igO VOYAGE TO MADAGASCAR. 



He who freely confefTes that he knows 

 nothing, is much nearer inftriidion than the 

 greater part of thofe prefumptuous charac- 

 ters, who, though fcarcely acquainted with 

 the elements of knowledge, decide on the 

 mod difficult and complex fubjedts, without 

 being checked by a confcioufnefs of their 

 own intlgnificance. During the time I re- 

 fided at Madagafcar, I never ceafed making 

 experiments on thefe iflanders ; the refult 

 of which proved to me, how eafy it is to 

 giv^e them jufl: notions of our fciences. I 

 had occafion to be furprifed at the aftonifh- 

 ing facility with which they comprehend 

 the general caufes of thofc phsenomena 

 which ought to alarm and furprife them 

 moft* However little verfed people may 

 be in the mathematics, they know the me- 

 thod which inufl be purfued in order to 

 diffufe them. Is it not by cultivating them 

 that Europe has emerged, almoft fuddenly, 

 3 from 



