"doubtless fenfible that poisoned arrows in war, would upon the "whole do more mischief than good." This writer it would seem has forgot, that profpects of future good or evil never have influence upon favages. Is it his opinion, that fear of future mischief to themselves, would make the negroes of New Guinea abftain from employing poifoned arrows against their enemies? We have nothing but original difpofition to account for manners fo fingular in the favages of Guiana. The Japanese resent injuries in a manner which has not a parallel in any other part of the world: it is indeed fo fingular as scarce to be confiftent with human nature. Others wreak their refentment on the person who affronts them; but an inhabitant of Japan wreaks it on himself: he rips up his own belly. Kempfer reports the following inftance. A gentleman coming down the great stair of the Emperor's palace, paffed another going up, and their fwords happened to clafh. The perfon defcending took offence: the other excufed himself, faying that it was accidental; adding, that the fwords only were concerned, and that his was as good as the other. I'll fhow you the difference, fays the perfon who began the quarrel: he drew his fword, and ripped up his own belly. The other, piqued at being thus prevented in revenge, haftened up with a plate he had in his hand for the Emperor's table; and returning with equal speed, he in like manner ripped up his belly in fight of his antagonist, saying, "If I had not been ferving my prince, you fhould not have got the start of me: but I fhall die fatisfied, having fhow'd you "C that my fword is as good as yours." The fame author gives an inftance of uncommon ferocity in the Japanese, blended with manners highly polished. In the midst of a large company at dinner, a young woman, straining to reach a plate, unwarily fuffered wind to escape. Afhamed and confounded, she raised her breafts to her mouth, tore them with her teeth, and expired on the spot. The Japanese are equally fingular in fome of their reli

gious opinions. They never fupplicate the gods in distress; holding, that as the gods enjoy uninterrupted blifs, such fupplications would be offenfive to them. Their holidays accordingly are dedicated to feafts, weddings, and all public and private rejoicings. It is delightful to the gods, fay they, to fee men happy. They are far from being fingular in thinking that a benevolent deity is pleased to see men happy; but nothing can be more inconfiftent with the common feelings of men, than to hold, that in distress it is wrong to fupplicate the author of our nature for relief, and that he will be displeased with such fupplication. In deep affliction, there is certainly no balm equal to that of pouring out the heart to a benevolent deity, and expreffing entire refignation to his will.

In fupport of the foregoing doctrine, many particulars still more extraordinary might have been quoted from Greek and Roman writers: but truth has no occafion for artifice; and I would not take advantage of celebrated names to vouch facts that appear incredible or uncertain. The Greeks and Romans made an illuftrious figure in poetry, rhetoric, and all the fine arts; but they were little better than novices in natural history. More than half of the globe was to them what the Terra Auftralis incognita is to us; and imagination operates without control when it is not checked by knowledge: the ignorant at the fame time are delighted with wonders; and the more wonderful a story is, the more welcome it is made. This may ferve as an apology for ancient writers, even when they relate and believe facts to us incredible. Men at that period were ignorant, in a great meafure, of nature, and of the limits of her operations. One conceffion will be made to me, that the writers mentioned who report things at fecond hand, are much more excufable than the earliest of our modern travellers, who pretend to vouch endless wonders from their own knowledge. Natural history, that of man especially, is of late years much ripen

ed: no improbable tale is fuffered to pafs without a strict examination; and I have been careful to adopt no facts but what are vouched by late travellers and writers of credit. Were it true what Diodorus Siculus reports on the authority of Agatharchides of Cnidus, concerning the Ichthyophages on the east coast of Afric, it would be a more pregnant proof of a distinct race of men than any I have discovered. They are defcribed to be fo ftupid, that even when their wives and children are killed in their fight, they fland infenfible, and give no figns either of anger or of compaffion. This I cannot believe upon fo flight teftimony; and the Greeks and Romans were at that time extremely credulous, being lefs acquainted with neighbouring nations, than we are with the Antipodes. The Balearic iflands, Majorca, Minorca, Yvica, are at no great distance from Sicily; and yet Diodorus the Sicilian reports of the inhabitants, that at the folemnization of marriage all the male friends, and even the household fervants, lay with the bride before the bridegroom was admitted. Credat Judeus appella. It would not be much more difficult to make me believe what is faid by Pliny of the Blemmyans, that they had no head, and that the mouth and eyes were in the breast; or of the Arimaspi, who had but one eye, placed in the middle of the forehead; or of the Aftomi, who having no mouth, could neither eat nor drink, but lived upon fmelling; or of a thoufand other abfurdities which Pliny relates, with a grave face, in the 6th book of his natural hiftory, cap. 30. and in the 7th book, cap. 2.

Thus upon an extenfive furvey of the inhabited parts of our globe, many nations are found differing fo widely from each other, not only in complexion, in features, in fhape, and in other external circumftances, but in temper and difpofition, particularly in two capital articles, courage and the treatment of strangers, that even the certainty of there being different races could not make one expect more striking differences. Doth M. Buffon think

it fufficient, barely to fay, that fuch differences may poffibly be the effect of climate, or of other accidental causes? The prefumption is, that the differences fubfifting at prefent have always fubfifted; which ought to be held as true, till pofitive evidence be brought of the contrary: instead of which we are put off with bare fuppofitions and poffibilities.

But not to rest entirely upon prefumptive evidence, to me it appears clear from the very frame of the human body, that there must be different races of men fitted for different climates. Few animals are more affected than men generally are, not only with change of seasons in the fame climate, but with change of weather in the same season. Can fuch a being be fitted for all climates equally? Impoffible. A man must at least be hardened by nature against the flighter changes of feafons or weather: he ought to be altogether infenfible of fuch changes. Yet from Sir John Pringle's obfervations on the diseases of the army, to go no further, it appears, that even military men, who ought of all to be the hardiest, are greatly affected by them. Horfes and horned cattle fleep on the bare ground, wet or dry, without harm; and yet are not made for every climate: can a man be made for every climate, who is fo much more delicate, that he cannot fleep on wet ground without hazard of fome mortal difeafe?

But the argument I chiefly rely on is, That were all men of one fpecies, there never could have existed, without a miracle, different kinds, fuch as exift at present. Giving allowance for every fuppofeable variation of climate, or of other natural caufes, what can follow, as observed about the dog-kind, but endless varieties among individuals, as among tulips in a garden, fo as that no individual fhall resemble another. Inftead of which we find men of different kinds, the individuals of each kind remarkably uniform, and differing not lefs remarkably from the individuals of every

other

other kind. Uniformity and permanency are the offspring of defign, never of chance.

There is another argument that appears alfo to have weight: Horfes with refpect to fize, fhape, and fpirit, differ widely in different climates. But let a male and a female of whatever climate be carried to a country where horfes are in perfection, their progeny will improve gradually, and will acquire in time the perfection of their kind. Is not this a proof, that all horses are of one kind? If fo, men are not all of one kind; for if a White mix with a Black in whatever climate, or a Hottentot with a Samoide, the refult will not be either an improvement of the kind, or the contrary; but a mongrel breed differing from both parents. It is thus ascertained beyond any rational doubt, that there are different races or kinds of men, and that these races or kinds are naturally fitted for different climates: whence we have reason to conclude, that originally each kind was placed in its proper climate, whatever change may have happened in later times by war or

commerce.

There is a remarkable fact that confirms the foregoing conjec`tures. As far back as history goes, or tradition kept alive by history, the earth was inhabited by favages divided into many fmall tribes, each tribe having a language peculiar to itself. Is it not natural to fuppofe, that these original tribes were different races of men, placed in proper climates, and left to form their own language?

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Upon fumming up the whole particulars mentioned above, would one hesitate a moment to adopt the following opinion, were there no counterbalancing evidence, viz. "That God created many pairs of the human race, differing from each other both externally and internally; that he fitted these pairs for different "climates, and placed each pair in its proper climate; that the "peculiarities of the original pairs were preserved entire in their "defcendents;