On the principle of vitality : a discourse delivered in the First Church in Boston, Tuesday, June 8th, 1790 ; before the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts / by B. Waterhouse, M.D. ; professor of the theory and practice of physic, and lecturer on natural history in the University of Cambridge.

  • Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846.
Date:
1790
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the principle of vitality : a discourse delivered in the First Church in Boston, Tuesday, June 8th, 1790 ; before the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts / by B. Waterhouse, M.D. ; professor of the theory and practice of physic, and lecturer on natural history in the University of Cambridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Two feemingiy inglorious mechanical difcoveries, changed ihe face of the world more than any conqueror, Se& or Empire ever did. I mean the Mariners Compafs, and the Art of''Printing.j Thefe inventions gradually banifhed bar- barifm, and humanized the world. The antients were ac- quainted with but a very fmall part of the globe. They called all the northern nations, Scythians, and all the weftern, Celt£f indifcriminately* They had no knowledge of Africa beyond the nearefr. part of JEthiopia ; nor of Afta beyond the Ganges, and as for our quarter of the world, America^ they had not even a tradition about it.% Commerce is a cure for the mod defrruc*tive prejudices. It has every where difFufed a knowledge of the manners of all nations.;): The multiplication of books by the art ef print- ing, and of drawings and pi&ures by the art of engravings produced a radiance of knowledge that made tyranny tremble, and will effectually fecure the human race from thofe horrid Ihocks of barbarifm and tyrranny, that once nearly laid watte the old world. The Mariners Compafs then opened the Univerfe, and Trinting dijplayed it. At this time, fuperflition, and an odious ecclefiafrical def- potifm, received a fatal wound. Aftronomical improvements, by difcovering worlds befides our own, expanded the hu- man mind. So that when the chriftian religion began, again j. t See Novum Organ, % Montefq.