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84 RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
fovereigns, has rifen, in times of darknefs, to a height where the firlt Chriftians would
not know itagain. Every prince is obliged to promgte the good of the church as far as
it coincides with the good of the flate, &c. &c.’’? The Cardinal, who in general does
not like fermons, immediately marked his prey. The Emperor at firft took the monk’s
part with great {pirit; this made the cunning Archbifhop hold his hand ; but as foon as
the Emperor had fet out on his travels, the monk was immediately fejzed and fent pri-
foner to a convent in Upper Auftria, where he {till remains, whilft the Emperor has
nothing for it, but to fet down thefe and many other traits of the fame kind in the book
of his remembrance.
The great triumph of the archiepifcopal party fhews itfelf in the licenfing of book.
Nothing can be well conceived more grievous than the fituation of the licenfers of the
prefs, many of wham are very fenfible worthy men. ‘They are eften forced to alter’
almoft the whole of a MS. and after all remain anfwerable for whatever an old court
lady, a monk, a fool, or a knave, may fee obnoxious in it when it comes out; but their
hardeft work is to manage what is publifhed with regard to the country; for one grand
principle obtains here, which is, that nothing which is Auftrian can be bad. What
the ftate of literature is under all thefe difcouragements, fhall be the fubjeét of my next
letter. ‘
m LETTER XXIV.
Vienna.
THE powers of the foul are like the powers of the body; as the various exercifes of
fwimming, boxing, dancing, and running give ftrength and polifh to the one, which a
continued {late of reft would inevitably deprive it of, fo to develope the powers of the
foul of a people, the mind muft have its gymnatlic exercifes too. Freedom of motion
is to the body, what freedom of thought is to the foul, and unnatural compulfion ren-
ders body and foul alike torpid and ftiff,
Of all the nations mentioned in hiftory, the Greeks and Romans were thofe whofe
philofophy was the Jeaft united with their religion; and it was probably owing to this
caufe, that their fpirits received an impulfe which the Fgyptians, Babylonians, and Chale
dwans never knew. Philofophy, and whatever was called {cience among thefe laft, were
the {pecial property of the priefts, whofe intereft demanded that they fhould be fmothered
in hieroglyphics, and kept from the people. ‘The little that fome learned Greeks gleaned
from their voyages to the Nile and Euphrates, were not the productions of a fruitful
genius; but only tedious invefligations, which the flow amd progreflive labours of
monks had traced out. Their celebrated philofophy did nothing for the people; it had
nothing berevolent in it; nothing that purified tafte or fentiment; nothing that ex-
tended the comforts of focial life, or advanced the progrefs of legiflation. It was the
dry refult of folitary fiudies, and the people who could not underftand its drift, took no
fhare in it.
‘’ When more modern Rome wove the web of power, and endeavoured to gain the
maftery over mankind by commanding their opinions, it was natural that all the arts
and fciences fhould be fubjected to religion. ‘Lhe figure of the earth, the {pots of the
fun, and the whole of the Copernican fy{tem were to be reconciled to the Jefter of {crip-
ture, the fathers, the councils, and the papal bulls. Every thing was referred to’re-
ligion; and had not the Pope endeavoured to fubject the power of princes to it, we
{hould ftill have been in the darknefs of the eleventh century.
Long ‘after the reformation, the cuftom of looking upon every thing with’ religious
fpeftacles ftill continued. ‘The proteftant priefts could’ not forego the old cuftom ‘of
4 being
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