s, represent the _human savage_, naked
both in body and mind and destitute of laws, of arts, of ideas, and
almost of language. From this abject condition, perhaps the primitive
and universal state of man, he has gradually arisen to command the
animals, to fertilize the earth, to traverse the ocean and to measure
the heavens. His progress in the improvement and exercise of his mental
and corporeal faculties has been irregular and various; infinitely slow
in the beginning, and increasing by degrees with redoubled velocity:
ages of laborious ascent have been followed by a moment of rapid
downfall; and the several climates of the globe have felt the
vicissitudes of light and darkness. Yet the experience of four thousand
years should enlarge our hopes, and diminish our apprehensions: we
cannot determine to what height the human species may aspire in their
advances towards perfection; but it may safely be presumed, that no
people, unless the face of nature is changed, will relapse into their
original barbarism. The improvements of society may be viewed under a
threefold aspect. _1_. The poet or philosopher illustrates his age and
country by the efforts of a _single_ mind; but those superior powers of
reason or fancy are rare and spontaneous productions; and the genius of
Homer, or Cicero, or Newton, would excite less admiration, if they could
be created by the will of a prince, or the lessons of a preceptor. _2_.
The benefits of law and policy, of trade and manufactures, of arts and
sciences, are more solid and permanent: and _many_ individuals may be
qualified, by education and discipline, to promote, in their respective
stations, the interest of the community. But this general order is the
effect of skill and labor; and the complex machinery may be decayed by
time, or injured by violence. _3_. Fortunately for mankind, the more
useful, or, at least, more necessary arts, can be performed without
superior talents, or national subordination: without the powers
of _one_, or the union of _many_. Each village, each family, each
individual, must always possess both ability and inclination to
perpetuate the use of fire and of metals; the propagation and service of
domestic animals; the methods of hunting and fishing; the rudiments of
navigation; the imperfect cultivation of corn, or other nutritive grain;
and the simple practice of the mechanic trades. Private genius and
public industry may be extirpated; but these hardy plants surviv