409 



characterized, and those by which they seem to 

 be connected with different groups of Asiatics. 

 The state of nations and of individuals is the 

 same : as, in the latter, the whole faculties of 

 the mind unfold themselves but gradually, so, in 

 the former, the progress of civilization does not 

 manifest itself at once in the melioration of 

 public and private manners, in a taste for the 

 arts, and in the form of general institutions. 

 Before we class nations, we should study them 

 according to their specific characters, since ex- 

 ternal circumstances may give an infinite variety 

 to the shades of civilization, which distinguish 

 tribes of a different race ; especially when, fixed 

 in regions far remote from each other, they have 

 long lived under the influence of governments 

 and religious rites hostile to the progress of the 

 mind, and to the preservation of individual 

 liberty. 



VOL. XIII. E E 



