Essays, or discourses, vol. 4 (of 4)

SECT. I.

I. There is no doubt, but the different temperament of air in countries, induces a sensible diversity in men, brutes, and plants. In plants, the difference is so great, that the same which in one country is innocent and salutary, in another is noxious and poisonous, which, as we are assured, is the case with the Persian apple. The diversity between brutes, is not less than that between plants, both with respect to their size, fierceness, strength, and other qualities; but besides what is obvious and clear to the observation of all men in this matter; we are assured there are countries, where many sorts of animals, degenerate totally from the characteristic property of their species. If we are to believe Lucianus, Macedonia produces serpents, so social to the human race, that they will play with children, and gently apply their mouths to the nipples of women’s breasts to suck their milk; and as Louis de Marmol informs us, in Gruregra a mountainous country in the kingdom of Fez, the lions which are very numerous, are so tame and so timid, that the women with sticks in their hands, beat and drive them about like so many domestic dogs.

II. If the difference in our own species, which is produced by a diversity of climate, is not so great, it is sufficiently evident and apparent. It is manifest, that there are countries, where the inhabitants are remarkable for being of larger stature than they are in others, or for being more active, more strong, more healthy, or more beautiful; and that this difference subsists with respect to all other things, that depend upon the two faculties that are common to both men and brutes, that is, the sensitive and the vegetative. Even in nations which border upon each other, this difference is sometimes observable.

III. Distinct dispositions of body, are attended with distinct qualities of mind; and from distinct temperaments, result distinct inclinations; and from distinct inclinations, distinct customs and manners. The first of these consequences is a necessary one; but the second is not so certain, because a man’s free will may restrain the impetus of his inclination; but as is most commonly the case, men let their free will be led by the emotions, which are produced by the interior disposition of the machine; so that we may safely pronounce, that men in one country are more addicted to passion and anger, in another to gluttony, in another to be lascivious, and in another to be lazy or slothful.

IV. The inequality between men of different regions in the rational part, is generally supposed not to be less, but rather greater, than it is in the sensitive and vegetative; and it is not only in the conversation of the vulgar that we see this opinion upheld, but we see it supported in the writings of the learned; where we find one nation described as rude and savage, another as stupid, and another as barbarous; so that when according to this description of them, we come to compare one of these nations, with one of those who are esteemed cultivated and polished, we conceive that there is nearly as great a difference between the inhabitants of the one and the other, as there is between men and wild beasts.

V. I differ so widely from the common opinion in this particular, that with respect to the essential part of the use of the understanding, in the inhabitants of one nation and another, the difference is imperceptible. This sentiment cannot be better justified, than by shewing, that those nations which are commonly reputed rude and barbarous, are not inferior in ingenuity to the most cultivated ones, and perhaps in some instances excel them.

SECT. II.

VI. We will begin our comparisons with the nations of Europe. The Germans, who have been so stigmatized for heavy dull people, that Father Domingo Bohursius a French Jesuit, in his Conversations of Aristius and Eugenius, made no scruple of pronouncing, that he doubted whether it was possible to find a man of bright talents in the whole country: however, in answer to this charge, it may be alledged, that Germany has produced so many excellent authors in all kinds of literature, that it is hardly possible to number them. I doubt whether the before-named Frenchman, by rummaging for them through the series of all past ages, can point out two of his countrymen, who were equally eminent with Rabanus Maurus, and Albertus the Great. The epithets which Cardinal Baronius bestows upon Rabanus Maurus, are, that he was the resplendent star of his age, and the supreme Theologian of his time; and Sextus Senense, recognizes him as a man most perfectly accomplished in all kinds of letters; and the Abbot Trithemius, after celebrating him as a most excellent Theologian, Philosopher, Orator, and Poet, adds, that Italy never produced a man equal to this; and Trithemius was not ignorant, that Saint Thomas Aquinas was a native of Italy. Whom can France boast that exceeded Trithemius himself, who was so greatly venerated by Cornelius Agrippa; or who excelled the Abbot Rupertus, or Father Athanasius Kircher, who according to Caramuel was divinely learned; or Father Gaspar Schotti, and many others whom I shall omit? Neither should we forbear to mention that ray or flash of criticism, Gaspar Sciopius, who was the terror of all the learned men of his time, who at the age of sixteen begun to write books, which were the admiration of men of years and experience. I have in this literary map of Germany, only pointed out the mountains of greatest eminence, as I had not room to insert the lesser ones in it.

VII. The Hollanders, who in the days of antiquity were reputed for such stupid people, that it was common among the Romans, when they had a mind to describe a heavy dull man, or one that was slow of apprehension, to make use of the following proverbial expression, auris Batava; that he had the ears of a Hollander; however, the Dutch since then, have clearly proved, that imputation was a false one, for the opinion of their being people of ability, is at this day very fully established. Their civil government, and their industry in commerce, are the admiration of all the world; and there is scarce an art, that is not cultivated and brought to great perfection among them. The two Williams of Nassau, Erasmus, and Hugo Grotius, are striking examples of their talents for policy and literature. Thus we see in this as well as other nations, the want of application has been construed into rudeness; but as soon as the neglect of study was remedied, the injustice of the imputation became manifest.

VIII. The abilities of the Muscovites also, have till of late days, been held in as much contempt as those of the antient Hollanders were; for it was but in the last century, that Urban Chevreau a celebrated wit of France, laid that a Muscovite was the man of Plato; by which expression, the French Author alluded to the poor definition that philosopher gave of a man, when he described him to be an animal without feathers, who walked upon two legs, animal bipes implume; this gave occasion to the joke of Diogenes, who having plucked the feathers off a cock, threw him into the school of Plato among his disciples, calling out with a loud voice, see the Man of Plato. Chevreau attempted to say, that the Muscovites were nothing like men but in their figure. But after the Czar Peter Alexiowitz had introduced arts and sciences among them, it soon became evident, that the Muscovites were as much men in all respects, as any of the other people in Europe. But if this never had been done, how could any one suppose that a people who were stupid and senseless, should have been able to form a most extensive empire; and to preserve it for so long a space of time as the Russians have preserved theirs? It required great ability to conquer such an empire; and to preserve it in the face of two such powerful enemies as the Turks and the Persians, much more. I am not ignorant, that Muscovy is a part of antient Scythia, whose moroders were reputed, and with reason, the most savage and barbarous of men; this barbarism, did not proceed from their want of natural talents, but from the want of those talents being cultivated; of which truth, the famous philosopher Anacharsis is a striking instance, who was the only man of that nation, that went to study in Greece. If numbers of other Scythians had done the same, Scythia might possibly have exhibited many Anacharsises.

SECT. III.

IX. If we attempt going out of Europe, every thing beyond those limits seems barbarous to us. When the imagination of the vulgar contemplates Asia, it represents to them, the Turks, the Persians, the Indians, the Chinese and the Japonese, as little better than so many congregations of satyrs, or demi-brutes. But notwithstanding this, there are none of these nations, who do not make as great advances in all the things they apply themselves to, as we do in whatever we study.

X. Their abhorrence for, nor their ignorance of the sciences in Turkey, is not so great as is generally imagined; for they have professors both in Constantinople and Grand Cairo, who teach astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, poetry, and the Arabic and Persian languages. But they have not so great an esteem for those faculties, as they have for politics; in their knowledge of which, there is scarce any nation who is equal to them, nor are there any subtilties appertaining to political arts, which they are ignorant of. The great English traveller, Mr. Chardin, in the relation of his voyage to India by land, tells us, that when he passed through Constantinople, he had much conversation with Senor Quirini the Venetian ambassador at the Porte; who assured him, that he had never treated with a man of equal penetration to the vizir of that time; and declared, that if he had a son whom he wished to breed a negociator, he would send him to the school of the Ottoman court preferable to any other. The Turks excel in all things that require dexterity of hand, and in all bodily exercises they take a fancy to. They are the best pen men in the world, and this is the reason, why they never would permit the art of printing to be introduced among them; and they are also the most active and dextrous rope-dancers in Europe. Cardanus relates wonders of two of them he saw in Italy, one of whom became a Christian, and lived an exemplary life, but always continued his old exercise; although his becoming a convert to Christianity, removed the suspicion that the vulgar entertained of his dealing with the devil. The dexterity of the Turks as archers, is so eminent, that the force and exactness with which they can shoot arrows is almost incredible. John Barclay, in the fourth book of his Satyricon, testifies to have seen a Turk penetrate with an arrow, a plate of steel, that was above an inch thick; and that he had seen another, who with the shaft of an arrow without any iron to it, split the body of a small tree. In the art of confectioning poisons, they are also very expert; for they will make them not only very active, but contrive them so, as that they may be administered without creating suspicion; a thin vapour with which a piece of fine linen is impregnated, if it is afterwards made up in any form, and sent as a present to the person to be dispatched, is made the instrument to take away his life. This is a most horrid and execrable art; but although it proves the perverse and wicked disposition of those people, is an argument of their great talents, for acquiring a profound knowledge of all they apply themselves to understand.

XI. The Persians, are still more polished than the Turks. They have their colleges and universities, where they study arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, natural and moral philosophy, medicine, jurisprudence, rhetoric, and poetry; which last, they are passionately fond of, and write elegant verses, although they are generally too redundantly abounding in pompous metaphors; and they are so far from being guilty of that ferocious neglect of urbanity which we are apt to impute to all the Mahometans, that there are no people who excel them in expressions of civility, tenderness, and affection. Whenever a Persian invites any one to his house, or is desirous of manifesting his esteem for him, he generally makes use of these, or some such like expressions; I intreat you that you will honour my habitation with your presence; and I shall be ready to devote myself to making it agreeable to you in every shape, and to indulging all your wishes; and should even be willing that the favourite females of my eyes, should be converted to carpets for you to set your feet on.

XII. It is true that in the East Indies, we do not find the cultivation of letters, but we find there a more than ordinary capacity for attaining them. John Baptist Tavernier, speaking of the negroes or mulattoes of that country called Canarines, many of whom are employed in various occupations in Goa, the Philippine islands, and other places in the possession of the Portugueze and Spaniards, says, that the children of those who apply themselves to study, acquire more in six months, than the children of Europeans learn in a year; and says further, that he was told this by some of the religious of Goa who had the tutelage of them. I am persuaded that the Portugueze, when they first saw this sooty-faced race, believed their reason, was as obscure and dark as their complexions; and that they supposed themselves nearly as superior in natural talents to them, as men are to brutes; and in how many parts of the globe, where we judge the inhabitants to be stupid, might we possibly see the same thing! for the metal of their understandings, for want of examining it by the touch-stone of study, has remained occult and unknown.

SECT. IV.

XIII. But the greatest injustice that the vulgar have been guilty of in this particular, is in the conception they have formed of the abilities of the Chinese. Why do I say the vulgar? When you hear men dignified with university honours, whenever they have a mind to heighten an extravagant action, or mode of proceeding that is contrary to all reason, say at every turn, this could hardly have happened among the Chinese; which amounts to the same thing, as making the conduct of the Chinese, the standard for measuring extreme barbarism. This certainly cannot tally very well with the idea those people entertain of themselves, which is, that they are the quintessence of policy, ingenuity, and penetration; for it is a proverb among them, that the Chinese have two eyes, the Europeans but one, and that all the rest of the world are totally blind.

XIV. The truth is, that they have great reason to believe this; for they excel in their civil government and policy all other nations. Their precautions for preventing civil, and avoiding foreign wars are admirable; and learned and wise men, are not held in such estimation by any other people in the world, as by them, and it is to such only, that they confide the reins of government. This alone, is sufficient to give them credit for being the most rational of mankind. The excellence of their inventive faculty is evident, from their being the first people, who hit upon the three famous inventions, of printing, gun-powder, and the nautical needle; for the knowledge of these in China, is supposed to be much anterior to our acquaintance with them in Europe; and there are also some well-grounded suspicions, that they were communicated to us from the Chinese. They excel exceedingly, in whatever arts they apply themselves to attain; and notwithstanding our utmost exertions, we in Europe, have not been able to equal, nor even to imitate them in many.

XV. There is great reason to believe they excel us in their knowledge of medicine, and in their mode of applying it. Their physicians, are both physicians and apothecaries; and it was formerly the custom in all nations to unite the two professions in one; would to God it was the same now! They keep in their houses all the medicines they make use of, which consist of various simples, whose virtues they have well examined and understand; which they collect, prepare, and apply. They are very attentive to, and take a long time in examining the pulse; and it is very common for them to be near an hour in exploring its movements. But the information they get from this circumstance, and the appearance of the tongue is such, that by revolving these particulars in their mind; they without asking any questions, either of the sick person or those who attend him, pronounce on what sort the distemper is, the symptoms that attend it, the time the patient was taken ill, together with all the antecedent and subsequent circumstances, that have accompanied, and will accompany it.

XVI. I am well aware, that this will appear incredible to our physicians; but the various accounts we have of China, some of which, have been written by men of most exemplary and unexceptionable characters, all agree in vouching the truth of these particulars, so that our refusing to give credit to them, would seem rash and unreasonable. But if I could possibly have entertained any doubt of this matter, our illustrious Don Joseph Manuel de Andaya y Hara, the worthy Prelate of Oviedo, would have removed them, who confirmed these relations to me, upon his own experience of a Chinese physician that practised in Manila, the capital of the Philippine Islands, of whom he told me wonderful things, both with respect to his prognostics and methods of cure. I am persuaded that some of our physicians about the court, have got the Book of Andrew Cleyer, the first physician of Batavia, intituled Medicina Chinensium, which was printed at Augsburgh. The diary of the learned of Paris in the year 1682, makes mention of it; and in that may be seen more at large, many of these accounts.

XVII. But, skilful as the Chinese physicians are in the practice of their art, the Chinese people are not behind them, in their skilful and wise regulations for the government of the physicians. If the physician, after having examined the pulse and the tongue, does not hit upon the distemper and the symptoms of it, which rarely happens, he is dismissed as unskilful, and another called in. If he does hit upon the foregoing particulars, which is most commonly the case, they confide the cure to him, and he immediately goes home, and fetches from his house a bag of simples, which he gives directions for the using of, pointing out the manner in which, and the quantity of each that should be applied or taken. When he has compleated the cure, he is paid amply for his time and attendance, and also for the medicines he has expended; but if the patient does not recover, the physician is not paid, either for the one or the other; so that the money of the sick person, is saved if he does not get well; and the physician, loses both his time and his medicines if he does nor cure him. It is much to be wished, that such a regulation subsisted among us; for although Quevedo some time ago complained of the want of it, he did not know it was established in China. It is true, that he made the complaint in a bantering way, but I believe he felt the want of the regulation very sensibly.

XVIII. We may say in general of Asia, that this was the country in which arts and sciences originated; letters owed their birth to Phenicia; and were from thence transported into Egypt and Greece; and the knowledge of astronomy came from Chaldea, and from thence was circulated into various other countries.

SECT. V.

XIX. As to what regards Africa, we should consider, that it gave birth to a Cyprianus, and a Tertullian, and what is still more, to an Augustin; and that the Africans were at one time, as much superior to the Spaniards in military skill, as the Spaniards at this day are to the Africans; and that there was a time, when the conquest of all Spain cost the Africans less blood, than it has since cost Spain to conquer a few spots in Mauritania. The soil and the climate of Africa, are the same now they were formerly, and consequently capable of producing equal geniuses; and the fault of not cultivating them, should not be imputed to the soil or the climate, but to the want of opportunities of instruction, or to the neglect of application; but with all this, they are perhaps not so uncultivated as is commonly thought. Father Buttier, in his little treatise, intituled An Examination of Vulgar Prejudices, gives us the copy of a speech, which the ambassador from Morocco made to Louis the Fourteenth, which was as eloquent and as much to the purpose, as if it had been composed by a learned European.

SECT. VI.

XX. The conceit, which upon the first discovery of America was entertained of its inhabitants, and which still subsists among the generality of people, is, that they are not so much directed by reason as by instinct; as if some Circe, in her peregrinations through that vast country, had transformed all their men into beasts. But with all this, there are abundant testimonies, that their capacities are in no wise inferior to ours. The illustrious Palafox, is not contented with allowing them to be equal to us in natural talents, but in the memorial he presented to the King in their favour, entitled A Natural Display of the Indies, declares they excel us. He there gives a relation of an Indian, whose person he knew, and who went by the name of The Man of Six Trades, from his understanding, and being able to work well at that number; and of another, who learned to build organs in an amazing short time; and of another, who in an amazing short time also, learned to play the organ. He there likewise gives an account of the exquisite address, with which an Indian recovered a horse that had been purloined from him by a Spaniard. The Indian, commenced a prosecution against the Spaniard for his horse, and when the trial came on, the beast was brought into court, where the Spaniard alledged that he had bought him, and had had him in his possession for several years, which he brought witnesses to confirm. The Indian, who had no evidence to prove his property in the horse, finding himself hard pressed, instantly threw his cloak over the horse’s head, and requested that the Spaniard who insisted that he had been owner of the horse for so long a time, might tell of which eye he was blind; the Spaniard, who was taken by surprise, and much confounded with the question, answered at random, the right; upon which the Indian pulled the cloak off the horse’s head, and manifested to the whole court, that he was not blind of either eye; this evinced the roguery of the Spaniard, and the Indian recovered his horse.

XXI. The Europeans under the command of Cortes, had scarce penetrated into the kingdom of Mexico, before they experienced many particulars, which convinced them, that the natives of that country were of the same species with themselves, and the children of the same common Father. We read in the History of the Conquest of Mexico, many military stratagems of the Indians, that were not inferior to those of the Carthaginians, the Greeks and the Romans; and many people have remarked, that the Crioles or children of Spaniards who are born in America, are more sprightly, and have more intellectual quickness, than those who are born in Spain; but whether what others add, that although their ingenuity manifests itself sooner, it does not last to so late a period of life, be just or not, I cannot pretend to determine.

XXII. It would be reasoning erroneously and grossly, to entertain a mean opinion of the capacities of the Indians, because upon their first intercourse with us, they gave pieces of gold for glass beads; for he would be more rude than they, who should conclude they were savage, upon this account. If we were to view glass free from our prepossession in favour of gold, glass would appear the most beautiful of the two; and with respect to what is sought after, for the purpose of ornament and ostentation, out of two things that are equally beautiful, that which is most scarce is always preferred. The Americans then in this instance, did no more than what is done by all the world. They had plenty of gold but no glass; and it was on this account that they concluded, and not without reason, that a string of beads, was a fitter ornament to adorn the neck of a princess, than a gold chain. A diamond, if we only regard the necessary utility of it, is not of superior value to a glass bead; but if we regard its lustre, it certainly excels it; and although, notwithstanding the principal difference between the two things, consists only, in the lustre and beauty of the diamond, the Asiatics sell the Europeans a diamond that weighs two ounces, for an amazing number of pounds sterling; and why is this? It can only be, because such diamonds are exceedingly scarce. The inhabitants of the island of Formosa, esteemed fine brass preferable to gold, because they had greater plenty of gold than fine brass, and continued to do so, till the Hollanders gave them to understand, the great estimation in which gold was held in other regions. If there was a greater plenty of gold all over the world, than there was of fine brass, the last of these metals would be preferred to the first. Upon the arrival of the Dutch Admiral Matelief at the Cape of Good Hope in the year 1605, the African inhabitants of that country, gave him eight and thirty sheep and two bullocks, for a small quantity of iron, which did not in its value exceed twenty-pence; and the best of it was, that they were equally satisfied they had imposed upon the Hollanders, as the Hollanders were that they had imposed upon them. They had a super-abundance of cattle, and were in great want of iron. And in whatever country the same super-abundance of cattle, and the same want of iron prevails, they must purchase the iron with the same number of cattle.

XXIII. Father Lafitau a Missionary Jesuit, who was a long time among thole North American Indians, who, on account of their being esteemed the most barbarous of all, are called savages, gives great applauses of their government and civil policy, and compares them in these respects, to the antient Lacedemonians: and what is more extraordinary, he also bestows great panegyrics on their eloquence; and goes so far as to say, that he has known here and there one of them, whose orations were equal to those of Cicero and Demosthenes, and expresses some doubt, whether they may not be said to excel them. This relation of Father Lafitau, may be seen in the Memoirs of Trevoux of 1724, art. 106. It is possible, that this account is somewhat hyperbolical; but it should be considered, that Father Lafitau had a long and an intimate intercourse with these people, and there is no doubt, but a man who sees things in a near point of view, can judge better of them, than those who see them at a distance.

XXIV. Our intellectual sight, is exposed to the same defect that our corporeal one is, and is apt to represent distinct things less than they are. There is no man, let his stature be as gigantic as it will, who does not appear like a pigmy at a great distance. The same that happens with respect to the size of bodies, happens with regard to the stature of souls. Those nations which are very remote from us, appear so small in our eye as rational creatures, that we scarce allow them to be endued with the faculty of reason; but if we were to view them near, we should probably form a different judgment of them.

SECT. VII.

XXV. It may perhaps be objected to what I have been advancing, that the very absurd opinions entertained in matters of religion, by the bulk of the people of Asia, Africa, and America, without insisting, upon the total want of any religion among some of them, should induce us to form a very mean judgment of their talents.

XXVI. To this I answer in the first place, that although errors in matters of religion are the worst of all errors, they are no absolute proofs of the rudeness of those who assent to them. Nobody is ignorant, that the antient Greeks and Romans, who were exceedingly well skilled in arts and sciences, were extremely absurd with respect to the objects of their adoration. They worshiped as deities, men who had been adulterers, perfidious, and guilty of all sorts of wickedness. Rome, which as Saint Leon observes, domineered over all the other nations, was herself under the dominion of the errors of them all. When a man sets himself to search for a divinity from among his own species, it is a mark of a depraved imagination, and the question respecting his capacity, is not worth enquiring into, as we may naturally conclude, he has lost his reason before he makes the attempt. And he who walks blindfold, is not more terrified by a high precipice than a low one, as he is unable to discern the difference. I do not even know, whether when a man first begins to err in these particulars, he does not go the most extravagant lengths, who has been the best-informed; because in matters of religion, when the first error has taken root, it is easy for the person who is possessed with it, to confound the mysterious with the ridiculous, and by an affected subtilty, pretend to discover some hidden signs of divinity in those things, which in the eye of common sense, are the most remote from, or have the least to do with it.

XXVII. I answer secondly, that we have no certainty, that the idolatry of these various nations was so gross as it has been represented. With respect to the antient idolaters, some learned men have enforced this doubt very strongly, and have insisted, that there were solid reasons for supposing, that in the image they did not worship the wood, the metal, or the marble of which it was made, but some good genius or demon, whom they believed to have resided in it. Truly it seems incredible, that a statuary, such a one as Horace humourously describes in one of his Satyrs, should stand with his hatchet in one hand, and having the other on the wood he was about to work, suspended and perplexed, whether he should carve the God Priapus, or Escanus; I say it is incredible, that such a man should suppose himself vested with sufficient authority to fabricate a Deity.

XXVIII. I say the same of the animated idols. How is it credible that the Egyptians, who were for some ages the repositories of the sciences, should chuse for the ultimate object of their adoration, a most vile snake, and even a dog, or an onion, which Juvenal ironically and with derision tells them, was raised up to them in their own gardens? O sanctas gentes, quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis numina. It is much more reasonable to suppose, that that nation, who were much addicted to represent every thing enigmatically, and by symbols, should adore these vile creatures in some mystical sense, which these served as a sort of hierogliphics to explain the signification of, and that their adoration of them, was not absolute but respective. The same reasoning might be brought to apply to other nations, both of former and modern times, as well as to them.

XXIX. I am confirmed in this opinion, by what I have read concerning the superstition which prevails in the island of Madagascar. The inhabitants of that island, worship a cricket, and every one rears his own with great care and veneration. Some French ships in their voyage to India in the year 1665, touched at Madagascar, and being apprized of the superstition of the natives, a curious Frenchman, asked one of them whom they respected as a wise man, what could induce them to worship so vile an animal, who answered, that they worshiped the principal and head of all, that is the Creator in the creature, and that it was necessary to direct their adoration to a sensible object, in order to fix the attention. Who could have expected to meet with so delicate a sentiment, in such a country? I do not insist, that the reply exempts them from the note of superstition, but it proves, that they are not stupid and insensible. If the same observation the Frenchman made on the absurdity of the worship of the people of Madagascar, had been made to an antient Egyptian, he in all probability, would have returned the same answer to it in substance, which the Madagascar man gave.

XXX. With regard to people who are supposed to have no religion at all, I must declare, that I doubt whether there are any such people in the world. The voyagers who assure us there are such, might possibly from their want of sufficient intercourse with them, or from the want of understanding their language, not be able to penetrate their sentiments on that head; for all nature proclaims the existence of a Creator with so loud a voice, that the most sleepy reason cannot fail to be awakened with her cries.

SECT. VIII.

XXXI. There is then, scarce any people whatever, if you examine deeply into things, who can with justice be deemed barbarous. I will not however deny, that there is not between particular nations, some inequality in the use or application of their reason. Yes, but this depends in some measure, on the disposition of their organs, and the climate in which they are born, and these possibly may have some influence to promote this disposition. But if I was to be asked which are the most penetrating and acute nations, I should answer ingenuously that I could give no judgment in the matter that might safely be relied on. I see that the sciences, at one time flourished among the Phenicians, at another among the Chaldeans, at another among the Egyptians, at another among the Greeks, at another among the Romans, and at another among the Arabs, and that at last, they extended themselves to almost all the European nations. I observe also, that the inhabitants of every country into which they were not introduced, were looked upon as rude and uncivilized; but it was generally remarked, that after they came to be introduced into one of these last, the natives of it did not make less advances in them, than those did, who had the happiness to be the first visited by them. Perhaps if the world lasts much longer, and there should happen great revolutions of empire in it, as Minerva goes wandering about the earth, and continues to shift her station according to the violent agitations she receives from the impulse of Mars; I say if such revolutions should happen, the Iroquois, the Laplanders, the Troglodytes, the Garamantes, and other people, whom we now look upon with disdain, and whom we with repugnance admit to be members of our species, may one day possess the sciences in an eminent degree; so that experience will hardly assist us to determine, the inequality of ingenuity, that prevails in different nations.

XXXII. Much less then can we determine the point by physical reasonings. Many have endeavoured to establish, that this inequality bears proportion, to the predominance of the elemental qualities which prevail in different countries; and it is commonly said, that humid and cloudy climates, produce heavy dull spirits, and serene and dry ones, sprightly and penetrating ones. Aristotle gives the preference in this matter, to those who inhabit the hot countries. Agreeable to the first of these opinions, the Venetians and the Hollanders, should be very stupid dull people, for the first live in marshes surrounded by standing waters, and the last in a muddy low country, that might be said to have been stolen from the sea, and which is surrounded by standing waters also; and agreeable to the second, the negroes of Angola, should be more acute than the English. It does not appear to me, that any reasonable man should admit of either of these consequences. But it is not necessary for us to dwell longer on this subject at present; as we have shewn at large in our defence of the women, that we cannot infer there is any inequality of understanding, produced by the predominance, the sensible qualities have on the temperament; and that therefore, we are under a necessity of acknowledging, that the influence our native country may have over it, is the effect of some occult cause, which is impenetrable to our reason, or at least, which has not been penetrated by it as yet.

XXXIII. When I say that by experience, we can hardly distinguish the inequality of ingenuity of nations, I would be understood to mean, in point of the essential qualities, of penetration, solidity, and clearness; and not in point of the accidental ones, of superior quickness and readiness, or those of being more slow and tardy of comprehension; for with respect to these, it is evident that some nations exceed others. Thus it is manifest, that the Italians and French are more quick and ready than the Spaniards; and even in Spain itself, there is a great difference between the inhabitants of one province and those of another in these respects; for it is remarked, that in Asturias, the people are quicker of apprehension, and are more ready at explaining themselves, than they are in any of the other provinces; and the experience of this, should be sufficient to dissuade us from falling-in with that general notion, that rainy countries produce heavy dull people; as it is well known, that the heavens may rather be said to inundate, than refresh this country, so that it may be truly called,

XXXIV. But if I was to give my opinion which of the nations of Europe should be preferred to the rest, with respect to their penetration, I should incline to the sentiment of Heidegger a German author, who concedes this advantage to the English. It is certain that Great Britain, since literature, arts, and sciences, were first cultivated in it, has produced a copious harvest of authors of the first class. The recital of those only, which have arisen in that country, out of the Benedictine and Seraphic orders of religious, would be tedious and tiresome. But I cannot forbear to mention, that we are indebted to each of these two orders, for three stars of the first magnitude. To the Benedictine, for the venerable Bede, the famous Alcuinus, and the celebrated Calculator Suiset. To the Seraphic, for Alexander de Ales, the subtil Scotus, and his disciple William Ocman. Cardanus in his Treatise (de Subtilit. lib. 16. de Scient.) graduates among the twelve most acute geniuses of the world, the subtil Scotus and the Calculator Suiset, in the fourth and fifth rank, of whom he says: Barbaros ingenio nobis haud esse inferiores, quandoquidem sub Brumæ cœlo, divisa toto orbe Britannia duos tam clari ingeniique viros emisserit.

XXXV. Neither should we conceal, that at the time when the other nations of Europe scarce knew what the mathematics meant, the two beforementioned orders of Religious exhibited two illustrious English mathematicians; Roger Bacon, and Oliver of Malmsbury; of the first of whom, the vulgar feigned the same tale, they did of Albertus Magnus, that is, that he had made a brazen head, which answered all questions that were put to it. The other was not less famous than he, of whom John Pitseus relates, that he had invented some machinery, by the help of which he was enabled to fly, although he never could attain at doing it, for above the distance of about a hundred and twenty yards at a time; but that was doing more, than any other man ever did before him.

XXXVI. On physical subjects, England has furnished a greater number of original authors, than all the other nations of Europe put together; and the French, who are very tenacious of the reputation of their country for producing men of ingenuity, are obliged to confess, that the English are superior to them in philosophical abilities. It may without rashness or exaggeration be said, that all the advances which have been made in physical knowledge for a century past, are owing to my Lord Chancellor Bacon. It was he that broke through the strait limits, within which, Physics till his time had been imprisoned; and he was the man who threw down the columns, on which to mark the boundaries of human knowledge in natural things, ne plus ultra had been inscribed. The most learned Peter Gassendo, was nothing else but a faithful disciple of Bacon’s, and what Bacon had said in a summary way, he repeated more at large, in his extensive philosophical writings. All that Descartes said which was of any real value, he took from Bacon. After Bacon, we may reckon as great originals, Mr. Boyle, and the most subtil Sir Isaac Newton; as also John Locke[2], Sir Kenelm Digby, and many others; but the misfortune is, that the lustre of their ingenuity, was tarnished with the same religious blemish my Lord Bacon’s was; and when they had once strayed out of the right path, they flew with such velocity, that the extent of their wanderings, was great as the liveliness of their imaginations. But with all this, there has not been wanting in England, since it was blemished with heresy, a Sir Thomas More, who was as celebrated for his Catholic constancy, as he was for his eminence in the sciences.

XXXVII. I must also say, that I have always observed in the English philosophers, great frankness, and that they gave a simple plain relation of the result of their experience and labours, free from all artifice and deceit; which is a thing not very common with those of other nations; and I have remarked this particularly, in Bacon, Boyle, Sir Isaac Newton, and Sydenham the physician; and it has afforded me great pleasure, to see, how without boasting they have declared what they know, and without blushing, have confessed what they are ignorant of. This is the true mark and characteristic of sublime geniuses. Oh! how much it is to be lamented, that such great lights, should be obscured by heretical prejudices!

End of the Fourth Volume.