[the Monks'] Minds Were Inaccessible To Reason

As Long As The Same Passions And Interests Subsist Among Mankind, The Questions Of War And Peace, Of Justice And Policy, Which Were Debated In The Councils Of Antiquity, Will Frequently Present Themselves As The Subject Of Modern Deliberation.

But The Human Character, However It May Be Exalted Or Depressed By A Temporary Enthusiasm, Will Return By Degrees To Its Proper And Natural Level, And Will Resume Those Passions That Seem The Most Adapted To Its Present Condition.

Yet The Experience Of Four Thousand Years Should Enlarge Our Hopes, And Diminish Our Apprehensions: We Cannot Determine To What Height The Human Species May Aspire In Their Advances Towards Perfection; But It May Safely Be Presumed, That No People, Unless The Face Of Nature Is Changed, Will Relapse Into Their Original Barbarism.

The Barbarians Of Germany Had Felt, And Still Dreaded, The Arms Of The Young Caesar; His Soldiers Were The Companions Of His Victory; The Grateful Provincials Enjoyed The Blessings Of His Reign; But The Favourites, Who Had Opposed His Elevation, Were Offended By His Virtues; And They Justly Considered The Friend Of The People As The Enemy Of The Court.

It Has Been Calculated By The Ablest Politicians That No State, Without Being Soon Exhausted, Can Maintain Above The Hundredth Part Of Its Members In Arms And Idleness.