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 theniselves 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. Xtn. E E 
