356 JAMAICA. 



theology ; without nny iklll in eloquence, poetry, mufic, architet^ure, 

 iculpture, or pninting, navigation, commerce, or the art military. 

 Their intellcft rifing to but a very confufed notion, and imperfecl idea, 

 of the general objedts of human knowledge. But he allows, that they 

 Invented ibmearts, and fome fciences ; that they had fome little know- 

 ledge of aftronomy, geography, and the mathematics ; that they had 

 fome few good civil laws and political conftitutions ; were induftrlous 

 enou"h adepts in judicial aftrology ; though cheir Ikill in fculpture, 

 aftd architedure, rofe not above a flat mediocrity. In thefe acquifi- 

 tions, however imperfed, they appear fur fuperior to the Negroes, vvlio, 

 perhaps, in their turn, as far tranfcend the ^-^^gyptians in the fuperlative 

 perfeftion of their worft qualities. 



When we refled on the nature of thefe men, and their difBmilarlty 

 to 'the reft of mankind, muft we not conclude, that they are a different 

 fpecics of the fame genus f Of other animals, it is well known, there 

 are many kinds, each kind having its proper fpecies fubordinate thereto ; 

 and why fhall we infift, that man alone, of all other animals, is undi- 

 verlified in the fame manner, when we find fo many irrefiftible proofs 

 which denote his conformity to the general fvftem of the world ? In 

 this fyftem we perceive a regular order and gradation, from inanimate 

 to animated matter; and certain links, which conned:!: the {ti\tr:\\ getter a 

 one with another ; and, under thefe genera, we find another gradation 

 of fpecies, comprehending a valt variety, and, in fome claffes, widely 

 differing from each other in certain qu:ilities. We afcend from mere 

 inert matter into the animal and vegetable kingdoms, by an almoft im- 

 perceptible deviation; and thefe two are again nearly connefted by a 

 very palpable fimilitude ; fo that, where the one ends, the other feems 

 to begin. When we proceed to divide and fubdividc the various claf- 

 fes of animals-, we perceive the fame exaft lubordination and clofe affi- 

 nity between the two extremes combining all together in a wonderful 

 and beautiful harmony, the refult of infinite wifdom and contrivance. 

 If, amidft the immenfe variety of all animate beings which people the 

 uni'erfe, fome anim:il, for example, the body of a man, be leledcd 

 to ferve as a criterion, with which all the other organized beings arc 

 to be compared ; it will be found, that, although all thele beings exift 

 abftradedly, and all vary by differences infinitel)" graduated, yet, at the 

 fame time, there appears a primitive and general defign, or model, that 



may 



