At present, he says, Paris and London are the places where human wisdom has reached the most advanced stage.

It is certain that the ten best men of the highest class at Ispahan or Constantinople will be inferior in their knowledge of politics and ethics to the ten most distinguished sages of Paris or London.

And this will be true in all classes.

The thirty most intelligent children of the age of fourteen at Paris will be more enlightened than the thirty most intelligent children of the same age at Constantinople, and the same proportional difference will be true of the lowest classes of the two cities.
But while the progress of speculative reason has been rapid, practical reason--the distinction is the Abbe's--has made little advance.

In point of morals and general happiness the world is apparently much the same as ever.