IV. rude and destitute of culture, differs fo little BOOK from the thoughtless levity of children, or the improvident inftinct of animals, its exertions in other directions cannot be very confiderable. The objects towards which reason turns, and the difquifitions in which it engages, muft depend upon the state in which man is placed, and are fuggefted by his neceffities and defires. Difquifitions, which appear the most necessary and important to men in one state of fociety, never occur to thofe in another. Among civilized nations, arithmetic, or the art of numbering, is deemed an effential and elementary fcience; and in our continent, the invention and ufe of it reaches back to a period fo remote as is beyond the knowledge of history. But among favages, who have no property to estimate, no hoarded treasures to count, no variety of objects or multiplicity of ideas to enumerate, arithmetic is a fuperfluous and useless art. Accordingly, among fome tribes in America it seems to be quite unknown. There are many who cannot reckon farther than three; and have no denomination to distinguish any number above it. Several can proceed as far as ten, others to twenty. When they would convey an idea i Condam. p. 67. ibid, 251. Biet. 362. Stadius ap. de Bry, ix. 128. Lery. BOOK IV. of any number beyond thefe, they point to the hair of their head, intimating that it is equal to them, or with wonder declare it to be fo great that it cannot be reckoned. Not only the Americans, but all nations, while extremely rude, seem to be unacquainted with the art of computation'. As foon, however, as they acquire fuch acquaintance or connection with a variety of objects, that there is frequent occafion to combine or divide them, their knowledge of numbers increases, fo that the state of this art among any people may be confidered as one standard, by which to estimate the degree of their improvement. The Iroquois, in North America, as they are much more civilized than the rude inhabitants of Brafil, Paraguay, or Guiana, have likewife made greater advances in this refpect; though even their arithmetic does not extend beyond a thousand, as in their petty tranfactions they have no occafion for any higher number ". The Cherokee, a lefs confiderable nation on the fame continent, can reckon only as far as a hundred, and to that extent have * Dumont Louif. i. 187. Herrera, dec. 1. lib. iii. c. 3. Biet. 396. Borde, 6. This is the cafe with the Greenlanders, Crantz. i. 225. and with Kamchatkadales, M. l'Abbé Chappé, iii. 17. Charlev. Nouv. Franc. iii. 402. names IV. names for the feveral numbers; the fmaller BOOK tribes in their neighbourhood can rife no higher than ten". ideas. IN other respects, the exercife of the under- No abstract standing among rude nations is ftill more limited. The firft ideas of every human being must be such as he receives by the senses. But, in the mind of man, while in the favage ftate, there seem to be hardly any ideas but what enter by this avenue. The objects around him are prefented to his eye. Such as may be fubfervient to his ufe, or can gratify any of his appetites, attract his notice; he views the rest without curiofity or attention. Satisfied with confidering them under that fimple mode, in which they appear to him, as separate and detached, he neither combines them fo as to form general claffes, nor contemplates their qualities apart from the subject in which they inhere, nor be ftows a thought upon the operations of his own mind concerning them. Thus, he is unacquainted with all the ideas which have been denominated univerfal, or abftract, or of reflection. The range of his understanding must, of course, be very confined, and his reafoning powers be employed merely on what is fenfible. Adair's Hift. of Amer. Indians, 77. See NOTE XXIV. BOOK This is fo remarkably the cafe with the nations of America, that their languages (a fhall afterwards find) have not a word to press any thing but what is material or c real. Time, Space, fubftance, and a thou other terms which reprefent abstract and verfal ideas, are altogether unknown to th A naked favage, cowering over the fire i miferable cabin, or ftretched under a branches which afford him a temporary fh has as little inclination as capacity for u fpeculation. His thoughts extend not be what relates to animal life; and when the not directed towards fome of its concerns mind is totally inactive. In fituations wher extraordinary effort either of ingenuity or bour is requifite, in order to fatisfy the fi demands of nature, the powers of the min fo feldom roused to any exertion, that the tional faculties continue almoft dormant unexercifed. The numerous tribes fcat over the rich plains of South-America, the habitants of fome of the islands, and of fe fertile regions on the continent, come u this description. Their vacant countena their ftaring unexpreffive eye, their liftlefs attention, and total ignorance of fubjects, w Condam. p. 54. IV. feem to be the firft which fhould occupy the BOOK thoughts of rational beings, made fuch impreffion upon the Spaniards, when they first beheld those rude people, that they confidered them as animals of an inferior order, and could not believe that they belonged to the human fpecies. It required the authority of a papal bull to counteract this opinion, and to convince them that the Americans were capable of the functions, and entitled to the privileges of humanity. Since that time, perfons more enlightened and impartial than the discoverers or conquerors of America, have had an opportunity of contemplating the most favage of its inhabitants, and they have been aftonished and humbled, with observing how nearly man, in this condition, approaches to the brute creation. But in feverer climates, where fubfiftence cannot be procured with the fame ease, where men muft unite more closely, and act with greater concert, neceffity calls forth their talents, and fharpens their invention, fo that the intellectual powers are more exercised and improved. The North-American tribes and the natives of Chili, who inhabit the temperate regions in the two great districts of America, are people of culti vated and enlarged understandings, when viewed Herrera, dec. 2. lib. ii. c. 15. 4 Torquem. Mon. Ind. iii. 198. |