difficult sciences, all most rational, and in themselves most innocent, and most delightful to a cultivated mind, we should be deprived in a society where all are equal. No individual could give employment to the talents necessary for creating and improving these ornamental comforts of life. We are absolutely certain that, even in the most favourable situations on the face of the earth, the most untainted virtue in every breast could not raise man to that degree of cultivation that is possessed by citizens very low in any of the states of Europe; and in the situation of most countries we are acquainted with, the state of man would be much lower: for, at our very setting out, we must grant that the liberty and equality here spoken of must be complete; for there must not be such a thing as a farmer and his cottager. This would be as unjust, as much the cause of discontent, as the gentleman and the farmer.
This scheme therefore seems contrary to the designs of our Creator, who has every where placed us in those situations of inequality that are here so much reprobated, and has given us strong propensities by which we relish those enjoyments. We also find that they may be enjoyed in peace and innocence. And lastly, we imagine that the villain, who, in the station of a professor, would plunder a prince, would also plunder the farmer if he were his cottager. The Illumination therefore that appears to have the best chance of making mankind happy is that which will teach us the Morality which will respect the comforts of cultivated Society, and teach us to protect the possessors in the innocent enjoyment of them; that will enable us to perceive and admire the taste and elegance of Architecture and Gardening, without any wish to sweep the palaces, the gardens, and their owner, from off the earth, merely