Chap. IX. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 219 



There Is one thing belonging to ^Tan in his natural ftate, \vhich 

 defcrves our particular attention, and that is, his faculty of imita- 

 tion, which is greater in him than in any other animal : For other 

 animals, we fee, imitate, fome by gefture only, others by voice only; 

 but" Man imitates both ways *', and not only the adions and 

 qualities of Body, but the fentiments and pafTions of Mind ; for he 

 can afllime a charader, and become another man. It is, therefore, 

 undoubtedly true, what Ariftotle fays, ' That Man is the mod imi- 

 * tative of all animals ;' and likewife what he adds, * That it is by 

 ' imitation that he firft learns f-' And, indeed, I hold that his imi- 

 tative faculty has been the origin of all the arts of life : It is by it 

 that he has learned to build, to weave, to fmg,and even to fpeak, as I 



E e 2 think 



in a canoe with two Savages. In this river, there are feveral f.ills, or rapideSf as the 

 French cal! them. Before they came to one of thefe, which was fo great that the 

 canoe was in hazard of being overfet, he heard the Indians fpeak to one another in 

 their own language. After the danger was over, he afked them what they were 

 faying : They told him, that they were concerting what part each of them ftiould ad 

 in the event of the canoe being overfet ; and that it was agreed betwixt them, that 

 one (hould take care of the canoe, and the other of the ivhite nothing, a term in that 

 cafe, I believe, properly enough applied to the ofTicer, who, it is likely, was not 

 capable of faving either himfelf or the canoe. 



* It is furprifing how the barbarous nations are able to Imitate the cries of fo ma- 

 ny animals fo well, that it is impofllble to dldlnguifli the imitation from the origl- 

 nal. Mr Adair, in his hiftory above quoted, relates, that the Indians of North Ame- 

 rica, when in any of their expeditions they divide themfelves for better conceal- 

 ment, which they frequently do, the fignals they agree upon are the cries of ctitaia 

 quadrupeds, or fowls, that frequent the place they are in ; and he fays that there 

 is not a quadruped or fowl In the American woods of which they cannot cxaclly 

 imitate the voice, p. 385. And the fame Is told us of the Kamfchatkms. See a 

 French Account of that country lately publifhed, and added to the Abbe Chappe's 

 travels in Siberia. 



•(■ Aiiflot. TTEgi TToiYtTiKnSf Cap. Iv. 



