Excerpt from An Introductory Lecture Delivered Before the Institute of Arts and Sciences, Pittsburgh, on the 20th December, 1836 Gentlemeivz - There are principally three things which make a city prosperous; advantage of situation, commerce, and manufactures. Peculiar states of society may nour.sh a town into great splendor independent of these; but these are the permanent parents of prosperity, which never fail of suc cess. Ancient Rome grew great by conquering the nations of the world, and carrying home the spoils of the conquered. Becoming the head of an immense empire which she governed {by the terror of her eagles, she swelled at length into a gigan tic stature, and maintained it for a few centuries; but her growth was not the natural effect of those laws which advance a particular place to eminence by its fostering others, and by being reciprocally beloved and fed by them. Hence, when the nations of Europe recovered the management of their own affairs, Rome became covered with the ruins of her own g] eat ness; and though the human family was never so rich in arts and enterprises of every kind asinow, yet she sits solitary and decrepit with age. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.