Zj6 ON THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS, 



how much more muft feeble man be fo ! And, as it 

 is not abfurd to believe that the gods animate the bo- 

 dies of various animals : how much lefs abfurd is it,, 

 that the fouls of men may do the fame I'- 

 ll. The refemblance between certain animals and 

 mankind. The human mind is always fo ingenious and 

 bufy in fearching out for refemblances, and takes fo~ 

 great a pleafure in having found them, that it even- 

 brings the remoteft. objects together, and fees refem- 

 blances where not the leaft fhadow of a likenefs exifts. 

 In all languages traces are to be found of the great 

 propenfity in mankind to compare their own qualities" 

 with the qualities of the inferior animals. In the Eaffc 

 as well as in the Weft the courageous man is compared 

 to the fierce and valiant lion, the faint-hearted to the 

 timid deer, the voluptuary to the wallowing fwine, the 

 fenfualift to the lafcivious goat, and the contemptible 

 iycophant to the fawning dog : and on thefe compa- 

 nions, in all languages are founded a multitude botk 

 of honourable and infamous names. The Iroquois and 

 ihe Hurons divide themfelves into certain tribes, and 

 every tribe bears the name of an animal ; as the tribe 

 of the wolf, the tribe of the bear, the tribe of the tor- 

 toife The investigation of the refemblances between 

 mankind and animals is even carried fo far by fome 

 moderns, that they have imagined certain relations 

 between the faces of men and beafts, and from thence 

 have drawn phyfiognomical rules. 



This refemblance now probably occaiioned mankind 

 to believe, that the fouls of thofe men who had a cer- 



* Lafitc&u, torn, i, p. 464, 



Sain 



