SKETCHES

OF THE

HISTORY OF MAN.

BOOK I.

PROGRESS OF MEN INDEPENDENT OF

SOCIETY.

SKETCH I.

PROGRESS RESPECTING FOOD AND POPULATION.

N temperate climes, men fed originally on fruits that grow without culture, and on the flesh of land-animals. As such animals become shy when often hunted, there is a contrivance of nature, no less simple than effectual, which engages men to bear with chearfulness the fatigues of hunting, and the uncertainty of capture; and that is, an appetite for hunting. Hunger alone is not sufficient: savages who act by sense, not by foresight, move

not when the stomach is full; and it would be too late when the stomach is empty, to form a hunting-party. As that appetite is common to all savages whose food depends on hunting; it is an illustrious instance of providential care, the adapting the internal constitution of man to his external circumstances *. The appetite for hunting, though

among

* It would be an agreeable undertaking, to collect all the instances where the internal constitution of man is adapted to his external structure, and to other circumstances; but it would be a laborious work, as the instances are extremely numerous; and, in the course of the present undertaking, there will be occasion to mark several of them. "How finely are

"the external parts of animals adjusted to their internal dis"positions? That strong and nervous leg armed with tear"ing fangs, how perfectly does it correspond to the fierce66 ness of the lion! Had it been adorned like the human "arm with fingers instead of fangs, the natural energies of

દર

a lion had been all of them defeated. That more delicate "structure of an arm terminating in fingers so nicely diver"sified, how perfectly does it correspond to the pregnant in"vention of the human soul! Had these fingers been fangs, "what had become of poor Art that procures us so many "elegancies and utilities! 'Tis here we behold the harmony "between the visible world and the invisible +." The following is another instance of the same kind, which I mention here, because it falls not under common observation. How finely, in the human species, are the throat and the ear adjusted to each other, the one to emit musical sounds, the other to enjoy them! the one without the other would be an useless talent. May it not be justly thought, that to the power we

have

+ Harris.

among us little necessary for food, is to this day remarkable in young men, high and low, rich and poor. Natural propensities may be rendered faint or obscure, but never are totally eradicated.

Water is

Fish was not early the food of man. not our element; and savages probably did not attempt to draw food from the sea or from rivers, till land-animals became scarce. Plutarch in his Symposiacs observes, that the Syrians and Greeks

have of emitting musical sounds by the throat, we owe the invention of musical instruments? A man would never think of inventing a musical instrument, but in order to imitate sounds that his ear had been delighted with. But there is a faculty in man still more remarkable, which serves to correct the organs of external sense, where they tend to mislead him. I give two curious instances. The image of every visible object is painted on the retina tunica, and by that means the object makes an impression on the mind. In what manner this is done, cannot be explained; because we have no conception how mind acts on body, or body on mind. But, as far as we can conceive or conjecture, a visible object ought to appear to us inverted, because the image painted on the retina tunica is inverted. But this is corrected by the faculty mentioned, which makes us perceive objects as they really exist. The other instance follows. As a man has two eyes, and sees with each of them, every object naturally ought to appear double; and yet with two eyes we see every object single, precisely as if we had but one. Many philosophers, Sir Isaac Newton in particular, have endeavoured to account for this phenomenon by mechanical principles, but evidently without giving satisfaction. To explain this phenomenon, it appears to me, that we must have recourse to the faculty mentioned, acting against mechanical principles.

of old abstained from fish. Menelaus* complains, that his companions had been reduced by hunger to that food; and though the Grecian camp at the siege of Troy was on the sea-shore, there is not in Homer a single hint of their feeding on fish. We learn from Dion Cassius, that the Caledonians did not eat fish, though they had them in plenty ; which is confirmed by Adamannus, a Scotch historian, in his life of St Columba. The ancient Caledonians depended almost entirely on deer for food; because, in a cold country, the fruits that grow spontaneously afford little nourishment; and domestic animals, which at present so much abound, were not early known in the north of Britain.

Antiquaries talk of acorns, nuts, and other shellfruits, as the only vegetable food that men had originally, overlooking wheat, rice, barley, &c. which must from the creation have grown spontaneously for surely, when agriculture first commenced, it did not require a miracle to procure the seeds of these plants +. The Laplanders possessing

*Book 4. of the Odyssey.

Writers upon natural history have been solicitous to discover the original climate of these plants, but without much. success. The original climate of plants left to nature, cannot be a secret: but in countries well peopled, the plants mentioned are not left to nature: the seeds are carefully gathered, and stored up for food. As this practice could not fail to make these seeds scarce, agriculture was early thought of,