of late Years been marvellously advanc'd; as may be shewn by the enlarging of Trafic the spreading of many Fruits, the Plantations of Trees, and the great Improvement of Manual Arts. But it is evident, that it may still admit of farther Warmth and Activity; as we may conclude, by the Want of Employment for younger Brothers, and many other Conditions of Men; and by the number of our Poor, whom Idleness and not Infirmities do impoverish. The way to compass this, is not alone by Acts of Parliament, and good Laws; whose Force will soon be evaded by present Craft and Interpretation, or else will be antiquated by Time. This perhaps our Country has found above all others: if our Labourers had been as diligent as our Law-givers, we had prov'd the most laborious Nation under Heaven. But the true Method of increasing Industry, is by that Course which the Royal Society has begun in Philosophy, by Works and Endeavours, and not by the Prescriptions of Words, or Paper Commands.
There is nothing whose promoting is so easy as Diligence when it is once set on foot. This does not only propagate Works but Workers; though at first it may begin on Necessity, yet it will afterwards proceed upon Pleasure: So that the farther it goes, the swifter it advances, because willing Works are sooner perform'd than those to which we are compell'd. This I will demonstrate by an Instance which I have already alledg'd, and it is of the Hollanders: for we may fetch Examples of Virtue from our own Countrymen, but of Industry from them. At first they were as lazy as the worst of ours: their Hands were unus'd to labour; their manner of Life was much like that of the antient Britains; their Coasts lay desolate to the Sea, with-
