This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project to make the world's books discoverable online.
It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.
Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the publisher to a library and finally to you.
Usage guidelines
Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.
We also ask that you:
+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for personal, non-commercial purposes.
+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.
+ Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.
+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe.
About Google Book Search
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web
at|http : //books . google . com/
ib 5 3öa.(o
STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
)Ogle
■■-<*<,
Digitized by
Digitized by
Digitized by
Digitized by
^. ^^^^ijl^
Digitized by
3bcen
SoMnn Qottfrteb Berber.
«— Quem u Ocu« cflc Juflit ct bumansi qua parte locatus Cf in re Difce — Pir/.
Softer Zi)cil
Sliga unb £eip}tg,
Ifi JEto^An 8rif6ti4 ^aittno^«
X 7 8 4*
Title Page of Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, First Edition
Digitized by
JOHANN GOTTFRIED v.
HERDER
/'
Outlines of a Philosophy of the
HISTORY OF MAN
Translated from the German Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit by T. Churchill
BERGMAN PUBLISHERS
224 WEST TWENTIfiTM STREET / NEW YORK. N.Y. 10011
Digitized by ^
Published by
Bergman Publishers
224 West 20th Street
New York, N. Y. 10011
First Published London 1800
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 66-26785
Printed in the U.S.A.
Digitized by
Outlines of a Philosophy of the
HISTORY OF MAN
Digitized by
Digitized by
THE
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
Every one, who is acquainted with Herder, mud be aware of the difH- culty, if not impoflibility, of transfufing his fpirit, his ' words that burn,' into anotlier language. To have undertaken a talk fo arduous may be deemed prc- fumption in me > and no one can be more fenfible than myfelC tliat, in the execution of it, I am far, very far from having done what I* wiflied, and what it would have been the height of my ambition to have accomplifhed.
Yet I did not engage in it without the encouragement of one, who can ap« preciate the merits of Herder j who happily unites a critical knowledge of the cnglilh language with that of the german i and to whofc kindnefs I am indebted for the explanation of many paflages, and the improvement of many exprcffions, as well as fome notes diftinguiflied by the fignature F. I truft, therefore, I fhall have afforded fome gratification to the englifh reader, and added to our ftock a valuable book : for furcly all the merit of Herder, all the beauty and fublimity of his ideas, cannot be obfcured by any tranflation.
For myfclf, at leaft, though laborious, it has been a pleafing toil : mary moments of bodily pain and mental anxiety has it fweetly beguiled -, and while it has made my breaft glow with the fervour of virtuous fcntiment, I have al« moft fclt myfclf the inhabitant of another world. May others feel from the perufal what I have done from the performance; and then no one, I hope, will lay down tlie book, without being able to fay, that he is a happier and a better man.
LoadoD, Not. 15, 1799.
Digitized by
Digitized by
[ y ]
PREFACE. H^.fv*^
When I publißied ten years ago the little traft> entitled * Another Philo« fophy of Hiftory for the Improvement of Mankind/ this title was by no means intended to proclaim, ' ancb' h /on pit tore,' M too am a painter/ It was meant rather as a Supplement to many Supplements of the prefent Century, and the fubjoined motto, as an expreflion of humility $ implying, that the author, far from exhibiting it as a complete philofophy of the hiftory of our Ipecies, merely pointed out, amid the numerous beaten roads, that men are perpetually treading, one little foot-path, which had been negleded, and yet was probably worth ex« ploring. The works quoted occafionally in the book were fufficient, to (how the wellworn paths, from which the author wiflied to turn his fteps i and thus his eflay was intended for nothing more than a loofe leaf, a fuppleitient to fup- plements, as it^s form likewife evinced.
The whole of the impreflion was foon fold, and I was encouraged to prepare a new edition ; but it was impollible, that this fhould appear before the public in it^» former ftate. I had obferved, that fbme of the ideas contained in my traä had been introduced into other works, and applied in an extent of which I had never thought. It had never entered into my mind, by employing the few figurative expreflions, the cbildboody irfancy, manhood^ and old age of our fpecies, the chain of which was applied, as it was applicable, only to a few nations, to point out a highway,. on which the Ußory of cuürvation, to fay nothing of the pbilofopfy of biflory of large, could be traced with certainty. /is there a people upon earth totally un- culdvated ? and how contrafied mu(c the fcheme of Providence be, if every in- dividual of the human (pecies were to be formed to what we call cultivation, fixr which refined weaknefs would often be a more appropriate term ? Nothing can be more vague, than the term itfelf j nothing more apt to lead us aftray, than the application of it to whole nations and ages. Among a cultivated people, what is the number of thofe who deferve this name ? in what is their preeminence to be placed ? and how far does it contribute to their happinefs ? I fpeak of the happinefs of individuals ; for that the abflra& being, the ftatc, can be happy, when all the members that compofe it fufFer, is a contradidion> cr rather a verbal illufion, evident to the flighteft view» /
Digitized by
vi PREFACE.
If the book, tVierefore, would in any degree anf.ver it's tide, it muft begin much deeper, and embrace a much wider compafs of ideas. What is human happinefs ? how far does it cxift in this world ? confidering the great difference of all the beings upon earth, and cfpecially of man, how far is it to be found in every form of government, in every climate, in every change of circum- ftanccs, of age, and of the times ? Is there any ftandard of thcfe various ftates ? and has Providence reckoned on the well-being of her creatures, in all thefc fituations, as upon her ultimate and grand objeft ? All thefe queflions muft be inv^ftigatcd, they muft be unravelled through the wild whirl of ages and governments, before a general refult for mankind at large can be pro- duced. Thus we have here a wide field to traverfe, and profound depths to «xplorc. I had read almoft every thing, that was written upon the fubjeft j and from my youth every new book that appeared, relative to the hiftory of man, and in which I hoped to find materials for my grand work« was to me a treafure difcovered. I congratulated myfelf, that this philofophy became more in vogue of late years, and neglccbcd no collateral afliftance, that fortune threw into my way.
An author, who produces a book« be it good or bad, in fom'e mcafure ex- hibits his own heart to the world, provided this book contain thoughts, which, if he have not invented, and in our days there is little that is new left for invention, h«has atleaft/ö«Äi, and made his own, nay which he has enjoyed for years as the property of his own heart and mind. He not only reveals the fubjefts, that have employed his thoughts ar certain periods, the doubts, that have oc- curred to perplex him in his journey through life, and the folutions, with which he has removed them i but he reckons upon fome minds in unifon with his own, be they ever fo few, to which thefe or fimilar ideas will prove of importance in the labyrinth of life ; for what elfe could excite him to turn author, and dif- clofe what occurs within his own brcaft to the eyes of a rude multitude ? With thofe he converfes unfeen, and to thofe he imparts his fentiments; ex- pefling from them in return their more valuable thoughts and inftruftions, when they have advanced beyond him. This invifible commerce of hearts and minds is the one great benefit of printing, without which it would be of as much in-- jury as advantage to a Kterary nation. The author confidcred himfelf as in a circle of thofe, who aftually felt themfeives intcrefted in the fubjeft on which he wrote, and on which he was defirous of calling forth and participating their better thoughts. This is the moft eftimable merit of authorlhipj and a man of a good heart will feel much lefs pleafure from what he (ays, than from what he excites. He who refle£ts> how opportunely this or that book, or
Digitized by
PREFACE. vii
merely this or that hint in a book, has fomcdmes fallen in his way; what plca- furc it has afforded him, to perceive a diftant mind, yet aftively near to him, in liis own, or in a better track -, and how fuch a hint has often occupied him for years, and led him on ftill farther; will confider an author, who convcrfcs with him, and imparts to him his inmoft thoughts, not as one who labours for hire, but as a friend, who confidentially difclofes his yet imperfedt idens, that the more experienced reader may think in concert with him, and carry his cru- dities nearer to perfeftion.
On a fubjeft like mine, /be hlftory of mankind ^ the fbilofophy of their hifloryy fuch a difpofition in the reader appears to me a prime and pleafing duty. He, who wrote it, was a man ; and thou, who rcadeft it, art a man alfo. He was liable to crrour, and has probably erred : thou haft acquired knowledge, which he did not and could not poffefs ; ufe, therefore, what thou canft, accept his good will, and throw it not afide with reproach, but improve it, and carry it higher. With feeble hand he has laid a few foundation ftones of a building, which will require ages to finilh : happy, if, when thefc ftones may be covered with earth, and he who laid them forgotten, the more beautiful edifice be but crefted over them, or on fomc other fpot ! /
But I have imperceptibly wandered too far from the defign, with which I fct out, and which was, to give an account of the manner of my falling upon this fubjed, and returning to it again among other occupations and duties of a very different nature. At an early age, when the dawn of fciencc appeared to my f]ght in all that beauty, which is greatly diminiihed at the noon of life, the thought frequently occurred to me, whether^ as every thing in the werld has it's fhilofophy andjctence^ there muß not alfo he a philofopby andjcience of what concerns us moß nearly y ofthehißory of mankind at large. Every thing enforced this upon my mind ; metaphyfics and morals, phyfics and natural hiftory, and laftly reli* gion above all the reft. Shall he, who has ordered every thing in nature, faid I to myfelf, by number, weight, and meafure ; who has fo regulated according to thefe the effence of things, their forms and relations, their courfe and fub« Cftence, that only one wifdom, goodnefs, and power prevail from the (yftem of the univerfe to the grain of fand, from the power that fupports worlds and funs to the texture of a fplder's web ; who has fo wonderfully and divinely weighed every thing in our body, and in the faculties of our mind, that, when we attempt to reflcdt on the only-wife ever fo remotely, we lofe ourfclvcs in an abyfs of his purpofes $ (hall that God depart from his wifdom and good- nefs in the general deftination and difpofidon of our fpecies, and a& in thefe without a plan ? Or can he have btended to keep us in ignorance of this, while
Digitized by
vi« PREFACE,
he has difplayed to us fo much of his eternal purpofes in the inferiour part of the creation, in which we are much lefs concerned ? What are the human race upon the whole but a flock without a (hepherd i In the words of the complain- ing prophet, are they not left to their own ways» as the fijhes of tbefea^ as the creeping things that have no ruler ever tbemf Or is it unneceflary to them« to know this plan ? This I am. inclined to believe : for where is the man, who dif- terns only the little purpofe of his own life ? though he fees as ftr as he is to fee, and knows fufficiently how to dired his own fteps.
In the mean lime perhaps this very ignorance ferves as a pretext for great abufes. How many are there, who, becaufe they perceive no plan, peremp- torily deny theeziftence of one s or at leaft thmk of it with trembling dread, and doubting believe, believing doubt ! They conftrain themfelves not to con- fider the human race as a nefl of emmets, where the foot of a (Iranger, himfelf but a large emmet, cruflies thoufands, annihilates thoufands in the midft of their little great undertakings, where laftly the two grand tyrants of the Earth, Time and Chance, fweep away the whole neft, deftroying every trace of it's cxiftence, and leaving the empty place for fome other induftrious community, to be obliterated hereafter in it's turn« Proud man refufes to contemplate his fpecies as fuch vermin of the Earth, as a prey of all-deftroying corruption : yet do not hiilory and experience force this image upon his mind ? What whole upon Earth is completed ? What is a whole upon it ? Is not Time ordained as well as Space ? Are they not the twin offspring of one ruling power ? That is full of wifdom % this, of apparent diforder : yet man is evidently formed to feek after order, to look beyond a point of time, and to build uix>n the paft { for to this end is he furnifhed with memory and refleftion. And does not this build- ing of one age upon anotlier render the whole of our fpecies a deformed gigantic edifice, where one pulls down what another builds up, where what never Jhould have been ere&ed is left (landing, and where in the courie of time all becomes one heap of ruins, under which timid mortals dwell with a confidence proportionate to it's fragility ?
I will purfue no farther this chain of doubts, and the contradiftion of man with himfelf, with his fellows, and widi all the reft of the creation : fuffice it, that I have fought for apbihßpby ofbißory wherever I could feek it.
Whether I have found it, let this work, but not its firft volume *, decide. This contains only the bafis, partly in a general view of the place of our abode,
* The original ii is four volumef 8to, which in the preieot tranflation are included in one ; the Tolttmea, coQuioiog five books each, wer» pablUhed fcpaxael/, and thit prefac« wai prefixed 10 the firft. T«
Digitized by
PREFACE. ix
partly in an examination of the different organized beings, that enjoy with us the light of our Sun. No one, I hope, will think this courfe too long, or beginnmg at too remote a diftance : for, as there can be no other, to read the fate of man in the book of the creation, it cannot be too carefully or too exten- fively confideredy/^He, who requires mere metaphyfical fpeculations, may have them in a Ihorter way : but thcfe, unconncfted with experience and the analogy of nature, appear to me aerial flights, that feldom lead to any end. The ways of God in nature, the intentions which the eternal has afhially diiplayed to us in the chain of his works, form the facred book, the letters of which I have en- deavoured to fpell, and fhall ftill continue to do fo, mth (kill inferiour to that of a child it is true, but at Icaft with honefty and 2cal.y/Were I fo happy as to impart only to one of my readers fomewhat of that Iweec impreiTion of the eternal wifdom and goodne(s of che infcrutable creator in his operadons, which I have felt with a confidence, for which I know not a name, this feeling of af- furancc would be a lafc clew, with which in the fubfequent part of the work we might venture into the labyrinth of human hiftory. Every where the great analogies of nature have led me to religious truths, which, though I find it difficult, I muft fuppreis, fince I would not prematr.rely anticipate, but £iithfully follow ftep by ftcp that light, which every where beams upon me fi-om the hidden prefence of the creator in his works. It will be fo much the greater fadsfaftion both to my reader and to myfelf, if, as we proceed on our way, this obfcurely dawning light rile upon us at length with the Iplendour of an unclouded fun.
Let no one be mifled, therefore, by my occafionally employing the term na- ture, perfonified. Nature is no real endty j but God is all in bis works: this fa- cred name, however, which no creature, that comes under the cognizance of our fcnfes, ought to pronounce without the profoundeft reverence, I was dc- firous at leafl not to abufe by employing it too frequendy, fince I could not in- troduce it with fufficient folemnity on all occafions. Let him, to whofe mind the term nature has been degraded, and rendered unmeaning, by many writers of the prefent day, conceive inflead of it that almighty power ^ goodnefs^ and wif- dovny and mentally name that invifible being, for whom no language upon Earth can find an expreilion.
It is the fame when I fpcak of the organic powers of the creation: I do not imagine, that they will be confidered as occult qualities, fince their operations are apparent to us, and I know not how to give them a more pi ecife and deter- minate name. At fome future period I intend, to enter more fully into
Digitized by
X PREFACE.
thcfe and other fubjeAs, at which I muft here give no more than a cuHbrjr glance.
In the mean time I rejoice, that this mfantile attempt has been made in an age, when the hands of mafters have coUeded materials, and laboured in fo many particular fciences and branches of knowledge, to which it was ncceflary for me to have rccourfe. Thefe, I am afHired, will not delpi{e the exoteric attempts of one uninitiated in their arts, but improve them; for I have conftantly ob- ferved, that, the more real and firmly grounded a fcience is, fo much the lefs empty altercation occurs among them, who are attached to it and cultivate it. Verbal difputcs arc left to thofc, who are learned only in words. Moft parts of my book (how, that a philolbphy of the hiftory of man cannot yet be written, though it will probably before the end of thb chiliad, if not in the prefcnt century.
Thus, great being, invifible fupreme diipofer of our race, I lay at thy feet the moft impcrfca work, that mortal ever wrote, in which he has ventured to trace and follow thy fteps. It's leaves may decay, and it's charaäcrs vanilh ; forms after forms, too, in which I have difcerned traces of thee, and endeavoured to exhi- bit them to my brethren, may moulder into duft ; but thy purpofes will remain, and thou wilt gradually unfold them to thy creatures, and exhibit them in nobler forms. Happy, if then thefe leaves (hall be fwallowed up in the ftream of oblivion, and in their ftead clearer ideas rife in the mind of man.
HERDER. Weimar» April a3j 1784.
Digitized by
[ xi ]
CONTENTS-
BOOK I.
CHAPTER. P^«-
I. Our Earth is a Star among Stars ---.-.--- i
II. Our Earth is one of tie mUd/e P/aftets ------- 3
III. Our Earth has undergone many Revolutions ere it became what it ftow
" - - ' ' 1
IV. Our Earth is an Orby which revolves round it^s own Axis^ and in an
oblique direSion towards the Sun -------- 9
V. Our Earth is enveloped with an Atmo/phere^ and is in confliä with
feveral of the celeßial Bodies - - --------ij
VI. The Planet we inhabit is an Earth of Mountains, rifing above the Sur- face of the IVaters 15
VII. The Direction of the Mountaim renders our two Hemifpheres a
Theatre of the moß fingular Variety and Change 23
BOOK II.
I, Our Earth is a grand Labor atory^ for the Organization of very diffe*
rent Beings 26
II, The Vegetable Kingdom of our Earth confidered with refpedl to the Hif
tory of Man - -- - - ---.-----29
III. The Animal Kingdom in relation to the Hißory of Man - - - - 35
IV. Man is a Creature of a middle kind among terreßriai Animals - - 38
BOOK III.
I. The Strukture of Plants and Animals compared with regard to the
Organization of Man 42
II. A Comparifon of the various organic Powers^ that operate in Animals 48
III. Examples of the phyfiolv^ical StruElure of fome Animals ' ^ ' Si
IV. Of the Inßinäs of Animals 59
V. Advancement of the Creature to a combination of feveral Ideas, and to
a particular freer ufe of the Senfes and JJmis 63
Digitized by
xii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. Page.
VI. Organic Difference between Man and Beaßs - - - - --67
BOOK IV.
1. Man is organized to a Capacity of Reafoning 71
II. RetrofpeSl from the Organization of the human Head to inferiour Crea^
tureSf the Heads of which approach it in Form 82
III. Man is organized for more perfeä Senf esy for the exercife of Art ^ and
the ufe of Language ..--..-.--.85 Vf* Man is organized to finer InftinSlSy and in confequence to Freedom of
JSfion ;• 89
V. Man is organized to the mqfi delicate State of Healthy yet at the fame
time to the longefi Durability^ and to fpread over the Earth - - 95
VI. Man is formed for Humanity and Religion 98
\ll. Man is formed for the Hope of Immortality - - - • --105
BOOK V.
I. A Series of afcending Forms and Powers prevails in our Earthly
Creation - - - - .•--,----.• 107 II. No power in Nature is without an Organ ; but the Organ is in no In-
fiance the Power itfelf that operates by it*s Means - - - - 1 1©
III. The general Compofition of Powers and Forms is neither retrograde^
nor fiationaryy but progreßve 114
IV. The Sphere of human Organization is a Syftem offpiritual Powers - 117
V. Our Humanity is only Preparation^ the Bud of a future Flower - 123
VI. The prefent State of Man is probably the conne£iing Link of two
Worlds 127
BOOK VI.
I. Organization of the People that dwell near the North Pole - - 132
II. Organization of the Nations on the afiatic Ridge of the Earth - - 137
III. Organization of the Region of wellformed Nations 141
IV. Organization of the People of Africa 146
V. Organization of Man in the Iflands of the torrid Zone - - - - 152
VI. Organization of the Americans - -- - - ----154
VII. ConcUtfion 161
Digitized by
CONTENTS. xiü
tHAPTER. BOOK VII. Page.
I. Notwithßanding the Farteties of the human Form, there is but one
and the fame Species of Man throughout the Whole of our Earth - 163 II. *The one Species of Man has naturalized itfelf in every Climate upon
Earth • 167
III. What is Climate f and what EffeEt has it informing the Body and
Mind of Man f 172
IV. The genetic Power is the Mother of all the Forms upon Earth, Climate
a^ing merely as an Auxiliary or Antagoniß - - ----177
V. Concluding Remarks on the Oppqfition between Genefis and Climate - 184
BOOK VIII,
L The Appetites of the human Species vary with their Form and Climate;
but a lefs brutal Ufe of the Senfes univerfally leads to Humanity - 188
II. The human Fancy is every where organic and climatic, but it is every
where led by Tradition - - - - -...---194 III. The praBical Underßanding of the human Species has every where grown up under the Wants of Life \ but every where it is a Bloffom of the Genius of the People, a Son of Tradition andCußom - - aoa rV. The Feelings and Inclinations of Men are every where conformable to their Organization, and the Circumßances in which they live \ but they are every where fwayed by Cußom and Opinion - - - 208 V. The Happinefs of Man is in all Places an individual Good-, confe^ quently it is every where climatic and organic, the Offspring of PraSiice, Tradition, and Cu/iom - - ...-•••218
BOOK IX.
j I. Ready as Man is to imagine he produces every thing from himfelf, he is neverthelefs dependant on others for the Developement of his Faculties - 225
II. Language is the fpecial Mean of improving Man • - - • • 231
III. All the Arts and Sciences of Mankind have been invented through
Imitation, Reafon, and Language - ........239
IV. Governments are efiablifhed Regulations among Men, chiefly founded
on hereditary Tradition • •- - ^•--.-. 244
Digitized by
xW CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. Page.
V. Religio» is themoß aHcient and/acred Tradition upon tie Earth 251
BOOK X.
I. Our Earth is an Earth peculiar/y formed for it^s animate Creation - 257
II. ff^here was the Place of the Formation andmoß ancient Abode of Man f 259
III. Hißory^ and the Progrefs of Civilization^ afford hißorical Proof s^ that
the human Species originated in Afia - - •---.. 16^
IV. Afiatic Traditions on the Creation of the Earth and the Origin of the
human Species - 270
V. The moß ancient written Tradition concerning the Origin of the Hißory
of Man - 274
VI. Continuation of the moß ancient written Tradition concerning the Com- mencement of the Hißory of Man 280
VII. Conclußon of the moß ancient written Tradition concerning the Com- mencement of the Hißory of Man 286
BOOK XI.
L China - 290
II. Cochin-China^ Tonquin^ Laos, Corea, eqftern Tatary^ Japan - - 299
III. Tibet 301
rV. Hindoßan 305
V. General Reflexions on the Hißory of thefe States 310
BOOK XII.
I. Babylon, Affyria, Chaldea 318
II. Medes and Perfians ".- 324
III. The Hebrews - 329
IV. Phenicia and Carthage 336
V. The Egyptians - - - 342
VI. Farther Hints toward a Philofophy of the Hißory of Man - - - 348
BOOK XIII.
I. The Situation and Peopling of Greece ""354
IL The Language, Mythology, and Poetry of Greece - - - - - 359
Digitized by
CONTENTS. xf
CHAPTER. Page.
ill. The Am of the Gruhs 3^4
IV. The moral and pQlitkalWiJdom of the Greeks 370
V. Scientific Acquirements of the Greeks 377
W. Hißory of the Revolutions of Greece 384
VII. General Reflections on the Hiftory of Greece 391
BOOK XIV.
I. Etrufcans and Latifts 39*
II. The Difpofitions of Rome for afovereign political and military State - 404
III. Omquefis of the Romans -•-•410
IV. The Decline of Rome ----- - 416
V. CharaBery Sciences^ and Arts of the Romans 423
VI. General Reflexions on the Hißory and Fate of Rome - - - - 431
BOOK XV.
I. Humanity is the End of human Nature y andy with this Endy God has
put their own Fate into the Hands of Mankind 43*
II. All the deftruSive Powers in Nature mufi not only yield in the Courfe of Time to the maintaining Powers y but muß ultimately be fubfervient to the Confummation of the Whole - 443
III. The human Race is defiined to proceed through various Degrees of Ci-
vilization, in various Mutations ; but the Permanency of it's IVel- fare is founded folely and effentially on Reafon and Jufiice - - 450
IV. From the Laws of their internal Nature y Reafon and Jufiice mufi gain
more Footing among Men in the Courfe of Time, and promote a more
durable Humanity - - 457
V. A wife Goodnefs difpofes the Fate of Mankind^ therefore there is no nobler Merity no purer and more durable HappinefSy than to co- operate in it's Defigns - 4^^
BOOK XVU
I. BafqueSf Gael^ Ö Cimbri - - » « - 469
II. FlnSy Lettomans, and Prußans - ---.---. 475
III. German Nations 477
IV. SUman Hatitm -• 4**
Digitized by
%A CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. Page.
V. Foreign Nations in Europe - • --.-..••• 484
VI. General Refle5lions and Deductions - -• 487
BOOK xvn.
L Originof Chrißianity^ with the fundamental Principles it included • 492
II. Propagation of Ckrißianity in the Eaß - .-...-. joo
III. Progrefs of Chri/Hanity in the Grecian Countries ------ ^09
IV» Progrefs of Chri/lianity in the Latin Provinces - • - - - - 517
BOOK XVIII.
I. Kingdoms of the Vifigoths^ Sueves, Alatis^ and Vandals - - - 525 11. Kingdoms of the Oßrogoths aud Lombards 531
III. Kingdoms of the Allmans, BurgundianSy and Franks • - • - 538
IV. Kingdoms of the Saxons f Normans^ and Dafies 545
V. The Northern Kingdoms, and Germany - ------552
VI. General View of the It\ßituiions of the German Kingdoms in Europe - 557
BOOK XIX.
I. Komijh Hierarchy --. 564
II. Effeä of the Hierarchy on Europe 571
III. Temporal Protestors of the Church 576
IV. Kingdoms of the Arabs - - -.-• ^82
V. EffeSs of the Arabian Kingdoms 590
VI. General Reflexions - - - - 597
BOOK XX.
J. The Spirit of Commerce in Europe - 599
II. Spirit of Chivalry in Europe -.- - ------ 605
III. The Croifades and their Confequences ---612
IV. Cultivation of Reafon in Europe -- 620
V. Inßitutions and Dijcoveries in Europe 627
VI. CmulufioB 631
Digitized by
Outlines of a Philosophy of the
HISTORY OF MAN
Digitized by
Digitized by
PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY^
BOOK I.
CHAPTSK I. Ottr Earth is a Star among Stars.
IF our philofophy of the hiftory of man would in any meafure deferve that name, it muft begin from Heaven. For as our place of abode, the Earth, is of itfelf nothing, but derives it's figure and conllitution, it's faculty of forming oigauiz^ beings, and preferving them when formed, from thofe heavenly powers, that pervade the whole univerfe ; we muft firft confider it not fingly by itfelf, but as a member of that fyflem of worlds, in which it is placed. It is bound l3y eternal invifible bonds to it's centre, the Sun i from which it derives light, heat, life, and vigour. Without this Sun, we can no more conceive our pla* netary (yftem, than a circle without a centre. With it, and that beneficial power of attra&ion, with which the eternal Being has endued it and all matter, we perceive the planets formed in it's domain, according to fimple, beautiful, and mafterly laws, jocundly and inceflantly revolving on their axes, and round one common centre, in fpaces proportionate to their magnitudes and denfities ; nay, by the fame laws round fome of them moons are formed to revolve. No- thing fo much exalts the mind, as this contemplation of the grand ftrufture of the univerfe ; and never, perhaps, did human thought attempt fo bold a flight, and in part with (uccefs, as when in Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Huygens, and Kant*, it conceived and confirmed the fimple, eternal, and perfedt laws of the formation and motion of the planets.
* Kant's Jllgenuitit Naturgefcbichtt una The- Cofmological Letters, without being acquainted «rrV äu Himmeh, • General Natural Hiftoiy and with the book; and Bode, in his Ktenntnifs dn Theory of the Heavens/ Koenigfl). and Leipf. Himmels^ * Knowledge of the Heavens, haj 1755 ; a work mach lefs known, than it deferves. introduced fome of Kant*s conjedkures with re- Lambert bat exprefled fome ilmilar ideas in his ipedful mention.
Digitized by
2 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book L
It is Hemflerhuls, if I remember right, who laments, that this fublime fyftem has by no means had fuch an qSc&, on the circle of our ideas, as it would have had on the minds of mankind in general, had it been eftabliflied with mathe- matical accuracy in the times of the greeks. We, for the moft part, content ourfelves with viewing the Earth as a grain of fand moving in that great abyfs, where the Earth fulfils her courfe round the Sun, this Sun with thoufands more round their common centre, and probably yet many other fuch fyftems of funs in feparate fpaces of the heavens ; till at length both the underftanding and the imagination are loft in this fea of immenlity and eternal magnitude, and find neither exit nor end.
But this barren aftonifliment, in which we are abforbed, is furely not to be reckoned the nobleft or moft durable effeft. To Nature, in herfelf all-fufEcient, the grain of fand is not of lefs value than an immeafurable whole : (he determines the points of fpace and of exiftence, where worlds Ihall be formed ; and in each of thefe points (he as wholly is, with the in- divi(ible fiilnefs of her power, wifdom, and goodnefs, as though no other point of creation, no other earthly atom cxifted. When I open the great book of the univerfe, and fee be£>i:e me that immenfe palace, which the Deity alone can fill in every part j I reafon as clofely as I can from the whole to it's parts, and from it's parts to the whole. It was one and the (ame power» that created the refplendent Sun, and preferves this grain of (and in it's orbit ; the fame power, that caufed a galaxy of funs to revolve probably round the Dog- ftar, and that afts on this earthly ball in the laws of gravitation. When I per- ceive, that the place occupied by our Earth in this temple of funs, the path defcribed by it in it's courfe, it's magnitude, it's mafs, and every thing thereon depending, are determined by laws, that aA throughout infinity : J muft not only be fatisfied with the place allotted me, and rejoice, that I am fo enabled to perform my part in the harmonious choir of beings innumerable, unle(s I would madly revolt againft omnipotence ; but it will be my nobleft occupa- • tion, to inquire what in this allotted place I ought to be, and what in all probability I can be in it alone.
If, in what feems to me the moft limited and inconfiftent, I find not only traces of the great creative power, but an evident connexion of the minuteft things with the plan of the creator in immen(ity ; the beft quality of my rea- fon, ftriving to imitate God, will be to purfue this plan, and adapt itfelf to the divine mind. On the Earth therefore would I not feek an angel of Heaven, a creature mine eye has never feen ; but I would find on it inhabitants of the Earth, human beings, and would with all fatis&dion receive what our great
Digitized by
Chap. I.] Our Earth is a Star among Stars. 3
mother produces, fupports, nouriflics, endures, and finally receives into her bofom with affeftion. Other Earths, her fillers, may probably boafl and enjoy fuperiour creatures: fuffice it there lives on them, what on them can live. My eye is framed to fupport the beams of the Sun at this diftance, and no other; my ear, for this atmofpherej my body, for a globe of this denfity ; all my fenfes, from, and for, the organization of this Earth : to which alfo the aftions of my mental &culties are adapted. Thus the whole fpace and fphere of aftion of my fpecies is as precifely determined and prefcribed, as the mafs and courfe of the Earth, on which my life is to be fpent : and thence too in many languages man derives his name from his parent Earth.
The greater the fphere of harmony, goodnefs, and wifdom, to which my pa rent belongs i the more fublime and fixed the laws, on which her being, and that of all other worlds, depend ; the more I perceive, that in them all proceeds from one, and one fubferves all; the more firmly too find I my fate en- chained, not to the dufi: of this Earth, but to the invifible laws by which this Earth is governed. The power, which thinks and adts in me, is, from it*s nature, as eternal as that, which holds together the Sun and the ftars : it's organs may wear out, and the fphere of it*s adtion may change, as earths wear away, and ftars change their places ; but the laws, through which it is where it is, and will agun come in other forms, never alter. It's nature is as eternal as the mind of God ; and the foundations of my being (not of my corporeal frame) are as fixed as the pillars of the univerfe. For all bebg is alike an indivifible idea; in tlie greateft, as well as in the leaft, founded on the fame laws. Thus the ftrufture of the univerfe confirms the eternity of the core of my being, of my intrinfic life. Wherever or whatever I may be, I (hall be, as I now am, a power in the univerfal fyftem of powers, a being in the inconceivable harmony of fome world of God.
CHAPTER II. Our Earth is one of the middle Planets.
The Earth has two planets. Mercury and Venus, below it; above it are Mars, perhaps another concealed from us beyond it, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, and whatever others there may be, before the regular fphere of adtion of the Sun is loft, and the eccentric orbit of the laft approaches the wild ellipfes of the comets. As in place, (b in magnitude, and in the proportion and du- ration of it's revolution on its own axis and round the Sun, it is a being of a
Digitized by
4 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book I.
middle kind j each extreme, the greateft and the leaft, the fwiftcft and the iloweft, are remote from it on either fide. Convenient as the fituation of our Earth is, before that of other planets, for an aftronomical view of the whole *, yet it would be highly gratifying, could we have a nearer infpeftion but of a few of the members of this magnificent fiimily of ftars. A journey through Jupiter, Venus, or merely our own moon, woxdd give us fuch an infight into the formation of our Earth, which fprung from the fame laws, into the relation the people of our Earth bear to the organized beings of other worlds, and, perhaps, into our future deftination ; that from the conftruftion of two or three links, we might more boldly infer the progrefs of the whole chain.
But Nature, by whom are fixed limits we are not to pafs, has denied us this near infpedion. We fee the Moon, and contemplate it's vaft mountains and caverns; we behold Jupiter, his eccentric revolutions, and his belts; we ob- ferve the ring of Saturn, the ruddy light of Mars, the fofter beams of Venus ; and thence we boldly conjefture, what right or wrong we fancy we perceive. In the diftances of the planets we obferve proportion ; and we have formed probable conclufions of the denfities of their mafles, with which we have fought to make their movements and their revolutions accord. All this, however, we have done, as mathematicians merely, not as natural philofophcrs ; for we have no middle term of comparifon between them and our Earth. The proportion of their magnitudes, rotations, orbits, &c. to their folar diftance, has not yet pointed out any formula capable of explaining their natures from one and the lame law of cofmogony : ftill lefs do we know how far each planet is advanced in it's formation j and leaft of all have we any conception of the organization and circumftances of it's inhabitants. The dreams of Kircher and Swedenboi^g» the pleafantries of Fontenelle, the conjeftures of Huygens, Lambert, and Kant, each marked with it's peculiar features, prove, that of thefe we can know nothing» we muft know nothing. Whether we make our fcale afcending or defccnding; whether we place the more perfeft beings near the Sun, or remote from it ; allis but a dream, which our inability to enter into the varieties of the planets will ftep by ftep deftroy, and ultimately reduce us to this conclufion ; that every where, as here, fimplicity and variety prevail ; but that the limits of our underftanding, and our point of view, afford us no meafure, by which to eftimatc their advance- ment or retrogreffion. We are not in the centre, but in the throng; like other worlds we float with the ftream, and have no ftandard of comparifon.
If, however, we venture, from our flation to form a fcale afcending to the
• KjBlhier*s Eulogy of Aftranomy, in the Hmb. Mä^m^ vol i, p. ao6^ and foUowlng.
Digitized by
Chap. II.] Situation of our Earth. $
Sun, the fourcc of light and life in our creation, and defcending from it; to our Earth will belong the ambiguous golden lot of mediocrity, which for our confolation at leaft we may confider as a happy mean. While Mercury revolves round his axis, and experiences the viciffitude of day and night, in about fix hours ; completes his year in eighty-eight days ; and is fix times as ftrongly enlightened by the Sun as our Earth : while Jupiter, on the other band, takes eleven years and three hundred and thirteen days, to accomplifh his extenfive courfe round the Sun, though his day and night take up lefs than ten hours : while old Saturn, to whom the folar light is a hundred times weaker, fcarcely performs his journey round the Sun in thirty years, yet revolves on his axis in about feven hours: we middle planets, Mars, Venus, and the Earth, are of a middle nature. Our days vary little from each other, though they are as different firom thofe of the reft, as our years are in an oppofitc proportion. The day of Venus is about twenty-four hours long; that of Mars, not twenty-five. The year of the former confifts of two hundred and twenty four days; that of the latter, of üx hundred and eighty feven, though he b three times and a half lefs than the Earth, and more than half as ias again from the Son. When we proceed to the reft, the proportions of their magnitudes, revolutions, and diftances, differ widely from each other.
Thus Nature has placed us on one of the three middle planets ; in which, as a mean degree and more moderate proportion with refped: to time and fpace apparently prevail, a middle order of beings may be fuppofed to dwell. In us the relation of matter to mind is probably proportionate to the length of our days and nights. The celerity of our thoughts is probably as the revolutions of our planet round itfelf, and round the Sun, to thofe of other ftars: as our fenfes arc evidently adapted to the organization of our ELarth. On each fide, we may prefume, there are the greateft divergencies. So long then as we live on this Earth, let us reckon only on the mean earthly under- ftanding, and ftill more equivocal human virtues. Could we behold the Sun with the eyes of Mercury, and fly on his wings : were the flow pace, and ample orbit of Saturn, or Jupiter, given us, with the fame revolutionary fwiftnefs : or, capable of enduring the utmoft extremes of heat and cold» could we ride on the hair of a comet through the wide regions of Heaven : we might (peak of other minds and powers, than thofe proportioned to the middle courfe of humankind. But now, being where and what we are, let us remain true to this middle courfe : it is probably adapted with pitcifion to the term of our exiftence.
Digitized by
6 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book I.
It muft fire the foul of the moft indolent mortal, to conceive himfclf in any way enjoying the riches of creative nature now denied us : to imagme, that probably, after we have attained the fummit of the organization of our planet» it may be our lot, it may be the progrefs of our fate, to traverfe others of the ftars ; or that it may be our ultimate deilination, to aflbciate with all the perfefted creatures of fo many and fo various kindred worlds. As our thoughts and faculties evidently fpring only from our earthly organization, and ftrivc to change and improve themfelves, till they have attained all the purity and pcrfedtion, that our creation can impart ; if we may prefume to reafon from analogy, the fame muft take place in other ftars : and who can conceive the glorious harmony, when beings fo varioufly formed all tend to one point *, and impart to each other their experiences and perceptions ? Our underftanding is a terreftrial underftanding, gradually fafliioned by the things around us, that make themfelves.perceptible to our (enfes : fo is it alfo with the impulfes and propenfities of our hearts : to another world their external helps and obftacles are in all likelihood unknown. But will their refults alfo be unknown ? Certainly not ! all the radii tend to the centre. The pure underftanding muft be every where underftanding, from whatever fenfible objefts it has been deduced : the energies of the heart will every where have the fame capacity, that is virtue, on whatever objedts they may have been exercifed. Thus here, too, probably the greateft variety tends to uniformity, and all-comprehenfive nature will have one point, in which the nobleft exertions of fo many beauteous creatures unite, and the flowers of all worlds are coUefted into one garden. Why fliould not that, which is phyficdly united, be fpiritually and morally united too ? Since fpirit and morals are alfo phyfical, and obey, only in a fuperiour fphere, the-fame laws, all of which ultimately depend on the folar fyftem. Might I be permitted, to compare the general conftitutions of the feveral planets, in refpeft to their organization and the lives of their inhabitants, with the various colours of a ray of light, or the various notes of the gamut : I would fay, that probably the light of the one Sun of truth and goodnefs ftrikes differently on each planet. But while one Sun illumines them all, and they all revolve in one plane of creation ; it is to be hoped, they will all approach nearer and nearer to perfcftion, each in his own way, till at length, after various changes they
• Of the fan, as % probably habitable body« Berlin» Bifchaftlg, dtr Btrlinfiben Gefiii/cbaft fee Bode'i Thoughts on the Nature of the Sun, Natmforßbtndar Frnrndt^ vol. ii, p, 125. in the Tranfadtions of the Phyfical Society of
Digitized by
Chap. II.] Situation of our Earih y
all unite in one fcbool of the good and beautiful. At prefent let us be only men ; that is, one colour, one note, in the harmony of our ftars. If the light we enjoy may be compared to the mild green colour, let us not confider ourfelves as the pure light of the Sun, and take our uudcrftaodings and wills for the fupports of the univerfe : for we, with this our Earth, and every thing upon it, evidently form but a fmall fragment of the great wliole.
CHAPTER III. Our Earth has undergone many Revolutions ere it became zvhat it now is,
1 H E truth of this propofition is evident, from what appears on the furface of the Globe, and juft beneath it.j farther than which man has not yet penetrated. Water has overflowed it, and formed foflile ftrata, mountains, and valleys : fire has raged, burft the fhcU of the Globe, raifed tip mountains, and thrown out the melted entrails of the Earth : air, enclofed in the Earth, has excavated it, and afTifted the eruption of the powerful element of fire : winds have exercifed their fury on it's furface, and a ftill more powerful caufe has changed it's zones. Much of this has happened in times, when organized and living beings already exifted : and indeed in many places more than once, at longer or fliorter intervals ; as petrified animals and plants almofl: every where, at the greateft heights, and at extreme depths, fufficiently prove.
Many of thefe revolutions prefume an Earth already formed, and may be deemed therefore, with probability, accidental : others appear effential to the Elarth, and were the original caufes of it's form. Of neither clafs of them, between which it is not eafy to draw the line, have we yet a complete theory. We liave little reafon indeed to expeft a theory of thofe, which I have termed accidental ; for they are as it were of an hiftorical nature, and may depend on too many trifling local caufes : but of the eflential and primitive revolutions of our Earth I could wifli the theory might be difcovered before I die. I even hope it will : for though the obfervations made in different parts of the Globe are far from being fufficiently accurate and comprehenfive ; ftill the principles eftablifiied, and remarks made by natural philofophers, and the experiments of chemifts and mineralogifts, feem to me to approach the point, where fomc fortunate ken may unite different fciences, and elucidate one by another. Buffon, with his bold hypothefes, is certainly but the Des-Cartes of this branch of knowledge, whom foon a Kepler or a Newton will outfbrip and confiite by
Digitized by
8 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book L
unfophifticated concotdant (aßts. The new difcoveries, that have been made refpeding heat, light, fire, and then: various efieds on the compofition, refb- lution, and conftituent parts of terreftrial fubftances ; the fimple principles, to which the eledric matter, and in fome meafure the magnetic, are reduced ; ap- pear to me, if not near approximations, at leaft confiderable advances, which will in time enable fome happy genius, by the aid of fome conneAing idea, to explain ourgeogony on principles as fimple as thole, to which Kepler and Newton have reduced the folar fyftem. How great a ftep would it be, could many powers of nature, hitherto deemed occult qualities, be thus referred to phyfical properties, the fubjedts of demonftration !
Be this as it may, {lill it is undeniable, that here too Nature purfues her grand courfe, and produces the greateft variety from an infinitely progreffive fimpltcity. Before our air, our water, our earth, could be produced, various reciprocally diflTolving and precipitating ßamina were neceflary : and how many folutions and converfions of one into another do the multiferious fpecies of earths, ftones, and cryftallizations, and of organization in (heUs, plants, animals, and, laftly, in man, prefuppofe ! as Nature ftill every where produces all things from the fined and moft minute j and, while öic reckons not by our eftimation of time, imparts the moft copious abundance with the ftrifteft regard to eco- nomy; this fecms, even according to the Mofaic tradition, to have been her courfe, when (lie laid the firft foundations of the creation, or rather of the fi^r- niation and evolution of creatures. The mafs of adtive powers and elements, from which the Earth was formed, contained, probably, as a chaos, all that was to be, and could be, on it* At ftated periods, air, fire, water, the earth, arofe from thcfe fpiritual and material ßamina. Various combinations of water, air, and light, muft have taken place, before the feeds of the firft vegetable organ- ization, of mofs perhaps, could have appeared. Many plants muft have fprung up and died, before organized animals were produced i and among thefe, infefts and birds, aquatic and nodurnal animals, muft have preceded the more perfeft animals of the land and the day ; till finally, to crown the organization of our Earth, Man, the microcosm, arofe. He, the fon of all the elements and beings, their choiceft fummary and the flower of the creation, could not but be the laft darling child of Nature ; whofe formation and reception various evo- lutions and changes muft have preceded.
Still it was natural, that he Ihould fee many ; for as Nature never refts from her work, and yet lefs negleös or poftpones it in favour of a fondling ; the drying up and falhioning of the Earth, internal flame, external floods, and all their confequences, muft have occurred often, for a long time after man dwelt
Digitized by
Chap. III.] Revoltaions of our Earth. 9
on it's furfiice. Even our ancient written traditions fpeak of fuch revolutions i and we (hall hereafter fee the powerful effedb» thefe fearful phenomena of old times have had on almoft the whole of the human race. Such ilupendous com- motions are now more rare, as the Earth is perfeäed, or rather grown old : but never can we, or our habitation, be totally exempt from them. Very unlike the conduft of a philofopher was tlie complaint made by Voltaire at the cataftrophe of Li(bon, on account of \n Iiich he almoft blafphemouily arraigned the Deity himfelf. Are not we ourklvcs, and all that belong to us, including even our habitation the Earth, indebted to the elements? And when thefe, agreeably to the ever-ading laws of nature, periodically roufe and claim their own; when fire and water, air and wind, which have rendered our Elarth habitable and fruitful, proceed on their courfe and defbroy it ^ when the Sun, after having long warmed us with paternal care, foflered all living beings, and linked them to 1ÜS cheering vifage with golden bands, ultimately attra^b into his fiery bofom the fuperannuated powers of the Earth, which fhe can no longer renovate and uphold ; what more happens, than the eternal laws of wifilom and order re* quire } In a fyftem of changeable things, if there be progrefs, there muft be deftruftion : apparent dcfbru^ion, that is ; or a change of figures and forms. But this never afieds the interiour of nature, which, exalted above all deftruc- tion, continually rifes as a phenix firom it's aflies, and blooms with youthful vigour. The formation of this our abode, and all the fubftances it can produce, muft have already prepared us for the firailty and mutability of the hiilory of man ; and the more clofely we infpedt it, the more clearly do thefe unfold themfelves to our perception.
CHAPTER IV.
Our Earth is an ort, which revohes round it*s own axis, and in an oblique direßion towards ihe Sun.
Asa fphere is the moft perfeft figure, containing the greateft furface with the leaft mafs, and including the greateft variety in the mofl beautiful fim- plicity ; our Earth, and all the planets and funs, have been projefted by the hand of Nature as orbicular bodies, fimple, yet full« abundant, without wafte. The multifarious variety, that aftually exifls on our Earth, is aftonifhing; but flill more aftonifhing is the unity, that pervades this inconceivable variety. It is a mark of the profound northern baibarity, in which we educate our children.
Digitized by
10 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book I.
that we give them not from their infancy a deep impreffion of this beauty, this uniformity and variety of our flarth. May my book go a little way toward the difplay of this grand profpeA, which ftnick me forcibly the moment I began to think for myfelf, and firft launched me on the wide ocean of free inquiry. It will be facred to me as long as I behold the circumambient Heaven above me, and this all-including felf-encircling Earth beneath my feet.
It is inconceivable how men could fo long fee the (hadow of their Earth in the Moon, without being deeply fenfible, that every thing on it's circumference is wheel, is change. Who, that had ever feriouily confidered this figure, would have gone about to have converted a whole world to a verbal faith in phiiofbphy or religion, or to murder men for it with blind but holy zeal i Every thing on our EbiÜl is the variation of a fphere ; no point refembles another, neither he- mifphere is like the other s eaft and weft are as oppofite as north and fouth. It fliows a narrownefs of mind, to confider this variation merely witli refpeft to latitude, becaufe, perhaps, with regard to longitude it is lefs evident, and to divide the hiftory of man into climates,, according to an old ptolomean fyftem. To the ancients the Earth was lefs known; at prefent we are better ac- quainted with it, than to take a general view and eftimation of it merely by north and fouth parallels.
On the Earth all is change ; it admits no feftions, none of the neceffitous divifions of a globe or a chart. While the ball revolves, heads revolve on it as climates, manners and religions as difpofitions and garments. In it there is unfpeakable wifdom : not that every thing is fo multifarious, but that every thing on this round ball is fo in unifon. In this law : to cßcGt many thmgs in one, and to combine the greateft variety with an unconlbrained uniformity : confifts the height of beauty.
Nature has faftcned a gentle weight to our feet, to give us this uniformity and (lability : in the material world it is called gravity, in the immaterial in- dolence. As every thing prefTes toward a centre, and notliing can leave this World, for it depends not on our will, even whether we fhall live and die on it, or not ; fo Nature draws our minds from infancy with flrong chams, each to it's own, that is to it's Earth j for what have we at bottom, that is properly our own, but this ? Every one loves his country, his manners, his language, his wife, his children; not becaufe they are the beft in the World, but becaufe they are abfolutely his own, and he loves himfelf and his own labours in them. Thus men accuftom themfelves to the moft indifferent food, the hardeft way of life, the rudeft manners of the rudeft climate, and find in them pleafure and content. Even the birds of paflage build their nefts in the places where they
Digitized by
Chap. IV.] ^he EartVs Rotation. 1 1
were born ; and the wildeft country has often the moft attradtive ties for the race of men, by which it is inhabited.
Aik we then, where is the country of man ? where the central point of the Earth ? Every where, the anfwer may be : here, where thou ftandeft : be it near the icy pole, or direöly under the burning Sun of the Ime. Wherever men can live, and they can live almoft every where, there live men« As the great parent of all could not produce an eternal uniformity on our Earth \ no- thing remained, but to create the utmoft variety, and form man of proper ma- terials to endure it. Hereafter we (hall perceive a beautiful fcale, according to which, as the organization of a creature is more elaborate, it*s capacity for fup- porting various dates, and adapting itlelf to each, is increafed. Of all thefe changeable, modifiable, adaptable creatures, man is the moft adaptable : the whole Earth is made for him ; he for the whole Earth.
If, then, we would philofophife on the hiftory of our fpecics, let us rejed, as ftr as poffible, all narrow modes of thinking, taken from the conftitution of one region of the Earth, the dodkrines of a fingle fchool. Let us confider as the purpofe of Nature, not what man is with us, or what, according to the notions of fome dreamer, he ought to be \ but what he is on the Earth in general, and at the fame time in every region in particular ; or to what the copious variety rf circumftances in the hand of Nature can any where felhion him. We will not (eek for him any favourite form, any favourite region ; wherever he is, he is the lord and fervant of Nature \ her moft beloved child, and at the fame time perhaps her moft rigidly fubjugated ilave. Advantages and difadvantages, evils and difeafes, as well as new kinds of enjoyment and the fuUnefs of blifs, every where await him \ and as the die turns up thefe circumftances and conditions, fb is he.
By an eafy mean, though to i» inexplicable. Nature has not only promoted this variety of creatures upon the Earth, but has fixed and limited it's extent. This mean is the obliquity of the Earth's axis to the Sun's equator : which arifes not from the laws of rotatory motion \ for Jupiter has it not, his axis ftanding perpendicular to his orbit \ Mars has it but in a irnall degree ; while Venus again has it very acute; and Saturn, with his ring and his moons, lies fidelong to the Sun. What an infinite variety of feafons and folar influences is thus oc- cafioned in our fyftem ! Here too our Earth is a favoured child, a middle af- fociate : the angle in which flie is inclined is not yet four-and-twenty degrees. Whether this were always fo, is not for us at prefent to inquire; fuffice it, that io it now is. This unnatural, or at leaft to us inexplicable angle, is become
Digitized by
12 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book I.
proper to it, and has not changed for fome thoufands of years • ; thus it fccms ncceflary to what the Earth, and the human fpecics upon it, muft now be. For this obliquity of the ecliptic conftitutes changeable zones, which render the whole Earth habitable, firom the pole to the equator, and from the equator to the pole. The Earth muft have a regular inclination, that regions, which would otherwife lie in cinunerian cold and darknefs, may behold the beams of the Sun, and be fitted for oiganization. As the hiftory of the Earth from the remoteft times informs us, that the difference of the zones has had confiderable in- fluence on all the revolutions of the human mind and it's operations -, for neither from the torrid nor the frigid zones have thofe effedts ever been produced, to which the temperate zones have given birth : we fee with what fine traits the finger of omnipotence has defcribed and encircled all the changes and fhades on the Globe. Had the Earth's inclmation to the Sun differed but a little from what it is, every thing on it would have been different.
Thus here, too, fuitable variety is the law of the plaftic art of the Creator of the World. It was not fufEcient for him, that the Earth was divided into light and (hade, and human life into day and ni^t : the year of our exiftence alfo was to vary, and only a few days were left for us in it's autumn and winter. Hence were determined the length or fhortnefs of himian life, the meafure of our faculties, the revolutions of our different ages, the changes of our occupa« tions, phenomena, and thoughts, the nullity or duration of our refolves and ads : for all thefe, we Ihall find, are ultimately conncfted with the fimple hw of the viciffitude c( days and feafons. Did man live longer, were the powen, the end, the enjoyment, of his life, lefs changeable and diffufed, did not Nature uige him fo periodically with all the phenomena of the feafons; man's empire on the Earth would not be fb extenfive; and ftill lefs would the complicated fcenes, that hiftory now difplays, be produced ; but in a more circumfcribed habitation, our vital powers would probably operate more intimately, ener- getically, and firmly. At prefent the words of the Preacher are the fymbd of our Earth : There is a time for all things s winter and fummer, fpring and fall, youth and age, labour and reft. Under our oblique fun every adlion of man refembles the revolutions of the feafons.
• From the obfervations of different allro- the time of Ptolomjr« at the rtte of about two nomeri, it hat been inferred, that the obliquity of auntttet and half of a degree in a COitary. T. the ecliptic ia regvlarly decretfing, at kift fince
Digitized by
[ 13 I
CHAPTBR V.
Our Earth is enveloped with an atmofphere^ and is in cwfliR with fever al of the cekßial bodies.
We are of fuch a complicated ftrufture, afummary of almofl: every fpecic» of or- ganization on the Earth, the primitive conftituent parts of which were all probably precipitated from the ether, and paffed from the invifible to the vifible world, that we are incapable of breathing pure air. When our Earth firft began to be, the air, in all likelihood, was the magazine, that contained the powers and materials, which formed it. And is it not fo dill ? How many things, heretofore unknown, have been difcovered of late years, aU of which a6t through the medium of the air ! The eledtric matter, and the magnetic fluid ; phlogiflon, and the acidify* ing principle ; cold-engendering falts, and, perhaps, the particles of light, which the Sun may ferve only to fet in motion 5 all thefe are powerful inflruments of Nature's operations on the Earth ; and how many more yet remaun to be dif- covered! The ur fecundates and diflblves; it abforbs, ferments, and pre- cipitates. Thus it fcems to be the mother of tcrreftrial creatures, as well as cf the Earth itfelf ; the general vehicle of things, which it receives into it's bo- fom, and s^n loofes from it's embrace.
It needs not to be demonfbrated, that the influence of the atmofphere co- operates in the mofl (piritual determinations of all the creatiu^s upon Earth : with the Sun it (hares the government of this globe, which it formerly created. What an imiverfal difference would have taken place, had our air pofl[eflred a different degree of elaflicity and gravity, of purity and deniity ; had it pre- cipitated another water, another earth \ and had it otherwife influenced the or- ganization of bodies ! Undoubtedly this is the cafe with other planets, formed in other regions of the air ; and thence all the notions we can form of their fubftances and phenomena from thofe of our Earth muft be altogether un- certain. Prometheus was creator here ; he formed bodies from foft precipitated clay, and drew firom above as many fparks of light and intelleftual power, as were attainable at this diftance from the Sun, and in a mafs of this particular Ipecific gravity.
The dificrence between men too, as well as between all the other produftions of the terrcftrial globe, muft be regulated by the fpecific difference of the me- dixmi, in which, as in the organ of the deity, we live. This refpefts not merely the divifion of the zones according to heat and cold, or merely the lightnefs or
Digitized by
14 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY, [Book I,
weight of the atmofphcre, that prcflcs on us ; but infinitely more the various aAive immaterial powers, that operate in it» nay, probably conftitute all it's qua- lities and phenomena. How the eledkric and magnetic ftrcams flow round our Earth ; what vapours and exhalations afcend in this place or in that ; whether they tend ; into what they are converted ; what organizations they produce j how long they fuftain them ; and how they diflblve them ; all evidently afFed the conftitution and hiftoiy of every race of men : for man, like every thing clfe, IS a nurfling of the air, and in the whole circle of his exiftencc is the brother of all the organized beings upon Earth.
It feems to me, we fhould approach a new world of knowledge, if the obfer- vations, which Boyle, Boerhaave, Hales, S'Gravcfande, Franklin, Prieftley, Black, Crawford, Wilfon, Achard, and others, have made on heat and cold, on eleftricity, and on the different fpecies of air, with other chemical principles 9 and if their influence in the mineral and vegetable kingdoms, and on men and animals, were coUedked into one natural fyflem. If in time thefe obfervations fliould become as multifarious and general, as the increafing knowledge of va- rious regions and produftions of the Earth would allow, till the growing ihidy of nature fliould eflablifli as it were an univerfally diffufed free academy, whicli fliould obferve, with divided attention, but with one regard to truth, certainty, utility, and beauty, the influence of thefe principles in this place and that, on one fubjeä and another ; we fliould ultimately obtain a geographical aerology, and fee this great hothoufe of Nature operating a thoufand changes by the fame fundamental laws. Thence would the formation of man, in body and in mind, be explained to us ; and we fliould be enabled to finifli the pidurc, of which we have at prefent but a few, though clear, outlines.
But the Earth is not alone in the univerfe : other celcftial beings, therefore, operate on it's atmofphere, on this great rcpofitory of adtive powers. That globe of eternal fire, the Sun, governs it with his beams. The Moon, that pon- derous gravitative body, that probably hangs even within it's atmofphere, preflcs on it at one time with her cold and dark furfiice, at another with her face warmed by the Sun. Now flie is before, then behind it : at one time flie is nearer the Sun, at another farther off. Other celeftiial bodies approach the Earth, prefs on it's orbit, and modify it's powers. The whole fyftem of the heavens is a ftrifc of fimilaf or diflimilar orbs, propelled with great force toward each other; and nothing but the one great idea of omnipotence alone could balance thefe pro- pelling powers, and uphold them in the conflid. Here too, in the wide la- byrinth of contending powers, has the human underftanding found a clew, and almoft performed miracles ; guided principally by the irr^ular Moon, propelled
Digitized by
Chap. V.] Our Earth em>eloped with an Atmofphere^ 15
by two oppofite forces» aad fortunately placed fo near us. Were all thefe ob- iervations» and their itfults» once to be applied to our aerial orb, as they have ah-eady been to the ebb and flow of our ocean ; were the induftry of many years to proceed» in various places of the Earth» aflifted by delicate inftruments» part of which are already invented» to reduce to order» and connect in one whole» the revolutions of this celeftial fea» according to time and place ; I am of opi- nion, qßrology would appear anew among our fciences in the moft relpe&able and ufeful form ^ and what Toaldo began» what De Luc» Lambert» Mayer» Beckmann» and others» have promoted by the eftablifliment of principles or collateral helps» probably a Gatterer would complete» and aflurcdly with a com- prehenfive view of geography and the hiftory of man.
Be this as it may» we are» and we grow» we wander and toil» under or in a fea of celeftial powers» part of which we have obferved» and of part of which we have formed conjedbures. Since air and weather have fo much power over us» and the whole Earth ; in all likelihood it was here an eleftrical fpark» that (hot more pure into this human being ; there a portion of inflammable matter» more forcibly comprefled into that ; here a mafs of mere coldnefs and ferenity ; there a foft» mollifying» difluiive eflence i that determined and produced the greateft epochs and revolutions of humankind. The omniprefent eye» under which this clay alfo is fafliioned according to eternal laws» can alone pomt out to every elementary atom, every emitted fpark» every ethereal ray» in this world of phy- flcal powers» it's place, it's time» and it's fphere of aftion» to mix and qualify it with oppofite powers.
CHAPTER VI.
The planet we inhabit is an Earth of mount ains^ rifing above the Jurface of the waters.
Th I s is confirmed by a fimple infpedlion of a map of the World, which exhibits chains of mountains» not merely tiaverfing the dry land, but evidently appearing to conftitute the fkelcton, on which the land was formed. In America the moun- tains run along the wcftern coaft through the ifthmus. They proceed obliquely, as does the land : where they penetrate more Interiourly» the land grows wider, till they are loft in the unknown regions of New-Mexico. It is likely» that here they not only proceed higher up to mount Elias, but are alfo laterally conneded with others, particularly the Blue Mountains, as in South America» where the
Digitized by
i6 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book L
land is broader» and the mountains run northward and eaftwaid] Thus Arne- rica» even according to it*s figure» is a ftripe of earth appended to it's moun- tains, and formed more level» or more deep, according to their declivity.
The other three quarters of the Globe prefent a more complicated aipeft» as their great outline forms in faft but one whole ; yet it requires no great exer- tion to perceive» that the protuberant {pine of ACa is the Item of the mountains» that fpread over that quarter of the Globe» over Europe» and probably over Africa» or at lead it's fuperiour part. Atlas is but a continuation of the afiatic mountains» acquiring a greater height in the middle of the country» and in aU likelihood conne&ing itfelf with the Mountains of the Moon» by means of the chains of mountains near the Nile. Whether thefe Mountains of the Moon be fuiEciently high and broad» to be deemed aAually one of the (pines of the Earth» futurity mull determine. The extent of the country, and fome imperfedk ac- counts» give room for fuch a conje&ure ; but the proportionate paucity and fmallnefs of thofe rivers of this quarter of the Globe» with which we are ac- quainted, prevent us from determining them to be a true girdle of the Earth» as the Ural of Afia, or the Cordilleras of America. But it is enough for our purpofe, that in thefe regions alfo the land is evidently fafliioned by the moun- tains. It is every where extended parallel to thefe ; and wherever the moun- tains fpread and branch out» there alfo fpreads the land. This remark is equally valid in the promontory, the ifland» and the peninfula : the land ftretches out it's arms and limbs, wherever the Skeleton of mountains is ftretched out ; it is» therefore» only a diverfified mafs» formed on this flceleton in various ranges and layers» that ultimately became habitable.
Thus the produdtion of the firft mountains determined how the Earth fliould cxift as dry land. They feem as it were the ancient nuclei» or buttrefles» of the Earth, on which the air and water only deposited their burdens» till at length a place for vegetable organization was laid down» and (pread out. Thefe mod ancient chains of mountüns are not capable of being explained by the rotation of the Globe : they are not in the region of the equator» where the orbicular motion is moft powerful; they are not even parallel to it ; mdeed the american chain paflTes diredtly acrofs the equator. From thefe mathematical circles» therefore, we can feek no light ; particularly as the loftieft mountains and chains of mountMns, compared with the moving mafs of the Globe, are reduced to an infignificant nothing. I deem it, therefore, not fit, to fubftitute an analogy with the equator and meridians in the names of chains of mountains» as there Is no true connexion between them» and it may tend to introduce erroneous ideas. It is from their original form, generation» and extenfion» from their
Digitized by
Chap. VI.] Our Planet an Earth ofMountahu. t'j
height and breadth, in (hort from a phyficallaw of Nature^ that their formation, and with it the formation of the firm land, is to be explained. But whether fuch a phyfical law of Nature be difcoverable \ whether they be as rays from one centre, as branches from one ftem, or as angular horfefhoes ; and what rule of formation they had, when they protuberated as bare mountains, as the fkeleton of the Earth ; are important queftions, that remain to be folved, and of which I much wi(h to fee a fatis&Aory folution. I fpeak not here of hills formed by alluvion, but of the firft frmdamental and primitive mountains of the Earth«
Suffice it, that the land ftretched itfelf out, juft as the mountains arofe. Afia was firfl habitable, as it pofTefled the higheft and broadeft chains of mountains, and on the ridge a plain, which the fea never reached. Here too, in all likeli* hood, was, in fome happy valley, at the foot of the embofoming mountains, the firft feleft habitation of man. Thence his progeny extended fouthwards in the pleafant and fertile plains, that bordered the ftreams ; while northwards harder races were formed, who roved between the rivers and mountains, and in courfe of time fpread themfelves weftward even as far as Europe. Troop followed troop ; one people preffed forward another ; till at length they arrived at a fea, our Baltic, over which part crofled, while another part turned off, and occupied the fouth of Europe. But other colonies, other troops of people, proceeding from Afia fouthwards, had already fettled themfelves here ; and hence, by dif- ferent and fometimes oppofite ftreams of men, this corner of the Earth was peopled fo thickly as we now fee it. At length more than one people, being hardly prefled, retired into the mountains, and relinquifhed the plains and open country to their conquerors : hence, almoft throughout the whole World, we meet with the moft ancient remains of nations and languages, either on moun- tains, or in the nooks and corners of the land. There is fcarce an iiland, fcarce a country, where the plains are not occupied by a foreign people of more recent date, while the more ancient and uncultivated nation has concealed itfelf among the hills. From thefe hills, on which they have retained their ruder way of life, they have often, in later times, effefted revolutions, involving the inhabitants of the plains to a greater or lefs extent. India, Perüa, China, and even the weftern countries of Alia, nay Europe itfelf, protedled as it has been by it's arts and the divifion of it's lands, have more than once felt the fcourge of overwhelming armies defcending from the mountains : and what has happened on the great ftage of the World has been no lefs frequent in fmaller circles. The mahrattas in the fouth of Afia, the wild mountaineers in many different iflands, and here and there in Europe the remains of the ancient brave inhabitants of the hilly countries, have made various incurfions on the plains, and, when they could not
Digitized by
i8 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY» [Book T.
be conquerors, have become robben. In (hort, the great mountainous ridges of the Earth feem, as they were the firft habitation of the human race, to be the grand repofitories of the inftruments of it's revolutions and coniervation. As they diflxibute water to the Earth, fo alfo diftributc they people : as from them fountains arife, fo fprings from them the fpirit of bravery and freedom» when the gentler plains are funk beneath the yoke <^ laws, arts, and vices. The heights of Afia are even now the rendezvoxis of people for the moft part uncul- tivated : and who can tell what parts they are placed there to overwhelm and renovate in future ages ?
Of Africa we know too little, to form a judgment of the prefTurc and pro- pulfion of it's people. The higher countries, as appears from the races that inhabit them, were certainly peopled from Afia; and Egypt probably obtained it's cultivation from the fame quarter, not from the higher ridges of it's owft firm land. It has been overrun, however, by the ethiopians ; and on many of it's coafts, beyond which we know nothing of the country, we hear of ir» ruptions of the favage people of the mountainous parts. The gagas or jages are famous as cannibals in the ftrifteft fenfe of the word ; and the caffres, and the people beyond Monomotapa, are faid not to be infcriour to them in bar» barity. Indeed here, fimilarly to what we obferve every where clfe, the pri» mitive favage races appear to inhabit the Mountains of the Moon, which occupy the wideft fpace of the interiour country.
However old or recent the population of America may be, Peru, the mofl cultivated flate of this quarter of the Globe, is feated direftly at the feet of the higheil of the Cordilleras ; but only at their feet, in the pleafant and temperate vale of Quito. The wild nations ftretch along the mountains of Chili to Pa- tagonia. The other chains of mountains, and the interiour part of the country in general, are little known to us -, yet enough to confirm the pofition, that upon and amidfl the mountains, ancient manners, original barbarifm, and free- dom, dwell. Moft of thefe people are yet unconquered by the fpaniards, who are thcmfelves forced to give them the appellation of los bravos. The cold re- gions of North America, as well as of Afia, are to be confidcred as a wide range of mountains, both with tefpe<5t to climate, and the manners of their inha«> bitants.
Thus Nature ftretched the rough but firm outline of the hiftory of man and it's revolutions, with the lines of mountains (he drew, and the ftreams (he let flow from them. How people here and there broke out, and di^rovered farther land ; how they (brctched along the (breams, and eredled huts, villages, and towns, in fruitful places; how they mtrenchcd thcmfelves as it were between
Digitized by
Chap. VI J Our Planet att Earth cf Mountains. 19
mountains and delerts, a river, perhaps, in the midft, and called the fpot, (epa« fated by nature and their occupancy, now their own ; bow hence, according to the circumftances of the place, various modes of life, and ultimately kingdoms vofe, till at length men reached the coaft, and from the generally unfruitful flioK invaded the fea, and learned to procure from it their food i belongs as properly to the natural progre(s of the hiftory of man, as to the phyfical hiftory of the Earth. One height produced nations of hunters, thus cherilhing and rendering neceflary a favage ftate : another, more extended and mild, afforded a field to the fliepherd, and aflbciated with him inoffenfive animals : a third made agriculture eafy and neceflary : while a fourth led to fifhing, to naviga- tion, and at length to trade. The ftrufture of our Earth, in it's natural variety lUid diverfity, rendered all thefe diftinguilhing periods and ftates of man un- avoidable. Thus in many parts of the Earth manners and cuiloms have re« cnained unchanged fome thoufands of years : in others they have altered, com* monly from external caufes, yet always according to the land from which the «Iteration came, and to that in which it happened, and on which it operated. Seas, mountains, and rivers, are the moil natural boundaries of nations, man- ners, languages, and kingdoms, as well as of the land : and, even in the greateft revolutions of human affairs, they have been the direäiing lines or limits of the hiftory of the World. Had the mountsuns rifen, had the rivers flowed, or had the coaft trended otherwife, how very differently would mankind have been fcattered over this tilting-place of Nature !
I (hall fay but few words refpe&ing the fliores of the fea : they form a ftage as ample, as the afpeft of the firm land is great and diverfified. What has ren« dered Afia fo uniform m manners and prejudices, and peculiarly the firft fchool of nations, and the place where they were formed ? Firft, and chiefly, it's beii^ fuch a great extent of firm land, in which people not only fpread themfelvci with eafe, but remain long, and ftill connefted with each other, whether they will or not. North and fouth Afia are fq>arated by great mountains ; but no ibi divides their ample fpace : the Cafpian alone remains at the foot of Caucafus, a remnant of the primitive ocean. Here tradition eafily found it's way, and might be ftrengthened by new traditions from the fame or other regions. Here every thing ftruck a deep root ; religion, filial reverence, defpotifm I The nearer we are to Afia, the more are thefe, as ancient, eternal habits, at home 5 and not- witbftanding the variations between different countries, they are fpread over the whole of the fouth of Afia. The north, which is feparated from thb by lofty mountains, as by a wall, has formed it's many nations differently : yet in ipite of all the varieties between the feveral people, a like degree of uniformity per-
Digitized by
20 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book J,
vades the whole. Tatary, the moft immenfe region of the Earth, fwarms with nations of different pedigree, all of whom are nearly at the fame degree of culti- vation : for no fea feparates them : they all wallow on one great north-inclining plain.
On the other hand, what a difference is produced by the Red Sea, fmall as it is ? The abyffinians are an arabian race, the egyptians an afiatic people : yet quite another world of manners and cuftoms appears among them. The like is difplayed in the lowermofl: corner of Afia. What a difference does the narrow gulf of BaiTora make between the perfians and arabs! How diflinft are the malays from the people of Cambodia, from whom they are feparated by the little gulf of 9iam ! The manners of the inhabitants of Africa evidently differ little, for they arc feparated by no fee or gulf, and probably by defcrts alone. Hence, too, foreign nations have been able to make lefs impref&on on it i and to us, who have wormed ourfelves into almoft every hole, this vafl quarter of the Globe is little better than unknown ; merely becaufe it is no where deeply in* dented by the fea, and fpreads itfelf as an inacceffible gold-country in one broad patch.
America is fo full of little nations, probably, becaufe it is fo broken and inter« fefted, north and fouth, with rivers, lakes, and mountains. From it's fituation, alfo, it Is externally of all lands the moft accef&ble, as it confifls of two penin« iulas, conneAed only by a narrow ifthmus, where a deep bay forms an archipe- lago of iflands. Thus it is all coafl as it were; and hence thepofleffionof al- mofl all the maritime powers of Europe, and in war the apple of contention. This fituation was favourable for us european plunderers : while it's internal divifions were unfavourable for the impro\'ement of it's ancient inhabitants. They dwelt too much feparated from one another by lakes and rivers, abrupt heights and precipices, for the culture of one region, or tie old ward of the tra- dition of their fathers, to eflablifh and extend itfelf as in the widefpread Afia.
Why is Europe diflinguiflied by the variety of it's nations, it's multifarious manners and arts, but flill more by the influence it has had on all parts of the World ? I know well there is a combination of caufes, that we cannot here trace feparately : but phyCcally it is inconteflible, that it's interfefted, multi- form land has been one occafionsd and contributive caufe. As the people of Afia migrated hither by various ways, and at various times, what bays and gulfs, what numerous rivers flowing in different courfes, and what alterations of little rows of mountains, found they not here ! They might be together, yet feparatei a& upon one another, and again live in peace : thus this fmall multifidous part of the World was in miniature the market place, the throng, of all the people
Digitized by
Chap. VL] Our Planet in Eartk of Momitains. tt
upon Earth. The Mediterranean alone has fo much influenced the charadter of all Europe» that we may almoil call it the medium and propagator of all the cultivation of antiquity and the middle age. The Baltic comes greatly behind it, as it lies far more to the north, between ruder nations and lefs fruitful lands, as a by-lane of the mart of the Earth : yet k is the eye of all the north of Eu- rope. But for it, moft of the adjacent lands would be barbarous, cold, and un« inhabitable. The like effeA has the gap between Spain and France, the chan- nel between France and England, the figures of Britain, Italy, and ancient Greece. Change the outlines of tbefe countries, here take away a ftrait, theic block up a channel ; the formation and devaftation of the World, the fate of whole regions and people, would proceed for centuries in a different courfc.
Secondly, If it be aiked, why, befide our four quarters of the Globe, there is not a fifth, in that vaft ocean, in which one had long been confidently prefumed to exift ; the anfwer is pretty well determined by h&s : in that deep fea there is no primitive mountain high enough to create an extenfive firm land. The afiatic mountains terminate in Ceylon with Adam's- Peak, and in Sumatra and Borneo with the ridges from Malacca and Siam ; as do the afncan at the Cape of Good-Hope, and the american in Tierra del Fuego. Thence the granite, the fundamental pillar of the firm land, declines into the deep, and never more appears above the furface of the fea in high ridges. Throughout the great ex- tent of New Holland there is not a fingle chain of mountains of the firfl order. The Philippines, the Moluccas, and the reft of the fcattcred iflands, are all of the volcanic kind only ; and many of them have ftill volcanoes. The ful- phurous pyrites may here have performed it's part, and contributed to the for- mation of the fpice-gardens of the World, which it's fubterranean heat probably continues to render Nature's hothoufe. The coral infefts alfb do what they can *, and produce, perhaps in fome thoufands of years, the little ifles, that appear as points in the ocean : but the powers of this fouthern region extend no farther. Nature has defigned this vail fpace for a great abyfs of water : which was effentially requifite to the habitable land. If once the phyfical law of the formation of the primitive mountains of our Earth were difcovered, and with it that of the form of our land, we fliould perceive the rcafon, why the fouth pole could have no fuch mountains, and confequently no fifth quarter of the Globe. Even were there one j muft it not, from the prefent conftitution of our atmofphere, remain uninhabitable ; and be, like the Sandwich Iflands and flioals of ice, the hereditary domain of fcals and penguins ?
* See Fozfter*! Obrervadons, Btmnkun^en, (sTr., p. 126 and following.
Digitized by
ftt PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book L
Tliirdly, fince we are here contemplating the Earth as a theatre of the biftory of man, it is evidently far better, from what has been faid, that the Cre- ator fliould have eftabliflied fomc yet undifcovered law for the formation of mountains, than to have made it dependent on the rotatory motion of the Earth. Had the equator, and the greater velocity of the Earth underneath it, given oc- cafion to the origin of mountains ; the firm land would have ftretched along it in it*s extremeft breadth, and occupied the torrid zone, which the fea now in great meafure cools. This too would have been the central point of the hu- man fpecies, dire&ly in the region moft debilitating both to the mental and corporal faculties ; if indeed the prefent conftitution of things in general on the Earth could have found place. Beneath the intenfc heat of the Sun, the mod violent explofions of eleftric matter, the wmds, and all the jarring viciffitudes of weather, would have driven men from the place of their birth and education, and compelled them to retire towards the cold fouthern zone, clofe bordering on the fervid region of the Earth, or towards tlie gelid north. But the father of the World chofe a more favourable fpot for our origin. He placed the chief trunk of the mountains of the old world in the temperate zone, and the moft cultivated nations dwell at it's foot. Here he gave mankind a milder climate, and with it a gentler nature, and a more variegated place of education : thenco he let them wander by degrees, flrengthened and well inftruded, into hotter and colder regions. There the primitive races could at firft live in peace, then gra- dually draw off along the mountains and rivers, and become inured to ruder climates. Each cultivated it's little circle, and enjoyed it, as if it had been the univerfe. Neither fortune nor misfortune fpread itfelf fo irrefiflibly wide, as if a probably higher chain of mountains under the equator had commanded the whole northern and fouthern world. Thus the Creator of the World has ever ordained things better than we could have direfted ; and the irregular form of our Earth has efieded an end, that greater regularity could never have accom- plilhed«
Digitized by
r ^3 1
CHAPTER Vir.
Tie direSm of the mountains renders our two hemtfpheres a theatre (fthc moßfingular variety and change.
xl E R B alfo I continue to purfue the afpeft of the general niap of the World» In Ada the mountains ftretch along the greateft breadth of the land, and their toot is nearly in it's middle : who would fuppofe, that in the oppofite hemi-* fphere they would ftretch juft in a contrary direftion through the greateft length ? Yet fo it is. This alone renders the two divifions of the World totally different. The high land of Siberia, not only expofed to the cold north and Aorth-eaft winds^ but cut off from the warming fouth by the primitive moun« tains covered with eternal fnow, muft be as piercingly cold» even in many of it*g Ibuthern parts, particularly when the faline nature of it's foil in feveral places is confidered, as we know from defcription it is \ except where other rows of thefe mountains could (heiter it from the (harper winds, and form more temperate vales. But what beautiful regions extend themfelves immediately beneath thc(e mountains, in the midft of Afia ! Thefe walls protedk them from the benumb- ing winds of the north, and leave them only the cooling breeze. On this ac- count Nature changed the courfe of the mountains to the fouth, and let them run longitudinally through both the peninfulas of Hinduftan, Malacca, Cey- lon, &c. By giving the two (ides of this country oppofite feafons, and regular alternations^ (he rendered them the fineft di(brifts on the Earth. With the chains of mountzuns in the interiour part of Africa we are little acquainted : yet we know, that they interfeft this quarter of the Globe alfo both in it's length and in it's breadth, and probably contribute much to cool it's middle.
In America again what difference ! Northward the cold north and north- weft winds blow a long way down the land, their courfe unbroken by a (Ingle moun- tain. They come from the wide regions of ice, which have hitherto oppo(ed every attempt to traverfe them, and which may with propriety be termed the ftill unknown ice-nook of the World. Thence they ftretch over extenfive tradls of frozen land, till the climate begins to grow temperate under the Blue Moun- tains : ftill however with fuch fudden tranfitions from cold to heat, and from heat to cold, as in no other country ; probably becaufe throughout the whole of this northern peninfula there is no firm conne&ed wall of mountains, to fend off winds and ftorms, and limit their dominion. In South America on the
Digitized by
24 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY- [Book L
other hand the winds blow from the ice of the fouth pole, and find, inftcad of a fcreen to break their force, a chain of mountains to guide them from fouth to north. The inhabitants of the middle regions, pleafant as they naturally arc, muft often fink into laflitude from the heat and wet produced by the two op- pofing powers, did not the gentle breeze from the mountains or the iea cool «nd refrelh the land.
If now we contemplate the fteep elevation of the land, and it*s uniform moun- tainous ridge, the difference between tlie two hemifpheres will be ftill more ftriking and perfpicuous. The Cordilleras are the loftieft mountains in the world : the Alps of Switzerland are little more than half their height. At their feet the Sierras, themfelves high mountains compared with the furfacc of tiie fea or the deep abyfs of the vales *, extend in long rows. Merely to tra- Terfe them occafions fymptoms of naufea and fudden proftration of ftrength ia men and beafts, unknown in the higheft mountains of the old world. At the feet of thefe the country properly begins : and this in mod places how level, how abruptly parting from the mountains ! At the eaftem foot of the CordiK leras extends the great plain of the River of Amazons, fingle in it's kind ; as the Peruvian chains of mountains, which likewife remain unfellowed. That river, which at length increafes to a fea, has not an inclination of two-fifths of an inch in the courfe of a thoufand feet j and a man may travel over a fpace equal to the greateft breadth of Germany, without being advanced a fingle foot above the level of the fea +. The mountains of Maldonado, on the River of Plate, are of no importance compared with the Cordilleras ; fo that the whole eaftem part of South America is to be confidered as a vaft plain, which for thoufands of years muft have been expofed to inundations, morafles, and all the inconveniencies of the loweft lands, and is ftill in fome meafure liable to them. Here too the giant and the dwarf ftand fide by fide, the wildeft heights with the profoundeft depths of which any country on Earth is capable. In the fouthern part of North America it is precifely the lame. Louifiana is as low as the fea that leads to it ; and this low flat extends far into the country. The great lakes, the ftupendous cataracts, the piercing cold, of Canada and other places, evince, that the northern regions muft be high ; and that here alfo ex- tremes meet, though in an inferiour degree. What efFefts all thefe circum- ftances have on plants, animals, and men, the fcquel will fliow.
• See UUoa'i Natbrichttn von Jmerika, « Ac- f Sec Leifte*$ Be/cbreihung des Pertugiefi/cbem
eount of America/ Lcipfic, 1780, with J. G. ^«#r//fii, < Defcripdon of Portngaefe America/
Schncider'i valuible additions, which greatly by Cudcna, Bnmfwic, 1 7801 p. j^, 8o. enhance the worth of the book«
Digitized by
Crap. VII.] Our two Hemifpheres a Theatre of Fariety. 25
On our hemifphere, where flic intended to prepare the firft abode of men and animals. Nature went otherwifc to work. She extended the mountains one after another in kngth and breadth, and fpread tlicm out into various branches, fo that all the three quarters of the Globe might be conncfted, and, notwithftanding the difference between regions and countries, the tranfition from one to another might be gentle. No region here could rem.iln inundated for ages : here thofe fwarms of infefts, amphibia, reptiles, and the reft of the fpawn of the waters, that peopled America, were incapable of being formed. The wafte of Kobi alone excepted, for of the Mountains of the Moon we yet know nothing, no fuch wide expanded defer L heights penetrate the clouds, to pro- duce and nourifli monfters in their caverns. Here, from a drier, milder com- pounded region, the eledlric Sun could elicit finer aromatics, more lenient food, and a more perfed organization both in man, and in all other animals.
It would be highly gratifying, had we a map of mountains, or a mountain atlas, in which thefe pillars of the Earth were laid down, and dcpiftcd with every circumftance, that the hiftory of man requires. The direftion and al- titude of the mountains of many regions are pretty accurately determined : the elevation of the land above the level of the fea, the flatc of the ground on the furface, the flow of the rivers, the direftions of the winds, the variation of the compafs, and the degrees of heat and cold, have been obferved in others j and fomc of thefe have already been noted on particular charts. Tf feveral of thefc remarks, now lying difperfed in books of travels and other publications, were carefully coUefted, and transferred to a map j what a beautiful and inflruftive pkyißcal geography of the Earth would the inquirer into the hiftory and natural philofophy of man have before him at one view ! the moft precious fupple* ment to the valuable works of Varenius, Lulof, and Bergmann. But here wc are yet only at the threfliold : the rich harveft of information gathered in par- ticular places by Ferber, Pailas, Sauflure, Soulavie, and others, will at fomc fu- ture period probably be reduced to certainty and form, through the means of the Peruvian mount.jns, perhaps the moft interefting traft in the World in re- gard to the higher branches of natural hiftoiy.
Digitized by
I 26 ]
PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY.
BOOK II.
CHAPTER I.
Our Earth is a grand manufaQory^ far the ^gamzation of very different beingt.
TTOWEVER cloaotic and fragmentary cveqr thing within the bowels of the •*■-*■ E^rth appears to u«, from our inability to contemplate the original con- ftruftion of the whole j yet we perceive, even in what we fuppofe the fmallcft and moll unfinifhed things, a truly fixed beings ^form ^xiAfaßion dependent on eternal laws, which no will of man can alter. Thefe laws and forms we ob- ferve : but their intrinfic powers we know not , and what we exprefs by certain general terms, as cohefion, extenfion, affinity, and gravitation, for inftance, con- vey to us ideas of extrinfic relations only, without carrying us one ftcp nearer the internal effence of things.
But what every kind of earth and ftonc poflcfles, is certainly a general law of all the creatures of our Earth : conformation^ determinate /^»r^, diftinft exiftence. From no being can thefe be taken j fince on thefe all it's properties and opera- tions depend. The immeafurable chain defccnds from the creator down to the germe of a grain of fand j for even this has it's determinate figure, in which it often approaches the moft beautiful cryftallizations. The moft complicated beings alfo follow the fame law in their parts : but while fo many different powers operate in them, ultimately to compofe a whole, fo that with the mod various component parts a general unity may prevail ; tranfitions, intermixtures, and numeroufly divei^ng forms muft occur.
As foon as granite, the nucleus of our Earth, exifted, there was alfo light, which in the thick vapours of our chaos aäed perhaps as fire ; there was a more denfe and powerful air, than that we now enjoy, a more compound and pon- derous water, to operate upon it. Penetrating acid diflblved it, and transformed it into ftones of other kinds : perhaps the in:unenfe fands of our Earth are but the
Digitized by
Chap. I.] Our Earth a grand Mamfaäory of different Beings. 2.J
aOies of this mouldered fubilanco. The inflammable matter of the air probably converted filex into calcareous earth, and in this the firft living creatures of the fea, fliellfifli, were formed : for throughout all nature the materials appear be- fore the organized animated ftrufture. A ftill more powerful and pure ad):ion of fire and of cold was requifite to cryftalli2»tion, which inclines not to the fhelly form, exhibited by filex in it's fraftures, but to geometrical angles. Thefe too vary according to the component parts of each individual, till they approach the femimetals, metals, and ultimately the genpes of plants. Che- miftry, fo zealoufly purfued of late years, opens to the philofopher a fecond abundant creation, in the fubterraneous realms of Nature : and thefe perhaps contain not merely the materials, but the fundamental principles, and th: key, of every thing formed above the earth. Every where we perceive, that Nature muft deftroy, fince (he reconftrufts ; that flie muft feparatc, fince (he recom- bines. From fimple laws, as from ruder forms, flie proceeds to the more com- plex, artful, and delicate : and had we a fenfe, enabling us to perceive the pri- mitive forms and firft germcs of things, perhaps we (hould difcover in the imalleft point the progrefs of all creation.
Confiderations of this kind, however, are not to our prefent purpofe : let u$ contemplate therefore fingly the combination, which adapted our Earth to the oiganization of our plants, and alfo of animals and man. Had other metals been diftributed over it, as iron now is, which we meet with every where, even in water, earths, plants, animals, and men ; had petroleum, had fulphur, been fpread over the furfece of the Globe in fuch quantity as we now perceive fand, clay, and fertile mould ; how different muft have been the creatures that dwelt on it ! creatures in which a more acrimonious temperament would have pre- vailed. Inftead of this the father of the World has made the conftituent parts of the vegetables, that afford us nutriment, of milder falts and oils. From the loofe fand, tenacious clay, and mofly peat, thefe are gradually prepared : nay the ru^ed iron ore, and hard rock, muft. gradually adapt thcinfelvcs to thefe; mouldering in length of timie, and making room for unfucculent trees, or at leaft for faplefs mofs ; iron being not only the wholfomeft of metals, but the moft eafily convertible to the purpofes of vegetation and nutriment. Air and dew, rain and fnow, water and wind, naturally manure the earth : the alcalinc calces mixed with it artificially promote it's fertility ; and to thefe the death of plants and animals chiefly contributes. Salutary parent ! how economical and reftorative thy round ! All death is new life : putrefcent corruption itfelf pre- pares health and frefli powers.
Digitized by
28 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book IT.
It is an old complaint, that man, inftcad of cultivating the furface of the Earth, has dived into it's bowels, and, to the deftruftion of his health and peace, has fought there, amid peftiferous vapours, the metals that fubferve his pride and vanity, his avarice and ambition. That much of this is true, the effefts thefe have produced on the face of the Earth fufficlently prove ; as do ftill more the pallid apparitions, that, like incarcerated mummies, dig in thefe realms of Pluto. Why is the air in thefe fo different, that, while it nourilhes metals, it is deadly to animals and man ? why did not the creator pave the Earth with gold and jewels, inftead of making it a law to all it's creatures, dead or living, to en- rich themfelves from fertile mould ? Undoubtedly bccaufe we cannot eat gold i and becaufe the fmallcft edible plant is not only more ufeful to us, but more pcrfcftly organized, and nobler in it's kind, than the moft coftly gem, whether we call it amethyft or fapphire, emerald or diamond.
Yet let us not carry this point too far. Among the various periods of human nature, which it's creator forefaw, and which, from the ftrudure of our Earth, he appears to have promoted, are included thofe ftates, in which man ihould learn to dig into it's bowels, and fly o'^erit's furface. Thus the creator placed various metals in their pure ftate almoft before man's eyes : thus the rivers were deftined to waOi the foil firom the earth, and (how him it's treafures. Even the moft favage nations have difcovered the utility of copper; and theufeof iron, which with it's magnetic power feems to govern the whole Globe, has almoft alone ex- alted our fpecies from one ftep of cultivation to another. If man be to make the beft ufe of his habitation, he muft learn to know it : and his governor has appointed him fufficiently narrow limits, in which to inveftigate, difpofe, faQiion, and alter it.
Stili it is true, that we are principally deftmed to creep as worms on the fur- face of our Earth, on it to improve ourfelves, and fpend our (hort lives. How«> ever great man may be deemed, we perceive his littlenefs in the domains of Na« ture, fiom the thin ftratum of fruitful mould, which alone is properly his territoiy. A few feet deeper he digs up things, on which nothing grows, and that require years and ages, to produce only meagre grafs. Still deeper, he often finds again, where he did not feek it, his fruitful foil, once the furface of the Earth, but which chang- ing Nature (pared not in her pr<^reffive periods. Mufcles and fnails lie on mountains; aquatic and land animals are found petrified in ftones; and foffil wood, and impreffions of flowers, are often difcovered near fifteen hundred feet deep» Poor mortal I thou wandered: not on the furfiu:e of thy Earth, but on a covering of thy hou(e> which muft have experienced many deluges, ere it could
Digitized by
Chap. I.] Our Earth a p^and ManufaSlory of different Beings. 29
become what it is. There grow for thee a little grafs, a few trees; the parent of which has furrounded thee likewife with cafualties, and on which thou liveft the worm of a day.
CHAPTER ir.
The vegetable kingdom of our Earth confidered with refpeä, to the hiflory of man^
Th e vegetable kingdom has a higher fpecies of organization than any mineral produftion, and fo ample an extent, that, while on the one hand it lofes itfelf in this, on the other it approaches the animal kingdom. Plants have a fort of life, and fucceffion of ages j they have fexes and generative powers ; they are born and die. The furface of the earth was adapted to them, before it was fit for man or animals : every where they preffed before thefc, and in the fhape of grafs, of mofs, or of mucor, covered the bare rock, yet untrodden by the foot of any living creature. Where a fingle grain of light earth could receive a feed, and a ray of the Sun warm it, a plant fprung up, to die a prolific death, as it's duft would conftitute a better matrix for other plants. Thus were the rocks covered with herbs and flowers : thus in time morafles became wilds of plants and flirubs. The putrefadlion of the native vegetable creation is Nature's in- ceflkntly operating hot-bed of organization, and the farther culture of the Earth.
It is obvious, that human life, as far as it is vegetation, has the fate of plants. As thefe, fo man and animals are produced from feed \ which too, like the germe of a future tree, requires a matrix. Plantlike it's firft form is deve- loped in the womb: and, out of it, does not the ftrufture of our fibres, in their firft buds and powers, nearly refemble that of the fibres of the fenfitive plant ? Our ages too are the ages of a plant : we fpring up, grow, bloom, wither, and die. We arc called forth without our confent : no one is afked of what fex he •will be; from what parents he will defcend j on what fpot he will be born to poverty or wealth ; or by what internal or external caule he will at laft be brought to his end. In all thefe man muft obey fuperiour laws, over whicli he has as little power as a plant j nay, which his ftrongeft propenfities follow almoft againft his will. As long as man is growing, and the fap rifes in him, how fpacious and pleafant feems to him the World ! He ftretches out his branches, and fancies his head will reach the heavens. Thus Nature entices him forward in life ; till with eager powers, and unwearied exertion, he has acquired all the capacity die wiftied to call forth in him, on that field, or in that garden.
Digitized by
30 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. IBook n,
in which he had been planted by her hand. After he has accompliflied her purpofc, flie gradually abandons him* In the bloom of fpring, and of our youth, with what riches does nature every where abound ! Man believes this world of flowers will produce the feeds of a new creation. Yet a few months, how changed the fcene ! Almoft all the flowers are gone, and a few unripe fruits fuccecd. The tree labours to bring thefe to maturity j and immediately the leaves fade. He (heds his withered locks on the beloved children, that have left him : leaflefs he flands ; the ftorm robs him of his dried branches : till at length he falls to the ground, and refigns the little phlogifton he contains to the foul of Nature,
Is it otherwife with man, confidercd as a plant ? What vaft hopes, profpefts, and motives of adlion, vividly or obfcurely fill his youthful mind ! In every thing he confides : and while he confides he fucceeds : for fuccefs is the fpoufe of youth. In a few years all around him is changed ; merely becaufe he is no longer the fame. Lead of all has he perfofmed what he willed : and happy is it for him, if he be not now defirous to perform what it is no longer time to execute, but fuffer himfelf to grow old in peace. In the eye of a fuperiour being, man's aftions upon Earth may appear jull as important, certainly at leafl: as determinate and circumfcribed« as the adions and enterprifes of a tree. He developes all he can develope ; and makes himfelf mafter of all, that it is in his power to poflefs. He puts forth buds and germes, produces fruits, and fows young trees : but never quits he the place, which Nature has appointed him to occupy j never can he acquire a fingle power, which Nature has not planted in him.
Particularly himiiliating It is, in my opinion, to man, that in the fweet im- pulfe he terms love, in which he places fo much fpontaneity, he obeys the laws of Nature almoft as blindly as a plant. Even the thiftle, man obferves, is beau- ful when in flower : and we know, that in plants the time of flowering is the feafon of love. The calyx is the bed, the corolla the curtain ; the other parts of the flower are the organs of generation, which in thefe innocent beings Nature has expofed to view, and adorned with all fplendour. The flowercup of love (he has made like the bridal bed of Solomon, and a cup of pleafure even for other creatures. Why did flie all this ? and why interwove flie alfo in the band of human love the moft pleafing charms, that graced her own ceftus f That her great end might be accompliflied ; not the little purpofe of the fenfual crea- ture alone, which flie fo elegantly adorned: this end is tie propagaumu tfi£ com- tinuance of the fpecies.
Nature employs germes, flie employs an infinite number of germes, becaufe in
Digitized by
Ch A p . n.] The vegetable King Jem of etir Earth eonßdered. 3 1
her grand progreß fhe promotes a thoufand ends at once. She muft alfo calculate upon fome lofs ; as every thing is crowded, and nothing finds room completely to develope itfelf. But that, amid this apparent prodigality, the eiTential, and the firft, frefli powers of life, with which (he muft neceflarily prevent all acci- dents in the courfe of beings fo thronged, might never fail ; fhe made the fea- fon of youth the feafon of love, and kindled her torch with the moft fubtile and aftive fire between Earth and Heaven. Unknown inclinations awake, of which childhood was wholly infenfible. The eye of the youth becomes ani- mated, his voice changes, the cheek of the maiden glows : two creatures figh for each other, and know not for what they figh : they languifli to become one, which dividing Nature has denied; and fwim on a fea of deception. Sweetly de- ceived creatures, enjoy your moments : yet know, ye accomplifli not your own little dreams, but, pleafingly compelled, the grand purpofe of Nature. In the firft pair of a fpecies flie would plant all, generation upon generation : (he chofe therefore the fprouting germes from the moft fpirited moments of life, thofe of mutual delight : and while ftealing from a living being fomething of his exift« cnce, (he would at leaft ftcal it from him in the gentleft manner. As foon as fhe has (ecured the fpecies, (he fufTers the individual gradually to decay. Scarcely is the feafon of love over, when the (lag lofes his proud antlers 5 the bird, it's fong, and much of it's beauty; the fifh, it's delicate flavour; and the plant, it's moft beautiful colours. The butterfly lofes it's wings, and it's breath departs 1 while alone, and undebilitated, it might live half the year. So long as the young plant produces no flower, it can refift the winter's cold : but that which bears too foon, fooneft decays. The american aloe frequently lives a hundred years: but when once it has bloflTomed, no procefs, no art can prevent the fu- perb ftalk from decaying the next year. In five and thirty years the great fan palm grows to the height of feventy feet ; it then grows thirty feet higher in the fpace of four months; when it blofToms, produces fruit, and the fame year it dies. This is the courfe of nature, in the evolution of beings one out of an* other : the ftream flows on, though one wave is loft in the wave that fucceeds.
In the diflcmination and degeneration of plants there is a fimilitude obferv* able, that will apply to beings of a fuperiour order, and prepares us for the views and laws of Nature. Each plant requires it's proper climate ; to which apper- tains not merely the conftitution of the land and foil, but alfo the elevation of the country, the quality of the air and water, and the degree of temperature. Under the earth all things lie mingled together: and though every fpecies of ftone, cryftal, or metal, derives it's qualities from the land in which it grows, and hence the moft ftriking varieties occur; we have by no means attained that ge-
Digitized by
3* PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book II.
neral geographical view of thefc realms of Pluto, and acquired that knowledge of their principles of arrangement, at which we have arrived in the beautiful do- mains of Flora. The Philofopky of Botany *, which arranges plants according to the elevation and quality of the land, air, water, and temperature, is an obvious guide to a fimilar philofophy in the arrangement of animals and men.
All plants grow wild in fome part or other of the World. Thofe, which wc cultivate with art, fpring from the free lap of Nature, and arrive at much greater l^rfeftion, in their proper climes. With animals, and with man, it is the fame : for every race of men, in it's proper region, is organized in the manner moft na- tural to it. Every foil, every fort of mountains, every fimilar region of the at- mofphere, as well as a like degree of heat and cold, nourifhes it's own plants. On the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the rocks of Lapland, notwithftanding their dif- tance, the fame, or fimilar, vegetables grow. North America and the expanded heights of Tatar}' produce the fame ofFspring, On thofe elevated places, where plants arc rudely agitated by the winds, and the fummer is of fliort du- ration, they remain fmall in ftature indeed ; but then they abound with feeds innumerable : when tranfplanted into gardens, they grow higher, and put forth larger leaves, while they bear lefs fruit Every one muft perceive the vifible fimilarity to animals and men. All plants love the open air : in hothoufes they feek the region of light, even if they be obliged to creep through a hole to it. In a confined heat they run up more tall and (lender, but paler, lels fruitful, and, if they be too fuddenly expofed to the Sun, their leaves droop. Has not a forced and tender education the fame efTedts on man and animals ? Diverfity of region and air produces varieties in plants, as in animals and man : and the more they gain in refpeft to beauty, form of the leaf, or number of flowers, the more they lofe in point of fertility. Is it otherwife with man or animals, if we confider the greater flrength of their multifarious nature } Plants, that in warm countries attain the height of trees, in cold ones become crippled dwarfs. One plant is calculated for the fea, another for morafles, a third for rivers or lakes; one loves fnow, another the deluging rains of the torrid zone: and all thefe their form and figure indicate. Does not this prepare us, to ex- pedt funilar varieties in the organic ftru&ure of man^ fo fiu* as he is a plant }
* The Pbiloßphia hotanica of Linne is a JeUFranct mtridietudt, ' Natural Hiflory of the
cUflical pattern for other fciences. Had we a South of France/ Part II, Tome I» has given a
Pbilo/opbia anthropoUgica written with the fame Ütetch'of a general phyfical geography of the
concifenefs and accuracy, it would be a clew, vegeuble kingdom, and promiled to extend il
which every additional obferviition (hou'd fol- to animals and to man. low. The abbe Soulavir, in his Hifi, naturtlli
Digitized by
Chap. II.] Vhe vegetable Kingdom of our Earth conßdeied. 33
It is particularly pleafing, to obfen-e the fingular manner, in which plants ad- juft themfelves to the fcafon of the year, nay to the hour of the day, and become inured only by degrees to a foreign climate. Near tlie pole they are later in growth, and ripen fo much the quicker, as the fummer arrives more late, and operates more forcibly. Plants, that grow in fouthern countries, when brought to Europe ripen later the firft year, as they wait for the fun of their own clime : the following fummers they arrive earlier and Earlier at maturity, as they be- come habituated to their fituation. In the artificial warmth of a hothoufe,each follows it's native feafons \ even if it have been fifty years in Europe. The plants of the Cape blofTom in winter, as then arrives the fummer of their native country. The marvel of Peru bloflbms at night ; probably, obferves Linnc, becaufe it is then day in America, whence it originally came. Thus every one adheres to the time, even to the hour of the day, at which it has been wont to open and fliut. * Thefe circumftances,' fays the philofophic botanift *, * feem to indicate, that fomething more than heat and water is requifite to their growth:' and afluredly in the organic varieties of man, and his naturalizing himfelf to a foreign climate, fomething more, fomething different from heat and cold, is to be confidered, particularly when we fpeak of another liemi- fpherc.
Finally, what a field of obfervation is opened to us, in the alTociation of plants with man, could we purfue it ! Already has the pleafmg experiment been made -f-, that plants can no more live in pure air than we j but what they im- bibe from the atmofphcre is precifely that phlogiftic part, which deftroys animal life, and promotes putrefaction in all animal fubflances. It has been obferved, that they perform this ufeful office of purifying the air, not by the aid of heat, but by that of light ; for the chill beams of the Moon are fufficient to efTedl the purpofe. Salutary children of the Earth ! what deftroys us, what we expire contaminated, you inhale : the moft delicate medium muft combine it with you, and you render it us again pure. You maintain the health of thofe crea- tures, that deftroy you : and even in your deaths you are beneficent j for you improve* the Earth, and fertilize it for new beings of your own fpecies.
If plants ferved for this alone, their filent exiftence would conftitute a beau- tiful intermixture among men and animals : but fince they are at the fame time the moft abun:lant nutriment of the animal creation, and it is of particular im- portance in the hiftory of the modes of life of man, to obfcrve what plants and
• Seethe TranGiftions of the Swredilh Academy of Sciences, vol. I, p. 6, and following, t Ingcnhoufz's Verfucbc mit din Pflanfun, « Experiments on Plants/ Lcipfic, 1780, p. 49.
Digitized by
34 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book IL
animals, that might fervc them for food, every people found in their native country, they prcfent thcmfclves to us under various afpefts in confidering the kingdoms of Nature.
Of beads the moft quiet, and moft humane, if we may ufe the expreflion, feed on vegetables. Nations, that live principally at leaft on the fame food, have been remarked for the fame falutary peaceablenefs, and carelefs ferenity. All carnivorous beads arc naturally more favage. Man, who ranks between the two, cannot be a carnivorous animal, to judge from the drufturc of his teeth. There are yet nations, whofc diet confids chiefly of milk and vegetables ; in earlier times there were more : and what abundance has Nature bedowed on them in the pulps, juices, fruits, barks, and twigs, of her vegetable creation, where one tree frequently affords nourifhment for a whole family ! Wonderfully is every region appointed it's own, not merely in what it yields, but in what it attrafts and removes. Thus while plants live on the phlogidic part of the atmofphere, and in fome meafure on vapours mod pernicious to us ; their antidotal qualities are organized according to the peculiarities of each region, and they every where prepare fuch medicaments for animal bodies, always prone to corruption, as are adapted to the difeafes of the country. Man, too, has little reafon to complain, that Nature produces noxious vegetables j for thefe are in fa<fl the excretory dufts of poifons, fo that they contribute greatly to the general falubrity of the region ; at the fame time that they are in his hands, as well as in thofe of Nature, the mod efficacious medicines. Seldom has man exterminated any fpecies of plant or animal from a country, without foon perceiving the mod palpable detri- ment to it's habitablenefs : and has not Nature bedowed on every animal, and alfo on man, fenfes and organs fufficient to difcover fuch plants as are ufeful to them, and rejeft fuch as are noxious ?
What a pleafing ramble among trees and plants would it afibrd, to purfuc thefe great natural laws of their utility and cfledb in the animal and human kingdoms through the various regions of the Earth ! We mud content our- felves as we go along to pluck occafionally a few flowers in this immenfe field, and recommend to fome one, particularly fkiUed in the fcicnce, our wifli for an nniverjal botanical geoprapfty far the hißory of man.
Digitized by
I 35 ]
CHAPTER III. TJie animal Kingdom in relation to the Hißory of Alan,
Beasts are the elder brethren of man. Before he was, they were. Every country the alien man found at his arrival already occupied, at leaft in fome of the elements : otherwife on what but vegetables could the ftranger have fed f Thus every hiftory of man, which confiders him without this relation, muft be partial and defeftive. The World, it is true, was given to man : but not to him alone, not to him firft : animals in every element render his monarchy queftionable. One fpecies he muft tame : with another he muft long contend. Some efcape his dominion: others W2^e with him eternal war. In fliort, every (pecies extends it's pofleiSon of the Earth in proportion to it's capacity. cunning, ftrength, or courage.
It is not here the queftion, whether man have reafon, and beafts have none. If they have not, they have fome other advantages : for affuredly Nature has left none of her offspring unprotected. Were a creature neglefted by her, from whom could it obtain fuccour ? fince the whole creation is at war, and the moft oppofite powers are found fo clofe to each other. Here godlike man is annoyed by fnakes, there by vermin : here a ihark devours him, there % tiger. Each ftrives with each, as each is prefled upon ; each muft provide fcMT his own fubfiftence, and defend his own life.
Why ads Nature thus ? and why does (he thus crowd her creatures one upon another ? Becaufe (he would produce the greateft number and variety of living beings in the leaft fpace, fo that one crufhes another, and an equili* brium of powers can alone produce peace in the creation. Every {pecies cares for itfelf, as if it were the only one in exiftence : but by it's fide ftands another, which confines it within due bounds : and in this adjuftment of oppofing fpe- cies creative Nature found the only mean of maintaining the whole. She weighed the powers, (he numbered the limbs, (he determined the inftinds of the (pecies toward eacli other j and left the Earth to produce what it was capable of producing.
I concern myfelf not, therefore, whether whole fpecies of animals have peri(hed firom the face of the. Earth. Has the mammoth difappeared ? fo have giants. When thefe exifted, the relations between the feveral creatures were different : as things at prefent are, we perceive an evident equilibrium, not only over the whole Earth, but in particular regions and countries. Agriculture may re(bift beafts
Digitized by
36 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Boorll.
to narrower limits : but it cannot cafily exterminate them. At leaft it ha» not accompli filed this in any extenfive region j and it has foftered a greater number of tame animals, in lieu of the wild ones it has diminiflied. Thus in the prefent conftitution of our Earth no fpecies of animals has been loft : though I queftion not but others may havccxifted, when it's conftitution was different; and if at any future period Art or Nature (hould completely change it» a different relation between living creatures would take place.
Man, in (hort, entered an inhabited world. All the elements, rivers and morafics, earth and air, were filled or filling, with living creatures : and he had to make room for his dominion by his godlike qualities, fkill and power. How heeffcfted this conftitutcs the hiftory of his cultivation, the moft interefting part of the hiftory of man, which embraces even the rudeft nations. I muft here obfcnre once for all, that man acquired chiefly from beads themfelves that information, which enabled him gradually to obtain his dominion over them. Thefe were the living fparks of the divine underflanding, the rays of which, as they related to food, habits of life, clothing, addrefs, arts, or inftinfts, he condenfed within himfelf, from a greater or finaller circle. The more, the clearer, he did this, the more artful the beafts around him were, the more he familiarized himfelf with them, and the more fecurcly he dwelt with them in fricndfliip or hoftility ; the more did he gain in point of improvement ; fo that the hiftory of hb cultivation is in great meafure zoological and geographical.
Secondly : as the varieties of foil and climate, of ftones and plants, on our Earth, are fo great j how much greater are the varieties of it's properly living inhabitants ! Let us not, however, confine thefe to the earth : for the air, the water, nay the internal parts of plants and animals, all fwarm with life. Innu- merable multitudes, for whom, as well as for man, the World was created ! Moving furface of the Earth, on which all, as wide and as deep as the fun- beams extend, is enjoyment, life, and aftion !
I mean not here to enter into the general propofition, that every animal has it's element, it's climate, it's proper place of abode j that fome fpecies are little difFufed, others more, and a few almoft as widely as man himfelf; for on this point we have a profomid work, compiled with fcientific indufbry, Zimmer- mann's Geographical Hiftory of Man, and univerfally-difleminated Quadru- peds*. What I fhall here point out will be a few particular remarks, which we fhall find confirmed by the hiftory of man.
I. Thofc fpecies, that inhabit nearly all parts of the Globe, arc differently
* Geograpbifcbe Gtfcbihu dts Men/cben und dir allgemtin-'verbreiuten vitrftßgen Tbiere : Leipfic* 1778—83; ia three volumes : with an elegant and accurate zoological map of tlie World.
Digitized by
Chap. III.] fhe animal Kingdom in relation to the Hl/loiy of Man, 37
formed in almoft every climate. In Lapland the dog is fmall and ugly ; in Siberia he is better (haped, but ftill has pricked ears, and no confiderable magnitude : in thofe countries, fays Buffon, where we meet with the hand- fomeft races of men, we obfervc the handibmeft and largeft dogs : within the arftic and antardtic circles the dog lofes his voice, and in the wild ftate he refem- bles the jackal. In Madagafcar the ox has a hump on his back weighing fifty pounds, which gradually difappears in diftant countries ; and this animal varies greatly in colour, fize, ftrength, and courage, in almoft every region of the Earth. An european flieep acquires at the Cape of Good Hope a tail nine- teen pounds in weight: in Iceland he puts out as many as five horns: in the county of Oxford, in England, he grows to the fize of an afs : and in Turkey his flwin is variegated like a tiger's. Thus do all animals vary ; and (hall not man, who is alfo in the ftrudture of his nerves and mufclcs an animal, change with the climate ? According to the analogy of nature, it would be a miracle, did he remain unchanged.
2. All the tame animals we have were formerly wild j and of moft the wild races, from which they are defcended, are ftlll to be found, particularly in the afiatic moyntains : the very place which was probably the native country of man, at leaft in our hemifpherc. and the fource of his cultivation. The greater the diftance from this region, particularly where the intercourfc with it is dif- ficult, the fewer the fpecies of tame animals, tiJl at length, the fwine, the dog, and the cat, are the fole animal wealth of New Guinea, New Zealand, and the iflands of the Pacific Ocean.
3. America has chiefly animals peculiar to it, perfcftly adapted to it's cli- mate, and fuch as muft naturally be produced from it's immenfe heights, and long inundated valleys. It had few large animals« and ftill fewer tame or tameable ones: but then it had proportionally more fpecies of bats,armadilloes, rats and mice, the unau, the ai,fwarms of infefts, amphibia, toads, lizards, and the like* Any one may conceive what influence this muft have on the hiftory of man.
4. In regions where the powers of nature are moft aftive, where the heat of the Sun is combined with regular winds, great inundations, violent explofionsof the cledlric fluid, and in fliort with every thing in nature, that produces life, and is called vivifying j we find the ftrongeft, largeft, boldeft, and moft perfect animals, as well as the mroft aromatic plants. Africa has it's herds of elephants, zebras, deer, apes, and buffaloes : in it the lion, the tiger, the crocodile, the hippopotamus, appear in full force : the loftieft trees flioot up into the air, adorned with the richeft, juicieft, and moft ufeful fruits. Every man knows
Digitized by
3« PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book II.
how Afia abounds in plants and animals : and they are mod abundant where the eledlric power of the Sun, the air, the earth, is moft copious. On the contrary, where this operates more feebly and irregularly, as in cold coun- tries, or where it is repelled or confined in water, lixivious falts, or damp woods ; thofe creatures, to the formation of which the free play of eledtricity is requi- fite, feem never to be developed. Sluggifli heat -combined with moifture pro- duces fwarms of infefts and amphibia; not thofe wondrous forms of the old world, that glow with vivid fire. The mufcular force of the lion, the fpring and eye of the tiger, the acute fagacity of the elephant, the delicacy of the an- telope, and the malicious cunning of the african or afiatic ape, are unknown to every bead of the new world. Among thefe one feems to have difengaged himfelf with difficulty from the warm flime, another wants teeth; of one the feet and claws are defeftive, of another the tail ; and mod are deficient in fize, courage, and fwiftnefs. Thofe that inhabit the mountains are more ani- mated ; but they equal not the beads of the old world, and in the coriaceous or fcaly frames of mod the ekdkric dream is evidently wanting.
5. Finally, it is probable, that there are dill greater Angularities to be ob- ferved in animals, than thofe we have already remarked in plants : their oft un- natural qualities, for indance, and flow familiarization to a foreign and antipo- dal climate. The american bear, defcribed by Linnc *, obferved the day and night of America even in Sweden. From midnight till noon he flept, and from noon till midnight he rambled, as if it were his american day: thus with his other indinäs retaining his native divifion of time. Is not this remark applicable to others, from different regions of the Earth, from the eadern or fouthern hcmifpheres ? and if this change hold good with refpcdl to beads, ihall man^ notwithdanding his peculiar charaäer, be exempt from it ?
CHAPTER IV. Man is a Creature of a middle kind among terr^rial Animals,
I. Wheu Linne reckoned 230 (pecies of viviparous animals, among which he included fuch as are aquatic, he enumerated 946 of birds, 292 of amphibia, 404of filhes, 3o6oof infedts, and 1205 of worms -f. The beads then were
• Tranfadlions of the Swedifh Academy of infers, and 4,036 worms. Thefc numbers, ex»
Sciences, vol. IX, p. 300. cept with regard to the amphibia, coincide
f In the lad edition of Linne's Sjßema Natu- extreme]/ well with Herder's obfervation and
r«r, by Gmelin, there are 557 mammalix, inference. T. s«686 birds, 366 amphibia, 889 fiflies, 10,896
Digitized by
Chaf. IV.] Man a Creatttre of a middle kind among ierreftrial Animals. 39
fcweft in number, and the amphibia, which moft refemble them, came next. In the air, in the water, in morafles, and in the fandy deferts, the genera and fpc- cics increafe ; and I am pcrfuadcd, the farther we extend our difcoverics, we (hall ftill find them increafe in nearly the fame proportion. When, after the death of Linne, the viviparous animals were carried to the number of 450, BufFon reck- oned up 2,000 birds ; and Forfter alone difcovered, during a (hort refidence among fome of the South Sea iilands, 109 new fpecies, though not a fingle new quadruped was to be found. If the fame proportion hold, and in future times more new infefts, birds, and reptiles, than perfeftly new fpecies of qua- drupeds become known, however many there be in the j'et unexplored regbns of Afirica; we may in all probability lay it down as a faft, that the clajfes of creatures extend^ the farther they differ from man ; and the nearer they are to him^ the fewer are the fpecies of the more perfeS animals as they are called.
2. Now it is inconteftable, that amid all the differences of earthly crea- tures a certain uniformity of ftrufture, and as it were a fiandard form^ appear to prevail, convertible into the moft abundant variety. The fimilitude of the bony frame of land animals is obvious : head, body, hands, and feet, are the chief parts in all i and even their principal limbs are fafhioned after one pro- totype, but infinitely divcrfified. The internal ftrufture of beafts renders the propofition ftill more evident ; and many rude external figures ftrongly refem« ble man in the principal internal parts. Amphibia deviate more firom this fiandard : birds, fifties, infedls, and aquatic animals, the laft of which are loft in the vegetable or foffil world, ftill more. Farther our eyes cannot penetrate: but theie tranfitions render it not improbable, that in marine produftions^ plants, and even inanimate things as they are called, one and the fame groundwork of organis^ation may prevail, though infinitely more rude and confiifed. In the eye of the eternal being, who views all things in one con- oeded whole, perhaps the form of the icy particle as it is generated, and the flake of fnow that grows from it, may have an analogous refemblance to the fonnation of the embryo in the female womb. Accordingly we may admit the lecond grand pofition: that, the nearer they approach man, all creatures bear more or lefs refemblance to him in their grand outline ; and that Nature^ amid the infinite variety ße hues, feems to have faßioned all the living creatures on our Earth after one grand model of organization.
3. Tlius it is felf-evident, that, as this ftandard form muft be continually va- lying, according to the race, fpecies, deftination, and elements, one copy iUuftrates another. What Nature has given to one animal as acceffory, flie has made fun- damental in another i bringing it forward to the view, amplifying it, and mak-
Digitized by
40 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Boor II.
ing the other parts, though ftill in perfefk harmony, fubfervicnt to this. EHe- where again thefe fubfervient parts predominate ; fo that all the beings of the organic creation appear as disjeSli membra poeta. He who would ftudy them muft ftudy one in another : where a part appears negleAed or concealed, he recurs to another creature, in which Nature has finiflicd and difplaycd it. This pofition too is confirmed in all the phenomena of diverging beings.
4. To conclude : man feems to be among animals that excellent middle creature, in whom the moft numerous and fubtlle rays of fimilar forms are col- lefted, as far as confifts with the peculiarity of his deftination. He could not comprife in himfelf all in like degree ; fo that to one animal he is inferiour in the acutencfs of a particular fenfe, to another in ftrength of mufcles, to a third in elafticity of fibre ; but as much as could be united was united in him. He has the limbs, inftinAs, fenfes, faculties, and arts, common to all quadrupeds; if not hereditary, at leaft acquired j if not perfeft, at leaft in their rudiments. Were we to compare with him thofc animals, that approach him neareft, we might almoft venture to fay, they are divergent rays from his image, refraÄed through catoptric glaffes. And thus we may admit the fourth pofition : that man is a middle creature among animals y that isy the mofl perfe& /on», in which tks features of all are colle^ed in the mofl exquißte fummary.
I hope the fimilitude between man and beads, of which I ipeak, will not be confounded with that fport of the imagination, which has difcovered refem- blances of the limbs of man in plants, and even ftones, and on thefe built fyftems. Every rational man laughs at thefe fancies ; for creative Nature co- vers and conceals internal fimilarity of ftrudlure under diflimilitude of exter- nal form. How many beafts, altogether unlike man in outward appearance, are internally, in the ftrudure of the fkeleton, the principal parts of fenfation and vitality, nay in the vital funftions, ftrikingly fimilar to him ! This will be evident to any one, who perufes the diffeftions of Daubenton, Perrault, Pallas, and other academicians. For children and youth natural hiftory muft content itfelf with fome diftinftions of outward form, to aflift the eye and memory : the man and the philofopher inveftigate both the external and internal ftruc- ture of the animal, to compare them with his mode of life, and find his cha- rader and place. With refpedb to plants this has been called the natural me- thod ; and comparcitlve anatomy is the guide, that muft lead to it ftep by ftep in animals. This naturally gives man a clew to himfeif which condufts him through the great labyrinth of the living creation : and if we can fay of any me- thod, that through it our underftanding ventures to fcrutinize the profound comprehenfive mind of God, it muft be this. In every deviation from rule.
Digitized by
Chap. JH.] Man is a Creature cfa nuddle kind among terrtßrial Animals, 41 which the fupremc artificer prcfents to us as a law of the polyclete in man, we arc referred to a caufe : why did he here deviate ? to what end formed he others in a diflFerent manner ? and thus earth, air, and water, nay even the profounded depths of the animate creation, are to us a repofitory of his thought» and inven- tions towards a grand model of art and wifdom.
What a great and rich profpe£t does this point of view give us of the hiftory of beings fimilar and diffimilar to us ! It divides the kingdoms of nature, and the clafles of creatures, according to their elements, and connefts them with each other. Even in the moft remote the wide-extended radius may be feen proceeding from one and the fame centre. From air and water, from heights and depths, I fee the animals coming to man, as they came to the firft father of our race, and ftep by ftep approaching his form. The bird flies in the air : every deviation of it's figure from the ftpufture of the quadruped is explicable from it's element : and no fooner does it approach the earth in a hideous equi- vocal genus, as in the bat and vampire, but it refembles the human ikeleton. The fifh fwims in the water : it's feet and hands are transformed into tail and fins : it's limbs have few articulations. When, as in the manatee,, it touches the earth, it's forefeet at leaft are fet free, and the female acquires breads. The feabear and (ealion have all their four feet perceptible, though they cannot ufe the hinder ones, the toes of which drag after them as ihreds of fins. They creep about, however, flowly, as well as they can, to baik thcmfelvcs in the beams of the Sun ; and are raifed at leaft one fhort ftep above the ftupid (hape- kfs feadog. Thus from the flime of the worm, from the calcareous abode of the fliellfifh, from the web of the infeft, a better limbed and fupcriour organi- zation gradually rifes. Through the amphibia we afcend to quadrupeds : and among thefe, even in the difgufting unau, with his three fingers and two breads before, the nearer analogy to our form is already vifible. Now Nature fports and exercifes herfelf round man, in the greateft variety of /ketches and organi- zations. She divides modes of life and inftinAs, and forms fpecies inimical to each other : yet all thefe apparent contradiAions lead to one end. Thus it is anatomically and phyfiologically true, that the analogy of one organization prevails through the whole animated creation of our Globe : only the farther from man, the more the vital element of the creature differs from his, and Nature, ever true to herfelf, muft proportionally deviate from his ftandard of organization : the nearer him, the clofer has die drawn together the clafles and radii, to combine what die could in him, the divine centre of the terredrial creation. Rejoice in thy fituation, O man ; and ftudy thyfcif, thou noble mid- dle creature, m all that lives around rhee !
Digitized by
I 4» 3
PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY,
BOOK III.
CHAPTER I.
fie Stru5iure of Plants and Animals compared with regard to the Organization
of Man.
THE iirft mark, that difUnguifhes an animal to our eyes» is the mouth. Still a plant is, if I may fo exprefs myfelf, all mouth : it fucks with roots, leaves, and pores : like an infant it lies in the lap of it's mother, and at her bread. As foon as a creature attains the organization of an animal, a moutU is obfervable in it, even before any head can be diftinguilhed. The arms of the polypus are mouths : in worms, where few internal parts arc difcernible, an ali- mentary canal may be feen ; and in many animals with (hells the paflage to this canal, as if it were ftUl a root, is fituate at the inferiour part of the creature. Thus Nature forms this canal iirft in her animate beings, and retains it in thofe that are of the moft perfeft organization. Infedts in the ftate of larvs are little more than mouth, ftomach, and inteftines : the form of amphibia and ßflies» nay even of birds and of beafts, is alfo adapted to this ftrufture, in the horizon- tality of their pofition. The higher wc afcend, however, the more complicated are the parts. The aperture diminifhes, the ftomach and inteftines lie deeper : at length, with the ere£k pofition of man, externally the mouth, always the moft prominent part in the bead of the beaft, recedes under the higher organization of the brow j nobler parts fill the breaft, and the organs of nutrition fink down to the lower regions. The nobler creature is not intended to be the flave of his belly alone, the dominion of which is fo ample and extenfive among all the clafles of his inferiour brethren, with regard both to the bodily parts, and vital func- tions.
Thus the firft grand law, that the inftinA of a living creature obeys, is nutria tion, Beafts have it in common with plants : for thofe parts of their frame, by
Digitized by
Chap. I.] PlatUs and Animah compared with Man. 43
which food is drawn in and concofted, prepare juices, and refenible vegetables in their ftrufture. The more exquifite organization, alone, in which Nature has placed thefc parts, and the fuperiour combination, depuration, and elabora- tion of the vital juices, gradually contribute, according to the clafs and fpecics, to the finer ftream, that irrigates the nobler parts, the more Nature has circum- fcribed thofc of the inferiour order. Proud man, call thine eye back on the firft neceffitous fituation of thy fellow creatures : thou beared it ftill about thee : thou art an alimentary canal, like thine inferiour brethren.
Nature, however, has exalted us infinitely above them. The teeth, that in infers and other beails muft perform the ofHce of hands, to hold and to tear their fpoil ; the jaws, that aft with wonderful force in fifhes, and beails of prey; are nobly fet back in man, and their ftill inherent ffarength is moderated *. The many ftomachs of inferiour creatures are united into one in him, and in fome other animals, which internally approach his form ; and his mouth is rendered div'me by the faculty of fpeech, the pureft gift of the deity. Worms, infefts, fifhes, and moft amphibia, are perfeftly dumb : the bird fings only with his throat : each beaft has but a few predominant founds, juft fufficient for the maintenance of the fpecies : man alone poflefTes real organs of fpeech, combined with thofe of taftc and nutrition j the nobleft in conjunftion with marks of the loweft neceflSty. That which prepares food for the meaner body prepares alfo in words the nutriment of his thoughts.
The fecond vocation of the creature is the propagation of tie fpecies. The def- tination to this is evident even in the ftrufture of plants. To what are roots and flcm, leaves and branches, fubfervient ? to what has Nature given the higheft or moft feleft fituation? To iht flower^ the crowns and we have al- ready feen, that in this are the genital organs of plants. This then conftitutes the principal and moft beautiful part of the creature : the life, the funftions, the pleafure, of the plant, nay it's fole motion that is in appearance voluntary, what we call thefleep of plants^ are contrived for the perfeftion of this. Thofe plants, the feed-receptacles of which are fufficiently fecure, never ileep : a plant after fruftification ileeps no more. Thus it clofes only with maternal care, to proteft the interiour parts of the flower from the feverity of the weather : fo that in it every thing is calculated as well for fecundation and propagation, as for growth and nutrition : of another end of aftion it was not fufceptible.
Not fo with animals. To them the genital organs are not made a crown j they are rather, conformably to the deftination of the creature, fubordinate to
• For the ftrength of thefe parts fee Haller'8 tUmma ^hyßohg.t ' Elements of Phyfiology/ vol. VI, p. 14» 15.
Digitized by
44 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book III.
the nobler members. A few of the loweft clafs only have them near the head. The heart and lungs occupy the breaft : the head is appropriated to finer fenfcs : and in general, throughout the whole frame, the fibrous ftrufture, with it's juicy floral powers, is fubordinate to the irritable elafticity of the mufcles, and the fuf- ceptibility of the nervous fyftem. The vital economy of animals evidently fol- lows the fpirit of their conformation. Voluntary motion, operative aftivity, perceptions and propenfities, conftitute the chief bufinefs of an animal, in pro- portion as it*s organization is exalted. In moft kinds the fexual appetite is con- fined to a fliort period : the others live freer from this propcnfity than many bafeminded men, who would fain fink into the condition of plants. Thefe men have naturally the fate of plants : all nobler inclinations, the powers of the mufcles, the nerves, the will, and the underftanding, arc enfeebled ; they live a vegetable life, and die a premature vegetable death.
Tliofe animals, that come neareft to plants, remain true to the principle of formation above laid down, both in the economy of their flxufture, and in the end of their deftination. Thefe are zoophytes and infeds. The polypus is in ftrufturc nothing more than a living organized ftem of young polypi : the coral plant is an organized habitation of it's peculiar aquatic animal : finally the infeft, which ranks far abov^ thefe, as it lives in a more fubtilc medium, fliows it's near approach to the deftination of plants, both in it's life and ftrufturc. It's head is fmall, and deftitute of brain : not having room for a few neceflary fenfes, it carries them before it in it's feelers. It's breaft is fmall : on which account it is without lung8, and in many cafes we find in it nothing having the Icaft analogy to a heart. But then how large and fpacious is the abdomen, with it's phytomorphic rings ! It is the predominant part of the animal * ; as nu* trition and abundant multiplication of the fpecies are it's chief purpofes.
In animals of a nobler kind, Nature, as has been faid, places the organs of generation more deep, as if beginning to be afliamed of them : (he gave to one part the moft diffimilar funftions, and thus obtained room for nobler parts in the more fpacious breaft. She caufed even the nerves, that lead to thefe parts, to fpring from lower branches, far from the head i and withdrew them, with their mufcles and fibres, for the moft part, from the control of the mind. The feminal fluids are here elaborated after the manner of vegetable juices, and the young fruit is nourißied as a plant. Plantlike firft open the powers of thefe organs and inftindls, when the heart perhaps beats ftill quicker, and the head thinks more clearly. The growth of the human body» as Martinet has
• Many of thefe creatures refpire through it: in urtery runs through it inftead of a heart: they transfix one another with it: &c«
Digitized by
Chap. I.] Plants and Animals compared zvith Man, 45
acutely remarked *, is lefs in the upper than in tlie lower parts": as if man were a tree, which increafed below in the trunk. In (hort, intricate as the ftrufturc of our bodies is, ftill it is evident, that the pails, which ferve merely for the nutrition and propagation of the animal, ought to be, and may be, even with refpe<ft to their organization, by no means the predominant partsj that mark the dcftination of a beaft, not to fay of a man.
Which then has Nature chofen for thefe ? Let us examine their internal and external ftrufture. Throughout the whole chain of living creatures it is eftabliftied, that
1 . Animals with one auricle and one ventricle in the heart, as amphibia and fiöies, have cold blood : that
2. Thofe with one ventricle, without an auricle, have only a white fluid in- ftead of blood, as infers and worms : but that
3. Animak, the hearts of which have four cavities, have warm blood, as birds and the mammalia.
It is likewife remarked, that
1. In the firft two clafies lungs are wanting to refpiration, and the circula- tion of the blood : but that
2. Animals with quadrifid hearts have lungs.
It is incredible what great difference in the exaltation of the creature fprings from thefe fimple diftinftions.
Firft. The formation of a heart, even in it's moft imperfeft ftate, requires an organized ßrudiure of many internal parts ^ to which no plant can attain. Even in infefts and worms we already perceive arteries and other fecretory vcffels, and in fome degree mufcles and nerves ; the place of which we find fupplied in plants by tubes, and in zoophytes by a fimilar ftrudture. In the more pcrfedt creatures there is a fuperiour elaboration of the juices on which thsy live^ at the fame time promoting the warmth conducive to vitality. Thus rifes the tree of life from vegetability to the white fluid of exanguious animals, from this to red blood, and thence to the more perfeft, warmblooded, organized beings. The higher this warmth rifes, the more complicated we pertreive the internal organi- zat'ion, and the more extenfive the circuit, from the motion of which alone this internal warmth could probably originate. One only principle of life feems to prevail throughout all nature: this the ethereal 01 eleäric fiream^ which in the tubes of plants, in the arteries and mufcles of animals, and laftly'in the nervous fyftem, is ftill more and more finely elaborated, till it produces all thofe won-
• Sec Martinet's Ktitichifinus der Natur, ' Catcchifm ot Nature/ vol. I* p. 3161 where the annuü growth is pointed out by a plate.
Digitized by
46 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book III.
derful inftinfts and mental faculties, which excite our aftonlftimcnt in men and beads. The growth of plants is promoted by eledt ricity ; though their vital juices are much more finely organized, than the eleftric power which difplays itfelf in the inanimate parts of nature. On beafts, and on man, too, the ekftric fluid operates ; and not merely on the groffer parts of the machine perhaps, but even where thefe mod intimately border on the mind. The nerves, animated by an cffence, the laws of which are almoft above thofe of matter,, as it operates with a kind of ubiquity, arc yet fufceptiblc of the cleft ric power in the body. Na- ture, in fliort, beftowed on her living children what (he had bed to bcftow, an organic fimilitude of her own creative power ^ animating warmth. From inanimate vegetable life the creature produces by the means of certain organs living fti- muli; and from the fum of thefe, refined by more cxquifitc duds, the medium of perception. The refult of ftimuli is impulfe: the refult of perception is thought : an eternal progrefs of the creative organization imparted to every living being. With it's organic warmth, not as perceptible externally to our rude inftruments, the perfeftion of the fpecics increafes; and perhaps too it's capacity for a more delicate fenfe <Ä well-being, in the allpervading ftream of which the allwarming, allquickcning, allenjoying mother fech her own exiftence.
Secondly. The more complicated the internal organization of the creature, to produce more pure vital warmth, the more we perceive it's capacity for ro«- reiving and producing living beings. Another branch of the fame great tree of life through all the races of creatures *.
It is well known, that moft plants fecundate themfclvcs ; and that, where the organs of generation are feparate, many androgyni and polygamifts are found amongft them. It Is in like manner obfervable, that in the lower orders of animals, as zoophytes, fnails, and infcfts, either the animal organs of gene- ration arc wanting, and the creature feems only to germinate like a plant j or hermaphrodites, androgyni, and other anomalies occur, which this is not the place to enumerate. The more complex the oi^nization of the animal is, the more ftrikingly are the fexes difcriminated. Here Nature could no longer reft fatisfied with organized gercncs : the formation of a being fo exuberant and multiform in it's parts would have fucceeded badly, had it been left in the power of chance to fport with organic forms. Our wife mother therefore feparated and diidinguifhcd the fexes. Yet flic knew how to frame an organization, by
* Xiet it not be objeded, that polypi, fome ing ofFspiing, in putting forth buds. I fpeak fnails, and even leaflice produce living crea- here of viviparous animals, that give fuck, tures ; for in this way plants too produce a liv«
Digitized by
Cha?. I.] Plants and Animals compared wtth Man, 47
means of which two creatures unite in one, and from their conjunftion a third is formed, the ftamp of both, at the inftant of the mod intimate organic \ital warmth*
In this conceived, by this alone is the new being reared. Maternal warmth furrounds and fafliions it. It's lungs yet breathe not, and it's larger thymus gland abforbs : even in the human cmbr}'on the right ventricle of the heart feems yet wanting, and inftead of blood a whiter fluid circulates through it's veins. Still in proportion as it's internal heat is fanned by the mother's warmth, it's heart becomes more perfeft, and the blood reddens, and acquires an ener- getic circulation, though it cannot yet come into contaft with the lungs. With diftiniSly beating pulfe the creature moves ; and at length comes into the world perfeftly formed, endued with all the faculties of perception and voluntary motion, to which a living creature of this kind alone could be orga- nized. Immediately air, milk, food, nay even pain, and every want, afford him occafion of abforbing warmth a thoufand ways, and elaborating it, by means of fibres, mufcles, and nerves, to an eflence, that no inferiour organization could produce. It augments till thofe years, when his fuperabundant vital warmth flrivcs to propagate and multiply itfelf ; and thus the circle of organic life begins again anew.
Thus Nature afted by thofe creatures, to which (he could impart the capa« city of producing a living offspring. But this all cannot. Cold blooded ani- mals are incapable of this : the Sun muft lend them afliftance, and ihare with them the maternal ofEce. It hatches the embryon : a clear proof, that all organic wamith throughout the creation is the fame, only more and more fub- tilely elaborated by numerous channels. Even birds, that have warmer blood than reptiles, are incapable of bringing forth living young, partly perhaps in confequence of their colder element, partly on account of their way of life and general deftination. Thefe light animals, intended for flight. Nature has ex- empted from the burden of carrying their young till they could be born alive, as (he has from the trouble of fuckling them. When the bird, even in an ugly intermediate fpecies, treads the earth, it gives fuck : as foon as the aquatic animal has attained fufHcient organization and warmth of blood, to produce living young, the labour of fuckling them is impofed on it.
How much has Nature thus contributed to the perfeftion of the fpecies ! The bird, that flies, can only hatch her young : and from this little domcftic economy what fine indindls arife in both fexes I Nuptial love builds the neft % maternal teodernefs warms it ^ paternal affedion alfo affids b this, and procures
Digitized by
48 PHILOSOPHY OFHISTORY. [Book III
food. How eagerly docs the mother bird defend her young ! how chafte is con- jugal love in thofe fpecies, that are formed for the matrimonial tie !
Among thofe animals that dwell on the earth, this bond, where it can take place, fliould be ftill ftronger : therefore the mother is to nourifli her liveborn offspring at her breaft, with the moft delicate part of herfelf. Nothing but a grofsly organized fwine can devour it's own young : frigid amphibia alone cntruft their eggs to the land or the morafs. All the fpecies that give fuck have a tender affeäion for their offspring : the love of the ape is become pro- verbial, and perhaps no other fpecies is in this point inferiour to it. Even aqua- tic animals participate in this fentiment, and the manatee has been reprefented even to a fable as a pattern of conjugal and maternal love. Affectionate fuper- Intendant of the World, with fuch fimple organic ties haft thou knit the mod neceffary relations, and fineft inftinäs, of thy children ! Owing to a fingle cavity in the mufcle of the heart, to a fihgle pair of rcfpiring lungs, the crea- ture lives with ftronger and purer warmth, produces and fuckJes living young, and is adapted to finer inftinds than that of propagating the fpecies, to do- meftic economy and affeftion for it's offspring, nay in fome I'pecies to conjugal love. With the greater warmth of the blood, that ftream of the univcrlkl foul of the World, lighteft thou the torch, that excites the fineft emotions of thehumaa heart.
I ihould laftly (peak of the head, as the higheft region of the animal form : but to this belong other confideiations firft, beüde thofe of it's external figure and parts»
CHAPTER n.
A Comparifon of the various Powers^ that operate in Animals.
Thz immortal Haller has difcriminated the different powers, that dilplay them, felves phyfiologically in the animal body, as the elafticity of the fibres, the irritability of the mufcles, and the fenfibility of the nervous fyftem, with an accuracy, that will not only remain upon the whole incontrovertible, but pro- mifes the moft valuable application to the phyfiology of mind, even in other than human bodies.
I (hall not now examine, whether thcfe three phenomena, different as they appear, may not arife at bottom from one and the fame power, difplaying itfelf in one manner in the fibres, in another in the mufcles, and in a third in the
Digitized by
Chap. IL] A Comparifon of the various Powers ^ that tfperate in Animals. 49
nerves. As every thing in nature is conneded, and thefe three eiTeds are fo intimately and multifarioufly combined in the living body, we can fcarcely entertain a doubt of it. EUafticity and irritability border on one another, as do fibres and mufcles. Since mufcles are but an artfully interwoven ftrufture of fibres ; irritability is probably nothing more than elafticity infinitely height- ened and intimately combined, exalting itfelf, in this organic interlacement of numerous parts, from the inanimate fibrous fenfation to the firfl: ftep of animal feeling. The fenfibility of the nervous fyftem would then be a higher fpecies of the fame power, a refult of all thofe organic powers ; fince the circulation of the blood at large, and all the veffels fubfer>'ient to it, feem contrived to humectate the brain, as the root of the nerves, with that fubtile fluid, which, confidered as the medium of perception, is fo much exalted above the faculties of the fibres^and mufcles.
Be this as it may, infinite is the wifdom of the creator, which combined thefe powers with the different organic parts of the animal body, and rendered the lower ftep by ftep fubfervient to the higher. Fibres conftitute the founda- tion of every part even of our fabric. By thefe man grows. The lymphatic and chyliferous veflTels prepare juices for the whole machine. The mufcular powers move the mufcles, not merely to external exertion, but one mufcle, the heart, is the firft propeller of the blood, a fluid compofed of many other fluids, which not only warms the whole body, but afcends to the head, and there ftill farther elaborated animates the nerves. Like a celeftial plant, thefe fpread downwards, from their root placed aloft : and how do they fpread ? how delicate are they ? to what parts are they allied ? with what degree of irritability is this or that mufcle endued ? what juices do the plantlike veflcls prepare ? what temperature pre- vails through this fyftem, in comparifon with others ? to what fenfes does it pertain ? to what kind of life does it conduce ? in what frame, in what figure, is it organized ?
If the accurate inveftigation of thefe queftions in particular animals, efpe- cially thoie which approach neareft to man, do not give us an iniight into their charaäers and inflinfts, into the relations of the fpecies to each other, and above all into the caufes of the fuperiority of man over beafts; I know not whence we can derive phyfical information* And happily a Camper, a Wrif- berg, a Wolf, a Scemmering, and many other inquifitive anatomifts, purfue this judicious phyfiological mode of comparing various fpecies, with refpedl to the power of their vital organs*
I fliall now proceed to a few leading fundamental propofttions fuitable to my purpofe, which may ferve to introduce the fubfequent refleftions on the inherent orgaoic powers of varipus beings, and finally of man : for without
Digitized by
go PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book OT.
thefe any view of human nature, in it's wants and pcrfcftions, muft be very fuperficial.
1. Wherever an effe5l exißs in nature^ there muß be an operating power : where irritability difplays itfelfin effort^ orinfpafin^ afiimulus muß be felt from within. If thefe propofitions be not valid» there is an end to all connexion in our remarks, to all analogy in nature.
2. No man can draw a line difcriminating where an apparent aSfion fliaUbe a proof of an inherent power ^ and where it ßall ceafe to be fo. We afcribe feeling and thought to the animals that live with us, becaufe we fee their daily prac- tices before us , but we cannot deny them to others, becaufe we are not inti- mately enough acquainted wich them, or think their performances too artful ; for our ignorance, or want of art, is no abfolute ftandard of all the mechanical ideas and feelings of the animate creation.
3. Thus, where art is praElifed^ a mechanical fettfe exißs and is exercifed: and where a creature ihows by it's adions, that it forefees natural occurrences, inaf- much as it endeavours to provide for them; it muft have an internal fenfe, an organ, a medium of this forefight ; whether it be comprehenfible to us ot not, for the powers of nature are not changed on tliis account.
4. I'here may be many mediums in the creation^ of which we have not the leaß knowledge^ becaufe we have no organ adapted to them : nay there mufl be many, for we fee in almoft every creature actions, which we cannot explain fiom our organization.
5. That creation is infinitely greater, in which millions of creatures, of dif- ferent fenfes and inftindts, enjoy each it's own world, purfue each it's own train; than a wildemefs, to be perceived by inattentive man alone with his five dull fenfes.
6. He who has any feeling of the grandeur and power of Nature, abounding in fenfation, art, and vitality, will thankfully receive what his organization im- parts ; but he will not on this account deny to her very face the fpirit of all her other works. The whole creation is to be throughout enjoyed, felt, and afted upon : on every new point, therefore, muft be creatures to enjoy it, or- gans to perceive it, powers to aft fuitably to it. What have the crocodile and the humming-bird, the condor and the pipa in common ? yet each is fuitably organized, to live and move in it's element. No point of creation is without enjoyment, without organ, without inhabitant.: every creature, the,\jore, Itas it's own, a nezv world.
Infinity envelopes me. Nature, when, furrounded with a thoufand proofs of this, and penetrated with thefe feelings, I enter thy facred fane. No crea- ture haft thou neglefted : to every one thou haft imparted thylclf as fully, as
Digitized by
Chap. II.] A Cwnparifin of the various Powersy thai operate in Animals. 5 1
it's organisation would admit. Each of thy works thou madeft one, and per* feft, and like only to itfclf. Thy mode of operating is from within to with- out ; and where it was neceflary thou (houldft deny, thou hafl compenfated as the mother of all things could compenfate.
Let us now caft a glance on the relative balance of the various ading powers in different kinds of organization ; thus we (hall clear our way to the phyfio- logical place of man.
1. Plants exift to vegetate, and bring forth fruit : a fubordinate end, as it appears to us ; yet, in the whole creation, the bafis of every other. This they completely fulfil ; and labour at it fo much the more inceffantly, the lefs it is divided into other ends. Where they can, they exift, in the whole germe, and protrude new (hoots and buds : a (ingle branch reprefents the whole tree. Here then we call to our ailiflance one of the preceding propo(itions, and are jufti- fied in faying, according to all natural analogy : where effeä is^ there muß be power y where new life As ^ a prhciple of new life muß exiß; and in every phyto- morphic creature this muft be found in the grcateft aftivity. The theory of gcrmes, which has been taken to explain vegetation, explains in reality no- thing : for the germe is already a form -, and where a form is, there muft be an organic power, that formed it. No differing knife has deteded all future germes in the firft created feed : they are not vifible to us, till the plant has acquired it*s full powers, and all our experience gives us no right to afcribe them to any thing but the organic power of the plant itfelf, opcratmg on them with (ilent intenfity. Nature has beftowed on this creature of hcr's all (he could beftow, and compenfated for the much (lie was forced to deny it, by the in- tenfity of the fingle power that operates in it. Of what benefit would the fa- culty of animal motion be to a pkint, wluch cannot ftir from it's place? Why (hould it be capable of knowing other plants around, fince this knowledge muft be to it a fource of forrow ? But the air, light, and the juices that nou- rifli it, it attrafts and enjoys after the manner of plants : and the propen(ity to grow, to bloom, and to propagate it's fpecies, it excrcifes more truly and inceffantly than any other creature.
2. The tranfition from plants to the feveral zoophytes hirherto difcovcred reprefents this flill more clearly. In thefe the organs of nutrition are already fcparated : they poflcfs an analogous animal fenfe, and voluntary motion : ftill their principal organic po^vers are nutrition and propagation. The polypus is no magazine of germes, lying preformed in it, perchance for the cruel knife of the philofbpher : but as plants thcmfclves are organic life^ fo is it alfo. Like them it puts forth (hoots, and the biftoury of the anatomift can only excite, can only ftimulate, this power. As a ftimulated or divided mufcle difplays more power.
Digitized by
S% PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book IIT.
fb a tortured polypus exerts all it can, to repair and rcftorc it's lofs. It puflies forth limbs till it's powers are exhaufted, and the implements of art have wholly deftroyed it's nature. In fome parts, in fomc direftions, when the portion is too fmall, when it's powers are too languid, it can do this no more : which would not be the cafe, if a preformed gcrme lay ready in every point. In it we perceive energetic organic powers operating, as in the (prouting of plants ^ nay ftiil lower, in feeble, obfcure beginnings.
3. Teftaceous ammals arc organic creatures, endued with juft as much life, as could be colle<fted and oi^ganized in tbeir element, and in their habitations. We muft call it feeling, becaufe we have no other word : but it is fnail-feeling^ it is fea-feeling, a chaos of the moft obfcure vital powers, developed only in few members. Obferve their fine feelers, the mufcle that fupplies the place of optic nerves, the open mouth, the commencement of a puUating heart, and their wonderful power of reproduftion. The animal renovates head, horns, jaws, eyes : it not only forms it's artfully conibni&ed (hell, and again wears it away, but procreates living beings with (imilar fhells : and many of the fpecies are both male and female at the fame time. Thus in it there is a world of organic powers^ by means of which the creature is capable of eifeding, in it's low rank, what no one with more perfe<fk limbs can perform, while in it the tough plaflic mucus fb much more intimately and inceiTantly works.
4. The infea, fo artful in it's aftions, is equally artful in it's flrufturc : it*s organic powers are conformable to this, even with refpedfc to particular parts. Yet it has room for little brain, and extremely fine nerves only : it's mufdes are fo delicate, that they required to be mailed without with & hard covering.: and it's organization has no place for the circulation of greater animals. But coo- iider it's head, it's eyes, it's antenns, it's feet, it's fhield, it's wings ; obferve the vail burden carried by a chafer, a fly, an ant, or the force exerted by an enraged wafp ; look at the five thoufand mufcles, which Lyonet has enundeiated in the caterpillar of the willow moth, while mighty man pofTefTes fcarce four hundred and fifty ; laftly contemplate the works of art, which with their fenfes and limbs they undertake; and thence infer an organic plenitude of powen, inherently ope- rating in each of their parts. Who caa behold the trembling avulfed leg of a fpider, or a fly, without perceiving the force of vital irritability it retains, even when feparated from it's trunk ? The head of the animal was too fmall, to con- tain it all ; abundant Nature has diftributed it therefore throughout all it's limbs, even to the minutefl. It's antennse are fenfes : it's flender legs are muf- cles and arms: each nervous plexus is a fmaller brain; each irritable vefl!el, almoil a pulfating heart : and thus the delicate operations are accompliihed» for which many of thefe fpecies art wholly contrived, and to which their orga-
Digitized by
Ch A ?. IL] A Comparifon of the various Powers^ thai operate in Animals, 53
nization and neceffities impel them. What exquißte elafticity has the thread of a fpider, or a filkworm ! and this the artift drew from herfelf ; an evident proof, that (he is all elafticity and irritability, and even in her inftinfts and operations a real artift, a miniature foul of the world afting in this oi^gani« zation.
5. In coldblooded animals the fame excefs of irritability is vifible. The tortoife moves a long time, and forcibly, after it has loft it's head : the teeth of a viper inflidt a mortal wound, three, eight, nay twelve days, after the head has been feparated from the body. If the jaws of a dead crocodile be pulled afunder, they are capable of biting off the incautious finger: and among in« leds the fling of a bee attempts to wound after it is pulled out. Obferve the finog in copulation > it's limbs may be torn off, before it will relinquifh it's pur- pofe. Behold the tortured falamander : fingers, hand^ feet, legs can he lofe, and renew them again. So great and aUfufficient are organic vital powers in thefe coldblooded animals : and in fliort, the more cmde an animal is, that is, the lefs the organic faculty has exalted it's irritability and mufcles to finer nervous power, and fubjedted them to the fway of an ampler brain, the more do thefe difplay themfelves in an extended, life fupporting or repairing, organic om» nipatence,
6. Even in warmblooded animals it has been obferved, that their Hefh moves more dully in connexion with the nerves, and their intcftines are more forcibly affeÄed by ftimuli when the animal is dead. In death the convulfion» grow flronger in proportion as perceptivity diminifhes; and a mufcle, that has loft it's irritability, regains it, if it be cut in pieces. Thus the more a creature is rich in nerves, the more it feems to lofe of the delicate vital power, that with difficulty dies. Tlie power of reproducing parts, not to mention fuch complex members as the head, the hands, or the feet, is loft in the more per- fca animals as they are called : at certain ages fcarcely can they reftore a tooth» or htd a wound or a fradure. But then the fenfations and perceptions of this clafs are remarkably exalted, till at length in man they are concentrated into rcafon, the fineft and higheft degree of terreftrial organization.
Might we colleft a few refults from thefe induftions, which ftill it would not be improper perhaps to reduce to one, it would be the following :
I. In every living creature the circle of organic powers feems to be whole and complete J on*y differently modified and difbibuted in each. In this it conr.es near vegetation^ and is therefore fo powerful in reproducing it's fpecies« and reftorii^ it's parts : in that thefe faculties decreafe, in proportion as they
Digitized by
5+ PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [BookHL
are diftributed among more artfully conftrufted members, and finer oiigans «nd fenfes.
z. Beyond the fphere of vegetation the fyftem of vital irritability com- mences. It is clofely allied to the faculty of the growing» fprouting, felf- renewing« animal fibrous fhii£ture : only it appears in an artful condenfedform» and to a more limited determinate end of vital operation. Every mufcle already fbinds in reciprocal relation to many others: it will therefore dif- play not the powers of fibre alone, but it's own ; living irritability in efTeftive motion« The torpedo renews not it's limbs like the lizard, the frog, or the polypus: and thofe animals, which polTefs the reproduftive faculty, renew not the parts in which mufcular powers are condenfed, Hke thofe which are as it were but fprouts : the lobfter can pufli out new claws, but not a new tail. Thus in artfully combined motive powers the fphere of vegetative organization gradually vanifhes ; or rather it is retained in a more elabo- rate form, and wholly applied to the purpofes of a more complicated orga- nization.
3. The farther the mufcular powers enter the fphere of the nerves, the more are they imprifoned in this organization, and fubdued to the purpofes of percept tion. The more numerous and delicate the nerves of an animal ; the more multifarioufly they are connedted, artfully ftrengthened, and allied to nobler parts and fenfes ; and laftly the larger and more delicate the focus of all per- ception, the brain: the more intelligent and exquifite is the kind of organiza* tion. On the contrary, in thofe animals, in which irritability overpowers per- ceptivity, and the mufcular powers the nervous fy flem ; where the latter is em- ployed on mean funftions and appetites, and particularly where the firfl and leafl fupportable of all appetites, hunger, is the mofl predominant j the fpecies is, according to our ftandard, partly lefs perfeft in it's flrudtuie, partly more grofs in it's manners.
Who would not rejoice, if fome philofophic anatomift * (hould undertake, to give a comparative phyfiology of feveral animals, particularly of thofe thut approach neareft to man, examining >yhefe powers, difcriminated and efla- bliflicd by experiment, in relation to the v/holc organization of the creature } Nature exhibits to us her works, externally a mafked form, a covered rccep-
• Befidc other known pieces, I find in the animal fkeleton in Chefelden's Ofteography,
woriu of Alexander Monro, the elder, £din. London, 1783, does to be copied, though the
1 781, an Effay on Comparative Anatomy, accuracy and beauty of the original would not
which well deferves a tranflacion; as the fine eafily be equalled in Germany.
Digitized by
Chap. II.] A Comparifon of the various Powers^ that operate in Animals, 55
tacle of intcriour powers. We fee an animars mode of life : from the phyfiog- nomy of it's v'iCtge, and the relation of it's parts, we guefs perhaps at fomcthing of what exifts within. But here within, the organs and mafs of organic powers are themlelves placed before us ; and the nearer to man, the better means have we of comparifon. Though I am no anatomift, I will venture to follow the obfervations of fome anatomifls of celebrity in one or two examples, which will prepare us for the ftrudture and phyfiological nature of man.
CHAPTER III. Examples of the phyfiological Struäure of fome Animals.
The elephant *, (hapelefs as he feems, difplays phyfiological grounds enough of hib fupcriority to all other bcaftö, and refcmblance to man. His brain indeed is not vcf)' larpre, in proportion to the fize of the animal ; but it's cavities, and it*s whole firufture, bear a ftriking refemblance to thofe of the human (pecies. * I was aftouiftied,' fays Camper, * to find fuch a fimllarity between the glan- dnla pimalisy nates y and tc/ieSy of the brain of this animal, and thofe of our brain; fince, if a common fenfory can exift, it muft be fought for here.* The cra- nium is fmall in proportion to the head, as the noftrils extend hx over the brain, and fill with air the cavities not only of the forehead, but of other parts -f : for, to move the ponderous jaw, flrong mufcles are requifite, and an extenfive furface, which our creative parent has filled with air, to fpare the creature an infupportable burden. The cerebrum does not lie above the cere- bellum^ and prefs it by it's weight : the membrane, that feparates them, ftands perpendicular. The numerous nerves of the animal are principally fpent on the organs of the finer fenfes, and his trunk alone receives as many as the whole bulk of his vaft body. The mufcles, that move the trunk, arife from the fore- head : it is altogether without cartilage, the organ of a delicate feeling, an acute fmeU, and the freeft motion. In it therefore many fenfes are combined, and afl&fl each other. Thus the expreffive eye of the elephant, which, like no other animal but man, is provided with hairs and a delicate mufcular motion in the lower eyelid, has the finer fenfes for it's neighbours j and thefe are feparated hoxn the tafte, which governs other beafb. The mouth, which in other qua- drupeds, particularly of the carnivorous kinds, conflitutes the predominant
* From Bafibn» Daabenton, Camper» and in f The cavities and finufes of the prtftjfut part 2^fflermann'9 defcription of the foetas of mMimiUarit» &c« an elephant.
Digitized by
56 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [BootUl.
part of the vifage, is here placed deep beneath the prominent forehead, and high trunk, fo that it is almoft concealed. His tongue is ftill fmaller : the weapons of defence, which he carries in his mouth, are diftindt from the organs of nutrition : he is not formed, therefore, for favage voracity. Large as his bowels muft neceflarily be, his ftomach is fmall and fimple : fo that probably raging hunger cannot torment him, as it does beafts of prey. Peaceably and cleanly he crops the herb -, and, as his fenfe of fmell is feparate from his mouth, he employs in this more time and caution. For the fame caution has Nature falhioned him in drinking, and in every other fundion of his mafly ftrudhirc, even to the propagation of his fpecies. No fexual appetite inflames him with Tage : the female goes nine months with young, like woman, and fuckles her ofF- fpring at the breaft. The periods of his life, during which he grows, is in vi- gour, and decays, refemble thofe of man. How nobly has nature converted his &ngs into long tuiks ! and how delicate muft be bis organ of hearing, that can underftand human language in fine difcriminations of the tones of com- mand and of the paflions.! His ears are larger than thofe of any other animal, thin, and extended on all fides i their apertures iland high ^ and the whole of the fmall occiput is a cave of echo, filled with air. Thus Nature has wifely diminifhed the weight of the animal, and united the ftrongeft mufcular force with the moft refined nervous economy : a king of beafts in fagacious quiet, and intelligent purity of fenfe.
How different a king of beafts the lion ^ ! Nature has eftabliihed his throne on mufcular force, not on mildnefs, and fuperiority of intelled. She has made his bxain fmall ; and his nerves fo weak^ that they are not even pro- portionate to thofe of a cat : while fhe framed hb mufcles laiige and ftrong^ and fixed them to the bones in fuch pofitions, as to produce the greateft force, inflcad of diverfity and delicacy of motion. One great mufcle, that lifits the neck ; a mufcle of the fore-foot, which ferves to grafp j the joint of the foot cbfe to the claws; tbefe large and curved, fo that their points cannot be bluntedj as they never touch the earth : fuch were his gifts for the purpofes of life. His ftomach is long, and much curved : it's friftion, and his hunger, therefore, muft be fearful. His heart is fmall j but it's cavities are delicate and broad i much longi^r and broader than in man. The parietes of his heart are twice as thin, and the aorta twice as fmall; fo that the blood of the lion« as foon
* Chiefly according to Wolfs excellent de« wilh we had anacomico-phyfiologica] dcfcrip-
fcriptioB, in the N»v, Commntar, Acad, 9dent, tions of more aoimali, excctttcd in tht ^mm
Pttrop,, • New Memoirs of the Academy of maoner. ScieACcjal Petcribur^,' vol. XV, and XVL J
Digitized by
Chap. III.] Examples of the phyfiological SiruSuve offome Animals. 5 7
as it quits the heart, flows with four times the velocity, and in the arterial branches of the fifteenth divifion with a hundred times that of the human cir- culation. The heart of the elephant on the contrary beats flowly ; almoft as much fo as in coldblooded animals. The gallbladder of the lion too is large, and the bile blackifh. His broad tongue is rounded forwards, and furniflicd with prickles, an inch and half long, lying on the forepart, with their points direded backwards. Hence the danger of his licking the Ikin, which imme- diately fetches blood, and excites his thirft of it ; his raging thirft, even after the blood of his friend and benefador. A lion, that has once tafted human blood, quits not readily this prey, after which his furrowed palate lufts. The lionefs produces fereral cubs, which grow but flowly : Ihe is obliged therefore to pro- vide for them during a confiderable period, and her maternal afle<5tion, joined to her own hunger, augments her ravenoufnefs. As the tongue of the lion taftes acutely, and his fiery hunger is a kind of thirft : it is natural, that he fliould liave no appetite for putrid carrion. To kill his own food, to fuck the warm blood, is his royal tafte: and the aftonifliment of furprife is often the whole of his royal magnanimity. His fleep is light, becaufe his blood is warm, and circulates quickly. When fatiated he is cowardly j for he cannot ufc ftale provifion, therefore he thinks not of it, and is only excited to valour by prcfent hunger. Benevolent Nature has blunted his fenfes : his eye is afraid of fire, and cannot even bear the fplendour of the Sun : his fcent is not acute, the fituation of hb mufcles fitting him only for great fprings, not for running, and nothing putrid excites him. His covered, wrinkled forehead is fmall, compared with the inferiour part of his vifage, his ravenous jaws, and mafticating mufcles. His nofe is large and long ; his neck and forelegs are of iron: his mane, and the mufcles of his tail, are ample: but his hinder parts are more feeble and flender. Nature had exhaufted her fearfiil powers, and made him in difpofition, when not tormented with the thirft of blood, a gentle and noble beaft. So phyfiological are thus alfo this creature's mind and cha- rafter.
The floth, in appearance the laft and moft fliapelefs of quadrupeds, a mafs of mud that has rifen to animal organization, may ferve us for a third exam- ple. His head is fmall and round : all his limbs too are round, thick, öiapelefs, and like ftuffed cufliions. His neck is ftiff, as if it were one piece with the head. The hair of it has a contrary diredlion to that of the back, as if Nature had formed the animal in two direftions, uncertain which ßie fliould prefer. At laft flie chofe for the principal parts the belly and pofteriours, to which, in place, form, and funftions, the wretched head is fubordinate. The
Digitized by
58 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Boor ffl,
female carries her young in her pofteriours. The ftomach and bowek fill the abdomen : the heart, lungs, and liver, are llightly formed : and the gallbladder fcems wholly wanting. His blood is fo cold as to border on that of amphibia : his heart and inteftines palpitate long after being torn out : and the legs of the animal are agitated, after the heart is gone, as though he were in a flumber. Thus we perceive here the compenfation of Nature, who, where obliged to re- fufe fufccptible nerves, and even adtive mufcular powers, has more intimately diffufed and imparted exquifite irritability. This lingular animal therefore may be lefs unfortunate than he feems. He loves warmth : he loves the quiet of fleep; and enjoys a flimelike wellbeing in each. When* he wants warmth, he ileeps : and as if even lying down were painful to him, he faflens himfelf to a bough with his paws, and feeds himfelf with one of them, while, hanging fiom it like a bag, he enjoys in the warm funbeams his grublike exiflence. Thus the mislhapen form of his feet is a benefit to him. From the peculiarity of their (Irudture the tender animal cannot fupport himfelf on their balls, but only on the convexity of his claws, on which, as on the wheels of a wa^on, he (hoves himfelf flowly and commodioufly along. His fix and forty ribs, the like of which no other quadruped pofleffes, form a long vault for his florehoufe of provifion, and are, if I may be allowed the expref&on, the offified rings of a voracious leaf-bag, of a grub.
Of examples enough. It is obvious wherein the ideas of an animal mind and an animal inftinft are to be placed, if we follow the guidance of phyfiology and experience, ^hat is t\it fum and refuli of ail the vital powers wori^ing in one or* ganizedfyfiem : this is the direSlion^ that Nature gave to thofe colleäive powers^ by placing them in a given temperament and no other^ by organizing them to this and ho other ßru^:tre.
Digitized by
f 59 ]
CHAPTER IV.
Of the Inßinäs of Animals.
We have an excellent work on the inftinfts of animals by the late Reimarus*, which, like his work on natural religion, will remain a lading monument of his iaquifitive fpirit, and profound love of truth. After learned and methodical remarks on the various inftindls, which animals poflefs, he endeavours to ex* plain them from the advantages of the mechanifm, the fenfes, and the internal feelings, with which they are endued : yet he is of opinion, that we muft admit, efpecially with regard to the inflinftive arts, particular determinate natural powers^ and natural innate capacities^ which are fufceptible of no farther explication. In the latter part of his fcntiments I cannot acquiefce : for the compofition of the whole machine firom certain given powers, fenfes, feelings, and conceptions, in (hort, the organization of the creature itfelfy conftitutes the mofl fure dire^ion^ the moßperfeEl determination^ that Nature could imprefs upon her work.
As the creator formed plants, and beftowed on them certain parts, and en- dued them with certain powers, to attraft and affimilate light, air, and other fubtile matters, with which they are abundantly fupplied through the medium of the atmofphere, or of water; and as he has placed them in their proper de- ments, where each part naturally exerts the powers eflential to it : no new and blind inftindt to vegetate feems to me neceffary to have been imparted to them. Each part, with it's living powers, performs it's taik; and thus in the general appearance becomes vifible the refult of the powers, that could develope them- felves in a given organization. The aftive powers of Nature are all living, each in it's kind : they muft poffefs a fomething within, anfwerable to their efFeÄs without ; as Leibnitz advanced, and as all analogy feems to inform us. That we have no name for this internal ftate of plants, or the powers ftill operating in them, is a defedt of our language : for fenfation is ufed only of the internal ftate, communicated to us by the nervous fyftem. An obfcure analogy how- ever may exift : and if it do not, a new inftinft, a power of vegetation afcribed to the whole, teaches us nothing.
• Iteim^rut dlgem, Btträchtungin uhtr di* ' Sketches of Remarks on tlie particular Kinds
Tride dgr IVint* ' Reimaros's General Re- of inftindive Arts in Animals:' to which is ap-
ttarkfl on the Inftindt of Animals.' Hamburg, pended J. A H. Reimarus's copious and elegant
1773. AKo Jngtfangtnt Bitracbtungtn iiher eflay on the nature of zoophytes« me btßndgrn Artw itr thUrifibn Kunfltriibt,
Digitized by
6o PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book IIL
Two natu4'al inftindts are fufEcIeiitly evident in plants, thofe of nutrition and propagation j and the refults of thefe are works of art, fuch as the performances of a living infcdl, however ikilful, fcarcely equals : they are the bud and the flower. When Nature makes a tranfition from a plant, or a ftone, to the ani- mal kingdom, does flie more clearly unfold to us the inftinfts of organic powers ? The polypus appears to bloflbm like a plant, yet is an animal. Like an animal it feeks and digcfts it's food : it pulhes forth flioots, and thefe flioots are living animals : it renovates itfelf, as far as it enjoys the power of renovation — the greateft work of art, that any creature performs. What is conftruäed with more art than the houfe of the fnail ? The cells of the bee muft yield to it : the web of the caterpillar, of the filkworm, muft give place to this artificial flower. And by what means has Nature accompliflied this i By internal organic powers, which, little divided into limbs, lie in a lump, and the convolutions of which, following for the moft part the progrefs of the Sun, formed this regular figure. Internal parts afforded the bafis, as the fpider draws her web from her entrails, and the air could only fupply the harder or grofler parts. This tranfition feems to me fufficiently to (how, whereon all the inftinfts, even the mechanical ones of the moft fkilful animal, depend : namely, on organic powers, operating in a given manner^ according to given limbs. Whether this be effefted with more or lefs fenfation, depends on the nerves of the creature : but befide thefe, there are ftftive mufcular powers, and fibres fully imbued with growing and renovating vegetative lite; which two kinds of powers, independent of the nerves, fuffici- ently compenfate to the creature what it wants of ncrvca and brain.
Thus Nature herfelf leads us to the inftindlive arts, which we are accuftomed to attribute more efpecially to certain infefts, for no other reafon but becaufe their performances are feen by us in miniature, and we compare them with our own. The more diftindt the organs of a creature, and the more lively and de- licate it's irritability i the lefs furprifing fhould it be to us, to perceive opera- tions, of which animals of coarfer ftrudture, and duller irritability of particular parts, are incapable, whatever other advantages they may poflifs. Even the fmallnefs and delicacy of the creature conduce to art ; which can be nothing elfe, but the refult of all it'« fenfations, aAivities, and irritabilities.
Here too examples will fpeak moft forcibly : and the faithful induftry of a Swammerdam, a Reaumur, a Lyonet, a Roefel, and fome others, have beauti- fully placed thefe examples before our eyes. When the caterpillar fpins herfelf round with a web, what does ftie more, than many other creatures perform, when they caft their fkins ? The fnake puts off* her exuviae, the bird moults her fea- thers, and many quadrupeds (bed their hair : by thefe means they grow young
Digitized by
Chap. IV.] Of the Inflin6ls of Animals. 6 1
again, and renovate their powei*s. The caterpillar alfo grows young again, only in a more difficult, exquifitc, and artful manner : flic ftrips off her briftly cafe, which takes with it fome of her feet, and by a flower or quicker tranfition ap- pears in a perfeftly new ftate. The firft period of her life, which flie employed as a caterpillar in the office of nutrition alone, afforded her powers for this : now mufl they alfo fenrc to propagate the fpecies, and for this her rings are formed, and her limbs arc produced. Thus, in the organization of this creature, Nature has only placed her periods of life and inftinfts farther from each other, and left them organically to prepare for a peculiar transformation — as mvoluntary on the part of the creature, as that of the fnakc when flic cafls her ikin.
What is the web of the fpider, but thcfpider herfelf elongated^ to obtain her prey ? As the polypus flretches out his arms to embrace it ; as flic obtained i&ngs to hold it b&.\ fo for the purpofe of catching her prey flic acquired the papillae, between which her web is drawn out. Of the juice from which it is formed fhe has about a fufEcient quantity to fupply her with webs during her life i and if flic be unfortunate with them, flic mud recur to forcible means, or die. The power that organized her whole body, and all it's inherent fecultics, formed her thus organically to the fabrication of this web.
The fame are we taught by the republic of bees. Each of the difTcrent fpe- cies of thefe is fafliioned to it's particular purpofe: and they afTociate together, bccaufc neither of the fpecies could exift without the others. The working bees are organized for the gathering of honey, and the conftruftion of the cells. The honey they gather, as every animal fceks it's food : and fmce their mode of life requires it, they colleft it orderly, and lay it up in ftorc. They conftruift their cells as fo many other animals build their habitations, each in it's own manner. Being of no fex, they feed the young of the hive, as others feed their own offspring 5 and kill the drones, as every animal kills another, that robs him of his provifion, and is a burden to his family. Though all this cannot be done without fenfe and feeling i yet it is but the fenfe, the feeling, of a bee ; neither the mere mccbanifm, to which Buffon refers it ; nor the complicated, mathematical« political reafon, which others afcrrbe to the crea- ture. It's mind is included in it's organization, and intimately interwoven with it. Thus it operates conformably to it 5 finely, and with art, but in a very narrow and confined circle. The beehive is it's world, and the creator has divided it's occupations into three parts by a threefold organization.
Neither muft we fufTer ourfelves to be mifled by the word promptitude^ while we obferve thefe organic arts in many animals immediately after their birth. Our promptitude arifes from praftices their's does not. Is their
Digitized by
6z PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Boor III.
organization completed ? it's powers muft be in full play. What in the World has the greatcft promptitude? The falling ftone; the blooming flower. That fells, this blooms, according to i^s nature. The cryftal Ihoots with more promp- titude and regularity, than the bee conftructs it's comb, or the fpider her web. In the ftone it is only a blind organic inftinft, that is infallible : in the infeA it is organized to the employment of feveral limbs and organs, and thefe may fail. The healthy, powerful confent of thefe to one end conftitutes prompti- tude, as foon as the pcrfed creature exifts.
Thus we perceive why tlie higher creatures rife, the more thcu* inccflänt pro- penfity and infallible promptitude decreafe. The more, namely, the one orga- nic principle of nature, which we here term plaßicy there impulfiue^ hcxtfenfitive^ there artful^ yet which is at bottom but one and the fame oi^nic power, is fubdivided into feveral oi^ans and various limbs; and the more it has in each of thefe a world of it's own, whence confequently it is expofed to particular errours and obftacles : fo nmch tlie weaker is it's propenfity, fo much the more is it fubjeft to the command of the will, and therefore of errour. The different fenfations muft be balanced againft each other, and then reconciled togethef t hail, then, overpowering inftinft, infallible guide ! The obfcure irritation, that ia a certain fphere, fecluded from all others, pofleflcs in itfelf a kind of omnifcience and omnipotence, is now divided into twigs and branches. The teachable creature muft learn, as he receives from Nature lefs knowledge : he muft exercife his powers, becaufe he receives lefs power from Nature: but by his progreffivc advancement, by the refining and divifion of his powers, he has obtained new means of opera- tion, and more and finer organs, to difcriminate his fenfations, and to choole that which is beft. What he wants in intenfity of impulfe, is fupplicd by it's cxtetit and finer compofition : he is capable of more pure felf-fatisfaftion, of a more free and diverfified ufe of his powers and limbs ; and all, becaufe, if I may fo exprefs myfelf, his organic mind is more fubtildy and multi&rioufly diftributed among it's organs.
Let us now confider a few wonderful and wife laws of this gradual improve- ment of the creature ; how the creator has accuftomed him ftcp by ftep to a combination of many ideas, or feelings, and to n peculiar free employment (f many fenfes and limbs.
Digitized by
[ «3 ]
GHAPTER V,
Advancement of tie Creature to a combination of fever al Ideas y and to a particular freer ufe of the Senfes and Limbs.
I. An obfcure but powerful propcnfity is aD, that inanimate nature poflefles. The parts prefs together with internal energies : every creature feeks to acquire formy and forms itfelf Every thing is yet included in this propenfityj but it indeftruftibly pervades the whole being. The (malleft part of a cryftal, or of a fait, is a fait or a cryflal : the plaftic power operates in the minuteft particle^ as in the whole ; indifcerptible from without, indeftruftible from within.
2. Plants divide themfelves into tubes and other parts : in thefe parts their propenfity begins to modify itfelf after it's own manner, though in the whole it ftill operates uniformly. Root, ftem, and branches, abforb i but in different manners, by different conduits, and different fubftances. Thus the propenfity of the whole modifies itfelf with thefe, but fWl remains in the whole one and the fame : for propagation is only the eßorefcence of growth^ and both thefe pro- penfities are infeparable from the nature of the creature.
3. In zoophytes Nature begins imperceptibly to fcparate particular oi]gan$, with their inherent powers : the organs of nutrition become vifible : the fruit already loofens itfelf in the womb of the parent, though it continues to be nouriflied in it as a plant. Many polypi fprout from one flem : Nature has fixed them to a fpot, and exempted them from locomotion. The fnail has a broad foot, with which it faflens itfelf to it's houfe. The fenfes of this creature lie obfcurely and indiflindt together : it's propenfity operates flowly and inti- mately : the copulation of the fnail continues feveral days. Thus Nature has exempted this beginning of vital organization as much as the could from di- vcrfity, and therefore more deeply concealed and firmly bound variety in an obfcure fimple movement. The tenacious life of the fnail is almofl inde- flruÄible.
4. As (he afcended higher, (he obferved the fame wife precaution, gradually to inure the creature to a greater difcrimination of diverfified fenfe and inflinft. The infedt cannot perform at once all it has to perform : therefore it mufb change if s form and beings firfl as a caterpillar to fatisfy the propenfity of nutri- tion, next as a fly that of propagation : it was incapable of both in one form. One fpecies of bees could not execute every thing requifite to the enjoyment and propagation of the kind : Nature divided them therefore, and made one to
Digitized by
64 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. [Book III.
work, another to propagate, and a third to produce young ; all by a flight change of organization, whence the powers of the creature acquired another direftion. IJ'hat ßc could not complete in one moclsl^ ß:e effcEled in ihree^ fitted to each other as fragments of one whole. Thus (he taught the bees their office in three fpecies, as (lie taught the butterfly, and other infefts, their occupations in two difllrent forms.
5. In proportion as flie advanced, and thought fit to allow the ufe of fevc- ral fenfes, and with thefe of will, to accumulate; flie removed unnecej'ary iimhsj and ftmplified theßruäure within and without. With the fldn of the caterpillar feet are removed, for which the butterfly will have no occafion : the many feet of infcdls, their numerous and diverfified eyes, their antennse, and many other little implements, are wanting in fuperiour creatures. Of thofe the head con- tains little brain : it lying far lower in the fpinal marrow, and each ganglion of the nerves confl:ituting a new centre of fenfation. Thus the mind of the little artift is difperfed throughout it's whole body. The more the creature (hould increafe in fpontaneity, and the refemblance of intelligence ; the greater, and better furnilhed with brain, is it's head; and the three principal parts of the body are more proportionate to each other, which in infedts, worms, and the like, were totally deftitute of proportion. What great and mighty tails do the amphibia drag on the ground, while their misfliapen legs ftand unconncfted ! In quadrupeds Nature has exalted her work : the legs are longer, and approach nearer together. The tail, with it's portion of the vertebrae, (hortens and dimi- nilhes : it lofes the grofs mufcular force of the crocodile's, and becomes more pliable and flender; till in more noble animals it is only a hairy fwitch, and at length, as Nature approaches the eredV. form, it is totally rejedled. The marrow of it is carried higher up, and expended on nobler parts.
6. While the creative artiil found the prcp§rticn of the quadruped the beft, wherein this creature learned to exercife certain fenfes and powers in comhinatiouj and to unite them in one form of thought and fenfation : flie changed the figure of each fpecies according to it's mode of life and dcftination, and with the fame parts and limbs produced it's own liarmony of the whole, and therewith it's own organic mind, dÜFerent from all others. At the fame time flie retained a cer- tain fmiilitude, and fccmed to purfue one great end. This great end is evi- dently to approach that organic form, in which the greateft: combination