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For the Monthly Magazine.

AGAINST LUXURY.

A Chapter never before tranflated, from the

POLITICS of ARISTOTLE.

WEALTH, or property, like all other paffing things, is to be confidered two ways, as matter and form; the matter being from nature, as the wheat, the wool, the marble, the gold; and the form from man, as the loaf, the garment, the temple, the drachma. In fome things there is more of matter; as, in a loaf of three oboles, I obtain for two oboles of wheat, and, for one obole only, in the work of the grinder, the kneader, and the baker. In other things there is more of form; as in the Bombycine of Cyprus, of which three drachmas' worth contains of wool for one drachma only, and for two of gain made by the weaver, the teazer, and the merchant.

Now, the matter only can ferve for food, raiment, fhelter, or otherwife, for the fupport of exiftence; for the form, in proportion as it abounds, implies a wafte of matter. If it require the wool of one theep to make the blanket of a Cynic, it will require the wool of two to make the Syrian cloak of a Satrap; much of the fleeces having in this been caft away for coarfenefs, much for ill color, fome for rude fpinning, and fome was clipped into down by the fmoother of the furface; yet fhall Diogenes with his fingle fleece, be longer clad than Darius with his two. Thus again, a bufhel of fhipmen's bifcuits comes to coft little more than an equal measure of corn; but the white cakes for facrifice are many times dearer than a like quan. tity of wheat; yet the former, not the latter, will moft nourish the eater; for of thefe the bran was fifted away, and thrown to the doves, the chippings were trodden under foot, and, of the finer flour, much was diffipated in duft; their form having been given with a lofs of matter, which laft alone profits.

It is nature, then, who fupports man. What, out of effeminacy, he beftows upon her productions, only diminishes his own means of fubfiftence. Alfo has

fhe, as it were in vengeance, made it neceffary that complex forms can only

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be given to her productions by leffening the number of the virtuous: for, if matter alone fupports life, the number of the living must keep pace with the plenty of natural productions, with the abundance of matter, and must be fome what abridged by every impreffion of form. Moreover, it being the office of the fervile clafs, and never of the free, the fervile, or unworthy clafs, must be to imprefs form, a greater proportion of provided with fupport out of the productions of nature, and fewer of the free, or virtuous claís, if much of form be ufually impreffed upon things, than if but little; for fuch natural produce tions are in quantity definite, and muft maintain fo many only. Sparta, therefore, which, in its furniture, is not given to other than rude workman hip, has found the increase of Helots often to be exceffive, but of citizens never; and, therefore, the mafters are permitted to hunt and deftroy the flaves. Whereas, A. thens, which willingly prizes every thing rather for its fhape than its material, that is, for the abundance of form, is continually neceffitated to import flayes from among the barbarians, in order to employ them. as artificers. It has, however, had to difmifs more colonies of free citizens, who are the ftrength and honour of ftates, than even the fea-towns of the Ionians.

The lawgiver, therefore, whom it becomes rather to multiply the citizen than the alien; thofe who love their country, rather than those who value not its welfare; thofe from among whom are drawn the ornaments of the forum, and the thunderbolts of war, rather than the polifhers of pebbles, or the carvers of golden grafshoppers;-he will forbid the ufe of fuch clothes, dwellings, food, or furniture, as are valued for their form, not for their matter; and he will command a preference for thofe in which matter, not form, abounds. All labor beftowed upon what is of nature, being not only a labor in vain, which merely effeminacy defires, but a labor which even leffens in produce the power of benefiting; and a labor which obtains nourishment wholly for the untaught and the unworthy,

1796.]

been much read in various parts of Europe; and the author feems to have made many profelytes. But the fyftem of Helvetius, though artfully conftructed, and with great logical fubtilty, does not appear to me to be grounded upon nature, truth, or reason. His work, however, contains a variety of obfervations on human nature, which may be read with advantage, and are well worthy of attention.

Helvetius fays, towards the beginning of his work, "I regard the understand❝ing, the virtue, and genius of man, as "the product of inftruction." He afterwards ftates it as a queftion, "Whether, "in each individual, his talents and his "virtues be the effect of his organiza"tion, or of the education he receives?" And he declares himself to be of the latter opinion; that the talents and the virtues of every individual are the effect - of the education he has received.

Helvetius alfo fays, "If I can demon"ftrate, that man is, in fact, nothing 86 more than the product of his educa"tion, I fhall, doubtlefs, reveal an imS6 portant truth to mankind." He certainly could have done fo; but I am perfectly convinced, that he has produced no fuch demonftration; though he has fufficiently proved, that education has a very powerful influence both upon the moral and intellectual characters of men.

A Spanish writer on education, Huartes, was fo far from concurring in fentiment with Helvetius, that he makes the following obfervations on the fubject: "Were I myself a master, before I re"ceived any fcholar to my fchool, I "would fift him narrowly, to find out, "if I could, what kind of genius he "had; and if I difcovered in him a

propenfity for learning, I would chear "fully receive him; but, if I found he "was not in the leaft capable of any "learning, I would advise him to waste no more time, nor lofe any more pains, "but feek out fome other way to live, "that requires not fuch abilities as learn"ing does. Experience exactly agrees "with this; for we fee a great many "fcholars enter upon the ftudy of each "fcience, let the mafter be good or bad; "and, in the conclufion, fome attain to 66 great learning, others to indifferent; "and the reft have done nothing, "throughout their whole course, but "loft their time, fpent their money, and "and beat their brains to no purpose. "The difficulty of accounting for this

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"would not be great, if we duly refleƐ"ed, that thofe who are unapt for one, are fit for another science; and, that "the most ingenious in one fort of learn"ing, proceeding to another, make no"thing of it. I myself can atteft the "truth of this: for there were three "fchoul-fellows of us, who were set at "thefame time to learn Latin. One "took it very readily; the other two "could never fo much as make a tolera"ble oration. However, all three fell upon logic; and one that could make "no hand of grammer, eagle-like, pene"trated into that art, whereas the other "two could not advance the least step "therein during the whole courfe. But "then again all three paffing to the "ftudy of aftronomy, it was very ob"fervable, that he who could neither "learn Latin nor Logic, in a few days' "fpace understood Aftronomy better than "the master who taught him, of which "the other two could understand no"thing."

If the fentiment of Helvetius were founded in truth, that the talents of every man are merely the effect of the education he receives, it may be fuppofed, that if you could discover in what manner Homer or Shakespeare were edu cated, you have nothing to do but to get twenty boys from any place whatever, and educate them in the fame manner in which Homer and Shakespeare were educated, and you would immediately produce the fame number of Homers and Shakespeares. It is the fame, according to Helvetius, with virtue as with genius: they are both the result of education. It might, therefore, be prefumed, that, according to his fyftem, if you could difcover the method in which Jonas Hanway and John Howard had been educated, you might in like manner take twenty other boys from the fame place, or from any other, and edu cate them in the fame manner, and you would immediately produce the fame number of Hanways and Howards. But though this at the firft view feems to be the neceffary refult of his fyftem, yet this confequence does not refult from his fyftem when it is more accurately examined. For he maintains, that no two perfons ever do receive the fame educa

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tion. "What is neceffary," he fays, " in order that two individuals fhould re"ceive precifely the fame education? "That they fhould be precifely inthe fame pofitions and the fame circumftances. "Now this is what never can take place. It is evident, therefore, that no two perfons can receive the fame "inftruction." In another place, he fays, "It is at the very inftant when a "child receives motion and life, that it "receives its firft inftruction. It is "fometimes even in the womb where it "is conceived, that it learns to diftin'guish between fick nefs and health." "When fome months have paffed, its fight is diftinct, its organs are fortified, it becomes by degrees fufceptible of all impreffions; then the fenfes of feeing, hearing, tafting, touching, fmelling, in a word, all the inlets to the mind are fet open; then all the objects of nature rush thither in crowds, and engrave an infinity of ideas in the memory. In these first moments, what can be true inftructors of infancy? The divers fenfations it feels: thefe are fo

many inftructions it receives."- "If two children have the fame preceptor, if they are taught to diftinguish their letters, to read and repeat their catechifm, &c. they are fuppofed to receive the fame education." But "the true preceptors of a child are the objects that furround him: thefe are the inftructors to whom he owes almoft all his ideas." Helvetius ftates, that it is to chance that the public are often indebted for illuftrious characters. He first inftances in the cafe of Vaucanfon, whom he reprefents as having been led to the ftudy of mechanics, in which he greatly dif tinguished himself, by the accidental circumftance of his being left in a particular room, while his mother was engaged with her fpiritual director; on which occafions he had nothing to amufe him but the motions of a clock that happened to ftand in the room. Helvetius then fays, "A chance of the fame fort illumined the genius of Milton. Cromwell died, his fon fucceeded him, and was driven out of England. Milton participated his ill fortune; he loft the place of fecretary to the protector, was imprifoned, releafed, and driven into exile. At laft he returned, retired to the country, and there, in the leifure of retreat and difgrace, he executed the poem which he had projected in his youth, and which has placed him in the rank of the greatest of men." But the

[Feb.

fact is, that Milton had diftinguished himself by his genius, and by his publications, even more than ten years before the execution of Charles the First. He never left his country after the restoration; nor can the production of the Paradife Loft be properly attributed to any of the circumstances enumerated by Helvetius.

He next proceeds to Shakespeare. He fays, "If Shakespeare had been like his father, always a dealer in wool; if his imprudence had not obliged him to quit his trade and his country; if he had not affociated with libertines, and ftole deer from the park of a nobleman had not been purfued for theft, and obliged to take refuge in London; engage in a company of actors; and, at laft, difgufted with being an indifferent performer, he had not turned author; the prudent Shakespeare had never been the celebrated Shakespeare; and whatever ability he might have acquired in the trade of wool, his name would never have reflected a luftre on England."

Accidental circumstances might be the means of bringing Shakespeare to London, and of caufing him to commence dramatic writer; but it by no means follows from thence, that his uncommon powers of mind were the refult of thofe circumftances. Accidental circumftances caufed Cibber to become a dramatic writer; but they did not make a Shakespeare of him. Cibber himself ftates, that if he had not become a player, and a dramatic writer, he was in fome danger of being a bishop. "Had my father's bufinefs, fays he, permitted him to have carried me one month foomer, as he intended, to the university, who knows, but by this time, that purer fountain might have washed my imperfections into a capacity of writing, inftead of plays and annual odes, fermons and paftoral letters +?"

That accidental circumftances may be the means of placing a man in a fituation, which will give him an opportunity of exhibiting talents, which otherwife he would have been unable to difplay, I fhall readily admit. Accidental circumftances, and particular fituations, may alfo lead a man to a more vigorous exertion of his powers, than would otherwife have probably taken place. But, when all this is admitted, the con

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track, which the experience of two ages thews to end in mazes and quagmires, we fhould recall our wandering steps, and endeavour to find out a better path

in the receffes of science.

That the pofition on which the modern reafoning on the formation of equations is falfe, may, I think, be proved fatisfactorily to any one, who has been inftructed in the firit rudiments of Algebra. For a quadratic equation, two fimple equations are multiplied together, generally denoted by x-ao and x: for a cubic equation, three fimple equations; and for an equation of higher dimenfions, as many fimple equations as that equation has dimenfions. In the first instance, x-ao is multiplied into and confequently the refult, x2 -.a+b+ab, is equal to nothing. Of the laft equation there are evidently two roots, a and b, which may be afcertained without reference to the fuppofed multiplication; and, in fact, this equation does not refult from the fuppofed multi-plication; for if x-a, the unknown quantity in the fecond equation ought not to be called x, but by fome other term, and then if the two equations are multiplied together, a--ao, and y-b , the refult will be y-a-br tat; that is, the equation will be equal to nothing, when r is equal to a, or y is equal to b.

I do not deny that an equation may be formed by the multiplication of double terms, and a fimple inftance will be the means of farther fhewing the fallacy of the modern mode of reafoning, and the falfehood of the affertion, that an equation has as many roots as it has dimenfions. Let a and b be any determinate quantities, a being greater than b, and , the unknown quantity, greater than o. By multiplying together xa, and b, we obtain the compound fum x2—x. a+b+ab. Now, fince x is a variable quantity, I may fuppofe it to diminifh, till it becomes equal to a, and confequently, in that fituation, my compound form will become a quadratic equation, x2-x+q=0. Let x be diminifhed ftill more, till it becomes equal to, and the compound form will again become a quadratic, whofe root is equal to b, refulting not from the multiplication x-a into x-b, but from that of a-x into b. We have obtained then by this mode of framing a quadratic equation, the knowledge of the truth, that in equations of this form

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q=0, there are two roots and the fame truth is difcoverable in a much cafier manner, without this tedious process of multiplying, by a very slight inspection of the equations.

But if fomething has thus been done, though in a bad manner, by multiplying in one form of a quadratic, what are we to do in other cafes, when, for example, it is made to be +px-q=0. -We are told that this will refult from the multiplication of x+a=0, into -bo, and confequently, that the equation will ftill have two roots, a and 6. I allow, that it will refult from the multiplication of the double terms xta and x-b, and that the refult may become, xx. a-b-ab—o.— But, whether I confider the formation of this equation, or inveftigate its peculiar nature, 1 cannot difcover more than one root, and it appears to me impoffible, as it muft, I think, to every person, that it fhould have more than one root, which is b. For x+a can never become equal to nothing, and this equation cannot therefore refult from the multiplica tion together of two fimple equations. Again, from infpecting the quadratic, it is difcovered at firft fight, that a canfore, it is not true, that an equation has not be equal to a. In this cafe, theremight go on to prove the fame in equaas many roots as dimenfions; and I which, will have as many roots as ditions of higher dimenfions, fome of menfions, and others will not. The inveftigating of the number of roots in an equation from the nature of its form, will lead to real fatisfactory knowledge, of great ufe in the mixed mathematics, whilft the other mode of treating equations, as produced from multiplying fimple equations together, or equations of lower dimenfions, has confounded a plain, fimple, and elegant fcience, intead of tharpening the faculties of the mind, has blunted its natural edge, and has made many a ftudent a mere technical tranfpofer of figures upon paper, inftead of an accurate reafoner.

The limits of my paper do not permit me to expatiate farther upon this fubject, and indeed it is unneceffary, till I hear with what reception my firft ideas may meet among your fcientific correfpondents. They will fee clearly to what extent my reafoning proceeds; namely, that the changes of figns in an equation have no reference at all to the fuppofed nature of the roots, according to their

quality