OF NATURAL HISTORY. 5ai 



rior order, wherever they exift. By contemplating the works of 

 Nature, he even rifes to fome faint ideas of her great Author. Why, 

 it has been afked, are not men endowed with the capacity and pow- 

 ers of angels ? beings of whom we have not even a conception. 

 With the fame propriety, it may be afked, Why have not beafts the 

 mental powers of men ? Queftions of this kind are the refiilts of ig- 

 norance, which is always petulant and prefumptuous. Every crea- 

 ture is perfe<a:, according to its deftination. Raife or deprefs any 

 order of beings, the whole fyftem, of courfe, will be deranged, and 

 a new world would be neceffary to contain and fupport them. Par- 

 ticular orders of beings Ihould not be confidered feparately, but by 

 the rank they hold in the general fyftem. From man to the mi- 

 nuteft animalcule which can be difcovered by the microfcope, the 

 chafm feems to be infinite : But that chafm is adually filled up with 

 fentient beings, of which the Hnes of difcrimination are almoft im- 

 perceptible. All of them poffefs degrees of perfedion or of excel- 

 lence proportioned to their ftation in the univerfe. Even among 

 mankind, which is a particular fpecies, the fcale of intelled is very 

 cxtenfive. What a difference between an enlightened philofopher 

 and a brutal Hottentot ? Still, however, Nature obferves, for the 

 wifeft purpofes, her uniform plan of graduation. In the human fpe- 

 cies, the degrees of intelligence are extremely varied. Were all men 

 philofophers, the bufinefs of life could not be executed, and neither 

 fociety, nor even the fpecies, could long exift. Induftry, various de- 

 grees of knowledge, different difpofitions, and different talents, are 

 great bonds of fociety. The Gentoos, from certain political and re- 

 ligious inftitutions, have formed their people Into different cafts or 

 ranks, out of which their pofterity can never emerge. To us, fuch 

 inftitutions appear to be tyrannical, and reftraints on the natural li- 

 berty of man. In fome refpeds they are fo : But they feem to have 

 been originally refults of wifdom and obfervation ; for, independent- 

 ly of all political inftitutions, Nature herfelf has formed the human 

 I 3 U fpecies 



