old Provençal Romances. There is no reafon for supposing that the works of either reached the other. Imagine only that fociety was in the fame ftate in both countries, and it naturally accounts for a fameness of character and incident.

The tumuli called, by the common people in the western counties, barrows, are to be found in every part of Europe, and even of Tartary. Before the art of building with ftone exifted, or when it cost more than early ages could afford, the most natural monument, in any country, over a man who deferved remembrance, was a heap of earth. To this day, barrows are fhewn in Greece, as the tombs of Homer's heroes.

It would not be eafy to trace any connection between the modern Irish and the ancient Greeks and Romans; yet, the former have, and the latter had, the fame cuftom of howling over the dead.

The

The lamentations over Hector's corpfe in Homer, and over Dido's in Virgil; which the latter calls Ululatus, fcarce differ from the Ulaloo of the Irish. It is faid by a learned traveller, "that the Irish are ftill in poffeffion of certain cuftoms utterly relinquished by the other nations of Europe"-if fo, then it proves that they are still in a state of fociety which is congenial to fuch manners and cuftoms, and that other nations have loft them because they are advanced into another Age.

Let these few inftances fuffice to eftablish my position; they might be much increased if more were neceffary,

The firft of the four Ages then, is man in his favage ftate, wherever found, and at whatever period; the fecond is when he has made fome progress towards civilization; the third is the state in which

we are at prefent; and the fourth is that

to

to which we are approaching, if no unfortunate event arrives to cut off our golden hopes.*

Το

* There is no determinate point in which one Age ends, and another begins; the former takes by degrees the colour and caft of that which is to fucceed, and the latter Age for fome time may preferve part of the barbarism and prejudices of the preceding. Thus fome circumftances in the Iron and Brazen-Age may belong to either-the end, also, of the Brazen, and the beginning of the Silver Age, may intermix with each other.

Perhaps, the Silver-Age fhewed fome faint beginnings in England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth-it continued to make a progrefs until the civil wars, when the times had quite the character of the Brazen-Age, or worfe. Upon the reftoration we advanced again, and have fince been increafing in velocity towards perfection, like a comet as it approaches the fun. This image is rather too fublime for my purpose. The motion of a comet is regular and uninterrupted; but there are many circumftances perpetually in the way of improvement, by which it is retarded partially, tho' it cannot be altogether obftructed, I have elsewhere touched on this fubject,

To form a proper idea of man in his primitive state, it is neceffary to throw off all the refinements that the invention and cultivation of the arts and sciences have beftowed on fociety, and fhew what beings we are in a state of nature.* And this is different according to the climate and productions of the country in which we live. Thus, in the Tropical Ifles, tho' the natural state is ignorant and barbarous,

*If this were the ftate of our first parents, it could not be a very defirable one, according to the poet,

Quand la Nature étoit dans fon enfance

Nos bons aïeux vivoient dans l'ignorance

Mon cher Adam, mon gourmand, mon bon Pere,
Que faifois-tu dans les Jardins d'Eden?

Travaillois-tu pour ce fot genre humain ?

Careffois-tu Madame Eve ma Mere?

Avouez-moi que vous aviez tous deux
Les ongles longs, un peu noirs et craffeux,
La chevelure affez mal ordonnée,

Le teint bruni, la peau bife et tannèe, &c.

VOLTAIRE.

1

barous, yet the people feem to be happy: but in Staten-land and Terra del fuego, ignorance and barbarifm take a favage cast, and the inhabitants have an appearance of wretchedness and want, which is unknown in happier climates.

But there is even yet a lower state of human life-that of the folitary favage, (for fociety in its worst state is better than none)-a few fuch beings have been known to us: within this century a lad was caught in Germany, and a girl in France, both of whom had run wild from their infancy. These are scarce worthy of any rank even in the Iron-age, and were fome degrees below a domesticated dog or cat.

The characteristics of the Iron-Age feem to be these :

Violence

As there is no principle to restrain the first impulse of defire, whether it be to

eat,