North American Review, Vol. 45 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The North American Review, Vol. 45 To speak correctly, it was their imperfect civilization, their ignorance of the means and the subjects of communication, which thus kept them asunder. Now, on the contrary, a change in the domestic institutions of one country can hardly be effected, without a corresponding agitation in those of its neighbours. A treaty of alliance can scarcely be adjusted, without the intervention of a general congress. The sword cannot be unsheathed in one part of Christendom, without thousands leaping from their scabbards in every other. The whole system is bound together by as nice sympathies, as if animated by a common pulse; and the remotest countries of Europe are brought into contiguity as intimate, as were in ancient times the provinces of a single monarchy. This intimate association has been prodigiously increased, of late years, by the unprecedented discoveries which science has made, for facilitating intercommunication. The inhabitant of Great Britain, that "ultima Thule" of the ancients, can now run down to the extremity of Italy, in less time than it took Horace to go from Rome to Brundusium. A steamboat of fashionable tourists will touch at all the places of note in the Iliad and Odyssey, in fewer weeks than it would have cost years to an ancient Argonaut, or a crusader of the Middle Ages. Every one, of course, travels, and almost every capital and noted watering place on the continent swarms with its thousands, and Paris with its tens of thousands of itinerant Cockneys, many of whom, perhaps, have not wandered beyond the sound of Bow bells, in their own little island. Few of these adventurers are so dull, as not to be quickened into something like curiosity, respecting the language and institutions of the strange people, among whom they are thrown; while the better sort, and more intelligent, are led to study more carefully the new forms, whether in arts or letters, under which human genius is unveiled to them. The effect of all this is especially visible, in the reforms introduced into the modern systems of education. In both the universities recently established in London, the apparatus for instruction, instead of being limited to the ancient tongues, is extended to the whole circle of modern literature; and the editorial labors of many of the professors show that they do not sleep on their posts. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.