Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/301

However, as they were at once both Geometricians and Philoſophers, we cannot conſider as altogether unknown thoſe Regions which have been ſeen and deſcribed by a Condamine and a Maupertuis. The Jeweller Chardin, who travelled like Plato, has left nothing unſaid concerning Perſia; China ſeems to have been well ſurveyed by the Jeſuits. Kempfer gives a tolerable Idea of the little he ſaw in Japan. Except what theſe Relations tell us, we know nothing of the Inhabitants of the Eaſt Indies, frequented merely by Europeans more intent upon filling their Pockets with Money than their Heads with uſeful Knowledge. All Africa and its numerous Inhabitants, equally ſingular in Point of Character and Colour, ſtill remain unexamined; the whole Earth is covered with Nations of which we know nothing but the Names; and yet we ſet up for Judges of Mankind! Suppoſe a Monteſquieu, a Buffon, a Diderot, a Duclos, a d'Alembert, a Condillac, or Men of that Stamp, engaged in a Voyage for the Inſtruction of their Countrymen, obſerving and deſcribing with all that Attention and Exactneſs they are Maſters of, Turky, Egypt, Barbary, the Empire of Morocco, Guinea, the Land of the Caffres, the interior