YOYAGE TO MADAGASCAR. 187 



not ignorant and credulous man capable ? 

 The fulnefs of our errors is, if I dare ufe 

 the expreffion, that of our miferies. Igno- 

 rance increafe^, but knowledge banifhes 

 them, Man Is either a very new being oa 

 the earthj or the earth has experienced 

 many great revolutions j for, if we reflet 

 ever fo Uttie on the feeble ray which illu- 

 minates the moft eniightened nations, can 

 we diCTemble our profound ignorance, and 

 not know that we Have as yet fcarcely 

 emerged from chaos ? What the moft learned 

 man Jaiows, is fo Uttle indeed, that none 

 but vain and fuperficial minds can boaft of 

 it. The fear of exaggerating our progrefe 

 in the ftudy of the moral and phyfical 

 fciences ought not, however, to render ns 

 unjuft towards the prefeat age. 'The rights 

 of man are now better underftood; the 

 caufes of the moft alarming phainomena ar-e 

 no longer a myftery ; and our progrefs in 



mathe- 



