that a gigantic mind possesses supreme power and rises superior to the
age in which he is born, such was Alfred in England and Peter in Russia,
but such instances are very rare; and, in general, it is neither amongst
sovereigns nor the higher classes of society that the great improvers or
benefactors of mankind are to be found. The works of the most
illustrious names were little valued at the times when they were
produced, and their authors either despised or neglected; and great,
indeed, must have been the pure and abstract pleasure resulting from the
exertion of intellectual superiority and the discovery of truth and the
bestowing benefits and blessings upon society, which induced men to
sacrifice all their common enjoyments and all their privileges as
citizens to these exertions. Anaxagoras, Archimedes, Roger Bacon,
Galileo Galilei, in their deaths or their imprisonments, offer instances
of this kind, and nothing can be more striking than what appears to have
been the ingratitude of men towards their greatest benefactors; but
hereafter, when you understand more of the scheme of the universe, you
will see the cause and the effect of this, and you will find the whole
system governed by principles of immutable justice. I have said that in
the progress of society all great and real improvements are perpetuated;
the same corn which four thousand years ago was raised from an improved
grass by an inventor worshipped for two thousand years in the ancient
world under the name of Ceres, still forms the principal food of mankind;
and the potato, perhaps the greatest benefit that the Old has derived
from the New World, is spreading over Europe, and will continue to
nourish an extensive population when the name of the race by whom it was
first cultivated in South America is forgotten.

"I will now call your attention to some remarkable laws belonging to the
history of society, and from the consideration of which you will be able
gradually to develop the higher and more exalted principles of being.