"David Hume - Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hume David)

their station. But in a civilized monarchy, there is a long
train of dependence from the prince to the peasant, which is
not great enough to render property precarious, or depress the
minds of the people; but is sufficient to beget in every one
an inclination to please his superiors, and to form himself
upon those models, which are most acceptable to people of
condition and education. Politeness of manners, therefore,
arises most naturally in monarchies and courts; and where that
flourishes, none of the liberal arts will be altogether
neglected or despised.

The republics in Europe are at present noted for want of
politeness. The good-manners of a Swiss civilized in Holland,[5]
is an expression for rusticity among the French. The English,
in some degree, fall under the same censure, notwithstanding
their learning and genius. And if the Venetians be an
exception to the rule, they owe it, perhaps, to their
communication with the other Italians, most of whose
governments beget a dependence more than sufficient for
civilizing their manners.

It is difficult to pronounce any judgment concerning the
refinements of the ancient republics in this particular: But I
am apt to suspect, that the arts of conversation were not
brought so near to perfection among them as the arts of
writing and composition. The scurrility of the ancient
orators, in many instances, is quite shocking, and exceeds all
belief. Vanity too is often not a little offensive in authors
of those ages;[6] as well as the common licentiousness and
immodesty of their stile, Quicunque impudicus, adulter, ganeo,
manu, ventre, pene, bona patria laceraverat, says Sallust in
one of the gravest and most moral passages of his history. Nam
fuit ante Helenam Cunnus teterrima belli Causa, is an
expression of Horace, in tracing the origin of moral good and
evil. Ovid and Lucretius[7] are almost as licentious in their
stile as Lord Rochester; though the former were fine gentlemen
and delicate writers, and the latter, from the corruptions of
that court, in which he lived, seems to have thrown off all
regard to shame and decency. Juvenal inculcates modesty with
great zeal; but sets a very bad example of it if we consider
the impudence of his expressions.

I shall also be bold to affirm, that among the ancients, there
was not much delicacy of breeding, or that polite deference
and respect, which civility obliges us either to express or
counterfeit towards the persons with whom we converse. Cicero
was certainly one of the finest gentlemen of his age; yet I
must confess I have frequently been shocked with the poor
figure under which he represents his friend Atticus, in those
dialogues, where he himself is introduced as a speaker. That