Ul 
 
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SELECTIONS 
 
 FROM 
 
 M. PAUW, 
 
 BY 
 
 DANIEL WEBB, ESQ. 
 
 PRICE 4S. 
 
SELECTIONS 
 
 FROM 
 
 M. PAUW, 
 
 WITH 
 
 ADDITIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 DANIEL WEBB, ESQ.. 
 
 Affuitur pannus. 
 
 Unus et alter 
 
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 BATH, 
 PRINTED BY R. CRUTTWELL; 
 
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 6 5* 
 
REESE 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I PAGE 
 
 NTRODUCTION vii 
 
 General View of the Americans - i 
 
 On the Population of America 21 
 
 Of the Climate - 23 
 Of the Cuftoms and Manners peculiar to the 
 
 Americans - - - - - - 37 
 
 Of California 57 
 
 Of the Colour of the Americans 60 
 
 Anthropophagi j or, Eaters of Human Flefh - 63 
 
 Of theEfkimaux ....... 70 
 
 Of the Patagonians ----- 84. 
 
 Of the Blafards, and White Negroes 93 
 
 Of the Commerce of Europe with America - 99 
 
 Of Money, as a Sign of Civilization - - 103 
 
 Of their want of Numerical Terms - - - 106 
 Of the flate of the Arts in Peru, when firfl difcovered no 
 
 Of the Hofpitality of Savages - - - - 119 
 
 Conclusion of the Subject on the Americans - 121 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Of certain cuftoms which formerly prevailed in 
 our Hemifphere, and which were found among 
 
 the Americans - - - - - 125 
 
VI CONTENTS.. 
 
 Obfervations on our Globe - - - -13* 
 
 On the Egyptians and Chinefe - - - 163 
 
 Of the Diet of the Egyptians - - - - 181 
 
 Of the Fine Arts - '- - - - - 186 
 Of the Egyptian and Chinefe Architecture - 193 
 
 Of the Religion of the Egyptians - 105 
 
 Of the Chinefe Religion - - 018 
 
 Of the Egyptian Government - 224. 
 
 Of the Chinefe Government - aa8 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 SHOULD the admirer of order and 
 fyitem be tempted to pafs beyond the 
 title-page, he will have no right to 
 complain of a difappointment : the cha 
 racter of the work is in the MOTTO. 
 
 I know well what muft attend a pro- 
 feffed neglect of the lucidus or do; and 
 am prepared to meet at every turn that 
 peevifh rebuke non erat his locus. 
 Laws, however, by no one lefs obferved 
 than by him who impofed them. 
 Whence that elegant but cutting ftric- 
 
 ture 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ture on his art of poetry, that it was 
 de arte> fine arte. 
 
 If Horace could indulge himfelf in 
 fo open a violation of his own laws, 
 may I not take advantage of the pre 
 cedent, and, under the protection of 
 this admired delinquent^ commit the fol 
 lowing little work to the judgment of 
 the public. 
 
 {^ The Additions are printed in Italicks, to dis~ 
 tinguish them from the Selections; that neither M. 
 Pauw, nor the Author of the Additions, might be 
 responsible for what was not his own. 
 
SELECTIONS 
 
 FROM 
 
 M. PAUW. 
 
 GENERAL VIEW 
 
 OF THE AMERICANS. 
 
 W HEN the Spaniards, on their difcovery 
 of the new world, difembarked at St. Do 
 mingo, then called Hayti,* they were fur- 
 prifed to find a race of men, of whom 
 fluggiihnefs was the principal chara&eriftic: 
 after eating and dancing the better part of 
 
 * Hayti, O-Ta-Heite. The identity of the names 
 of thefe two iflands will fuggeft reflexions on the pro- 
 grefs of population, and on the poffibility of commu 
 nications between the inhabitants of -our globe, in the 
 earlieft times; which, in the prefent, are fuppofed to 
 have been impracticable. 
 
 B the 
 
ft GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 the day, they fpent the reft in fleep, without 
 thought of to-morrow. The greater number 
 had neither reflexion nor memory, went- 
 almoft naked, and often intoxicated them- 
 felves with tobacco. 
 
 The furprife of the Spaniards increafed, 
 when, penetrating farther into this new 
 world, they found that the men had no 
 beards, their bodies hairlefs, like thofe of 
 eunuques ; that they were almoft infenfible 
 to the paffion of love; had milk, or a kind 
 of milky liquid, in their breads; that they 
 could not, or would not carry weights; 
 and that the men and women were univer- 
 fally tainted with the venereal difeafe : fuch 
 throughout the lazinefs of the men, and their 
 hatred of labour, that extreme want,^ to which 
 they were often fubjeft, had never induced 
 them to cultivate the earth; trufting all to 
 nature, and utter ftrangers- to induftry. 
 
 The 
 
THE AMERICANS. 3 
 
 The following defcription of the Ameri 
 cans, by M. De la Condamine, a diftin- 
 guifhed philofopher of the prefent times, 
 who refided many years in different parts of 
 this continent, lets us into their phyfical and 
 moral character: 
 
 " It appears to me that the Americans 
 " have all one common character, of which 
 " infenfibility is the governing principle; 
 " whether this is to be honoured with the 
 " name of apathy, or difg raced by that of 
 " flupidity, I (hall leave undecided. It 
 " fprings, no doubt, from the fmall number 
 " of their ideas, which extend not beyond 
 " their wants: Gluttons to excefs, where 
 " they have the means; temperate, to a 
 " feeming indifference, when they have not; 
 " pufillanimous in the extreme, if not tranf- 
 " ported by drunkennefs; detefting labour; 
 " indifferent to every motive of glory, ho 
 is 2 " hour, 
 
4 . GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 " nour, or gratitude; folely poiTeifed by the 
 " prcfent objeft, and ever determined by it; 
 " without inquietude for the future, or 
 " memory of the pad, giving themfelves 
 " up to a childifh joy, which they exprefs, 
 " when unreftrained, by leaping, and im- 
 " moderate burfts of laughter, without 
 " object or defign; they pafs their lives 
 " without thinking, and grow old without 
 " rifing out of childhood, of which they 
 " preferve all the defers to the laft. Were 
 " thefe reproaches confined to the Indians 
 " of' fome provinces of Peru, one might 
 " fufpe& that this degree of brutality 
 " fprings from the abjeft dependance under 
 "which they are held; but the Indians of 
 " the miffions, and the favages who enjoy 
 " their liberty, being equally limited in their 
 " intelle&s with the reft, one cannot con- 
 " template, without humiliation, the near 
 " approach of man abandone^l to his fimple 
 
 cc nature 
 
THE AMERICANS. 5 
 
 " nature- and deprived of education, to the 
 " condition of a beaft." 
 
 AMERICA contains about two millions of 
 fquare 'leagues, and on this prodigious ex- 
 panfe there were found but two nations uni 
 ted in a kind of political fociety; all the reft 
 wandering, and difperfed in hordes of fami 
 lies, knowing no other than favage life, ve 
 getated under the (hade of their forefts, and 
 were hardly poffeffed of fufficient intelligence 
 to procure themfelves food. 
 
 It has puzzled our philofophers to account 
 for the difference between the old world 
 and the new. To fuppofe, with Buffon, that 
 the human 'race is modern in America, (not 
 more, it may be, than of 600 years Handing) 
 is an idea that contradicts common fenfe. 
 What right had one horizon to the prefer 
 ence of being populated fo many ages before 
 
 the 
 
GENERA^ VIEW OF 
 
 the other? Could Nature have been fo im 
 potent as not to have finifhed her work but 
 by intervals, or on fecond thoughts? To 
 fuppofe an after creation, is a mere reverie, 
 unfupported by any parallel in the hiftory of 
 nature, the feeds of whofe productions are as 
 ancient as the fpecies, and the fpecies coeval 
 with the exiflence of the globe. If fponta- 
 neous and fortuitous formations occupied 
 for fuch a length of time the philofophers of 
 antiquity, it was becaufe they were not fuf- 
 ficiently verfed in the hiftory of nature to 
 perceive the futility of their metaphyfical 
 
 difputations, 
 
 ' .'w. ' . . - - / 
 
 / 
 
 As the moft ancient hiflories agree in 
 reprefenting every race of men rifmg grav 
 dually out of favage life to the firil rudi 
 ments of arts, and of fociety, there is jufl 
 reafon to believe that the firfl men were 
 thrown on this globe without other notions 
 
 or 
 
THE AMERICANS. / 
 
 or advantages than thofe which are found 
 in ordinary favages ; containing in themfelves 
 the elements of p erf eftibility, they were at a 
 mighty diftance from the attainment: in their 
 creation, brutal and unenlightened, they owe 
 to themfelves their manners, their laws, and 
 their fciences. They had no common model, 
 no fixed rule of conduft; accordingly, they 
 have differed very much, as well in the means 
 of attaining to civilized life, as in the inftitu- 
 tions on which their civilization depended: 
 climate has governed them full as much as 
 reafon; the different degrees of heat and cold 
 have clearly infpired legiflators with oppofite 
 ideas: on comparing the legiflative codes of 
 the Temperate, with thofe of the Torrid 
 Zone or its neighbourhood, all is contrail, 
 nothing analogous. 
 
 o CD 
 
 There are people, who, it fhould feem, 
 can never emerge out of infancy, or a ftate 
 
 of 
 
8 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 of nature. The Elkimeaux, the Green- 
 landers, will not have towns, or (which is 
 the fame thing) a cultivated foil, while the 
 prefent pofition of the globe remains the 
 fame with refpeft to them. The Negro 
 will never be civilized fo long as he dwells 
 under the Line, expofed to the greatefl heat 
 the earth knows. 
 
 It is agriculture that has led man by the 
 hand from a favage (late to a politic con- 
 ftitution: the more cultivated the foil, the 
 more abundant the harveft, the fooner will 
 the cultivators humanize. The firfl effect 
 of agriculture is to render men fedentary; 
 from that moment they are half civilized; 
 from hence we may determine the claffes in 
 which the feveral fpecies of favages ihould 
 be placed, in proportion to their compara 
 tive diftance from moral perfection. 
 
 ift. CULTI- 
 
THE AMERICANS. $ 
 
 id. CULTIVATORS are the fird by pre 
 eminence, though the lad in time, becaufe 
 their fubfiftence is the lead precarious, their 
 mode of life the lead turbulent; they have 
 time to invent and to perfect their indru- 
 ments ; they have leifure to think and to 
 refleft. 
 
 sdly. PASTORS come next, but differ from 
 the former, in that, being obliged to look out 
 for fredi padures, and 1 attend their flocks, 
 they are never edabliflied. The Tartars, 
 Arabians, Moors, and Laplanders, are thofe 
 of this cad the bed known; from their man 
 ners are to be colle&ed the bed ideas we can 
 have of this mode of life, intermediate be 
 tween the favage and civil, and at an equal 
 didance from the two points. 
 
 3dly. The third clafs confids of thofe who 
 live on the roots and fruits of the earth, 
 
 without 
 
IO GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 without culture; their manners depend much 
 on the quality of the productions., and the 
 fertility of the foil 5 thofe who had the cocoa 
 and palm tree, were more at their eafe, and 
 lefs favage, than thofe whofe firfl refource 
 was in the beech-mad and acorn. 
 
 Thofe who live on fifh form the fourth 
 clafs; their mode of life differs little from 
 that of the paflors, except that the latter 
 have a refource in their tamed cattle, while 
 the fifhers depend on chance or dexterity 
 for their fubfiftence. 
 
 HUNTERS conflitute the laft order, and 
 are of all the moft favage; wandering, un- 
 afiiired of their fubfiftence, they mufl dread 
 the union and multiplication of their fimilars 
 as the>greateft of evils; becaufe game, much 
 lefs abundant than fifh, decreafes in every 
 country in proportion as the number of men 
 
 increafes. 
 
THE AMERICANS. II 
 
 
 
 increafes. The fa v age hunter's fcene of 
 a&ion is the wildernefs; he avoids every hu 
 man habitation, and gets to a greater dif- 
 tance at every ftep from focial life. If he 
 builds a hut, it is rather for a retreat than a 
 dwelling; never at peace with either men or 
 animals, his inflinft is ferocious, his manners 
 horrid: the more his thoughts are employed 
 on the means of procuring food, the lefs he 
 reflects on the means of his improvement; 
 he is, in human kind, what the carnivorous 
 bead is among quadrupeds, folitary and un- 
 fociable. 
 
 That America and its inhabitants fliould 
 continue favage to fo late a period as the 
 fifteenth century, has been a fubjeft of won 
 der to our greater! philofophers. To fup- 
 pofe, with BuiFon, an after creation, or with 
 others, a modern deluge, is a mere affertion; 
 an afTumption of a caufe to anfwer a parti 
 cular 
 
12 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 cular purpofe: yet either of thefe folutions is 
 preferable to that given by Montefquieu 
 " Ce qui fait qu'il y a tarit de nations fau- 
 " vages Amerique, c'eft que la terre y pro- 
 " duit d' elle meme beaucoup de fruits dont 
 " on peut fe nourrir." 
 
 Unhappily for this conclufion^ as for 
 the natives of America, barrennefs, not 
 fruitfulnefs, is the diftinction of the foil; 
 fluggifhnefs that of its inhabitants. Could 
 a favage fill his belly by ftretching out his 
 hand, he would become fedentary; have 
 leifure to colleft and communicate his 
 ideas 5 he would rife to civilization. It is 
 not a fertility of foil that confines man to 
 favage life; it is, on the contrary, the 
 want of fubfiftence that prevents his get- 
 ging out of it; fo that Montefquieu's deci- 
 fion is falfe in the faft, and abfurd in the 
 inference. 
 
 In 
 
THE AMERICANS. 13 
 
 In the countries temperate in climate, and 
 rich in vegetables, fociety has been efta- 
 bliihed infinitely fooner than in the cold and 
 barren. One fees it pafs, and, as it were, 
 travel from .Afia into Egypt; thence into 
 Greece, and fo in gradation into Italy, Gaul, 
 and Germany, following the degrees of na 
 tural or cultivable advantages in each parti 
 cular country. 
 
 Where property is undetermined, men 
 fight with fury to prevent its eflablifliment ; 
 as every eflablifliment tends to contract their 
 means of fubfiflence. Where property is 
 fixed, men fight with equal fury to defend 
 or enlarge it ; in either cafe, men are fo hof- 
 tile to each other, that the higheft effort of 
 virtue is, to bring one's felf to love them: 
 nay^fuch is our propenfity to difturb each other y 
 that even in the moft polijhedfocieties, the pri 
 mitive inftinfls of man break through all re- 
 
 Jlraints^ 
 
 
.*? -f- 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 14 
 
 ftraints, and the phihfopher in theory is a fa- 
 vage In practice. In the Peloponnefian war, 
 the petty ftates of Greece were fo many tribes 
 of favages in malignity, treachery., and every 
 fpecies of barbarity ; with this difference in 
 favour of the untutored favage, that he fights 
 that he may eat; the Greeks fought to prevent 
 each other from eating. But the character of 
 war, we are told, has been humanized fmce 
 thofe times ; that is, we advance to battle with 
 out motive or rancour ; carnage is tempered by 
 etiquette, and we make peace, to draw breath, 
 and begin again. But are the caufes of war 
 more legitimate, or do fewer men fall by the 
 fword? The jus gentium ,fo happily defined, in 
 books, is a dead letter in the field: did it pre 
 vent the humane, 'the generous Turenne from 
 burning, wafting, and deft roy ing, until he had 
 converted the Palatinate, the fineft province of 
 Germany* into a defert ? Could a Huron or 
 an Iroquols have done more? 
 
 The 
 
THE AMERICANS. f . 15 
 
 The American, ftriftly fpeaking, is neither 
 virtuous nor vicious. What motive has he 
 to be either? The timidity of his foul, the 
 weaknefs of his intellects, the neceffity of 
 providing for his fubfiilence, the powers of 
 fuperflition, the influences of climate, all lead 
 him far wide of the poffibility of improve 
 ment; but he perceives it not; his happinefs 
 is, not to think; to remain in perfect ina&ion; 
 to fleep a great deal; to wiih for nothing, 
 when his hunger is appeafed; and to be con 
 cerned about nothing but the means of pro 
 curing food when hunger torments him. He 
 would not build a cabin, did not cold and 
 the inclemency of the atmofphere force him 
 to it, nor ever quit that cabin, did 'not ne 
 ceffity thruft him out. In his underflanding 
 there is no gradation, he continues an infant 
 to the laft hour of his life. By his nature 
 iluggifh in the extreme, he is revengeful 
 through weaknefs, and atrocious in his ven 
 geance. 
 
1 6 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 geance, becaufe he is in himfelf infenfible; 
 having nothing to lofe but his life, he looks 
 on all his enemies as fo many murderers. If 
 his fchemes of vengeance were fupported by 
 a courage to carry them into execution, there 
 would not be on the earth a more terrible 
 animal; nor would he be lefs dangerous to 
 the Europeans themfelves, than he is to the 
 little hordes with whom he is at war, and 
 who, not being more brave than himfelf, 
 render their parties equal, and their wars 
 eternal. When Canada was difcovered in 
 1523, the Iroquois were at war with the 
 Hurons, and are fo at this day ; time hath 
 neither foftened their hatred, nor exhaufled 
 their vengeance. 
 
 The only authority they refpeft, is that of 
 their old men, whom, however, they aban 
 don from the moment that through weaknefs 
 or difeafe they become an incumbrancej as 
 
 is 
 
THE AMERICANS. IJ 
 
 is the cafe with beafls of prey, who are left 
 to perifh miferably when they are no longer 
 able to hunt and provide for themfelves. % 
 This ingratitude in the young favage towards 
 the author of his being, and the proteftor 
 of his infancy, is a law of the animal nature^ 
 interefted only for the individual while grow 
 ing ; indifferent to its fate when it can fliift 
 for itfelf. 
 
 _ 
 
 The Europeans who pafs into America 
 degenerate, as do the animals ; a proof that 
 the climate is unfavourable to the improve 
 ment of either man or animal. The Creoles, 
 defcending from Europeans and born in 
 America, though educated in the univerfities 
 of Mexico, of Lima, and College de Santa 
 Fe, have never produced a fingle book. 
 This degradation of humanity mufl be impu- ., , 
 ted to the vitiated qualities of the air flag- . ; 
 nated in their immenfe forefts, and corrupted 
 
 by 
 
l GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 - by noxious vapours from (landing waters and 
 uncultivated grounds. 
 
 Curious as this fa& may feem, it is at-- 
 tended by another much more fo; the 
 Creoles both of South and North America 
 come to a maturity of intellect, fuch as theirs 
 is, more early than the children in Europe; 
 but this anticipation of ripenefs is fhort-lived, 
 in proportion to the unfeafonablenefs of its 
 appearance; for the Creole falls off, as he 
 approaches to puberty; his vivacity deferts 
 him, his powers grow dull, and he ceafes to 
 think at the very time that he might think 
 to fome purpofe: hence it is commonly faid 
 of them, that they are already blind at the 
 time that other men begin to fee. 
 
 From the Streight of Bahama to that of 
 Davis, a traft of about 3000 miles, one 
 meets not a fmgle man with a beard; hence 
 
 the 
 
THE AMERICANS. 19 
 
 the Spanifh theologians juftified the cruelty 
 of their countrymen to the wretched Ameri 
 cans, by denying that they were men; they 
 not having that fign of virility, which Nature 
 has given to all the nations of the earth 
 except to them. 
 
 The infenfibility of the Americans to the 
 paflion of love is a fact no lefs curious than 
 the former, and feems to have its origin in 
 the fame principle a fingular feeblenefs of 
 complexion. Savage life fubdues this pa 
 fion more or lefs, according to the climate, 
 and other circumilances infeparable from this 
 (late. Hippocrates made this obfervation in 
 treating of the manners of the Scythians. The 
 natural confequence of this indifference in the 
 men, is their cruel treatment of the women. 
 
 It has been a matter of difpute among our 
 philofophers, whether favage or civilized life 
 
 contains 
 
2O GENERAL VIEW &C. 
 
 contains the greater degree of happinefs-* 
 Thefe two dates are fo oppofed, that they 
 neceflarily exclude all companion; in order 
 to judge of their "pretenfions, one mud know 
 to precifion their minuted fufferings, their 
 minuted enjoyments ; to know, one mud have 
 felt them; that is, have been educated in the 
 two dates at the fame time: the thing is 
 impoflible, the quedion frivolous. 
 
 * " Political confutations, in nations barely fettled, 
 " are on plans fo natural and fimple, fo well calculated 
 " for the general intereft, and the enjoyment of per- 
 " fonal happinefs, that writers of lively imaginations 
 " have rendered it problematical, whether the life of 
 " a favage be not preferable to that of a citizen in any 
 " civilized ftate." 
 
 Had the author of the above pajjage known any thing 
 ef the real condition of a favage t had he been fo fortu 
 nate as to have met withjhe work before us, he 
 never have hazarded fuch crude ideas. 
 
 ON 
 
Of 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 POPULATION OF AMERICA. 
 
 I 
 N general, America could never have been 
 
 peopled like Europe and Afia, in their im- 
 proved (late; it is covered by immenftr 
 fwamps, which render the -air extremely un- 
 wholfome, and the foil productive of a pro- 
 digious number of poifonous vegetables. 
 One may travel in North-America over vafl 
 wades, without finding a tingle habitation, 
 or human footflep. 
 
 Thefe confiderations have led Buffon to 
 conclude that the peopling of America is of 
 a very late date; but this is contradicted by 
 the analogies of nature, and the concurrent 
 traditions of the natives, that their anceftors 
 were forced to betake themfelves to the 
 
 mountains 
 
22 POPULATION OF AMERICA. 
 
 mountains at the time of a mighty flood; 
 a circumftance that proves this country to 
 have been inhabited at a very early aera. 
 
 It is conftantly obferved, that favage tribes 
 difappear in proportion as the civilized 
 fettle among them. Many think, that if 
 the Englifh continue to extend their efta- 
 blifhments, no more favages will be feen 
 in North-America. The five nations of 
 Canada, who in 1530 could bring 15000 
 men into the field, cannot now mufter 3000. 
 Their fimplicity in felling their grounds to 
 Europeans, and their confequent deteftation 
 of the purchafers, drive them to a diftance 
 from their former fettlements. The wars 
 of the feveral tribes with each other for 
 hunting grounds, their exceflive paffion for 
 ftrong fpirits, and above all, the ravages of 
 the fmall-pox, threaten the approaching an 
 nihilation of the fpecies. 
 
 The 
 
POPULATION OF AMERICA. 23 
 
 The American women bring forth children 
 
 / with little or no pain, yet they are not fo 
 
 fruitful as the European. This muft be from 
 
 'A a derangement^of combination; for in the 
 
 fouthern provinces of China, the women bring 
 
 forth with the facility of the Americans, but 
 
 at the fame time are wonderfully fruitful. 
 
 One cannot attribute the depopulation of 
 America to the cruelty of its invaders, fince 
 it is admitted, that more Europeans have 
 paired into it fmce the firft difcovery, than 
 
 - 
 
 could have been deftroyed of the natives ; to 
 which mud be added, the great number of 
 negroes annually imported. 
 
 OF THE CLIMATE. 
 
 THIS fubjecl: is fo connected with the for 
 mer, that it may be confidered as a continua 
 tion of it. ~ 
 
 One 
 
24 CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 
 
 One may form an idea of the population 
 of America when firil difcovered, from the 
 fufferings to which the Spaniards were re 
 duced through the want of fubfiflence / for fo 
 
 5 . 
 
 fmall a number as three or four hundred. 
 In North- America, the firfl fettlers of Virginia 
 > were forced to return to Europe through 
 J want of food ; while the colony of Philadel 
 phia, and more than forty others, abfolutely 
 perimed by famine. No wonder this mould 
 happen in a country totally uncultivated, fo 
 overfpread with forefts, that no way was to 
 be found through them without the ufe of a 
 compafs. Even at this day there are forefts 
 in North- America which cover regions more 
 extenfive than the Low-Countries and Ger 
 many united. 
 
 The air of that part of Peru neareft to 
 the Line, is not fo unhealthy as it was before 
 cultivation had in fome degree correfted_its 
 
 malignity. 
 
 V)' 
 
 v) 
 
CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 25 
 
 malignity. In the iflands, and in general 
 through all the provinces of the continent 
 the moft frequented by Europeans, the cut 
 ting down and clearing of forefls, the drain 
 ing of lakes, the culture cf the foil, have 
 more or lefs corrected the ill qualities of the 
 jur^except in fome cantons which have been 
 found incorrigible; as in the ifthmus of Pa 
 nama, and above all in the neighbourhood 
 of Carthagena and Porto-Bello, efpecially of 
 the latter, the air of which is more deadly 
 than in any other part of the globe. 
 
 As to the degrees of cold in the fame 
 parallels of the New and Old World, our 
 author judges the air to be twelve degrees 
 colder in the New; this difference is to be 
 imputed to the quantity of uncultivated 
 grounds, and to the prodigious lakes, 
 fwamps, and for efts, which cover the 
 country. 
 
 The 
 
26 CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 
 
 The effe&s of cultivation are proved by 
 the difference of the cold of Quebec and 
 Paris, which are in the fame latitude; this 
 difference was not fo great in Gaul, before 
 its forefls were cleared, and grounds culti 
 vated, as is proved by the defcription given 
 of the climate of Paris by the Emperor 
 Julian. This fame obfervation extends to 
 a comparifon of the parallels of Peterfburgh 
 and Siberia. 
 
 As to the regions between the Tropics, 
 they are extremely elevated, full of lakes, 
 fwamps, and forefls, with mountains co 
 vered with mow; in fhort, they bear no re- 
 femblance to thofe of the Torrid Zone. 
 This difference in the quality of the atmo- 
 fphere mufl have great influence on the men 
 and animals of the New World, which by 
 -culture may come to wear a different face. 
 
 It 
 
CLIMATE OF AMERICA, 27 
 
 It has been obferved, that the rivers and 
 lakes of North-America contain lefs water 
 at this day than they did fixty years ago, in 
 confequence of draining the grounds, and 
 reducing the forefts; yet the -cliange of 
 climate has not been fo great as might have 
 been expefted, owing to the vaft regions 
 covered with water and woods furrounding 
 the fpots which have been cultivated; nor 
 has the degeneracy in men and animals of 
 European origin diminifhed in the propor 
 tion that was expefted. 
 
 All the naturalifts affert, that animals im 
 ported from Europe into America degene 
 rate; the fame deterioration which prevails 
 through the flronger animals, extends to 
 men, who, in different provinces, have fallen 
 into epidemic diftempers more or lefs deadly. 
 The great humidity of the atmofphere, the 
 prodigious quantity of ftagnant waters, the 
 
 noxious 
 
28 CLIMATE OF AME-RJCA._ 
 
 noxious vapours, corrupt juices, and vitiated 
 qualities of the plants and aliments, will ac 
 count for that feeblenefs of complexion, that 
 averfion from labour, and general unfitnefs 
 for iflapqX^nents of every kind, which have 
 prevented the Americans from emerging oui 
 of favage life. 
 
 Through the whole extent, of America, 
 from Cape-Horn to-Hudfon's-Bay, there has 
 never appeared a philofopher, an artift, a 
 man of learning or of parts, whofe name has 
 found a place in the hiflory of fciences, or 
 whofe talents have done credit to himfelf, 
 r been of ufe to others* 
 
 Europe is the only part of the world in 
 which are found natural philofophers and 
 aftronomers, for the Chinefe, with all their 
 boafts, have not one. They have neither 
 fculptors, painters, nor architects, any more 
 
 than 
 
CLIMATE OF AMERICA. -29 
 
 than the other people of Afia; as to their 
 poets, they are m'ere Troubadours; and for 
 their drama, there is as great a didance 
 between the Taha-o-chi-cou-Ell, their bed 
 tragedy, and the Phaedra of Racine, as be 
 tween the Alaric of Scuderi, or the Pucelle 
 of Chapelain, and the .ZEneid. 
 
 Of the European plants, imported into 
 America, rice, as it delights in humidity, 
 fucceeded the foonefl; but it is the word 
 culture that can be encouraged, as being the 
 lead proper to purify the air; hence it has 
 been totally banifhed out of France ; it may 
 be, that in the hot regions of Afia this ill 
 difpoiltion may be corrected by the drynefs 
 of the -air. 
 
 But the mod furprifmg circumftance at 
 tending the climate of the New World is, 
 that the utmoft induftry of man, fo greatly 
 
 interefted 
 
3O CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 
 
 mterefted in the event, has never been able 
 to bring the grape to produce good wine. 
 At St. Domingo, and the Antilles, one can 
 not fo much as raife the vine. 
 
 Among the exotic plants which have de 
 generated in America, muft be reckoned 
 the coffee^tree, original of Arabia. Much 
 the fame may be affirmed of the fugar-cane; 
 it being allowed, that the fugars of the 
 Canaries, of China, and of Egypt, are fu- 
 perior to that of Brazil, the befl in America. 
 Nothing is lefs underilood than the nature 
 of this fweet fait, which is fpread over the 
 furface of the globe* Almoft all fruits, and 
 many roots, contain more or lefs of fugar ; 
 grapes abound with it ; the more {harp the 
 fruit before its maturity, the fweeter it be 
 comes after. There may be fome excep 
 tions, but they are few; whence we may con 
 clude, that fugar is nothing more than a true 
 
 vegetable 
 
CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 3! 
 
 vegetable acid, mixed with a certain quantity 
 of oil, and difguifed by the aion of heat. 
 
 Our remarks on the degeneracy of Euro 
 pean plants in America, are confirmed by a 
 known fact, that the North-American oak 
 employed in fhip-building does not lafl half 
 fo long as the European. 
 
 It was obferved, at the difcovery of the 
 New World, that there was no fuch thing as 
 a large quadruped to be found between the 
 Tropics; there were neither horfes, affes, 
 oxen, camels, dromedaries, or elephants; 
 all which, except the laft, have from time 
 immemorial been fo effe&ually tamed to the 
 fervices of man in our hemifphere.- Of the 
 elephant it is remarkable, that, though ea- 
 fily tamed, he can never be fo thoroughly 
 domefticated as to be fublervient to the gene 
 ral ufes of man. It Jhould feem that tbe ele 
 phant 
 
32 CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 
 
 phant has a fenfe of his own confequence, and 
 of his high Ji at ion in the order of animals. 
 
 The Puma, or lion of America, has no 
 mane; nor is it to be compared for fize, 
 force, or courage, with the lion of Africa. 
 The fame may be affirmed of their Jaguar, 
 which has been honoured with the name 
 of tiger; as to the Couguar, or poltroon 
 tiger, as it is called, it feems to be peculiar 
 to this country. 
 
 Our author obferves, that the lion, leo 
 pard, &c. are to be tamed to a certain de 
 gree; and that in captivity they appear 
 rather melancholic than mifchievous. It 
 is not fo with the tiger; hunger renders 
 him more terrible, blows more fierce; ca- 
 reffes provoke him, and the firft hand he 
 would devour is that which feeds him. In 
 his ftate of' liberty, he attacks all that 
 
 breathes 
 
CLIMATE OF 'AMERICA. 33 
 
 breathes in nature; beginning with man, he 
 attempts the crocodile, retires not from the 
 elephant, braves the lion, and drags off an 
 ox with the fame eafe that a wolf bears away 
 a lamb. 
 
 Nothing is more "remarkable than the 
 manner in which Nature has diftributed the 
 animal fpecies over the globe; one might 
 expeft to find the fame fpecies under the 
 fame latitudes, but it is not fo. It is pro 
 bable that men, by clearing forefts and 
 cultivating the foil, have driven the larger 
 animals to a diftance, while the fmaller re 
 main; a country may be cleared of wolves, 
 but not of mice, frogs, or makes. It is 
 certain that many animals have been found 
 in the New World, which have not their 
 fimilars in the Old; from which we may 
 infer, that the two continents were never 
 united under the equator; for if the fea 
 D between 
 
34 , CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 
 
 between Guinea and Brazil had ever been 
 terra firma, the animals of the Torrid Zone 
 of the two hemifpheres would be found on 
 each continent : whence it follows, that each 
 climate hath received from Nature its appro 
 priate fpecies. 
 
 It is very remarkable, that while Nature 
 thus varies in the New World her animal 
 productions, ihe is perfectly uniform with 
 refpeft to the mineral; for, excepting the 
 Platina, or white gold of Choco, (and even 
 as to this exception there may be a doubt, 
 as the mines of the interior of Africa are 
 little known) all the minerals are common to 
 the two continents. 
 
 To the malignity of the air of America 
 muft be imputed the prodigious propagation 
 of infefts, venomous ferpents, and infected 
 vegetations, which fo unhappily diftinguifti 
 
 ' this 
 
CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 35 
 
 this hemifphere. The fame ill qualities of 
 the air which are favourable to thefe noxious 
 productions, are probably the true origin of 
 the degeneracy in men and animals; as the 
 fame corrupt juices which infeft the vegeta 
 ble nature, muft taint the blood, and fubdue 
 the powers of the animal* 
 
 The degeneracy which prevails in the ^ 
 ftranger animals, among whom I fhall reckon 
 man, differs in different provinces. Dogs, , Osf 
 which in Peru are fubjeft to the venereal 
 difeafe, are not fo in the northern regions; 
 hogs, which dwindle in Pennlylvania, in other 
 places lofe their fliape, but not their flature ; 
 in the Englifli colonies, European fheep 
 become fmaller, without lofing their wool ; 
 in the iflands, as in Jamaica, they change , 
 their wool for a hair hard and coarfe, which 
 cannot be manufactured ; the changes vary 
 in the fame fpecies, becaufe the air is not in 
 D 2 all 
 
36 CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 
 
 all parts equally unwholefome, or has been 
 purified in one place more than another by 
 the labour of man. There are other animals 
 of Afiatic and African origin, fuch as camels, 
 the moil patient or heat, which cannot fup- 
 port the climate of America even under the 
 equator, but gradually difappear, without 
 leaving a trace of their exiftence in the 
 New World. 
 
C 37 J 
 
 OF THE CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 
 PECULIAR TO THE AMERICANS, 
 
 AND OF SUCH AS THEY HAVE IN COMMON WITH 
 
 OTHER PEOPLE; AS LIKEWISE OF THE VARIETY 
 
 OF THE HUMAN SPECIES IN AMERICA. 
 
 INTR ODUC TION. 
 
 IT has been always the privilege of thofe 
 who have difcovered new and far diltant 
 countries, to relate wonders concerning 
 them; fecure in the general paffion of man 
 kind for the marvellous, and in the diffi 
 culty of difproving abfurdities coming from 
 afar ; as if diftance could give a fanftion to 
 things out of nature, or confidence fhould 
 be placed in the credulity of a dunce, or the 
 integrity of an impoftor. 
 
 The ambaffadors fent by Pope Innocert 
 IVth, in 1 246, with that ridiculous mandate 
 
 to 
 
38 CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 
 
 tcTthe Great Kan, to be baptized on the fpot, 
 and to become a chriftian, publifhed on their 
 return, that they had feen men with one leg, 
 who joining together in couples ran with 
 extreme fwiftnefs; there was nothing wanting 
 to the completion of this abfurdity but the 
 authority of St. Auguftine, who declares 
 himfelf well affured, that there were in his 
 time in Africa men who were monopeds, and 
 bleft with an immortal foul. 
 
 It is probable, that thefe ambafladors, 
 who were monks, revived the fable to fup- 
 port the credit of the faint, who by his 
 foolifh credulity has {hewn, that the love 
 of the marvellous can fafcinate the under- 
 ftandings of faints as well as of the pro 
 fane. We are not to wonder then that the 
 Spanilh hiftorians, who were for the moft 
 part priefts, fhould add this prodigy to 
 many others equally extravagant in their 
 
 early 
 
 
PECULIAR TO THE AMERICANS. 39 
 
 early accounts of America. Nor were thefe 
 abfurdities confined to the Spaniards ; the 
 Portuguefe faw ihoals of fyrens floating on 
 the fea of Brazil, the French fifhed up 
 tritons at Martinico, and the fober Hol 
 lander found negroes beyond Paramaribo in 
 Africa, whole feet were formed like the tail 
 of a lo.bfler. 
 
 It is not only natural, but even neceflary, 
 that there fhould be many points of refem- 
 blance between favages living under fimilar 
 atmofpheres ; there, where the fame wants 
 are felt, the means of fupplying them the 
 fame, and the influences of climate in exact 
 correfpondence, how fliould the habits be 
 various, or conceptions difcordant? No; 
 the differences will be found only in -the 
 degrees of their intellects. If we hold by 
 this principle, all will be explained, all re 
 conciled to the underftanding. 
 
 The 
 
4O CUSTOM^ AND MANNERS 
 
 The Tungufes, a people of Siberia, are, 
 like the Canadians, grave, phlegmatic, and 
 fpeak little; becaufe they have but few 
 ideas, and ftill fewer words to exprefs them; 
 add to this, that the filence and gloom of 
 their forefts naturally induce an habitual 
 melancholy. Hence it is that they prefer 
 flrong and inebriating liquors, which quicken 
 the motion of the blood, and fet the machine 
 in aftion, to the moft precious gifts that can 
 be made them. 
 
 The Tungufes hang their dead on trees, 
 fo do the Illinois of America ; they cannot 
 dig graves in'earth frozen hard to the depth 
 of twenty feet. This is obvioufly nothing 
 more than a coincidence. 
 
 One would hardly fufpeft that phyfical 
 caufes (hould influence nations in the difpo- 
 fmg of the dead ; there is, however, an evi 
 dent 
 
PECULIAR TO THE AMERICANS. 41 
 
 dent proof of this in Europe, in which the 
 cuftom of burning the dead obtained in ge 
 neral about 1 900 years ago. But it became 
 neceffary at lad to bury them; becaufe arts, 
 population, and the clearing of grounds, had 
 thinned the forefls to fuch a degree, that 
 towns and entire provinces were menaced 
 with an approaching want of firing. In the 
 fecond century of our aera, the Romans fore- 
 faw the neceffity of abandoning their ancient 
 practice, of changing their funeral piles into 
 graves, and of committing the remains of 
 their deareft connections, with infinite regret, 
 to worms and putrefaction. The Chriftian 
 religion, though originating in a country 
 where the dead were aukwardly embalmed, 
 had not the fmallefl {hare in producing the 
 change in queftion. 
 
 The Siberians have their forcerers, called 
 Schamesj the Americans, their jongleurs. 
 
 Why 
 
42 CUSTOMS AND MANNERS. 
 
 Why not ? Had not we too our witches till 
 within this century, and ihould we not have 
 them to this day, had we continued to do 
 them the honour of burning them? 
 
 The Orientals, from the earlieft times, 
 have been addicted to the magic of aftrology : 
 the northern nations, to miracles, and pro- 
 phefy from infpiration. 
 
 The Tungufes plant a pole wherever they 
 fancy, on which they difplay the Ikin of a 
 white fox, exclaiming, Behold our Deity! 
 let us proftrate ourfelves before him. The 
 favages of Canada take the fkin of a beaver, 
 fix it on a ftaff, and fay, Behold our Mani- 
 tou! let us adore him. 
 
 A learned Abbe of the French Academy 
 affirms ) that God did not think it apropos to 
 honour with his fpecial prefence any other na 
 tion 
 
 
PECULIAR TO THE AMERICANS. 43 
 
 tion than the Hebrew. What could the other 
 nations do? Juft what they did; each flruck 
 out a prefence for itfeJf, from the Capitolian 
 Jupiter, to the Canadian Manitou; from the 
 deified wafer, to the Jkin of a fox. But fo 
 far above all was the Perfian in dignity, that 
 David for a moment for gat his own ark,\ 
 
 " Et in fole pofuit tabernaculum fuum." 
 
 The fame Academican,fpeaking of Jojhua's 
 
 flopping the fun, exclaims, " How great mufl 
 
 " have been the furprife of a Perfian to fee 
 
 " his Mithra || obey the command of a mortal!' 9 
 
 Very great indeed ! 
 
 f- " Ka; sv rcij vihsw eQsTo TO O-WVU/AIX awts. Sep. 
 
 || Mithra, in Perfic, fignifies a Mediator ; hence, per 
 haps, the learned Milton, 
 
 " EflPulgence of my glory fecond Omnipotence." 
 
 Par. Loft. 
 
 There 
 
44 CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 
 
 There is in thefe religious ufages of the 
 Tungufes and Canadians, it will be faid, a 
 flrong prefumption of affinity, or at leaft of 
 communication, between the two people. 
 Without enlarging on thefe national analo 
 gies, owing fimply to the co-operation of 
 limilar conceptions, it is certain, that the 
 adoration of the ikins of beads, among hunt 
 ers who know nothing more admirable in 
 nature than the robes of zibelines and bea 
 vers, has nothing in it that fhould excite our 
 
 A 
 
 wonder. It is utility or fear that has deified 
 all the obje&s to which nations have ad- 
 drelTed their vows and their incenfe : of the 
 former, the worfhip of the cow, the calf, of 
 onions, of fire, of Pomona, Ceres, Bacchus, 
 &c. afford proofs more than fufficient. Fear 
 and want have been the parents of idolatry ; 
 the intereft of men has made the fortune of 
 the gods. 
 
 Such, 
 
PECULIAR TO THE AMERICANS. 45 
 
 Such, for the moft part, are the points of 
 refemblance between the Tungufes and Cana 
 dians; but the points of difference are more 
 remarkable. The Siberians have known for 
 ages iron and the forge; they have tamed 
 the rein-deer, and harneffed him to their 
 traineauxes; hence, being fecure in part of 
 fubfiftence, they do not hunt to any great 
 diflance from their dwellings, nor do they 
 need to be eternally at war with their neigh 
 bours for the pofleflion of game. The Ca 
 nadians, on the contrary, have left in a (late 
 of nature the fame animals which have 
 been tamed by the Siberians; the idea of 
 rendering them ufeful has never entered their 
 heads. They wander a hundred and fifty 
 leagues to kill a caribou, which they might 
 have every hour under their hands, had their 
 ingenuity been equal to that of the Tun 
 gufes ; a manifefl proof of a fuperiority of 
 intellecl: in the latter. 
 
 The 
 
46 CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 
 
 The natives of the Torrid Zone, and of 
 the foil them parts of America, form a vari 
 ety, which bears not the leaft refeniblance to 
 the generations of the North, except in the 
 common want of a beard, and of hair over 
 all the furface of the body. This race re- 
 fembles as little the Europeans, Chinefe, 
 Tartars, and Negroes; in fliort, its character 
 may pafs for original. 
 
 The Peruvians are not tall of ftature, but 
 are tolerably well proportioned ; they have 
 the nofe aquiline, the forehead narrow, the 
 head well furniflied with black hair, coarfe 
 and flecked; the complexion between red 
 and olive; the iris of the eye black, and the 
 white fomewhat duiky. They never have a 
 beard, for that name cannor be given to a 
 few fhort fcattered hairs, which come out in 
 old age; neither men nor women have that 
 downy hair which is with us the indication 
 
 of 
 
PECULIAR TO THE AMERICANS. 47 
 
 of puberty; a circumflance which diftin- 
 guiihes them from a]l the nations of the 
 globe, even the Tartars and Chinefe. It is 
 the charafteriftic, as in eunuchs, of their deA 
 generation. This portrait of the Peruvians 
 may ferve to reprefent all the Indians of the 
 weftern coaft, from Panama to Chili, where 
 >* ' the bloodjeems more purified, and the fpe- 
 cies lefs degenerate than in any other parts 
 of the Weft-Indies. 
 
 The inhabitants of the iflands, and of the 
 eaft coaft, from the defert of the Patagonians 
 to the tropic of Cancer, differ little from the 
 former, except that they are taller, have a 
 body more mufcular, the eye-brows more 
 tufted, the white of the eye clearer, and the 
 ridge of the nofe more flat; but there is fome- 
 thing very remarkable in the appearance of 
 their eyes; the lids do not terminate at either 
 end in a ftiarp angle, but form an arch, which 
 
 mafks 
 
48 CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 
 
 malks the lachrymal glands, and renders, at 
 firfl fight, their look hidious and horrible. 
 
 The tafle, or rather fury of the Americans 
 for beautifying their perfons, is no lefs curi 
 ous in its principle, than ridiculous in its 
 exertions. In this view, the mothers take 
 the heads of their infants, three or four days 
 old, in hand, and begin to faihion them into 
 the form of a pyramid, a cone, a cylinder ; 
 fome to be quite flat, others an exa& fquare; 
 and the laft, which is the completion of 
 beauty, perfe&ly round ; thefe are called by 
 the French, refiding in Canada, tetes de 
 boule. Little indebted to Nature for his other 
 endowments, thefavage feems in this to retort 
 her injuftice, by defacing the faireft example 
 of her art. 
 
 The naturalifts among the ancients, who 
 believed that there were in Scythia men with 
 
 dogs' 
 
PECULIAL TO THE AMERICANS. 49 
 
 dogs' heads, were deceived by ignorant tra 
 vellers, who having feen favages with heads 
 ending in a point, formed of them monfters 
 compounded of parts half dog and half man. 
 The greater number of the ancients reported 
 thefe prodigies merely as hearfays; but what 
 are we to think of St. Auguftin, the mod 
 enlightened of the early Chriflians, who 
 affirms that he faw, in the Lower Ethiopia, 
 men who had but one eye in the middle of 
 their forehead, and to whom he was fo 
 happy as to preach the gofpel! It is not 
 eafy to comprehend how he could contrive 
 to catechife beings who certainly have never 
 exifted in Lower Ethiopia, or any where elfe. 
 
 There is in the Caribane a fort of favages 
 who have hardly any neck, and whofe fhoul- 
 ders rife as high as the ears; thisjoo is 
 fa&itious, and brought about by laying- 
 great weights on the head of the infant, 
 E which 
 
50 CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 
 
 which comprcfs the vertebrae of the neck, 
 and force them to defcend into the hollow 
 formed by the two bones of the upper part 
 of the bread. Thefe monflers appear, at 
 a certain diftance, to have the mouth in 
 the middle of the breaft; and may well re 
 new, to travellers ignorant and delighting in 
 wonders, the ancient fable of Acephales, or 
 of men without heads. 
 
 The love of the marvellous is Jo predomi 
 nant in man 9 and this in proportion to his 
 ignorance, that a mixture of fables with focJs 
 mufi of courfe be found in the early hi/lories 
 of all nations; the fables may be conftdered as 
 a kind of national creed, which hiftorians were 
 bound to obferve, if they would not forfeit the 
 favour of their countrymen. 
 
 The works ofthejirft Greek hiftorians are 
 loft % but are quoted by thofe who came after 
 
 them; 
 
PECULIAR TO THE AMERICANS, 5! 
 
 them; the -points in which the latter hiflorians 
 agree, are to us a clajfical creed, or authentic 
 hi/lory ; thofe on which they differ fhould be left 
 out of the queftion; yet it is on thefe points of dif 
 ference, and the prevalence of fable , that the 
 moderns found their objections to ancient hiftory. 
 
 French and Englijh hjftorians differ, as 
 might well be expected, in their accounts of 
 the battle of Agincourt. Does it therefore fol 
 low that nofuch battle was ever fought? As 
 to fable, confidered as an objection to the 
 veracity of a writer, there is a difference be 
 tween compliance and convicllon. A Roman 
 augur divided a whetftone with a razor! 
 Can it be fuppofed that a man, who thought 
 juftly in other matters, could want common 
 fenfe in thefe alone ? The cafe was in things 
 out of nature, Livy wrote for his countrymen; 
 in things which come within nature, he wrote 
 for mankind. 
 
 E a After 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 4UFQR 
 
52 CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 
 
 After the early hiftorians of Greece, whofe 
 works are loft, Ctejias is the firft ; fome rem 
 nants only of his work have come down to 
 us. He delighted in fable, and for this is 
 condemned by the ancients themf elves, yet he 
 had credit with them in points truly hiftorical; 
 their rejection of his fables gives authority to 
 their acceptance of his hi/tor y. 
 
 Herodotus is called by Cicero the father of 
 hiftory ; by the moderns, afabulift: he recited 
 his works at the publick games, and to the af- 
 
 fembled literati of Greece. Would they have 
 received -extravagant fables for genuine hif- 
 tory? No ; but they could feparate the fables 
 
 from the faffs ; they lived at no great diftance 
 
 from the times. 
 
 The obfervations of eclipfes, calculated by 
 Ptolemy, and referred by him to the reigns of 
 the Perfian kings, agree with the chronology of 
 
 Herodotus. 
 
PECULIAR TO THE AMERICANS. 53 
 
 Herodotus. No matter: Herodotus muft Hill 
 be nothing better than afabulift. 
 
 This hiftorian flourijhed 500 years before 
 our ara; Homer and He/tod 400, as he informs 
 us, before him: French critics come 2300 years 
 after him, difpute about the age of Homer, and 
 deny there was any fuch man as He/tod. We 
 are in much lefs danger of being deceived by 
 the credulity of the ancients, than by th& pre- 
 fumptlon of the moderns. 
 
 If a man does not marry at the ufual age, 
 if he refufes to go to the war when decla 
 red, or to the chace, he is pronounced to be 
 infane; from that time he is treated with the 
 greateft refpect, and even affection: this 
 cannot proceed from a fpirit of beneficence 
 in the favage, who leaves his aged parent to 
 perifh, when he becomes an incumbrance, 
 and can no longer provide for himfelf. This 
 
 extraordinary 
 
54 CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 
 
 extraordiary cuilom obtains in Turkey, and 
 throughout Afla, and ftarts up mod unex- 
 peftedly, at our doors, among the peafants of 
 Switzerland. The Turks declare the infane 
 to be privileged beings, from whom Provi 
 dence has kindly withheld the dangerous 
 prefent of rationality. This is a manifeft re 
 finement; which , though it may become the fen- 
 fibility of the Afiatic^ will never apply to the 
 genius of the Sivitzer. This agreement in 
 nations of fetch different characters, finds an 
 eafyfolution in the fuppofition that the Afiatics 
 and Germans were in early times favages ; 
 that the cuftom in quejiion took place in thofe 
 times, and had its origin in feme particular 
 point of fuperftition. 
 
 Such are the principal obfervations which 
 have appeared to deferve a place in this ar 
 ticle. It is well known that there are ftill 
 vaft regions in America which remain unex 
 plored, 
 
PECULIAR TO THE AMERICANS. 55 
 
 plored, and where the natural hiflory of man 
 might make great acquifitions. One knows 
 that there are other countries, concerning 
 which all information has been defignedly 
 fuppreffed. Thofe who, abufing at once the 
 holinefs of their miniftry, and the confidence 
 of a harmlefs and unhappy people, have 
 ere&ed themfelves into petit tyrants under 
 the two tropics of the New World, have 
 thought it contrary both to their honour 
 and their intereft to give fair and faithful 
 relations of their conquefts. The hiflories 
 of Paraguai, by Charlevoix and Muratori, 
 are written with fo much partiality and fo 
 little difcernment, that it is impoffible to give 
 them any degree of credit; they are kinds of 
 legends, which the reader will know how to 
 eftimate, when he finds in Charlevoix, that 
 in the country he defcribes, there are enor 
 mous ferpents, whofe fole employment it is 
 to ravifh girls, notwithftanding the efforts of 
 
 the 
 
56 CUSTOMS AND MANNERS &C. 
 
 the miffionaries> who throw themfelves def- 
 perately on thefe bold animals, to fave, at 
 the hazard of their lives, the virginity of the 
 young Indian females. 
 
 // would be ungenerous to infmuate that the 
 mijjionaries might have other motives than re 
 ligious zeal for this interference. 
 
 OF 
 
S~;~t 
 
 OF 
 
 CALIFORNIA. 
 
 JL HE natives of this country differ fo little 
 from their brethren of the continent, that 
 they would never have been thought worthy 
 of a diftinft confideration, had they not been 
 poiTeffed of an ineflimable treafure in their 
 pearl fifliery; a treafure, however, of little 
 ufe to them, as they were too flupid and 
 fluggilh to avail themfelves. of it. This was 
 not the cafe with the Jefuits, a fociety of 
 priefls famed for their inimitable art in ma 
 king a love of gold pafs for the love of GOD. 
 
 It was in the year 1697 tnat tn fe reverend 
 fathers fet out from Old Spain to make a 
 fettlement on this peninfula; their oftenfible 
 motive, the propagation of the gofpel; the 
 real and concealed, the pearl fiihery; the 
 
 richeft, 
 
5& OF "CALIFORNIA. 
 
 richer!, in the beauty of the jewel, and the 
 abundance of its produce, of any as yet found 
 on the globe. 
 
 . PoffdTed of this treafure, the firft obje& of 
 their avarice was to make it all their own. 
 Accordingly they ftopt the u'fual import of the 
 pearls into Mexico, where they paid a high 
 duty to the Spanifh government. The confe- 
 quent decreafe of the revenue produced ftrong 
 remonflrances to the court of Spain ; but the 
 influenced of fuperftition on the confcience of 
 the king, and of gold on the integrity of his 
 miniilers, fecured to the monopolifts a tem 
 porary enjoyment of their pious fraud. 
 
 Unhappily for them, when Lord Anfon, in 
 1744, took the Spanifh galleon that went 
 every year from Acapulco to Manilla, he 
 found that more thanjwo-thirds of the 
 cargo belonged to the Company of Jefus. 
 
 He 
 
OF CALIFORNIA. 59 
 
 He was the firft who obferved, that this 
 commerce cuts the knot which fliould keep 
 Mexico and Peru in a perfect dependance on 
 Spain ; that it {hocks all the laws of found 
 policy ; mud end in the ruin of the parent 
 country ; and could ferve no purpofe, but to 
 enrich a fet of rapacious priefts. 
 
 Thefe remarks, which he publifhed on his 
 return to Europe, opened the eyes of the 
 Spaniards, but the king iliut his; the punifh- 
 ment of the abufe was for a time fufpended, 
 until the good fenfe of Anfon, confirmed by 
 the dangerous projects of the jefuits in Para- 
 guai, was verified in the total ruin of thofc 
 ambitious mifcreants. 
 
 How pleafingly muft It found to our pofterity, 
 
 that the fagacity of an Englijh Jailor was the 
 
 firft ft ep towards reft or ing an infatuated nation 
 
 to its fenfes, and preventing the deftruftion of a 
 
 mighty empire. 
 
OF THE 
 
 COLOUR OF THE AMERICANS. 
 
 COLUMBUS, at his firft landing on the 
 New r World, was furprifed to fee, within 
 four degrees of the Equator, men who were 
 not black. He fufpefted that he had mif- 
 taken the latitude ; not conceiving it poiTible, 
 that in the fame parallels on the two conti 
 nents, the Africans fliould have a black 
 fkin, and crifped woolly hair ; the Ameri 
 cans, a fkin of a copper colour, with hair 
 long and ftrait. 
 
 But the furprife ends not here; for from 
 the extremity of the north to that of the 
 fouth, a tral embracing all the known lati 
 tudes of the globe, the inhabitants of the 
 New World have but one colour. 
 
 That 
 
COLOUR OF THE AMERICANS. 6 1 
 
 1 
 
 . 
 
 That men expofed naked to the biting blajls 
 
 of Canada^ and the fcorchlng heats of 
 Jhould not differ in the tints of the Jkin^ is a 
 phenomenon that defeats^ the pride of phllofophj 
 and the triumphs of fvftem. 
 
 Some theologians of the prefent age cut 
 the matter fhort ; they tell us that negroes 
 defcend in a direcl: Jine from Cain, whofe 
 nofe was crufhed, and fkin blackened, that 
 he might be known wherever he went to be 
 an aflaffin. Others inform us, with equal 
 probability, that the Ethiopians are the pof- 
 terity of Chus, Canaan, or Ifmael. Some, 
 dill more bold, or rather abfurd, aiTert, that 
 the firft woman had an ovarium, in which 
 ihe laid up black and white eggs, which 
 produced, the one kind, Germans, Swedes, 
 and all the people who are white ; the other, 
 negroes, and all thofe who are black. You 
 mud therefore^ choofe between Ifmael or 
 
 Cain, 
 
62 COLOUR OF THE AMERICANS. 
 
 Cain, or between the white eggs and black, 
 if you will eftablifli a fyftem on the varia 
 tions in queflion. 
 
 Who, after this, could exped that our author 
 Jhould attempt to eftablijh a fyftem on this very 
 fubjefty and to account from the re of on of things 
 for the uniformity of complexion through the 
 various climates of the New World. With 
 the great eft ref peel for the genius and learning 
 of M. Pauw 9 I cannot help thinking that he 
 gives too much into a predilecJion for philofo- 
 phical difcujfions ; as I take no notice of thefe, 
 except where I am perfecllj fatisfied with the 
 proofs^ my feleflions are for the moft part con- 
 fined to facls. All beyond this I refign to thofe 
 fuperior fpirits who fancy that they enter into 
 the views of the Firft Caufe. 
 
 ANTHRO- 
 
-ANTHROPOPHAGI; 
 
 OR, 
 
 EATERS OF HUMAN FLESH. 
 
 IT ihould not be the objeft here to write 
 a fatire or an eulogium on human kind, 
 whom neither reproach nor praife hath ever 
 corrected. We muft confine ourfelves to 
 fafts; lay them open fuch as they are, or 
 one believes them to be, without hatred, 
 without prejudice, without refpeft, except 
 for the truth. 
 
 If the Spaniards had not felt the fevered 
 remorfe for their {laughter of fo many miie- 
 rable Indians, they would not have calum 
 niated them with fo much fury after their 
 death. It was expedient to render odious 
 thofe whom they had butchered, in order- 
 to 
 
64 ANTHROPOPHAGI. 
 
 to become lefs odious themfelves ; but it is 
 the nature of exaggeration to defeat its own 
 purpofe. 
 
 They have faid, that Montezuma facrificed 
 every year 20,000 infants; that human viftims 
 were offered in all the temples of Mexico, of 
 which there were, according to Antonio Solis, 
 2000 in that capital. The truth is, that there 
 was but one chapel, built in the form of an 
 amphitheatre, in the whole town. 
 
 It is evident, that Solis meant not fo much 
 to inform pofterity, as to palliate the atrocious 
 cruelty of the Spanifh conquerors. It was 
 on the fame principle, that Livy, with a 
 view to prejudice his readers againft the 
 enemies of Rome, aflerts ferioufly, that Han 
 nibal diftributed human flefh for food to his 
 foldiers, in order to render them more fierce 
 in battle. 
 
 It 
 
ANTHROPOPHAGI. 65 
 
 It is an infult to our understandings, that 
 the Portuguefe and Spaniards fliould be thofe 
 who mofl exclaim againft the abominable 
 cruelty of a people weak and uninformed : 
 They fliould have refle&ed on their own 
 auto da fe, lefs pardonable* in many refpe&s 
 than the repafls of cannibals, or the facrifices 
 of the Mexicans. 
 
 It is a fubjeft of controverfy among writers, 
 whether the repaft preceded or followed the 
 facrifice. As the pra&ice muft have had its 
 origin among favages, moil of whom have 
 but vague ideas of worfliip, and many of 
 them no ideas at all, it is probable that hun 
 ger and revenge firft impelled them to devour 
 their prifoners of war.* 
 
 * " On ne peut nier que les hommes n'aient eu befoin 
 " de manger avant quils aient eu befoin de prier." 
 
 All 
 
66 ANTHROPOPHAGI. 
 
 All worjhip implies fome degree of reflection 
 and civilization, even where the motive is no 
 thing more than fear; as to gratitude, the 
 finer motive to adoration, this is a pajfion too 
 artificial to enter into the moral fvftem of 
 favage life, 
 
 The Scythians, Egyptians, Chinefe, Indi 
 ans, Phoenicians, Perfians, Greeks, Romans, 
 Arabians, Gauls, Germans, Britons, Spa 
 niards, Negroes, and Jews, were in early 
 times in the habit of facrificing men without 
 number. If it is not poffible to prove that 
 they were all Anthropophagi in their ftate of 
 barbarifm, it is becaufe that ftate hath pre 
 ceded the records of hiftory. 
 
 In the account of China, publifhed by the 
 Abbe Renaudot, it is faid, that there were 
 Anthropophagi in this empire fo late as the 
 ninth century, which is hardly to be believed; 
 
 yet 
 
ANTHROPOPHAGI. 67 
 
 yet Marc Paolo, who had never read this 
 account written by the Arabians, relates, 
 that the inhabitants of the provinces of 
 Xandu and Concha eat their prifoners. The 
 barbarity of the Chinefe with refpeft to the 
 infants whom they will not rear, and of whom 
 they deflroy every year throughout the em 
 pire not fewer than 30,000, by fmothering 
 them in tubs of hot water, or expofing them 
 in the flreets and highways, is llkeuolfe hardly 
 to be believed^ and yet it is true. 
 
 The Peruvians, who had gone before the 
 other nations of America in civilization, did 
 not, at the time they were firft difcovered, 
 facrifice human viftims; they were content 
 to draw from the frontal vein, or from the 
 nofe of a child, a certain portion of blood, 
 which being mixed with flour, was made into 
 cakes, and diflributed to all the fubjefts of 
 the empire on a certain annual folemnity. 
 F 2 This 
 
68 ANTHROPOPHAGI. 
 
 This clearly proves that the Peruvians had 
 been originally eaters of human flefh; it is, 
 at the fame time, a manifeft mitigation of a 
 barbarous fpecies of worfhip; their manners 
 and habits had been in fome degree foftened, 
 and religion followed the revolution, in their 
 moral charafter. 
 
 Happy had it been for more civilized nations ? 
 that this correfpondence had been carefully pre 
 ferred; and that goodfenfe in religious matters 
 had kept pace with their advances in fcience, 
 and a polifh in their manners! 
 
 Our author has given himfelf the trouble 
 to enumerate the various modes of Anthropo 
 phagy which obtain from one extremity to the 
 other. He thought it, no doubt , his duty as 
 arihijlorian to undertake this tajk ; but there 
 is no fuch call on me, who have undertaken 
 nothing more than tofelecJ thofe paffages which 
 
 appear 
 
ANTHROPOPHAGI. 69 
 
 appear moft inftruftive and entertaining. The 
 fubjeft in general is uninterejling, the details 
 are often difgufting.-\ 
 
 f " Les Iroquois ne trouvoient rien du plus fin, ni de 
 " plus tendre, dit on, que le col et tout ce que envelope 
 " la nuque : les Caraibes, au contaire, preferoient les 
 " mollets des jambes ou les carnofites des cuifTes : ils ne 
 " mangeoient jamais des fe'mmes ou des filles, dont la 
 " chair leur paraifToit peut etre moins favoureufe &c. 
 
 " Les chiens dogues, que les Efoagnols employerent 
 " a la deftruclion des Indiens, preferoient de meme la 
 (f chair des hommes a celle des femmes " 
 
 OF 
 
OF THE 
 
 ESK1MAUX. 
 
 X HESE inhabit the northern extremity 
 of America, and fpread themfelves from the 
 interior of Labrador, by the coafls and iilands 
 of Hudfon's-Bay, very far towards the Pole. 
 Wandering and difperfed in little troops, they 
 embrace an immenfe region; were they to 
 be colle&ed into a body, they would not 
 occupy a hundred hamlets. 
 
 Before we proceed further into their hif- 
 tory, let us enquire to what degree of Nor 
 thern latitude our globe is inhabited; as like- 
 wife whether the human race can live in the 
 center of the Frozen Zones, as it does on 
 their borders. 
 
 In 
 
OF THE ESKIMAUX. 7! 
 
 In the moft diftant regions, in iflands the 
 mod remote, our navigators have found men 
 more unhappy, more weak, and approaching 
 nearer to the (late of brutes, in proportion 
 to their diftance from the Temperate Zones ; 
 all equally diiTatisfied with their fituation, and 
 uncertain of their origin. 
 
 Boerhaave, and other phyficians of our 
 times, willing to determine the degree of 
 cold which mud coagulate the human blood, 
 or of heat that would fuffocate, have pro 
 duced calculations fo faulty, that they cannot ' 
 be admitted without contradicting common 
 experience. There, (fay they) where fpirits 
 of wine well deflegmated would annually 
 freeze, the vital heat would be extinguifhed. 
 To this axiom, as to many other philofophic 
 decifions, there is one material objection 
 it is not founded on fact. 
 
 At 
 
72 OF THE ESKIMAUX. 
 
 At the 68th degree of latitude, fpirits of 
 wine, the moft pure and re&ified, regularly 
 freeze every year, the needle ceafes to point 
 towards the north, and mercury is not un- 
 frequently fixed: this does not prevent Eu 
 ropeans, much lefs inured to the climate than 
 the Efkimaux and Greenlanders, from having 
 eflabliihments {till nearer to the Pole than 
 the point at which fpirits of wine in the open 
 air are found to congeal; of this the Danifh 
 colonies, fubfifting in Greenland in 1764, 
 are the clearefl proof. 
 
 The navigator Baffin advanced northward 
 through Davis' s Straight, and trafficked with 
 the Eikimaux at the 73d degree; and the 
 Greenlanders of the Ifle of Difco affert, that 
 they found the habitations of men beyond the 
 78th. The Dutch wintered in 1633, on a 
 rock of Spitzberg, in the 8oth degree, with 
 out lofmg a fingle man of their company. 
 
 At 
 
OF THE ESKIMAUX. J $ 
 
 At Spitzberg, which appears to be the 
 extreme land of our hemifphere, are found 
 bears, foxes, and rein-deer, loaded with fat. 
 But though thefe animals are there few in 
 number, and that the excefs of cold ren 
 ders their fpecies, as it does ours, weak and 
 unprolific, Nature, however, is not impo 
 tent in thofe extreme climates. Beneath 
 tremendous vaults of congregated maffes of 
 ice fwims the enormous Leviathan; round 
 him, in myriads, his tenants of the deep, his 
 fubjefts or his food, as he pleafes to confider 
 them; whilft they in their turn, by feeding 
 on each other, keep up the bellum omnium 
 in omnia, that great law of nature, that 
 proof (in the opinion of a celebrated chemifi) 
 of the wifdom and goodnefs of the Divine 
 Creator* 
 
 * See Watfon's Chemiftry, vol. v. Eflay 3. 
 
 The 
 
74 OF THE ESKIMAUX. 
 
 The innumerable fhoals of herrings, cod, 
 and other fifh, thofe clouds of fea-fowl which 
 darken at times the furface of the frozen 
 ocean, prove that Nature has not been lefs 
 active in this part of her creation, than in 
 thofe where flie difplays her power in the 
 produ&ion of plants, trees, and the aftoniflv 
 ing variety of terreftrial creatures. 
 
 Mufl not this obfervation convince us, that 
 there is all over the globe the fame tendency 
 to organization ; an equal portion of that vi 
 vifying fpirit which modifies matter ad infi- 
 nitum^ without being fo far fubject to the 
 mtemperature of climate, as to fufpend in any 
 part the operations of an all-creating energy? 
 
 To return to the Efkimaux. They are 
 the mod diminutive race of human kind, 
 their flature in general not exceeding four 
 feet. They have enormous heads, are ex- 
 
 tremely 
 
OF THE ESKIMAUX. 75 
 
 tremely fat and corpulent, and much under- 
 limbed. On examining the extremities of 
 their limbs, one perceives that organization ' 
 has been checked by_the feverity of that 
 cold, which contracts and degrades all earthly 
 productions. Man, however, refifts this 
 imprefTion in higher degrees towards the 
 Pole than trees or plants, fince beyond the 
 68th degree neither tree nor flirub is to be 
 found, while favages are met with 300 
 leagues beyond that elevation. Thefe nor 
 thern pigmies have, without exception, an 
 olive complexion ; they have, like the reft 
 of the Americans, no beard, their face flat, 
 the mouth round, the nofe fnrall, the white 
 of the eye yellowifti, the iris black and dull, 
 the lower jaw extends beyond the upper, 
 its lip thick and fleftiy. Thus falhioned, 
 though hideous to the eye of an European, 
 they are perfectly beautiful in their own, 
 and diftinguifli all other men. by a term, 
 
 which 
 
76 OF THE ESKIMAUX. 
 
 which in their language is equivalent to 
 barbarian. Is it 'not pie af ant to obfervefuch a 
 coincidence of impertinence in the high-polijhed 
 Greek, and the jilt hieft of fa^ ages? 
 
 As they feed almoft entirely on oily fim, 
 their fleih has in a manner contracted its 
 fubftance; their blood, become 'thick and 
 un&uous, exhales a penetrating odour of 
 whale oil, and on touching their hands, one 
 feels a clamminefs, not unlike to that vifco- 
 fity which invelopes the bodies of fifh which 
 have not fcales: accordingly, this is the only 
 nation of which it has been obferved, that 
 the mothers, like fome quadrupeds, lick their 
 new-born infants. 
 
 There is another finking effeft from their 
 food, and that is the extreme heat of their 
 ftomach and blood ; infomuch that the glow 
 of their breath fo warms the huts in which 
 
 they 
 
OF THE ESKIMAUX. 77 
 
 they live during the winter, that an Euro 
 pean cannot fupport the heat, nor do they, 
 though in the coldeft region of the habi 
 table globe, ever need a fire; a lamp fuf- 
 ficing to boil their food, when they do not 
 eat it quite raw. 
 
 Without law, without worfliip, without a 
 ruler, and with very few moral ideas, they 
 have nothing to interrupt their fole occupa 
 tion, that of procuring food. Their time is 
 fo precious to them, that they infift on being 
 paid for fo much of it as is taken up in 
 attending the fermons of the Danifli "mif- 
 fionaries. While one furniflies them with 
 food, they are excellent Neophytes, full 
 of piety and zeal; the moment that is 
 withdrawn, they return to their boats, and 
 purfue the whale, laughing at the inftruc- 
 tions and catechifms which they could not 
 underftand. 
 
 The 
 
78 OF THE ESKIMAUX. 
 
 The do&rine of the immortality of the 
 foul had, according to fome writers, already 
 travelled beyond the Polar circle, before 
 the arrival of the firfl Europeans; but if 
 the metaphyfical opinions of polifhed peo 
 ple are fo uncertain, fo complicated, fo 
 hard to be underflood, we ftiould be on 
 ,our guard againft thofe fplendid fyflems 
 which travellers are fo fond of attributing 
 to favages. 
 
 If man had an innate idea of his fpiritu- 
 ality, I believe that the animal and ruftic 
 life would never efface that primitive notion; 
 but, if it be only by a gradation in reafon- 
 ing, and a conne&ed feries of abftracl: ideas, 
 that we have rifen to this fublime hypothe- 
 fis, we mud not look for it among favages 
 little better than brutes, and who know not 
 what it is to reafon. 
 
 There 
 
OF THE ESKIMAUX. 79 
 
 There is a teft by which we may be affured 
 whether fuch or fuch a people have had fuch 
 or fuch ideas; we have but to examine whe 
 ther they have words in their language to 
 exprefs thofe ideas; if they have not, as is 
 the cafe with the Eikimaux and Greenland- 
 ers, who are the fame people, (their manners 
 and language being precifely the fame) we 
 may venture to pronounce that they >have 
 never fo much as thought of the immortality 
 of the foul. 
 
 Let us determine this article, by an obfer- 
 vation on the people of the North in our 
 divifion of the globe. Thofe who inhabit 
 the extremity of the Temperate Zone have 
 for the moft part hair of a flaxen colour, blue 
 eyes, the ikin fair, are of a vigorous com 
 plexion, and tall of flature; they are bold, 
 courageous, warlike, and reillefs; a kind of 
 inftindt hath ever urged them to expatriate 
 
 and 
 
8O OF THE ESKIMAUX. 
 
 and invade every quarter of the earth, which 
 they confider as formed for them: they have 
 extended their invafions even to Africa; all 
 Europe, and a great part of Afia, are, to a 
 certain degree, peopled by their defcendants ; 
 nor is there a nation among us which is not 
 allied in blood to fome one of the tribes of 
 the North. 
 
 When one vifits at this day thefe pretended 
 hives of human kind, and the countries from 
 which have iiTued thofe fwarms of men, one 
 is furprifed to find them little more than de- 
 ferts: Denmark contains but two millions, 
 Sweden two millions and a half of inhabi 
 tants, and the empire of Ruflia, refpecl: had 
 to its extent, is a folitude. 
 
 How is this to be accounted for? Simply, 
 by fuppofmg that the ancient emigrations of 
 thofe northern people confifted of feveral lit 
 tle 
 
OF THE ESKIMAUX. 8 1 
 
 tie wandering nations, who occupied an im- 
 menfe extent of land, confederated of a fud- 
 den to expatriate, and to enjoy a happier 
 climate than their own; fo that the country 
 remained, after their exit, in a manner empty 
 and unpeopled during fix or feven genera 
 tions : accordingly it has been remarked, that 
 thofe clouds of emigrants, who drew along 
 with them their wives, children, and cattle, 
 appeared only from time to time, like dorms, 
 and that there have been great intervals be 
 tween one irruption and another. 
 
 For thefe forty years pad the Tartars have 
 not dirred; one would take them for the 
 mod jud, the mod peaceful of men 5 but 
 this calm proceeds from the weaknefs of 
 their population, exhauded by their late 
 conquefl of China and Afia, which will be 
 hereafter the lefs expofed to their invaiions, 
 in that Europe, perfectly civilized and con- 
 G dandy 
 
$2 OF THE ESKIMAUX. 
 
 flantly in arms, oppofes to them an infur- 
 mountable barrier. 
 
 ~ m 
 
 ' - . , 
 
 The favages, of whom we are treating, arc 
 very different from the people juft defcribed, 
 whether we confider their figure, 9r enter 
 into a comparifon of their manners and incli 
 nations. Diminutive, tawny, weak, thfe re-? 
 fufe of human kind, they feem to conftitute 
 a race the moft worthlefs and contemptible, 
 with an exception, it may be, of the natives 
 of the Torrid Zone. The extremes of cold 
 and heat aft much in the fame manner on the 
 faculties and conflitution of man. 
 
 ^S^&-'. r *3tfo /foliffr ''^x 
 
 So long as - the climate continues the 
 fame, the people of whom we are fpeaking 
 will never rife above their prefent abjeft 
 condition. Were they to unite in fociety, 
 they would perifli with hunger; becaufe 
 the agriculture which affords fubfiflence to 
 
 towns, 
 
OF THE ESKIMAUX. $3 
 
 towns, is impra&i cable in their folitudes, 
 covered with fnow and ice. 
 
 With refpeft to their population, it" has 
 never been fo low, fmce the black plague, as 
 at this day;; and their numbers have con- 
 flantly and rapidly decreafed within thefe 
 forty yearSj that the {j^aH-pox hath fpread 
 its ravages, throughout the cold Zone, 
 Their commerce with the Europeans has 
 been to them a mortal blow; as if it were 
 deftined that all favage people fhould tend to 
 extin&iofc from the moment that civilized 
 nations come to fettle among them. 'An 
 apparent paradox; but a natural confeqitence 
 of the 'views of the invader, and the character 
 of the native. 
 
 G 2 OF 
 
m 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PATAGONIANS. 
 
 (JN the f out hern extremity of the New World, 
 the mqft inohfpitable and unfruitful of all the 
 regions of the earth , dwells, as we are told, a 
 race of giants, fo lazy, that they never ftir but 
 on horfeback ; and fo dajiardly, that notwith- 
 ftanding their fuperiority injirength of body to 
 the dwarfs who fur round them, they have ne 
 ver dared to make their way to a happier cli* 
 mate than their own, though a troop of one 
 hundred fuch combatants might have ranged 
 unrejtfted from one end of that continent to the 
 other. This confederation, joined to the total 
 want of analogy in any other quarter of the 
 globe, and to the great improbability that Na 
 ture fbould have thrown a race of men, the 
 fineji forms of her creation, on a fpot of earth 
 
 the 
 
 
OF THE PATAGONIANS. 85 
 
 the leaft fitted to fupport them, is fufficient to 
 convince me that there are no fuch beings 
 exifting. I Jhall not^ therefore^ enter with 
 my author Into a minute exa?nination of the 
 authorities b$ which the facJ is fupport ed* 
 but pafs to the latter part of this article^ 
 which is lefs argumentative ', and more to the 
 purpofe* 
 
 < J have often^imagined that the notion of 
 the Europeans, determined to difcover giants 
 round the Streight of Magellan, hath had 
 its fource in the tradition of the Americans, 
 
 * In Lord Anfon's expedition to the South Sea, the 
 Wager being wrecked on the coaft of Patagonia, eight 
 of the crew were made prifoners by the natives, among 
 whom they refided eight months; thefe, on their re 
 turn to Europe, declared that the Patagonians were of 
 the ordinary flature of other men. " Cette deciiion me 
 ft paroit etre d'un plus grande a^utorite que les temoig- 
 <f nages, reunis de tous les voyageurs qui n'oifc fait q'une 
 " apparition aux terras Magellainiques." 
 
 touching 
 
86 OF THE PATAGONIANS* 
 
 touching the exigence of fuch beings in early 
 times. It is furprifmg that the annals of all 
 the ancient nations of the earth fhould be 
 foundto agree in this tradition, and that the 
 common origin of a prejudice fo univerfally 
 embraced, fhould be inveloped in an impe 
 netrable darknefs. 
 
 Among the feveral attempts to clear up 
 this obfcurity, there is not one more fingular 
 than that of a theologian of our own days, 
 who, after having cited, one after another, 
 Genefis, the Metamorphofes of Ovid, and the 
 Bibliotheque Or lent ale de d? Herbelot, gravely 
 allures us, that our globe is nothing more 
 than a heap of fragments and ruins of a globe 
 more beautiful and perfect, on which angels 
 dwelt before us, and on which they would 
 be (till dwelling, had they not provoked 
 Heaven by their ill conduct, and drawn on 
 themfelves its thunders, by which they were 
 
 annihilated. 
 
OF THE PATAGONIANS. 87 
 
 annihilated. It is to this firft race (adds he) 
 that we are to attribute the prodigious foffil 
 bones fcattered throughout the two conti 
 nents ; and the fable of the Titans, which 
 hath found its way into the mythologies of 
 the ancients. After the deftru&ion of thofe 
 angels, was feen to fpring up the prefent 
 race of men, who bid fair to be fulminated 
 in their turn. 
 
 The Abbe Pluche was of opinion, that the 
 fable of the giants was no more than the alle 
 gorical hiflory of the early revolutions of our 
 planet; and that all people had perfonified 
 the phcenomena occafioned by deluges and 
 the ruinous combuftions of the globe. 
 
 On examining and analyzing the name of 
 the greater part of thofe giants, who fought 
 as long as they could againft the gods, one 
 fees, in effeft, that they fignify precifely de 
 rangements 
 
88 OF THE PATAGONIANS. 
 
 rangements of the earth, atmofphere, and 
 elements. The name of the terrible Briar eus 
 implies darknefs, or light eclipfed; that of 
 Othus, the confufion of time and the feafons ; 
 that of Arges^ lightning; that of Brontes ', 
 thunder; that of Mimas, the fall of waters; 
 that of Porphyron, the chafms and crevices 
 of the earth; that of Typhaus fignifies a 
 whirlpool of inflamed vapours ; that of Ence- 
 ladus^ the rufhing of torrents; that of Ephi- 
 altes, frightful dreams, or black clouds. 
 
 It muft be confefled, that there is in this 
 croud of confenting etymologies a very clear 
 meaning; but that which is not to be fo eafily 
 accounted for is the apparent confent of all 
 the people on the earth to perfonify, after 
 the fame manner, and under the fame em 
 blems, meteors and phyfical cataftrophes ; 
 that the Egyptians, Indians, Japanefe, Peru 
 vians, Norwegians, Mexicans, and Britons, 
 
 fhould 
 
OF THE PATAGONIANS. 89 
 
 fhould meet exaftly in their allegories, and 
 have confpired to metamorphofe terreftrial 
 and aerial phoenomena into giants; this, I 
 fay, is remarkable indeed. 
 
 Admitting that the Greeks and Jews had 
 derived this tradition from Egypt, it cannot 
 be fuppofed that the Norwegians, who have 
 compofed the Edda of the Icelanders, had any 
 knowledge of the Egyptian writings ; it can 
 not be fuppofed that the Peruvians, who have 
 never known how to read or write, fhould 
 have borrowed this fable from the ancient 
 books of the Japanefe, from the Vedams of 
 the Indians, or the writings of the Jews, of 
 which no One exemplar had penetrated into 
 the New World before the year 1492. 
 
 Imuft take the liberty In this place to obferve, 
 that our author has not ftated this -particular 
 point with his ufual candour. Let us fubftiiute 
 
 oral 
 
90 OF THE PATAGON1ANS. 
 
 oral tradition in the place of written informa 
 tion 3 and a great part of the difficulty dif ap 
 pears. But by what means of communication 
 could the Peruvians have received fuch oral 
 tradition? To anfwer one quejlion by another 
 How came they by the ufe of the Chinefe 
 Qulpos, or the clrcumcifion of the Egyptians? 
 How came they by the cajlration of males, and 
 injlbulation of females, ufages indifputably ori 
 ental? And again, whence their tradition 
 that Mungo Capac, their firft civilizer, came 
 from a far dlftant country; and that he and 
 his family were children of the fun, an Idea 
 manifeftly of Afiatlc origin? After all, the dif 
 ficulty lies folely in our ignorance of the hiftory 
 of the earliejl ages ; a difficulty much increafed 
 by the obligation we are under of believing 
 that the world is not more than 6000 years old, 
 and that the hiftory of man is included in that 
 of one particular people. 
 
 W 
 
OF THE PATAGONIANS. 91 
 
 We will not add to this traft on the Pata- 
 gonians, the argument that might be drawn 
 from the uniformity of the human fpecies in 
 the other quarters of the globe, to demon- 
 flrate, that there cannot be a family of giants 
 in a little province of the Magellannic region. 
 Had there been any fuch, fome living proofs 
 of their exiftence would certainly have been 
 brought to Europe; or, at leaft, their 
 Ikeletons. 
 
 OF 
 
OF THE 
 
 BLAFARDS, AND WHITE NEGROES. 
 
 A HE men the moft remarkable difcovered 
 in America are, without doubt, the Blafards 
 of the ifthmus of Darien; they were un 
 noticed by naturalifts before the year 1680, 
 though Cortez, a century before, had 
 defcribed them at large in his letters to 
 
 Charles the Vth. But Cortez was treated 
 as an exaggerator and madman, and all the 
 fcholailics of Spain rejected in thofe days 
 a faft ftriftly true, with the fame blind ob- 
 flinacy that they defend in thefe days fafts 
 undeniably falfe. 
 
 The Blafards of Darien bear fuch a refem- 
 blance to the White Negroes of Africa and 
 of Afia, that we are to confider them as be 
 ings 
 
OF THE BLAFARDS. 93 
 
 ings of one and the fame kind, and are jufti- 
 fied in affigning to them all, one general, 
 common, and conftant origin. 
 
 The Blafards, or White Negroes, though 
 born of black or copper-coloured parents, 
 have never been black; they are met with 
 principally towards the centre of Africa, or at 
 the extremity of the South of Afia; they are 
 called Dondos by the Africans, Kackerlakes 
 by the Indians. They are low of ftature, 
 not exceding four feet five inches; their 
 colour, a faded white, like that of paper or 
 muilin; they are born of this colour, and 
 never change at any age. Their fight is fo 
 weak, that they cannot bear the broad day, 
 during which they keep clofe, but fally forth 
 at twilight, or by moonlight, when they 
 range the forefls, and hunt with alacrity 
 even the larger game. Their eyes, in form 
 and elteft, referable thofe of cats; their hair, 
 
 in 
 
94 OF THE BLAFARDS^ 
 
 in Africa is woolly; in Afia, long and pen 
 dent; either white as~fnow, or reddifh, ver 
 ging on yellow. Their whole form announces 
 a feeble and vitiated conftitution ; their hands 
 are fo ill made out, that they are more pro 
 perly to be called paws; the joints of the 
 fingers are in a manner knotted, their mo 
 tions flow and diftreffing; the play of the 
 mufcles of the lower jaw, which comes out 
 much beyond the upper, is fo imperfect, 
 that -they labour greatly in chewing; their 
 ears are formed differently from ours, the 
 tiffue is thinner, the mell more contracted, 
 and the lobe long and pendent. 
 
 i . ' >'1 (f , . .' 
 
 Though the phyfiognomy of the Dondos 
 is not precifely the fame with that of the 
 Negroes, one difcovers neverthelefs, in their 
 features half effaced, that they are of African 
 origin; in like manner as the Kackerlakes 
 are diftinguifhed to be of Afiatic extraction. 
 
 Thefe 
 
AND WHITE NEGROES. 95 
 
 Thefe men, of the colour of chalk, with 
 the eyes of cats or owls, are found only ia 
 the Torrid Zone, to the tenth degree or 
 thereabouts from the Equator; at Loango, 
 Congo, and Angola, in Africa; at Ceylon, 
 Borneo, and Java, in Afia; at New Guinea, 
 in the Terras Auftrales; and at Darien, in 
 America. But what is mod remarkable, 
 wherever found, they are held in the higheft 
 degree of refpecl: and even veneration; not 
 by the vulgar alone, but by the fovereigns 
 of Africa and the Indies, who confider the 
 poiTeffion of them in their courts, and about 
 their perfons, as an article of magnificence; 
 looking ori them as beings dirlinguiihed, not 
 difgraced, by Nature. It is curious to find 
 by the letters of Cortez, that the dune idea 
 was entertained of thefe Blafards in Ame 
 rica, and that Montezuma had three or four 
 of thefe creatures in his court. 
 
 Could 
 
96 OF THE BLAFARDS, 
 
 Could we expeft to find, as it were at our 
 own doors, in the Cretin of Switzerland, a 
 being fomewhat analogous to the Blafard? 
 Thefe Cretins are feen in confiderable num 
 bers in the Valais, and principally at Sion, the 
 capital of the country ; they are deaf, dumb, 
 idiots, almoft infenfible to blows, and have 
 prodigious goitres, which defcend below the 
 ftomach; they are totally inept, and incapable 
 of thinking. The inhabitants of the country 
 hold thefe Cretins to be the guardian angels 
 of their families ; and thofe who are fo unfor 
 tunate, that they cannot claim kindred with 
 one or more of them, ferioufly confider them- 
 felves as on ill terms with Heaven; they are 
 never contradi&ed, are carefully provided 
 for, nothing omitted that may amufe them, 
 and fatisfy their defires; the children dare not 
 infult them, and the old behold them with 
 refpeft; this refpect is founded on their in 
 nocence and weaknefs. 
 
 This 
 
AND WHITE NEGROES. 97 
 
 This is precifely the cafe with the Blafards, 
 whofe ftupidity is not lefs than that of the 
 Cretins; for though the excefs of their de^ 
 generacy has not quite deprived them of the 
 power of fpeech, it has to a great degree 
 impaired their fight and hearing. 
 
 It is related, that at Loango, the Albinos 
 or Blafards recite prayers before the king; 
 this cuftom fprings from the opinion of thejr 
 fan&ity. The Switzers, no doubt, would 
 have adopted this ufage, were it not that 
 their Cretins are unhappily dumb. Tkefe 
 prejudices are not modern; we find the 
 cleared traces of them in the higheft anti 
 quity, when it was believed that Heaven often 
 infpired the idiot and the crackbrained, in 
 preference to the devotee. Prophets, in ger 
 neral, had the reputation of not being quite 
 found; and yet they were liftened to, and 
 believed, both at home and abroad* The 
 H prieftefs 
 
98 OF THE BLAFARDS, &C. 
 
 prieftefs of Apollo, enouncing his oracles, 
 aflumed, in the violence of her geflures, all 
 the extravagances of phrenzy ; and was never 
 fo much in credit, as when ihe appeared to 
 be quite out of her fenfes. 
 
 Though Chriftians have not, like Maho 
 metans, the charity to treat idiots kindly in 
 this world, they have no doubt of their 
 being very well off in the next. All thefe 
 different prejudices are as it were in contact ; 
 becaufe from one extremity of the earth to 
 the other, under fimilar circumftances, men 
 are the fame. 
 
 OF 
 
OF THE 
 COMMERCE OF EUROPE WITH AMERICA. 
 
 HE mines of gold and filver arc no 
 fource of happinefs to the New World; 
 on the contrary, they have impoverifhed 
 the Spariards and Portuguefe, who for the 
 mod part poifefs them. Peru would be 
 more happy, if, inftead of its veins of metals, 
 it had a fufficient population, plenty of cul 
 tivable grounds, and above all, great roads. 
 But how fhould the Spaniards have them in 
 Peru, who have them not at home? Yet 
 in Germany, and even in Bohemia, where 
 the want of money is a general complaint, 
 the roads are excellent. 
 
 H 2 The 
 

 100 OF THE COMMERCE OF 
 
 / . 
 
 The pearls of Panama and California are 
 of little advantage to the regions which 
 abound in them; thefe riches, like thofe of 
 the mines, inftead of augmenting, diminifli 
 f j& population, the true wealth of a nation. At 
 Mexico, the fame man who wears diamond 
 buckles on his ihoes, retires at night to 
 fleep on flraw: fo the a'bbes of Rome, 
 proudly dreiTed in filk, dine at one hofpital 
 and fup at another. 
 
 'X 
 
 The cochineal is a little red infeft, which, 
 enlivened by a ftrong acid, produces a fine 
 tint: this is a real treafure; it employs 
 hands, and advances population. 
 
 When beavers abound in a country, as 
 they did in North- America when firft difco- 
 
 cl 
 
 vered, it is a proof of that country's being lit 
 tle better then a defert : fuch a mifchievous 
 animal cannot be tolerated in a cultivated 
 
 country; 
 
EUROPE WITH AMERICA. 1OI 
 
 country; efpecially where there are dykes 
 and fences againft inundations. There are 
 provinces in Germany where they pay eleven 
 crowns a head for that of a beaver. 
 
 The importations from Europe into Ame 
 rica are of the necerTaries of life; thofe from 
 America into Europe are articles of luxury; 
 fo that Europe muft gradually draw out of 
 the New World all its filver and gold. 
 
 The true principle of the weaknefs of { ' 
 America is in its want or inhabitants; of 
 
 Negroes in the South, and of Germans in 
 t -&-X. ^~ 
 
 the North: it is admitted, that, at different , 
 times, the Englifli colonies fcave drawn half 
 a million of labourers from the Palatinate, 
 Suabia, Bavaria, and the Eccleliaftical States: 
 while Spain and Portugal have been dif- 
 peopled by their colonies; the miferable 
 policy of powers depending on their mines; 
 
 the 
 
102 OF THE COMMERCE &C. 
 
 the produce of which mufl in the end go 
 to other nations for thofe neceflaries which 
 they want hands to raife at home. From 
 all this it follows, that fo long as population 
 continues fo weak, efpecially in South- Ame 
 rica, that country muffc remain dependant 
 
 on Europe, the miftrefs of the coaft of Africa, 
 
 // ( * (*$ 
 the nurfery of labourers. U,M*V v6 h C\A 5 
 
 OF 
 / 
 
OF MONEY, 
 
 AS A SIGN OF CIVILIZATION. 
 
 <c O 
 
 OOYEZ feul, et arrivez par quelque ac- 
 " cident chez un peuple Inconnu; fi vous 
 " voyez une piece de monnoie, comptez que 
 " vous etes arrive chez un peuple police. 
 
 " ESPRIT DES Loix." 
 The Americans have no money, and are 
 fo flupid that' they cannot be brought to 
 conceive the ufe of it. 
 
 The Egyptians knew not the ufe of money 
 before the Perfian conqueft; yet were the moft 
 enlightened nation on the earth at that <zra. 
 The cafe was, having every thing they wanted 
 at home, they had not given into commerce 
 with foreign nations: among themfelves, the 
 interchanges of commodities anfwered the pur- 
 
 ~f ^^ Concerning 
 
104 OF MONEY. 
 
 Concerning money, as the medium of com-' 
 merce, M. Pauw has brought forward fome 
 curious -particulars in his Recherches Philofo- 
 phiques fur les Grecs. 
 
 " Toutes les fubtilites qu'on croit avoir 
 " etee inventees de nos jours par les Specu- 
 " lateurs de Londres etoient connues des 
 u Grecs il y a plus de deux mille ans. 
 
 " Les negocians qui frequentoient le port 
 " d'Athenes, et la bourfe du Piree avoient 
 " 1'art d 1 y repandre des bruits tres-alar- 
 " mans afin de faire hauiTer le prix des 
 " bles." Precifely as we do, to lower the 
 price of Stock. Who could have fufpe tied that 
 the wit of the alley was Attic? 
 
 " C'eft dans les operations de ce commerce 
 " qu'on trouve la premiere notion des lettres 
 *' de change: Ifocrate dit de la maniere la ~ 
 
 " plus 
 
OF MONEY. 105 
 
 " plus claire qu'un etranger qui avoit amene 
 " des cargaifons de grains a Athenes, y 
 " donna a un marchand nomme Stratocle, 
 " une lettre de change a tirer fur quelque 
 " place du Pont-Euxin ou il lui etoit du 
 " de 1'argent." 
 
 Hitherto it has been fuppofed, that the 
 Jews of Europe were the inventors of Bills 
 of Exchange. 
 
 " L'auteur du dialogue intitule Eryxias, 
 " qu'on a tantot attribue a Platon, et tantot 
 " a ^Efchine le philofophe, <iit que les Car- 
 cc thaginois renfermoient dans de petites 
 " bourfes cachetees quelquG objeft inconnu, 
 " qui avoit parmi les negocians une valeur 
 " (lipulee et garantie par le credit de la re- 
 " publiquej ce qui revient exaftement au 
 *' papier monnoie des modernes." 
 
 OF 
 
OF THEIR WANT OF 
 
 NUMERICAL TERMS, 
 
 JL AKE from an American his material 
 figns or reprefentatives of numerical values, 
 and he cannot proceed by language beyond 
 the number three. PoiTefTed of precife no 
 tions of numerical values, they would, like 
 other people, have invented terms to exprefs 
 them: not to have done this, is downright 
 ftupidity. Their fyftem of counting is no 
 thing more than a repetition of units, like 
 the notches or fcore on a tally. 
 
 It is found by the Shaftah, which, if not 
 the mofl ancient, is certainly one of the 
 mod ancient books extant, that the Orien 
 tals had in the earliefl times numerical 
 words carried beyond the term of a million 
 
 in 
 
WANT OF NUMERICAL TERMS. 107 
 
 in a decimal proportion: as Paar, 1000 
 Lac, 10,000 Paar par Paar, a thoufand 
 times one thoufand. 
 
 It is furprifmg r that, in analyzing a frag 
 ment of the hiflory of the Hindoos, pub- 
 lifhed by Alexander Dow, fome of our 
 literati (hould attack, not only the antiquity 
 of the Shaftah, but even that of the Indians 
 in general; maintaining, that they received 
 their philofophy from the Greeks, (a ftrange 
 inverfion of the order of things) and that 
 their legiilator lived but three hundred, or at 
 moil a thoufand years before our cera; and 
 all this, becaufe Herodotus does not fpeak 
 of them as of a people celebrated, or even 
 much known. Herodotus travelled no far 
 ther into Afia than to Babylon, fo that 
 he could not know much of the Indians. 
 Herodotus makes no mention of the Chi- 
 nefe: Does it follow, that the Chinefe are 
 
 not 
 
I08 OF THEIR WANT OF 
 
 not a very ancient people? Such inferences 
 are abfurd. 
 
 With refpeft to the philofophy of the 
 Greeks, the Indians heard nothing of it be 
 fore the time of Pythagoras, who borrowed 
 his philofophy from them, not they from 
 him; accordingly, Clement of Alexandria 
 proves that all the Grecian philofophy came 
 from the Eaft. One finds in Strabo and 
 Pliny, that in the time of Alexander, the 
 Gymnofophifts flood on one leg contempla 
 ting the fun at the point of the nofe. Did 
 they learn this fpeculation, which they prac- 
 tife at this, day, from the Greeks? 
 
 As to the Legiilator of the Indians, our 
 literati have confounded Boudha with Bra- 
 mah. Boudha lived about i ooo years before 
 our asra, and was the corrupter of the ancient 
 dolrine, not its founder. The paflion for 
 
 undermining 
 
NUMERICAL TERMS. 109 
 
 undermining the antiquity of the Orientals, 
 and ihe authenticity of their works, has 
 been fuch of late, that the Zends were no 
 fooner brought into Europe in 1762, than 
 they were attacked by Brucker, who had 
 never feen them. Yet the Zends are much 
 more modern than the Shaftah. 
 
 OF 
 
9 
 
 OF THE STATE OF THE ARTS IN PERU, 
 
 WHEN FIRST DISCOVERED. 
 
 /.jA RATE, a contemporary with the firft 
 difcoverers, fays, that there was not, under 
 the Incas, a fmgle place inhabited that could 
 be called a city, except Cufco. 
 
 According to GarcilafTo, the Peruvians 
 had forges, but to little purpofe ; with refpeft 
 to iron, they had many mines of it, but in- 
 flead of working it into inftruments, they 
 knew not how to make it malleable, and of 
 courfe ufeful. Yet the Hottentots, without 
 ^rifmg out of favage life, have, from their 
 firfl being difcovered, forged iron. 
 
 The metallurgy of the Peruvians began 
 on gold; from this they paffed to the melt 
 ing 
 
STATE OF THE ARTS IN PERU. Ill 
 
 ing of filver ore; thence to that of copper; 
 from this to the difcovery of iron, which 
 they could not melt, as they wanted the 
 ingenuity to purge it of its drofs. If the 
 progrefs was the fame in the Old World 
 as in the New, it follows, that the Golden 
 Age, fo much celebrated by the poets of 
 antiquity, was an age of barbarifm. The 
 inconliilencies of the poets confirm this 
 idea ; thus Ovid, at the fame time that he 
 defcribes the earth producing without cul 
 ture the richeft harvefts, and the rivers flow 
 ing with milk and nectar, gravely informs 
 us, that men lived on acorns, haws, and 
 blackberries the genuine defcription of fa- 
 vage life. 
 
 Following this idea of advancement, it 
 (hould feem, that the Peruvians, when firft 
 difcovered, had barely entered on the age 
 of copper. 
 
 The 
 
112 STATE OF THE ARTS IN PERU* 
 
 The Chinefe, acquainted with the ufe of 
 iron fo early as in the reign of Yao, were 
 in the age of iron at the time that the na^ 
 tions of the Weft were in the age of gold; 
 that is, were civilized at the time that we 
 were favages. 
 
 Lively, and profound; the genius of Pauw 
 could reconcile the antithejls, and blend the 
 'vivacity of Montefquieu with the depth of 
 Arlftotle. While he feems to play on the fur- 
 face, he is at the bottom of the fubjecl* 
 
 * II appFofondit tout, en paroifTant tout effleurer. 
 
 He mnft be a proud writer, who would difdain to 
 borro^ a thought from Voltaire. But, I proteft, that, 
 on firft fetting it down, I felt, as if the thought were my 
 own; fuch miftakes.will often happen in the warmth of 
 thinking, an4 co-operation of felf-love; and, if not 
 pardonable, it would be better for the writer, of to-day, 
 at the outfet, to lay afide his pen. 
 
 ' 4 
 
 The 
 
STATE OF THE ARTS IN PERU. 113 
 
 The Peruvians could neither read nor 
 write, nor manufa&ure iron ; they wanted 
 words to exprefs fpace, duration, matter, 
 fpirit, &c.; they could not reckon without 
 material figns, or reprefentatives of numerical 
 terms which they wanted. Upon the whole, 
 perfe&ly refembling in exterior figure, the 
 beard excepted, the men of our hemifphere, 
 they were infinitely more ignorant, lefs in- 
 duftrious, lefs inventive; in fhort, the Eu 
 ropeans knew all that the Peruvians were 
 ignorant of, and the few things they did 
 know, much better than they did. 
 
 4. 
 
 Exclufive of the Peruvians not having 
 the leaft notion of mechanics, they knew not 
 the ufe of lime, or to burn bricks, nor even 
 the ufe of the pulley; they could not have 
 hewn ftone, for want of inflruments to polifli 
 it. We may judge from thefe circumftan- 
 ces (the truth of which is not difputed) of 
 i the 
 
114 STATE OF THE ARTS IN PEU. 
 
 the flate of their archi tenure, fo celebrated 
 by that blockhead Garcilaflb, and his fol 
 lowers. 
 
 The Mexicans, fo far from being paint 
 ers, as is pretended, knew not the firft ele 
 ments of drawing; even at this day, all the 
 Americans and Creoles united cannot pro 
 duce a picture fit to be placed in the collec 
 tion of an Alderman. 
 ~*-~ *- -'"i* 
 
 The falfe reports of travellers on thefe 
 and other articles have provoked our Phi- 
 lofopher to the following charge on travel- 
 writers in general. One may lay it down 
 
 as a maxim, that out of one hundred there 
 are fixty who are liars, not through in- 
 tereft, but ignorance; thirty through in- 
 terefl, or the pleafure of impofmg on the 
 publick ; and about ten who are honeft, and 
 aim at truth* 
 
 The 
 
STATE OF THE ARTS IN PERU. 
 
 The prevalence of national character is 
 thus noticed by our author. The Spa 
 niards are miferably fuperftitious, exagge- 
 rators, and, which is worfe, of a prolixity 
 that confumes one. The Italians are cre 
 dulous, and dwell on minutiae. The Englifh, 
 in general, are rather deep reafoners, than 
 exa& obfervers ; from the latter remark, how 
 ever ', he exempts Halley, Wood, Shaw, Anfon, 
 Pococke, Dampler, and Ellis. Do not the 
 exemptions, info many inftances, overturn the 
 charge? The Dutch have always had the 
 reputation of aiming at truth; and one may 
 count on their relations, where the writer is' 
 capable. Of the French, he fays no more 
 than that they have lately produced a writer, 
 whofe work anfwers its title of " Voyageur 
 Philofophe." The G ermans have had fome 
 truly eftimable, fuch as Kempfer, who to an 
 excellent underftanding has joined a profound 
 knowledge of natural hiftory, fo neceflary to 
 i 2 * the 
 
Il6 STATE .OF THE ARTS IN PERU. 
 
 the completion of a valuable work in this 
 way; infomuch, that it is a kind of prodigy 
 that, without it, Chardin , could have fuc- 
 ceeded fo well. He is among modern travel 
 lers what Paufanias was among the ancient; 
 he had an underftanding fo juft, and a pene 
 tration fo exquifite, that he (truck out by the 
 mere ftrength of genius thofe principles of 
 the influence of climate which Montefquieu 
 has but extended; as likewife the true origin 
 of Oriental defpotifm, which has been worked 
 up by Boulanger into a fyflem. 
 
 After all 9 it muft be confeffed that we have 
 'many and great obligations to travellers ; for 
 
 example, had it not been for M. Volney we 
 fhould never have known that the ancient 
 
 Egyptians were abfolute Negroes.* 
 
 * See his Travels into Egypt and Syria. 
 
STATE OF THE ARTS IN PERU. 117 
 
 Is it not to this fpirit of curiojtty th'at we 
 owe the many difcoveries made of late by our' 
 travellers into the Eaji? Such, for infiance, 
 as that of a finking affinity between the San- 
 fcrit and Irijh languages ;** for, as the Irifh 
 is faid to be the moft perfect remain of the 
 Celtic, a diligent comparifon of the Irifli with 
 the Sanfcrit might end in a proof of the 'San- 
 fcrit, Irifh, and Celtic, Having been one and 
 the fame language: one advantage of this dif- 
 covery would be to bring to light the follow 
 ing defiderata: What was the Celtic lan 
 guage, when and where did it flour ijh, and to 
 whom did it diftinffi'vely belong?^ , Hitherto, 
 
 we 
 
 * See Afiatic Refearches. 
 
 f To the Celtas, a people as little known as their 
 language; a name, when authors are at a lofs for a 
 better, for fome of thofe tribes of plunderers, who 
 poured down, at different times, from the North of 
 
 Alia 
 
IlS STATE OF THE ARTS IN PERU. 
 
 >we know nothing more of it than as being a 
 name for a parent tongue, which, having no 
 known exiftence itfelf, has given exiftence to 
 moft of the European languages : So much for 
 this particular enquiry. In general, what en- 
 largements offcience, what treasures of litera 
 ture, may we not expecl from an union of 
 Sanfcrit with Irifh erudition!^ 
 
 Alia and Europe into our fouthern provinces ; and who, 
 by a ftrange fatality, confidering their probable non- 
 exiilence as a diftincl: people, have furnifhed our Lin- 
 guifts and Antiquarians with matter for eternal difputes 
 and contradictions. 
 
 J To promote this very defirable end, would it not be 
 advifable to fend out fome learned profeflbr of Iriih on 
 an embafly to the Grand Lama, the Pope of the Bra- 
 mins : it will be attended with lefs expence, and may be 
 of as great utility to the caufe of literature, as a late 
 embafiy to the Emperor of China is likely to be of to 
 the commerce of England. 
 
 OF 
 
OF THE 
 
 HOSPITALITY OF SAVAGES. 
 
 IT is a known fa& that robbers and fa- 
 vages are diftinguiihed for hofpitality. A 
 wandering people do not labour; therefore 
 they have no money; travelling without mo 
 ney, they mud lodge and feed one another, 
 which is but to lend what is of little value. 
 Thus it is that the begging Monks throughout 
 the Catholick countries are extremely hof- 
 pitable; they get with facility more than 
 they can confume, and diftribute that fuper- 
 fluity, which is ufelefs to them, among the 
 poor of the place, or to travelling beggars 
 who lodge in their convents. The lazinefs 
 of thefe monks fupports the lazinefs of thofe 
 who are not monks ; this is the wornY effeft 
 of a thing ill in itfelf; it is to introduce 
 
 among 
 
120 HOSPITALITY OF SAVAGES. 
 
 among civilized nations the neceffities and 
 manners of the favage. 
 
 If a well-ordered government creates in- 
 duftry; induftry, property; and property, 
 money; it follows, that hofpitality, a thing 
 of neceffity to the Savage, argues a want of 
 police in civilized nations. 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE SUBJECT 
 
 ON 
 
 THE AMERICANS. 
 
 PERFECTIBILITY is the greateft 
 
 feirf which nature hath beftowed on man, 
 who hath received this faculty to the end 
 that he might be thereby qualified to attain 
 to civilived life; for, had it been defigned 
 to confine him to favage life, nothing more 
 had been given him than animal inftinft, 
 which had fufficed for him as it does for 
 other animals. 
 
 Animal inftinft teaches the favage to 
 build a hut, to copulate, to rear up his chil 
 dren, dxT fpeafc) to fubfifl by the chace, by 
 fifliing, or on the fpontaneous fruits of the 
 
 earth; 
 
122 CONCLUSION. 
 
 earth; to defend himfelf againft, or attack, 
 his enemies. Now, is there in all thefe ac 
 tions a fingle one that diftinguifhes him, 
 from brutes? They build dwellings, couple, 
 rear their young, have their language, 
 live by the chace, by fifhing, or on the wild 
 produ&ions of the earth; attack or defend 
 themfelves, according to the occafion. One 
 fees that all thefe a&ions sxclude indireff 
 labour, and include merely the dirett; which 
 looks no further than to prefent fubfiflence, 
 or the conflruclion of a dwelling; and this 
 hath fo little of real labour, that it may be 
 faid, that the favage and the bead do not la 
 bour at all: here, then, we have a proof 
 ' that the favage has no thought of extending 
 his perfectibility, which is not to be done but 
 by indireB labour; that is, by ftudy, or the 
 labour of thought the moft hard, the moil 
 intenfe, of all labours. 
 ( . \ 
 
 if 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 If this our globe had no other inhabitants 
 than favages, it would become a fcene of 
 horror and defolation : the earth unimproved 
 by labour would revert to that (late in which 
 it came out of the hands of nature; the level 
 grounds would be one continued fwamp, 
 from the inundations of rivers undrained; 
 the higher covered with foreds, the nurferies 
 of beads, which would gradually fupplant 
 the human fpecies; as was the cafe in North- 
 Amerieeiwhen firft difcovered, on which 
 there were reckoned one hundred beavers 
 for every individual of human kind. 
 
 The inhabitants of fuch a wade mud live 
 by the chace; from the decreafe of game, 
 mud enlarge the bounds of their hunting 
 grounds: the different tribes, impelled by the 
 fame neceilities, mud interfere ; hence eternal 
 wars; wars which, with their caufe, can have 
 no end; they mud fight, becaufe they mud 
 
 eatj 
 
124 
 
 CONCLUSION, 
 
 eat; nor can thefe contefls have any other 
 objeft than extermination: hence, favages 
 are ever fo atrocious in tfieir vengeance, fo 
 furious in their anger, that they do not feem 
 to know what it is to forgive. 
 
 jfu 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 OF CERTAIN CUSTOMS WHICH FORMERLY PRE 
 VAILED IN OUR HEMISPHERE, AND WHICH WERE 
 FOUND AMONG THE AMERICANS. 
 
 1 HE cuflom of interring living perfons 
 with the ^leceafed was not quite abolifhed 
 among the Gauls in the time of Csefar. This 
 had been introduced by Scythian colonies; 
 exifts in feveral parts of Lower Afia, and of 
 the coafts of Africa^ and was found both in 
 North and South America. It feems to have 
 fprung from the idea of being ferved in ano 
 ther world by thofe we have commanded in 
 this: Hence the facrificing qf flaves at the 
 tombs of their matters, and of wives on the 
 bodies of their hufbands. At the funeral of 
 a king of Akin, fays M. Roemer, in 1764, 
 they buried with him 300 of his wives, and 
 
 a much 
 
126 OF ANCIENT CUSTOMS. 
 
 a much greater number of flaves. The wife 
 who has children, among the Sad-Indians, 
 is not allowed to burn for her huiband ; this 
 honour is referred for the molt beloved, on 
 the fuppofition, no doubt, that he is to enjoy 
 her fociety in another world. So rooted is 
 this abfurdity in their manners, though in 
 direcl contradiction to their favourite doftrine 
 of a metempfychofis ; according to which, 
 our author play/ully remarks, the foul of the 
 hufband may pafs into the embrio of a moufe, 
 and the foul of the wife into that of a cat. 
 By this we fee, that contradiction between 
 religious dogmas and civil cufloms is no 
 proof, though often ufed as fuch, againft the 
 ekiflence of the latter. 
 
 The Indians give a beverage of faffron, 
 nightmade, and the ftrongeft narcotics, to 
 overcome the reluctance of the deflined 
 victims: the North-Americans' give a paffe 
 
 fo 
 
OF ANCIENT CUSTOMS. I2/ 
 
 of bruifed tobacco leaves, &c. for the fame 
 purpofe, and with the fame effect. 
 
 The do&rine of the refurre&ion of the 
 body has been more general than is ima 
 gined. We hardly know of any ancient 
 nation that was not iri the habit of putting 
 into tombs, by the fide of the dead, arms, 
 kitchen utenfils, &c. a manifefl proof of 
 their belief of an after-exiftence. And here 
 it muft feem very unaccountable, that an 
 ceconomical precept concerning interment 
 iliould be omitted in the books of Leviticus 
 and Deuteronomy, in which the detail in 
 other refpe&s is fo very minute as to forbid 
 the eatin? of the thi^h of a hare. 
 
 O O 
 
 To the cuftom juft mentioned may be 
 added a flrange one in the article of mourn 
 ing: it confifls in cutting off a joint of a 
 finger on the lofs of a hufband, a wife, or 
 
 near 
 
128 OF ANCIENT CUSTOMS. 
 
 near relation. The inhabitants of Paraguai, 
 the Guaranos, and many other people of 
 America, have made thefe amputations fo fre 
 quent, that men and women have been feen 
 with only five or fix fingers entire on both 
 hands; which gave rife to the firft accounts, 
 that thefe people had naturally but three 
 fingers on -each hand. The Hottentot has 
 preferved more of the original facrifice, by 
 cutting away one of his tefticles. 
 
 May not this cujiom^fo unacountable at fifft 
 view^ have bad its rife in the fimple notion, of 
 offering a part for the whole; a kind of com 
 pounding for the omljjion of the deftruftivc 
 
 ^v&r"**^*^*-- f f .(<.- -"~~ 
 
 practice of facrificing life?' 
 
 ,It is a cuftom among many nations of 
 America for the huuband to take to his bed 
 the moment that his wife is brought to bed. 
 Will it be believed, that this foolery has 
 
 been 
 
OF ANCIENT CUSTOMS. 129 
 
 been and is even now in ufe in- the Canton 
 of Bern, where it is called faire couvade. 
 It is probable that the Bernois borrowed 
 it from the Spaniards, among whom it ob 
 tained in the time of Strabo. Herodotus 
 found it among the Scythians and Egyp 
 tians ; it is obferved by the Brafilians, and 
 many other people of America. Mark 
 Paul afTures us that he found it among 
 many tribes of the^ independant Tartars : 
 fo that this cuftom has made the tour of 
 the globe. 
 
 The univerfality of accompanying eclipfes 
 .with every kind of noife that could be made, 
 appears very extraordinary to our author. That 
 it Jhould feemfo to one who is an advocate for 
 a much higher antiquity than is generally attri 
 buted to our world, would feem no lefs extra 
 ordinary to me, did I not know, that having 
 undertaken to prove that the Americans were 
 K aboriginals, 
 
130 OF ANCIENT CUSTOMS. 
 
 Aboriginals, he muft of courfe reject every idea 
 of communication. Such is the influence of 
 fyftem, even on minds the moji liberal. 
 
 Give to this our globe its jiift right , an un 
 bounded antiquity ; admit that, in the expanfe 
 tf time, it may have undergone many very great 
 changes, as of ocean into continent, and of conti 
 nent into ocean, the latter of which is- confirmed 
 by recent dif cover ies of many ijlands in the South 
 Sea; and ijlands, we know, are nothing elfe 
 than the higheft grounds of an overflown conti 
 nent: thefe changes, I fay, admitted, it follows 
 that no conclufions can be drawn from the pre- 
 fent face of the earth, again/I any pojjible inter- 
 courfe between its moft diftant inhabitants in 
 the earlieft ages. 
 
 All the nations who believe in the tranf- 
 migration of fouls make the world to be 
 much more ancient than thofe who do not 
 
 believe 
 
OF ANCIENT CUSTOMS. 
 
 believe in it. Hence the prodigious period t 
 of the people of Thibet, and of the Indians, /' 
 which has paffed from them to the Chinefe. 
 So prodigious indeed, that it could not flop Jhort 
 of eternity; for, the faffing of the foul from one 
 body into another induces the idea of a progrsf- 
 fion 'without end that which hath no end can 
 have no beginning; and fo vice verfd. Hence 
 a ivorld eternal and uncreated no creation, 
 no firft caufe. The gradations thefe of an 
 afcent, of which the apex is atheifm implied, 
 not profeffed, nor^ it may be, intended, by the 
 Orientals ; in which point alone they differ from 
 Spinoza, whofe doclrine, as to the refult, is 
 but a renovation of theirs ; with the advan* 
 tage of a procefe more impofmg, becaufe more 
 pbilofophical. 
 
 OBSBR- 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE, 
 
 [FROM- THE SAME,] 
 
 J.T is remarkable that the three great capes 
 or promontories of the earth, viz. Cape 
 -Horn, the Gape of Good Hope, and that of 
 Diemen's Land, (New Guinea) fhould be 
 turned to the South. The points of the 
 three great continents thus dire&ed make me 
 iufpeft, that immenfe volumes of water have 
 rolled with violence from the South to the 
 North 5 and that they have made breaches, 
 wherever the foft and fandy foils have given 
 way to the impulfe of the ocean. 
 
 The moft diftinguifhed capes, after thofe 
 juft mentioned, have much the fame direc 
 tion; fuch as, Gape Comorin, in Afia; than 
 of Malacca, in the peninfula of that namej 
 
 St. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 133 
 
 St. Mary, in Madagafcar; thofe of the penin- 
 fula of Kamfcatka, of Nova-Zembla, of the 
 great ifland of Jefo, of Greenland, of Cali 
 fornia, and of Bahama in Florida. Thefe 
 objeh, feen in the great, make it unneceflary 
 to regard thofe little points which advance 
 into the fea in other parts, and which, though 
 called capes, are nothing more than falient 
 angles, formed by particular accidents or 
 finuofities of the coaft. The three great 
 promontories of the Mediterranean, thofe of 
 Calabria, the Morea, and the Crimea, are 
 likewife turned towards the South. 
 
 ^ ... 
 
 The greateft irruption of waters into our 
 
 continent appears between Africa and New- 
 Holland to Cape Comorin, which, being 
 formed of vaft impenetrable rocks, divided 
 the currents from the South. One of thefe 
 currents, turned out of its courfe, feems to 
 have formed the Red Sea, of which the 
 
 Adriatic 
 
134 OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 
 
 Adriatic Gulph is, in my opinion, a conti 
 nuation; and that the fame force which 
 carried the waters into the land at Babel- 
 Mandel, impelled them on to the neigh 
 bourhood of Venice, furmounting the ifth- 
 mus of Suez, which is fince dried up, either 
 by the retreat of the Mediterranean, or by 
 
 the diminution of the Red Sea. The- 
 
 dtfficulty is to account for thefe retreats and 
 diminutions. 
 
 As to the Perfian Gulph, it feems to have 
 been produced by the fame irruption and 
 tendency of the ocean toward the North Pole. 
 
 ' 
 
 The ancients thought that the Cafpian Sea 
 was a prolongation of this gulph; in palling 
 over the fpace between them, in a line be 
 tween the 7 1 ft and ?2d degrees of longitude, 
 one falls on manifeft veftiges of the fea's 
 ancient bed, a wide champaign country of 
 moving fands, mixed with fragments of 
 
 dells, 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 135 
 
 fliells, and of marine fubftances. Beyond 
 thefe plains, now dry, is the great defert of 
 fand, 120 miles North of Ifpahan; in the 
 depth of this folitude, enormous mountains 
 of fait fpread over the furface for many 
 leagues every way: this canton is called at 
 this day by the inhabitants the Salt Sea, and 
 in our maps Mare Salfum. On the right of 
 this region of fait runs a line of fandy hills, 
 which the winds have heaped together. In 
 advancing under the fame meridian beyond 
 Coucheftan, the earth inclines, and con 
 tinues Hoping perceptibly to Ferrabat; the 
 courfe, probably, by which the ocean re 
 treated, after a temporary refidence in the 
 region firft defcribed. 
 
 I have obferved with aftonifliment, that 
 there is much more dry land on our fide of 
 the Equator than on the other j the fuppo- 
 fition, that there mud be a balance in the 
 
 South 
 
136 OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 
 
 South to the weight of the earth in the 
 North, is contradicted by the experience of 
 all modern navigators, who, from the 55th 
 degree of latitude on our hemifphere, to 
 the 6oth on the oppofite, have not fallen in 
 with any great continent. I obferve, with 
 equal furprife, that almoft all the parts of 
 the globe placed dire&ly under the Equator 
 are covered by the ocean ; which cannot be 
 reconciled with the elevation, it is faid, the 
 earth muil have at the Equator; it being the 
 nature of fluids to find their own level. 
 
 T0 this the .Newtonians will anfwer, that 
 the axis of the Equator, being longer than that 
 of the Poles, the motion of the earth muft he 
 greater under the Line; and that the waters 
 follow the greater movement: if fo, it only re 
 mains for them to prove, that this increafe of 
 motion is fufficient to furmount the natural 
 tendency of water to an equilibrium: and as 
 
 this 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 137 
 
 this is a matter of calculation^ in which they 
 excel, I have no doubt of their making it out to 
 the fatisfaflion of all thofe who are, able to 
 follow them. 
 
 Navigators have reached to the Both de 
 gree of North latitude, but have not been 
 able to get beyond the 6oth of Southern, 
 owing to the extreme cold, and oppofition 
 of ice: this confirms the prevalency of water 
 over earth in the South; it being admitted, 
 that air pafling over water is much colder 
 than that which pafTes over dry land, which 
 militates ftrongly againfl the fuppofition of a 
 great Southern continent. M. Buffon fup- 
 pofes that the great malTes of ice in the 
 South Seas are formed by rivers defcending 
 from the Auflral lands; but, admitting the 
 exiftence of thofe lands, this does not re 
 move the difficulty, the queflion not being 
 how thefe bodies of ice are formed, but why 
 
 they 
 
13& OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 
 
 they fhould dilTolve in fummer hi the Both 
 degree of our latitude, and never melt in any 
 feafon in the 6oth of the oppofite. 
 
 If a force from the South has driven the 
 waters to the North, thofe of the North 
 muft have taken a dire&ion to the South, 
 to fupply the wafte, and reflore the equili 
 brium; the obfervations of the Swediih 
 naturalifts confirm the fuppofition, by mark 
 ing the retreat of the fea from the Northern 
 coafts, in the proportion of four feet fix 
 inches in a century. 
 
 If this were the cafe, the retreat of the 
 "Northern ocean Jhould bear feme proportion to 
 the advances of the Southern, but this is notfe; 
 the former being flow and gradual r , the latter 
 impetuous and greatly predominant. Our au 
 thor refers this to a certain periodical motion in 
 nature yet unknown; this is no uncommon 
 
 way, 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 1^9 
 
 Way, though 'very unfatisfaffory, offolving the 
 difficulties of natural hi/lory, which muft for 
 ever abound in difficulties, as we know nothing 
 of the principles on which the great Author of 
 nature has atled. 
 
 We often hear of the fuperiority of the mo 
 dern^ over the ancient naturalifts ; owing, we 
 are told, to the wifdom of the former in aban 
 doning analogy ', and conjecture from the reafon 
 of things, the favourite practice of the ancients ; 
 and trufting intirely to invejligation by experi 
 ment : yet the ancients did not negletJ, fo much 
 as has been fuppofed, this mode of invejtiga- 
 tion ; witnefs, the celebrated I have found it* 
 of Archimedes, not unlike, though of lefs eclat, 
 to that divine Jiroke of Newton, by which his 
 prifm brought out at once the whole fecret of 
 colours. As to the great advantages which 
 
 have 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE, 
 
 been derived from this adherence to expe 
 riment^ we may form a judgment of them, in 
 y from the following Jiatements : 
 
 " If it be afked what are the difcriminativc 
 " charafteriftics of minerals, vegetables, and 
 " animals, as oppofite to one another, I 
 " plainly anfwer, that I do not know any, 
 " either from natural hiftory or chemiftry, 
 a which can wholly be relied on." 
 
 Again: - " Every one thinks that he 
 ," knows what an animal is, and how it is 
 * c contra-diftinguilhed from a vegetable; and 
 " would be oiFended at having his knowledge 
 " queftioned thereupon. A dog or a horfe, 
 " he is truly perfuaded, are beings as clearly 
 " diftinguiihcd from a herb or a tree, as 
 " light is from darknefs; yet as in thefe, 
 " fo in the productions of nature, the tran- 
 cc fition from one to the other is effe&ed by 
 ** imperceptible gradations." . , 
 
. OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 14! 
 
 - And again : " If rejecting fpontaneous 
 
 " motion and figure as very inadequate tefts 
 " of animality, we adopt perception in their 
 " flead, no doubt, he would be efteemed a 
 " vifionary in philofophy, who fhould extend 
 " that faculty to vegetables ; and yet there, 
 " are fever al chemical, phyfical, and meta- 
 " phyfical reafons, which feem to render the 
 " fuppofition not altogether indefenjible." 
 
 If the diminution of the fea be perceptible 
 in the Northern Regions, it ihould take place 
 in fome degree in the Mediterranean ; and fo 
 it has been found to do from age to age. 
 
 The fediment from running waters is not 
 fo considerable as the appearance of thofe 
 waters indicates. The waters of any river, 
 however thick or muddy, do not contain 
 
 * See WATSON'S Chemifhy, vol. v. EfTajr 3. 
 
 quite 
 
142 OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE, 
 
 quite fixty grains of earth in one hundred 
 and twenty pounds of water. On fetting 
 fome water of the Nile in a glafs tube, the 
 fediment was found to have only the eighth 
 of a line in a volume of water which feemed 
 to have fifty times more mud than was ob 
 tained by precipitation: it is abfurd, there 
 fore, to account for the land's gaining on 
 the fea, by fuppofmg that the bottom of the 
 Mediterranean has been raifed by the fand 
 and mud carried into it by the currents of 
 rivers; for, were this the cafe, the intire 
 foil of Egypt mud have been fwept away 
 
 by the Nile into the Mediterranean: 
 
 Or rather the Nile, by its overflowings , muft 
 have raifed the furface of Egypt out of the 
 reach of its own inundations. 
 
 No hiftory or tradition has taken notice 
 of any memorable cataflrophe occafioned 
 by earthquakes between the 52d and 6ifl 
 
 degrees 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 143 
 
 degrees of North latitude: it is only when 
 we advance towards the Pole or the Line, 
 in the heart of the Continent, that earth 
 quakes become both frequent and terrible. 
 Another obfervation, no lefs interefling, is, 
 that the greater part of the volcano s on our 
 hemifphere are fituated on iilands, or very 
 near the fea, as Hecla, in Iceland; Etna, in 
 Sicily; and Vefuvius, &c. Among the 
 great volcanos are, the Paranucah in tfye 
 iile of Java, Conopy in that of Banda, and 
 Balaluan in Sumatra. There are alfo vol 
 canos in the iflands of Ferando, Sec. ; in 
 fhort, in all thofe which compofe the great 
 empire of Japan, as well as in the Manilla 
 ifles, the Azores, Cape Verd, and above all 
 that of Del Fucgo. The prevalence of vol 
 canos in iilands, or in the neighbourhood 
 of the fea, makes me fufpeft that fea-water 
 is neceffary to produce the inflammation of 
 iulphureous and ferruginous pyrites, the 
 
 principal 
 
144 OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 
 
 principal aliment of volcanos: it is certain 
 that thefe pyrites never burn but when in 
 contaft with water, or in a moift atmo- 
 fphere, which may be attributed to the pro 
 perty in iron of decompofing fulphur by 
 the aid of water. By the lavas difcovered 
 in the Pyrenees, the Alps, the mountains of 
 Auvergne, Provence, &c. it is concluded, 
 that all thefe places have anciently been vol 
 canos. But why are the furnaces, found at 
 this day on the Terra-Firma, extinft? The 
 caufe, in my opinion, is, that the fea having 
 retreated from their vicinity, the fire has 
 ceafed, becaufe the decompofition of the 
 pyrites can no longer take place in the 
 bowels of the earth for want of a fufficient 
 quantity of water. 
 
 To attribute the extin&ion of volcanos 
 on the Continent to the phlogiflic matter 
 being exhaufled, is a manifeft error. Why 
 
 fliould 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 145 
 
 fhould it fail there, and not in iflands, or on 
 the fea coafts? Vefuvius has burnt for 
 more than 3000 years. In the excavations 
 of Herculaneum, the pavement of the ftreets 
 and foundations of houfes are found to 
 confifl of fquare pieces of lava, of the very 
 fame quality with that now thrown out 
 from Vefuvius. Now, Herculaneum was 
 built by the Aufonians and Arrunci, before 
 the firft colonies from Greece fettled in 
 Italy; this could not be later than 1330 
 years before our asra. Etna too had burnt 
 many years before the birth of Homer and 
 Hefiod. If the combuftible matter of thefe 
 two has not been drained in all this time, 
 what reafon is there to fuppofe that it 
 fhould have failed in the volcanos of our 
 continent? 
 
 Whatever has been written hitherto on the 
 
 formation of mountains, is fubjeft to infupe- 
 
 L rablc 
 
146 OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 
 
 rable difficulties, fmce it is known that the 
 higheft mountainous points are in no part of 
 the world covered with marine remains ; fuch 
 as {hells, dendrites, or other petrifications, 
 under whatever name they may be diftin- 
 guifhed.' The fea, then, has never fur- 
 mounted thofe heights, as is advanced by fo 
 .many naturalifts. I can never believe that 
 it is by the fea that thofe rocks have been 
 formed, whofe beds of the fame fort of {lone 
 we fee prolongued for a fpace of many 
 leagues. How fliould the waters affemble 
 fo many fubftances of one kind, and depofit 
 them in another place; at the fame time ex 
 cluding all mixture of heterogeneous matter 
 in the moment of the cohefion of thefe 
 lapidific particles ? It is not at all ftrange 
 that fragments of {hells fhould be found 
 in marbles, becaufe all marbles are nothing 
 more than coagulations; but it has never 
 been found, nor ever will be, that there are 
 
 any 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 147 
 
 any fhells in rock-flone, which proves to a 
 certainty, that this ftone, of which entire 
 mountains confift, has never been decompo- 
 fed or recompofed by the waves of the fea; 
 but is an homogeneous fubftance, primitive 
 and coeval with the world. 
 
 Thofe who would account for the for 
 mation of mountains, do not difhinguiih be 
 tween them and the great convex elevation 
 of Oriental Tartary, proved by the vafl 
 rivers defending from it in eyery dire&ion 
 towards the cardinal points. Switzerland 
 is, in miniature, to Europe, what the region 
 of Thibet is, in the great, to Afia; with this 
 difference, that Switzerland has mountains 
 much more elevated than any to be met 
 with on the great convex of Tartary, found 
 to be much higher than the higheft tops of 
 the Swifs mountains. . If the elevation of 
 Thibet proceeds, as fome have advanced, 
 L 2 from 
 
148 OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 
 
 from the crumbling of mountains, let it 
 be confidered how many millions of ages 
 it would take up to convert the pyramidal 
 form of Switzerland into an uniform con 
 vex elevation. 
 
 Mountains, of whatever height they 
 might be, could not ferve as a retreat to the 
 inhabitants of a country overwhelmed by 
 inundations; becaufe fuch mountains, being 
 more dry and flerile in proportion to their 
 altitude, could not furniih the alimentary 
 vegetables necefTary to the fuflenance of 
 families and herds of cattle: ten individuals 
 could not live ten days on the fummit of 
 Mount Jura. It is on fuch convexities as 
 that of Tartary, that the remains of the 
 human race might hope to find an afylum 
 againft the crufh of elements, and*the fury 
 of inundations. 
 
 If 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 149 
 
 If the tribes of Tartars had not, in their 
 wars with each other, deftroyed the libraries 
 formed by the learned of Thibet; if a vile 
 Emperor of China had not caufed to be 
 burnt all the books and manufcripts that 
 could be found in Upper Afia; we might, 
 without doubt, collect many facts which 
 would throw light on the hiftory of our 
 globe, fo modern, when we confult the mo 
 numents of men ; fo ancient, when we appeal 
 to the indications of nature. 
 
 The definition of records in China; the 
 burning of the library of Alexandria in that 
 romantic rather fcuffle than war by Julius 
 Casfar; and a fecond time, after it had been 
 in part re-eftablifhed, condemned to the flames 
 by the Caliph Omar; the deftru&ion of an 
 cient Greek authors by Pope Gregory; to 
 which we may add the prodigious number of 
 volumes defaced by ignorant Monks , to make 
 
 ivay, 
 
150 OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 
 
 way, by the rafure of the original text, for 
 their miferable homilies and compofitions ; have 
 been the moft forrowful events in the hiftory 
 of human kind:, they have deprived us of 
 treafures of knowledge which can never be 
 recovered: the archives of the world were 
 loft. Yet our Chronologifts boldly determine 
 the epocha of the origin of all nations. 
 To obferve the arrogance with which they 
 offer their vain calculations, one would ima 
 gine that they had read all the books and 
 manufcripts deftroyed in China, Thibet, 
 Egypt, and Rome, the very titles of which 
 are unknown to them* 
 
 Of all the attempts to calculate the age 
 of the world, the fyftem of petrifactions is 
 the moft unphilofophical; it being impof- 
 fible to afcertain a procefs depending on 
 the quality and quantity of lapidific juices, 
 and other circumftances, varying ad infini- 
 
 tum 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OtJR GLOBE. 151 
 
 turn in different places, according to the 
 nature of earths, waters, and air; and even 
 of the pofitions of the bodies on which the 
 experiments are mads. 
 
 CONTINUATION. 
 
 My author takes notice of a pajfage in 
 Juftin the abbreviator, concerning a difpute on 
 the point of antiquity between fome Scythians 
 and Egyptians. The former fupported their 
 claim by obferving, " Scythiam adeo editi- 
 " orem omnibus terris effe, ut cun&a flumina 
 " ibi nata, in Mceotim, turn deinde in Pon- 
 " ticum et Egyptium mare decurrunt; hoc 
 " argumento fuperatis Egyptis, antiquiores 
 
 " Temper Scythias vifi." C. i. lib. 2. 
 
 This argument, in my opinion, does not juftify 
 the inference; efpe dally as there are chrono- 
 glcal fads which fet the pretenfions of the 
 Egyptians on a better footing* 
 
 We 
 
152 OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 
 
 We are told by Bochart, that the Hebrew 
 was the eldefl of nations. Abraham, who lived 
 600 years bfeore the Trojan war, on his faffing 
 into Egypt, found it a great and flour ijhing 
 kingdom > the Jews do not fret end to trace their 
 origin, as a people, higher than Abraham* 
 So much for the antiquity of the Jews, 
 
 As to Bocharfo Jecond ajjertion, that the 
 Egyptians borrowed their arts and fciences 
 from the Jews, it will be Jufficient to obferve, 
 that, at the time of Abraham's vifit, the great 
 pyramid was ftanding-, this pyramid exhibits a 
 precife meridian, the difcovery of an aftronomer 
 far advanced in the fcience-, and the building 
 itfelf could not have been raifed without a con- 
 Jummate knowledge of mechanics. The facility 
 ( with which the Egyptians raifed thoje obelijks 
 which formed avenues to their temples, and 
 which of courfe left little room for the working 
 of engines, brings to Jhame the complicated 
 
 machinery 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 153 
 
 machinery employed by Fontana in creeling the 
 obelifk before the church of St. Peter at Rome. 
 
 Among the proofs of antiquity^ great and 
 
 early advances in the fciences, particularly in 
 
 a/lronomy, are the mofl decifive. 'The Egypti- ' 
 
 ans knew, at a very early period, that the fun 
 
 was fxed 9 a common center to the earth and 
 
 planets 'which move round it. They gave the 
 
 firft hint of thejublime idea of every flar being 
 
 a fun to a Jyftem like our own. Nor did they 
 
 flop Jhort of the invefligation of comet s> which ' 
 
 they held to be planet s> moving m orbits fimilar 
 
 but eccentrical to our Jy ft em. Seneca tfre Natu- 
 
 ralift) Jpeaking of comet 'j, objerves, " Depre- 
 
 " hendi propter raritatem edrum curfus adhuc 
 
 " non poteft; nee explorari an vices fervent, et 
 
 " illos ad fuum diem certus ordo producat." 
 
 Has not the fame uncertainty prevailed with us 
 
 till within this century 3 and are there not even 
 
 fome doubts touching the Jolitary prediction of 
 
 the 
 
154 OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 
 
 the comet 0/17$$? As to that, which y ac 
 cording to Newton, is to make its appearance 
 Jome time in the prefent century, and to Jweep 
 away in its vortex the fun, planets, and our 
 whole Jy ft em, it is to, be hoped that there is a 
 *JIaw in his calculation ; and we are encouraged 
 in this hope by the confederation, that, at the 
 time of his publijhing this alarming prediction, 
 Sir IJaac was deeply engaged in writing a com 
 mentary on the Revelations of John. 
 
 It is admitted that the Jews, on their coming 
 out of Egypt, 1500 years before our <era, 
 brought with them the Egyptian year of twelve 
 lunar months, of 30 days each. A year 0/360 
 days mufl have produced great confufion in the 
 Juccefficns of feafcns-, accordingly, it is known 
 that Jo early as the 1'rojan war, the Egyptians 
 had a year of 365 days-, ' this fell jh or t of true 
 time twenty -five days in a century, corrected in 
 the Julian calendar, by a4ding a day to every 
 fiuribycar. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 155 
 
 Though the Egyptians gave to the vulgar 
 year no more than 365 days^ yet they knew 
 that the true year was fix hours longer. 
 This the priefts explained in fecret to Eudoxus 
 and Plato, but kept the ufe they made of it 
 among the arcana of the college ; this ufe con* 
 fiftedin adding the fourth of a day to every year, 
 calling the firft year the Jirft quarter^ andfo on 
 to the fourth ', which formed the luftrum of four 
 years , borrowed from them by Eudoxus , accord 
 ing to Strabo and Pliny. This fecret Julius 
 Ctffar learnt during his flay at Alexandria^ 
 and this led him to the reform of the Roman ca 
 lendar. It is to the honour offcience to obferve^ 
 that of all the events of Cafar's life^ this bids 
 the fair eft for immortality ; for ^fuch is the na 
 ture of the thing, that time itfelf muft be loft 
 before this can be forgotten. 
 
 Should it be ajked. Why did not the priefts 
 apply their luftrum to the vulgar calendar? I 
 
 anfwer^ 
 
156 OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 
 
 anfwer, for a double reafon; they were rulers 
 and politicians, as well as-priejls, and thought 
 that, in both cafes, the vulgar were to be go 
 verned, as certain fowl are beft fattened, by 
 being kept In the dark. By their exclujive 
 knowledge of true time, they alone could predid 
 with exaffnefs the annual inundation of the 
 Nile, the ft age 3 of its increafe and retreat; they 
 alone could fix the precife time for obferving 
 the religious feajis, moft of which had their 
 origin in the changes of the feafons; on thefe 
 two articles depended the natural and political 
 exiftence of an Egyptian. Hence it was, that 
 the priefts were fo tenacious of the power this 
 fecret gave them over the people, that they ob 
 liged their kings, at their inauguration, to take 
 an oath that they would never fuffer the calen* 
 dar to be corrected. 
 
 Having animadverted on the policy of the 
 prieft, it is but fair to dojuftice to the fcience of 
 
 the 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 157 
 
 the philofcpher. The vulgar year lojing fix 
 hours every year, or twenty-five days in a cen 
 tury ', it follows that in 1465 years things muft 
 come right again, and the year begin where it 
 had done at the commencement of the period; 
 of this the ajlronomer took a moft ingenious 
 advantage ', by converting the period of 1465 
 years, thence called a Cycle, Into a meafurement 
 of time to be applied to the prodigious age he 
 
 attributed to the world. , 
 
 i 
 
 . // has been demonftrated by modern ajlrono- 
 mers, that the cycle was right in the i^tyth 
 year of the Chriftian <zra; confequently, the 
 preceding cycle muft have begun with the 
 Egyptians 1456 years before, and be en thence 
 carried back to the meafurement of an afcending 
 period of prodigious antiquity ; but here our 
 orthodox ajironomers intcrpofe, and, for reafons 
 obvious enough, will not allow that the Egyp 
 tians carried thefe cycles higher: -Jirange, that 
 
 a fen/ible 
 
158 OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 
 
 a fenfible people, who knew the value of time, 
 Jhould throw it away in forming a period 
 of which they meant not to make ufe more than 
 twice or thrice. Happily we live in an age in 
 which men are not to be governed by offer t ions , 
 in direcJ oppofition to the reafon of things. 
 
 The notion that the Jirft men were placed 
 on the higheji grounds, in order to put them 
 out of the reach of inundations, fuppofes the 
 necejfity of a deluge, and that univerfaL 
 As M. Pauw is Jilent, let us hear what the 
 learned Freret has thought proper to fay on 
 this fubjeft. 
 
 * 
 
 " The fuppofition, that the Egyptian, 
 " Greek, Indian, Chinefe, and even Ameri- 
 " can fables, were borrowed from the Mofaic 
 " Hiflory, is founded on forced conjectures, 
 " and abfurd fyftems. 
 
 At 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 159 
 
 " At the moft brilliant asra of the kingdom 
 " of Juda, the Jews had not cultivated aflro- 
 " nomy, geometry, or philofophy. 
 
 " The deluges of Ogyges and Deucalion 
 a are not mentioned by Homer or Hefiod; 
 " yet the latter was of Baeotia, in which both 
 " are faid to have taken place. Herodotus 
 " fpeaks of Deucalion, but fays nothing of 
 " a deluge. 
 
 " Plato, Ariftotle, Apollodorus, &c. at 
 " fert, in direl terms, that the deluges of 
 " Ogyges and Deucalion took place only in 
 " parts of Greece. 
 
 " According to Plato, the Egyptian priefts 
 * 6 told Solon, that they had in their annals 
 " accounts of thofe deluges ; but that fuch 
 " things could not have taken place in Egypt, 
 " becaufe it never rains there. 
 
 Berofus, 
 
l6o OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. 
 
 " Berofus, the Chaldean hiftorian, 144 
 " years before Chrifl, afferts an univerfal 
 '* deluge, agreeing in every point with the 
 " Mofaic account, and therefore fufpe&ed to 
 " have been borrowed from it.' 
 
 " Plutarch and Lucian mention the cir- 
 " cumftance of the bird let out of the ark 
 " of Deucalion in order to difcover land; 
 " manifeftly borrowed from Berofus, or his 
 " copyifls. 
 
 <c The identity of Noah with Deucalion, 
 " fuppofed by fome, contradicted by the moft 
 " learned of the Greek and Latin Chriflians. 
 
 " Noah's deluge 2376 years before Chrift, 
 <c that of Ogyges 500 years later. 
 
 ' " ' " 
 
 " The deluge of Deucalion about the time 
 
 " of Mofes, 1500 years before Chrifl. 
 
 " Grotius, 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE. l6l 
 
 " Grotius, and other defenders of the 
 " authenticity of the facred annals, not con- 
 " tent with marking the agreement between 
 " Mofes and Berofus, quote Ovid, Plutarch, 
 " and Lucian." Strange authorities on fuch 
 afubjeft! As to Ovid, he would have em 
 braced the omnia pontus erat, merely for the 
 conceit in deerant quoq; litora ponto. 
 
 If at any one time the fea was all, it never 
 could at any other time become lefs than all. 
 How, then, are we to account for thefirft idea 
 of a?} univerfal deluge? There is no difficulty 
 in the matter. It was natural for men, ignorant 
 of the extent and condition of our globe, to take 
 the utmoji that they knew for the whole, and to 
 apply the title of Univerfe to their own hori 
 zon. The great eft furprife of the Americans, 
 onjirft feeing the Spaniards, was iofnd that 
 there w^ere regions beyond their 9 s, and other 
 people than themfehes : a circle of a few yards 
 is to the emmet a world. 
 
 M That 
 
l62 OBSERVATIONS ON OUR GLOBE* 
 
 That a tradition of this kind, oncefet on foot, 
 Jhould keep its ground, and preferve its credit 
 with men after they had become more enlight 
 ened, will not feem extraordinary, when we 
 confider, that exaggeration in the idea, and a 
 confequent intemperance in the ufe of words, 
 have been in all times characleriftics of the 
 Orientals: this is not the only inftance in which 
 the hyperbole of the Eaft hath impofed on the 
 fimplicity of the Weft and North. 
 
 ON 
 
ON THE 
 
 EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 
 
 X3EFORE we can decide on the ufages, 
 manners, and character of a people, we muft 
 be acquainted with the climate, population^ 
 and, above all, the ftate of their agriculture: 
 for agriculture is the parent of arts, and arts 
 are the inlets to national chara&er. 
 
 The accounts given by Miflionaries of the 
 population of China are not to be relied 
 on. Du Halde gives to Pekin three mil 
 lions of inhabitants; Le Comte, two: this 
 difference proves a total ignorance of the 
 cafe. Calculations of the interior of the 
 country, taken from the ftate of population 
 on the borders of the great roads, while 
 M 2 diftaiit 
 
164 EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 
 
 diftant parts are almoft uninhabited, mufl 
 be erroneous in the extreme. The number 
 of walled towns in China does not exceed 
 1453; tru ? m > when compared with the 
 great extent of the empire. The Chinefe 
 crowd to the fea-coafts, trading towns, and 
 the banks of great rivers: here the popula 
 tion is exceflive; and hence the interior of 
 the country is deferted and uncultivated: 
 hence frequent famines; the inroads of the 
 poorer on the richer provinces, and the 
 confequent fubverfion of law and govern 
 ment. The unequal population, the want 
 of prote&ion from violence in the central 
 provinces, and the defefts of police in a re 
 gion of fuch extent, account for the miferies 
 incident to this country. 
 
 Robbers are in fuch numbers, that, one 
 year with ; another, from thirty to forty 
 thoufand are thrown into prifon : when thefe 
 
 bands 
 
EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 165 
 
 bands unite, the great towns are facked, 
 and entire provinces laid wafte. The beft 
 check on this evil would be a good body 
 of militia; its only preventive a ftridl: police: 
 the jealoufy of the Emperor will not truft a 
 militia in the hands of a fubject: and their 
 ignorance in legiflation excludes every hope 
 of an effe&ual police. Defpotifm never thinks 
 of preventives ; it truft s alone to the /event}' 
 ofitspunijhments. 
 
 In the earliefl times, moft legiflators gave 
 to the father a power over the life of his 
 children; but to tofs them into the river 
 as we do puppies, to throw them into the 
 flreet to be devoured by dogs and hogs, 
 was referved for the Chinefe. Here our 
 author obferves, that to find the juft bounds 
 of paternal authority is the mafter- piece of 
 legiflation, unknown, for the mod part, to 
 ancient legiflators even to Solon, -for this 
 
 fimple 
 
l66 EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 
 
 fimple reajon, that it is not the lejjbn of Jupe- 
 rior wifdom : the thoughtlefs favage has not 
 learnt, he feels it; it is a part of his conftitu- 
 tion: confcious of man's right to independence, 
 the father does not ajjume, nor would cuftom 
 allow him the power to infringe it. 
 
 fhoje who after t abfolute power in the parent 
 to be a law of nature, are, I think, miftaken: 
 it is to property that we muft look for the ori 
 gin of power : nature takes no notice of pro 
 perty-, her fir ft law is theufus communis cfher 
 benefits : from the moment property takes place, 
 the difpofal of it muft, be in the hands of the 
 parent who pojfejjes it: he who has in his 
 keeping the means of life, is in- effeff majler of 
 that life-, in this we fee the origin of the prin 
 ciple in queftion. 
 
 The limitation of this power has not been 
 the work of politicians, too intent in all times on 
 
 preferring 
 
EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 167 
 
 preferring a dominion over the minds of men, 
 which could not better begin than in the domejiic 
 example. 
 
 By a law of the twelve tables a Roman 
 father could take away the life of his child; but 
 the univerfal abhorrence with which the per 
 petration was attended, put a flop to the thing: 
 thus manners, not law, reduced this power 
 within proper bounds. 
 
 There is nothing better underjlood than pro 
 perty, as an object of purfuit ; nothing lefs un- 
 derftood, as a fubjecJ of philofophy : of this we 
 have a proof In the following extracts from 
 Volney's account of the Arabs: 
 
 " The fituation of the Arab is very differ- 
 " ent from that of the American favage: 
 " amid his vaft naked plains, without water, 
 " without forefts, he could not, for want of 
 
 x " game 
 
l68 EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 
 
 " game or Mi, become either a hunter or a 
 " fifherman. The Camel was alone fufficient 
 " to throw him into paftoral life, the man- 
 " ners of which have determined his cha- 
 " rafter: finding, at hand, a light and 
 " moderate nourifhment, he has acquired the 
 " habit of frugality; content with his milk 
 " and his dates, he has not defired flefh; he 
 " has fried no blood; his hands are not ac- 
 " cuflomed to {laughter, nor his ears to the 
 " cries of torture; he has preferved a hu-, 
 " mane and fenfible heart." 
 
 There would be nothing wanting to this 
 eulogium, were it founded on fad. But where 
 jhall we finely except in romances^ or the de 
 fer ipt ions of poets , that paftoral manners are 
 of a nature to cherijh the Jine feelings of huma 
 nity* Through all ages, in every quarter of 
 the globe i rapine and bloodfhed have marked 
 the fteps of the pajior tribes. When thefe very 
 
 Arabs, 
 
EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 169 
 
 Arabs , at an early period , made the conqueft 
 of Egypt , the tyranny and cruelty of the pq/ior 
 kings ) as they were called, were beyond exam 
 ple intolerable. M. Volney proceeds : 
 
 " To obferve the manner in which the 
 " Arabs conduct themfelves towards each 
 " other, one would imagine that they poiTefs 
 " all their goods in common; neverthelefs, 
 " they are no fir angers to property; but it 
 " has nothing of that felfiihnefs which the 
 " increafe of the imaginary wants of luxury 
 " has given it among polifhed nations. It 
 " may be alledged, that they owe this mo- 
 " deration to the impojffibility of greatly 
 " multiplying their enjoyments: but if it be 
 " acknowledged, that the virtues of the mofl 
 " civilized are only to be afcribed to the ne- 
 " ceflity of circumftances, the Arabs, per- 
 " haps, are not for this the lefs worthy of 
 " our efteem: they are fortunate, at leaft, 
 
 " that 
 
I/O EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 
 
 " that this neceffity ftiould have eftablifhed 
 " among them a ftate of things, which has 
 " appealed to the wifeft legiilators as the 
 " perfection of human policy; I mean, a kind 
 " of equality in the partition of property, 
 " and the variety of conditions." 
 
 The legiflator, who would confine a growing 
 property within the bounds of equality, muftbe 
 at once ajiranger to human nature, and to the 
 nature of the thing. But did not Julius 
 Cafar publijh fumptuary laws, at the time that 
 Rome was the emporium of all the riches of 
 the earth? Tes, and among the few foolijh 
 things which he did, this was by far the mojl 
 foolijh: unlefs we may fuppofe that he did it 
 with a 'view to fatter the plebeians, and to 
 mortify the nobles. 
 
 But the Arab, itfeems, has found the means 
 to diveft lucrative purjuits offeifijhnefs, and to 
 
 unite 
 
EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 
 
 unite the Importance of property 'with the in 
 difference of equality, thefe things are not in 
 nature: without feffijhnefs there would be no 
 motive to aft ion; equality excludes diftincJion; 
 take away diftincJion, property lofes its objecJ, 
 and with that its exigence: the Arab, content 
 with his milk and dates, had not aimed at any 
 thing more than the necejfary. No matter , the 
 Arabs , at all events, mufl be a nation of 
 worthies : we know that, like their brethren of 
 Algiers, they are a nation of robbers. From 
 the moment that their panegyrift touched on the 
 barrennefs of their deferts, and their attention 
 to property, it was eafy to forefee what his 
 eulogium mufl come to: for how can there be 
 property, where there are no productions at 
 home? and if imported from abroad, how 
 Jhould this be, but by plunder, where there can 
 be no exchange? Thus it is, that things often 
 pafs for inconjtftencies in nature, which in fad 
 are nothing elfe than the reveries of the writer. 
 
 Independence^ 
 
172 EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 
 
 Independence, his fyjlem; in/tin ft, his legif- 
 lation; the man of nature is free, becaufe he is 
 a Jiranger to property \ Would you cheat him 
 out of > his freedom foment competition; extend 
 his felfijhncfs ; give him a relifh of property ; to 
 fecure its enjoyment he willfubmit to laws : he 
 is no longer independent, but he is civilized. 
 
 Were the procefs to end here, it would be 
 well; but property is power; it commands fer- 
 vice, it creates dependence: accumulation ad 
 mitted, the great proprietor will become majier 
 of the little: not content with a comparative 
 advantage, he will think that he has nothing 
 while others have any thing ; he is a defpot, 
 his dependents arejlaves. 
 
 I return to my f elections. 
 
 The Epoch of Chatai, the moft followed 
 in China, rifes higher than eighty millions 
 
 of 
 
EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 173 
 
 of years before our asra. It is faid, in Eu 
 rope, that one muft be mad to adopt fuch 
 a period; in China, that one muft be a fool 
 to rejet it. It is fuppofed that the Chinefe 
 borrowed this period from the people of 
 Thibet. All that can be faid with certainty 
 is, that the Chinefe are a people of high 
 antiquity: their language and manner of 
 writing prove this better than any records. 
 
 That the Chinefe firft came down into 
 the fouthern provinces from the heights 
 of Tartary, proved by the barometer to be 
 the higheft ground of the globe, is incon- 
 teftible; as likewife, that the Egyptians de- 
 fcended from the heights of Ethiopia. As 
 to the hiflory of Egypt, it would not be fo 
 obfcure and embarraffed as we now find it, 
 had not modern chronologifts made it a 
 point to accommodate the annals of the 
 Egyptians with thofe of the Jews; chan 
 ging 
 
174 EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 
 
 ging at every turn from one mode of calcu 
 lation to another; in fo much, that we have 
 ' ; at this day ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN 
 different fyftems ; that is to fay, no chro 
 nology at all. 
 
 In the 'Afiatic Refearches* all thefe difcords 
 are harmonized : from them we learn, that the 
 Indian , Egyptian, Perjlc, Arabic, all the chro 
 nologies of all the nations on the earth, are in 
 aperfecJ agreement with the Mofaic: the proofs, 
 it muft be conf effect, are borrowed from books 
 written in old Sanfcrit; a language, almoft 
 loft to the Bramins them/elves; and, to the reft 
 of the world, totally unknown. 
 
 Certain it is, that the Egyptians engraved 
 the pietre dure, or gems, two thoufand 
 years before our asra. What ages muft have 
 preceded their arrival at this point in an 
 art of fo great difficulty! 
 
 In 
 
EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 175 
 
 .In like manner, the mofl difficult opera 
 tions in mechanics muft have taken place 
 in the building of their pyramids, and the 
 ereftion of thofe ftupendous obelilks. 
 
 It fliould feem that the errors into which 
 we have fallen, touching the developement 
 of the arts, have their fource in a paffage 
 of Varro, who afferts, that all the arts were 
 invented in Greece in the courfe of a thou- 
 fand years: but, inftead of being followed, 
 he fliould have been corre&ed: the truth is, 
 the Greeks did not invent either arts or 
 fciences; they went abroad to learn them, or 
 they were brought to them: had they been 
 confined to their own country, and had no 
 communication with Egypt and Phenicia^ 
 it would have taken them up a thoufand 
 years to compleat an alphabet; which was 
 brought to them in a day, and that by mere 
 accident. 
 
 The 
 
1/6 EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 
 
 The flow progrefs of fcience is evinced 
 in the following inftance: The priefts of 
 Thebes and Heliopolk, who thought that 
 they had difcovered the precife term of a 
 tropical year, made a miflake of fome mi 
 nutes, as is feen in the defeft of the Julian 
 year; it was but the other day that this 
 miflake was corre&ed, and this branch of 
 fcience brought to perfe&ion. 
 
 >'"' >.\ '. . ' ' 
 
 Caftration, male and female, pra&ifed 
 
 in Egypt from the earlieft times ; unknown 
 
 to the Chinefe in the cafe of females. 
 * - - 
 
 Strange that this ufage fhould not have 
 
 pafled with the Egyptian colonies into 
 Greece, if any fuch were. Cufloms, cere 
 monies, feafts, &c. paffing from Egypt into 
 Greece, are accounted for, by fuch men as 
 Lycurgus and Solon fludying legiflation in 
 Egypt: this fame obfervation holds with 
 refpeft to philofophers and artifts. 
 
 Pauw 
 
EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 177 
 
 Pauw ridicules the notion of China having 
 been colonized by the Egyptians; he denies 
 there being the" lead conformity between 
 the Phenician letters and the radical cha- 
 ra&ers of the Chinefe,* who are totally 
 ignorant of the hieroglyphic language of the 
 Egyptians. The blunders of modern -anti 
 quarians furnifh our author with frequent 
 fubjefts of pleafantry x ; of this the following 
 is a curious fpecimen: Nos Antiquaires J. 
 d' Europe ont etc extremement embar- ; 
 rafles au fujet de la croix a.anfe. M. Clay 
 ton Eveque de Clogher foutenoit que c'eft 
 un inftrument a planter des laitues; le pere 
 
 Kircher 
 
 * The Chinefe characters are ligns, not only of 
 primary ideas, but of every fubdivifion and modifica 
 tion of each idea; they amount in number to 70,000. 
 The firft thought was truly philosophical, and has been 
 carried on with infinite perfeverance : it feems to be 
 peculiar to the Chinefe, being quite different from the 
 Egyptian Hieroglyphic, or Mexican Picture. 
 
178 EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 
 
 Kircher en faifoit le Createur; et le fameux 
 Herwart en faifoit la bouffole aujourd-hui 
 il n'y a pas de favant qui ne fache, que c'eft 
 une reprefentation de la partie genitale de 
 1'homme: c'eft enfin le phallus the lingam 
 of the Indoos fomewhat more difguifed. 
 
 According to the beft calculation, the 
 Monks in China amount to a million, in 
 the proportion of one to eighty of the in 
 habitants. 
 
 To keep their women at home, and pre 
 vent intrigue, the Chinefe cripple them in 
 their feet; the Egyptians did not allow 
 them the ufe of {hoes: What a fubjeft 
 would Ms have been for the wit of Ovid! 
 Met h inks I hear him exclaim Simpletons/ Do 
 ye not know that Love has wings, and that 
 Venus never wore Jhoes? 
 
 Our 
 
EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 179 
 
 Our author has juft now told us that the 
 Chinefe firft came down into the Jouthern pro~ 
 vinces fram the heights of ^artary, and Jup- 
 ports his opinion by a proof in the true Jpirit 
 of philofophy. A great Jcholar, and universal 
 linguift* is of a different opinion ; and affirms ', 
 that China was peopled by colonies from India, 
 and that at a very late period; but, unhappily > 
 to obviate the objection of a total diflimilarity 
 in the languages of the two people, he ajjerts, 
 that the Chinefe monofyllable was nothing 
 elfe than a clipping of the Indian polyfy liable* 
 fo that the Indian colonift, in pojjeffion of a 
 rich and Jonorous language, cafts it away, to 
 take up with one Jo miferably poor, that every 
 fingle word is the fign of jive different ideas. 
 
 Of all the literati, the linguifl is the moft 
 enterprifmg; mafler of many languages, feme 
 
 Sir William Jones. 
 
 N 2 living, 
 
l8o EGYPTIANS AND CHINESE. 
 
 living, fome dead, and Jome, like the Sanjcrit, 
 half dead, he looks down on thoje who are 
 acquainted with but one-, a temperance to 
 which men are led from the confideration that 
 knowledge depends on the clear conception of the 
 idea, not on the number of its figns. Locke 
 was not a linguifl, and the Greeks, the firft of 
 mankind, in the finer exertions of intelleft, never 
 troubled their heads about any other language 
 than their own. 
 
 OF 
 
OF THE 
 
 DIET OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 IN other nations diet is nothing more than a 
 left of opulence, or of the progrefs of luxury; 
 in Egypt it becomes an inlet into the religion, 
 manners, and character of this Jingular people. 
 
 The peculiar circumftances of their cli- 
 jnate and foil made it expedient for the 
 Egyptians to have a particular attention to 
 their diet; hence moil of their religious 
 obfervances: Mofes adopted many of thefe, 
 but wifely deferted the fyftem.in fome points, 
 confuking the character of his people, and 
 the circumftances of the country in which 
 they were to live. Pythagoras wa^s not fo 
 wife; having pafTed into Egypt, and fubmitted 
 
 to 
 
1 82 DIET OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 to circumcifion, he, in the true fpirit of a 
 fanatic, would have all or none, fo adopted 
 the intire dietetic fyftem: after this, travel 
 ling into India, he embraced without referve 
 the regimen of the Bramins, forbidding al 
 animal food, as the Egyptian had done that 
 of fiih, and of many vegetables: thus his 
 fyftem became an abfurd union of the two; 
 each of which had been calculated for a 
 different climate; and neither, for. that in 
 which he and his followers were to obferve 
 
 it. -To a genuine bigot, doffrine is every 
 
 thing; common fenfe. is nothing. 
 
 Leprofy, fore eyes, and gonorrhea, en 
 demic in Egypt: the elephantiafis, a fpecies 
 of leprofy peculiar to the Egyptians, above 
 -|#all corrupts the fpermatic juices; this ac- 
 
 v i ~'--' tff ^ "- '-^^*- 
 
 
 counts for the origin of the gonorrhea in 
 Egypt ; as likewife for the invention of cir- 
 cumcifion. 
 
 The 
 
DIET OF THE EGYPTIANS. 183 
 
 The priefts abftained from all kinds of 
 mil, as produ&ive of fcurvy; the people 
 were indulged in the ufe of fuch ; as were 
 lead fo: fhell-fifh., and in general thofe of the 
 fcaly tribe, were deemed the moil innocent. 
 
 The firft magiflrates, efpecially the Pha 
 raohs, were not allowed to drink wine. Py 
 thagoras adopted the prohibition: fuch a 
 feft could not lad long. Apollonius Tya- 
 nceus, a bigot worthy of his matter, endea 
 voured to revive it, but in vain. The flefh 
 of fwine was totally prohibited, except twice 
 
 <*-* **K^*"*'"'h-'*-* > "t^>M..^rf*' f 
 
 a year, when the common people were indul 
 ged in the ufe of it. The flefh of goofe and 
 pigeon was the moft efleemed ; and therefore 
 referved for the priefls and the King. 
 
 The Egyptian Lent of forty days, a die 
 tetic inftitution: they had feveral fmaller 
 Lents of fix days: during all thefe the huf- 
 
 hand 
 
184 DIET OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 band was not allowed to fleep with his wife. 
 Their Lent was kept in the hotted feafon of 
 the yeaiy at this day, the better fort of the 
 inhabitants, in the hot months, take their 
 meals in the cool of the morning and even 
 ing. Mahomet borrowed his Lent, the 
 I time of keeping it, and the abftaining from 
 wine, from the Egyptians c'efl en Egypte 
 qu'il faut chercher la racine de la plus-part 
 des inftitutions religieufes. 
 
 -if 
 
 Mofes was not fo bold as Mahomet ; he 
 knew his people too well to venture on 
 the prohibition of wine. 
 
 2> 
 
 The Egyptians confecrated onions, that 
 is, prohibited the eating of them, on ac 
 count of their being flimulating and hurtful 
 . to the eyes: it is in this point of view that 
 we are to confider their confecrations in 
 
 general. 
 
 The 
 
DIET OF THE EGYPTIANS. 185 
 
 The Chinefe have never confecrated 
 either vegetables or animals, therefore eat 
 of all. 
 
 The Egyptians hated (hangers, and there 
 fore fair hair, by which they were diftin- 
 guifhed: it is remarkable that the Chinefe 
 have the fame averfion. 
 
 OF 
 
OF THE 
 
 FINE ARTS. 
 
 1 HE Egyptians, Chinefe, aud Afiatics, 
 tmiverfally delight in fimple and contrafted 
 colours; they have no knowledge of mixed 
 tints; accordingly, we never hear amongft 
 the ancients of an Egyptian painter, though 
 Plato allures us that they cultivated the art 
 ten thoufand yearts before his time. As 
 to the Chinefe, we know, that they arc 
 ftrangers at this day to the firil rudiments 
 of ddign. 
 
 The flatuaries of Egypt were confined by 
 the priefls to certain forms and modes of re- 
 prefentation : henc Plato obferves, that they 
 were, in his time, juft where they were at 
 
 their 
 
OF THE FINE ARTS. 187 
 
 their firfl fetting out. The ftyle of drawing 
 was improved under the Ptolemies. 
 
 The Jlatuaries of Egypt were compelled to 
 reprefent their Gods junftis pedibus, bra- 
 chiis in latera demiffis this was to preclude, 
 at once, all ideas of grace: accordingly the Gra 
 ces had no place among the Egyptian Deities : 
 it was referred for the Greeks to give them a 
 
 Jlation, by beftowing divinity on their own feel 
 ings. Was not this the general origin of the 
 worjliip paid by Heathens to the moral virtues, 
 as likewise to their fever al predilections in the 
 
 pursuits of life? So that this becomes a teft of 
 the characters of nations. 
 
 It is remarkable,, that, with the Graces, the 
 
 Egyptians gave an exclufion to Neptune-, they 
 
 detejled the fea; and yet, with a ftrange in- 
 
 I confiftency, they made their Nephthis, or Venus, 
 
 V ' 
 
 to fpring out of its froth, whence the Aphro 
 dite of the Greeks. ,, ,, n 
 
 " Almojj; 
 
l88 OF THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 <* 
 
 cc Almoft all the names of the Gods (fays 
 Herodotus) came out of Egypt into Greece*"' 1 
 
 The Greeks changed the names, and made 
 the gods their own. 
 
 We are often furprifed at the extreme igno 
 rance of the Greeks, touching ancient hijlory, 
 and the origin of things: the cafe was, deter 
 mined by their vanity to make every thing of 
 importance originate with themf elves, they gave 
 themf elves no further trouble about them. 
 
 Immediately after the above quotation, He 
 rodotus adds, " For this information I am in- 
 J " debted to the Barbarians^ 
 
 Is it not ridiculous, it will be faid, to hear 
 him call thofe very people barbarians, whom, 
 
 in 
 
OF THE FINE ARTS. 189 
 
 in the moment, he acknowledges to be better 
 informed than himfelf? I anfwer, No ; if the 
 opinion of fome learned critics be founded, that, 
 in the life of the word barbarian, the Greeks 
 eft en meant , fimply , aftranger. 
 
 After juch examples of the candour andjimpli- 
 city of Herodotus, in what light Jhall we conjider 
 the attacks made by Plutarch on his veracity f 
 This invective, for fuch it is, is the work of 
 a heavy writer in a violent pajjion', of a thick- 
 wit ted Beotian, who, miftaking rancour for fpi- 
 rit, and anger for argument, thought fit to enter 
 the lifts with the father of hiftory, and one of 
 the fin eft f pints of antiquity. 
 
 In China, a great belly is a beauty in the 
 men, the reverfe in the women in dire ft 
 oppofition to the fine forms of nature: the Chi- 
 nefe artift will chicane on the words beauty and 
 nature. Be it fo, your figure has beauty, now 
 
 plant 
 
I9O OF THE FINE^ARTS. 
 
 'plant it; let the parts reft and depend on one 
 common center : in this, nature is unwerfa/, and 
 has but one law ; ignorant of this, you are but a 
 bungler. Have we not too often occafion to apply 
 this censure- at home? Intent on the colouring 
 of the Lombard fchool, we flip over the draw 
 ing of the Roman: it expired with Vandyke. 
 We write metaphyjical differtations on the prin 
 ciples of painting, but cannot make an arm grow 
 out of the Jhoulder^ or Jet a man on his legs. 
 
 All the princes of Alia, the Emperor of 
 China included, have had from the earlieft 
 times manufactures and fabricks of their 
 own fatal to the arts; which fhould be 
 long to the public, not to the prince. Hence 
 
 e arts fell to decay under the Emperors 
 
 of Conftantinople. 
 
 t - 
 
 The fuppofed legiflator Juflinian could not 
 
 f write his own name; Tet he certainly fuper in- 
 
 tended 
 
OF THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 tended the compilation of the code which bears 
 his name. Mahomet could neither read nor 
 & write; Tet the Jiyle of the Koran is allowed 
 to be beautiful; nay, he refied on this beauty the 
 proof of its being infpired. Pauw delights, at 
 times, to take afwim again/I the tide. 
 
 The Egyptians excelled in works of glafs; 
 caft large plates, but ftopt fliort of the mir 
 ror: they caft ftatues' of coloured glafs, and 
 counterfeited the murine vafes now un 
 known what thofe vafes were; but fuppofed 
 to be of the nature of the onyx. 
 
 No ftatues in China older than the age of 
 Confucius, contemporary with Herodotus, 
 who faw ftatues in Egypt many thoufand 
 years old. 
 
 The Egyptian priefts banifhed mufic from 
 their temples j they fang their facred hymns 
 
 without' 
 
 , 
 
192 OF THE FINS ARTS. 
 
 without accompaniment. As they prefided in 
 matters of tajle, as well as of fcience, we may 
 judge from hence of the lowjlate of their mufic. 
 
 The pipe and drum the favourite inftru- 
 ments in all hot climates; the Orientals 
 
 hardly know any other. // Jhould feem 
 
 that, as in colours, fo in founds , their organs 
 
 are formed for fimple and conirajied impref- 
 
 fions. Our author affirms, that there is not 
 
 a man in all Afia who can paint the foliage 
 
 of a tree. 1 Jhould conclude from this, that 
 
 there is not an tear in all Afia that can feel the 
 blended founds, the compound harmony, of Eu 
 ropean miific. 
 
 OF 
 
OF THE 
 
 EGYPTIAN AND CHINESE 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 X HE Egyptian buildings were of marble, 
 the Chinefe of wood. Tet the Chinefe wall 
 is ajiupendous monument of the folid and du^ 
 rable: as to the great and fublime, that's 
 another matter. Compare the wall of China 
 with the pyramid of Geeza; the greatnefs of 
 the former is in the fcale and ex ten/ion; of the 
 latter, in the firft conception of a fublime idea. 
 Let us obferve this diftinclion in our decifions 
 in works in architecture^ and there will be 
 no difference of opinion, except, between thoft 
 who have tajle, and thofe who have it not. 
 
 Obeliiks and pyramids, the wonders of 
 
 Egypt, works totally unknown to the Chi- 
 
 o nefe, 
 
 
 
194 OF THE EGYPTIAN AND 
 
 nefe, who had no conception of building 
 for duration, the great obje& of the Egyp 
 tians; a difference of views and tafte which 
 precludes every idea of connexion between 
 the two people. 
 
 The fame objection does not hold again/I a 
 fuppofed connection between the Egyptians and 
 Indians. When from the account given by 
 the fpirited and elegant Savary of the temples 
 and fubterraneous excavations in Egypt, I pafs 
 to defer iptions of fimllar works In India, from 
 the flill more elegant pen of our incomparable 
 Orme, I fancy myfelf travelling through diftant 
 provinces of the fame empire: by this, and 
 other points of refemblance, fome have been 
 led to conclude that the Egyptians and Indians 
 were originally one and the fame people-, but to 
 this there is an infuperable objection Alas ! the 
 Egyptians were Negroes. Negroes! O ye 
 Mufes, can ye pardon the profanation f To the 
 
 inventors 
 
CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. 195 
 
 inventors of letters ye owe your divinity. I 
 have this moment in my, fancy, a picture of 
 Plato taking his lecJure in philosophy under a 
 Negro Profejjor. But how /hall we look up 
 to a Negro Mufe? Dii Dexque! were ye not 
 almoft all of Egyptian origin, and had ye not 
 your firft altars on the banks of the Nile? 
 
 So much for the firft view of this fubjeft: 
 but as the notion in quejlion is ferioujly urged., 
 it is fit it foould have aferious anfwer. It is 
 founded on a^pajjage in Herodotus^ thus ren 
 dered by an author in high efteem: " For 
 " my part, I believe the Colchi to be a 
 " colony of Egyptians; becaufe, like them, 
 " they have a black Ikin and frizzled 
 " hair/'* To which M. Volney adds, " That 
 
 , (Herod.) Aov ro o^vffa/(A/xyov, (Hefyc) 
 intorqueri; which, applied to the hair, we fliould 
 render curled', unlefs, to ferve a turn, it fhould be tor 
 tured into frizzled. 
 
 02 IS, 
 
196 OF THE EGYPTIAN AND 
 
 " is, that the ancient Egyptians were 
 " real Negroes." The- beft anjwer to this 
 pajjage, or rather to its comment*, will be another 
 from Herodotus, by which the deci/iv.e article 
 of frizzled hair is quite done away. " The 
 " priefts of other nations have long hair, 
 " thofe of Egypt are clofe fhaved: in 
 " mourning for near relations, all other 
 " people cut their hair ihort ; but the Egyp- 
 " tians, mourning for the dead, fuffer the 
 " hair of the head and chin to grow long."f 
 A change, which, from the nature of the thing, 
 could not take place on the woolley head or chin 
 of a Negroe And now, my good M. Volney, 
 the furprife is all over. As to the complexion 
 of the Egyptian make it as black as you pleafe, 
 but for the honour of letters, in which few men 
 are more inter efled than yourfelf, reft ore to the 
 
 f Avieto-i rots r^i^as av&sQat, rxs re fy 
 y,ot,t ru ytjvu;. Herod. 
 
 preceptor 
 
CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. 197 
 
 preceptor of Solon and of Plato, a face with 
 fome meaning, and a decent head of 'hair. 
 
 It has been admitted that the Egyptian 
 was black, Herodotus is decijive on the point, 
 when, Jpeaking of a certain prophetess, con 
 cerning whoje country there was fome doubt, 
 he obferves " In faying fhe was black, 
 " they mark that the woman was an 
 Egyptian."! 
 
 // is probable, that the Negro was not 
 known to the Greeks fo early as the age of this 
 hiftorian. Certain it is, that the ancients do not 
 appear to have entertained the leajl dijlike of a 
 black complexion-, nor /Jiould we, after thefirft 
 furprife, did zve not connect with it the image, 
 and, with that, the character of the Negro. 
 
 M&xtvtzv $s Xeyovrss etvtxi, 
 
 vv w. Herod, 
 
 There 
 
198 OF THE EGYPTIAN AND 
 
 There are throughout Afia numerous tribes 
 of blacks, but with European features and 
 abundant hair. 
 
 From among thofe tribes muft have come that 
 Sable Beauty, who thus offer ts her pretenfions 
 in the Song of Songs " I am black, but 
 " comely, O ye daughters of Jerufalem!" 
 
 It is fuppofed by fome, that the trunk of 
 the palm-tree was the model of the Egyptian 
 column ; the mojl celebrated of thefe is thus 
 defer ibed by Salary : 
 
 " It is of red granite, the capital Corin- 
 " thian, 9 feet high; the fhaft and upper 
 " member of the bafe of one piece, 90 feet 
 " long and 9 in diameter; the whole co- 
 " lumn 114 feet high; the mod beautiful 
 " monument on the face of the earth." 
 
 : '"ft'". 
 
 Among 
 
CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. 199 
 
 Among the Egyptian works of art, a block 
 of marble hollowed into a chamber Jtxty feet 
 fquare^ is efteemed a wonder. 'The trunk of a 
 tree hollowed into a canoe ^ without hatchet or 
 chifel, will be tofome more an objetl of admira 
 tion. "The Naturalift turns from both^ to gaze 
 on the beaver, while he is. felling the tree def 
 ined for the conftruftion of his cabin. 
 
 The roofs of the Egyptian temples and 
 houfes are flat, derived from the early habit 
 of dwelling in caverns, in the mountains of 
 Ethiopia;. hence too the paflion of the priefts 
 for fubterraneous chambers, fuch found 
 1 60 feet under ground. The cuftom of dwel 
 ling and ftudying in thofe gloomy manfions 
 gave birth to the Egyptian myfteries, and to 
 the obfcure communications of their notions 
 in religion and philofophy. 
 
 There 
 
1OO OF THE EGYPTIAN AND 
 
 There are no certain remains of their ce 
 lebrated labyrinth. 
 
 Antiquarians are much divided touching the 
 deftination of pyramids; Pauw thinks they 
 were raifed in honour to the fun. This feems 
 to be confirmed by the word pyramue, which >, 
 according to Savary, fignifies in Arabic the 
 rays of the fun. It is enough for us to know, 
 that they are the nobleft monuments of the fab- 
 lime in architecture; and that, by the corref- 
 pondence of their faces with the four cardinal 
 points, they prove to a certainty, that the poles 
 of the earth have not changed in the courfe of 
 four thoufand years. 
 
 It is fuggefted by Ariftotle, that the agri 
 culture of Egypt being eafy, and of little 
 labour, and the confequent idlenefs of the 
 people thought hurtful to their health and 
 morals, they were conftantly employed in 
 
 fome 
 
CHINESE ARCHITECTURE, 2OI 
 
 fome great work. Thus the policy of the ru 
 lers became the pajfion of the people; this was 
 a mafter-ftroke in police. 
 
 It is certain that the Egyptians had little 
 employment in navigation and commerce; 
 what they wanted from other countries was 
 brought to them. It is very remarkable, 
 that they neither coined, nor made ufe of 
 money, till fome time after the Perfian inva- 
 iion. Tet Montefquieu makes this the teji of 
 
 civilization. 
 
 i 
 
 A great wall was built by Sefoflris to 
 defend Egypt againft the Arabs; a proof 
 that he was not the mighty conqueror pre 
 tended. The raifmg of fuch walls common 
 in early times to all civilized nations bounded 
 by barbarians; there were many in feveral 
 parts of Afia, efpecially againfl the Tartars, 
 but always ineffe&ual; an extenfive fortifica 
 tion 
 
202 OF THE EGYPTIAN AND 
 
 tion requires an army to defend it; that army 
 better in the field. According to our author, 
 were all the walls of this kind ftretched in a 
 ftraight line they would be equal to the di 
 ameter of the earth. 
 
 The power of the barbarians is to be dated 
 from the time of Adrian, who began to for 
 tify the bounds of the empire. Was not 
 
 the maxim of Auguftus, that the bounds of 
 the empire Jhould not be enlarged, a political 
 blunder? Dominion founded in conqueji can 
 not be ftationary -, it muft be either progrejpve 
 or retrograde. 
 
 The grand canal, extending from one 
 extremity of China to the other, on which 
 depends the interior commerce of the coun 
 try, was made by Koublai-Can, in 1280 of 
 our aera; by him archite&s, aftronomers, 
 geographers, called in from diflant coun 
 tries ; 
 
CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. 203 
 
 tries; the improvements introduced by this 
 Tartar conqueror in thefe matters, and in 
 police, were aimed loft af the time of the 
 fecond conqueft in 1 640, at which time they 
 were revived; fo that the Chinefe owe all to 
 their Tartar conquerors. 
 
 This is going a little too far. The Chinefe 
 monarchy is allowed to be the moft ancient on 
 the earth; it is difficult to conceive that a go- 
 
 Vjf 
 
 vernment could fubjift 4000 years without the 
 fupport of wife laws ; we want no other proofs 
 of this than the records which afcertain the 
 duration of the monarchy ^ and this Is admitted 
 by Freret, and thofe who are moft converfant 
 in Oriental erudition. 
 
 The Chinefe furround the tombs of their 
 emperors and great men with extenfive 
 plantations; the Egyptians prohibited inter 
 ments wherever a tree could grow. This, 
 
 brought 
 
204 
 
 OF THE EGYPTIAN &C. 
 
 brought to prove a Jinking contrqft in the 
 cuftoms of the two people, perhaps is nothing 
 more than a proof of the different 'value of land 
 in the two countries. 
 
 OF 
 
OF THE 
 
 RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 A HE Egyptians acknowledged an intelli 
 gent Being, diftinft from matter, by the name 
 of PHTHA, fabricator of the world, but not 
 the creator of matter. 
 
 Here our author flops Jhort^fo far as relates 
 to the origin and government of the world, the 
 firfl fprings of religion. A principle of this 
 kind could not have been unproductive; if its 
 fruits have perifhed in their native foil we mufl 
 look for them in the regions into which they 
 were tranfplanted. Anaxagoras pajfed into 
 Egypt to fludy philofophy, as was the cuflom 
 with his countrymen; on his return to Greece, 
 he brought with him a fyflem fo entirely new, 
 
 that 
 
206 OF THE RELIGION 
 
 that the Greeks, ever delighting in novelties, 
 ralfed ftatues to his honour, and dijiinguifhed 
 
 him by the title of N,-/fo Intelligence. The 
 heads of his fyjiem are the following: 
 
 Two things were from eternity, Mind and 
 Matter. 
 
 Thefe two beings clearly diftincJ. Matter 
 extended without thought, motion, or order; 
 but divided into parts extremely minute, and 
 pojfeffed of qualities contrary and unalterable. 
 Mind was Jtmple, without material extenjlon, 
 having In itfelf thought, activity, and an exe 
 cutive power over matter. 
 
 An infinite time had pajffed before the for 
 mation of the world. The Sovereign Mind, 
 feeing that order was better than confufion, 
 refolved at loft on the meafure. " Anaxa- 
 " goras mentis infinite vi et ratione rerum 
 
 " omnium 
 
OF THE EGYPTIANS. 207 
 
 " omnium modum et defcriptionem defignari 
 " et confici voluit." 
 
 The Mind watches over men with a parti 
 cular attention ',for them it was that the world 
 was made. Their country is heaven, to which 
 they are to be recalled, if by their virtue they 
 deferve it. 
 
 The bodies of the firft animals, confequently 
 that of man, were formed out of earth, tem 
 pered with moifture and heat; after this, the 
 individuals generated others, each in their 
 'own kind.* 
 
 Neither fun, moon, nor Jiars, are gods or 
 demons, or animated bodies', they are folid 
 majfesfet in motion by Intelligence, thefole caufe 
 of motion. 
 
 Diog. Laer. TTr7 
 
 Why 
 
208 OF THE RELIGION 
 
 Why did GOD form the world at fo late a 
 -period how^ imprefs motion how could mat 
 ter conform Itfelf to order- what is that 
 which continues the motion of Jtars, earthy 
 .and heaven? Preffed on t-hefe points, Anax- 
 agoras refolded all Into the will and pleafure 
 cftheFirft Caufe. So Newton, when preffed 
 to explain the nature of attraction. 
 
 It muft be confeffed, that there is a Jinking 
 4 agreement (the creation of matter excepted} be 
 tween this and the Mofalc-fyftem. Whether the 
 Jews borrowed from the Egyptians, or the Egyp 
 tians from the Jews, is a quejllon Into which I 
 Jhall not enter further, than to exprefs my fur- 
 prife that this ever Jhould have been a queftlon. 
 Let us pafs to a more pleafing invejligation. 
 
 OS-I-RIS, in Coptic, fignifies Conformator; 
 I-sis, Formarum Receptaculum perfonifica- 
 tions of Mind and Matter By which, the 
 
 firft 
 
OF THE EGYPTIANS. 209 
 
 Jirji principles of tKeir philofophy 'were ralfed 
 by the Egyptians into the highejl objeds of their 
 ip.*. The fublime of Pagan theology. 
 
 * Setting out onthefe principles, of which they were 
 the inventors, tHe Egyptians muft have followed them 
 throughout their confequences, and. of courfe, have 
 credit for whatever is contained in the preceding flate- 
 ments by Anaxagoras. 
 
 Plato followed Anaxagoras, in his obligations to the 
 Egyptians : but, too confcious of his powers to confine 
 himfej ^wholly to the thoughts of others, he added 
 many of his own, and in this courfe, "being often at va 
 riance. with'his originals, and as often with himfelf, 
 his philofophy became a feries of incoherences. But 
 he well knew that, with his countrymen, vivacity in the' 
 conception, and elegance in the diftion, would fully 
 fupply the want of confiftency, and of fyftem. 
 
 Was }t not one of the eccentricities of the Greek 
 character, that the Athenians, ever conftant to truth 
 and nature in matters of tafte, mould be addicted to 
 levity in matters of reafoning? Hence their predilec 
 tion for Plato, in oppofition to Ariflotle, whom they did 
 not love ; yet in whom was united, to their reproach 
 and his own honour, an exquifite tafle, with the molt 
 profound ratiocination. 
 
 p The 
 
210 OF THE RELIGION 
 
 The Gymnofophifts of Africa acknow 
 ledged one Creator, incomprehenfibie in his 
 nature, but intelligible in his works; this 
 was the origin of fymbolic worfhip. 
 
 The worfhip of ferpents, very general 
 throughout Africa, obtains at this day in 
 many parts. The eneph, a fnake, emblem 
 of 'divine goodnefs the viper, of power; 
 hence the diadem of the Pharaohs was 
 adorned with this emblem. 
 
 The Egyptians perfonified the divine wif- 
 
 dom under the name of Nciph, reprefemed 
 
 fpringing out of the body of a lion; the 
 
 manifeft prototype of the Greek Minerva 
 
 fpringing from the head of "Jupiter emblem 
 
 of the union of <wifdom and power. 
 
 i 
 
 It was a maxim of the Egyptians, that a 
 wife legiflator fhoukl never innovate on the 
 
 eftablifhed 
 
OF THE EGYPTIANS. 21 I 
 
 eftabliflied fuperftitions of his country. 
 This anfwers the quefdon; Why do <we find 
 foolifh religions and wife laws in the fame 
 countries? 
 
 The Egyptians, 'in their popular religion^ 
 (for they certainly had two, as they had two 
 languages * a popular and an hieroglyphic) 
 not content with the fuperftitions oftheearliejl 
 times, added others without number from age 
 to age. 
 
 What is become of the popular language of 
 ihe Egyptians ? Totally loft ; not a trace, not a 
 fpedmen of it exifting: I am tempted to propose. 
 a conjecture on this fubjecl. In their laws, 
 
 xai toe. /X-EV otvTuv, 
 HEROD. The obfcurity 
 and indecifion of the hieroglyphic fitted it to become a 
 language of which the prieft might keep the interpreta 
 tion to himfelf. 
 
 p 2 manners., 
 
212 OF THE RELIGION 
 
 manners, and Inftltutlons, the Egyptians piqued 
 themfelves on running counter to all other na 
 tions: thh oppojition was the refult of that 
 rooted hatred which ibey had, and profejjed to 
 have, for the re/1 of mankind: under this im- 
 prej/ionj they wl/Jied to withhold all knowledge 
 
 N^^fc 
 
 of the difcovenes which they had made In arts 
 and fciences from others : to this end, thofe dif- 
 coveries were committed to a few, and but a 
 few volumes, In the keeping of the priefts, their 
 only authors and literati: the country conquered, 
 the priejihood deflroyed, the records peri/Jied 
 with the or-der. 
 
 That the priefts did keep thofe records in the 
 utmoft privacy is mamfeft from this, that the 
 Greek literati, who lived and ftudied fo many 
 years in Egypt, never brought out of the coun 
 try a Jingle volume of thofe records, or fpecimen 
 of the language in which they were written? 
 a clrcumjlance not to be paralleled in the hi/lory 
 
 of 
 
/ 
 
 OF THE EGYPTIANS. 213 
 
 of letters: fo that their communication with 
 their teachers muft have been by -interpreters ; a 
 fmgularity the more likely to be adopted by the 
 Greeks, from their known contempt of all other 
 tongues, and pride in their own.. 
 
 Juvenal laughed at the Egyptians for ma 
 king their calf Apis a prophet. After all, 
 was not the Egyptian calf as well qualified for 
 the function as the Roman chicken? 
 
 As the Egyptian priefts had a fettled re- 
 venue, and fuffered none of their order to 
 receive legacies or donations^ it is the more ex 
 traordinary that they fhould have given into 
 all the extremes of prieftcraft. Befides^ they ' 
 were obliged to marry ^ which made them a 
 part of the ftate. They were likewife pof- 
 feffed of the judicial power: the firft clafs 
 of judges were called prophets; that is, 
 interpreters. The Foreteller of events was 
 
 called 
 
214 OF THE RELIGION 
 
 called Mantis; who, according to Plato, was 
 always fuppofed to-be out of his fenfes; or, 
 which was the fame thing, to be infpired: 
 hence the prieftefs of Delphos, who pro 
 nounced the oracles, affumed a femblance of 
 phrenfy to confirm the opinion of her infpi- 
 ration. It is remarkable, that there are two 
 oracles at this time on the weftern coad of 
 Africa, as famous, and as much credited, as 
 that of Delphos. 
 
 There is not in the world a fmgle book 
 of the great library of Thebes; fo that we 
 know nothing of the country, but from thq 
 informations of the Greek philofophers and 
 poets: even they knew not much; -for the 
 Egyptian literati held the wife/I of the Greeks 
 ^ extremely cheap. " You Greeks will for ever 
 "Jtalk like fools on thefe fuhjefts." Such 
 were the communications of the Egyptian ivith 
 ihe Greek philofophers. 
 '' All 
 
OF THE EGYPTIANS. 215 
 
 All works concerning religion, jurifpru- 
 dence, and aftronomy, were attributed to 
 Hermes, that they might be held facred by 
 
 the vulgar. It was in imitation of this 
 
 procedure, perhaps, that Mofes, who was 
 faille din all the learning of the Egyptians, kept 
 his knowledge m aftronomy a fecret from the 
 people ; for, according to our author, the yews 
 were the worft ajironomers on the earth, the 
 Chinefe excepted. However, this does not 
 bear fo hard on either as feems to be intended: 
 the Romans, a great and wife people, knew as 
 little of ajlronomy as the yews or Chinefe: the 
 Roman calendar, in the time of Julius Cafar, 
 was in fuch a wretched Jiate, that the feajis 
 of autumn andfpring were almoft inverted. 
 
 The notion of a man's living to the age 
 of 600 or 1000 years, Egyptian. How is 
 this reconcileable with their precife know 
 ledge of a folar year, and with their fixing 
 
 the 
 
2l6 OF THE RELIGION* 
 
 the age of men, one with the other, to the 
 term of 28 years? This has fuggefted a 
 fuppofition, that by the 600 or 1000 years 
 in queftion, they meant the duration of a 
 tribe or dynafty, diflinguifhed by the name 
 of its founder. 
 
 The A was not the firil letter of the 
 Egyptian alphabet, but the T", in honour of 
 Thoth, or Hermes, the genius that prefided 
 over the Sciences. 
 
 Kfyllablc alphabet is in ufe at this time in 
 Nubia and Abyffinia, and has been fo from 
 time immemorial: from this the Egyptians 
 are fuppofed to have had the firft thought 
 of a literal alphabet: it is certain that they 
 ufed the fame letters with ours fo early as 
 the age of Mofes. Thefe chara&ers have 
 been found of late in the fwathings of their 
 mummies. 
 
 The 
 
OF THE EGYPTIANS. 217 
 
 The Egyptians reje&ed eternity of punifli- 
 ments; admitting a purgatory, whence, in 
 a certain time, men were to refume their 
 bodies; hence the practice of embalming: 
 but philofophers, and the truly virtuous, 
 were to pafs dire&ly into heaven. 
 
 Cocytus and Lethe, two little canals from 
 the Nile. - The ancient, as likewife the 
 modern Egyptians, of a melancholic com 
 plexion, ftri& obfervers of the fabbath. 
 
 
 OF 
 
OF THE 
 
 CHINESE RELIGION. 
 
 Jl HE Chinefe arc not equal to the fublimc 
 parts of fcience; they cannot comprehend 
 reafonings on the nature of GOD, of the 
 human foul, or of a future (late; they cannot 
 
 even be brought to reafon about them. 
 
 Before we charge the Chinefe with being unequal 
 to thefe fubjetts, we JJwuld be fure that we 
 are equal to them ourf elves : in the mean time it 
 ivould be more liberal to impute their relucJance 
 to reafon about them to that which I take to be 
 ils true caufe, a refpefl; for the authority of 
 Confucius., who pronoiinced them to be of a na 
 ture mconiprehenjible', and this it was, probably, 
 that threw him upon downright material-ifm-, 
 thus he admits neither creation nor providence^ 
 
 treats 
 
OF THE CHINESE RELIGION. 2 19 
 
 treats the idea of an intelligent fftirit, tiffing 
 feparately, and dijiinguijhed from the universe, 
 as a mere reverie; afferts all to be matter, in 
 which there is 'no real difference-, the differences 
 in forms and properties being nothing more than 
 a difference in the imprejjions made on our 
 fenfes. Extravagant as thefe ideas may feem, 
 were they not embraced by Plato and many of 
 the Greek, philosophers ; and have they not been 
 revived with much warmth by fome modern 
 materialijls ? 
 
 The moft general opinion on this fubjeEl was 
 that of a certain union of the Divinity and of 
 matter in a firji principle, knovon as to its ex- 
 iftence, unknown as to its ejjence. ' This was re- 
 presented as the universal four ce from which all 
 beings proceeded; whether by emanation, as the 
 rays of light-, or by generation, as in animals; 
 or by accretion and Reparation, as in vegetables 
 and minerals ; or, in J/iort, by fome other way 
 
 unknown* 
 
220 OF THE CHINESE RE7IGION. 
 
 unknown, without fixing the time, the manner, 
 or entering into any philosophical difcuffion of 
 thejubjefi. This was the Jy ft em of all the moft 
 ancient people of the earth-, especially of the 
 Orientals, who to theje general ideas added a 
 theocracy peculiar to themfelves, in which they 
 
 Juppofed the Supreme Majefiy retired into the 
 heaven of heavens, leaving to a chief minifter 
 (himfelf the iiTue of the divinity) the care of 
 governing the world, and of keeping within 
 bounds a certain principle of malevolence and 
 rebellion, of which they conceived the exifience y 
 
 from a view of the evils natural and moral 
 by which the world was afflifted. Was not 
 this chief minifter the Mithra, the mediator, of 
 the Perfians ? Was this theocracy the model or 
 the copy of the kingly government of the Eaft? 
 
 If the phyfical principles of Confucius are 
 not admiffible, it is not Jo with refpeft to his 
 moral doffrines. What can be more neat, and 
 
 at 
 
OF THE CHINESE RELIGION. 221 
 
 at the fame time comprebenfive, than the fol- 
 lowing? Virtue ccnfifts in aftrift observance of 
 the lawsf fubmiffion to the magiflrate^ refpeff 
 for fuperiofs, modejiy towards equais, and ten 
 der nefs for inferiors. How is this to be recon 
 ciled with a t deration of infanticide ? It may 
 well be Jaid y that the natural hiftcry of man is 
 a tiffue of contradictions. Confucius flourijhed 
 550 years before Chrift: the dottrine of the 
 materiality of the foul obtained 500 years before 
 him. Is it not at this hour, according to Locke, 
 problematical? 
 
 The ancient religion of the Chinefe con- 
 aided chiefly in offering facrifices on the 
 highefl places: this mode of worfriip ob 
 tained in Tartary, the ancient Scythia; 
 
 * To DtXIOV SIVSil X.XI TO 
 
 Juftum et turpe non natura conftare, fed lege. 
 
 Diog. Laer. in Arcbelao. 
 
 throughout 
 
222 OF THE CHINESE RELIGION. 
 
 throughout the north of Alia and Europe; 
 and is to be traced even into Lapland. At 
 this very day the Chinefe Emperors never 
 offer facrifices but in tents; a remnant of 
 Tartar ufage, and of primitive life. 
 
 Rabdomancy is the favourite fnperftition 
 of the Chinefe, in confequence of its being 
 adopted and promoted by Confucius. Will 
 it be credited, that fome Miflionaries have 
 been fo foolifh as to alTert that Confucius 
 foretold the coining of the Meifiah by the 
 magical rods? 
 
 The Chinejfe have no initiations, firfl. in 
 vented by the Egyptians, from whom they 
 paffed to the Greeks and other nations. 
 They have no conception that fouls can be, 
 of themfelves, fenfible of punifhment or 
 reward; and of courfe reject a purgatory 
 and paradife. 
 
 By 
 
OF THE CHINESE RELIGION. 223 
 
 By the dofhrine of Fo ? not only the pafli- 
 ons, but even the fenfes, are to be fubdued; 
 there is to be no objeft of thought but the 
 Divinity. -In this we Lave the origin of 
 modern Quietifm; and^ to the dif grace of hu 
 man wit i find a Pafchal and a Fenelon among 
 the followers of Fo. 
 
 The Chinefe fay, that their firfl king Fo-he 
 was miraculouily born of a virgin: the Scy 
 thians faid the fame of their founder Scytha. 
 
 All the nations of the ancient world uni 
 ted in the immolation of vi&ims, India and 
 Thibet excepted, in confequence of their be 
 lief in tranfmigration. 
 
 OF 
 
OF THE 
 
 EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT, 
 
 MONARCHICAL, not defpotic; for the 
 king was not judge; this belonged to the 
 priefts; nor could he tax without their con- 
 fent. In this refpecl^ the priefts 'were the 
 Ephori of Egypt. 
 
 There is great confufion among ancient 
 authors touching the police of Egypt. As 
 no national records are extant, we cannot 
 judge of their laws. We are told, that all 
 kinds of thefts were allowed; and they are 
 charged with knavery in trade by the Greeks, 
 who were in their turn ftigmatized as fliarp- 
 
 ers by every other, nation. All trade is but 
 
 ''$ /# ' 
 
 a Jlruggle to overreach, in which thofe 'who 
 are outwitted are very ready to be/low hard 
 
 names 
 
EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT. 
 
 names on their concurrents. I fufpeR that 
 there is fomething of this in the char after given 
 by the European to the Chinefe trader. 
 
 The pontificate was hereditary, not at 
 the nomination of the prince, who, by the 
 original conftitution, could not be of the 
 order. When Sethon, who was pontiff, 
 made himfelf king, there was no counter- 
 poife left to the kingly power, which of 
 courfe became defpotic. In this, as in all 
 the mixed governments of antiquity , a third or 
 middle power was wanting a reprefentativt 
 of the people. 
 
 f 
 
 From this time, the priefls or the mili 
 tary difpofed of the throne by ele&ion from 
 among themfelves, as either prevailed; the 
 people were but a number, that is, flaves. 
 The prince, if chofen from the military, 
 affumed the priefthood; there was no cor^ 
 
 troul left. . , 
 
 c^_ Agriculture 
 
226 EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Agriculture conftituted the riches of 
 Egypt; fertility of foil, and facility of cul 
 ture, extreme. Hence pyramids and public 
 works are no proof of the riches of the 
 prince; they were the works, the paffion, 
 of a people little employed in providing the 
 
 . means of fubfiftence. The Ptolemies at laft 
 / f 
 
 /> <y // g ave th em a turn to commerce, which they 
 
 till then had defpifed. This accounts for 
 
 their having had no coin in early times: no 
 
 ^ / medals of theirs have been found older than 
 
 Alexander. 
 
 The flourifhing ftate of the arts at the 
 Macedonian conquefl is the beft proof of the 
 antiquity of the Egyptians. 
 
 The divifion of the Jews into tribes was 
 borrowed from the Egyptians. The ancient 
 name of Egypt was Kypt: hence their de- 
 fcendants have retained the name of Copts. 
 
 They 
 
EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT. 227 
 
 They had a phyfician for every malady, 
 but no lawyers ; all pleadings were in wri - 
 ting; no torture in criminal cafes; perjury 
 capital, fo murder. In Europe, herefy and 
 witchcraft have been punifhed more feverely 
 than parricide. 
 
 At this day we burn the wife for coining, 
 while the hujband, who fets her to work, is 
 punifhed fimply by hanging; and this we call 
 legiflation. 
 
 Should the preceding account of the Egyptian 
 government be thought Jhort and imperfecl, it 
 muft be confidered, Jlrft, that the national re 
 cords are loft; in the next place, that the go 
 vernment, from the time of Sethon, becoming 
 defpotic, the principles offuch a government, If 
 It can be faid to have any, muft be contained 
 In a very f man code the will of the prince. 
 
OF THE 
 
 CHINESE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 JL HOUGH the Chinefe records are extant, 
 yet, in f aft, they are loft to us, from their being 
 written in a language not under/I ood by the 
 European miffionaries, from whom alone we 
 have received our informations; accordingly, 
 the inconjtftencies of thefe good fathers with 
 themf elves, and their contradictions of one an- 
 other, point out the fource of their intelligence to 
 be no other than the vague reports of ignorant, 
 or, it may be, deftgning individuals. 
 
 The extreme refer ve of the Egyptian priefts, 
 their contempt of foreigners, and above all, a 
 total ignorance of the hieroglyphic language, in 
 which the facred and political records were 
 
 written, 
 
CHINESE GOVERNMENT. 229 
 
 written^ had kept the Greeks who vifited 
 Egypt) equally In the dark r and made their 
 inconflflcncies and contradictions run parallel 
 with thofe of the European mljfionaries. 
 
 Plato f pent thirteen years in Egypt ', yet how 
 little do we learn of the country from him. This 
 feems to confirm the report, that he gave up his 
 time to trade i dealing largely in the importation 
 of oil from Attica , of which the Egyptians were 
 remarkably fond. I muji add to this anecdote 
 the following: " Exercitatus eft apud Arif- 
 " tonem Argivum palasftritam, nee defunt qui 
 " in Ifthmo lu&atum effe dicant." DIOG. 
 
 LAER. The union of the wrejller and oil- 
 
 merchant with the exalted title of the divine 
 philofopher, affords a notable example of the 
 nature and verfatility of the Greek genius. 
 
 In early times, China, like all other regions 
 of great extent, was under the government 
 
 of 
 
230 CHINESE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 of feveral little Kans or Caciques, indepen 
 dent on each other, but limited at home. 
 Thefe petty princes, in procefs of time, fell 
 under the dominion of one, who, by the na 
 ture of conqueft, became a defpot. 
 
 r 
 
 Before the firfl Tartar conqueft, the ad- 
 miniftration under the emperors was in the 
 hands of eunuchs; as thefe could have no 
 family, the emperors were heirs to their 
 fortunes. On the fame principle, the entire 
 family of every criminal who fuifers death 
 is totally extinguiftied. The exiftence of 
 two fuch cuftoms afcertains the character 
 of the government. One of the emperors 
 would have abrogated this inhuman law; it 
 was faid to him, "Do fo, when you govern 
 " men; flaves are not men." The emperor 
 might liave replied^ Thefe Jlaves would have 
 been men, had it not been for the councils of 
 Juch knaves as you are. 
 
 Daughters 
 
CHINESE GOVERNMENT. 231 
 
 Daughters cannot inherit, becaufe they 
 cannot facrifice to the manes of their parents. 
 That is, they are forbidden to facrifice, that 
 they may not inherit, and thereby their fortunes 
 become efcheats to the prince. Such is the logic 
 of defpotifm. 
 
 The whip and the cudgel are the prin 
 cipal engines of Chinefe government. Is a 
 favourite courtier baflinadoed to-day, he 
 will come out to-morrow without a blufh. 
 A Have may be mortified, he cannot be 
 dilhonoured. 
 
 Of all the people on the earth the Chinefe 
 have the ftrongeft paflion for commerce;* 
 
 the 
 
 * There is a people on the earth, who will difpute 
 
 this point with the Chinefe. Has it not been a paflion 
 
 for commerce that has led us to that fatal preteniion, the 
 
 brninioa of the fea : - a prctenfion totally repugnant to 
 
 * ~~ r ~ 1 " the 
 
232 CHINESE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 government takes advantage of this 
 fpirir, and grinds the merchant by exceflive 
 
 the genius and moderation of our internal govenment? 
 The following paffage on this fubjecl is extremely in- 
 
 terefting : 
 
 * 
 
 " On a eu occafion d' obferver," dit Ifocrate, " que 
 tpus les peuples de la Grece qui ont eu 1' empire de la 
 mer, ou qui ont feulment ose y afpirer, fe font plonges 
 dans un abynie de defaftres et de calamites. Cette do 
 mination-la, ajoute-t'il, n'eft point naturelle : c'eft une 
 chimere, qui enivre tellement les hommes, qu' elle leur 
 ote le fens commun ; et ils s* attirent tant d' ennemis, 
 et des ennemis fi redoubtales, qu'il leur eft impoflible 
 d j y refifter a la longue : les habitans des cotes, les ha- 
 bitans des iles, les puiffances voifmes, les puiflances 
 eloignees, enfin toutes s'arment entr'elles centre ceux 
 qui ont ufurpe 1' empire de la mer, comme contre les 
 tyrans du gente humain. 
 
 " Ne femble t'il pas qu j Ifocrate ait voulu defigner 
 par ces exprefiions la Grande-Bretagne, et lui predire 
 exadlement tout ce qui lui eft arrive, et tout ce qui lui 
 arrivera encore, fi elle ne juge apropos d' adopter des 
 principes plus moderees, et de fuivre des maximes plus 
 equitables?" 
 
 RECH. PHILOS. SUR LES GRECS. 
 
 extortions: 
 
CHINESE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 extortions; the merchants have no balance 
 againft thefe preffures but in the deceits and 
 tricks which they pra&ife on each other, 
 and (till more upon foreigners; the magif- 
 trate connives at the frauds by which he is 
 
 a gainer. After all, is not the knavery 
 
 more in the ruler than in the trader? 
 
 Among the inhabitants of China, the 
 peafants alone might have fome degree of 
 happinefs from their innocence and induftry; 
 but fuch is the undiftinguifliing fpirit of 
 tyranny, that they derive no advantage 
 from their virtues, oppreiTed and ruined by 
 thofe two pefts of defpotifm, arbitrary taxa 
 tion and the corvee. By corvee is underjlood 
 all fervices forced by government on thepeafant, 
 without payment or conji deration. Thanks to 
 the good fenfe and Jtur'dinefs of our ancejlors, 
 there is no fuch zvord in our language, becauje 
 there is no fuch thing in our police. 
 
 & In 
 
234 CHINESE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 In civil matters there is no appeal from 
 
 the decifion of the judge. Appeal implies 
 
 fub ordination; defpotifm knows no fuck thing: 
 the delegate of a "defpot is himfelf a defpot. The 
 limitation of his power would be a precedent 
 again/I the government of the fovereign; it 
 would deftroy the fimplicity of the machine., 
 which has but two fprings Command and 
 Obedience. 
 
 Through all the regions of the earth, defpo 
 tifm has, and can have^ but one character-, this 
 uniformity fprings from the nature of the thing, 
 the thing itfe/f from the nature of man, not as 
 Montefquieu would have it, from a hot fun, and 
 the influence of climate; it was not a laxity of 
 fibre that enflaved the Mofcovite. 
 
 I cannot take leave of my author without 
 
 -prof effing the highejl ejleem of his genius and 
 
 erudition 1 . The foundejl criticifm in things 
 
 which 
 
CHINESE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 which are open to proof, the moft ingenious con 
 jecture in fuch as are not, diftinguifti his progrefs 
 through the natural hiftory of man, from the 
 javage of Canada, to the poliftied citizen of 
 Athens* 
 
 * See his Re(%erches Philofoqhiques fur les Grecs. 
 
SEQJJEL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM PAUW. 
 
 Page go. How came the Peruvians by the 
 ufe of the Chinefe >uiposy* and the tircum* 
 fion of the Egyptians** 
 
 JL O thefe points of coincidence I fhall here 
 add two or three more of a chara&er more 
 curious and interefling* 
 
 a M. De Guines, by his proficiency in Chinefe lite 
 rature, has been enabled to clear up many obfcure points 
 in the hiftory of the Orientals ; among the reft, he has 
 difcovered that the Chinefe, in the 6th and 7th century, . 
 vifited the coafts of America from California down to 
 Peru ; the Chinefe being timid and confined navigators, 
 in later ages, is no material objection : fimilar changes 
 in the characters of nations are not unfrequent in the 
 hiftory of the world. 
 
 b The learned Sir John Marfham has proved, that 
 was a common practice of the Egyptians 
 
 many 
 
C 4 3 
 
 It is the opinion of the natives of fome 
 iflands in the South Seas, [fee Cooke's 
 Voyage] that the fouls of thpfe whofe flelh 
 is devoured by the enemy are doomed to 
 burn for ever> in the next world: hence they 
 fight with the utmoft fury to carry off the 
 bodies of the flain. The Greeks and Trojans 
 did the fame, and, it is probable j that this 
 ufage had its origin in the fame principle; 
 refined by time into a point of honour. 
 
 oio/n *D}jjt"u;do r> 'io -K^'iorn tj^ifl? io ovn bbj; 
 But, who could expeft to find among the 
 fame Iflanders a perfeft coincidence with the 
 dramatic Saltatio of the Greeks and Romans, 
 and, which is (till more furprifing, a precife 
 counterpart of the Greek dramatic chorus? 
 
 many ages before Abraham vifited Egypt. It is not 
 for me to point out the objeft or confequence of this 
 proof; it is well known to the learned; and, for the un 
 lettered, it is better they mould know nothing more 
 about it ol< 5 ^^ ms/fttfiM nIo[ 118 
 enshqv^a ttfo lq 
 Vnfc' 
 
c 5 : 
 
 On firft reading the account ^given by 
 Capt. Cooke of the imitative dances of thofe 
 Iflanders, I fancied that I had before me a 
 defcription by Scaliger or Voffius of the mi 
 metic powers of a Pylades, or a Bathyllus. 
 
 A chorus expreffing in a mufical recita 
 tive, governed by a ftrift obfervance of time 
 and meafure, its fentiments on fome interefl- 
 ing action or event: its movements in a femi- 
 circle, from right to left, and from left to 
 right, (the ftrophe and anthtrophe of the 
 Greek:) the refponfes of actors, from the 
 profcenium, now, to the chorus; now, to 
 its prolocutor: and laftly, the afliftants join 
 ing in a general accompaniment, when mod 
 affected by what was palling on the fcene : 
 all thefe form a whole, a happy image of 
 the early Drama, jufl as x it came out of the 
 waggon of Thefpis, 
 
 PAGE 
 
C 6 3 
 
 PAGE 
 
 v ' *? i. -", ., 
 
 Eternal no Firft Caufe. 
 
 JL HE earliefl philofophers, wedded to their 
 maxim ex nihilo nihilfit^ would not hear of 
 a creation of matter: hence they fell into 
 the fimple and obvious conception of a world 
 exifting from all eternity. With refpeft to. 
 a diflin&ion between fpirit and matter, they 
 were of opinion, that matter, fo modified as 
 to be pofTeffed of motion and thought, might 
 as well be a caufafui^ or firft exiflence, as a 
 fpirit, which fhould have the power of be* 
 flowing thought and motion on matter ; this 
 led them to the conclufion that fpirit and mas 
 ter, that is, all things, were one; and that 
 one was the world, which they called God * 
 the TO iv of the Greeks, borrowed by them 
 
 from 
 
C 7 3 
 
 from the Egyptians, and thus fet off by -a 
 Roman poet: 
 
 Eftne Dei fedes niii terra, ct pontus, et aer, 
 Et ccelum, et virtus? Superos quid quaerimus ultra? 
 Jupiter eft quodcunque vides, quocunque moveris. 
 
 Luc. PHAR. 
 
 The anima mundi was but an apparent 
 feparation of caufe and effeft; a fimple copy 
 of the human exiftence, confiding of two 
 principles, foul and body, mind and matter, 
 yet making, in faft, but one being 
 
 i totamq; infufa per artus 
 Mens agitat molem, et magno fe corpore mifcet. 
 
 This, however, was a flep towards the di 
 vine intelligence, or va?, which was introdu 
 ced into Greece by Anaxagoras, and which, 
 to the happy c conception of Plato, accordr 
 
 c Happy, indeed, had he not difgraced his better 
 thoughts by repeated inconfiftencies and contradi&ions 2 
 
 but, 
 
C 8 ] 
 
 ing to his admirers, came little fliort of Re 
 velation. 
 
 ' ' t 'i''i*i 3S-' r ?".i)jtOG 1"> t&TiiJ} . 5I 
 
 It is obvious, that the admiflion of a Firft 
 Caufe under any form or defcription, tnuft 
 be incompatible with the idea of a felf-exift- 
 ing world: this flood full in the way of 
 Spinoza, as it hac)done of the earlieft phi- 
 lofophers : but he could not enter into the 
 proofs of his hypothecs without feparating 
 
 but, his countrymen were fanatics in thecaufe of Poly- 
 theifm; and he did not choofe to take hemlock. 
 
 Yet, it is remarkable, that the Athenians never per- 
 fecuted the Stoic or Epicurean for his theological opi 
 nions; they owed their chief glory in the fciences to 
 thofe two fchools : Socrates was of neither ; they put 
 him to death. They would have done the fame by 
 Anaxagoras, for having advanced that the fun was 
 larger than Peloponnefus, had not his protector Pericles 
 fnatched him out of their hands. 
 
 the 
 
C 9 3 
 
 the author* 1 or agent from his work; that 
 is, without making them two, while he pro- 
 fefTed to prove that they are but one: no 
 matter; in defiance to the contradiction, he 
 adopts the meafure, and involves himfelf in a 
 
 d This has involved him in another grofs contradic 
 tion, having aflerted, in one of his preliminary propofi- 
 tions, that action is incompatible with the divine nature 
 for, fays he, aftion implies choice; choice, doubt; 
 and there cannot be doubt where intelligence is infinite: 
 thus by a fmgle ftroke of his logic, he reduces the Su 
 preme Being into an abfolute cypher. 
 
 Epicurus was not fo deep in mataphyfics : the quiet- 
 ifm of his gods was the refult, not of neceffity, but of 
 
 Scilicet is fuperis labor eft, ex cura quietos 
 
 Solicitat 
 
 Was it not rather too bold an anachronifm to make 
 Dido, at the era of the Trojan war, an epicurean in her 
 philofophy? In her morals, well and good; they be 
 long to all ages; there could be no violation of the 
 coftume in them. 
 
 procefs, 
 
C 10 ] 
 
 procefs, which proclaims, at its outfet, that 
 
 his fyftem is founded in an abfurdity, 
 
 pir :!>oo jfjd. W .. ysifa ;&&% s&cn ^ o^-ibsS:*? 
 
 Obferve the tenor of this procefs : " Somc- 
 " thing muft have exifted from all eternity; 
 cc it is acknowledged, that fpirit is that 
 <c thing. But matter exifts ; and it being 
 c * impoffible to conceive that matter can be 
 " produced out of nothing, it is evident 
 " that matter muft be eternal; now, it is ad- 
 * c mitted on all hands that no two diftinft 
 " things can be eternal; whence it follows, 
 " that fpirit and matter muft be one; that 
 fc is, that all things, or the world, muft be 
 " one, e this one Deum voco." 
 
 Jupiter eft quodcunque vides, &c. 
 
 e All are but parts of one ftupendous whole. &c. 
 
 Pope was a Spinozift, without knowing it. He was, 
 in thefe matters, whatever Bolingbroke chofe he fhouH 
 be: yet Johnfon afferts, that imagination and judgement 
 
 an 
 
C " ] 
 
 Every propofition repugnant to common 
 fenfe carries in itfelf its refutation: does it 
 impofe, it is the manner, not the thing ; fim- 
 plify the flatement, the fallacy ftrikes. In 
 my anfwer to this argument, I will not med 
 dle with the form, but take up the refult 
 You fay, (let me thus addrefs this formidable 
 Logician) it is impoffible to conceive that 
 matter can be produced out of nothing; 
 whence you would prove, with the aid of a 
 logical medium, that fpirit and matter are 
 one, and on this principle you found your 
 fyftem. To this I reply, it is impoflible for 
 me to conceive, that two things fo different 
 in their nature as fpirit and matter can be 
 one; fo that your principle not coming 
 within the reach of my comprehenfion, it 
 
 are one a ftrength of intellefl, exercifed in different 
 ways, and on different fubjefis : I fhould as readily ad 
 mit, that fpirit and matter are one.. 
 
 follows, 
 
[ 12 ] 
 
 follows, that the fyflein founded upon it mud 
 
 abfqlute nothing. 
 
 ^Whence, then, .it ^may be aiked, all this 
 buftk about the doc~lrine of Spinoza? 
 
 Geometrical (I am writing for the younger 
 part of my readers, for whom alone Ipro- 
 fefs to pliilofophize) and mathematical de- 
 monflrations turn on lines, meafures, and 
 proportions ; things by their nature fixt and 
 unchangeable: conclufions from thefe may 
 be dectfive\ but the demonflrations (fuch he 
 calls them) of Spinoza turn on ideas more or 
 lefs abiiraft, that is, of different imports to 
 different conceptions, fuch ^-fubftance^ 
 pint, matter , and the like ; things which 
 never have been, nor ever can be defined , 
 conclufions from thefe can not be deeifive ; 
 and, as the counter-conclufions mud turn on 
 the fame materials, and modes of proof, it 
 
 follows, 
 
[ 13 3 
 
 follows, that both muft be fubjeft to in- 
 decifion. 
 
 But indecifion, in the prefent cafe, would 
 be to Spinoza a victory, by rendering pro 
 blematical that which muft be certain ; and 
 thereby giving a degree of exiftence to the 
 mifchief projected in the eftablifhment of 
 Atheifm/ Happily, every man has in him- 
 
 felf 
 
 f Ocellus was the firft philofopher, of name, who 
 undertook a formal proof of the eternity of the world: 
 his work is diftinguimed by a fimplicity in its meta- 
 phyficks ; by a neatnefs in the flatements, and a clear- 
 nefs in the deductions, far excelling the crabbe4 
 obfcurity of Ariftotle, and the intricate refinements of 
 
 Plato. A fpecimen or two of this author's manner 
 
 will enable the reader to judge for himfelf. 
 
 <( If there was a time in which the whole TO <<*, 
 " exifted not nothing exifted: and, if there was a 
 " time in which nothing exifted, nothing exifts at this 
 
 " dav 
 
C '4 3 
 
 felf an antidote to this poifbn, in an appeal, 
 from the illufions of metaphyficks to confei^ 
 ottfnefs, and the deeifion of plain good fenfe* 
 
 The 
 
 day whence it follows, that the world muft have ex^ 
 " ifted from all eternity." 
 
 It muft be remembered, that Ocellus and the philo- 
 fbphers of his time had no idea of a creation, or firft 
 caufe. Anaxagoras was the firft who introduced this 
 idea into Greece. 
 
 Again" All things contained in the whole have 
 .** fome relation to it : but the whole hath no relation 
 ' to any thing but to itfelf. All other beings are of 
 ' fuch a nature as not to be fufficient to themfelves ; 
 ' but muft have a relation to beings without them- 
 ' felves ; thus, animals muft have air to breathe; the 
 " eye, light to fee; and the other fenfes, in like mari- 
 " ner, each its proper object. The fun, the moon, 
 the planets, and the fixt ftars, are bound to harmonize 
 " with the whole the whole with no other thing than 
 "itfelf." 
 
 By 
 
C '5 3 
 
 The atoms of the epicurean, the anitna 
 mundi of the ftoic, borrowed from the ori 
 entals, were implied atheifm; the more to 
 be noted, as it was the only point in which 
 the two fchools agreed: the fatality of 
 Hobbs, the predeflined harmony of Leib 
 nitz, the monads of Wolf, the materialifm 
 of the ancient and modern world, are not far 
 removed from it: in-ihort, every attempt of 
 human wit to develope the original of things 
 mufl have, more or lefs, a tendency to this 
 
 By thefe and fimilar fteps Ocellus advances to his 
 grand conclufion, namely, that the world, exifting 
 perfe, could have neither beginning nor end; that is to 
 fay, mull be eternal. 
 
 Spinoza's fyftem is but a copy of this, differing only 
 in the modes of proof; even Ariftotle condefcended to 
 transfer a confiderable part of it into a work of his own 
 on the fame fubjeft. We read, that Plato greatly ad 
 mired this work of Ocellus. 
 
 point; 
 
C 16 ] 
 
 point \ for this obvious reafon, that the at 
 tempt fets out with laying afide the co-opera 
 tion of a Firfl Caufe. Had not Newton been 
 a fteady believer, his attraction and repulfion, 
 like the love and hatred of Empedocles, 
 
 might have brought him into fome danger. 
 
 .-iTfi ' 
 
 PAGE 139. 
 
 t ^'tflD 3> Ifr ?Vi "?G 'V">'fl* <e /' r hi 
 
 Wtf 0/fc# rar ^ the fuperiority of the modern 
 over the ancient philofqphers. 
 
 vV E fay, that our philofophy is founded 
 on demonftration, that of the ancients on 
 affertion. 
 
 Newton holds the rays of light to be ema 
 nations from the fun : Euler, a diflinguiflied 
 German philofopher, calls this trifling: light, 
 according to him, confifts in vibrations of 
 
 air 
 
C '7 3 
 
 air or ether communicated to the eye, as 
 thofe of found are to the ear, with this dif 
 ference, that the vifual vibrations are to" the 
 fonorous, in the celerity of their fucceffions, 
 in the proportion of 900,000 to one, that 
 is, 1 2,000 vibrations muft fucceed each other 
 within the time of a fingle ftroke of the 
 pulfe: but, as this comes not within the 
 reach of my conception, I fhall leave the 
 philofopher to enjoy the precifion of his cal 
 culation, and content myfelf with obferving, 
 that the emanations of Newton conveying no 
 precife idea of the thing to be defined, and 
 the vibrations of Euler being of a nature al 
 together incomprehenfible; neither the one, 
 nor the other, can be confidered in any other 
 light than that of a mere aflertion. 
 
 Again, Newton fays, that the rays of. the 
 
 fun, ftriking on the moon or any opaque 
 
 body, are reflected, by which the moon be- 
 
 B comes 
 
[ 18 ] 
 
 comes vifible to us. No, fays Euler, but the 
 rays of the fun falling on the furface of the 
 moon, excites in its particles a concujflfion, 
 from which refult the rays of the moon, 
 which entering into our eyes paint her image 
 there. What have we of demonftration in 
 either of thefe propofitions? So that in 
 thefe, as in moil of the great phenomena of 
 nature, we reft, at laft like the ancients, on 
 conjecture. 
 
 "Nos aftronomes'et nos mathematiciens ne 
 perdroient pas toujours leurs temps, s'ils 
 etudioient une peu plus 1'antiquite. Us s'a- 
 percevroient fouvent que c'eft faute d'etre 
 bien entendus que les anciens leur paroifTent 
 dans des fentiments oppofes a ceux que 1'on 
 fuit aujourd'hui. II y a dans la phyfique 
 bien des opinions qui paiTent pour modernes, 
 et qui ne font que renouvellees." 
 
 FRERET. 
 Having 
 
[ 19 3 
 
 Having found among my papers the fol 
 lowing colle&ion of notes touching the phi- 
 lofophical opinions of the ancients, I am 
 tempted to bring them forward in this place j 
 having only to regret, that, in the prefeht 
 ftate of my health and fpirits, it is not in my 
 power to reduce thefe fcattered thoughts into 
 a form and order which might render them 
 more deferving of the reader's acceptance. 
 
 That the earth and planets turned round 
 themfelves, and their common centre the fun, 
 Pythagoras learned from the Egyptians, who 
 knew it many ages before. 
 
 Cleanthes explained by this rotation the 
 apparent movement of the ftars and heaven. 
 
 Ariftarchus and others held that the fun 
 
 was immoveable in the centre of our world, 
 
 and that the fixt ftars were fo many funs. 
 
 B 2 This 
 
C 20 ] 
 
 This truly fublime idea muft therefore be 
 reftored to, the ancients: it was a ftroke of 
 genius, not of calculation. 
 
 Yet the ancients were not ftrangers to cal 
 culation in their philofophical inveftigations : 
 Eratoflhenes having meafured a meridian of 
 the earth by ftadia, applied the fame mode 
 of menfuration to determine the diameter of 
 the earth: poflefTed of this diameter, he was 
 enabled to calculate the diftance of the earth 
 from the fun. We have a happy comment on 
 this remarkable operation in the following 
 fpirited obfervation, by Pliny: " Mirum 
 " quo procedat improbitas g (impiety) cordis 
 " humani parvulo invitata fucceffu Aufi di- 
 
 After the idea of Plato, to whom every attempt to 
 lay open the fyftem of the univerfe was, what he called 
 * giganto machia a^waging war with the Gods 
 one of his ufual flourifhes. 
 
 " vinare 
 
u vinare folis ad terrain fpatia, eadem ad 
 " caslum agunt, ut protinus mundi quoque 
 '5 ipfius ihenfura veniat ad digitos" What 
 Pliny fuppofed would come about, has been in 
 a great degree effefted by the moderns; but 
 not before the happy difcovery of the laws of 
 motion: all fmce that has been calculation. 
 
 The Tourbillons of Defcartes not unknown 
 to Leucippus and Democritus: the latter 
 held the via latteq to be an affemblage of 
 final 1 ftars. 
 
 Comets, according to the Egyptians, were 
 real planets. In the time of Plutarch aflro- 
 nomers fufpe&ed that the fpots of the moon 
 were feas, or deep vallies. They wanted 
 Herfchel's telefcope to difcover volcanos. 
 
 Before Defcartes, Cicero and Seneca had 
 learned from the early aftronomers that the 
 
 flux - 
 
C 22 ] 
 
 flux and reflux of the fea was owing to the 
 preflion of the moon to preflion Newton 
 fubftitutes attraftion. 
 
 Newton's attra&ion and repulfion antici 
 pated by Empedocles, who attributed the 
 aftion of elements to love and hatred 
 (ptXorys KOII vtMog the one the caufe of 
 adhefion, the other of reparation. 
 
 The famef philofopher, according to Arif- 
 totle, referred to the weight of the air, not 
 to the dread of a vacuum, the fufpenfion of 
 water in a fyphon ftopt at one end. 
 
 Three hundred years before our era, 
 Aryflillus and Timochares obferved the de 
 clination of the fixt ftars, the knowledge of 
 which is fo neceffary to navigation. Two 
 hundred years before this, the latitude of 
 a place was determined by the meridian 
 
 height 
 
C *3 D 
 
 height of the fun, and by the diftance of 
 ftars from the Pole. 
 
 Yet, we are told that they had not the 
 ufe of the telefcope: if not, they mud have 
 had fome media of inveftigation unknown to 
 us. But how (hall we difpofe of the fol 
 lowing well-known paiTage 
 
 Admovere oculls dtftanti a fidera no ft r is y 
 Mtberaque ignenlo fuppofuere fuo. Ov. 
 
 Did not the Egyptians teach Thales to cal 
 culate eclipfes five hundred years before our 
 era ? And did they not, on their great pyramid 
 built 4000 years ago, determine a meridian, 
 and the four cardinal points, with a precifion 
 which has not been equalled, as our aftrono- 
 mers confefs, in any other part of the world. 
 The meridian drawn by the ableft aftrono- 
 mers of the age of Louis the XlVth has 
 been found not to be perfectly correct. 
 
 What 
 
C 24 ] 
 
 What articles of confequence have mo 
 dern naturalifts added to the hiftory of ani 
 mals and minerals given by Ariftotle, Theo- 
 phraftus, and Pliny? Many things advanced 
 by them, though treated with ridicule in 
 later ages, have been verified in the prefent; 
 and many which have patted for modern dif- 
 coveries are nothing more than extenfions and 
 explanations of notices furniflied by them. 
 
 It is fenfibly obferved by the Count de 
 Caylus, that the filence of the ancients con 
 cerning the machines which they ufed, in 
 raifmg their obelifks, and other prodigious 
 works, proves their fuperiority over the mo 
 derns in mechanics: their machines wanted 
 no defcription; they were fo fimple, that to 
 fee was to comprehend them. 
 
 " Colour," according to Plato, " is not in 
 " theobjeft, or in the eye; it is a peculiar 
 
 " repercuflion 
 
C *5 ] 
 
 " repercuffion of light from the furface of 
 " the obje& to the eye." An impofmg idea, 
 fuch as his often are, which plays about 
 the truth, without laying hold on it. 
 
 When Sir Ifaac took up his prifm, he 
 was already matter of the fecret: the precon 
 ception of the principle is -implied in the 
 choice and nature of the experiment: this 
 was genuine invention: in modern difco- 
 veries, for the moft part, this procefs is in 
 verted, and the principle is the accidental 
 refult of the experiment. 
 
 The ancients knew, that a needle magne 
 tized attracted at one end, and repelled at the 
 other: had they fufpended the needle by 
 the middle, they muft have obferved its polar 
 direction. How near to the compafs, difco- 
 vered the other day, not by reafoning, but 
 by accident. The Romans had letters cut 
 
 out 
 
[ 26 ] 
 
 out and raifed on a narrow plate, with 
 which they marked their bread and pottery 
 ware thofe letters made mov cable, and co 
 loured, had given them printing ; and John 
 Fuft had been no more than a mechanic of 
 Mayence. 
 
 It was the doftrine of Protagoras, that all 
 knowledge was fenfation, that is, had its 
 origin in fenfation. 
 
 oppofition of Plato (fee his Theastetus) 
 to this do&rine is founded throughout on the 
 fallibility of the fenfes: but though, where 
 our fenfes deceive us, they cannot produce 
 knowledge, it by no means follows that, 
 where they do not deceive us, they may 
 not be the fource of all the knowledge we 
 have. But, fays Plato, they always and in 
 every inftance do deceive us ; for things be 
 ing in perpetual motion, are inceflantly pro 
 
 ducing, 
 
[ 2 7 ] 
 
 ducing, and reproduced by each other 
 Egregious trifling! Is not a fquare always 
 a fquare, and the three angles of a triangle 
 always equal to two right ones? It were lofs 
 of time to purfue this further. Was it not 
 from thefe levities of Plato that our cele 
 brated Berkley borrowed his idle fyflem of 
 ideal exiftence? 
 
 The noted expreffion of tabula rafa, or 
 charte blanche, applied to intelleft, is of De- 
 mocritus; implying the derivation of all our 
 ideas from the fenfes. 
 
 Definition of foul a nature that moves 
 itfelf Thales, Pythagoras. Have we any 
 thing better ? I love the morning of philo- 
 fophy \ there is a frefhnefs in the ideas. 
 
 " Soul, governing and filling all things 
 " fufceptible of motion, mud govern the 
 
 " heavens 
 
[ 28 ] 
 
 " heavens. Are there many fouls, or but 
 " one? We muft admit two j one tending to 
 " good, the other, to ill." PLATO. 
 
 Of all the notions which have taken root 
 in the mind of man, the anlma mundi, and 
 the exiftence of two principles of good and 
 ill, are the moft uniform anduniverfal: they 
 have obtained through all the regions, and 
 been found in every corner of the earth. 
 That the moft admired philofopher of anti 
 quity ftiould, after all his flights, be com 
 pelled to fettle here, muft be a fubjeft of 
 fome comfort to thofe who are fo humble as 
 to fufpeft that the little they know of thefe 
 matters is owing to a want of capacity to 
 know more* 
 
 Among the obje&s of philofophy, that 
 which moft engaged and embarrafled the an 
 cients, as well it might, was to account for 
 
 the 
 
C 29 ] 
 
 the origin and formation of the world. We 
 have feen that Ocellus and the earlieft philo- 
 fophers adhered to the idea of a world exift- 
 ing from all eternity: and we find on exa 
 mining the hiftory of this fubje&, that much 
 the greater number of their fucceflbrs, how 
 ever they may have varied from each other 
 in the ufe of their logick and metaphyficks, 
 came at laft, directly or indirectly, to this 
 point. Should this hold good with refpecl 
 to Plato, the mofl inventive genius among 
 them, and the lead likely to follow the opi 
 nions of others, it will hardly be difputed 
 with regard to the reft. This philofopher 
 has given full fcope, in his Timasus, to the 
 vivacity and diffufion of his ideas on this 
 fubjedt; of thefe I propofe to give a fhort 
 fketch, not from his own ftatement, in ge 
 neral vague, and often not very intelligible, 
 but from the explanation of his fyftem by 
 Plutarch, in his Commentary on the Timasus. 
 
 Thus 
 
E 30 ] 
 
 ~ \ 
 
 Thus Plato as explained by Plutarch. 
 
 " Matter, of which the world has been 
 " made, was itfelf wmnade, but fubjecl: to the 
 " Artift, to be difpofed of and ordered by 
 " him fo as to affume the neareft refemblance 
 " to himfelf that was poffible. 
 
 " Hence the world has not been made 
 " out of that which was not, but out of that 
 " which was not perfeft, or fo perfeft as it 
 u might be; in like manner as one makes a 
 " houfc, a coat, or a ftatue." 
 
 Before the birth of the world it was chaos 
 and confufion. That chaos was not with 
 out body; h nor without motion; 1 nor with 
 out foul; k but that body was without form or 
 
 It is the ufual pra&ice of Plato to exprefs himfelf thus 
 negatively, or faintly, that he might be provided with 
 
 aa 
 
[ 3' ] 
 
 confiftency; that movement without rule or 
 reafon. " G od did not make body that which 
 44 was incorporeal; nor foul, that which was 
 " inanimate; but, as the mufician, who com- 
 44 pofes meafures and fongs, makes neither 
 46 the founds nor the movement, content to 
 " throw harmony into the founds, and pro- 
 44 portioned intervals into the movements; 
 44 in like manner, God has not given to body 
 44 tangibility, nor impenetrability ; nor to 
 44 foul, imagination and activity; but, having 
 44 taken up the two principles, fuch as they 
 44 were, the one opaque and without figure, 
 44 the other blind and impetuous, he fub- 
 44 jefted them to order and harmony, render- 
 44 ing them beautiful, regular, uniform, ac- 
 
 an evafion when he fhould wiih to contradift or explain 
 away the ideas on a future occafion : hence there is no 
 end to the difputes among his fuccefibrs touching his 
 real notions of things. 
 
 44 cording 
 
C 3* ] 
 
 " cording to his own ideas; and has formed 
 u out of them a perfeft animal, which is the 
 " world. 5 ' 
 
 A blind imagination is a thing which I do 
 not well comprehend, any more than I do 
 body without figure; the idea is too abftrafted 
 for me. Is not all this talking at random ? 
 Embarraffed by the necefTity of admitting the 
 pre-exiflence of foul and body, he had no 
 thing left for it but to explain away the na 
 ture of both; a preparative,- fuch as it is, 
 for what is to come in a future article, ft 
 mud be confefTed, that there is in Plato much 
 more of the fophift than the philofopher ; it 
 had been well, that- he had kept this fpirit 
 more to himfelf, and not have gives fo much 
 of it to his mafter Socrates, who might well 
 fay, as he did on the firft fetting out of his 
 fcholar, " I forefee, that this boy will make 
 u me talk a deal of nonfenfe." 
 
[ 33 ] 
 
 Three things were eflential to the compo- 
 fition of the world: Matter, motion, and 
 order. Mofes made God the author of all 
 the three; Anaxagoras, of the fecond and 
 third; Plato, of the third only; by which 
 he did nothing more than give a nominal 
 being to a firfl caufe ; for a firfl caufe, that 
 was not the caufe of motion, cannot be faid 
 to have a fun&ion in the formation of the 
 world; it is, indeed, a folecifm in philofophy. 
 Again; if foul, motion, and matter, exifled in 
 nature from all eternity, which Plato admits, 
 what was there to prevent the co-exiflence 
 of order with them? The earlieft philofo- 
 phers confidered this co-exiflence as a thing 
 of courfe ; they thought that order mufl be 
 the natural refult .of foul or intelligence, 1 
 governing motion and matter: this admit* 
 
 1 When the ancients feparate foul from motion, they 
 Always qnderftand by the former var, intelligence. 
 
 c ted, 
 
[ 34 ] 
 
 ted, and it cannot well be reje&ed, the world 
 of Plato would be precifely the fame with 
 that of Ocellus a whole, uncreated and 
 felf-exifting. 
 
 In the article above quoted from Plato, he 
 is, though not perfeftly confident, yet tem 
 perate and plaufible; but, within a few pages 
 of this, we find a pafTage on the fame fub- 
 je&, in which he outdoes himfelf in the 
 wildnefs and extravagance of his conceits. 
 
 God, having refolved to put the finifhing 
 hand to his work of the creation of the 
 World, thus addreffes his demi-gods aflem- 
 bled on the occafion. 
 
 a Gods of Gods, of whom I am the au- 
 " thor and the father, hear me. Ye know 
 " that the works of my hands are immortal 
 " and indeflru&ible, if not by my will; for 
 " this reafon, no art, no force, can ever de- 
 " (troy you. It remains for us now to finifh 
 " three kinds of things, to render the uni- 
 
 ^ verfe 
 
C 35 3 
 
 " verfe intire and complete; [thefe three 
 " things are the animals of the air, of the 
 u water, and of the earth ; the gods to 
 " whom he is fpeaking are the animals celef- 
 " tial and immortal.] If my hand alone 
 c< ihould organize and produce them, they 
 " would be equal to gods. I give the care 
 " of this to you. Go, labour all of you, ac- 
 " cording to the nature with which you are 
 " endowed, and imitate the model which I 
 " have created in you. As it is right that 
 u there fliould be an animal among the reft 
 " who fhall have fomething more of the 
 " divine, and be the king of other animals, 
 cc who (hah 1 honour, juftice and the gods of 
 " his proper motion, I will give you the 
 " firft feeds, the firft lineaments of fuch a 
 " being. Again; go, attach the mortal to 
 " the immortal; let animals be born, and 
 " grow, and be nouriflied;. when they fhall 
 (C be decompofed, you will reaflemble and 
 c a ** prefer v6 
 
[ 36 ] 
 
 " preferve their elements. He fpoke, and 
 " in the moment took the cup in which 
 * c he had made the mixture of the foul of 
 " the world; he added fome particles of the 
 " firft principle which flill remained, and 
 cc made a particular compofition, out of 
 " which to form fouls, which he afterwards 
 " diftributed in equal portions to each of the 
 " flars, as on fo many cars of fire, to make 
 " them travel through the univerfe, that they 
 " might promulgate the laws and deflinies of 
 " the beings." 
 
 Here foul is formed and compounded by 
 the hand of the Creator, 1 " though, in the pre 
 ceding article, he declares it to have exifted, 
 with matter, before the creation; and, in his 
 Phaedo, he aiferts that it muft be eternal, be- 
 'caufe it moves itfelf. 
 
 ni God being himfelf foul, could not form or create 
 foul ; it being an axiom in philofophy, that no thing 
 can create itfelf. 
 
 Man a 
 
C 37 3 
 
 Man, with other animals, is at once 
 mortal and immortal; he is dhTolved or de- 
 compofed; but the elements of his exiftence 
 (foul and matter) are preferved and immortal. 
 
 Above all, a unity of the Godhead, im 
 plied in a Creator, is made to originate a 
 fyftem of polytheifm. n As to his portions 
 of foul, or gods, diftributed among the ftars, 
 thofe only who were allotted to the planets 
 could execute the command of travelling 
 through the univerfe; the reft, confined to 
 the fixt ftars, fhould have been mounted on 
 thrones, not on cars, of fire. But enough 
 of this. The reader who may be ill pleafed 
 with what I have already given him, will find 
 a happy relief in a comparifon of the futile 
 vivacity of Plato with the fublime fimplicity 
 of Mofes, in his hiftory of the creation. 
 
 n The divine Plato was privileged : inconfiftency was, 
 in him, not a fault, but a charafleriftic. The charms of 
 his writing impofed the idea of the moment, and the con- 
 fiftency of thephilofopher was loft in the fire of a poet. 
 
PAGE 179. 
 
 Of all the Literati, the Linguift is the mqft 
 enterprifing. 
 
 Do WE, Wilkins, and Sir William Jones, 
 inform us, that the mod learned of the Bra- 
 mins read with difficulty the old Sanfcrit: 
 yet, this is the language in which Sir William 
 could difcover beauties far tranfcending thofe 
 of the Greek and Latin. How could he 
 know this? 
 
 " I confidently aflume (fee his Difcourfes 
 " on India) that the Goths and the Hindoos 
 
 " had originally the fame language. 
 
 " The original language of the Hindoos was 
 " the Sanfcrit." . If fo, the Gothic mufl have 
 fliared in the -advantages and beauties of the 
 Sanfcrit: this being the cafe, and fo well 
 
 known 
 
C 39 ] 
 
 known to. Sir William, it had been kind in 
 him to have pointed out to us, by whom, 
 and in what part of the world, this language 
 was fpoken. 
 
 As the Hieroglyphic has been honoured 
 with the name of Language, it had, of 
 courfe, fome claim to Sir William's atten 
 tion; how, and to what purpofe, beftowed, 
 will appear from what follows : " The hif- 
 " tory of Noah and the deluge is fuppofed 
 " to be the fame with that of the Hindoos, 
 " of the fame event. Thcfejlories relate, I 
 " think, to the fame event; and all feem 
 " connected with the hieroglyphical fculp- 
 " tures of the old Egyptians." How could 
 this be? The Egyptians could have no me* 
 morials, of any kind, of an univerfal deluge, 
 which they pofitively denied could have 
 taken place; and that for this fimple reafon, 
 that it never rained in Egypt. Had this 
 little trait of hiflory been known by Sir 
 
 William, 
 
C 40 ] 
 
 William, he would not have called in the 
 Egyptians, of all people, for witnefles to the 
 authenticity of Noah's deluge; nor have 
 affe&ed to difcover in their hieroglyphics 
 things which could not be there. I much fuf- 
 peft that the beauties of the Sanfcrit are of 
 the fame family. 
 
 PAGE 53. 
 
 French Critics difyute with HERODOTUS about 
 the age of HOMER, and deny there was any 
 fuch man as HESIOD. 
 
 1 HE fpirit of criticifm has been the fame 
 in all ages; in the earlieft, there were fcep- 
 tics in literature, who difputed with Homer 
 his own Iliad. 
 
 " Corinnus Ilienfis, Palamedis difcipulus, 
 ante Homerum primus concinnaffe tra- 
 
 ditur 
 
C 4i ] 
 
 ditur a Suida, et Homero totum poematis 
 fui argumentum praebuifle." 
 
 Fabricn Bib. Grtec. 1. i. p. 22. 
 
 The celebrated poet Callimachus attributes 
 the Iliad to Creophylus of Samos, in an epi 
 gram, in which he makes him to fay, 
 
 My work, thought worthy of proud Homer's name, 
 Repays in feeling what I lofe in fame. 
 
 This is rather a paraphrafe than a trans 
 lation; the Greek, as ufual, is extremely 
 fimple: 
 
 " My work is called after Homer, This, 
 " kind Jove, does great honour to Creo- 
 " phylus." 
 
 The modern epigram requires fomething 
 more of foint: I have conformed in my pa- 
 
 raDhrafc 
 
C 42 3 
 
 raphrafe to this tafte: but I like the Greek 
 better, I fpeak with fmcerity much better ; 
 for, if any thing could have given credit to 
 the impofture, it would have been the fim- 
 plicity with which it is announced. 
 
 It is probable, that Callimachus adopted 
 the impofition, as it furniihed him with a fub- 
 jecl: for his epigram: poets are not fcrupulous 
 on fuch occafions. Terence took advantage 
 of this thought in his defence againft the im 
 putation of having been affifled .by Laslius 
 and Scipio in writing his comedies 
 
 Nam quod ifti dicunt malevoli, homines nobiles 
 Hunc adjutare, aflidueque una fcribere, 
 Quod illi maledidlum vehemens exiftimant, 
 Earn laudem hie ducit maximam. 
 
 In Prologo Adelphorum. 
 
 Not fo, in my tranflations of fome Greek epigrams, 
 in my Treatife on Painting; the firft and moft beloved 
 of all my little works. May not an old man be allowed 
 to indulge himfelf in fuch thoughts? When all others 
 forfake him, thefe comforts are permanent. 
 
 Second 
 
C 43 ] 
 
 Second Statement of the opinions of the An- 
 dents concerning the Origin and Formation 
 of the World.* 
 
 i. 
 
 THERE has not been a philofopher 
 throughout 'all antiquity who has not ad 
 mitted this efTential principle c Something 
 * exifts, therefore fomething hath always ex- 
 c ifted:' it is evidently included in that uni- 
 verfal axiom Nothing can be made out of 
 nothing. A writer who fliould have denied 
 this principle would have been treated by 
 the ancients with the utmoft contempt. 
 
 ii. 
 
 That being which hath always exifled, is 
 either the world fuch as it exifls at this 
 
 * Mem. de 1'Acad. des Belles Lettres, v. xxxii. p. 1 28. 
 
 day, 
 
C 44 ] 
 
 day, or the caufe itfelf which hath produced 
 the world. 
 
 Ocellus and Ariftotle have afferted roundly 
 the eternity of the world ; the former has 
 attempted to prove it by metaphyfical rea- 
 fons; the latter, by the nature of qualities 
 eflential to matter, the which being acknow 
 ledged eternal, mud have exerted the activity 
 of its qualities from all eternity. 
 
 The moderns who have followed Spinoza, 
 or preceded him, have judged it proper to 
 make the eternity of the world to depend on 
 the faculties necelTarily aftive of the Divi 
 nity, which muft have exerted themfelves 
 from all eternity in which they differ from 
 Ariftotle, merely, in giving that to God or 
 Spirit which he attributed to matter; a differ 
 ence, folely, in names, 
 in. 
 
 Suppofmg the world born or formed in 
 time, it is evident that it muft owe its birth 
 
 to 
 
C 45 3 
 
 to fome other being than itfelf; fmce no 
 thing can be produced without a caufe; and 
 no thing can be the caufe of itfelf. 
 
 That Being, then, diftinft from the world, 
 is unique , or it is not this is the celebrated 
 divifion of the Unitarians and Dualifts. 
 
 If that Being be unique, it is the Divinity 
 alone, or matter alorie, or the Divinity and 
 matter conceived as one in the fame being. 
 This is the fy ft em of Spinoza. 
 
 IV. 
 
 If it be the Divinity alone, by the exclusion 
 of all matter, it can be no other than the 
 Divinity under the form of a free caufe, or 
 under that of a neceiTary caufe; this fecond 
 manner cannot have place on the fuppofition 
 of the world's being born, becaufe a nece 
 fary caufe mud have produced its effeft from 
 all eternity; confequently, if it be theDivinity 
 alone which hath produced the world in 
 
 time, 
 
C 46 ] 
 
 time, it muft have been as a free caufe ; a 
 ma'nner of produ&ion which is no where 
 clearly afferted but in the principles of chrif- 
 
 tianity. Rather in the Mofalc fyftem. 
 
 & 
 
 v. 
 
 If it be matter alone, it is either a matter 
 which moves itfelf by gravitation in a vacuum, 
 according to Leucippus and Epicurus ; or it 
 is matter which moves itfelf by its own in- 
 trinfic force, according to the Hylozoites : 
 this again was divided into two, one of 
 which was that of the floics, who gave to 
 certain portions of matter a fort of intelli 
 gence, and a real influence on the world in 
 general; another is that of Strato, who gives 
 to matter nothing more than the fimple fa 
 culty of moving itfelf, in order to form in 
 dividuals, of which no one hath any influence 
 on another. 
 
 If 
 
C 47 3 
 
 VI. 
 
 If it be the Divinity and matter conceived 
 as one in the fame being- of this there are 
 fever al claiTes. 
 
 " Many have formed this unity on the model 
 of man, giving to the world a body and foul 
 fo afforted, that matter was, as it were, the 
 vefTel containing the Divinity; but a flexible 
 veffel, which gave to God a part of its own 
 form, and received from him a part of hist 
 this was the thought of fome Pythagoricians. 
 Others, and thefe the greater number, 
 imagined this union as a contiguity of two 
 fubftances almoft homogeneous, extending 
 through all fpace; in a manner, however, 
 that the more pure of the two fubftances 
 filled all the higher part of the univerfal 
 globe; this was God: the other fubftance 
 occupied all the fpace from the orbit of the 
 moon to the centre of the earth. All the 
 Pythagoricians, all the Elean fchool, Par- 
 
 menides, 
 
[ 48 ] 
 
 menides, Plato, Ariftotle, Zeno, embraced 
 this opinion. 
 
 There, is a third kind of union, which 
 would be that of a lingle fubflance poffeffed 
 of two general attributes extenfion and 
 thought, by which to form the two kinds of 
 beings known to us. But if the Eleatics, 
 among the ancients, had a vague idea of this 
 opinion, the turn of thinking in their age 
 prevented them from improving it, and from 
 feeing it under the fame afpeft in which it 
 has appeared to the moderns fince the time 
 of Spinoza. 
 
 Laftly; there is a vague union of the Divi^ 
 nity and of .matter in a firft principle, known 
 as to its exiftence, unknown as to its eflence ; 
 this was reprefented as the univerfal fource 
 from which all beings proceeded ; whether 
 -by emanation, like the rays of light; or by 
 generation, as the elements or animals ; or 
 by fecretion; or in Ihort by ibme other way 
 
 unknown. 
 
C 49 ] 
 
 unknown, without fixing the times, the man 
 ner, or entering into any philofophical dif- 
 cuflion of the fubjeft: this was the fyftem of 
 all the mod ancient people of the earth, efpe- 
 cially of the Orientals, who, after having loft 
 all knowledge of the primitive Inftruftion^ 
 fuppofed to have been preferred by Mofes, 
 confined themfelves to vague ideas, and a 
 belief by inheritance, without further exami 
 nation. They figured to themfelves the 
 Supreme Majefty, retired into the heaven 
 of heavens, leaving to a chief minifter, him- 
 felf the ifTue of the Divinity, the care of go 
 verning the world, and of keeping within 
 bounds a certain principle of malevolence 
 and rebellion, of which they fuppofed the 
 exiftence from a view of the evils by which 
 nature was afiMed. r-Hence the Light and 
 Darknefs of the Chaldeans; the Oromaze 
 and Arimaene of the Perfians; the Ofiris and 
 Typhon of the Egyptians; the Love and 
 D Night 
 
[50 ] 
 
 Night of the Greek theologians; Jupiter and 
 the Titans of their poets. (To which may we 
 not add the God and Satan of the drama of 
 Job, and of the Mofaic fyftem. In general?} 
 Thefe notions obtained until they were fu- 
 perfeded by the birth of real philofophy, fix 
 hundred years before the birth, of Chrift. 
 
 VII. 
 
 We are now come to a duality precifely 
 declared. 
 
 If the Divinity and matter are conceived 
 as two beings clearly feparated, the one is 
 confidered as an a&ive caufe, the other as a 
 caufe more or lefs paffive, according to the 
 different fyflems on the nature of matter, 
 that is to fay, on the form and motion be* 
 longing to it as fuch. 
 
 Some have faid that matter had no fixed 
 form, but was a pafte ready to receive forms 
 of every kind. Thefe were the Hylopa- 
 thians, or Ionic fchool. 
 
 Others, 
 
C 5' ] 
 
 Others, that matter had a fixt form, fo as 
 to become fire, water, air, &c. but that it 
 had but the one ; and that the feveral fpecies 
 were produced by the condenfation, or 
 rarefaction of the primary element : fo, 
 Thales, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, and all 
 the ftoics. 
 
 Others, that it had many fixt forms, but 
 all comprehended in the eflential qualities of 
 extenfion, configuration, gravity, folidity, to 
 the exclufion of changeable qualities ; fo the 
 Atomifts. 
 
 Others, laflly, that it had an indefinite 
 number of fixt forms, to which were annexed 
 even the changeable qualities, as of hot, 
 dry, cold, humid: thefe were the homeo- 
 meries of Anaxagoras. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 There were not fewer opinions touching 
 the motion of this fame matter. 
 
 D 2 Anaxagoras 
 
C 5* ] 
 
 Anaxagoras held it to be of itfelf dedicate 
 of all motion, even local, and that God 
 alone could carry and place it, every thing 
 but create it; this was a difficulty not to be 
 fohed but by a revelation. Some critics have 
 wondered that the vxq of Anaxagoras ,fo highly 
 celebrated by his countrymen, Jhould not have 
 gained him a Jingle difciple: it is eafily ac 
 counted for: the world made by a divine in* 
 telligence, brought the fubjecl to toojhort an 
 tffue; and would have deprived the metaphy* 
 Jlcian of the happiejl topic for exercifing his 
 talents ; above all, it would have been infup- 
 por table to the Athenian, whofe higheft delight 
 was in metaphyfical fubtilties : it may be doubt 
 ed, whether Mofes himfelf, with all his ad 
 vantages, would have had greater fuccefs than 
 Anaxagoras, efpecially as the Greeks were not 
 like the Jews, in the habit of proving doflrines 
 by miracles. 
 
 Other? 
 
C 53 3 
 
 Others allowed it loco-motion, not by its 
 nature, but by its exiftence in a vacuum: 
 thefe were the Atomifls. 
 
 Others thought that, exclufive of loco 
 motion, it had the three other motions of 
 generation, by its eiTence; of alteration, in 
 point of quality; of augmentation, in that 
 of quantity: thefe were the Anaximan- 
 drites. q 
 
 Others, laflly, fome of the Pythagoricians, 
 as explained by Plato, attributed to matter a 
 kind of mute fenfation, and a blind will/ 
 
 9 See Watfon's Chemiilry, 1. 5, efl". 3. 
 
 r This idea, the bold eft of them all, is not a little 
 countenanced by the fame learned and ingenious che- 
 mift. Ibid. 
 
 To attribute foul to matter is, at leaft, as old as 
 Thales. See Laertius. 
 
 The examples by which he proves it are the Magnet 
 and Amber; fo, our modern naturalifts. We cannot 
 deny life to plants, fmce we give them fex ; nor has 
 
 the 
 
C 54 1 
 
 IX. 
 
 By the condition and attributes given to 
 matter, one may eafily judge of the degrees 
 of a&ivity and efficacy attributed by the 
 feveral philofophers to God towards moving 
 and employing this matter in the formation 
 of our world, fuch as it now exifls; the more 
 they gave to the one, the lefs they granted 
 to the other: but no one of thefe diftribu- 
 tions could fupport itfelf, becaufe all implied 
 contradi&ion : the only folution of this diffi 
 culty, of which ancient philofophy had not 
 the leaft glimpfe, was the giving of all to 
 God, and the taking of all from matter; even 
 to its very exiftence. 
 
 How could the ancients have a glimpfe of 
 that, by the aid of re of on, which comes not 
 
 the oyfter much to boaft of in a comparifon with the 
 fenfitive. The belt of it is, that many of thefe, which 
 pafs with us for the fine ftrokes of the moderns, were 
 the faws of antiquity. 
 
 within 
 
C 55 ] 
 
 within the reach of reafon? I mean the crea 
 tion of matter ; to us it is afacJ, an article of 
 faith founded on the authority of Mofes; who, 
 we are ajfured, recovered this dofhine^ re 
 vealed to the Jirft man, but loft by his defcend- 
 ants, and utterly unknown to all the nations of 
 the earth at the time that by a fecond revela 
 tion it was renewed to him. 
 
 Accuftomed to take for granted the creation 
 of matter, before we are capable of reafoning 
 about it, it afts upon us like an innate idea; we 
 confider it as a thing true by its nature, and 
 impute the rejeclion of it by the ancients to pre 
 judice, obftinacy, or ignorance. 
 
 PAGE 
 
[ 56 3 
 
 PAGE 120. 
 
 Hofpitality, a thing necefjary to the Savage, 
 argues a want of police in civilized nations, 
 
 1 AM not pleafed with Pauw's idea of hof- 
 pitality: he confounds the times at which 
 the thing may take place; as will appear 
 from the following lovely paflage on the 
 fame fubjeft: I call it lovely, becaufe it tends 
 to make us in love with our own nature:-^ 
 " Les etrangers fe prefentoient pour jouir 
 " des droits de Phofpitalite, droits circon* 
 " fcrits aujourdhui entre certaines families ; 
 * c alors communes a tomes. A la voix d'un 
 " etranger, toutes les portes s'ouvroint, tous 
 <tf les foins etoient prodigues; et pour rendre 
 " a 1'humanite le plus beau des hommages, 
 " on ne s'informoit de fon etat et de fa naif- 
 
C 57 1 
 
 " fance, qu* apres avoir prevenu fes befoins. 
 " Ce n'etoit pas a leurs leghlateurs, que les 
 " Grecs etoint redevables de cette inftitution 
 " fublime; ils la devoient a la nature, dont 
 " les lumieres vives et profondes rempliffoient 
 " le coeur de 1'homme, et n'y font pas encore 
 " eteintes, puifque notre premier mouve- 
 4C ment eft un mouvement d'eftime et de con- 
 " fiance pour nos femblables." 
 
 Jeune Anacharfis. 
 
 Such is hofpitality, at its true era; when 
 men firft begin to feel the fweets of fociety, 
 and are in good humour with themfelves, 
 and with all about them: in a (late of refine 
 ment, hofpitality retains its name, but lofes 
 its nature \ it is commerce; an interchange 
 of conveniences. 
 
 After all, it muft be confeiTed, that Pauw*s 
 idea of hofpitality being founded in felfifh- 
 nefs, is not altogether indefenfible. Com 
 pare what Volney fays of the hofpitality of the 
 
 Arabs, 
 
C 58 3 
 
 Arabs, and you will find it to run in a direft 
 parallel with what has been juft faid of the 
 early Greeks: yet thefe very Arabs, fliould 
 they in their attack, of a caravan, meet with 
 the ftranger whom they had treated the day 
 before with the utmoft kindnefs, they would 
 knock him on the head as they would a wolf. 
 From this I would infer, that the philofo- 
 pher has not abfolutely contradi&ed nature; 
 but that nature has in this, as in many other 
 inftances, made our beft qualities to depend 
 on circumftances. She thought it enough 
 for fuch a being as man, to give him hints of 
 the juft and beautiful. More than this 
 would have made him what he was not def- 
 tined to be. 
 
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