ANIMALS. 



177 



even in the last extremity. Thus it is the 

 prejudice of persons in health, and not the 

 body in pain, that makes us suffer from the 

 approach of death; we have all our lives con- 

 tracted a habit of making out excessive plea- 

 sures and pains ; arid nothing but repeated ex- 

 perience shows us how seldom the one can be 

 suffered, or the other enjoyed to the utmost. 

 If there be any thing necessary to confirm 

 what we have said concerning the gradual 

 cessation of life, or the insensible approaches 

 of our end, nothing can more effectually prove 

 it than the uncertainty of the signs of death. 

 If we consult what Winslow or Bruhier have 

 said upon this subject, we shall be convinced, 

 that between life and death the shade is so 

 very undistinguishable, that even all the pow- 

 ers of art can scarcely determine where the 

 one ends, and the other begins. The colour 

 of the visage, the warmth of the body, the sup- 

 pleness of the joints, are but uncertain signs 

 of life still subsisting ; while, on the contrary, 

 the paleness of the complexion, the coldness 

 of the body, the stiffness of the extremities, 

 the cessation of all motion, and the total in- 

 sensibility of the parts, are but uncertain 



marks of death begun. In the same manner, 

 also, with regard to the pulse and the breath- 

 ing, these motions are often so kept under, 

 that it is impossible to perceive them. By ap- 

 proaching a looking-glass to the mouth of the 

 person supposed to be dead, people often ex- 

 pect to find whether he breathes or not. But 

 this is a very uncertain experiment : the glass 

 is frequently sullied by the vapour of the dead 

 man's body ; and often the person is still 

 alive, although the glass is no way tarnished. 

 In the same manner, neither burning nor 

 scarifying, neither noises in the ears nor pun- 

 gent spirits applied to the nostrils, give certain 

 signs of the discontinuance of life ; and there 

 are many instances of persons who have en- 

 dured them all, and afterwards recovered 

 without any external assistance, to the asto- 

 nishment of the spectators. How careful, 

 therefore, should we be, before we commit 

 those w ho are dearest to us to the grave, to be 

 well assured of their departure: experience, 

 justice, humanity, all persuade us not to has- 

 ten the funerals of our friends, but to keep 

 their bodies unburied, until we have certain 

 signs of their real decease. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



OF THE VARIETIES IN THE HUMAN RACE. 



HITHERTO we have compared man with 

 other animals; we now come to compare men 

 with each other. We have hitherto consider- 

 ed him as an individual, endowed with ex- 

 cellencies above the rest of the creation ; we 

 now come to consider the advantages which 

 men have over men, and the various kinds 

 with which our earth is inhabited. 



If we compare the minute differences of 

 mankind, there is scarce one nation upon the 

 earth that entirely resembles another; and 

 there may be said to be as many different 

 kinds of men as there are countries inhabited. 

 One polished nation does not differ more from 

 another, than the merest savages do from 

 those savages that lie even contiguous to 

 them ; and it frequently happens that a river, 



or a mountain, divides two barbarous tribes 

 that are unlike each other in manners, customs, 

 features, and complexion. But these differ- 

 ences,however perceivable, do not form such 

 distinctions as come within a general picture 

 of the varieties of mankind. Custom,accidcnt, 

 or fashion, may produce considerable altera- 

 tions in neighbouring nations ; their being 

 derived from ancestors of a different climate, 

 or complexion, may contribute to make acci- 

 dental distinctions, which every day grow less; 

 and it may be said, that two neighbouring 

 nations, how unlike soever at first, will assimi- 

 late by degrees ; and by long continuance, 

 the difference between them will at last be- 

 come almost imperceptible. It is not, there- 

 fore, between contiguous nations we are to 



