INTRODUCTION. 
Ixx 
u in tracing the tranfition from barharifm to civility., 
u That thefe peculations fliould become the favourite to- 
(( pics of fuch a period is extremely natural. We look 
iC back on the favage condition of our anceftors with the 
u triumph of fuperiority; and are pleafed to mark the 
u heps by which we have been raifed from rudenefs to 
6i elegance ; and our reflections on this fubjeCt are accom- 
66 panied with a confcious pride, arifing, in a great mea- 
a fure, from a tacit comparifon of the infinite difpropor- 
a tion between the feeble efforts of remote ages, and our 
u prefent improvements in knowledge. In the mean time, 
“ the manners, monuments, cuftoms, practices, and opi- 
“ nions of antiquity, by forming fo ftrong a contrail: with 
cc thofe of our own times, and by exhibiting human na~ 
u ture and human inventions in new lights, in unexpected 
u appearances, and in various forms, are objects which 
“ forcibly ftrike a feeling imagination. Nor does this fpec- 
(£ tacle afford nothing more than a fruitlefs gratification 
“ to the fancy. It teaches us to fet a juft eftimation on 
c( our own acquiiitions, and encourages us to cherifh that 
(C cultivation, which is fo clofely connected with the exiit- 
66 ence and the exercife of every focial virtue.” We need 
not here obferve, that the manners , monument's , cuftoms , 
practices, and opinions of the prefent inhabitants of the 
Pacific Ocean, or of the Weft fide of North America, 
form the ftrongeft contraft with thofe of our own time 
in polifhed Europe; and that a feeling imagination will 
probably be more ftruck with the narration of the cere¬ 
monies of a Natche at Tongataboo, than of a Gothic 
tournament at London; with the contemplation of the 
coloffufes of Eafter Ifland, than of the myfterious remains 
of Stonehenge. 
Many 
