4 SKETCH OF THE RISE [LECT, I 



up the blank. More certain data for tracing the 

 origin of art and science in the infancy of society 

 have been afforded by the discoveries of modern 

 circumnavigators. In those stages of it, which 

 their labours have opened to our view, we per- 

 ceive something like the fine arts, and some of 

 the more -useful sciences, awakening at a very 

 early period. We behold Music, Poetry, Sculp- 

 ture, and Painting, in their infant state, walking 

 hand in hand with civilization ; and, even before 

 the savage has thrown aside the deer-skin and the 

 club, their influence actuating his feelings and 

 energies, and having a principal share in the 

 formation of his character. We observe them 

 kindling by degrees the social and benevolent af- 

 fections in the human bosom ; binding man to 

 his native soil, by uniting agreeable associations 

 with locality ; forming the first medium of histo- 

 rical record ; laying the foundation of govern- 

 ment ; exciting emulation ; and sowing the seeds 

 of patriotism. In this dawn of society, something 

 like Botany is also to be seen. The plants which 

 surround the human savage are the ornaments of 

 the earth. Nature has bestowed upon them a 

 great diversity of form, of magnitude, of colour, 

 and of odour, equally fitted to attract the attention, 

 to delight the senses, and to administer to the ne- 

 cessities of mankind. The umbrageous tree, there- 

 fore, under which uncivilized man shelters himself 



