Part III. and exactness; and the philofopher 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 fpirit. Both together furnifh a thorough "and complete comprehenfion of human "life *."

That I may not be thought a blind admirer of antiquity, I would here crave the reader's indulgence for one fhort digreffion more, in order to put him in mind of án important error in morals, inferred from partial and inaccurate experience, by no lefs a perfon than Ariftotle himself. He argues, That men of little genius,

and great bodily ftrength, are by nature "destined to ferve, and those of better capacity, to command; that the natives of Greece, and of fome other countries, being naturally fuperior in genius, have a natural right to empire; and that the rest of mankind, being naturally stupid, are deftined to labour and flavery †.” This reafoning is now, alas! of little advantage to Ariftotle's countrymen, who

* Hurd's Commentary on Horace's Epifle to the Pifos, P. 25. edit. 4.

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

have for many ages been doomed to that flavery, which, in his judgement, nature had deftined them to impofe on others; and many nations whom he would have configned to everlasting ftupidity, have fhown themselves equal in genius to the most exalted of humankind. It would have been more worthy of Aristotle, to have inferred man's natural and univerfal right to liberty, from that natural and univerfal paffion with which men defire it. He wanted, perhaps, to devife fome excufe for fervitude; a practice which, to their eternal reproach, both Greeks and Romans tolerated even in the days of their glory.

the fuperiority of

Mr HUME argues nearly in the fame manner in regard to white men over black.

66

pect," fays he,

"I am apt to sus"the negroes, and in general all the other fpecies of men, (for "there are four or five different kinds), to "be naturally inferior to the whites. "There never was a civilized nation of a

ny other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in ac-. "tion or fpeculation. No ingenious ma¬ "nufactures among them, no arts, no. 3 S 2 "fciences..

દ

"fciences.-There are negro-flaves difper"fed all over Europe, of which none ever dif

covered any symptoms of ingenuity *.” Thefe affertions are ftrong; but I know not whether they have any thing else to recommend them. For, first, though true, they would not prove the point in queftion, except it were alfo proved, that the Africans and Americans, even though arts and fciences were introduced among them, would fill remain unfufceptible of cultivation. The inhabitants of Great Britain and France were as favage two thoufand years ago, as thofe of Africa and America are at this day. To civilize a nation, is a work which it requires long time to accomplish. And one may as well fay 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 afferted, no man could have fufficient evidence, except from a perfonal acquaintance with all the negroes that now are, or ever were, on the face of the earth. Thofe people write no hiftories; and all the reports of all the travellers that ever visited them, will not amount to any thing like

Hume's Effay on National Characters.

a

a proof of what is here affirmed. But, thirdly, we know that thefe affertions are not true. The empires of Peru and Mexico could not have been governed, nor the metropolis of the latter built after fo fingular a manner, in the middle of a lake, without men eminent both for action and fpeculation. 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 eafy matter to imitate. Sciences indeed they have none, because they have no letters; but in oratory, fome of them, particularly the Indians of the Five Nations, are faid to be greatly our fuperiors. It will be readily allowed, that the condition of a flave is not favourable to genius of any kind; and yet, the negro-flaves difperfed over Europe, have often difcovered fymptoms of ingenuity, notwithstanding their unhappy circumstances. They become excellent handicraftsmen, and practical musicians, and indeed learn every thing their mafters are at pains to teach them, cruelty, perfidy, and debauch

ery

ery not excepted. That a negro-flave, who can neither read nor write, nor fpeak any European language, who is not permitted to do any thing but what his master commands, who has not a fingle friend on earth, but is univerfally confidered and treated as if he were of a fpecies inferior to the human; that fuch a creature fhould fo diftinguish himself among Europeans, as to be talked of through the world for a man of genius, is furely no reasonable expectation. To fuppofe him of an inferior species, because he does not thus distinguish himself, is juft as rational, as to suppose any private European of an inferior fpecies, because he has not raifed himself to the condition of royalty.

Had the Europeans been deftitute 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 fuperior capacity. The genius of the inventor is not always to be eftimated according to the importance of the invention. Gunpowder, and the mariner's compafs, have produced wonderful revolutions in human affairs, and yet were accidental