And again, another, it is supposed, might devote himself to the occupation of dressing skins for clothing, or of building huts, or canoes, or making various kinds of tools; and might subsist by exchanging these with his neighbors for food. And by thus devoting his chief attention to some one kind of manufacture, he would acquire increased skill in that, and would strike out useful new inventions.

Thus, these supposed savages having gradually come to be divided into husbandmen, shepherds, and artisans of various kinds, would begin to enjoy the various advantages of a division of labor, and would advance, step by step, in all the arts of civilized life.

Now all this description is likely to appear plausible at the first glance, to those who do not inquire carefully, and reflect attentively. But on examination, it will be found to be contradicted by all history, and to be quite inconsistent with the real character of such Beings as savages actually are. In reality, such a process of inventions and improvements as that just described, is what never did, and never possibly can, take place in any savage tribe left wholly to themselves.

All the nations of which we know any thing, that have risen from a savage to a civilized state, appear to have had the advantage of the instruction and example of civilized men living among them. Every nation that has ever had any tradition of a time when their ancestors were savages, and of the first introduction of civilization among them, always represent some foreigner, or some Being from Heaven, as having first taught them the arts of life.

Thus, the ancient Greeks attributed to Prometheus-a supposed superhuman Being-the introduction of the use of fire. And they represented Triptolemus and Cadmus, and others, strangers, from a distant country, as introducing agriculture and other arts. And the Peruvians have a like tradition concerning a person they call Manco-Capac, whom they represent as the offspring of the sun, and as having taught useful arts to their ancestors.

On the other hand, there are great numbers of savage tribes, in various parts of the world, who have had no regular intercourse with civilized men, but who have been visited by several voyagers, at different times, and, in some instances, at very

distant periods. And it appears from comparing together the accounts of those voyagers that these tribes remain perfectly stationary; not making the smallest advance towards civilization.

For example, the people of the vast continent of New Holland, and of the large island of Papua, (or New Guinea,) which lies near it, who are among the rudest of savages, appear to remain (in those parts not settled by Europeans) in exactly the same brutish condition as when they were first discovered. They roam about the forests in search of wild animals, and of some few eatable roots, which they laboriously dig up with sharpened sticks. But though they are often half starved, and though they have to expend as much toil for three or four scanty meals of these roots as would suffice for breaking up and planting a piece of ground that would supply them for a year, it has never occurred to them to attempt cultivating those

roots.

The inhabitants, again, of the islands of Andaman, in the Eastern Ocean, appear to be in a more degraded and wretched state than even the New-Hollanders.

The New-Zealanders, again, in the interval of above 125 years between the first discovery of their islands by Tasman, and the second discovery by Captain Cook, seem to have made no advances whatever, but to have remained just in the same condition. And yet they were in a far less savage state than that of the New-Hollanders; being accustomed rudely to cultivate the ground, and raise crops of sweet-potatoes.

And such appears to be, from all accounts, the condition of all savage, or nearly savage tribes. They seem never to invent any thing, or to make any effort to improve; so that what few arts they do possess, (and which, in general, are only such as to enable them just to support life,) must be the remnant that they have retained from a more civilized state from which their ancestors had degenerated.

When, indeed, men have arrived at a certain stage in the advance towards civilization, (far short of what exists in Europe,) it is then possible for them, if nothing occurs to keep them back, to advance further and further towards a more civilized state.

And there is no one of the arts that may not be invented by

men whose minds have been already cultivated up to a certain point. Those, for example, who have been accustomed to work in one kind of metal, may discover the use of some other metal. Those who are accustomed to till the ground, and whose faculties have received some considerable degree of improvement, may introduce the culture of some new vegetable. And if men have been used to make woollen cloth, they may proceed from that to linen or cotton cloth; or, on the other hand, they may proceed from linen to woollen.

And this it is that misleads some persons in their notions respecting savages. For finding that there is no one art which might not have been invented by unassisted Man, supposing him to have a certain degree of civilization to start from, they hence conclude that unassisted Man might have invented all the arts, supposing him left originally in a completely savage state. But this is contradicted by all experience; which shows that men in the condition of the lowest savages never have made the first step towards civilization, without some assistance from without.

Human society may be compared to some combustible substances which will not take fire spontaneously, but when once set on fire, will burn with continually increasing force. A community of men requires, as it were, to be kindled, and requires no more.

Perhaps, when you try to fancy yourself in the situation of a savage, it occurs to you that you would set your mind to work to contrive means for bettering your condition; and that you might perhaps hit upon such and such useful inventions; and hence you may be led to think it natural that savages should do so, and that some tribes of them may have advanced themselves in the way above described, without any external help. But nothing of the kind appears to have ever really occurred; and what leads some persons to fancy it, is, that they themselves are not savages, but have some degree of mental cultivation, and some of the habits of thought of civilized men; and therefore they form to themselves an incorrect notion of what a savage really is-just as a person who possesses eyesight, cannot understand correctly the condition of one born blind.

But those who have seen a good deal of real savages, have

observed that they are not only feeble in mental powers, but also sluggish in the use of such powers as they have, except when urged by pressing want. When not thus urged, they pass their time either in perfect inactivity, or else in dancing, in decorating their bodies with paint, or with feathers and shells, or in various childish sports. They are not only brutishly stupid, but still more remarkable for childish thoughtlessness and improvidence. So that it never occurs to them to consider how they may put themselves in a better condition a year or two hence.

Now such must have been the condition of all mankind down to this day, if they had all been, from the first, left without any instruction, and in what is called a state of nature-that is, with the faculties Man is born with, not at all unfolded or exercised by education. For, from such a state, unassisted Man cannot, as all experience shows, ever raise himself. And consequently, in that case, the whole world would have been peopled with mere savages in the very lowest state of degradation. The very existence, therefore, at this day, of civilized men, proves that there must have been, at some time or other, some instruction given to Man in the arts of life, by some Being superior to Man. For since the first beginnings of civilization could not have come from any human instructor, they must have come from one super-human.

It has been shown, then, that the whole world would now have been peopled with the very lowest savages, if men had never received any instruction, and yet had been able to subsist at all. But it is doubtful whether even this bare subsistence would have been possible. It is more likely that the first generation would all have perished for want of those few arts which even savages possess, and which (as has been above remarked) were probably not invented by savages, but are remnants which they have retained from a more civilized state. The knowledge, for instance, of wholesome and of poisonous roots and fruits, the arts of making fish-hooks and nets, bows and arrows, or darts, and snares for wild animals, and of constructing rude huts, and canoes, and some other such simple arts, are possessed, more or less, by all savages, and are necessary to enable them to support their lives. And it is doubtful whether men left completely in a state of nature—that is,

wholly untaught would not all perish before they could invent them for themselves.

For, we should remember that Man, when left in a state of nature, untaught, and with his rational powers not unfolded, is far less fitted for supporting and taking care of himself than the brutes. They are much better provided both with instincts and with bodily organs, for supplying their own wants. For example, those animals that have occasion to dig, either for food, or to make burrows for shelter-such as the swine, the hedgehog, the mole, and the rabbit, have both an instinct for digging, and snouts or paws far better adapted for that purpose than Man's hands. Yet man is enabled to turn up the ground much better than any brute; but then this is by means of spades and other tools, which Man can be taught to make and use, though brutes cannot. Again, birds and bees have an instinct for building such nests and habitations as answer their purpose as well as the most commodious beds and houses made by men; but Man has no instinct that teaches him how to construct these. Brutes, again, know by instinct their proper food, and avoid what is unwholesome; but Man has no instinct for distinguishing the nightshade-berry' (with which children have often been poisoned) from wholesome fruits. And quadrupeds swim by nature, because their swimming is the same motion by which they advance when on land; but a man, falling into deep water, is drowned, unless he has learnt to swim.

It appears, then, very doubtful whether men left wholly untaught, would be able to subsist at all, even in the state of the lowest savages. But at any rate, it is plain they could never have risen above that state. And consequently the existence of civilization at this day is a kind of monument attesting the fact that some instruction from above must, at some time or other, have been supplied to mankind. And the most probable conclusion is, that Man when first created, or very shortly afterwards, was advanced, by the Creator Himself, to a state above that of a mere savage.

These arguments, which have been before the Public in

The berry of the deadly nightshade (not the woody nightshade common in hedges) looks like a black cherry, and has a sweet taste, and no unpleasant smell.