APPENDIX. 85 
of his publications, it deferves our attention lefs, on account 
of the opinions it contains, than as a fpecimen of a particular 
fort of enquiry, which, fo far as I know, is entirely of modern 
origin, and which feems, in a peculiar degree, to have interefted 
Mr Smiru’s curiofity. Something very fimilar to it may be 
traced in all his different works, whether moral, political, or li- 
terary ; and on all thefe fubjects he has exemplified it with the 
happieft fuccefs. 
WueEv, in fuch a period of fociety as that in which we live, 
“we compare our intellectual acquirements, our opinions, man- 
ners, and inftitutions, with thofe which prevail among rude 
tribes, it cannot fail to occur to us as an interefting queftion, 
by what gradual fteps the tranfition has been made from the 
firft fimple efforts of uncultivated nature, to a ftate of things 
fo wonderfully artificial and complicated. Whence has arifen 
that fyftematical beauty which we admire in the ftru€ture of a 
cultivated language; that analogy which runs through the 
texture of languages fpoken by the moft remote and unconneét- 
ed nations ; and thofe peculiarities by which they are all di- 
ftinguifhed from each other? Whence the origin of the diffe- 
rent fciences and of the different arts; and by what chain has 
the mind been led from their firft rudiments to their laft and 
moft refined improvements? Whence the aftonifhing fabric of 
the political union ; the fundamental principles which are com- 
mon to all governments; and.the different forms which civi- 
lized fociety has affumed in different ages of the world? On 
moft of thefe fubjeéts very little information is to be expected 
from hiftory ; for long before that ftage of fociety when men 
begin to think of recording their tranfaions, many of the 
moft important fteps of their progrefs have been made. A few 
infulated faéts may perhaps be collected from the cafual obfer- 
vations of travellers, who have viewed the arrangements of rude 
nations ; but nothing, itis evident, can be obtained in this way, 
which 
Account of 
Dr Smith. 
