Six discourses / delivered by Sir John Pringle, Bart. when president of the Royal Society, on occasion of six annual assignments of Sir Godfrey Copley's medal. To which is prefixed The life of the author by Andrew Kippis, D.D. F.R.S. and S.A.
- John Pringle
- Date:
- 1783
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Six discourses / delivered by Sir John Pringle, Bart. when president of the Royal Society, on occasion of six annual assignments of Sir Godfrey Copley's medal. To which is prefixed The life of the author by Andrew Kippis, D.D. F.R.S. and S.A. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.
392/398 page 280
![[ sSo ] inftruments of death already are, it would better become us to difcourage than to countenance their farther improve- ment. Thefe naturally will be the firft thoughts of the beft difpofed minds. But when, upon a clofer examination, we find that, fmce the invention of arms of the quickeft execution, neither battles nor fieges have been more frequent nor more deftructive, indeed apparently otherwife; may we not thence infer, that fuch means as have been employed to fharpen the fword, have tended more to diminifh than to increafe the number of its victims, by fhortening contefts, and making them more decifive. I fhall not however infift on maintaining fo great a paradox j but only furmife, that whatever State would adopt the Utopian maxims, and profcribe the ftudy of arms, would foon, I fear, become a prey to thofe who beft know how to ufe them. For yet, alas, far feem we to be removed](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21442319_0392.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
