139 



in ditches covered with liurdlcs*. And in warm chmates 

 most of them cover themselves, at least as much as modesty 

 requires, with leaves or barks of trees or otherwise ; and in 

 the colder they cloath themselves with the skins of wild beasts. 

 — But how could Rousseau's savages either kill or flay any 

 beasts, having no instrument of any sort ? 



4thly, He pretends the primeval savages were destitute of 

 language : he even shews the difliculty or rather the impossi- 

 bility of the artificial formation of any ; and so far I perfectly 

 agree with him; but absolutely deny that men ever existed 

 that had not some language. 



5thly, He supposes his primeval savages never to meet 

 each other, or at least only once or twice — a strange paradox ! 

 Avere there no families, no brothers or sisters ? 



6thly, He thinks it impossible to imagine why one man 

 should want another, any more than a monkey or a wolfe re- 

 quire another of their species; and even if he did, what 

 motive could induce the other to assist him, or if there were 

 any, how they could agree as to the conditions. — This scarcely 

 requires an answer; and if it did, he himself furnishes one, 

 as we shall presently see. That monkies however assist each 

 other on various occasions many travellers assure usf; and 

 wolves are well known to hunt in droves. 



T 2 7thly, Yet 



* 6 L'Evesque, 34. 2 La Fitau, IS. + Bingley's ABJmal Biography, p. 76. 



