Ch. But Hottentots have no notion of a God or a future state.
Fa. I am not certain how far that is fact: but alas! how many among us have no knowledge at all on these subjects, or only some vague notions full of absurdity and superstition! People far advanced in civilization have held the grossest errors on these subjects, which are only to be corrected by the serious application of reason, or by a direct revelation from Heaven.
Ch. You said man was an improveable creature—but have not many nations been a long time in a savage state without improvement?
Fa. Man is always capable of improvement; but he may exist a long time, in society, without actually improving beyond a certain point. There is little improvement among nations who have not the art of writing, for tradition is not capable of preserving very accurate or extensive knowledge; and many arts and sciences, after flourishing greatly, have been entirely lost, in countries which have been overrun by barbarous and illiterate nations. Then there is a principle which I might have mentioned as one of those that distinguish man from brutes, but it as much distinguishes some men from others. This is curiosity, or the love of knowledge for its own sake. Most savages have little or nothing of this; but without it we should want one of the chief inducements to exert our faculties. It is curiosity that impels us to search into the properties of every part of nature, to try all sorts of experiments, to visit distant regions, and even to examine the appearances and motions of the heavenly bodies. Every fact thus discovered leads to other facts; and there is no limit to be set to this progress. The time may come, when what we now know may seem as much ignorance to future ages as the knowledge of early times does to us.
Ch. What nations know the most at present?
Fa. The Europeans have long been distinguished for superior ardour after knowledge, and they possess beyond comparison the greatest share of it, whereby they have been enabled to command the rest of the world. The countries in which the arts and sciences most flourish at present are the northern and middle parts of Europe, and also North America, which, is inhabited by descendants of Europeans. In these countries man may be said to be most man; and they may apply to themselves the poet’s boast:—
“Man is the nobler growth these realms supply,
And souls are ripened in our northern sky.”
WALKING THE STREETS.—A Parable.
Have you ever walked through the crowded streets of a great city?