He supports his views by a variety of strong arguments, among which, at the present conjuncture, it is worth noting that the following occurs-- "Where any accident, as a difference in language or religion, keeps two nations, inhabiting the same country, from mixing with one another, they will preserve during several centuries a distinct and even opposite set of manners.

The integrity, gravity, and bravery of the Turks, form an exact contrast to the deceit, levity, and cowardice of the modern Greeks."-- (III.

233.) The question of the influence of race, which plays so great a part in modern political speculations, was hardly broached in Hume's time, but he had an inkling of its importance:-- "I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites.

There scarcely ever was a civilised nation of that complexion, nor even any individual, eminent either in action or speculation....

Such a uniform and constant difference [between the negroes and the whites] could not happen in so many countries and ages, if nature had not made an original distinction between these breeds of men....