NO subject can be more important in itself, or better suited to the present occasion, and the exercises of this day, than the Use and Advantages of the fine Arts, and especially those of Polite Lite­rature. These studies are perhaps too much under­valued by the public, and neglected by the youth in our seminaries of science. They are considered as meer matters of trifling amusement, and despised in comparison with the more solid branches of Learning.

The knowlege of Languages, Mathematics, Me­taphysics and Philosophy, undoubtedly deserves to engage the attention of the greatest Genius. For skill in these sciences, the World (while the world remains) will revere the memory of a Bacon, a Newton, and a Locke. But when they are carried beyond a certain point; when they are of no advan­tage to the common purposes of life; when they are employed upon questions which human Reason can never with certainty determine, they degene­rate into meer speculations of amusement, and be­come no farther valuable, than as they serve to en­large the mind, clear the understanding, and enter­tain us in the hours of leisure from the important avocations of business. The Geometrical labours [Page 4] for the Quadrature of the Circle, the Metaphysical controversies about the Existence of matter, and the Essence of Spirit, though a field for the dis­play of genius, in what are they more interesting to mankind, than the contentions of Antiquaries a­bout the genuineness of a medal, or the disputes of Commentators about the various readings of their antient manuscripts?

Let us consider the advantages which arise to the world from the study of the liberal Arts.

Mankind in the present state, are extremely lia­ble to be led away by mean and sordid vices, to be attached to the low enjoyments of sense, and thus degraded almost to a level with the brutal creation. As that unceasing thirst for happiness, which is the universal spring of action, must have some object for its gratification; the Divine Being, to raise us above these low desires, hath implanted in our minds a taste for more pure and intellectual plea­sures. These pleasures have their source in the fine Arts, and are more especially found in the elegant entertainments of polite Literature. They ennoble the soul, purify the passions, and give the thoughts a better turn. They add dignity to our sentiments, delicacy and refinement to our manners. They set us above our meaner pursuits, and make us scorn those low enjoyments, which perhaps we once esteemed as the perfection of human felicity. I ap­peal to all persons of judgment, whether they can rise from reading a fine Poem, viewing any master­ly work of Genius, or hearing an harmonious con­cert [Page 5] of Music, without feeling an openness of heart, and an elevation of mind, without being more sen­sible of the dignity of human nature, and despising whatever tends to debase and degrade it?

These are the delights, which humanize the soul, and polish away that rugged ferocity of manners, which is natural to the uncultivated nations of the world.

In every land, in every age, at the time when the unconquered spirit of freedom, joined with that laudable ambition, which fires the soul to heroic deeds; hath raised the nation to the highest pitch of glory, the fine Arts have been studiously cultivated, and have shined forth with peculiar lus­tre. For Learning and Glory walk hand in hand through the world. A savage people, before the dawn of literature, may indeed be terrible in arms: but being stained with the blood of cruelty, tarnish­ed with that wild barbarity, which degrades cou­rage into brutality, they never attain to the summit of renown; and either sink unnoticed into oblivi­on, or leave to posterity a name more infamous for barbarism, than famed for heroic atchievements. While every voice celebrates the bravery of an Alexander, a Scipio, a Caesar, and a Marlbo­rough; who remembers the savage fierceness of the lion-hearted Richard; or what mouth is opened in the praise of that scourge of Asia, the persian Nadir?

The same ardour of ambition, the same greatness [Page 6] of thought, which inspires the Warrior to brave dan­ger in the conquering field, when diffused among a people will call forth Genius in every station of life, fire the imagination of the Artist, and raise to sublimity the aspiring Muse.

Look into the annals of antiquity. View the Gre­cians at the aera of learning and politeness, when the fine Arts were carried to their highest glory, when the whole nation were encouragers of science, and every person a judge of literature; when by great­ness of genius, correctness of taste and refinement of manners, they rendered themselves famous throughout the world, and patterns of imitation to all posterity. Then was the time that Greece pro­duced those Heroes that astonished Europe and Asia with the sound of their victories; then was the time that Athens, Sparta and Thebes gave laws to the world. And could a Nation fail of rising to the high­est pitch of fame, when animated with the thunder­ing eloquence of Demosthenes and Pericles, fired to warlike deeds by the martial muse of Homer, and warmed with those noble sentiments which in­spire the productions of Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles?

The glory of Arts and Arms sunk in Greece and rose again with renewed lustre in Hesperia. Rome distinguished herself for literature, even from the first dawn of her greatness. In her early days, while her unpolished manners bore too near a resemblance to the rough virtues of Sparta, she could boast an Ennius, the boldness of whose thoughts even Virgil [Page 7] himself did not disdain to imitate. Then flourished Accius, Naevius, Pacuvius, those samed dramatic poets, with the bold and spirited Lucilius, the fa­ther of the Roman satire. But these writers have sunk into the dark grave of oblivion, and left be­hind only some small traces of their same. Then appeared the rough genius of Plautus, the milder elegance of Terence, and the soft muse of Catullus: Then the polished Lucretius, so distinguished for all the graces of poetic expression, that Virgil evi­dently borrowed from his writings, his style, versi­fication and manner of description. In the mean time Eloquence rose to the highest perfection at Rome. Be Cicero a witness, whose praise is unne­cessary, whether as an orator, a patriot, or a phi­losopher.

But see Rome attains to the summit of greatness. The world submits to her sway. Satiated with the spoils of victory, she sits unmolested on the throne, and diffuses the mild blessings of peace. Then flou­rish the names dearest to same, the glories of the Augustan age: The majestic Muse of Virgil, the second who dared to attempt the dignity of epic song; the polished elegance of Horace, graced with the sounding lyre, and armed with the keen sword of satire; the strong and sportive imagination of Ovid; the soft elegiac strains of Tibullus and Propertius; and the historic grandeur of Livy. The world is conscious of their fame. Their cha­racters need not to be illustrated by the tedious im­pertinence of praise.

[Page 8] The Glory of Rome faded by a gradual decay. The Muse still shone, though with tarnished lustre, in the tragedies of Seneca, the satires of Juvenal and Persius, and the heroic poems of Lucan, Statius, Claudian, and Silius Italicus. History produced the nervous, the manly Tacitus; and Philosophy could still show her Seneca and Pliny. Till at length Ty­ranny usurped the dominion, and Barbarism over­spread the land of Italy.

For a nearer instance of the trophies of the liberal Arts, let us view the state of Russia in the last cen­tury. In a cold unpolished land, deep-sunk in the shades of savage ignorance, a Monarch rises, who moved with compassion for his subjects, fired with love of glory, and endowed with a soul superior to the age, forms a project of civilizing his country. He sails to other lands, imports the rudiments of the arts, and affords both by precept and example the utmost encouragement to genius. The Nation raises herself from the dust, repels her enemies, ex­tends her borders, leads forth her conquering ar­mies, and now threatens the total subversion of the Ottoman empire.

Britain alone can claim the glory of an equality with Greece and Rome. There for two centuries the Arts have flourished with almost unabated lus­tre: And the slightest reflection will inform us that this period is by far the most celebrated in the Bri­tish history. In the glorious reign of Elizabeth, there arose a Spenser, unequalled in all the pleasing charms of luxuriant description; whose fancy trans­ports [Page 9] us to fairy land, and brings us acquainted with a shadowy race, the beings of his own creation. Then a Shakespear, the matchless genius of the drama; endowed with the most noble extravagance of imagination, the strongest powers of humour, the sovereign command of the passions, and the keenest inspection into all the mazes of the human soul. To these succeeded the unbridled wit of Cowley, the soft graces of Waller, and the various grandeur of all-accomplished Dryden. Then with the united charms of every Muse, appeared the immortal Milton; who with the greatest force of natural genius, assisted by all the aids of art, and by the noble descriptions of the inssired writers, hath produced a Poem, almost as much superior to Homer's, in sublimity of conception, as it is in the greatness of its subject:

After a short eclipse in the luxurious reign of Charles II. the reviving Arts shone forth with su­perior brightness in the prosperous days of William and Anne; while the victorious Marlborough bore Britain's thunder on her foes, and made Europe tremble at the sound of his arms. Then flourished the polished muse of Addison, who revived in Eng­land the classic elegance of the Augustan age; whose works, adorned with the highest sublimity of sentiment, and the nicest delicacy of thought, [Page 10] filled with easy humour which points the ridicule at vice, (while they afford instruction and entertainment of the noblest kind to every reader,) may boast as their greatest honour and distinguished excellence, that they are peculiarly calculated to please and improve the fairest part of the creation.

Then arose a Swift, the friend of virtue, the scourge of folly, and the terror of vice; unequalled for manly sense, liveliness of fancy, the powers of wit and humour, and the severest poignancy of satire. Happy, had not his mind, soured with dis­appoinment in the earliest views of his ambition, too often endeavoured by the grossest indelicacy of description to debase the dignity of human nature; and indulged a spirit of misanthropy, which clouds his best productions, and while we admire the force of his Genius, bids us detest the sentiments of his heart. What age shall forget the undying fame of Pope! Whether in pleasing strains he paints the beauties of nature; mourns with the softest notes of elegiac verse; or with moral rapture unfolds all the principles and passions of the human soul: Whether in sportive lays he displays the foibles of the gentler Sex; impales vice and dulness on the point of satire; or holding, up the glass of transla­tion, reflects with unabated light the glories of the Maeonian song.

For the power of describing the beauties of rural scenes, and copying the different appearances of nature, what writer can vie with the pleasing Thom­son! The liveliness of his paintings, his sublime [Page 11] morality, and his delicacy of thought justly raise him to the highest rank of genius.

Nor must we forget the unaffected ease of Gay and Prior, the spirited wit of Congreve, the delicate fancy of Parnelle, the dramatic powers of Otway, Southern and Rowe, the cervantic humour of Ar­buthnot, with the pointed satire and strong imagi­nation of Young. These writers will convey the English glory to the most distant ages of posterity.

Polite Letters at present are much on the decline in Britain; not through a scarcity of authors, or want of encouragement from the public; but by reason of that luxurious effeminacy, which hath caused a decay of genius, and introduced a false taste in writing. Their Men of learning are in­fected with pedantry. They are great admirers of antiquity and followers in the path of servile imi­tation. They sacrifice ease and elegance to the affectation of classic correctness, setter the fancy with the rules of method, and damp all the ardour of aspiring invention. While the men of Genius (who are at present a distinct class of writers) in contempt of the critic chains, throw off all ap­pearance of order and connection, sport in the wildest sallies of imagination, and adopt the greatest extravagance of humour, which too often sinks to buffoonery, or is soured with the malevolence of satire.

America hath a fair prospect in a few centuries of ruling both in arts and arms. It is universally [Page 12] allowed that we very much excel in the force of natural genius. And although but few among us are able to devote their whole lives to study, per­haps there is no nation, in which a larger portion of learning is diffused through all ranks of people. For as we generally possess the middle station of life, neither sunk to vassalage, nor raised to inde­pendance, we avoid the sordid ignorance of peasants, and the unthinking dissipation of the great. The heroic love of Liberty, the manly fortitude, the generosity of sentiment, for which we have been so justly celebrated, seem to promise the future ad­vancement and established duration of our glory. Many incidents unfortunate in themselves, have tended to call forth and sustain these virtues. Hap­py, in this respect, have been our late struggles for liberty! They have awakened the spirit of freedom; they have rectified the manners of the times; they have made us acquainted with the rights of man­kind; recalled to our minds the glorious indepen­dance of former ages, fired us with the views of fame, and by filling our thoughts with contempt of the imported articles of luxury, have raised an opposition, not only to the illegal power, but to the effeminate manners of Britain. And I cannot but hope, notwithstanding some dangerous examples of infamous defection, that there is a spirit remaining in these Colonies, that will invariably oppose itself to the efforts of usurpation and perfidy, and forbid that Avarice should ever betray us to Slavery.

This Land hath already begun to distinguish it­self in literature. It is peculiarly famed for the [Page 13] study of Theology; and though too much infested with the short-lived productions controversy, can boast of some Divines, who however inelegant in style and expression, have perhaps never been ex­celled in depth of thought and profoundness of reasoning. Out late writers in the cause of liberty have gained the applause of Europe. Many elegant essays have been produced in the style of wit and humour; nor hath Poetry been entirely uncultiva­ted among us. The encouragement, which is given to the Arts and Sciences, affords a prospect of our future glory.