APPENDIX. 85 



of his publications, it deferves our attention lefs, on account 

 of the opinions it contains, than as a fpecimen of a particular 

 fort of enquiry, which, fo far as I know, is entirely of modern 

 origin, and which feems, in a peculiar degree, to have interefted 

 Mr Smith's curiofity. Something very fimilar to it may be 

 traced in all his different works, whether moral, political, or li- 

 terary ; and on all thefe fubjects he has exemplified it with the 

 happieft fuccefs. 



When, in fuch a period of fociety as that in which we live, 

 we compare our intellectual acquirements, our opinions, man- 

 ners, and inftitutions, with thofe which prevail among rude 

 tribes, it cannot fail to occur to us as an interefting queftion, 

 by what gradual (leps the tranfition has been made from the 

 firft fimple efforts of uncultivated nature, to a Hate of things 

 fo wonderfully artificial and complicated. Whence has arifen 

 that fyftematical beauty which we admire in the ftru&ure of a 

 cultivated language ; that analogy which runs through the 

 texture of languages fpoken by the moft remote and unconnect- 

 ed nations ; and thofe peculiarities by which they are all di- 

 ftinguifhed from each other ? Whence the origin of the diffe- 

 rent fciences and of the different arts ; and by what chain has 

 the mind been led from their firft rudiments to their lad and 

 moft refined improvements ? Whence the aftonifhing fabric of 

 the political union ; the fundamental principles which are com- 

 mon to all governments ; and the different forms which civi- 

 lized fociety has affumed in different ages of the world ? On 

 moft of thefe fubjects very little information is to be expected 

 from hiftory ; for long before that ftage of fociety when men 

 begin to think of recording their tranfactions, many of the 

 moft important fteps of their progrefs have been made. A few 

 infulated facts may perhaps be collected from the cafual obfer- 

 vations of travellers, who have viewed the arrangements of rude 

 nations ; but nothing, it is evident, can be obtained in this way, 



which 



Account of 

 Dr Smith. 



