In general, it is not to be expected that the southern nations can come in competition with those living in more northerly climates in

—–­ {170} The individual German workmen have not been excelled by the workmen of any other nation, but the German nation itself has been outdone. -=-

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those manufactures, where continued or hard labour is necessary.  Nature has compensated the inhabitants of such countries for this incapacity, by giving them a fine climate, and, in general, a fertile soil; and, when they do justice to it, they may live affluent and happy.  But, since industry and civilization have got into northern countries, it is impossible for the southern ones to rival them in manufactures.

It would be impossible for any people living on the banks of the Nile, where the finest linen was once manufactured, to rival the cloths of Silesia, or of Ireland:  as well might we think to bring back the commerce with India to Alexandria by the Red Sea.

The fine manufactures of India, notwithstanding the materials are all found in the country, the lowness of labour, and the antiquity of their establishment, are, in many cases, unable to keep their ground against the invention and industry of Europeans.  The art of making porcelain-ware, from a want of some of the materials, has not, in every respect, equalled that manufactured in China; but in everything else, except material, it excels so much, that the trade to that country in that article is entirely over.

Many of the finest stuffs are nearly sharing the same fate, and they all probably will do so in time.  Those whom we hope to surpass are determined to remain as they are, while Europeans aim at going as far in improvement as the nature of things will allow.

But the nations that follow others in arts are not always confined to imitation, though we have seen that even there they have a great advantage.  It frequently happens that they get hold of some invention which renders them superior, in a particular line, to those whom they only intended to imitate.

When the superiority of a nation arises from the natural produce of the earth, such as valuable minerals, then it is very difficult for others to rival it with advantage; and it is very unwise of any nation to employ its efforts in rivalling another in an article where nature has given to the other a decided advantage; and it is equally ill-judged of a nation to neglect cultivating the advantages which she enjoys from nature, as they are the most permanent and their possession the most certain of any she can enjoy.

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If nations were to consider in what branches of manufacture they are best fitted to excel, it would save much rivalship, misunderstanding, and jealousy; at the same time that it would tend greatly to increase the general aggregate wealth of mankind.  It is not to industry and effort alone that mankind owe wealth, but to industry and effort well directed.