Essay V

Of the Rank of Nations, and the Revolutions of Fortune

     The philosopher, who studies human nature in the closet, will
be astonished when he looks abroad into life, and examines, by his
theory, the conduct of mankind.
     Yet to him who, in the course of observation, and in the
commerce of active life, has learned to make no serious appeals to
his own constitution, the history of the world will be no less dark
and mysterious.
     The one is deficient in experience, the other in reflexion;
both alike unqualified to judge consistently of the human
character.
     Had there reigned from the beginning an exact similarity among
men, laws had been unnecessary, and government without all
foundation. A wide dissimilarity, on the other hand, must have
indisposed them for society, and rendered them incongruous parts of
the same system.
     Distinctions then there are, and ought to be. But these, at
first few and inconsiderable, have grown immense in the revolutions
of time; and the natural history of the species is scarce able to
solve the appearances in civil life.
     The operation of climate, in the production of these
appearances, seems to have been magnified by the Greeks and Romans.
The genius of the Asiatics was supposed to disappear in the
climates of Europe, and the genius of Europe to evaporate in the
climates of Asia. Thus the genius of the human mind seemed to
fluctuate with every migration, and to gravitate to the soil.[A]
     Mechanical and local causes, which, in some respects, so
visibly predominate, the imagination invests with a dominion that
reaches the very essence of our frame. Hence the mutual contempt of
nations. Hence the rank which Europe, at this day, usurps over all
the communities of mankind.
     She affects to move in another orbit from the rest of the
species. She is even offended with the idea of a common descent;
and, rather than acknowledge her ancestors to have been co-ordinate
only to other races of Barbarians, and in parallel circumstances,
she breaks the unity of the system, and, by imagining specific
differences among men, precludes or abrogates their common claims.
     According to this theory, the oppression or extermination of
a meaner race, will no longer be so shocking to humanity. Their
distresses will not call upon us so loudly for relief. And public
morality, and the laws of nations, will be confined to a few
regions peopled with this more exalted species of mankind.
     Upon the discovery of America, doubts were entertained whether
the natives of that country ought not to be accounted a race of the
Orang Outangs. Bu the infallible edict of a Roman pontiff soon
established their doubtful pedigree;[B] and our right of dominion,
in both hemispheres, was asserted, on other pretences, by the
casuists of those days.
     The investiture of America was conferred on Ferdinand and
Isabella by Pope Alexander the Sixth.
     In general, all countries discovered to the west of a meridian
line, were by this pope assigned to the Spaniards, as all
discovered to the east of this line were declared, by the same
authority, to be vested in the Portuguese.
     In became accordingly a question between the two crowns of
Spain and Portugal, to which of them the Molucca Islands should
belong. For it had not occurred to this arbiter of the rights of
kings, that the grants were as nonsensical as unjust, and that the
eastern and western navigators might possibly interfere in taking
possession of their respective allotments. But the court of Rome,
which authorised so absurd a partition of empire, vindicated,
during another pontificate, the honours of the Indian race. The
thunder of the Vatican was heard, for once, on the side of
humanity; and Europe, in the sixteenth century, was permitted only
to usurp the sovereignty, not to insult the pedigree, of nations.
     The theory, then, we have mentioned, is, in its utmost extent,
of more modern invention. But the opinions which lead to it are of
high antiquity; and, being congenial with the passions of a divided
world, have resisted the experience of ages. There is scarce any
folly or vice, says a late author, [Henry Bolingbroke, Letters on
the Study of History, p. 29] more epidemical among the sons of men,
than that ridiculous and hurtful vanity, by which the people of
each country are apt to prefer themselves to those of every other;
and to make their own customs, and manners, and opinions, the
standards of right and wrong, of true and false. The same
propensity, says another author, [Adam Ferguson, History of Civil
Society, p. 145] is the most remarkable in the whole description of
mankind.
     National vanity is indeed confined to no aera in civil life.
If the epithets Greek and Barbarian are opposed to each other in
the Greek tongue, epithets, exactly equivalent, are opposed to each
other in an Indian tongue, spoken on the coast of Labrador; and, in
general, the names by which the rude American tribes wish to be
distinguished, are assumed from an idea of their own pre-
eminence.[History of America, vol. i. p. 412] If the learned
Chinese were mortified with the figure their empire made in the
general map of the world, the poor natives of Congo pronounced
themselves highly favoured among mortals: and the most wretched of
African tribes solace themselves, under all their misfortunes, with
the fond persuasion that, whithersoever they go, they shall, one
day, return, in life or in death, to their native shores.
     Such partiality, when not carried to an extreme, answers a
noble end: and the purest patriotism is often founded on local
circumstances, and a predilection for established forms. But that
preference of affection to our own country, which is the true
definition of patriotism, is compatible, surely, with suitable
regard and allowances for the various aspects of humanity.
     Profound ignorance, and a contrariety, or repugnancy of
customs and manners, account for that aversion, or contempt for
strangers and foreigners, implied in the partial sentiments of
savage and untutored tribes. No information, no experience, no
conviction, can always conquer early prejudice: and the Hottentot,
who returned from Europe, relapsed, we may believe, with all
imaginable ease, perhaps with additional satisfaction, into the
established habits of his country.
     But such examples are balanced by others of an opposite
nature, no less remarkable which history presents to our view:
examples of docility, of emulation, of magnanimous preference. Some
of these it will be proper to recite, if we would not belie the
character of the ruder ages.
     The Romans, while yet a rude people, disdained not to appoint
an embassy to enquire into the jurisprudence of the Greeks, and to
supply, from that fountain, the deficiencies in their civil code.
     This embassy seems to have been suggested by Hermodorus, an
exiled citizen of Ephesus, who afterwards eminently assisted in
interpreting the collection of laws brought from Greece. His public
services met with a public reward. A statute was erected to him in
the Comitia at the public expence: an honour which the jealousy of
Rome would have denied to a stranger in a less generous age. But,
at this period she acted from a nobler impulse; and the statue
erected to Hermodorus was erected in reality, to her own honour.
Yet the name of this Ephesian, which casts a lustre upon Rome,
seemed to cast a shade upon his native city; and that people,
according to Heraclitus, deserved to have been extirpated to a man,
who condemned such a citizen to exile.[C]
     The Romans, in other instances, were capable of acting with
the same humble dignity.
     They disdained not to refer to the court of Areopagus at
Athens, the decision of such questions as were too complex or
intricate for their own tribunals. This reference, that embassy,
may seem worthy of a people who were destined, one day, to be the
rulers of mankind. But the policy of rude nations, though seldom
called into view unless by that fortune which renders their
posterity illustrious, is often, we may believe, conducted with the
same spirit.
     In the reign of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, references, from
the fiercest barbarians, to Rome, were not uncommon. And there
occurs an example of policy, in modern ages, less celebrated
indeed, but more liberal, perhaps, and magnanimous, than any
recorded in Roman annals. It relates to religion, an object
certainly the most sublime and interesting that can enter into
public councils and deliberations.
     A duke of Russia, while his subjects were yet pagans, sent
abroad commissioners to inform themselves, on the spot, concerning
the religion of Rome, the religion of the Greek church, and the
religion of Mohamet, that he might determine, upon the report of
those commissioners, which of these several religions it became him
to embrace and establish, as a guardian of his people. So much
modesty in acknowledging domestic insufficiency; so much candour in
weighing the pretensions of foreign institutions, are rarely to be
met with in the proceedings of nations reputed civilized. And if we
compare the sentiments which those under a different state of the
arts are disposed to entertain, we shall find that undistinguished
contempt, though mutual in some respects, subsists between them by
no means in an equal degree. It is commonly mitigated, on the one
side, by credulity and admiration, to which the ruder nations are
peculiarly prone;[D] while it is heightened, on the other, by
antipathies, which the pageantry of rank, and the exterior of
polished life, are apt to inspire.
     The congress of mankind, at Constantinople, during the period
of the crusades, opened perhaps a fairer field for this comparison,
than any other occurrence in the annals of the world. Various
people, in different stages of civil culture, convened, as it were,
at a general rendezvous, and passing in review before each other,
must have impressed the mind with emotions and sentiments
corresponding to the variety of their conditions. Historians,
spectators of the scene, and animated with the passions of their
contemporaries, have describe the impression of this singular
interview; and from the descriptions of these historians we may
collect the judgment of nations.
     The Greeks, exulting in their unrivalled superiority in arts,
looked down on all the strangers assembled in their capital, with
supercilious contempt, and, on some, even with detestation. The
Latins, on the other hand, and in general the ruder strangers of
the West, with more modest ideas of their own accomplishments,
recognized a degree of refinement in manners and in arts, so far
superior to their own, and regarded, with an admiration approaching
to enthusiasm, the splendor and magnificence of the Greek empire.
     The leaders of the crusades, accordingly, on their return from
the Holy Land, abandoned in some sort the rusticity of their
manners, and aimed at some reformation in the taste and sciences of
Europe. And to these wild expeditions, says an admired historian,
[History of Charles V, vol. I.] the effect of superstition or
folly, we owe the first gleams of light, which tended to dispel
barbarity and ignorance.
     In general it may be affirmed, that rude nations are touched
with some degree of reverence or admiration at the sight of
dignified appearances; that they honour, at some distance, that
state of the arts towards which they are tending; and that it is
only in cases where the distance is too immense for their prospect
or conception, that they acquiesce in their condition with an
apparent insensibility, and allow their superiors to possess
unenvied greatness.
     The rude nations of the North, who subverted the empire of the
Romans, after the first efforts of their violence, became converts
to the religion of the vanquished, and were even capable of
admiring the monuments of ancient learning. žThe immortal
productions of Virgil, Cicero, and Livy,ž says the Historian of the
Roman Empire, [History Roman Empire, vol. iii. p. 523] žwhich were
accessible to the Christian Barbarians, maintained a silent
intercourse between the reign of Augustus and the times of Clovis
and Charlemagne. The emulation of mankind was encouraged by the
remembrance of a more perfect state; and the flame of science was
secretly kept alive, to warm and enlighten the mature age of the
western world.ž
     The Saracens, notwithstanding the desolation of literature at
Alexandria, which marked their first conquests, soon appeared in
the scene, as its most zealous champions. Eager to preserve, as
before active to destroy, they cultivated its precious remains with
unexampled ardour. A novelty was even to appear in public
negotiations: a people contending for erudition as for empire, and
actually demanding the works of the antients, by express articles,
in treaties with the Greek emperors.
     There is but one occurrence on the records of antiquity more
splendid than this conduct of the Saracens; the conduct of that
king of Syracuse, who made it an express condition in a treaty with
the Carthaginians, That they should abstain from human sacrifices.
It is noble in a people to demand science from their enemies. It is
nobler to demand of enemies not to be to themselves inhuman. And of
such heroism in politics there is a recent example, if it be
authenticated in history, that the court of Russia, in the last
treaty of peace with the Grand Segnior, expressly stipulated, That
the tribute of slaves, so cruelly exacted from the oppressed
provinces of Georgia, Circassia, and Mengrelia, should be remitted
and abolished in all future times. The Russian court is certainly
attentive to great objects; and pursues, with magnanimous
discernment, whatever is most valuable in the arts and policy of
more enlightened states.
     Modesty is consistent with the most aspiring views. It is the
actual possession of refinement and civil arts, not the efforts
made towards acquiring them, which engenders extravagance and
conceit. A few frivolous, or at best ornamental distinctions, are
mistaken for real differences: and if we survey the circle of human
things, the illusions of vanity, and the insolence of pride, will
be found most inherent to nations and to ages intoxicated with
propensity and affluence.
     Commerce, the boast of modern policy, by enlarging the sphere
of observation and experience, promised to undeceive the world, and
to diffuse more liberal and equal sentiments through the several
parts of an extended system. But commerce, it is to be feared, has,
in some instances, been productive of the very contrary effects;
and by exposing, if I may say so, the nakedness of society, and
uniting, in one prospect, its most distant extremes, has heightened
the insolence of nations, and rendered their original and natural
equality, to a superficial observer, more incredible.
     In judging of nations, as well as of individuals, our
observations are more frequently directed to circumstances of pomp
and outward splendor, than to intrinsic excellence. And countries,
accordingly, where no such appearances are to be found, we too
hastily conclude to be the mansions of people, who, from a natural
inferiority of talent, are incapable of producing them.
     This conclusion was drawn first by the Egyptians, and
afterwards by the Greeks. The Greeks, more especially, regarded
their own country as the seat of every perfection; and policy, and
refinement, and arts, as their exclusive privilege.
     Extravagant as the opinion now appears, it was the opinion of
free and of polished states, in the meridian of their course. It
was supported by a comparison with the neighbouring nations; nor
then, perhaps, directly contradicted or disapproved by any
authentic memorials.
     Such presumption, therefore, was more excusable in the
antients; but having been, long since, reprobated by the fullest
experience, ought to afford a lesson of wisdom and moderation to
all succeeding ages.
     When it is observed that, in proportion to the age of the
world, the known regions of civility are of larger extent; it is
not being too sanguine to expect, that, in the lapse of time, the
whole habitable globe shall be found compatible with the same
improvements.
     What avails it that experience refutes so amply the errors of
past times, if it corrects not our judgment of the future, nor
disengages the mind from the dominion of its former prejudices?
     Could the perpetual greatness of one people be set in
opposition to the perpetual meanness of another, the plea of
natural pre-eminence were exceedingly specious. But it is great
conjunctures only which form great men; and there are certain
periods in the annals of the most distinguished nations, wherein
they appear in no degree superior to their contemporaries.
     In that long interval, which elapsed from the age of Alexander
to the conquest of Greece by the Romans, there is scarcely an
Athenian of eminence upon record. And the observation, with a few
exceptions, is applicable, perhaps, to the whole of Greece, from
the above age as far down as the Archaean league, when Agis, and
Cleomenes of Sparta, and Aratus, and Philopaemen give us some idea
of their illustrious ancestors.
     When we resolve, therefore, the rise and decline of nations,
and the fluctuating character of the same people at different
aeras, we must necessarily allow to mankind in those countries at
least which have been the principle scene of civil history, and
equal rank and importance in the scale of being.
     Let us then examine the plea of humble and unaspiring nations,
not hitherto supposed to have emerged into distinction, or to have
touched the nearest verge of science and the liberal arts.
Constituted so long in circumstances so far beneath the standard of
our ideas, it may be deemed not unreasonable to impute to them an
original inferiority of nature, or a degradation of rank,
occasioned by the infallible operation of physical laws.
     Were the facts fully ascertained, and otherwise inexplicable,
such conclusions might be embraced and warranted upon the
principles of sound philosophy. But the facts are destitute of
evidence; and, even if we admitted their reality, none of these
hypotheses would be necessary to solve the history of the world.
     Let us carry our imagination back to an aera more antient than
the birth of arts. Let us the suppose an observer, of profound
discernment, to predict, from a series of calculation, the eventual
fortune of the world, exclusively of all regard to soil or climate,
or at least to the supposed influence of the heavens on the human
mind. His sagacity, perhaps, might not determine where civil arts
should first arise, or shine forth with the fullest lustre: yet
far, surely, from expecting them, in all countries, to be
coincident in their origin, or to flourish, at once, in the same
degree, he would expect considerable intervals between the arrival
of different people at points of equal advancement.
     So various are the causes which concur to the full
establishment of regular and well-constituted government; that no
evidence decisive of the relative capacity of any people could be
derived from the commencement of their civil aera. Even after the
first movements have been successfully made, there are a thousand
disasters, which may annoy a political constitution, in its infancy
or early youth, and not suffer its principles to ripen into
perfection. Circumstances in no degree affecting the genius of a
people, are often sufficient to circumscribe their progress; and
consistently with the full strength and vigour of the human powers,
the reign of ignorance and simplicity may endure for ages.
     Although great attainments indeed imply great talents, the
want of talent is not implied in disappointment. In the researches,
for instance, of science and philosophy, the moderns have not only
equalled, but surpassed the antients: yet who, upon this
foundation, will arraign the genius of antiquity?
     Fortune governs events: and the magnitude of genius or
capacity, in individuals or in tribes, cannot be fully estimated by
the success of its exertions. Even the actual promoters of the most
important interests of mankind have seldom anticipated, in idea,
the progressive consequences of their own plans. In estimating
human attainments, their origin, progress, and perfection, must not
be totally ascribed to human wisdom. And, with all due honour to
the memory of our forefathers, this judgment may be pronounced on
all the arts, sciences, and governments they have delivered down to
posterity;

               ----- Quod divum promittere nemo
               Auderet, volvenda dies en attulit ultro!

     But, if the approaches to civility are easily made, whence
then, it may be asked, have we so many embarrassing theories
concerning the origin of language, the rise of political union, and
the essential arrangements of social life? While such proceedings,
in the judgment of the learned, seem to exhaust all human wisdom
and ingenuity, is it not, in reality, more wonderful to find so
many nations already emerged from obscurity, within the compass of
a few thousand years, than to find so many others still hovering on
the confines of a state of nature?
     But, in further illustration of this point, let us indulge a
few arbitrary suppositions.
     Let us suppose, that the number of men, born with the high
prerogative of conducting a people eventually within the line of
civilized life, is to the rest of the species in a certain fixed
proportion.
     Let the chance of such men being placed in circumstances
favourable to the enterprize, form another proportion. And in
circumstances thus favourable, let the chance against
disappointment by natural or violent death, or other contingency,
form likewise an element in the problem. Then, by compounding these
proportions, it follows that one only, out of a determinate number
of men, is born to execute this great design.
     Now let us imagine the earth already peopled before
civilization began, and that the number upon earth, at any one
time, is equal or inferior to the number which results from the
above proportions; then, judging from the probability of things,
one or more generations must pass away, after the earth is fully
peopled, before civilization is any where introduced. And, after
its introduction into one corner, the numbers in the uncivilized
part of the earth, being then less than the whole species, still
more generations, commencing from the former aera, must pass away,
before the aera of civility to any other people.
     In proportion, therefore, to the nations already emerged, the
chance for the emergence of any new people must constantly
decrease.
     The computation indeed supposes no intercourse between the
civilized and the barbarous nations. By reason of that intercourse
the chance of extending civility rises, no doubt, in an eminent
degree. Hence, with regard to countries possessing intercourse, the
progress may be exceedingly rapid. But in the other, and
sequestered corners of the globe, calculation determines that there
is a growing chance against the appearance of a cultivated or
polished nation. And, if we reason from actual experience, it is
far more probable that, in any barbarous land, the civil arts will
owe their original to foreign operations, either hostile or
commercial, than to interior efforts.
     The Romans were no less the legislators, than the conquerors
of the world. While spreading desolation with their arms, and
trampling on the liberties of mankind, they were actually
anticipating, in every country, the progress of legislation, and
the arts of government: and the same people, in their fall, left to
their barbarous conquerers the traces of a jurisprudence, to which
Europe was principally indebted for its future progress.
     Nor are we to regard the Romans as inventors of arts, or as
the founders of their own policy. The elements of both were drawn
from a foreign source. Even the Greeks, in forming their plans,
copied more distant originals. Pythagoras and Plato, Lycurgus and
Solon, had read the Pillars of Egypt: and the maxims of the Greeks
were drawn from the philosophy, if not the legislation of the East.
     Similar observations are applicable to all the freer states:
and if, according to Mr Hume, pure despotism, once established,
cannot possibly, by its own native force and energy, refine and
polish itself, and republican and free governments are the only
proper nursery of arts and sciences, we have hence an additional
principle to account for their late appearance or stagnation in so
many parts of the earth. Perhaps then, since the world began, there
are a few only, perhaps but a single people, who owe their rise and
illustration to bold and original efforts of the human mind.
     If, therefore, a concurrence of such various causes is found
requisite, if not to produce, at least to accelerate, the progress
of refinement and the arts; that progress must be proportionably
retarded by a different contexture of events. But the habitations
of barbarism, at any one period, must, in speculation, appear
immense, when we farther reflect, that the transition from
barbarism to civility is not more incident to mankind than the
contrary transition.[E]
     How many nations have certainly fallen from that importance,
which they had formerly borne among the societies of mankind, let
the annals of the world declare! How many more have probably
experienced as fatal a reverse, we assume not the province of
determining. But revolutions, to us unknown, various nations may
have undergone; while, being exposed to our view only in their
decline, a judgment has been formed of their general character,
from what is peculiar to a certain age.
     In examining into the antient state of a country, our opinions
may be guided by tradition, or by history, by the genius of
language, or of arts, or by the declaration of external monuments.
In dubious cases, rational conjecture may rest on one of these
modes of evidence, or may be balanced nicely on them all.
     Let us imagine a modern traveller to perform the tour of the
East. He finds there a country, under the gloom of barbarism,
presenting no traces of erudition or civil arts, and, without all
tradition or memorial of ancestors, superior to the rude
inhabitants. Yet history might inform him, that the natives of this
country had once been as conspicuous and flourishing, as their
posterity are now obscure. Such, perhaps, is the condition of
Babylon, once the wonder of the world. Such is the condition of the
antient Colchis, which once, if we believe the writings of Pliny or
of Strabo, abounded in riches and in people, and formed the centre
of a great commercial system.
     Let us next imagine our traveller to arrive in a land as
barbarously peopled, and unmentioned, or undescribed, in the
writings of any historian. There, however, we will suppose, are
preserved some monuments of art and grandeur, far disproportioned
to the general aspect of things, and to the actual posture of
affairs. Might he not hence distinguish a state of depression from
a state of nature, and the last from the first movement of civil
society?
     Nor is the supposition purely imaginary. Within the present
century, discoveries have been made in the wilds of Tartary, which
seem to declare that country to have been the mansion of a great
people; or, at least, to indicate a fall from some of the more
elevated forms of society. The scene of these discoveries, lying
between Siberia and the Caspian Sea, is now filled with a nation of
Calmucs subject to the Russian empire: and on such evidence the
Czar Peter founded his opinion, that the arts had made the tour of
the globe.[F]
     On principles exactly similar, more recent discoveries serve
to confirm the large advance of the antient Etrurians, in elegant
and polite attainments, before the settlement of any Grecian colony
within the limits of Italy.
     Nor are such indications confined to any latitude or climate.
     The country of Cambodia, [Les Voyages džun Philosophe, par M.
De Poivre, p. 102] in the torrid zone, uncultivated as the natives
now are, presents appearances to the traveller, which, unsupported
by history or tradition, may be regarded as memorials of former
greatness.
     Even in the new continent, though, in all probability, more
recently peopled than the old, there are indications of a similar 
import.
     The account, published by Mr Kalm, of an expedition across
North America, contains some curious information. The expedition
was undertaken by a French party from Canada, under the protection
of the French government. After traversing immense deserts, a
country of a more promising appearance, retaining vestiges of
agriculture and civil life, opened to their view. Amidst the
wildness of nature, they perceived an artificial face, and
recognised the relics of a former age.[G]
     The testimony of other travellers is no less decisive. On the
shores of the Mississippi, and in other parts of the new continent,
there have been found works of great antiquity, which evidence an
acquaintance with military science, far above the capacity of rude
and untutored tribes.[See Carveržs Travels through North America.]
     Well then may it be inferred, that there are large chasms in
the annals of many countries; and that we have obtained but an
imperfect acquaintance with the fortune of governments, and the
vicissitudes of the species.
     There are certain corresponding points in the rise and decline
of nations, which are liable to be confounded. And apparent motion
may be as different from the real, in the political, as in the
natural world.
     Unacquainted therefore as we are with the stated returns of
the civil period, we may mistake the evening for the morning
twilight; and imagine a people to be just emerging from the shade,
who have, long before, passed their meridian, and are hastening
back within the limit of darkness.
     The clear testimony of profane history reaches no higher than
the Greeks and Romans. There is no piercing through the gloom of
remoter ages. And even the contemporary situation of other
governments is faintly described, or misrepresented, or passed over
in contemptuous silence.
     Such facts as the above, it is not pretended, can supply the
defect. They may rectify some errors; they may shed some feeble
rays of light on nations of dubious existence, but cannot redeem
their memory from oblivion. They furnish however new matter to the
antiquarian, and a new topic in the circle of the learned.
     They do more. They serve to vindicate the prerogatives of the
species, and to suggest considerations of some weight in the
deductions of philosophy.
     Other sources of information unopened by the Greeks remain
still to be explored. The grand annals of China, the books of the
Bramins, and other immense collections of Oriental records, may
form a valuable supplement to the general history of the world.
Yet, amidst the darkness and uncertainty in which history and
chronology are involved, it appears that the wide differences which
have subsisted, or subsist at present, in the actual condition of
tribes and nations, are such as, without prejudice to our nature,
and exclusive of the unequal influence of the heavens, might, in
part, be apprehended from the nice contexture of events, and the
complicated operation of moral causes.
     But if the honours of nations were, in reality, to be
estimated by riches, by population, by the antiquity of arts, or by
the stability and duration of civil government, it is not any of
the European nations, it is the Chinese, and the Indians, who must
be placed at the head of the species.
     Let the lovers of paradox [LžHistoire de Astronomie ancienne,
par M. Bailly.] contend that these antient people are merely the
depositaries of sciences delivered to them, in greater perfection,
by a people who flourished in the North of Asia, but have long
since disappeared in the political scene.
     Let others contend that China was colonized by Egypt, and
inherited the sciences from the parent state, who diffused them
over the eastern as over the western world. Fix the original
mansion in the high latitude of Siberia, or in the torrid zone, it
is certain that they devolved on the Chinese and the Indians in an
early age; and the uninterrupted possession of so noble an
inheritance is their distinguishing privilege.
     But the consequences of this privilege are, it must be owned,
of a ambiguous nature. And, if the criterion of civility has been
rightly defined, [Essay IV] many an obscure people which the
proudest nations in Asia, or in Europe, could not boast in the days
of their splendor.
     If the picture of manners delineated in a performance, which
is now read and admired in almost all the languages of Europe, be
a faithful copy of an original, it is no paradox to affirm, that
the court of Fingal was as highly civilized as the court of Lewis
XIV.
     In the one the arts were totally unknown; in the other they
were at the height of their splendor. But the want of those graces
with the arts confer, was more than compensated at the one court,
by virtues in which the other was deficient. And if fidelity,
generosity, true dignity of mind, are preferable to disingenuity,
perfidy, servile adulation; if the former qualities are to be
numbered among polite accomplishments, and the latter to be placed
in the opposite column; who would not prefer the civilization of
Fingalžs court to that of the other, though embellished by all arts
and sciences.[H]
     Without presuming then to decide the dubious pretensions of
mankind, it is our design, in prosecuting these general views, to
enquire in what manner the progress of society is connected with
local circumstances which do not immediately affect genius, or
capacity. And from hence a more accurate judgment will be formed
concerning their direct and original influence on the human
species.
     Such discussion will lead us to enquire how far local
circumstances, which, in a variety of ways, may prove beneficial or
malignant, are rendered subject to our dominion and controul. And,
having thus contemplated man as, in some sort, the arbiter of his
own fortune, a question will arise, no less curious than important,
whether the perfections and imperfections of his character in one
age, may not act, with a direct influence, on the original fabric
of posterity.
     This is the field of speculation, which, in the order here
stated, it is proposed to touch in the following pages.


NOTES.

NOTE [A]

     Livy, in the person of a Roman Consul, has described in strong
colours the degeneracy of the antient Gauls settled in Asia, and of
the Macedonians dispersed over various climates of the world.
     Galli, says he, jam degeneres sunt; mixti et Gallograeci vere,
quod appellantur. Sicut in frugibus pecudibusque, non tantum semina
ad servandam indolem valent, quantum terrae proprietas coelique,
sub quo aluntur, mutat. Macedones, qui Alexandriam in Aegypto, qui
Seleuciam ac Babyloniam, quique alias sparsas per orbem terrarum
colonias habent, in Syros, Parthos, Aegyptios degenerarunt.
                         Liv. lib. 38. cap. 17.

     These are perhaps the exaggerations of Roman eloquence. But if
the degeneracy existed in the full extent of the description, it
may probably be ascribed not more to physical than moral causes:
and it is not climate, but rather a communication of manners, that
assimilates the different races of mankind.
     If the antient Gauls, who emigrated into Asia, enervated by
the reigning manners of Bithynia, degenerated, according to Livy,
from the character of their hardy ancestors; the modern French, who
have occupied the Isle of Bourbon for a full century, are
described, by a well-informed writer, as equal to the most athletic
of the European nations.
          Ormžs Military Transactions, vol. i. p. 95.


NOTE [B]

     This memorable edict was issued by Paul the Third, in the year
1537. But, if the doctrine of some late publications had made its
appearance in the sixteenth century, it might have superseded the
necessity of this edict, by shewing that Orang-outangs are, in
reality, the aborigines of all nations. Such is the illustrious
pedigree of mankind!
     Unfortunately, indeed, for this hypothesis, it has been
demonstrated by an able anatomist, that the Orang-outangs are, from
the texture of their organs, incapable of forming speech. Yet,
might not the organ change with the exigencies of civil society?
And is there not the more reason to admire this temporizing harmony
of things!
          See Mr Camperžs Account of the Orang-outang in the
Philosophical Transactions for 1779.

NOTE [C]

     Although there is no mention of Hermodorus in Livy, it is
clear, from the testimony of other writers, that this citizen of
Ephesus was very instrumental in directing the attention of the
Romans to the Grecian jurisprudence.
     Whatever relates to this celebrated embassy is an object of
learned curiosity. The selection therefore of a few passages from
antient authors, tending to authenticate the particulars mentioned
in the text, may not prove unacceptable to some of my readers.
     The pretentions of Hermodorus are acknowledged, in the
Pandects of Justinian, in the following passage:

     Alias duas ad easdem tabulas adjecerunt: Et ita ex accidentia
appellatae sunt leges duodecim tabularum: quarum serendarum
auctorem suisse Decemviris Hermodorum quemdam Ephesium exulantem in
Italia quidam retulerunt.
                    Digest. lib. i. tit. 2. sect. 4.

     The erection of the statue is mentioned by Pliny:

     Fuit et Hermodori Ephesii in comitio legum quas Decemviri
scribebant, interpretis, publici dicata (viz. statua).
                    Pliny. Nat. Hist. lib. 34. cap. 11.

     Cicero quotes Heraclitus thus:

     Est apud Heracitum physicum de principe Ephesiorum Hermodor;
universos ait Ephesios esse morte multandos, quod, cum civitate
expellerent Hermodorum, ita locuti sunt: Nemo de nobis unus
excellat: sin quis extiterit, alio in loco et apud alios sit.
                    Tusc. Disput. lib. 5. cap. 36

     The same quotation from Heraclitus, I find in Strabo, lib. 14.
with only this difference, that the Ephesians under age are not
involved in the condemnation.
     The same anecdote is likewise related by Diogenes Laertius, in
the life of Heraclitus.

NOTE [D]

     In ages of ignorance and simplicity, mankind are so prone to
credulity and admiration, that these propensities, prior to
reasoning, seem to lead savages into the acknowledgment and
adoration of invisible powers, and to introduce, in every country,
the rude element of popular superstition.
     From hence, therefore, a cultivated people derives an
importance, which has often been abused, though so capable of being
directed to the best interest of society.
     The natives of the West Indies regarded Columbus and his
companions as superior beings, sprung from heaven, who had
descended to visit the earth, and were worthy of divine honours.

                    --- Nova progenies coelo dimittitur alto.

     How honourable then would it have been for the European
nations, had they extended their authority in the new hemisphere by
persuasion, not by arms, and had a reverence for their religion,
their virtue, and superior wisdom, conducted them to empire?

NOTE [E]

     Our physical and moral systems, says a Writer whose eloquence
is not always sufficient to support his philosophy, are carried
round, in one perpetual revolution, from generation to corruption,
and from corruption to generation; from ignorance to knowledge, and
from knowledge to ignorance; fro barbarity to civility, and from
civility to barbarity. Arts and sciences grow up, flourish, decay,
die, and return again, under the same or other forms, after periods
which appear long to us, however short they may be, compared with 
the immense duration of the systems of created being. These periods
are so disproportionate to all human means of preserving the memory
of things, that, when the same things return, we take frequently
for a new discovery, the revival of an art or science long before
known.
               Bolingbrokežs Phil. Works, vol. ii. P. 224.

     The moderns, however, may frequently be considered as original
in discoveries and inventions anticipated by the genius of a former
age.
     The true solar system was taught probably by Pythagorus, above
two thousand years ago; yet Copernicus was not indebted for his
knowledge of to the Pythagorean schools. Nor would it necessarily
derogate from the merit of modern discoveries, should we admit a
proposition maintained in a late performance, which abounds in
curious erudition. Qužil nžest presque pas une des descouvertes
attribuees aux modernes, qui nžait ete, nonseulement connue, mais
meme appuyee par de solides raisonnemens des anciens.
                    Recherces par M. Dutens.


     It is well observed by a Writer, who illustrates the nature of
genius with the happy precision of a philosopher, that more of it
is often exerted in perfecting an art, than in the first invention.
On this account he ranks the Greeks above the Egyptians in the
scale of genius; and seems to question the frequency of its
appearance among the Chinese, who have not hitherto been able to
advance the arts beyond that mediocrity to which they had attained
in ages the most remote.
                    See Dr Gerardžs Essay on Genius, p. 19, 25.

     But this Author has not affirmed, that all genius is confined
to the Greeks, or denied to the Chinese. It was reserved for a
Writer, fond of paradox, to maintain, that the other races of
mankind can only reach the perfection of their nature by the
imitation of the Greeks, and of a few favourite tribes of men, whom 
heaven has delighted to honour.
                    Antient Metaphysics, p. 494.

NOTE [F]

     Mr Voltaire, in his description of the country of the Calmucs,
gives the following account of these discoveries. Cžest-la qužon a
trouve en 1720, un maison souteraine de pierres, des urnes, des
lampes, des pendans džoreilles, une statue equestre džun prince
Oriental portant un diademe sur sa tete, deux femmes assises sur
des trones, un rouleau de manuscrits, envoye par Pierre le Grand a
lžAcademie des Inscriptions de Paris, et reconnu pour etre en
langue du Tibet: tous temoignages singuliers que les arts ont
habite ce pays aujourdžhui barbare, et preuves subsistantes de ce
quža dit Pierre le Grand plus džune fois, que les arts avoient fait
le tour du monde.
                         Hist. de lžEmpire du Russi, tom. i.

     The subterraneous house, mentioned in this passage by Mr
Voltaire, is described more particularly, by our English traveller
Mr Bell, as a regular edifice, situated in the midst of a desert,
on the banks of the river Irtish, and distinguished by the name of
the Seven Palaces.
     According to the tradition of some Tartars, it was built by
Tamerlane the Great: according to that of others, By Gengischan.
But certain countries of Tartary, of a more northern situation,
which, according to Mr Bellžs information, the arms of Tamerlane
had in vain attempted to subdue, appear to have been once the scene
of great transactions; and contain the spoils of nations of high
antiquity, and no stranger to the arts.
     Some Calmuc manuscripts were purchased by Mr Bell at Tobolsky;
and, having been presented by him to Sir Hans Sloan, are now
deposited in the British Museum.
                    See Bellžs Travels, vol. i. p. 209.

     There is another species of evidence, which, in the opinion of
some writers, is still more conclusive.
     The existence of a great nation in the north of Asia, long
before the dates of our most antient memorials, has been lately
contended for, on astronomical principles, by M. Balli, a writer of
great learning and ingenuity. He contends, that the original feat
of mankind was situated in the high latitude of 49 or 50 degrees;
that the primitive migrations were from North to South; and that we
find in the East the fragments only of sciences which were carried
thither by the primitive emigrants, but which were never generally
known to the Indians or other Orientals.
     I cannot attempt in a note to examine the foundations of this
theory. It is sufficient to observe, that it has not as yet been
able to shake the established conviction of the learned.
     M. Balli, in a series of letters addressed to the late M.
Voltaire, labours to convert that author to his opinions; and from
a sympathy, no doubt, which reigns among congenial spirits, he
espouses an hypothesis of Mons. Buffon, concerning the earth and
the whole planetary system, still more fanciful than his own
concerning the origin of nations, and the progress of arts and
sciences.

NOTE [G]

     These intelligent travellers, having sojourned in the country
for some time, had an opportunity of examining it with attention.
     The country is situated at the distance of nine hundred French
miles west of Montreal. And, besides other monuments of antient
cultivation, there were found in it pillars of stone, of great
magnificence, manifestly erected by human hands, but of which there
remained no tradition among the Indian tribes. Unfortunately, these
pillars contained no inscriptions, whence any conjecture could be
formed concerning their original. At length, however, a large
stone, in the form of a pillar, was discovered, and fixed in it a
smaller stone covered with unknown characters. This stone, severed
from the larger mass, being carried to Canada, and from thence to
France, was delivered into the custody of M. Maurepas, at the time
secretary of state.

NOTE [H]

     A well-known Writer in politics affects to have ideas of the
state of mankind so mathematically precise, that he divides the
Indians of America into three classes, mere savages, half savages,
and almost civilized.
     The savages he describes, in all respects, as a blood-thirsty,
unfeeling race, destitute of every human virtue. The missionaries
of Paraguay, we are told, can transform these infernal savages into
the most benevolent race under heaven. A metamorphosis which,
though celebrated by a dignitary of the church, will hardly command
belief in this sceptical age: yet it serves to support a new theory
of government, which is founded on the total debasement of human
nature, and is now opposed to a theory that asserts its honours,
and derives from a happier origin the image of a free people.
     See a Work by Dean Tucker, Part II containing, as the Writer
modestly declares, the true basis of civil government, in
opposition to the system of Mr Locke and his followers.
     When the benevolence of this writer is exalted into charity,
when the spirit of his religion corrects the rancour of his
philosophy, he will learn a little more reverence for the system to
which he belongs, and acknowledge, in the most untutored tribes,
some glimmerings of humanity, and some decisive indications of a
moral nature.
                    ---------

     The above note has had the singular fortune of being
dissected, in a late Performance, by the hand of the great master
to whom it relates. This act of violence I might have endured in
silence, and bowed, with reverence, to the Priest of God. But when
he endeavours to impress on the Public a conviction that affects my 
honour, I am bound by no law, human or divine, to acquiesce to his
chastisement.
     He charges me with detecting him in manuscript, and exposing
him, in that naked and defenceless state, to the eye of the world.
I never saw him but in the full armour of print.
     He supposes me to have made that detection by a communication
of papers from Dr Campbell, against all the rules of honourable
war. That conjecture, unfortunately for my accuser, is destitute of
all foundation.
     But he charges me with dragging him, prematurely and
reluctantly, before the tribunal of the Pubic, and with making him
responsible to the world for a performance, which was declared, by
an advertisement prefixed, to be designed only for experiment, in
a select circle of the learned. I was not possible to divine its
contents; and, instructed as I now am, I venture to affirm, that
the fragment of the Deanžs book, above quoted, will be found, in
the construction both of law and of common sense, to possess all
the requisites of a publication. It was dispersed, by his own
acknowledgement, into many hands; it had appeared in a public shop;
and, when stripped of the advertisement, bore not even an equivocal
character. I examined, indeed, but one limb of a monster, and
enquired not into the history of its birth.
     What then is the amount of my offence? It is that I collected
not the fragments of the Dean, like the leaves of the Sybil, with
pious industry; and that, in judging of so singular a production,
I suppressed not the sentiments natural to a Briton, nor the
indignation that became a man.
     The case, it is alleged, is rather new. Then review the case,
Mr Dean, and make some allowances for human frailties. But whatever
vengeance you denounce against so atrocious an offender, you will
not, for the conduct of one individual, condemn a system. You will
not, to use your own incomparable language, banish the system of
Locke from the society of men, and say of all its partizans,

               --- Crimine ab uno disce omnes.

     In your admirable plan of government there are other ideas of
distributive justice. And, unworthy as I am, I may look for some
indulgence, as a member of that learned body you profess to have
admired during a full revolution of Saturn. [I have admired, says
the Dean, the literati of Scotland for upwards of thirty years.]
But I owe you even personal acknowledgments; and, in return to your
polite insinuation, that I seem capable of becoming an useful
writer, I am bound to observe, that there was a time when Dean
Tucker might have aspired to that distinction.
     That time, I fear, is no more. Of a younger candidate there is
hope. But reformation seldom visits us in our decline. And should
there exist a man, in church or state, sunk in malevolence as in
years; crafty in politics, jesuitical by system; declining public
preferment with the solemnity of an oath, yet expecting, in secret,
a courtieržs reward; profaning the tombs of the dead -- a reviler
of his fellow-citizens -- the calumniator of one-half the globe; --
it is, surely by a miracle, if such a man re-assert his primaeval
honours, put forth, in the winter of his days, the fair blossoms of
the spring, and, recanting all the errors of this life when on the
verge of another descend, at last, unspotted to the grave.
     I now hasten to inform my Readers, that the Fragment in
question, which I attempted in vain to redeem from obscurity, has
been succeeded by a more luminous performance, enlightened and
adorned by rays of learning and ingenuity from different corners of
the land.
     žAll historians agree,ž says the Dean in his more perfect
work, žwithout one exception, that the savages, in general, are
very cruel, and vindictive, full of spite and malice; and that they
have little or no fellow-feeling for the distress even of a brother
of the same tribe -- and none at all, no not a spark of benevolence
towards the distressed members of an hostile tribe.ž
     Who, that avows such sentiments, will usurp the name of an
historian? The original of this picture is to be found only in the
registers of the damned. All historians agree, that the character
of rude tribes is various and dissimilar, like that of more
enlightened nations. The Indians of the new hemisphere, though of
various description, are, in general, supposed, on good grounds, to
have resembled, in genius and modes of life, the character of the
antient Germans. Dr Robertsonžs description of savage life, though
not indulgent, is credible and consistent; and he allows the
Indians to possess, in an eminent degree, the benevolent instincts
of nature. The Indians of Paraguay are a timid race; and the
Jesuits, heightening, perhaps, the imbecilities of their character
by the dictates of superstition, have been able to reduce them
under some regular scheme of government. But the natives of Brazil,
untutored by Jesuits, are described, by well-informed historians,
as an innocent and happy people, flourishing in the virtues of
peace and of humanity.
     On this subject I might refer our learned Divine to the first
reception of Columbus in the New World, to the more recent voyages
of discovery in both hemispheres, and to the indelible character of
the human species, which has fitted them for society and for
government in every country under heaven. I might almost refer him
to an authority he reveres; the authority of those Fathers who
conduct their missions on the principles of deceit, who belie the
Saviour of the world, and number submissions to the domination of
tyrants among the evangelical virtues. But, of the Deanžs last
Treatise on Government, I would neither be the encomiast, nor the
detractor. It can only deserve an answer, when it excites the
attention of the Public. I opened it merely to vindicate my own
character; and, unless provoked by future injuries, am now ready to
close it for ever. -- Salve aeternum, aeternumque vale.