374 



APPENDIX. Chap. III. 



than can be expected in any Savage, who, not perceiving the im- 

 mediate utility of fpeach, either for faftenance or felf-defence, will 

 not be difpofed to take fo much trouble as is neceffary to learn an 

 art fo difficult to be learned, efpecially at an advanced time of life. 

 And, therefore, I rather v/onder, that, at a common country fchool, 

 fuch as Peter was put to, he has learned fo many words, many more 

 than I thought he had known, till I got this information from Mr 

 Burgefs : And it appears that he has learned alio the ufe of num- 

 bers to a certain degree ; and his progrefs in mufic would appear to 

 me very wonderful, if I did not know that mufic was much more 

 natural to Man than articulation. But, even with refpedt to it, I 

 can have no doubt, but that, if he had been taught by fuch a mailer 

 as Mr Braid wood, he would long before now have fpoken very per- 

 fectly. But, even from Mr Braidwood, he could not have learned by 

 imitation merely, nor even by precept ; for Mr Braidwood muft not 

 only have fhown him, by his own example, the pofition and conii- 

 guration of the organs neceffary for pronouncing fuch and fuch 

 founds, but he muil have laid hands upon him, as he does upon his 

 deaf fcholars, and put his organs in the proper pofition, at leaft as 

 many of them as he could reach in that way. 



As to Religion, I think it is impoffible that an animal, whofe In- 

 [ teiled; is only forming, and not yet formed, can have any notion of 

 a Deity, which certainly does not belong to the Animal but to the 

 Intellectual Nature : So that all we can fay of the religion of a per- 

 fed Savage is, that he has the capacity of being religious, as well 

 as of becoming an intelligent creature ; and, therefore, it might be 

 added, if it were neceifary, to the Peripatetic definition of a man, 

 that he is capable of religion^ as ivcll as ofinteUed andfciencc. 



The only objection of any weight to the credibility of what is re- 

 lated of Peter in his wild (late in the Newfpapers, is, that it is faid 



he 



