OF NilTURAL HISTORY. 421 



iating figure would the human fpecies exhibit, even upon the 

 llippofition that they did aflbciate ? But, when language and 

 aflbciation are conjoined, the human intclle^V, in the progrefs 

 of time, arrives at a high degree of perfection. Society 

 gives rife to virtue, honour, government, fubordination, 

 arts, fcience, order, happinefs. All the individuals of a com- 

 munity condudl themfelves upon a regulated fyfhem. Under 

 the influence of eftablifhed laws, kings and magiftrates, by 

 the exercife of legal authority, encourage virtue, reprefs vice, 

 and diffufe, through the extent of their jurifdidlions, the hap- 

 py efFe^Sts of their adminiftration. In fociety, as in a fertile 

 climate, human talents germinate and are expanded ; the 

 mechanical and liberal arts flourifh ; poets, orators, hoftori- 

 ans, philofophers, lawyers, phyficians, and theologians, are 

 produced. Thefe truths are pleafant ; and it were to be 

 wiflied that no evils accompanied them. But, through the 

 whole extent of Nature, it fiiould appear, from our limited 

 views, that good and evil, pleafure and pain, are neceflary 

 and perpetual concomitants. 



The advantages of fociety are immenfe and invaluable. 

 But the inconveniencies, hardfhips, injuftice, oppreffions, and 

 cruelties, which too often originate from it are great and la- 

 mentable. Even under the mildeft and beft regulated gov- 

 ernments, animolities, jealoufies, avarice, fraud, and chicane, 

 are unfortunately never removed from our obfervation. In 

 abfolute monarchies, and particularly in defpotic govern- 

 ments, the fcenes of private and of general calamity and dif- 

 trefs are often too dreadful to be defcribed. Notwithfland- 

 ing all thefe difadvantages, however, any government is pre« 

 ferable to anarchy ; and the comforts, pleafures, and improve- 

 ments, we receive from aflbciating with each other, overbal- 

 ance all the evils to which fociety gives rife. 



From an attentive obfervation of the manners and oecono- 

 my of animals, fociety has been diftinguifhed into two kinds, 



E K e 



