planted in America and the South Sea islands, must have been highly polifhed; because, being at the greateft diftance, they probably were the lateft. And yet thefe and other remote people, the Mexicans and Peruvians excepted, remain to this day in the original favage ftate of hunting and fishing.

From that

Thus, had not men wildly attempted to build a tower whofe top might reach to heaven, all men would not only have had the fame language, but would have made the fame progrefs towards maturity of knowledge and civilization. That deplo rable event reverfed all nature: by fcattering men over the face of all the earth, it deprived them of fociety, and rendered them favages. ftate of degeneracy, they have been emerging gradually. Some nations, ftimulated by their own nature, or by their climate, have made a rapid progrefs; fome have proceeded more flowly; and fome continue favages. To trace out that progrefs towards maturity in different nations, is the fubject of the prefent undertaking.

VOL. I.

E

SKETCHES

SKETCHES

OF THE

HISTORY OF MAN.

BOOK I.

PROGRESS OF MEN INDEPENDENT OF

SOCIETY.

SKETCH I.

PROGRESS RESPECTING FOOD AND POPULATION.

N temperate climes, men fed originally on fruits that grow without culture, and on the flesh of land-animals. As fuch animals become shy when often hunted, there is a contrivance of nature, no lefs fimple than effectual, which engages men to bear with chearfulness the fatigues of hunting, and the uncertainty of capture; and that is, an appetite for hunting. Hunger alone is not fufficient: favages who act by fenfe, not by forefight, move E 2

not

not when the ftomach is full; and it would be too late when the ftomach is empty, to form a hunting-party. As that appetite is common to all favages whofe food depends on hunting; it is an illuftrious inftance of providential care, the adapting the internal conftitution of man to his external circumstances. The appetite for hunting, though

among

*It would be an agreeable undertaking, to collect all the inftances where the internal conftitution of man is adapted to his external structure, and to other circumftances; but it would be a laborious work, as the inftances are extremely numerous; and, in the course of the prefent undertaking, there will be occafion to mark several of them. "How finely are

"the external parts of animals adjusted to their internal dif"pofitions? That ftrong and nervous leg armed with tear"ing fangs, how perfectly does it correspond to the fierce"nefs of the lion! Had it been adorned like the human "arm with fingers inftead of fangs, the natural energies of

26

a lion had been all of them defeated. That more delicate "ftructure of an arm terminating in fingers fo nicely diver"fified, how perfectly does it correfpond to the pregnant in"vention of the human foul! Had these fingers been fangs, "what had become of poor Art that procures us fo many "elegancies and utilities! 'Tis here we behold the harmony "between the vifible world and the invifible t." The fol lowing is another inftance of the fame kind, which I mention here because it falls not under common obfervation. How finely, in the human fpecies, are the throat and the ear adjusted to each other, the one to emit mufical founds, the other to enjoy them! the one without the other would be an useless talent. May it not be juftly thought, that to the power we have

among us little neceffary for food, is to this day remarkable in young men, high and low, rich and poor. Natural propenfities may be rendered faint or obfcure, but never are totally eradicated.

Fish was not early the food of man. Water is not our element; and favages probably did not attempt to draw food from the fea or from rivers, till land-animals became fcarce. Plutarch in his Sympofiacs obferves, that the Syrians and Greeks of

E 3

have of emitting mufical founds by the throat, we owe the invention of mufical inftruments? A man would never think of inventing a musical instrument, but in order to imitate founds that his ear had been delighted with. But there is a faculty in man still more remarkable, which ferves to correct · the organs of external fenfe, where they tend to mislead him.

I give two curious inftances. The image of every visible object is painted on the retina tunica, and by that means the object makes an impreffion on the mind. In what manner this is done, cannot be explained; because we have no conception how mind acts on body, or body on mind. But, as far as we can conceive or conjecture, a visible object ought to appear to us inverted, because the image painted on the retina tunica is inverted. But this is corrected by the faculty mentioned, which makes us perceive objects as they really exist. The other inftance follows. As a man has two eyes, and fees with each of them, every object naturally ought to appear double; and yet with two eyes we fee every object fingle, precisely as if we had but one. Many philofophers, Sir Ifaac Newton in particular, have endeavoured to account for this phenomenon by mechanical principles, but evidently without giving fatisfaction. To explain this phenomenon, it appears to me that we must have recourse to the faculty mentioned acting against mechanical principles.