be allowed to be a very unpardonable sort of impertinence; for a man may throw aside a Pamphlet, if he pleases, at the first [Pg 3] page, or the first line ”

“ It never entered into their heads to be perpetually making earnest and anxious enquiries about the state of the nation; if the body politic was, upon the whole, sound and in good health, they were no more alarmed at every little complaint, than at a slight cold, or an accidental head-ach. ”

“ By this means the arts of politics and music (of which latter I shall speak hereafter) became the immediate business, employment, and duty of every individual; as they both had been found, from long experience, indispensably necessary for the repose, security, and duration of the state. The constitution and the inhabitants of Great Britain in these present times, very much [Pg 18] resemble those of which I have been speaking. The same instruments of government, therefore, are as necessary here as they were there ”

“ There are, for instance, few people, at this time of day, so infatuated as to doubt that it is to them we are indebted that this our native land, with all her revenues, dignities, honours, employments, posts, pensions, reversions, &c. ”

“ There are, besides, few men so unreasonably inquisitive about these matters, as not to be fully satisfied with the stock they have already laid in, or who would not even sooner consent perhaps, to forget half they had ever learned, than to take the useless or the dangerous pains of acquiring more. ”

“ Hitherto, however, they have not reached that lofty summit; being rather subordinate arts, the arts of elegance and ornament, than of real and intrinsic use: they are neither held in such general estimation, nor so liberally rewarded; and are therefore not cultivated with the same zeal and assiduity, as others of more immediate benefit and importance to society. ”

“ The fate of his younger brother is frequently very different: if he be fed, cloathed, and taught, it is all he has a right to expect; he must be flogged to his books; his passions, follies, and vices, must be perpetually controuled, that they may not obstruct his fortune [Pg 26] in the world ”

“ They are commonly laid aside with the accidence or the grammar, are of little use to a man in his commerce with the world, and contribute rather to obstruct the advancement of his interests and his fortunes, than to promote them. ”

“ Since this discovery was made, which I shall explain hereafter, it has been found out, to the saving of much labour, that the study of ancient and modern history, laws, treaties, political systems, &c. is mere loss of time, and downright pedantry. There are very few of our modern politicians to be seen now adays, bestrewed with learned dust, like Pope’s politician ”

“ Now if he should chance, in the course of such an education, to learn the habits of temperance, frugality, and industry, and qualify himself, after the hard labour of many years, for the employment or profession of a divine, a statesman, a lawyer, a physician, an artist, a merchant, &c. ”

“ Now, men had been taught to believe, until very lately, before the discovery of a direct road, and a short cut, that the composition of a professed politician required as many and as great a variety of ingredients, as Cicero’s orator, or the knight-errant of Don Quixote: accordingly the great baron Montesquieu confesseth, That after the hardy study and drudgery of twenty-five years, by day and by night, consumed in the production of two small volumes ”

“ But in the free governments of Greece and Rome, all ranks, degrees, and orders of men, patricians and plebeians, from the highest birth, alliance, and properties, down even to tinkers and coblers, were all either immediately or remotely perpetually employed, and at work upon the constitution ”

“ These and many other discoveries of the same kind, equally new and important, are known and familiar to all men, who have studied the works of our modern politicians, and sufficiently evince the progress we have made in this art ”

“ Their erudition I have not mentioned, it having been discovered to be of no use at all in the knowledge or exercise of this art. It is an observation of the great lord Bacon, that a man will never get to the end of his journey, if he happens to mistake the way, and go the wrong road ”