bound hand and foot; carried before the prince; put to death; and the nearest of the lady's relations has the privilege of killing all his friends, for three days, in that part of the country, where the crime was committed.

These instances,-drawn from the practises of every climate,-sufficiently disprove the argument of Mon

tesquieu.

"

CHAPTER IV.

WHEN Du Bos says, that the most sublime geniuses are not born great, but only capable of becoming such'; and when he says, that want debases the mind; and that genius, reduced through misery to write, loses one half of its vigour; it is impossible not to acknowledge the propriety of his observations. But when he proceeds to assert, that genius is principally the result, as it were, of climate, we must proceed to facts.2 Nor can we implicity give faith to the assertion of Tacitus, that the times, which have produced emi1 Vol. ii., ch. viii.

I am

2. Vol. ii., ch. ix. I can forgive the Abbé all things but two. disgusted with him, for giving countenance and currency to Boileau's senseless clinquant, when applied to Tasso (vol. i. ch. xxxv.); and still more offended with his envy of English literature: since, in an express dissertation on tragedy, he has not once mentioned Shakespeare. And, yet,- -as if to mark the insult more strongly, he speaks of Otway's Venice Preserved; an English translation of Molière's Comedies; Phillip's Distressed Mother; Rochester's Valentinian; and Wycherley's Plain Dealer. He could, also, quote a detached sentiment of Addison, where he accuses English tragedy of having better style than sentiment.

nent men, have also produced men, capable of estimating their merits. For eminent men have been produced in many ages, that possessed no power of forming adequate estimates of their value: and their reward has, therefore, arisen out of the applause and admiration of posterity. In fact, there is not one evil, that does not arise out of the inability of men to estimate real benefits.

66

Sir John Chardin seems to have given the tone to the opinions of Du Bos. "The temperature of hot climates," says he,1 enervates the mind as well as the body; and dissipates that fire of imagination, so necessary for invention. People are incapable, in those climates, of such long watchings and strong applications, as are requisite for the productions of the liberal and mechanic arts." But though this hypothesis, in my opinion, is destitute of data and solidity, there is, assuredly, great truth, great ingenuity, and great beauty, in many of the arguments, adduced to its support.

But let us speak of results. Has not poetry been cultivated on the burning shores of Hindostan; in Java; in China; in Persia; in Arabia; in Palestine; in Greece; in Italy; in Germany; in France; in Great Britain; and in Iceland? Thus we see, that poetry has been successfully cultivated in every species of soil; and in every degree of latitude. That the poetry of one country is not suited to the readers of another is only a confirmation of the opinion, thạt

1 Description of Persia, ch. vii.

Cambridge

the beauty of poetry, as well as that of the person, is relative: all nations relishing their own poetry most.

In respect to architecture. There we shall find, that experience militates in toto against the hypothesis. The wall of China; the pagodas of India; the mosques of the Mahometans; the ruins of Palmyra, Balbec, Memphis, and Thebes; the Pyramids; St.Sophia of Constantinople; Athens; Rome; France and England: what do all these objects, cities, and countries prove, but that architecture has been practised in every climate. The only difference consists in the diversity of tastes: some countries delighting in the greatness of bulk, and others in the greatness of manner.

I am even disposed to doubt, in some degree, the extensiveness of the argument in respect to health. In Columbo (Ceylon) are assembled every tint of the human skin': African negroes; Caffres; Javans; Chinese; Hindoos; Persians; Armenians; Malays; Cingalese; Malabars; Arabs; Moors; Portuguese; Dutch; English; and every species of half casts!* They all enjoy their healths. This is, almost of itself, sufficient to prove, that health does not depend upon the parallels of latitude. The human frame is, in fact, adapted to Equatorial heat and Arctic cold. The chief precaution in founding settlements, therefore, is reduced to that of avoiding situations, in which heat is accompanied by moisture.

In regard to virtue. If one order of men is found in a country, capable of exercising every species of

1 Perceval.

benevolence; why may not the whole people? Every species of crime is committed in India; yet the Parsee merchants of Bombay exceed all the merchants in the world, for active benevolence and philanthropy. This character was first given them by Ovington; and it has been attested by almost every traveller since, down to Lord Valentia, and Sir William Ousely. In a country, exhibiting such a frightful dissolution of morals, it refreshes the soul to read of their virtues! If men really and ardently desired repose, they would return to vegetable diet: till they do, they may rest decidedly assured, that all their plans of happiness will be little better than chimerical.

:

II.

A few observations may here be introduced, relative to food for some persons suppose, that food has great influence. In Java, white ants, as well as every species of worm, are esteemed dainties; the Arabs eat locusts; the Indians of Cumana, millepedes; the Bushiesmen of Africa, spiders; the Hottentots, grasshoppers and snakes; the Tonquinese, frogs; and the French and Viennese, snails. In New Holland, the natives eat caterpillars; and some of the Bramins of India esteem the grain, which has passed through the cow, as the purest and most exquisite of food!

In certain districts of Bengal they not only eat the sheep, but the skin; not only the skin but the wool; and not only the wool, but the very entrails: being, like the Moors of Africa, always in the extremes of abstinence and gluttony.

- The Chinese, residing on rivers or the coasts, like the bears of Kamschatka,' and the sheep of ancient Persia, live almost entirely on fish. The Persians, on the contrary, will never touch it, if they can get any thing else to eat and the natives of Caurifiristan, near Caubul, abhor it; though they eat animal food of every other kind. The Japanese, on the other hand, prefer it to all things; and, like the Icelander's and the inhabitants of the coast of Caithness, will even eat sea-weed.3

The existence of cannibals was, for a long time, disputed; and it would be well, if it could be disputed still but the fact is established beyond the possibility of doubt. The Caribbees were accustomed to devour the bodies of the negroes, whom they fought in Guiana1; and the New Zealanders still cut their prisoners in pieces, broil, and eat them while in Celebes, several instances have occurred, in which, after they have slain their enemy, they have cut out the heart, and eaten it while it was warm.5 Riche discovered the ossa innominata of a young girl in the ashes of a fire, left by the savages of New Holland": the natives of New Caledonia, also, are cannibals:

During the years 1816 and 1817, the fish having forsaken the coast, an incredible number of bears issued from their retreats; invaded the north-east tracts of Siberia; and devoured a great number of inhabitants. 2 Quintus Curtius.

3 Fucus Palmatus.

4 Bancroft's Nat. Hist. p. 260.

5 Hist. Java, Appendix F., vol. ii. p. 179.

6 Voy, in Search of La Perouse, vol. i. p. 173.

7 D'Entrecasteaux' Voy. by Labillardiere, vol. ii. p. 199-225; vol.

p. 333.