No 18.

SATURDAY, March 27, 1779.

Laudabunt alii claram Rhodan aut Mytelenen.

NOTHING

HOR.

OTHING is more amufing to a traveller, than to obferve the different characters of the inhabitants of the countries through which he paffes; and to find, upon croffing a river or a mountain, as marked a difference in the manners, the fentiments, and the opinions of the people, as in their appearance, their drefs, or their language. Thus, the eafy vivacity of the French, is as oppofite to the dignified gravity of the Spaniard, on the one hand, as it is to the phlegmatic dulnefs of the German on the other. But, though all allow that every nation has fome ftriking feature, fome diftinguishing characteristic, philofophers are not agreed as to the causes of that distinction. Montefquien has exerted all the powers of his genius to prove, that difference of climate is the chief, or the only cause of the difference of national characters; and it is not furprifing that the opi■ion of so great a man should have gained much

ground.

ground. None of his followers has carried the matter farther than the author of Recherches Philofophiques fur les Americains, whofe chief object feems to have been to fhow, that the climate of America is of fuch a nature, that, from its baneful influence, even the human fpecies has degenerated in that quarter of the globe.

I must confefs, however, that I have often doubted as to the justness of this opinion; and, though I do not mean to deny that climate has an influence on man, as well as on other animals, I cannot help thinking that Montesquieu, and the writers who have adopted his fyftem, have attributed by far too much to it.

It must be allowed, that man is lefs affected by the influence of climate than any other animal. But of all the human race, an American favage feems to approach the nearest, in the general condition of his life, to the brute creation, and, of confequence, ought to be moft fubject to the power of climate. And yet, if we compare an Indian with an European peafant or manufacturer, we fhall be apt to think, that the former, confidered as an individual, holds a higher rank in the scale of being than the latter.

The

The favage, quitting his cabin, goes to the affembly of his tribe, and there delivers his fentiments on the affairs of his little nation with a fpirit, a force, and an energy, that might do honour to an European orator. Thence he goes to make war upon his foes; and, in the field, difcovers a fagacity in his ftratagems, a boldness in his defigns, a perfeverance in his operations, joined with a patience of fatigue and of fuffering, that have long been objects of admiration, and which filled the inhabitants of the Old World, when they firft beheld them, with wonder and aftonishment. How fuperior fuch a being to one occupied, day after day, in turning the head of a pin, or forming the shape of a button, and poffeffing not one idea beyond the bufinefs in which he is immediately employed!

It may perhaps be objected, that no fair comparison can be made where the ftate of fociety is fo different, the neceffary effect of civilization being to introduce a distinction of ranks, and to fink the lower orders of men far beneath that ftation to which by nature they are intitled. But, allowing this obfervation to be just, we shall find, upon comparing the favage of America with the savage of Europe,

Europe, as described by Cæfar and Tacitus, that the former is at leaft equal to the latter in all the virtues above enumerated.

We need not, however, go fo far for inftances, to fhow, that other caufes act more powerfully than climate, in forming the manners, and fixing the characters of men.

London

and Paris are, at prefent, the firft cities in Europe, in point of opulence, and number of inhabitants; and in no other part of the western world are the polite and elegant arts cultivated to fuch advantage. But the inhabitants of those cities differ effentially in manners, fentiments, and opinions; while, at the fame time, they breathe an air fo very much alike, that it is impoffible to impute that difference, in any confiderable degree, to difference of climate; and, perhaps, it may not be a difficult task to "point out various other caufes, which may enable us to account fufficiently for the distinction between the national character of the two people.

In France, the power of the great nobles was fooner reduced within bounds than in England; and, in proportion as their power fell, that of the monarch rofe. But, no fooner was the authority of the crown eftablished

blished on a firm bafis, than the court became an object of the first attention and importance. Every man of genius, of diftinction, and of rank, haftened thither, in hopes of meeting with that encouragement which his talents merited, or of being able to display, on the only proper theatre, thofe advantages which he poffeffed, either in reality, or in his own. imagination.

Thus Paris, the feat of the court, became the centre of all that was great and noble, elegant and polite. The manners every day became more and more polifhed; and no man who did not poffefs the talents neceffary to make himself agreeable, could expect to rife in the world, however great his abilities might otherwife be. The pleasures of society were cultivated with care and affiduity; and nothing tended more to promote them than that free intercourfe which foon came to take place between the fexes. All men studied to acquire thofe graces and accomplishments by which alone they could hope to recommend themselves to the ladies, whofe influence pervaded every branch of government, and every department of the state.

VOL. I.

H

In