ANIMALS 239 



the same manner, neither burning nor scarifying, neither noises in the 

 ears nor pungent spirits applied to the nostrils, give certain signs of 

 the discontinuance of life ; and there are many instances of persons 

 who have endured them all, and afterwards recovered without any 

 external assistance, to the astonishment of the spectators. How care- 

 ful, therefore, should we be, before we commit those who are dearest 

 to us to the grave, to be well assured of their departure : experience, 

 justice, humanity, all persuade us not to hasten the funerals of our 

 friends, but to keep their bodies unburied until we have certain signs 

 of their real decease- 



CHAPTER XI. 



OP 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 considered him 

 as an individual, endowed with excellencies 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 

 Dne nation upon the earth that entirely resembles another ; and there 

 may be said to be as many different kinds of men as there are coun- 

 tries 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, di- 

 vides two barbarous tribes that are unlike each other in manners, 

 customs, features, and complexion. But these differences, however 

 perceivable, do not form such distinctions as come within a general 

 picture of the varieties of mankind. Custom, accident, or fashion, 

 may produce considerable alterations in neighbouring nations ; their 

 being derived from ancestors of a different climate, or complexion, 

 may contribute to make accidental distinctions, which every day grow 

 ess; and it may be said, that two neighbouring nations, how unlike 

 soever at first, will assimilate by degrees ; and, by long continuance, 

 the difference between them will at last become almost imperceptible. 

 It is not, therefore, between contiguous nations we are to look for 

 any strong marked varieties in the human species : it is by comparing 

 the inhabitants of opposite climates and distant countries ; those who 

 live within the polar circle with those beneath the equator ; those that 

 live on one side of the globe with those that occupy the other. 



Of all animals, the differences between mankind are the smallest. 

 Of the lower races of creatures, the changes are so great as often en- 

 tirely to disguise the natural animal, and to distort, or to disfigure its 

 shape. But the chief differences in man are rather taken from the 

 tiii-ture of his skin than the variety of his figure ; and in all climates 

 he preserves his erect deportment, and the marked superiority of his 

 form. If we look round the world, there seems to be not abov- 



