OF NATURAL HISTORY. 41 j 



jaen, In the firft periods of the world, hved and propagated 

 feveral hundred years. 



In countries thinly peopled with favages, it is extremely 

 probable, that focieties are formed by the gradual union of 

 families and tribes. The increafe of power arifing from mu- 

 tual affiftance, and a thoufand other comfortable circumftan- 

 ces, foon contribute to cement more firmly the afTociated 

 members. Some of the arts of life, beiide that of banting, 

 are occalionally difcovered either by accident or by the inge- 

 nuity of individuals. In this manner, gradual advances are 

 made from the favage to the civilized condition of mankind* 

 This is a very fliort view of the origin of fociety, which has 

 been adopted by moft authors both ancient and modern, 

 though many of them have derived the afTociating principle 

 from very different, and even from oppoiite eaufes, which it 

 is no part of our plan either to enumerate or refute. Some 

 writers, as Ariftotle, and a few moderns, implicit followers 

 of his opinions, deny that man is naturally a gregarious or 

 afTociating animal. To render this notion confiflent with 

 the a6lual and univerfal flate of the human race, thefe au- 

 thors have had recourfe to puerile conceits, and to queftion- 

 able fadls, which it would be fruitlefs to relate. Other writ- 

 ers, pofTeffcd of greater judgment and difcernment, and lefs 

 warped with vanity and hypothetical phantoms, have deriv- 

 ed the origin of fociety from its real and only fource, Nature 

 herfelf. 



That the afTociating principle is inflin^llve hardly requires 

 a proof. An appeal to the feelings of any human being, and 

 to the univerfal condition of mankind, is fufficient. Thefe 

 feeUngs, it may be faid, are acquired by education and habit. 

 By thefe eaufes, it is true, our focial feelings are ftrengthen- 

 ed and confirmed ; but their origin is coeval with the exifl- 

 ence of the firft human mind. Let any man attend to the eyes^ 

 the features, and the geftures of a child upon the breafl, 



