For it is rational to conclude that our proper employment lies in
those inquiries, and in that sort of knowledge which is most suited to
our natural capacities, and carries in it our greatest interest,
i.e. the condition of our eternal estate. Hence I think I may conclude
that morality is the proper science and business of mankind in
general, (who are both concerned and fitted to search out their summum
bonum;) as several arts, conversant about several parts of nature, are
the lot and private talent of particular men for the common use of
human life and their own particular subsistence in this world. Of what
consequence the discovery of one natural body and its properties may
be to human life the whole great continent of America is a
convincing instance: whose ignorance in useful arts, and want of the
greatest part of the conveniences of life, in a country that
abounded with all sorts of natural plenty, I think may be attributed
to their ignorance of what was to be found in a very ordinary,
despicable stone; I mean the mineral of iron. And whatever we think of
our parts or improvements in this part of the world, where knowledge
and plenty seem to vie with each other; yet to any one that will
seriously reflect on it, I suppose it will appear past doubt, that,
were the use of iron lost among us, we should in a few ages be
unavoidably reduced to the wants and ignorance of the ancient savage
Americans, whose natural endowments and provisions come no way short
of those of the most flourishing and polite nations.
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