"several sentiments with precision and exactness; "and the philosopher so much of the man of the "world, as to copy the manners of life (which we "can only do by experience) with truth and spirit. "Both together furnish a thorough and complete "comprehension of human life *."

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That I may not be thought a blind admirer of antiquity, I would here crave the reader's indulgence for one short digression more, in order to put him in mind of an important error in morals, inferred from partial and inaccurate experience, by no less a person than Aristotle himself. He argues, "That men of "little genius, and great bodily strength, are by na"ture destined to serve, and those of better capacity, "to command; that the natives of Greece, and of some other countries, being naturally superior in "genius, have a natural right to empire; and that "the rest of mankind, being naturally stupid, are de"stined to labour and slavery +." This reasoning is now, alas! of little advantage to Aristotle's countrymen, who have for many ages been doomed to that slavery, which, in his judgment, nature had destined them to impose on others; and many nations whom he would have consigned to everlasting stupidity, have shewn themselves equal in genius to the most exalted of human kind. It would have been more worthy of Aristotle, to have inferred man's natural and universal right to liberty, from that natural and universal passion with which men desire it, and from the salutary consequences to learning, to virtue, and to every human improvement, of which it never fails to be productive. He wanted, perhaps, to devise * Hurd's Commentary on Horace's Epistle to the Pisos, p. 25. edit. 4.

+ De Republ. lib. 1. cap. 5, 6.

some excuse for servitude; a practice which to their eternal reproach, both Greeks and Romans tolerated even in the days of their glory.

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Mr HUME argues nearly in the same manner in regard to the superiority of white men over black. “ I am apt to suspect," says he," the negroes, and in general, all the other species of men, (for there are "four or five different kinds), to be naturally inferi"or to the whites. There never was a civilized na"tion of any other complexion than white, nor even 66 any individual eminent either in action or specula❝tion. No ingenious manufactures among them, "no arts, no sciences. There are negroe-slaves dis"persed all over Europe, of which none ever disco"vered any symptoms of ingenuity *." These assertions are strong; but I know not whether they have any thing else to recommend them.-For, first, tho' true, they would not prove the point in question, except it were also proved, that the Africans and Americans, even though arts and sciences were introduced among them, would still remain unsusceptible of cultivation. The inhabitants of Great Britain and France were as savage two thousand years ago, as those of Africa and America are at this day. To civilize a nation is a work which requires long time to accomplish. And one may as well say of an infant, that he can never become a man, as of a nation, now barbarous, that it never can be civilized. Secondly, of the facts here asserted, no man could have sufficient evidence, except from a personal acquaintance with all the negroes that now are, or ever were, on the face of the earth. These people write no histories; and all the travellers that ever visited them, will not amount

"Hume's Essay on National Characters.

true.

to any thing like a proof of what is here affirmed. But, thirdly, we know that these assertions are not The empires of Peru and Mexico could not have been governed, nor the metropolis of the latter built after so singular a manner, in the middle of a lake, without men eminent, both for action and speculation. Every body has heard of the magnificence, good government, and ingenuity of the ancient Peruvians. The Africans and Americans are known to have many ingenious manufactures and arts among them, which even Europeans would find it no easy 'matter to imitate. Sciences indeed they have none, because they have no letters; but in oratory, some of them, particularly the Indians of the Five Nations, are said to be greatly our superiors. It will be readily 'allowed that the condition of a slave is not favourable to genius of any kind; and yet, the negroe-slaves dispersed over Europe, have often discovered symptoms of ingenuity, notwithstanding their unhappy circumstances. They become excellent handicraftsmen, and practical musicians, and indeed learn every thing their masters are at pains to teach them, perfidy and debauchery not excepted. That a negroe-slave, who can neither read, nor write, nor speak any European language, who is not permitted to do any thing but "what his master commands, and who has not a single "friend on earth, but is universally considered and treated as if he were of a species inferior to the human;-that such a creature should so distinguish himself among Europeans, as to be talked of through the world for a man of genius, is surely no reasonable expectation. To suppose. him of an inferior spėcies, because he does not thus distinguish himself, is just as rational as to suppose any private European

of an inferior species, because he has not raised himself to the condition of royalty.

Had the Europeans been destitute of the arts of writing and working in iron, they might have remained to this day as barbarous as the natives of Africa and America. Nor is the invention of these arts to be ascribed to our superior capacity. The genius of the inventor is not always to be estimated according to the importance of the invention. Gun-powder and the mariner's compass have produced wonderful revolutions in human affairs, and yet were accidental discoveries. Such, probably, were the first essays in writing and working iron. Suppose them the effects of contrivance; they were at least contrived by a few individuals; and if they required a superiority of understanding, or of species, in the inventors, those inventors, and their descendents, are the only persons who can lay claim to the honour of that superiority.

That every practice and sentiment is barbarous which is not according to the usages of modern Europe, seems to be a fundamental maxim with many of our critics and philosophers. Their remarks often put us in mind of the fable of the man and the lion. If Negroes or Indians were disposed to recriminate; if a Lucian or a Voltaire from the coast of Guinea, or from the five nations, were to pay us a visit, what a picture of European manners might he present to his countrymen at his return! Nor would caricatura, or exaggeration, be necessary to render it hideous. A plain historical account of some of our most fashionable duelists, gamblers, and adulterers, (to name no more), would exhibit specimens of brutish barbarity, and sottish infatuation, such as might vie with any

that ever appeared in Kamschatka, California, or the land of Hottentots.

It is easy to see with what views some modern authors throw out these hints to prove the natural inferiority of negroes. But let every friend to humanity pray, that they may be disappointed. Britons are famous for generosity; a virtue in which it is easy for them to excel both the Romans and the Greeks. Let it never be said, that slavery is countenanced by the bravest, and most generous people on earth; by a people who are animated with that heroic passion, the love of liberty, beyond all nations ancient or modern; and the fame of whose toilsome, but unwearied perseverance, in vindicating, at the expence of life and fortune, the sacred rights of mankind, will strike terror into the hearts of sycophants and tyrants, and excite the admiration and gratitude of all good men to the latest posterity.

A

CHA P. III.

Consequences of Metaphysical Scepticism.

FTER all, it will perhaps be objected to this discourse, that I have laid too much stress upon the consequences of metaphysical absurdity, and represented them as much more dangerous than they are found to be in fact. I shall be told, that many of the controversies in metaphysic are merely verbal ; and the errors proceeding from them of so abstract a nature, that philosophers run little risk, and the vulgar no risk at all, of being influenced by them in practice. It will be said, that I never heard of any man who fell a sacrifice to BERKELEY'S system, by breaking his neck over a material precipice, which he had taken for an ideal one; nor of any Fatalist,