had power despised wealth, and were seeking after what
they esteemed more--military glory; and wealth was confined to a
number of insulated spots, and possessed by men who were
merchants, without any share of power or authority.

This extraordinary and unprecedented state of things gave rise to the
Hanseatic League, which rose at last to such importance that those
who had been so long seeking after glory, without finding it, began to
see the importance which was derived from wealth. They began to see
that, even in the pursuit of their favourite object, wealth was an ex-
[end of page #72] cellent assistant, and the friendship of merchants
begun =sic= to be solicited by princes, as in the days of Tyre and
Sidon.

This progress was greatly facilitated and accelerated by the crusades,
which, at the same time that they beggared half the nobility of Europe,
gave them a taste for the refinements of the East, and taught them to
set some value on the means by which such refinements could be
procured.

In this manner were things proceeding, when three great discoveries
changed the situation of mankind. {66}

The mariners compass, gunpowder, and the art of printing, were all
discovered nearly about the same time; and, independent of their great
and permanent effects, they were wonderfully calculated to alter the
situation of nations at that period.

The navigation of the ocean, which led to the discovery of a passage
to the East Indies, and of America, gave a mortal blow to the nations
situated on the borders of the Mediterranean Sea, who thus found
themselves deprived of the commerce of the East.

The discovery of gunpowder, a means so powerful of annoying an
enemy, without the aid of human force, which places a giant and a
dwarf in some sort upon an equality, was wonderfully adapted for
doing away the illusions of knight errantry, that had such a powerful
effect in making war be preferred to commerce: while printing
facilitated the communication of every species of knowledge.

It was then that northern nations began to cultivate arts and sciences,
as those of the south under a mild heaven, and on a fertile soil, had
done three thousand years before. But ingenuity and invention took a
different direction in the north from what they had done in the
southern climates; instead of sovereigns and slaves, men were more in
mutual want of each other, and therefore a more equal division of the
fruits of industry was required.