Chap. XIV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 187 



the New Hollanders ; for they had not the ufc cf fire, that great 

 inftrument of civil life, till they learned it from the Spaniards, their 

 firft vifitors: But now that they have got the ufe of fire, they are in 

 a ftate nnore civilifed than the New Hollanders; and they arc go- 

 verned by a race of nobles, though vi'ithout any regular form of go- 

 vernment. As to religion, they had none till the Jefuits came among 

 them *. 



There are other people who are in the infant ftate of civil focicty, 

 fuch as the Carraibs were when they were firft difcovered by the 

 French. Of thefe I have fpoken elfewheref ; and I fhall now pro- 

 ceed to the new difcovered people of the Pelew Iflands, who, I think, 

 are in a more perfed ftate of civil fociety than any of thofe nations 

 we call barbarous ; and, indeed, I think, that without the invention 

 and cultivation of arts and fciences there cannot be a more perfedl 

 ftate of civil fociety. They live under a regular government of 

 a king, a council, and an order of nobles; they pradile every 

 virtue belonging to the human kind ; and when we were among 

 them they fhewed a love of knowledge, which is natural to an ani- 

 mal of intelligence, but which we have not found in any other bar- 

 barous nation \, 



Beyond thefe Pelew men there is only one other ftep, and which 

 compleats the progrefs of civility; but which is only to be found in 

 the nations of Europe. The ftate I mean is, that in which arts are 

 invented or pradtifed, and not only what we call the neceflary arts 

 of life, but arts of elegance and refinement, fuch as IN'iufic, Poetry, 

 Painting, and Statuary. But even thefe we have not invented ; for 

 they have come down to us from the antient world. We have, 



A a 2 • however, 



• Vol, V. p. 5. f Vol. UI. p. 74. 



X See what I have faid of them, Vol. V. p. 56. &c. 



