The progress of science and the cultivation of literature had considerable effect in changing the manners of the European nations, and introducing that civility and refinement by which they are now distinguished.  At the time when their empire was overturned, the Romans, though they had lost that correct taste which has rendered the productions of their ancestors standards of excellence, and models of imitation for succeeding ages, still preserved their love of letters, and cultivated the arts with great ardour.  But rude barbarians were so far from being struck with any admiration of these unknown accomplishments, that they despised them.  They were not arrived at that state of society, when those faculties of the human mind which have beauty and elegance for their objects begin to unfold themselves.  They were strangers to most of those wants and desires which are the parents of ingenious invention; and as they did not comprehend either the merit or utility of the Roman arts, they destroyed the monuments of them, with an industry not inferior to that with which their posterity have since studied to preserve or to recover them.  The convulsions occasioned by the settlement of so many unpolished tribes in the empire; the frequent as well as violent revolutions in every kingdom which they established; together with the interior defects in the form of government which they introduced, banished security and leisure.  They prevented the growth of taste, or the culture of science, and kept Europe, during several centuries, in that state of ignorance which has been already described.  But the events and institutions which I have enumerated produced great alterations in society.  As soon as their operation, in restoring liberty and independence to one part of the community, began to be felt; as soon as they began to communicate to all the members of society some taste of the advantages arising from commerce, from public order, and from personal security, the human mind became conscious of powers which it did not formerly perceive, and fond of occupations or pursuits of which it was formerly incapable.  Towards the beginning of the twelfth century, we discern the first symptoms of its awakening from that lethargy in which it had been long sunk, and observe it turning with curiosity and attention towards new objects.

ROBERTSON.

[Notes:  Francis I. (1494-1547).  King of France; the contemporary of Henry VIII. and of Charles V., Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.  The constant rivalry and ever recurring wars between Francis and the latter, occupy a great part of European history during the first half of the 16th century.

His more temperate rival, i.e., Charles V.

At the time when their empire was overturned, the Romans, &c. In 410 A.D., by the incursions of the Goths.]

* * * * *

       THE PASSIONS.

       (AN ODE FOR MUSIC.)