222 A N T I E N T METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



fpeecli, were q^everthelcfs very proud, imagining themfelves the firft 

 and the beft of Men "^. The Troglodjte, or Homo NocJurnus of 

 Linnaeus, a little animal, not above half our height, who fees hardly 

 at all in the day-time, and chiefly in the night, is fovain and con- 

 ceited, that he believes the earth was made upon his account, and 

 that, fome time or other, he is to govern it f.' 



It is a common obfervation, that cuftom is a fecond nature ; and 

 it is true of civilized men, fo true, that, among us, it often happens 

 that the fecond nature is more powerful than the fiift. But it is 

 not fo among wild men ; for Nature is fo ftrong In them, that it is 

 not to be overcome by any cuftom or education, at leaft not in the 

 firft generation : And, accordingly Kolben the Dutchman, in the ac- 

 count he has given us of the Elottentots, relates that many of 

 the children of the Hottentots have been taken very young by the 

 Dutch, and bred up among them, and even taught arts and profef- 

 fions, but who^ nevertheleis, whenever they found a proper oppor- 

 tunity, ftripped themfelves, and ran away tc? their countrymen in the 

 woods ; of which he gives a remarkable inftance, and which I fee is 

 related by M. Roufleau, in his treatife upon the inequality of Men. 

 — This evidently fliows that inclinations, difpofitions, and other qua<- 

 lities of the Mind, go to the race, as well as the qualities of the Bo- 

 dy ; which I would have the reader give particular attention to, as a 

 fa£l of great importance in the hiftory of Man, and whereof I fhall 

 make much ufe in the fequel of this work. 



There is another quality of the Mind, in the natural ftate, to be 

 carefully obferved, as it eflentially diftinguifhes a Man in the perfedl 

 natural ftate from a civilized man : And it is this, That the man of 



nature 



* Dldionnaire Geographlque de Martlnler, p. 125. 



■\ Origin and Progrefs of Language, Vol. i. p. 304. Second Edition. 



