Essay on the progressive improvement of mankind. An oration, delivered in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, on the day of Commemoration. Monday, Dec. 17, 1798 / [Anon].

  • Melbourne, William Lamb, Viscount, 1779-1848.
Date:
1799
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essay on the progressive improvement of mankind. An oration, delivered in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, on the day of Commemoration. Monday, Dec. 17, 1798 / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    T [ 10 ] return of those slavish and disgraceful days, the Art of Printing is a sufficient safeguard. The most unlimited power would be unable to effect the destruction of the records of science; and the general diffusion of knowledge, renders it improbable that a design should be conceived, so inimical to the interests of mankind. This discovery facilitated and insured the progress of im¬ provement, which may be traced from the commencement of the eleventh century, making its way through every generation, and extending itself to every class of society, like a river, which, springing from a scanty fountain, gradually, as it is swelled by the influx of other streams, scoops for itself a more capa¬ cious channel, and tacitly undermining, or impetuously bearing down every obstacle that impedes its way, rolls majestically onwards to the point of its destination. But the course of this river has not been always equable and temperate:—in¬ creased by torrents, or irritated by resistance, it has often poured forth a destroying deluge, and for a time has made a desert of the country it should have gladdened and fertilized. But the waters subside again into their channel. Convulsions, dreadful indeed at the moment, have often proved beneficial in their re¬ moter consequences; and the superior advantages which later ages possess, have arisen from the crimes as well as the virtues