In Primeval Times.

13

Chap. 2.]

upon it,) and from this circumstance probably, was itmade “ sacred to Jupi-ter.” The elder Pliny, in the proem to his 16th book, speaks of treeswhich bear mast, which says he, “ ministered the first food unto our fore-fathers.” Thus Ovid in his description of the golden age:—

The teeming earth, yet guiltless of the plough,

And unprovoked, did fruitful Stores allow :

Content with food which nature freely bred,

On wildings and on strawberries they fed ;

Cornels and bramble-berries gave the rest,

And falling aeorns furnished out the feast. Metam. ii, 135.

In the ancient histories of the Chinese , it is reoorded of their remote an-cestors, that they were entirely naked and lived in caves; their food wildherbs and fruits, and the raw flesh of animals; until the art of obtainingfire by the rubbing of two sticks together was discovered, and husbandryintroduced.

There are persons however, who suppose it dishonoring the Creator, toimagine that Adam, the immediate work of his hands, and the intellectualand moral head of the human family, should at any period of his existencehave been destitute of rnany of those resources which the Indians of ourcontinent, and other savages possess ; although it is evident, that sometime must have elapsed before he could realize, (if he ever did,) all theconveniences which even they enjoy.

There is nothing unreasonable or unseriptural in supposing that all theprimitive arts originated in man’s immediate wants. Indeed, they couldnot have been introduced in any other way, for it is preposterous to sup-pose the Creator would directly reveal an art to man, the Utility of whichhe could not perceive, and the exercise of which his wants did not require.

Nor could any art have been preserved in the early ages, except it fur-nished conveniences which could not otherwise be procured. On noother consideration could the early inhabitants of the world have been in-duced to practice it. But when success attended the exercise of their in-genuity in devising means to supply their natural and artificial wants, thesimple arts would be gradually introduced, and their progress and perpe-tuity secured by practice and by that alone.

This appears to have been the opinion of the ancients:

Jove willed that man, by long experience taught,

Should various arts invent by gradual thought. Geor. i, 150.