to preserve the heat, and then went forth to invite others,by signs and gestures, to come and witness the discovery.In the concourse that thus took place, they testified theirdifferent opinions and expressions by different inflexionsof the voice. From daily association words succeededto these indefinite modes of speech ; and these becomingby degrees the signs of certain objects, they began tojoin them together, and conversation became general.Thus the discovery of fire gave rise to the first assemblyof mankind, to their first deliberations, and to theirunion in a state of society. For association with eachother they were more fitted by nature than other animals,from their erect posture, which also gave them the ad-vantage of continually viewing the stars and firmament,no less than from their being able to grasp and lift anobject, and turn it about with their hands and fingers.In the assembly, therefore, which thus brought themfirst together, they were led to the consideration ofsheltering themselves from the seasons, some by makingarbours with the houghs of trees, some by excavatingcaves in the mountains, and others in imitation of thenests and habitations of swallows, by making dwellingsof twigs interwoven and covered with mud or clay. Fromobservation of and improvement on each others’ expe-dients for sheltering themselves, they soon began toprovide a better species of huts. It was thus that men,who are by nature of an imitative and docile turn ofmind, and proud of their own inventions, gaining dailyexperience also by what had been previously executed,vied with each other in their progress towards perfectionin building. The first attempt was the mere erection ofa few spars united together with twigs and covered withmud. Others built their walls of dried lumps of turf,connected these walls together by means of timbers laidacross horizontally, and covered the erections with reedsand boughs, for the purpose of sheltering themselvesfrom the inclemency of the seasons. Finding, however,