BOOK III.

Prosecution

of the Author's inquiries relative to the Hi.

story of Man.

"the Committee believes it now possible for any person, or "combination of persons, to obtain *.”

Such, it is probable, will be the opinion formed by a more impartial posterity, on the Poems of Ossian, when their history and merits shall be canvassed by a cooler judgment, and the prejudices of mankind, though they may still in some degree attend the question, shall lose much of that force they drew from temporary causes, and transitory asso ciations.

J

It was an invariable practice of Lord Kames, when employed in the composition of any of those works which he intended for the public eye, to direct his researches, not only to the writings of others, but to draw out, in conversation with his literary friends, or by correspondence with those persons best qualified to instruct him, every degree of information he could obtain on the subject which engaged his thoughts. As his letters, therefore, to men of science were most commonly those of inquiry, and were generally drawn up in the form of queries, it fortunately happens, that though few only of these have been recovered, the answers of his correspondents supply in a great measure that want, and

give

* Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to Inquire into the Nature and Authenticity of the Poems of Ossian; drawn up by HENRY MACKENZIE, Esq; 1805. p. 152.

1

give sufficient information of their contents. Thus, while occupied in collecting materials for his Sketches of the History of Man, and employed particularly on those parts of his subject which regard the distinguishing characteristics of Man compared with the inferior animals, the nature of instinct, the analogy between animals and vegetables, the power of habit, and the alterations it is capable of producing in the external characters of both, through all their different species; we are at no loss to discern the train of Lord Kames's inquiries, in a correspondence with the eminent naturalist I have before-mentioned, Professor John Walker, when we find the latter thus expressing himself with that amusing naïveté peculiar to his character, in a letter of the 18th February 1773*:

"To raise Monkeys to Men; to degrade Men to Monkeys; to attempt to annihilate, or even to extenuate the line of partition between them, is a reigning taste in philosophy, which gives me great disgust. Linnæus indeed has long ranked us in the same order of animals with the Bat:: and though in this article, I myself perhaps justify his method as much as any individual of my species †, yet I could VOL. II.

O

never.

* The reader will find this curious and most instructive letter at No. II. of the Appendix, Letter I,

+ There was but too much truth in this pleasantry of the worthy Professor. It was his custom för a great part of his life to indulge himself in nocturnal

study;.

CHAP. IV.

BOOK III.

never look at it without umbrage. He still, however, placed Man in a genus by himself, at the head of the system. He stickled a little, indeed, for combining us with the Oranoutang; but finding that the creature had a membrana nictitans, he allowed him to remain with his companions. This was well enough: but his behaviour in his last book is truly provoking. He has there given us a brother-german,—a Homo Lar, forsooth! some little scoundrel of a monkey, picked up in the woods of Macassar; whose very name I hold in such detestation, that I am persuaded I am not a drop's-blood to him.

"Let

study; seldom feeling the resolution to quit his books and papers till four or five o'clock in the morning, and, of course, passing the better part of the day in bed a practice which destroyed a good constitution, and in the end was attended with the total loss of eye-sight, for the last six or seven years of his life. Yet, though thus deprived of the principal source of his enjoyments, and deeply suffering from domestic misfortune, the blessings of a well-regulated mind, an equal temper, a happy flow of animal spirits, and a memory rich in knowledge, and stored with amusing anecdotes, not only rendered his conversation delightful to his friends, but supplied the means and power of still occupying his time with his favourite literary and scientific pursuits. It was but a very few weeks before his death, that the Author of this Work, (who lost in him one of his earliest and most valued friends), in the course of many pleasant hours passed with him at his beautiful parsonage-house, and in his garden at Collington, drew from him various particulars of the life and character of their common friend Lord Kames, which have served to improve these Memoirs.

"Let your Lordship pursue the analogy between Plants and Mankind, as far as you will, it is not likely I shall be so much offended as with my friend Linnæus. I have been from the cradle, fond of vegetative life; and though I like my species, and the rank I hold in the creation, I declare I would sooner claim kindred to an oak or an apple-tree, than to an ape."

That the analogy here hinted at by Dr Walker, between plants and animals, was a favourite subject of speculation with Lord Kames, appears from the notice he has occasionally bestowed upon it in more than one of his works. It pleased his imagination, and coincided agreeably with that propensity we discover through the whole of his philosophy, to search for final causes in every object of creation *.

CHAP. IV.

* See at No. II. (Letters II. and III.) of the Appendix, a Letter from Lord KAMES on this curious subject to Sir JAMES NASMITH, with an excellent answer from that able man, who was equally respectable for his talents and accomplishments, as for his private virtues.

BOOK III.

Sketches of the History of Man.

CHAPTER V.

Lord Kames's Sketches of the History of Man.-Plan and Nature of the Work.-Remarks on Conjectural History.Progress of Man from Barbarism to Civilization-Govern ment.-Finances.-The new doctrines in Political Economy. -Police with respect to the Poor.-Principles of Morality. -Progress of Morality.—Principles of Theology.-Progress of Theology.

IN

N 1774, Lord KAMES gave to the public his Sketches of the History of Man, in two volumes 4to. In a short preface, he expresses his hope, " that this work, the child of his grey "hairs, will survive, and bear testimony for him to good 66 men, that even a laborious calling, which left him not

many leisure hours, never banished from his mind, that he "would little deserve to be of the human species, were he "indifferent about his fellow-creatures: Homo sum: humani “nihil a me alienum puto." -He owns, that "most of the

subjects he has handled admit only of probable reasoning; "that the fear of being misled by such arguments filled him "with anxiety, and that after his utmost attention, he could

"but