Note 264-6 — Chapter III

There is a peculiar charm, very productive in itself, attaching to the cultivation of a field which has been but little cultivated, and which, therefore, has the advantage of promising something new. On the other hand, the decline of almost all literatures begins with this, that writers and readers no longer think out completely the forms of speech, modes of expression, etc. to which they have become used, as their original creators did; a great temptation to have recourse to a more and more spicy literary style. J. S. Mill considers the stationary state (Principles, IV, ch. 6) a very pleasant one to contemplate, but he overlooks the very important fact, that as men are constituted it uniformly introduces national decline.