214 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
shores of Baffin’s bay ; but then on the other hand, there are some 
others, which are performed with a decided difference, and yet 
the effect produced is indisputably the same, which is in itself a 
conclusive illustration of the philosophy of Kant and Leibnitz, that 
two opposite causes can produce the same effect. A direct ex¬ 
emplification of the foregoing’ proposition is to be found in one 
of the customs of the Esquimaux, and which has given rise to 
this valuable and erudite dissertation on the innate properties of 
the human race. The custom alluded to, and which so deeply 
puzzled both the learned and unlearned individuals comprising 
the crew of the Victory, is that of the collision of lips, vulgarly 
known by the name of kissing. Now it will be seen, on referring 
to the dictionary of the Esquimaux language, given at the end 
of this work, that the word koonig, which was whispered by 
some of the Esquimaux ladies into the ears of the admiring sailors 
of the Victory, implies the act of kissing, and had the ladies 
offered their lips at the same time that they pronounced the 
word, there is perhaps very little doubt but that the sailors 
would, as it were by a kind of inspiration, have stumbled upon 
the meaning of the word, and the usual labial collision might 
have taken place. On the other hand it must be observed that 
if one of the sailors, more enamoured than the others, had shown 
any indication to salute the lips of one of the Esquimaux ladies, 
according to the manner and custom of his own country, the in¬ 
tent and meaning of the act might not have been understood by 
her, and further that she would have been equally confused and 
confounded, had he whispered in her ears the word kissing, as 
he had shewn himself at the sound of the word koonig . Nature 
in general does a great deal in these cases, for the act of kissing 
is not acquired by the mode of education adopted, by either Bell 
or Lancaster, but nature was, under the present circumstances, 
completely at fault, or at least, she had not rendered her instruc¬ 
tions so clear and definite, that they could be read off at sight, 
without the immediate interference of some other person or power 
experimentally versed in the matter. 
The moment was however near at hand in which all the doubts 
and surmises of the sailors touching this weighty matter, was to 
