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Show 152 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO IV. While riyal realms with blood unsated wage Wide: wasting war with fel_l demonia.c rage; In every clime while army army meets, And oceans groan beneath contending fleets; Oh save, oh save, in this eventful hour The tree of knowledge from the axe of power; . With fostering peace the suffering nations bless, And guard the freedom of the immortal Press ! So shaii your deathless fame from age to age Survive recorded in t11e historic page; And future bards with voice inspired prolong your sacred names immortalized in song. " Thy power AssociATION next affords Ideal trains annex'd to volant words, Conveys to listening ears the thought superb, And gives to Language her expressive verb; 280 2QO Her exp1·efJsive verb, 1. 294. The verb, or the word, has been so called from its being the most expressive term in all languages; as it suggests the ideas of existence, action or suffering, and of time; see the Note on Canto III. I. 371, of this work. CANTO IV. OF GOOD AND EVIL, Which in one changeful sound suggests the fact At once to be, .to suffer, or to act; And n1arks on rapid wing o'er every c1ime The viewless flight of evanescent Time. iS3 " Call'd by thy voice contiguous thoughts embrace In endless streams arranged by Time or Place; The Muse historic hence in every age 'Gives to the world her interesting· page; While in bright landscape from her moving pen Ri:.e the fine tints of manners . and Df men. 300 Call'd by tlzy voice, 1. 299. The numerous trains of associated ideas .are <l.ivided by 1\Ir. Hume into three classes, which he has termed contiguity, causation, and r esemblance. N or should we wonder to :find them thus conn ected together, since it is the bus in ess of our lives to dispose t hem into these three cl asses; and ·we become val uable to ourselves and our frien ds as we succeed in it. T hose who have combined an extensive class of ideas by the contiguity of time ·Or place, arc men learned in the history of mankind, and of the sci ences they h:.we cultivated. Those who have connectsd a g reat class of ideas of r esemLlances, possess the source of t he ornaments of poetry and oratory, and of all rational analogy. 'Wl1ile those who have connected great classes of id eas of causation, arc furn ished with the powers of producing effects. These are the men of act ive wisdom who lead armies to victory, and kingc~oms to prosperi ty ; or discover and improve the sciences "'lrh ich meliorate and adorn the condition of humanity. X |