WRITINGS O F D 8. S M I I H, LXXXIII

to the freedom of a people. So different, however,is the cafeatprefent, that the moft wealthy nationsare thofe where the people are the moft laborious,and where they enj oy the greateft degree of liberty.Nay, it was the general diffufion of wealth amongthe lower orders of men, which firft ga ve birth tothe Ipirit of independence in modern Europe , andwhich has produced under fome of its governments,and efpecially under our own, a more equal diffu-fion of freedom and of happinefs than took placeunder the moft celebrated conftitutions of an-tiquity.

Without this diffufion of wealth among the lowerorders, the important effects refulting from the in-vention of printing would have been extremelylimited; for a certain degree of eafe and independ-ence is necelfary to infpire men with the defire ofknowledge, and to afford them the leifure w'hichis requifite for acquiring it; and it is only by therewards which fuch a ftate of fociety holds up toinduftry and ambition, that the felhffi pafhons ofthe multitude can be interefted in the intellectualimprovement of their children. The extenfivepropagation of light and refinement arifing fromthe influence of the prefs, aided by the fpirit ofcommerce, feems to be the remedy provided bynature, again ft the fatal effects which would other-wife be produced, by the fubdivifion of laboraccompanying the progrefs of the mechanical arts: