ment, or even dictate what form the government shall 

 assume. Some of these are natural and pemianent; others 

 are accidental and transitory. The former are, soil, cli- 

 mate, and position, with respect to other nations and coun- 

 tries: the situation, whether continental or insular, mari- 

 time or inland. The latter are, prevalence of religion, ta- 

 lents of a ruler, character of neighbouring nations. 



In the early stages of society, where the mind of man 

 is little cultivated, or varied, by institutions; his desires 

 are simple, and easily satisfied: he is not many degrees 

 removed from the mere animal : his gratifications are 

 mostly of the sensual kind: his artificial wants are few 

 and trifling; and the arts, which minister to them, are 

 proportionably rude, and, comparatively speaking, insigni- 

 ficant. Such is human nature, in the stages of the war- 

 rior and hunter. The rude decorations of their armour, 

 the trophy of victory; the song, that rouses the warrior to 

 battle, celebrates his atchievements in fight, or attends him 

 to the tomb, when his breath has fled; the hymn, that ac- 

 companies seed-time and harvest, that praises the Gods 

 for their bounties, or deprecates their Avrath by prayer; 

 these, it should seem, are the only tribute, that the sturdy 

 and rough children of the heroic ages deign to levy, from 

 the fine arts. The pastoral age may require somewhat more. 

 Ease and quiet, and a state between labour and rest, pro- 

 ducing a relaxation of mind, with a sufficient degree of 

 bodily health and strength, dispose men, more power- 

 fully, in this state, than in the heroic, to the union of the 



sexes. 



