ders in numberless refpe&s, the inventive faculties of man! What a powerful, far operating spring it is, in the whole of focial and bufy life! How many wheels of this grand machine, large and small, does it fet in motion! And what fatal ftoppages and obftructions arise where its impulfe is checked or impeded! How many people it requires, how many people must strenuously exert their abilities in various ways, in rearing and obtaining the products of nature, in working them up, in improving them, in ftowing them, in transporting them from one place to another, and often to the remotest regions of the habitable earth! How much lefs diligently and industriously would all this be done, how much fewer people be employed in it, if these several products received not additional value from every man's hand through which they pass, if by means of commerce they were not exchanged for other products of nature, or bartered to profit! How much less life, alacrity, industry, diligence and addrefs, is perceptible where little or no commerce exifts, than where it flourishes! How many hands and heads are there almost inactive, which here would be employed in variously useful ways! Would you convince yourselves of the life and activity which commerce excites among mankind, transport yourselves in imagination into the midst of a famous mercantile city, vifit its exchange and its harbour; or only represent to yourselves fome populous and much frequented mart of trade; what a multitude

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and diverfity of bufy perfons of all ranks and conditions will you there perceive! And yet this is extraordinary activity, limited to a fhort portion of time, and confined to a narrow fpace; activity very inconfiderable, compared to that which is an end-lefs, uninterrupted confequence of commerce in the generality of countries on the habitable globe. And must not this give it a real, confpicuous value?

Commerce farther connects men more together, brings them nearer to each other, and caufes their mutual dependence on each other to be more fenfibly felt; and whatever brings and unites mankind more clofely together is a fource of pleasure and happiness to them, and may become likewife an incitement to virtue. Mutual wants, common tranfactions, common views and advantages; what ftrong ties of connection! If the merchant be in want of the industry, the labour, the mechanical and mental powers, the fervice and affiftance of a thousand men; thefe in return ftand in need of his protection, his fupport, his encouragement, his pay. If the former would execute his designs and attain his purposes, a thoufand others muft co-operate with him to that end. If he would reap the profit he expects from his bufinefs, he must let a thoufand others obtain a proportionate advantage. That trade may be carried on with fuccefs; handicrafts, arts and agriculture, muft flourish alfo; all ranks. and conditions of men must then have more concerns together, work more for each other, and en

ter

ter into clofer connection. And how extensively does this connection reach! What numerous claffes and descriptions it embraces! What nation is fo remote that is not brought nearer to the rest by commerce? Along what pathless wilderness, over what steep and craggy mountains, across what untried ftormy feas and oceans, does not the merchant find his way to his remoteft brethren! Allow it to be felf-interest and the thirft of gain that teaches him to despise these dangers and to conquer thefe difficulties; yet the effect is always that man is thereby more connected with man, that focial difpofitions are awakened and fupported in them, that an interest in their reciprocal profperity and misfortunes is ftrengthened and increased; and muft not all these confiderations taken together tend greatly to the advantage of mankind, and their gradual improvement and perfection?

By the fame means, my pious hearers, commerce facilitates to mankind the communication of their perceptions, their inventions and difcoveries, their endowments and advantages, to each other. It occafions a conftant and univerfal circulation and exchange of all these things among them. It indeed likewise diffeminates many faults and vices, and opens many fources of calamity where they would elfe have remained unknown. But do not those manifold and great benefits far exceed thefe accidental disadvantages? How far behind would the human race have been in every particular; how little

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little would they have advanced above the condition of infancy; with how much labour and toil must they have supplied the prime wants of nature; how flowly would they have proceeded in civilization; if every nation, every province, had been confined to its own experiences, obfervations, discoveries and inventions! How much is learnt by one people of another, in neceffary and useful as well as in agreeable and entertaining matters, in mechanics and the fine arts, in agriculture and husbandry, as well as in the fublimer fciences! How many steps farther are all these advanced at various times by the communication of a fingle idea, fome curious inftrument, or fome new device! - What important revolutions may fome fresh branch of commerce, a new kind of manufacture, an introduction of new articles of trade, a new fcope to the genius, occafion by promoting arts and sciences among a whole people! And how quickly is useful knowledge now conveyed from one extremity of the inhabited and cultivated earth to the other! How foon may the luminous thoughts, which now occupy the mind of one of my brethren in the moft diftant regions of the northern or fouthern hemifphere, become likewife mine, and diffuse light into my mind. and fatisfaction into my heart, or introduce more order into my conduct and iny affairs! How much more easily and rapidly, by means of this great connection and extenfive communication, may even the weightiest matters of religion be disseminated, and

the

the most falutary, the most comfortable truths be transplanted thither where ignorance, error, and baleful fuperftition, have hitherto prevailed! And is it not commerce that moft promotes and facilitates this connection and communication of mankind with each other?

Befides, my pious hearers, commerce procures mankind numberlefs conveniences, numberlefs kinds of pleasure and delight, which elfe they must be without, or must obtain with far greater difficulty, lefs frequently, and with much more labour and expenfe. Scarcely any fort of natural productions and fruits of the earth, of the works of art and industry, are at present the exclufive property of any one country. Now whatever either of them has that is eminently good and beautiful is reciprocally an article of exchange. We may now fee the wonders of nature, in their most diverfified and delightful forms; may enjoy the products of every region; make use of the intelligence, the abilities, the work of every nation; and may accumulate and employ as our own whatever can flatter the taste and charm the fight, whatever can add ornament to our dwellings, beautify our gardens, give neatnefs and warmth to our raiment, or embellish our condition, whatever can employ our mind or gratify our curiosity, from the remotest and most diffevered diftricts of the globe; and this, in a hundred refpects, is within the reach of the poor as well as the rich. And who can be so insensible to all these advantages, as to afcribe

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