or if by some good Fate it shall pass farther on to other Countries that were yet never fully civiliz'd. We now behold much of the Northern Coasts of Europe and Asia, and almost all Afric, to continue in the rude State of Nature: I wish I had not an Instance nearer Home, and that I did not find some Parts of our own Monarchy in as bad a Condition. But why may we not suppose, that all these may in course of Time be brought to lay aside the untam'd Wildness of their present Manners? Why should we use them so cruelly as to believe, that the Goodness of their Creator has not also appointed them their Season of polite and happy Life, as well as us? Is this more unlikely to happen, than the Change that has been made in the World these last seventeen hundred Years? This has been so remarkable, that if Aristotle, and Plato, and Demosthenes, should now arise in Greece again, they would stand amaz'd at the horrible Devastation of that which was the Mother of Arts. And if Cæsar and Tacitus should return to Life, they would scarce believe this Britain, and Gaul, and Germany, to be the fame which they describ'd: They would now behold them cover'd over with Cities and Palaces, which were then over-run with Forests and Thickets: They would see all manner of Arts flourishing in these Countries, where the chief Art that was practis'd in their Time, was that barbarous one of painting their Bodies, to make them look more terrible in Battle.
This then being imagined, that there may some lucky Tide of Civility flow into those Lands, which are yet savage, there will a double Improvement thence arise, both in respect of ourselves and them: For even the present skilful Parts of Mankind, will be thereby made more skilful; and the other will not
