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and torpor of understanding. The custom of painting the XXIII. body, whether by imprinting, or marking figures upon the skin, or by simply besmearing it with a coat of colouring, marks the infancy of civilization, and the first workings of vanity. Rank and dignity are frequently indicated by the vestments, or by the ornaments with which they are embellished. A particular kind of sash of cotton cloth is the distinguishing badge of royalty in Otaheite. The priests of Siam reserve to themselves the privilege of shaving their eyebrows. A necklace of human teeth supplies the place of the star, in the order of negro nobility.

Habita

tion.

The ordinary habitations of a people, are an almost infallible index of the degree of civilization at which they have arrived. The human race may be divided into four classes, according to the four kinds of habitations which follow, 1st, Caverns in the rocks, and under ground. They who make these their common abodes, are called Troglodytes. 2d, Huts of earth, branches of trees, stones, or some other substance, either in the natural state, or coarsely wrought. 3d, Tents; these moveable dwellings, in the opinion of wandering pastoral tribes, appear preferable to our palaces. 4th, Houses, which may be defined huts brought to a state of perfection; for even the most superb colonnade, is merely a noble imitation of the coarse beams which supported the thatchod roof. We find in Europe, houses constructed of unsquared beams of beams that are squared and lined with wainscoting-of prepared clay and squared timber-of bricks and wood-of bricks alone-of unhewn stone-of hewn stoneand of marble.

Towns, The name of a city or town, strictly speaking, is not giCountry towns, and ven to a collection of houses on account either of its extent villages. or its population, but in consequence of certain privileges

which the place enjoys. The right of exercising the various arts and trades, and of conducting commerce, serves in most countries chiefly to distinguish cities and towns from vilJages. Villages are sometimes larger than towns, for example in Silesia; but they have commonly no privilege to distinguish them from hamlets and other assemblages

of houses in the country. Burghs are places which enjoy BOOK a portion of the rights granted to cities. In other respects, XXIII. these words admit of different senses, according to the laws and customs of different countries.

ments.

Utensils and instruments are objects no less worthy of Utensils the attention of a philosophical observer. The bows, the and instrujavelins, and the nets of savages, often deserve to be admired for the perseverance and dexterity that were required to produce them.

The European is accustomed to make almost every nu- Food. tritive substance minister to his support, or to the gratification of his palate. But there are nations that live almost exclusively upon one kind of food. The frugivorous, carnivorous, and ichthyophagous tribes are distributed over the whole surface of the globe. The taste for horse-flesh appears peculiar to the Mongols, Tartars, Finns, and other descendants of the Scythians, and to the Sclavonic and Gothic nations. Both ancient and modern writers place the Acridophagi, or eaters of locusts, in Africa. Some of the American tribes visited by Humboldt, devour a species of clay.

Respecting Anthropophagism, or the horrible custom of Anthropo phagism eating human flesh, it appears to be proved that it does not belong exclusively to any nation; all savage tribes are addicted to it, either from the impulse of a ferocious hatred of their enemies, or by the dictates of an atrocious superstition, or finally, in consequence of extreme want. Not only do modern accounts assert that the practice obtains in the greater part of the nations of Africa, America, and Australasia; but we discover from several passages in the ancients, that it was at one time prevalent in Europe. The poets ascribe it to the Cyclops and Lestrygons, whom they place in Italy.* Historians bring this charge against the Scythians, the Cimbrians, a tribe of Caledonians, and other nations of the north.

Homer, Odyss. ix. 290. x. 129.

† Herod. iv. 18-20. Plin. vii. 2.

Diodor. v. chap. 32.

Hieronym. ap Buchan, Rer. Scotic. ii. p. 55. Edit. Wechel.

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The heroes and gods of Homer, employ expressions borXXIII. rowed from the rites of Anthropophagism; Jupiter reproaches Juno for desiring to eat. either raw or dressed, King Priam and his children. Human sacrifices were known amongst the Greeks and Romans, as well as the Celts, Scandinavians, and oriental nations. These horrid sacrifices appear to have been often succeeded by a repast still more horrid. The disgusting practice of burying the dead bodies of their relations in their own bowels, is attributed to the Issidones,* and the Massagetæ ; to several tribes of India ; to the people of Thibet and the Marian Islands and to the ancient Irish.

Inebriating drink.

Customs.

The desire of procuring a momentary elevation of spirits, has caused the invention amongst all nations, of intoxicating liquors. Their different properties, from the generous wine of Europe to the loathsome ava of the Otaheitans, deserve to be pointed out in the geographical descriptions of the respective countries.

From the immense variety of customs, which impart to social life, in every nation, its peculiar features, political geographers select the most striking, namely those which are most closely connected with morals, and which serve to illustrate the history and filiation of the species. Such is the circumcision practised amongst the African nations which do not profess Islamism; the custom of embalming dead bodies, common alike to the Guanches of the Canary islands, and to the ancient Egyptians; the fashion of letting the bodies of the dead dry and wither away in the air, common to the Otaheitans and the ancient Medes; the custom prevalent among the females of India, and the wives of the Wendes and Scandinavians, of immolating themselves upon the tombs of their husbands; and in general the

ceremonies observed at marriages, births, and funerals, pre- BOOK sent resemblances that are often highly interesting.

Civil laws sometimes present singularities which deserve to be marked in the description of a nation. But it is sufficient to notice regulations which punctiliously prescribe the silly ceremonies of a degrading etiquette; punishments revolting to humanity; graduated scales of murders, and mutilations, and tortures; superstitious ordeals, still prevalent amongst different nations, and a thousand other similar observances of ancient barbarism, or the bequeathments of more recent despotism.

XXIII.

Civil laws.

The intellectual state of society closes this lengthened State of view of the various aspects under which nations may be knowledge. contemplated. Do they possess an accumulated store of the discoveries of genius, and of the observations of wisdom? Do they cherish, in the sublime and beautiful effusions of poetry, the expression of the noblest sentiments of humanity and patriotism? Do men of science and literature occupy the honourable rank to which they are entitled? These are questions which require to be satisfactorily solved before we can determine the progress which a nation has made in civilization and in morals.

nations.

The general result, the collected effect of all these aspects Classes of and relations, to which our attention has been drawn, constitutes the character of a nation. Nations may be distributed into three general cla-ses. Savages are those, who Savages. are ignorant of the art of writing, or of fixing their thoughts by means of conventional signs equivalent to writing. Their vague and unsteady ideas are attached only to objects which strike their senses; they delight to adorn their persons in a manner which to us appears ridiculous; they are passionately fond of bodily exercise, and in this respect they infinitely surpass us. Their industry is generally confined to a little gardening, to fishing, and the chase. Some of them Barbarians however, produce specimens of beautiful workmanship, and half cihave even commodious and elegant habitations. The class of barbarians, or men half civilized, comprehends every nation which, by writing, by written laws, by a religion

or

vilized.

nations.

BOOK expressed in ceremonial observances, or by a more regular XXIII. military system, has evidently emerged from the savage state. But the information which such a people possesses is as yet only an indigested inass of incoherent observations:--their arts are exercised as it were by routine—their policy is limited to the defence of their frontier, at the moment of danger, or to offensive operations conducted without a plan. Their progress is in general slow and uncertain, because, even in advancing towards civilization, they have no proper conception of the great objects at which Civilized they should aim. A civilized nation is that which has arranged its knowledge in the form of sciences; which has elevated the mechanical to the rank of the fine arts; which, to express the various sentiments of the human heart, has created the Belles Lettres;" which is possessed of a fixed system of legislation, of policy, and of war, calculated not only for existing circumstances, but for ages to come--a nation in which Christianity, undefiled by superstition or enthusiasm, displays its proper influence in the purification and elevation of the public morals,--a nation, finally, which recognizes the great principles of public law, by acting in time of peace as the friend of every other state, and by respecting, in time of war, the property of defenceless citi

Character.

zens.

The general character of a nation, being the result of all the physical circumstances in which it is placed, and of the political institutions, which modify these circumstances, it Does it de- is absurd to make it depend upon climate alone. Extreme pend on climate?

Nature of

cold, as well as extreme heat, by enfeebling the constitution, seems to check and restrain that progress in improvement which a people might otherwise make; but institutions and manners struggle successfully against the climate. Egypt, under the tropic, and Scandinavia, under the polar circle, have equally given birth to heroes, men of genius, and philosophers.

The nature of a country has more influence than the a country; temperature. The mountainous central parts of Greece, formerly the beloved abodes of courage and independence,

its influ

ence.