Their Method ov Producing FIRE. 14? 
few him wrap up a fmall fpark in dry grafs, which, when he 
had run a little way, having been fanned by the air that his 
motion produced, began to blaze ; he then laid it down in a 
place convenient for his purpofe, incloling a fpark of it in an- 
other quantity of grafs, and fo continued his courfe. 
There are perhaps few things in the hiftory of mankind 
more extraordinary than the difcovery and application of 
fire : it will fcarCely be difputed that the manner of pro- 
ducing it, whether by collifion or attrition, was difcovered 
by chance : but its firft effects would naturally ftrike thofe ro 
whom it was a new objeft, with confirmation and terror : it 
Would appear to be an enemy to life and nature, and to tor- 
tnent and deftroy whatever was capable of being deftroyed or 
tormented ; and therefore it feems not eafy to conceive what 
fhould incline thofe who firft faw it receive a tranfient exif- 
tence from chance, to produce it by defign. It is by no means 
probable that thofe who firft faw fire, approached it with the 
fame caution, as thofe who are familiar with its effedts, fo as 
to be warmed only and not burnt ; and it is reafonable to 
think that the intolerable pain which, at its firft appearance, 
it muft produce upon ignorant curiofity, would fow perpetual 
enmity between this element and mankind ; and that the fame 
principle which incites them to crufh a ferpent, would incite 
them to deftroy fire, and avoid all means by which it would 
be produced, as foon as they were known. Thefe circum- 
ftances confidered, how men became fufficiently familiar with 
it to render it ufeful, feems to be a problem very difficult to 
folve : nor is it eafy to account for the firft application of it to 
culinary purpofes, as the eating both animal and vegetable 
food raw, muft have become a habit, before there was fire to 
drefs it, and thofe who have confidered the force of habit will 
readily believe, that to men who had always eaten the flelh 
of animals raw, it would be as difagreeable drefted, as to thofe 
who have always eaten it drefled, it would be raw. It is re- 
markable that the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego produce fire 
from a fpark by collifion, and that the happier natives of this 
country, New Zealand and Otaheite, produce it by the attri- 
tion of one combuftible fubftance againft another : is there not 
then the famereafon to fuppofe that thefe different operations 
correfpond with the manner in which chance produced fire in 
the neighbourhood of the torrid and frigid zones ? Among 
the rude inhabitants of a cold country, neither any operation 
of art, or concurrence of accident, could be fuppofed fo eafily 
to produce fire by attrition, as in a climate where every thing 
is hot, dry, and aduft, teeming with a latent fire which a. 
flight degree of motion was fufficient to call forth ; in a cold 
country therefore, it is natural to fuppofe that fire was pro- 
duced by the accidental collifion- of two metallic fubftances, 
N z and * 
