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Seceders fix. The people have fcarcely any fports after they are grown up. among the infinite advanages of the Reformation, this feems to have been one difadvantage attending it, that, owing to the gloomy rigour of fome of the leading actors, mirth and vice have, in their apprefion, been confounded together. Some of the fectaries punish attendance on penny weddings, and public dancing, with a reproof from the pulpit, in the prefence of the congregation: fo that the people muft either dance by themfelves or let it alone. This cenfure,in feveral congregations, is falling into dif ufe. There are a few perfons, called UNITED PARISHES OF LISMORE AND tinkers, and horners, half-refident, and half-itinerant, who are feared and fufpected by the community. Two of them were banished within these fix years. Strangers complain of the pronunciation in this district being crawling, and that it impreffes them with a belief that the perfon speaking is four and ill tempered. The inhabitants are improving in their mode of living and drefs. Intemperance from fpirituous liquors is by no means frequent among them; but, unluckily, the ufe of whifky is increasing, and that of beer diminishing. The blue honnet, a national badge, is disappearing rapidly. The prevalent colour of the men's dress is blue.

Willon was the first that introduced turnips and potatoes into the parish. He had a few of them in his garden, which the people in coming to the church ufed to look at as a great curiofity; and it was thought, at that time, that none but a gardener could raife them. It was long before the method of hoeing came to be thought of. Being fown thick, and handweeded, they came to no fize. Another fingularity deferves notice, viz. that, when he came to Gamrie, there. was not a watch in church except the laird's and the minifter's.

PARISH OF GAMRIE.

Population.

In this parish, many inftances of longevity might be mentioned. It is only a few years fince a fifhermar in Macduff died at the age of 109; and there are living at prefent feveral perfons go years old and upwards. Mr Wilfon (the minifter) is in his 97th year; and laft autumn, at the conclufion of the harveft, the age of him, and the two fervants that affifted in taking in his crop, amounted in all to 257; and it is worthy remarking that one of thefe has been his fervant 50 years. Mr

APPIN.

Mifcellaneous Obfervations...

The people in this parish are, in general, laborious and induftrious.

Crimes of an enormous nature are
No inftance of
hardly known here.
fuicide, or of murder, has occurred
for 25 years past.

The common

people are lefs addicted to drinking than they were 20 years ago. All ranks are remarkable for their charity to the poor. In fevere feafons, many of them double their attention to relieve the wants of the needy. No inhabitant of thefe extensive parishes has been executed or banished for 25 years paft. One or two perfons, guilty of fome irregularities, voJuntarily banished themselves. There has been no inftance of child-murder in the parish in the memory of man. This is a crime hardly known in the weft Highlands. The people in this part are much lefs fluctuating in their religious opinions than they are to the fouthward.

A man of fingular frame was born in Appin. He was the ftouteft or thickest man in Britain, or even perhaps in Europe, at the time. His name was Carmichack He was a foldier in the 42d regiment, and died above 30 years ago. He was faid to be not above fix feet high; but was

fo

fo fingular for the ftoutness of his make, that his portrait, as large as the life, was painted, by order of the King, and placed in the Tower of London as a curiofity. He was not

ed for the mildness of his difpofition He could carry on his back, with ease 1 cwt. more than the strongest porter in Dublin.

Of the ancient and high civilization of the Inhabitants of India *.

[THE elegant and learned author propofes to prove the early and high civilization of the inhabitants of India; 1ft, by taking a view of their rank and fituation as individuals; 2d, of their civil policy; 3d. of their laws and judicial proceedings; 4th, of their ufeful and elegant arts; 5th, of their fciences; and, 6th, of their religious inftitutions. From the first and fifth of these heads, the following obfervations are extracted.]

vance and expertnefs in execution. In proportion as refinement fpreads, the distinction of profeffions increases, and they branch out into more numerous and minute fubdivifions. Prior to the records of authentic hiftory, and even before the most remote ara to which their own traditions pretend to reach, this feparation of profeffions had not only taken place among the natives of India, but the perpetuity of it was fecured by an inftitution which must be confidered as the fundamental article in the system of their policy. The whole body of the peo

PROOFS FROM THE DISTINCTION OF ple was divided into four orders or

RANKS.

ROM the most ancient accounts of India we learn, that the diftinction of ranks and feparation of profeffions were completely èftablished there. This is one of the most undoubted proofs of a fociety confiderably advanced in its progrefs. Arts in the early ftages of focial life are fo few, and fo fimple, that each man is fufficiently mafter of them all, to gratify every demand of his own limited defires. A favage can form his bow, point his arrows, rear his hut, and hollow his canoe, without calling in the aid of any hand more fkilful than his own. But when time has augmented the wants of men, the productions of art become fo complicated in their ftructure, or fo curious in their fabric, that a particular courfe of education is requifite towards forming the artist to ingenuity in contri

cafts. The members of the first, deemed the moft facred, had it for their province, to study the principles of religion; to perform its functions; and to cultivate the fciences. They were the priests, the inftructors, and philofophers of the nation. The members of the second order were entrustted with the government and defence of the ftate. In peace they were its rulers and magiftrates, in war they were the foldiers who fought its battles. The third was compofed of hufbandmen and merchants; and the fourth of artifans, labourers, and forvants. None of thefe can ever quit his own caft, or be admitted into abother. The ftation of every individu. ̧ is unalterably fixed; his deftiny is ir revocable; and the walk of life is marked out, from which he never deviates. This line of feparation is not only established by civil authority, but confirmed and fanctioned by reli

From "Dr Robertson's Difquifition concerning Ancient India.”

gion;,

gion; and each order or caft is faid to have proceeded from the Divinity in fuch a different manner, that to mingle and confound them would be deemed an act of moft daring impiety. Nor is it between the four different tribes alone that fuch infuperable bar riers are fixed; the members of each caft adhere invariably to the profef fion of their forefathers. From gene, ration to generation, the fame families have followed, and will always continue to follow, one uniform line of life.

Such arbitrary arrangements of the various members which compofe a community, feems, at firft view, to be adverfe to improvement either in science or in arts; and by forming áround the different orders of men, artificial barriers, which it would be impious to pafs, tends to circumfcribe the operations of the human mind within a narrower sphere than nature has allotted to them. When every man is at full liberty to direct his efforts towards thofe objects and that end which the impulfe of his own mind prompts him to prefer, he may be expected to attain that high degree of eminence to which the uncontrouled exertions of genius and induftry naturally conduct. The regulations of Indian policy, with refpect to the different orders of men, muft neceffarily, at fome times, check genius in its career, and confine to the functions of an inferior caft, talents fitted to fhine in an higher fphere. But the arrangements of civil government are made, not for what is extraordinary, but for what is common; not for the féw, but for the many. The object of the firft Indian legiflators was to employ the moft effectual means of providing for the fubfiftence, the fecurity, and happiness of all the members of the community over which they prefided. With this view they fet apart certain races of men for each of the various profeffions and arts neceffary in a well-ordered fociety,

first that

and appointed the exercife of their to be tranfmitted from father to for in fucceffion. This fyftem, though extremely repugnant to the ideas which we, by being placed in a very different state of fociety, have formed, will be found, upon attentive infpection, better adapted to attain the end in view, than a careless obferver is, on a first view, apt to imagine. The human mind bends to the law of neceflity, and is accuftomed, not only to accommodate itself to the restraints which the condition of its nature, or the inftitutions of its country, impofe, but to acquiefce in them. From his entrance into life, an Indian knows the ftation allotted to him, and the functions to which he is defined by his birth. The objects which relate to thefe are the prefent then felves to his view. They occupy his thoughts, or employ his hands; and, from his earlieft years, he is trained to the habit of doing with eafe and pleasure that which he muft continue through life to do. Ta this may be afcribed that high degree of perfection confpicuous in many of the Indian manufactures; and though veneration for the practices of their ancellors may check the fpirit of invention, yet by adhering to thefe, they acquire fuch an expertnefs and delica cy of hand, that Europeans, with all the advantages of fuperior fcience, and the aid of more complete inftru ments, have never been able to equal the exquifite execution of their workmanfhip. While this high improvement of their more curious manufactures excited the admiration, and attracted the commerce, of other nations, the feparation of profeffions in India, and the early diftribution of the people into claifes, attached to particular kinds of labour, fecured fuch abundance of the more common' and ufeful commodities, as not only fupplied their own wants, but ministers ed to thofe of the countries around them.

Τα

To this early divifion of the people into cafts, we must likewife afcribe a peculiarity in the ftate of India; the permanence of its inftitutions, and the immutability in the manners of its inhabitants. What now is in India, always was there, and is likely ftill to continue: neither the ferocious violence and illiberal fanaticifm of its Mahomedan conquerors, nor the power of its European mafters, have effected any confiderable alteration. The fame diftinctions of condition take place, the me arrangements in civil and domeftic fociety remain, the fame maxims of religion are held in veneration, and the fame fciences and arts are cultivated. Hence, in all ages, the trade with India has been the fame; gold and filver have uniformly been carried thither in order to purchase the fame commodities with which it now fupplies all nations; and from the age of Pliny to the prefent times, it has been always confidered and execrated as a gulf which fwallows up the wealth of every other country, that flows inceffamily towards it, and from which it never returns. According to the accounts which I have given of the cargoes anciently imported from India, they appear to have confifted of nearly the fame articles with thofe of the investments in our own times; and whatever difference we may obferve in them feems to have arifen, not fo much from any diversity in the nature of the commodities which the Indians prepared for fale, as from a variety in the wants, of the nations which demanded them.

PROOFS OF THE EARLY CIVILIZATION OF INDIA, FROM THE STATE OF THE SCIENCES.

THE attainments of the Indians in fcience, furnish an additional proof of their early civilization. By every perfon who has vifited India in ancient or modern times, its inhabitants,

either in tranfactions of private bufinefs, or in the conduct of political affairs, have been deemed not inferior to the people of any nation in fagacity, acutenefs of understanding, or addrefs. From the application of fuch talents to the cultivation of science, an extraordinary degree of proficiency might have been expected. The Ladians were, accordingly, early celebrated on that account, and fome of the moft eminent of the Greek philofophers travelled into India, that, by converfing with the fages of that country, they might acquire fome portion of the knowledge for which they were diftinguished. The accounts, however, which we receive from the Greeks and Romans, of the fciences which attracted the attention of the Indian philofophers, or of the difcoveries which they had made in them, are very imperfect. To the refearches of a few intelligent perfons, who have vifited India during the course of the three laft centuries, we are indebted for more ample and authentic information. But from the reluctance with which the Brahmins communicate their sciences to ftrangers, and the inability of Europeans to acquire much knowledge of them, hile, like the mysteries of their religion, they were concealed from vulgar eyes in an un. known tongue, this information was acquired flowly and with great diffi culty. The fame obfervation, however, which I made concerning our knowledge of the fate of the fine arts among the people of India, is applicable to that of their progrefs in icience, and the prefent age is the first furnished with fufficient evidence up on which to found a decifive judg ment with refpect to either.

Science, when viewed as disjoined from religion, the confideration of which I referve for another head, is employed in contemplating either the operations of the understanding, the exercife of our moral powers, or the nature and qualities of external ob

jects.

jects. The first is denominated logic; the fecond ethics; the third phyfics, or the knowledge of nature. With refpect to the early progrefs in culti vating each of thefe fciences in India, we are in poffeffion of facts which merit attention.

But, prior to the confideration of them, it is proper to examine the ideas of the Brahmins with refpect to mind Atfelf, for if thefe were not juft, all their theories concerning its operations must have been erroneous and fanciful. The diftinction between matter and Spirit appears to have been early known by the philofophers of India, and to the latter they afcribed many powers, of which they deemed the former to be incapable; and when we recolle how inadequate our conceptions are of every object that does not fall under the cognizance of the fenfes, we may affirm (if allowance be made for a peculiar notion of the Hindoos which shall be afterwards explained) that no defcription of the human foul is more fuited to the dignity of its nature than that given by the author of the Mahabarat, Some,' fays he, regard the foul as a wonder, others hear of it with altonishment, but no one knoweth it. The weapon divideth it not; the fire burneth it not; the water corrupteth it not; the wind drieth it not away; for it is invifible, inconfumable, incorruptible; it is eternal, univerfal, permanent, immoveable; it is invifible, inconceivable, and unalterable. After this view of the fentiments of the Brahmins concerning mind itfelf, we may proceed to confider their ideas with refpect to each of the fciences, in that tripartite arrangement which I mentioned.

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of proceeding from the observation of facts to the eftablishment of principles, or from the knowledge of principles to form arrangements of fcience. The philofophers of ancient Greece were highly celebrated for their proficiency in thefe abftrufe fpeculations; and, in their difcuffions and arrangements, difcovered fuch depth of thought, and acutnefs of difcernment, that their fy. ftems of Logic, particularly that of the Peripatetic School, have been deemed most diftinguished efforts of human reafon.

But fince we became acquainted, in fome degree, with the literature and fcience of the Hindoos, we find that as foon as men arrive at that stage in focial life, when they can turn their attention to fpeculative inquiries, the human mind will, in every region of the earth, difplay nearly the fame powers, and proceed in its inveftigations and difcoveries by nearly fimilar fteps. From Abul Fazel's compendium of the philofophy of the Hindoos, the knowledge of which he acquired, as he informs us, by affociating intimately with the most learned men of the nation; from the fpecimen of their logical difcuffions contained in that portion of the Shafter published by Colonel Dow, and from many paffages in the Baghvat-Geeta, it appears that the fame fpeculations which cccupied the philofophers of Greece had engaged the attention of the Indian Brahmins; and the theories of the former, either concerning the qualities of external objects, or the rature of our own ideas, were not more ingenious than thofe of the latter. To define with accuracy, to diftinguish with acuteness, and to reafon with fubtlety, are characteristics of both; and in both, the fame excefs of refinement, in attempting to analyfe thofe operations of mind which the faculties of man were not formed to comprehend, led fometimes to the moft falfe and dangerous conclufions. That fceptical philofophy, which denies the exi

ftence

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