e,
which, according to the poet Lucretius, is remarkable for its
inflammability. The reader may desire to see the opinion of Mr Jones as
to the origin of man's acquaintance with fire.--It is certainly worthy
of consideration, and supposing it restricted to the parent of our race,
and his immediate offspring, may be held with no small confidence. It
embraces indeed a wider field than can possibly be investigated in this
place. "The first family," says he, "placed by the Creator upon this
earth, offered sacrifices; which being an article of religious duty,
they were certainly possessed of the means of performing it, and
consequently of the knowledge and use of fire, without which it could
not be practised. The next generation presents us with artificers in
brass and iron, which could not possibly be wrought without the complete
knowledge of fire; neither indeed could any works of art be well carried
on. The account of this affair in the Bible is much more natural,
because it is much more agreeable to the goodness of God, and the
dignity of the human species, than to suppose, on the principles of a
wild and savage philosophy (alluding to Dr Hawkesworth's poor
conjectures, as Mr Jones styles them), that men were left ignorant of
the use of an element intended for their accommodation and support. To
interdict a man from the use of fire and water, was accounted the same
in effect as to send him out of life; so that if men, upon the original
terms of their creation, were thus interdicted by the Creator himself,
as the Heathen mythologists supposed them to be, they were sent into
life upon such terms as others were sent out of it. If we admit any such
gloomy suppositions, where shall we stop? If mankind were left destitute
in respect to the knowledge of fire, perhaps they were left without
language, without food, without clothing, without reason, and in a worse
condition than the beasts, who are born with the proper knowledge of
life, but man receives it by education; therefore he who taught the
beasts by instinct, taught man by information." Much might be said for
and against this mode of reasoning, which this place, already so fully
occupied, will not admit. The history of fire is involved in
difficulties, and has really obtained less attention from men of
learning than it deserves. Probably, on appointing the rites of
sacrifice, which there is reason to believe was immediately after the
first gracious promise to Adam, God tes