I50 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



account for civil fociety being formed not only from herds at once, 

 but from families, which we may fuppofe to have feparated from 

 the herd before it was formed into a fociety, and even from the 

 fociety after it was formed, for certain reafons, But after thefe fa- 

 milies had feparated from the herd or fociety, they would find it 

 neccfliiry, in procefs of time, to aflbciate with other families, and 

 fo form a political fociety. This aflbciation we muft fuppofe to 

 have been at firll of few families : And accordingly the Indian na- 

 tions of North America confifted originally of no more than three 

 families, which are yet preferved among them diftindl * ; and 

 there is one very remarkable family, of which we have a moft au- 

 thentic record, I mean the family of Jacob, which continued by it- 

 felf, without incorporating with any other family, till it became a 

 great and powerful nation. 



Civil fociety being thus conftituted, we are next to inquire how 

 it produces the improvement of the human intelledl, and I may fay 

 the acquifition of it. 1 have already faid that it is by the clofe in- 

 tercourfe of men in that fociety, that the improvements of our in- 

 telledt are produced. But how is this intercourfe to be carried on ? 

 And I fay that can only be by the ufe of language; for it would not 

 be fufficient to ufe only figns and geftures and inarticulate cries, 

 fuch as the beavers ufe t in carrying on their bufinefs. But for that 

 communication of men with one another, which is neceffary in or- 

 der to carry on the bufinefs of political fociety, and confequently to 

 produce arts and fciences, there muft be the ufe of fpeech; and it is 

 for want of that faculty that the Orang Outangs have no polity or 

 government among them, nor any arts or fciences. Language, there- 

 fore is the foundation of all the improvement we can make of our 

 mind in this life: And it muft have been invented before any 



other 



* Vol. I. of Origin of Language, p. 365. zd ctition. 



I See Vol. III. p. 53. 



