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INTRODUCTION. 



* tracing the gradations from barbarifm to civility. Thatthefe 



* fpeculations fliould become the favourite topics of fuch a 

 ' period is extremely natural. We look back on the favage 



* condition of our anceflors with the triumph of fuperiority ; 

 ' and are pleafed to mark the fleps by which we have beea 

 ' raifed from rudenefs to elegance ; and our reflexions on 

 ' this fubjedt are accompanied with a confcious pride* 

 ' arifmg, in a great meafure, from a tacit comparifon of 

 ' the infinite difproportion between the feeble efTorcs of 

 ' remote ages, and our prefent improvements in knovv- 

 ' ledge. In the mean time, the manners, monuments, 

 ' cufloms, pracTiices, and opinions of antiquity, by forming 

 ' fo flrong a contrafl: with thofe of our own times, and 

 ' by exhibiting human nature and human inventions in 

 ' new lights, in unexpeded appearances, and in various 



' forms, are objecfls which forcibly Ilrike a feeling imagi- 



' nation. Nor does this fpedacle afford nothing more than 



' a fruitlefs gratification to the fancy. It teaches us to lee 



' a juft eflimation on our own acquifitions, and encourages 



' us to cherifh that cultivation, which is fo clofely conneded 



' with the exiflence and the exercife of every focial virtue." 



We need not here obferve, that the maimers, monuments, cufioms, 



pra5iices, and opinions of the prefent inhabitants of the Pacific 



Ccean, or of the Weft fide of North America, form the 



firongejl cont'ajl with thofe of our own time in enlightened 



Europe ; and that a feeling imagination will probably be more 



ftruck with the narration of the ceremonies of a Natche at 



Tongataboo, than of a Gothic tournament at London ; with 



the conteiTiplation of the colofTufes of Eafter Ifland, than of 



the myfterious remains of Stonehenge. 



Many fingularities, refpeding what may be called the 

 natural hillory of the human fpecies, in different climates, 



will, 



