This may appear to have fomewhat of the air of declamation; but the more particular account given of the conduct of these princes, feems to justify the applaufe which the writer beftows. To form a farther judgment we must leave our readers to confult the hiftory itself; to which we must also refer them for a view of the Danish trade, manufactures, &c. together with remarks on the laws and internal government of Denmark; which laft article, by way of Appendix, conftitutes a great part of the fecond volume. Thefe laws have one excellence, of which we cannot but take notice, because it is greatly defirable that we fhould have the fame advantage in our own country; the Author tells us, they are remarkable on account of their plainnefs and brevity; they are expressed with fo much precision, and are fo little subject to ambiguity, that they require no labour and effort of the understanding to comprehend them.' · We fhall only add, that in perufing this compilement, we have met with confiderable entertainment, and fome information. The late revolution in the Danish Court is too recent and too little understood to allow the Hiftorian to fay much on the fubject, and therefore the reader must not expect an account of it in the prefent performance. Hi. ART III. Sketches of the Hiftory of Man. 4to. 2 Vols. 11. 16s. boards. Cadell. 1774. TH HIS work, for which the Public is indebted to the very ingenious Author of the Elements of Criticism, will afford both entertainment and inftruction to the generality of readers. It contains many pertinent and curious obfervations on a great variety of useful and important fubjects, fome of which, indeed, are treated in a way fomewhat fuperficial and imperfect, and others with lefs precifion and accuracy than their importance deferves. For this, however, the candid Reader will make favourable allowances, and will rather be difpofed to wonder that the Author, amidst the various duties and occupations of an active life, fhould execute the feveral parts of fo extenfive and bold an undertaking fo fuccefsfully as he has done, than to find fault with imperfections that were naturally to be expected, and, in fome meafure, unavoidable. The Author's ftyle, though not elegant, is, in general, plain, eafy, and perfpicuous; disfigured indeed, occafionally, with vulgar phrases, and low turns of expreffion. The Reader too, it must be acknowledged, is fometimes a little difgufted with the Author's illiberal reflections, of which we could point out feveral examples. What he has fo extravagantly and unjustly advanced with refpect to the English public schools . (vol. 4 (vol. I. p. 450.) deferves particular reprehenfion. We freely acknowledge, that the plan of education at our schools is liable to many juft exceptions; but the cenfures of Lord K. are by no means pertinent to the fubject: and what he fays of the youth at Eton fchool receiving vales from ftrangers, is fuch a caricature of a sketch as will do but little credit to his Lordship's pencil. That the work, however, upon the whole, has a very confiderable degree of merit, cannot, without manifeft injuftice, be denied. A love of liberty and of mankind appears throughout; the Author's views are enlarged, his knowledge is extenfive, and many of his remarks are extremely acute and ingenious: in a word, both the Philofopher and the Politician may derive no fmall advantage from an attentive perufal of his performance; for though both the philofophical and the political reader will, no doubt, often differ from him in opinion, yet the hints which he throws out occafionally, may open new views to each, and lead to very ufeful and important enquiries. The following work, (fays he, in his Preface) is the fubftance of various fpeculations, that occafionally amufed the Author, and enlivened his leifure hours. It is not intended for the learned; they are above it: nor for the vulgar; they are below it. It is intended for men, who, equally removed from the corruption of opulence, and from the depreffion of bodily labour, are bent on ufeful knowledge; who, even in the delirium of youth, feel the dawn of patriotifm, and who in riper years enjoy its meridian warmth. To fuch men this work is dedicated; and that they may profit by it, is the Author's ardent with, and probably will be while any spirit remains in him to form a wish. May not he hope, that this work, child of his grey hairs, will furvive, and bear teftimony for him to good men, that even a laborious calling, which left him not many leifure-hours, never banished from his mind, that he would little deferve to be of the human fpecies, were he indifferent about his fellow creatures: Homo fum: humani nihil a me alienum puto. Most of the fubjects handled in the following fheets, admit but of probable reasoning; which is not a little flippery, as with refpect to many reasonings of that kind, it is difficult to pronounce, what degree of conviction they ought to produce. It is easy to form plaufible arguments; but to form fuch as will stand the test of time, is not always easy. I could amufe the reader with numerous examples of conjectural arguments, which, fair at a dillant view, vanish like a cloud on a near approach. In the first sketch of this book, not to go farther, he will find recorded more than one example. The dread of being misled by fuch arguments, filled the author with anxiety; and after his utmoil attention, he can but faintly hope, that he has not often wandered far from truth. Above thirty years ago, he began to collect materials for a natural history of man; and in the vigour of youth, did not think the under undertaking too bold, even for a fingle hand. He has difcovered of late, that his utmost abilities are scarce fufficient for executing a few imperfect sketches.' Our Author divides his work into three books, the firft of which is introduced with an enquiry, whether there be different races of men, or whether all men be of one race, without any difference but what proceeds from climate or other accidental caufes. Plants, fays he, were created of different kinds to fit them for different climates, and fo were brute animals. Certain it is, that all men are not fitted equally for every climate. There is fcarce a climate but what is natural to fome men, where they profper and flourish; and there is not a climate but where fome men degenerate. Doth not then analogy lead us to conclude, that as there are different climates on the face of this globe, so there are different races of men fitted for these different climates?" He obferves further upon this head, that the natural productions of each climate make the most wholesome food for the people who are fitted to live in it-that there are many nations which differ fo widely from each other, not only in complexion, in features, in fhape, and in other external circumstances, but in temper and difpotition, particularly in two capital articles, courage and the treatment of ftrangers, that even the certainty of there being different races could not make one expect more ftriking differences-that the very frame of the human body clearly fhews, that there must be different races of men fitted for different climates-and that were all men of one fpecies, there never could have exifted, without a miracle, different kinds, fuch as exift at prefent. From thefe, and fome other particulars, our ingenious Author thinks it evident, 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 reafon, he thinks, to conclude, that originally each kind was placed in its proper climate, whatever change may have happened in latter times by war or commerce. There is a remarkable fact, continues he, that confirms the foregoing conjectures. As far back as hiftory 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 thefe original tribes were different races of men, placed in proper climates, and left to form their own language? 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 thefe pairs for different climates, and placed each pair in its proper climate; that the peculiarities of the original original pairs were preferved entire in their defcendents; who, That terrible convulfion is revealed to us in the hiftory of the tower of Babel, contained in the 11th chapter of Genefis, which is, "That for many centuries after the deluge, the whole earth was of one language, and of one fpeech; that they united to build a city on a plain in the land of Shinar, with a tower whose top might reach anto heaven; that the Lord beholding the people to be one, and to have all one language, and that nothing would be reftrained from them which they imagined to do, confounded their language, that they might not understand one another; and scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth." Here light breaks forth in the midst of darkness. By confounding the language of men, and fcattering them abroad upon the face of all the earth, they were rendered favages. And to harden them for their new habitations, it was neceffary that they fhould be divided into different kinds, fitted for different climates. Without an immediate change of constitution, the builders of Babel could not poffibly have fubfifted in the burning region of Guinea, nor in the frozen region of Lapland; houfes not being prepared, nor any other convenience to protect them against a deftructive climate. Against this hiftory it has indeed been urged, "that the circumstances mentioned evince it to be purely an allegory; that men never were fo frantic as to think of building a tower whofe top might reach to heaven; and that it is grossly abfurd, taking the matter literally, that the Almighty was afraid of men, and reduced to the neceffity of faving himself by a miracle." But that this is a real history, muft neceffarily be admitted, as the confufion of Babel is the only known fact that can reconcile facred and profane history. ⚫ And this leads us to confider the diverfity of languages. If the common language of men had not been confounded upon their attempting the tower of Babel, I affirm, that there never could have been but one language. Antiquaries conftantly fuppofe a migrating fpirit in the original inhabitants of this earth; not only without evidence, but contrary to all probability. Men never defert their connections nor their country without neceffity: fear of enemies and of wild beafts, as well as the attraction of fociety, are more than fufficient to reftrain them from wandering; not to mention that favages are peculiarly fond of their natal foilt. The firft migrations were As the focial flate is effential to man, and fpeech to the social ftate, the wisdom of providence in fitting men for acquiring that necessary art, deserves more attention than is commonly bestowed on it. The Orang Outang has the external organs of speech in perfection; and many are puzzled to account why it never fpeaks. But the external organs of fpeech make but a fmall part of the neceffary apparatus. The faculty of imitating founds is an effential part; and wonderful would that faculty appear, were it not rendered familiar by practice: a child of two or three years, is able, by nature alone without the leaft inftruction, to adapt its organs of fpeech to every articulate found; and a child of four or five years can pitch its windpipe fo as to emit a found of any elevation, which enables it with an ear to imitate the fongs it hears. But above all the other parts, fenfe and understanding are effential to fpeech. A parrot can pronounce articulate founds, and it has frequently an inclination to fpeak; but, for want of understanding, none of the kind can form a fingle fentence. Has an Orang Outang understanding to form a mental propofition? has he a faculty to exprefs that propofition in founds and fuppofing him able to exprefs what he fees and hears, what would he make of the connective and disjunctive particles? With respect to the fuppofed migrating fpirit, even Bochart muft yield to Kempfer in boldness of conjecture. After proving, from difference of language, and from other circumstances, that Japan was not peopled by the Chinese, Kempfer without the leaft hefitation fettles a colony there of those who attempted the tower of Babel. Nay, he traces moft minutely their road to Japan; and concludes, that they must have travelled with great expedition, because their language has no tincture of any other. He did not think it neceffary to explain, what temptation they had to wander fo far from home; nor why they fettled in an illand, not preferable either in foil or climate to many countries they must have traversed. An ingenious French Writer obferves, that plaufible reasons would lead one to conjecture, that men were more early polished in islands than in continents; as people, crowded together, foon find the neceffity of laws to reftrain them from mifchief. And yet, fays he, the manners of iflanders and their laws are commonly the latest formed. A very fimple reflection would have unfolded the mystery. Many many centuries did men exift without thinking of navigation. That art was not invented till men, ftraitened in their quarters upon the continent, thought of occupying adjacent iflands. probably |