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prejudices of the age or country in which they happen to be bom; 
to men of this complexion every attempt to investigate the nature 
of this earth, or the history of its inhabitants, will appear a chime- 
rical undertaking, originating in idle speculation, and terminating 
in useless conjecture. But notwithstanding the indifference which 
many men feel respecting every intellectual accomplishment, which 
happens not to fall in with their particular mode of study, or 
apprehension, 1 doubt not but there are many of a contrary turn, 
who would zealously sacrifice their health, riches, and repose, in 
support of any liberal and enlarged plan, which might be con- 
certed for bringing us acquainted with the general history of our 
species. 
“ Concerning the various colonies, which, in process of time, 
after the deluge, traversed the plains of Asia, from the Indus to the 
Ganges, from the Ganges to the extremity of China, Taitary, and 
Japan, profane history is wholly silent, or speaks with extreme 
diffidence and uncertainty. There can no possible reason, I think, 
be assigned, why the descendants of Noah should have all gone in 
one direction; for the part of the globe to the east of the settle- 
ment of Noah and his family, after the flood, was peopled in all 
likelihood as soon as that to the w T est. Arts and sciences have 
been as successfully cultivated, and the contest for power may 
have been as sharp, and may have produced as many great mo- 
narchies amongst the inhabitants of the eastern portion of the 
globe, as we know they did in the western. 
