Notwithstanding the pleasure we have received from this performance, and the esteem with which we regard the author; we cannot take leave of him without expreffing our furprife, that fo able and zealous an advocate for benevolence fhould have lavished fo much praise on the Spartan goovernment; a government, which befides many other enormities in the very frame of it, not only tolerated, but enjoined the moft inhuman cruelties to be inflicted on its innocent captives; that endeavoured to eradicate from its members all focial tenderness and domeftic endearment, and on every occafion to stifle the voice of nature, and the cries of humanity* and animals from an infant ftate. to We are now to give a fpecimen of Mr. Ferguson's work; and the best we think we can give, will be fome extracts from his fections of the question relating to the ftate of nature, and of the moral fentiments;' in treating of which he has fo eminently diftin guished himself; and which, as they will ferve to give an idea of the work, will allo greatly connuments, even of the earliest date, tribute to the entertainment, if not inftruction, of fuch of our readers as have not feen the original. We are forry that we are obliged, for want of room, to leave out part of them to 9 Extracts from the fection of the queftion relating to the fate of na See a curious account of the ancient Regifter, for the year 1760. are to be confidered as novelties; and the most common establishments of human fociety are to be claffed among the encroachments which fraud, oppreffion, or a busy invention, have made upon the reign of nature, by which the chief of our grievances or bleflings were equally with-held. Among the writers who have attempted to distinguish, in the human character, its original qualities, and to point out the limits Lacedemonians, in the 3d vol, of our between nature and art, fome have reprefented mankind in their firit condition, as poffeffed of mere animal fenfibility, without any exercife of the faculties that render them fuperior to the brutes, with out any political union, without any means of explaining their fentiments, and even without poffeffing any of the apprehenfions and paffions which the voice and the gefture are fo well fitted to exFr.fs. Others have made the ftate of nature to confift in perpetual wars, kindled by competition for dominion and intereft, where eve ry individual had a feparate quarrel with his kind, and where the prefence of a fellow-creature was the fignal of battle. If both the earlieft and the lateft accounts collected from every quarter of the earth, reprefent mankind as affembled in troops and companies; and the individual always joined by affection to one party, while he is poffibly oppofed to another; employed in the exercife of, recollection and forefight; inclined to communicate his own fentiments, and to be made acquainted with thofe of others; thefe facts must be admitted as the foundation of, all our reafoning relative to man. His mixed difpofition to friendfhip or enmity, his reafon, his ufe of language and articulate founds, like the fhape and the e. rect pofition of his body, are to, be confidered As fo many attri butes of his nature: they are to be retained in his defcription, as the wing and the paw are in that of the eagle and the lion, and as different degrees of fiercenefs, vi gilance, timidity, or fpeed, are made to occupy a place in the na tural hiftory of different animals, If the question be put, What the mind of man could perform, when left to itself, and without the aid of any foreign direction? we are to look for our anfwer in the history of mankind. Particular experiments which have been found fo ufeful in eftablishing the principles of other fciences, could probably, on this fubject, teach us nothing important, or new we are to take the hiftory of every active being from his conduct in the fituation to which he is formed, not from his appearance in any forced or uncommon condition; a wild man, therefore, caught in the woods, where he had always lived apart from his fpecies, is a fingular instance, not a fpecimen of any general character. As the anatomy of an eye which had never received the impreflions of light, or that of an ear which had never felt the impulfe of founds, would probably exhibit defects in the very tructure of the organs themselves, arifing from their not being applied to their proper functions; fo any particular cafe of this fort would only, fhew in what degree the powers, of apprehenfion and fentiment could exift where they had not been employed, and what would be the defects and imbecili-. ties of a heart in which the emo, tions, that pertain to fociety had. never been felt. Mankind are to be taken in groups, as they have always. fubfiited. The hiftory of the in.. dividual is but a detail of the featiments and thoughts he has cotertained in the view of his fpe. eies and every experiment relative to this fubject should be made with entire focieties, not with fingle men. We have every reafon, however, to believe, that in the cafe of fuch an experiment made, we fhall fuppofe with a colony of children tranfplanted from the nursery, and left to form a fociety apart, untaught and undifciplined, we fhould only have the fame things repeated, which, in fo many different parts of the earth, have been tranfacted already. The members of our little fociety would feed and fleep, would herd together and play, would have a language of their own, would quarrel and divide, would be to one another the moft important objects of the scene, and, in the ardour of their friendfhips and competitions, would overlook their perfonal danger, and fufpend the care of their felf-prefervation. Has not the human race been planted like the colony in question? who has directed their courfe? whofe inftruction have they heard? or whofe example have they followed?— It would be ridiculous to affirm, as a difcovery, that the fpecies of the horfe was probably never the fame with that of the lion; yet, in oppofition to what has dropped from the pens of eminent writers, we are obliged to obferve, that men have always appeared among animals a distinct and a fuperior race; that neither the poffeffion of fimilar organs, nor the approximation of hape, nor the ufe of the hand, nor the continued intercourse with this fovereign artift, has enabled any other fpecies to blend their nature or their inventions with his; that in his rudeft 1 ftate, he is found to be above them; and in his greatest degene racy, never defcends to their level. He is, in fhort, a man in every condition; and we can learn nothing of his nature from the analogy of other animals. If we would know him, we must attend to himself, to the course of his life, and the tenor of his conduct." With him the fociety appears to be as old as the individual, and the ufe of the tongue as univerfal as that of the hand or the foot. If there was a time in which he had his acquaintance with his own fpecies to make, and his faculties to acquire, it is a time of which we have no record, and in relation to which our opinions can ferve no purpofe, and are supported by no evidence. We fpeak of art as diftinguished from nature; but art itself is natural to man. He is in fome meafure the artificer of his own frame, as well as his fortune, and is deftined, from the first age of his being, to invent and contrive. He applies the fame talents to a varie ty of purpofes, and acts nearly the fame part in very different fcenes. He would be always improving on his fubject, and he carries this intention wherever he moves, through the ftreets of the populous city, or the wilds of the foreft.To whatever length he has carried his artifice, there he feems to enjoy the conveniences that fuit his nature, and to have found the condition to which he is deftined. The tree which an American, on the banks of the Oroonoko, has chofen to climb, for the retreats and the lodgement of his family, is to him a convenient dwelling." The fopha, the vaulted dome, and the X 4 cole colonade, do not more effectual ly content their native inhabi tant. vention are but a contituation of certain devices which were prac tifed in the earliest ages of the world, and in the rudeft ftate of mankind. What the favage pro jects, or obferves, in the foreft, are the fteps which led nations, more advanced, from the archi tecture of the cottage to that of the palace, and conducted the human mind from the preceptions of fenfe to the general conclufions of fcience. timent. $ If we are asked, therefore, Where the state of nature is to be found? we may anfwer, It is here; and it matters not whether we are un derstood to speak in the ifland of Great Britain, at the Cape of Good Hope, or the Straits of Ma. gellan. While this active being is in the train of employing his talents, and of operating on the fubjects around him, all fituations are equally natural. If we are told, that vice, at leaft, is con- Extracts from the fection on moral fentrary to nature; we may answer, it is worfe; it is folly and wretchednefs. But if nature is only opposed to art, in what fituation of the human race are the footsteps of art unknown? In the condition of the favage, as well as in that of the citizen, are many proofs of human invention; and in either is not any permanent ftation, but a mere ftage through which this travelling being is deftined to pafs. If the palace be unnatural, the cottage is fo no lefs; and the highest refinements of political and moral apprehenfion, are not more artificial in their kind, than the first operations of fentiment and reafon. . Upon a flight obfervation of what paffes in human life, we fhould be apt to conclude, that the care of fubfiftence is the principal fpring of human actions. This confideration leads to the invention and practice of mechani. cal arts, it ferves to distinguish amufement from bufinefs; and, with many, fcarcely admits into competition any other subject of purfuit or attention. The mighty advantages of property and fortune, when ftript of the recommendations they derive from vani, ty, or the more ferious regards to independence and power, only mean a provifion that is made for animal enjoyment; and if our folicitude on this fubject were removed, not only the toils of the mechanic, but the ftudies of the learned, would ceafe; every de. partment of public business would become unneceffary; every fenatehoufe would be fhut up, and every place deferted and If we admit that man is fufceptible of improvement, and has in himself a principle of progreffion, and a defire of perfection, it appears improper to fay, that he has quitted the ftate of his nature, when he has begun to proceed; or that he finds a ftation for which he was not intended, while, like other animals, he only follows the difpofition, and employs the powIs man, therefore, in refpect to his object, to be claffed with the mere brutes, and only to be dif. ers that nature has given The latest efforts of human in tinguished tinguished by faculties that qualify him to multiply contrivances for the fupport and convenience of animal lite, and by the extent of a fancy that renders the care of animal prefervation to him more burdenfome than it is to the herd with which he fhares in the bounty of nature? If this were his cafe, the joy which attends on fuccefs, or the griefs which arife from difappointment, would make the fum of his paffions. The torrent that wafted, or the inundation that enriched his poffeffions, would give him all the emotion with which he is feized, on the occafion of a wrong by which his fortunes are impaired, or of a benefit by which they are preferved and enlarged. His fellow-creatures would be confidered merely as they affected his intereft. Profit or lofs would ferve to mark the event of every tranfaction; and the epithets ufeful or detrimental Ewould ferve to diftinguish his mates in fociety, as they do the tree which bears plenty of fruit, from that which ferves only to cumber the ground, or intercept his /view.d believed that Othello, on the ftage, was enraged for the loss of his handkerchief, was not more mistaken, than the reafoner who imputes any of the more vehement paffions of men to the impreffions of mere profit or lofs. Men affemble to deliberate on bufinefs; they feparate from jealoufies of intereft; but in their feveral collifions, whether as friends or as enemies; a fire is ftruck out which the regards to intereft or fafety cannot confine. The value of a favour is not meafured when fentiments of kindness are perceived and the term misfortune has but a feeble meaning, when compared to that of infult and wrong. As actors or fpectators, we are perpetually made to feel the dif ference of human conduct, and from a bare recital of transactions which have paffed in ages and countries remote from our own, are moved with admiration and pity, or tranfported with indignation and rage. Our fenfibility on this fubject gives their charm, in retirement, to the relations of hiftory, and to the fictions of poetry; hiffends forth the tear of compaffior, gives to the blood its briskeft movement, and to the eye its livelieft glances of difpleasure or joy. It turns human life into an interefting fpectacle, and perpetually folicits even the indolent to mix, as opponents or friends, in the fcenes which are acted before them. Joined to the powers of deliberation and reafon, it constitutes the bafis of a moral nature; and whilft it dictates the terms of praise and of blame, ferves to clafs our fellow-creatures by the most admi This, however, is not the tory of our fpecies. What comes from a fellow-creature is received with peculiar attention; and every language abounds with terms that exprefs fomewhat in the tranf. actions of men, different from fuc. cefs and difappointment. The bofom kindles in company, while the point of interest in view has nothing to inflame; and a matter frivolous in itfelf, becomes im portant, when it ferves to bring to light the intentions and characters of men. The foreigner, who Trable F |