XLVI

ACCOUNT OF THE LIEE AND

but nothing, it is evident, can be obtained in thisway, which approaches to a regular and connect*ed detail of human improvement;

In this want of direél evidence, we are under aneceffity of fupplying the place of fa£l by conjee-'ture; and when we are unable to ascertain howmen have.actually conduced themselves upon par-ticular occalions, of conlidering in what mannerthey are likely to have proceeded, from the prin-ciples of their nature, and the circumltances oftheir external situation. In such inquiries, the de-tached faffs which travels and voyages afford us,may frequently serve as land-marks to our specu-lations ; and sometimes our conclusions a priori,may tend to confirm the credibility of fails, which,on a superficial view, appeared to be doubtful orincredible.

Nor are fuçh theoretical views of human affairssubservient merely to the gratification of curiosity.In examining the hiffory of mankind, as well as inexamining the phenomena of the material world,when we cannot trace the process by which anevent has been produced, it is often of importanceto be able to fliow how it may have been producedby natural causes. Thus, in the inilance whichhas fuggefted these remarks, although it is impossi-ble to determine with certainty what the hepswere by which any particular language was formed ,yet if we can fliow, from the known principles of