! easily believe; but it seems incredible that, on the whole, a young man should prove a less accurate accountant, less faithful manager, and less intelligent merchant or tradesman, because he spends a part of his leisure hours in intellectual amusements, rather than at convivial clubs or in the lobbies of the theatre. Latent genius and ability may sometimes be thus developed, and those whose poverty would have doomed them to obscurity be transferred to a worthier destiny. What numbers there are to whom the lamentation of the poet will apply: "Knowledge to them her ample page Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll; And froze the genial current of their soul." If, however, no future Chatterton or Burns, no Franklin or Watt, should ever again appear, no one whose merit, struggling against the frowns of fortune, would repay the benefit received, still the engagement itself is rational and innocent; it may be varied to all capacities, fitted to all ages and tastes, and is almost the only amusement for the inhabitants of towns, which instead of being curtailed by the advance of population and wealth, grows and expands with their increase. "Nam cætera neque temporum sunt neque ætatum omnium neque locorum, hæc studia adolescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant; adversis perfugium ac solatium præbent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur." Cic. pro Archia Poeta. 151 CHAP. XV. ON THE COLLECTION OF WORKS OF ART FOR PUBLIC VIEW. He who lays out a portion of his superfluous income in a collection of pictures or statues, which he bequeaths to the public, expends beneficially. Whatever encourages the fine arts must be advantageous to an improving country. They afford an additional and refined gratification to the possession of wealth, and furnish a new and rational enjoyment for the rich; but in proportion to the real or supposed pleasure derived from opulence, will be the enterprise and industry shown to attain it. The fine arts return indirectly to the country twofold all that they cost to individuals, by fostering a desire of gain for the sake of expenditure. We have only to turn our eyes to the munificent Italian traders of the fifteenth century*, the capitalists of Holland, or many of the opulent merchants and bankers of our own country. Still this remark is only good under a free government, where enlightened public opinion has considerable weight, and tends to check extravagance in this or any other way. Independently of the benefit they confer in softening manners, improving taste, and gradually substituting refined amusements in place of coarse and barbarous diversions, which can only be shared by the robust of one sex, the fine arts directly augment the capital of the country by improving and embellishing many of our manufactures. Thus the taste of Mr. Wedgewood, copying from the vases of antiquity, created a large demand for the beautiful porcelain which bears his name. The china wares of Worcester and Sevre owe much to the beauty of the designs painted on them. Who often received in the same vessel a cargo consisting of spices from the East, and Grecian statues or books. The cottons of Manchester, and the shawls of Norwich, are greatly indebted for their celebrity to the exquisite neatness of their patterns. Our hardware owes much of its reputation to modellers, carvers, and mould-makers, whose taste and execution in their respective arts will greatly depend upon the specimens from which they take their notions of excellence. A national gallery of paintings is at length commenced by the purchase of Mr. Angerstein's collection, and will be gradually augmented by the donations or bequests of individuals. The Dulwich gallery, left by Sir F. Bourgeois to the public, is so inconveniently situated as to be comparatively unknown. In the university of Cambridge the foundation of a fine collection is laid by the munificence of the late Lord Fitzwilliam; elsewhere throughout the kingdom there is scarcely another public assemblage of paintings. The liberality of several princely individuals in displaying their invaluable acquisitions, is highly to be praised; but besides the difficulty of procuring admission, many of these collec |