XIV

PREFACE.

supply, in a great measure, the history ofthe earlier ages of mankind, so much ob-scured as they are by romance and fa-bulous traditions. The infancy of humansociety in our times probably differs notmuch, except in local circumstances, fromthat which existed four thousand yearsago :—by a scrupulous and attentive ex-amination of the present, therefore, we maybe able to form some tolerable judgmentof the past. And this is not, I apprehend,a matter of idle curiosity or of uselessknowledge, as some have the presumptionto cry out;—for all that regards man,whether it be good or evil, is highly interest-ing to man;—the good, that we may. eitheradopt or improve;—the evil, that we mayeither avoid or remedy :—and as the his-tory of the human individual cannot beperfectly understood, without examininghim in his infancy,'—so a true knowledgeof the species in a state of society is notto be thoroughly and easily acquired,without a suitable investigation into theincipient stages of the social compact; forthere it is that the passions of man are