172 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



three and t-wo^ three and three ; others of them going as far as the 

 number of the fingers of one hand, that \% five: While the Ilurons 

 of North America have made a much greater progrefs ; for they liave 

 taken the fingers of both hands, and fo make a decimal arithmetic 

 fuch as wc ufc*. 



After the invention of language and arithmetic, wllliout which 

 no other art in civil life could have been invented or carried on, the 

 next ftep in man's progrefs would be to what are called the necef- 

 fary arts of life, fuch as agriculture, cloathing, and building houfes, 

 and then to many other arts of cafe and convenience, which the in- 

 ventive genius of man would produce. By the invention and prac- 

 tice of thefe arts the intelledl of man would be fo much improved 

 that he would naturally proceed to the invention of finer arts, fuch 

 as thofe we call liberal. 



The firfl; of thefe I hold to have been Mu/ic, of v^hich men had the 

 practice very early, even, as I have faidf, before language; but it was 

 only reduced to an art after the neceflary arts of life were invented. 

 Then Poetry and the Ornaments of Dre/s, and of Buildings ; for a 

 perception of beauty, or what we call lajle, I hold to be effential to 

 intelledl:, and one of the firft things which intelle£l produces : Anxl 

 accordingly we find it among men who have hardly any other ufe 

 of intellect. It is this fenfe which produces a certain order and re- 

 gularity in the adlions of men, without which no civil lociety could 

 be carried on, nor indeed could there be any ufe of intelle«5l in the 

 affairs of life. 



But as the love of knowledge and delight in it is natural, and I 

 may fay neceflary, to an intelligent animal, man was not fatisfied 



witli 



* See what I have faid on this fubje^ in Vol. I. of Origin and Progrefs of Language, 

 g. 54.:. 2 J edition. 

 t Page 160. 



