# A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind/Notes

NOTES.
Dedication. Pag. viii.
(1.) Herodotus relates that after the Murder of the false Smerdis, the seven Deliverers of Persia being assembled to consult upon the Form of Government they should give their Country, Otanes pleaded strongly in Favour of the Republican; an Advice the more extraordinary in the Mouth of a Satrap, as, besides the Pretensions he might have formed to the Throne, Men in Power generally fear more than Death itself a Species of Government which obliges them to respect other Men. But Otanes, as we may well imagine, was not heard; therefore seeing the rest on the Point of proceeding to the Choice of a Monarch, he, who did not seek to command or obey, voluntarily ceded his Right to the Crown to the other Competitors, without requiring any other Indemnification than that of being independent, him and all his Posterity. Though Herodotus had not acquainted us with the Bounds set to this Privilege, we should be under an indispensable Necessity of supposing some; otherwise Otanes, acknowledging no kind of Law, and not being bound to account to any one for his ​Conduct, had nothing to fear whatever he attempted, and would have been more powerful than the King himself. But there was very little Danger that a Man, capable of putting up on such an Occasion with such a Privilege, should make an ill Use of it. In fact, it does not appear that this Right ever caused the least Disturbance in the Kingdom, either by the sage Otanes, or any of his Descendants.
Preface. Pag. xlv.
(2.) From my first setting out, I build with Confidence upon one of those Authorities which Philosophers respect, because derived from solid and sublime Reasons, which they, and they alone, are capable of discovering and feeling.
"Whatever Interest we may have to know ourselves, I doubt if we do not know much better those Things which make no Part of us. Provided by Nature with Organs solely adapted to our Preservation, we employ them merely to receive foreign Impressions; all our Care is to exist without ourselves; too much taken up in multiplying the Functions of our Senses ​and increasing the exterior Extent of our Being, we seldom make Use of that interior Sense which reduces us to our true Dimensions, and which separates from us every thing that makes no Part of us. This is, however, the Sense we must make use of, if we intend to know ourselves; this is the only Sense by which we can judge ourselves. But the Difficulty is to give this Sense its Activity and proper Extent; to free our Soul, in which it resides, from every Illusion of our Understanding: We have lost the Habit of employing it; it has remained in a State of Inaction in the Midst of the Tumult bred by our corporeal Sensations, and has been parched up by the Heat of our Passions; the Heart, the Mind, the Senses, every thing has laboured to oppose it." Hist. Nat. T. 4. p. 151. de la Nature de l'homme.
Discourse. Pag. 15.
​But there are, I imagine, much stronger Reasons to affirm that Man is a Biped. In the first Place, supposing it could be demonstrated that, tho' originally formed otherwise, he might nevertheless become in Time what he now is, would this not be enough to make us conclude that it really happened so? For, after shewing the Possibility of these Changes, it would be still necessary, in order to establish them, to shew at least some Probability of their having really happened. Moreover, allowing that Man's Arms might have served him as Legs in case of Necessity, it is the only Observation favourable to this System, whereas there are many others which contradict it. The principal are, that the Manner, in which the Head of Man is fixed to his Body, instead of giving his Eyes an horizontal Direction, such as all other Animals have it, and such as he himself has it when walking upright, would have fixed them directly upon the Earth, a Situation very unfavourable to the Preservation of Individuals; that the Tail, which Nature has not given him, and which he has no Occasion for in walking, ​is useful to Quadrupeds, and that not one of them is found to want it; that the Situation of the Breasts of Women, well adapted to Bipeds which hold their Children in their Arms, would be so inconvenient for Quadrupeds, that not one of them has these Parts placed in that Manner; that, our Legs and Thighs being so excessively long in proportion to the Hands and Arms that when walking on All-fours we are forced to crawl upon our Knees, the whole would have formed an ill-proportioned Animal, and very ill fitted for walking: That if such an Animal laid his Foot as well as his Hand flat on the Earth, he would have in the Hinder-Leg a Joint less than other Animals, namely, that which unites the Canon with the Tibia, and that in standing on the Tip of the Foot, as no doubt he must be obliged to do, the Tarsus, not to insist on its being composed of so many Bones, must have been too large to answer the End of the Canon: And the Articulations with the Metatarsus and Tibia too near each other to afford the Human Leg, in that Situation, the Degree of Flexibility observable in the Legs of Quadrupeds. The Example of Children being drawn from an Age in which our ​natural Forces are not as yet developed nor our Members confirmed in Strength, concludes nothing; and I might as well affirm that Dogs are not made to walk, because for some Days after their Birth they do no more than crawl. Nor are particular Facts of any great avail against the universal Practice of Mankind, even of those Nations, which as they have no Communication with other Nations, cannot be suspected of having copied after them. A Child deserted in a Forest before he had Strength to walk, and suckled by some Beast, must have followed the Example of his Nurse, and endeavoured to walk like her; Habit might have given him a Facility which he did not receive from Nature; and as a Man who has lost his Hands, brings himself by Dint of Exercise to do with his Feet alone every thing he formerly did with his Hands, so such deserted Child will at length acquire a Facility of employing his Hands in the Work destined for his Feet.
Pag. 17.
(4.) Lest any of my Readers should happen to be so little acquainted with natural ​Philosophy as to start Difficulties to the Supposition of this natural Fertility of the Earth, I shall endeavour to obviate them by the following Passage.
"As Vegetables derive for their Support a great deal more Substance from the Air and Water than from the Earth, so, when they decay, they restore to the Earth more than they received from it; moreover, Forests engross great Quantities of Rain Water by stopping the Vapours that form it. Thus, in Woods that have remained untouched for a long Time, the Layer of Earth, in which the Business of Vegetation is carried on, must have received a considerable Addition. But Animals restoring to the Earth less than they derive from it, and Men consuming enormous Quantities of Vegetables for firing and other Purposes, it follows that the Layer of vegetating Earth, in well peopled Countries, must be constantly on the Decline, and become at last like the Surface of Arabia Petrea, and so many other Provinces of the East, (which in Fact is the Part of the World that was earliest inhabited) ​where nothing but Salt and Sand is to be found at present; for the fixed Salt of Plants and Animals stays behind, while all the other Parts become volatile, and fly off." Mr. de Buffon, Hist. Nat.
This Theory may be confirmed by Facts, namely the great Quantity of Trees and Plants of every Kind, which covered all the desart Islands discovered in the latter Centuries, and by the immense Forests History informs us it was requisite to cut down in all Parts of the World, in proportion as they became better inhabited, and the Inhabitants became more civilized. Upon which I must add the three following Remarks. One is, that if there are any Vegetables capable of replacing the vegetable Matter consumed by Animals, according to Monsieur Buffon, they must be those Trees whose Leaves and Branches collect and appropriate to themselves the greatest Quantity of Water and Vapour. The Second, that the Destruction of the Soil, that is to say, the Loss of Substance fit for Vegetation, cannot but increase in proportion as the Earth is ​cultivated, and as the Inhabitants, become more industrious, consume its Productions of every Kind in greater Quantities. My third and most important Remark is, that the Fruits of Trees afford Animals a more plentiful Nourishment than they can expect from other Vegetables. This I know by my own Experience, having compared the Produce of two Pieces of Land of equal Area and Quality, one sowed with Wheat, and the other planted with Chesnut Trees.
Pag. 18.
(5.) Among Quadrupeds, the two most universal Distinctions of the carnivorous Tribes are deduced, one from the Figure of the Teeth, and the other from the Conformation of the Intestines. The Animals, who live upon Vegetables, have all of them blunt Teeth, like the Horse, the Ox, the Sheep, the Hare; but the carnivorous Animals have them sharp, like the Cat, the Dog, the Wolf, the Fox. And as to the Intestines, the frugivorous have some, such as the Colon, which are not to be found in the carnivorous Animals. It seems, ​therefore, that Man, having Teeth and Intestines like those of frugivorous Animals, should naturally be ranked in that Class; and not only anatomical Observations confirm this Opinion, but the Monuments of Antiquity greatly favour it. "Dicearchus, says St. Jerom, relates in his Books of Grecian Antiquities, that under the Reign of Saturn, when the Earth was still fertile of itself, no one eat Flesh, but all lived upon Fruits and other Vegetables, which the Earth naturally produced." (Lib. 2. Adv. Jovinian.) By this it will appear, that I give up a great many Advantages of which I might avail myself. For their Prey being almost the only Subject of Quarrel between carnivorous Animals, and the frugivorous living together in perpetual Peace and Harmony, were Men of this last kind, it is evident they would find it much more easy to subsist in a State of Nature, and have much fewer Calls and Occasions to leave it.
Pag. 20.
(6.) All those Branches of Knowledge, that require Reflection, are not to be attained but by a ​Chain of Ideas, and can only be brought to Perfection one after another, seem to be altogether beyond the Reach of savage Man, for Want of Communication with his Fellows, that is to say, for Want of an Instrument wherewith to form this Communication, and of Calls to render it necessary. All his Knowledge and Industry consists in leaping, running, fighting, throwing a Stone, climbing a Tree. But, if on the one hand he can do nothing else, he can on the other do all these Things much better than we can, who are much less beholden to such Exercises; And as Skill and Dexterity in such Exercises depends entirely on Practice, and can neither be communicated or handed down from one Individual to another, the first Man might have been every whit as expert at them as the last of his Descendents.
The Relations of Travellers abound with Examples of the Strength and Vigour of Men in barbarous and savage Countries; they almost equally extol their Nimbleness and Dexterity; and as Eyes alone are ​sufficient to make such Observations, we may safely give Credit upon these Occasions to ocular Witnesses. I shall extract at random some Examples from the first Books that come in my way.
"The Hottentots, says Kolben, are better Fishermen than the Europeans of the Cape. They use the Net, the Hook and the Dart, with equal Dexterity, in the Creeks on the Sea Shore and in their Rivers. They are no less expert at taking Fish with their Hands. In swimming nothing can compare with them. Their Manner of swimming has something very surprising in it, and quite peculiar to them. They swim erect with their Hands above Water, so that they seem to walk upon dry Land. In the most mountainous Seas they dance in a Manner on the Backs of the Waves, ascending and descending like a Piece of Cork."
The Hottentots, the same Author tells us in another Place, are surprisingly dexterous at Hunting, and their Nimbleness at Running is altogether inconceiveable; and he is astonished ​that they do not oftener make a bad Use of their Agility; for they do it sometimes, as we may see by the following Story.
"A Dutch Sailor, on his coming ashore at the Cape, ordered a Hottentot to follow him to Town with a Roll of Tobacco of about twenty Pounds Weight. When they had got to some Distance from the rest of the Company, the Hottentot asked the Sailor, Did he run well? Run well! answered the Dutchman, yes, very well. Let's see, replied the African; and scampering away with the Tobacco, he was the next Moment out of Sight. The Sailor, struck with Amazement at the surprising Fleetness of the Savage, was too wise to think of pursuing him, and never saw either his Tobacco or his Porter again."
"Their Sight is so quick, and their Aim with the Hand so sure, that the Europeans greatly fall short of them in these Respects. At a hundred Paces Distance they will hit you with a Stone a Mark no bigger than a Half-penny; and what is still more surprising, instead of fixing their Eyes upon it, they are all the Time running to and fro, and writhing their Bodies. ​One would be apt to think that their Stone was carried by an invisible Hand."
Father du Tertre says pretty much the same Thing of the West-India Savages, that we have been reading from Kolben of the Hottentots of the Cape of Good Hope: He above all cries up their Dexterity in shooting with their Arrows Birds flying, and Fishes swimming, which they afterwards take by diving for them. The North America Savages are no less famous for their Strength and Dexterity: And the following Story may help to give us an Idea of these Qualities in the South America Indians.
In the Year 1746, an Indian of Buenos Ayres having been condemned to the Gallies at Cadiz, proposed to the Governor to purchase his Liberty by exposing his Life at a public Festival. He engaged to attack by himself the most furious Bull without any Weapon but a Rope, to bring him to the Ground, seize with his Rope such Part of him as he should be ordered, saddle him, bridle him, and then mounted on his Back fight two more of the most furious Bulls in the Torillo, and ​kill them both one after another, the Moment he should be commanded so to do, and all this without any Manner of Assistance. The Governor having accepted these Terms, the Indian was as good as his Word, and performed every thing he had promised. For the way he went about it, and the Particulars of so extraordinary an Engagement, the Reader may consult the First Volume of Observations on Natural History by Mr. Gautier, from whom I have borrowed this Account. Page xxx.
Pag. 25.
(7.) "The Length of Life in Horses, says Monsieur de Buffon, is, as in every other Species of Animals, proportionable to the length of their growing State. Man, who is fourteen Years growing, may live six or seven times as long, that is, Ninety or a Hundred Years: The Horse, whose Growth is performed in four Years, may live six or seven times as long, that is five and twenty or thirty Years. The Instances of Deviations from this Rule are so few, that they ought not to be considered as an Exception from which any Consequences can ​be drawn; and as large Horses reach their full Size in a much shorter Time than those of a delicate Make, so they are shorter lived, and old even at Fifteen."
Pag. 25.
(8.) Methinks I see between carnivorous and frugivorous Animals another Difference still more general than that laid down in the Note (5.) since it extends even to Birds. This Difference consists in the Number of their Young, which never exceeds two at a Litter with those kinds that live upon Vegetables, but is generally greater with those of Prey. It is no hard Matter to guess the Intentions of Nature in this Respect by the Number of Teats, which is never more than two in Females of the first kind, as the Mare, the Cow, the She-Goat, the Doe, the Sheep, &c. and always six or eight in the other Females, as the Bitch, the She-Cat, the She-Wolf, the Tygress, &c. The Hen, the Goose, the Duck, which are all carnivorous Birds, as likewise the Eagle, the Sparrow-Hawk, the Owl, do likewise lay and hatch a great Number of Eggs, a Thing never known ​of the Pigeon, the Dove, or other Birds, which touch nothing but Grain. These seldom lay and hatch more than two Eggs at a Time. The best Reason, that can be given for this Difference, is that the Animals, who live entirely on Herbs and Plants, being obliged to spend the best Part of the Day in foraging for themselves, and requiring a great deal of Time to take their Food, it would be impossible for them to suckle many young ones; whereas those of Prey, making their Meal in a Moment or two, may oftener and more easily go and come between their Young and their Prey, and repair the Expence of so great a Quantity of Milk. I could make a great many other Observations and Reflections upon this Head, but this is not a Place for them; and it is sufficient for my Purpose that I have in this Part pointed out the most general System of Nature, a System which affords a new Reason for removing Man from the Class of carnivorous into that of frugivorous Animals.
Pag. 38.
(9.) A celebrated Author, by calculating the Goods and the Evils of Human Life and ​comparing the two Sums, found that the last greatly exceeded the first, and that every thing considered Life to Man was no such valuable Present. I am not surprised at his Conclusions; he drew all his Arguments from the Constitution of Man in a civilized State. Had he looked back to Man in a State of Nature, it is obvious that the Result of his Enquiries would have been very different; that Man would have appeared to him subject to very few Evils but those of his own making, and that he would have acquitted Nature. It has cost us something to make ourselves so miserable. When on the one hand we consider the immense Labours of Mankind, so many Sciences brought to Perfection, so many Arts invented, so many Powers employed, so many Abysses filled up, so many Mountains levelled, so many Rocks rent to Pieces, so many Rivers made navigable, so many Tracts of Land cleared, Lakes emptied, Marshes drained, enormous Buildings raised upon the Earth, and the Sea covered with Ships and Sailors; and on the other weigh with ever so little Attention the real Advantages that have resulted from all these Works to the Human Species; ​we cannot help being amazed at the vast Disproportion observable between these Things, and deplore the Blindness of Man, which, to feed his foolish Pride and I don't know what vain Self-Admiration, makes him eagerly court and pursue all the Miseries he is capable of feeling, and which beneficent Nature had taken Care to keep at a Distance from him.
Civilized Man is a mischievous Being; a lamentable and constant Experience renders the Proof of it unnecessary; Man, however, is naturally good; I think I have demonstrated it; what then could have depraved him to such a Degree, unless the Changes that have happened in his Constitution, his Improvements, and the Lights he has acquired. Let us cry up Human Society as much as we please, it will not be the less true that it necessarily engages Men to hate each in proportion as their Interests clash; to do each other apparent Services, and in fact heap upon each other every imaginable Mischief. What are we to think of a Commerce, in which the Interest of every Individual dictates to him Maxims diametrically opposite to those which the Interest of the Community recommends to the Body of Society; a ​Commerce, in which every Man finds his Account in the Misfortunes of his Neighbour? There is not, perhaps, a single Man in easy Circumstances, whose Death his greedy Heirs, nay and too often his own Children, do not secretly wish for; not a Ship at Sea, the Loss of which would not be an agreeable Piece of News for some Merchant or another; not a House, which a Debtor would not be glad to see reduced to Ashes with all the Papers in it; not a Nation, which does not rejoice at the Misfortunes of its Neighbours. It is thus we find our Advantage in the Disasters of our Fellows, and that the Loss of one Man almost always constitutes the Prosperity of another. But, what is still more dangerous, public Calamities are ever the Objects of the Hopes and Expectations of a Multitude of private Persons. Some are for Sickness, others for Mortality; these for War, those for Famine. I have seen Monsters of Men weep for Grief at the Appearance of a plentiful Season; and the great and fatal Conflagration of London, which cost so many Wretches their Lives or their Fortunes, proved, perhaps, the making of more than Ten Thousand Persons. I know that Montaigne finds fault with Demades the Athenian for ​having caused a Workman to be punished, who, selling his Coffins very dear, was a great Gainer by the Deaths of his Fellow Citizens: But Montaigne's Reason being, that by the same Rule every Man should be punished, it is plain that it confirms my Argument. Let us therefore look thro' our frivolous Demonstrations of Benevolence at what passes in the inmost Recesses of the Heart, and reflect on what must be that State of Things, in which Men are forced with the same Breath to caress and curse each other, and in which they are born, Enemies by Duty, and Knaves by Interest. Perhaps somebody will object that Society is so formed, that every Man gains by serving the rest. It may be so, but does he not gain still more by injuring them? There is no lawful Profit but what is greatly exceeded by what may be unlawfully made, and we always gain more by hurting our Neighbours than by doing them good. The only Objection therefore, that now remains, is the Difficulty which Malefactors find in screening themselves from Punishment, and it is to accomplish this, that the Powerful employ all their Strength, and the Weak all their Cunning.
​Savage Man, when he has dined, is at Peace with the whole Creation, and the Friend of all his Fellows. Does a Dispute sometimes happen about a Meal? He seldom comes to Blows without having first compared the Difficulty of conquering with that of finding a Supply in some other Place; and, as Pride has no Share in the Squabble, it ends in a few Cuffs; the Conqueror eats, the Conquered retires to seek his Fortune elsewhere, and all is quiet again. But with Man in Society the Case is quite different; in the first place, Necessaries are to be provided, and then Superfluities; Delicacies follow, and then immense Riches, and then Subjects, and then Slaves. He does not enjoy the least Relaxation; what is most extraordinary, the less natural and pressing are his Wants, the more headstrong his Passions become, and what is still worse, the greater is his Power of satisfying them; so that after a long Series of Prosperity, after having swallowed up immense Treasures and ruined Thousands, our Hero closes the Scene by cutting every Throat, 'till he at last finds himself sole Master of an empty Universe. Such is in Miniature the Moral Table, if not of ​Human Affairs, at least of the secret Pretensions of every civilized Heart.
Compare without Prejudice the State of the Citizen with that of the Savage, and find out, if you can, how many Inlets, besides his Wickedness, his Wants, his Miseries, the former has opened to Pain and to Death. If you consider the Afflictions of the Mind which prey upon us, the violent Passions which waste and exhaust us, the excessive labours with which the Poor are overburthened, the still more dangerous Indolence, in which the Rich lie sunk, and which bring to the Grave those through Want, and these through Excess. But reflect a Moment on the monstrous Mixture, and pernicious Manner of seasoning so many Kinds of Food, the corrupt State in which they are often made use of; on the Sophistication of Medicines, the Tricks of those who sell them, the Mistakes of those who administer them, the poisonous Qualities of the Vessels in which they are prepared: but think a little seriously on the epidemical Diseases bred by bad Air among great Numbers of Men crowded together, or those occasioned by ​our delicate Way of living, by our alternate Transitions from the closest Parts of our Houses into the open Air, the taking or laying aside our Cloaths with too little Precaution, and by all those Conveniences which our boundless Sensuality has changed into necessary Habits, and the Neglect or Loss of which afterwards costs us our Life or our Health; set down the Conflagrations and Earthquakes, which devouring or overturning whole Cities destroy the miserable Inhabitants by Thousands; sum up in fine the Dangers with which all these Mischiefs are constantly attended; and then you will see how dearly Nature makes us pay the Contempt we have shewed for her Lessons.
I shall not now repeat what I have elsewhere said of the Calamities of War; I only wish that Persons sufficiently informed for that Purpose were willing or bold enough to favour us with the Detail of the Villainies committed in Armies by the Undertakers for Victuals and Hospitals; we should then plainly discover that their monstrous Frauds, but too well known already, destroy more Soldiers than actually fall by the Sword of the Enemy, so as often ​to make the most gallant Armies vanish almost instantaneously from the Face of the Earth. The Number of those who every every Year perish at Sea by Famine, by the Scurvy, by Pirates, by Shipwrecks, would furnish Matter for another very shocking Calculation. Besides it is plain, that we are to place to the account of the Establishment of Property and of Course to that of Society, the Assassinations, Poisonings, Highway Robberies, and even the Punishments inflicted on the Wretches guilty of these Crimes; Punishments, it is true, requisite to prevent greater Evils, but which, by making the Murder of one Man prove the Death of two, double in fact the Loss of the Human Species. How many are the shameful Methods to prevent the Birth of Men, and cheat Nature? Either by those brutal and depraved Appetites which insult her most charming Work, Appetites which neither Savages nor mere Animals were ever acquainted with, and which in civilized Countries could only spring from a corrupt Imagination; or by those secret Abortions, the worthy Fruits of Debauch and vicious Honour; or by the Exposition or ​Murder of Multitudes of Children, Victims to the Poverty of their Parents, or the barbarous Bashfulness of their Mothers; or in fine by the Mutilation of those Wretches, Part of whose Existence, with that of their whole Posterity, is sacrificed to vain sing-song, or, which is still worse, the brutal Jealousy of some other Men: A Mutilation, which, in the last Case, is doubly outragious to Nature by the Treatment of those who suffer it, and by the Service to which they are condemned. But what if I undertook to shew the Human Species attacked in its very Source, and even in the holiest of all Ties, in forming which Nature is never listened to 'till Fortune has been consulted, and civil Disorder confounding all Virtue and Vice, Continency becomes a criminal Precaution, and a Refusal to give Life to Beings like one's self, an Act of Humanity: but I must not tear open the Veil which hides so many Horrors; it is enough that I have pointed out the Disease, since it is the Business of others to apply a Remedy.
Let us add to this the great Number of unwholesome Trades which abridge Life, or ​destroy the Constitution; such as the digging and preparing of Metals and Minerals, especially Lead, Copper, Mercury, Cobalt, Arsenic, Realgar; those other dangerous Trades, which every Day kill so many Men, for Example, Tilers, Carpenters, Masons, and Quarrymen; let us, I say, unite all these Objects, and then we shall discover in the Establishment and Perfection of Societies the Reasons of that Diminution of the Species, which so many Philosophers have taken Notice of.
Luxury, which nothing can prevent among Men ready to sacrifice every thing to their own Conveniency, and willing to purchase at any Rate the Respect of others, soon puts the finishing Hand to the Evils which Society had begun; and on Pretence of giving Bread to the Poor, which it should rather have avoided making, impoverishes all the rest, and sooner or later dispeoples the State.
Luxury is a Remedy much worse than the Disease which it pretends to cure; or rather is in itself the worst of all Diseases, both in great and small States. To maintain those Crowds ​of Servants and Wretches which it never fails to create, it crushes and ruins the laborious Inhabitants of Town and Country: Not unlike those scorching South-Winds, which covering both Trees and Herbs with devouring Insects rob the useful Animals of Subsistence, and carry Famine and Death with them whereever they blow.
From Society and the Luxury engendered by it, spring the liberal and mechanical Arts, Commerce, Letters, and all those Inutilities which make Industry flourish, enrich and ruin Nations. The Reasons of such Ruin are very simple. It is plain that Agriculture in its own Nature must be the least lucrative of all Arts, because the Produce of it being of the most indispensable Necessity for all Men, the Price of this Produce must be proportioned to the Faculties of the Poorest. From the same Principle it may be gathered, that in general Arts are lucrative in the inverse Ratio of their Usefulness, and that in the End the most necessary must come to be the most neglected. By which we are taught to form a Judgment of the true Advantages ​of Industry, and of the real Effects of its Progress.
Such are the evident Causes of all the Miseries into which Opulence at length precipitates the most admired Nations. In proportion as Industry and Arts spread and flourish, the slighted Husbandman, loaded with Taxes necessary for the Support of Luxury, and condemned to spend his Life between Labour and Hunger, leaves his Fields to seek in Town the Bread he should carry there. The more our Capital Cities strike with Admiration the Eyes of the stupid Vulgar; the greater Reason is there to weep, considering what large Tracts of Land are utterly deserted, what fruitful Fields lie uncultivated, how the High-Roads are crowded with unhappy Citizens turned Beggars or Highwaymen, and doomed, sooner or later to lay down their wretched Lives on the Wheel or the Dunghill. It is thus, that while States grow rich on one hand, they grow weak, and are depopulated on the other; and the most powerful Monarchies, after innumerable Labours to enrich and thin themselves, fall at last a Prey ​to some poor Nation, which has yielded to the fatal Temptation of invading them, and then grows opulent and weak in its turn, 'till it is itself invaded and destroyed by some other.
I wish somebody would condescend to inform us, what could have produced those Swarms of Barbarians, which during so many Ages overran Europe, Asia, and Africa? Was it to the Industry of their Arts, the Wisdom of their Laws, the Excellence of their Police they owed so prodigious an Increase? I wish our learned Men would be so kind as to tell us, why instead of multiplying to such a Degree, these fierce and brutal Men, without Sense or Science, without Restraint, without Education, did not murder each other every Minute in quarrelling for the spontaneous Productions of their Fields and Woods? Let them tell us how these Wretches could have the Assurance to look in the Face such skilful Men as we were, with so fine a Military Discipline, such excellent Codes, and such wise Laws. Why, in fine, since Society has been perfected in the Northern Climates, and so much Pains have been ​taken with the Inhabitants of these Countries to instruct them in their Duty to one another, and the Art of living peaceably and agreeably together, we no longer see them produce any thing like those numberless Hosts, which they formerly used to send forth. I am afraid that somebody may at last take it into his Head to answer me by saying, that truly all these great Things, namely Arts, Sciences and Laws, were very wisely invented by Men, as a salutary Plague, to prevent the too great Multiplication of Mankind, left this World, given us for our Habitation, should at length be found too little for its Inhabitants.
What then? Must Societies be destroyed? Meum and Tuum abolished, and Man bury himself again in Forests among Wolves and Bears? A Consequence in the Stile of my Adversaries, which I chuse to obviate rather than permit them the Shame of drawing it. O you, by whom the Voice of Heaven has not been heard, and who allow your Species no other Lot but that of finishing in Peace this short Life; you, who can lay down in the midst of Cities your fatal Acquisitions, your turbulent Spirits, ​your corrupted Hearts and boundless Desires, take up again, since it is in your Power, your ancient and primitive Innocence; retire to the Woods, there to lose the Sight and Remembrance of the Crimes committed by your Cotemporaries; nor be afraid of debasing your Species, by renouncing its Improvements in order to renounce its Vices. As to Men like me, whose Passions have irretrievably destroyed their original Simplicity, who can no longer live upon Grass and Acorns, or without Laws and Magistrates; all those who were honoured in the Person of their first Parent with supernatural Lessons; those, who discover, in the Intention to give immediately to Human Actions a Morality which otherwise they must have been so long in acquiring, the Reason of a Precept indifferent in itself, and utterly inexplicable in every other System; those, in a word, who are convinced that the Divine Voice has called all Men to the Perfection and Happiness of the celestial Intelligences; all such will endeavour, by the Practice of those Virtues to which they oblige themselves in learning to distinguish them, to deserve the eternal Reward promised to their Obedience. ​They will respect the sacred Bonds of those Societies to which they belong; they will love their Fellows, and will serve them to the utmost of their Power; they will religiously obey the Laws, and all those who make or administer them; they will above all Things honour those good and wise Princes, who find out Means to prevent, cure, or even palliate the Crowd of Evils and Abuses always ready to overwhelm us; they will animate the Zeal of those worthy Chiefs, by shewing them without Fear or Flattery the Importance of their Task, and the Rigour of their Duties. But after all they must despise a Constitution, which cannot subsist without the Assistance of so many Men of Worth, who are oftener wanted than found; and from which, in Spite of all their Cares, there always spring more real Calamities than apparent Advantages.
Pag. 39.
(10.) Among the Men we are ourselves acquainted with, or know by History, or the Relations of Travellers; some are black, some white, and some red; some wear their Hair ​long, some instead of Hair have nothing but a curled Wool; some are in a Manner covered all over with Hair, others have not so much as a Beard; there have been, and perhaps there are still Nations of a gigantic Size; not to insist on the Fable of the Pigmies, which perhaps is no more than an Exaggeration, it is well known that the Laplanders, and especially the Greenlanders, are greatly below the middle Stature; it is even pretended that there are whole Nations with Tails like Quadrupeds; and without blindly giving Credit to Herodotus and Ctesias, we may at least draw this very probable Opinion from their Relations, that if good Observations could have been made in these early Times, when the Manners and Customs of Nations differed more than they do at present, more striking Varieties would have likewise appeared in the Figure and Habit of their Bodies. All these Facts, of which incontestible Proofs may be easily given, can astonish those only who never consider any Objects but such as surround them, and are Strangers to the powerful Influence of different Modes of Life, Climate, Air, Food, and above all the surprizing Power of the same Causes, when acting ​continually on a long Succession of Generations. At present, that the Nations scattered over the Face of the Earth are better united by Trade, Travelling, and Conquest, and their Manners and Customs grow every Day more and more like each other in Consequence of a more frequent Intercourse, certain national Differences are greatly diminished. For Example, it is plain that the French are no longer those large, fair haired and fair skinned Bodies described by Latin Historians, though Time, assisted by the Mixture of Franks and Normans equally fair, should, one would imagine, have restored what the Climate, by the frequent Visits of the Romans, might have lost of its Influence over the natural Constitution and Complexion of the Inhabitants. All these Observations on the Varieties, which a thousand Causes can produce and have in fact produced in the Human Species, make me doubt if several Animals, which Travellers have taken for Beasts, for Want of examining them properly, on account of some Difference they observed in their exterior Configuration, or merely because these Animals did not speak, were not in fact true Men, (though in a savage State,) ​whose Race early dispersed in the Woods never had any Opportunity of developing its virtual Faculties, and had acquired no Degree of Perfection, but still remained in the primitive State of Nature. I shall give an Example to illustrate my Meaning.
"There are found, says the Translator of the History of Voyages, &c. in the Kingdom of Congo, a great many of those large Animals, called Orang-Outang, in the East Indies, which form a kind of mean Rank of Beings between Men and Baboons. Battel tells us, that in the Forests of Mayomba in the Kingdom of Loango, there are two Sorts of Monsters, the largest of which are called Pongos, and the others Enjokos. The first exactly resemble Man, but are much larger and taller. Their Face is a Human one, but with very hollow Eyes. Their Hands, their Cheeks, their Ears are quite bare of Hair, all to their Eye-Brows, which are very long. The rest of their Bodies is pretty hairy, and the Hair is of a brown Colour. In short, the only thing by which they can be distinguished from the Human Species, is the Make of their Legs, which has no Calf. They walk ​upright, holding in their Hands the Hair of their Neck. They keep in the Woods; they sleep in Trees, where they make a kind of Roof that screens them from the Rain. They never touch the Flesh of Animals, but live upon Nuts or other wild Fruits. The Negroes, with whom it is customary, when their Way lies through Forests, to light Fires in the Night Time, observe, that as soon as they set out in the Morning, the Pongos gather about the Fire, and continue there 'till it goes out: for though these Animals are very dexterous, they have not Sense enough to keep up the Fire by supplying it with Fuel.
They sometimes march in great Companies, and kill the Negroes who happen to be crossing the Forests. They even fall upon the Elephants who come to feed in the Places they haunt, and belabour these Animals so much with their naked Fists or with Sticks, that they make them roar out again, and fly to avoid their fury. The Pongos, when grown up, are never taken alive, for they are then so strong, that ten Men would not be able to master one of them. But the Negroes take several ​⟨of⟩ the young ones after killing the Mother, from whose Body, they cling so fast to it, it is no easy Matter to part them. When one of these Animals dies, the rest cover his Body with a Heap of Leaves or Branches. Purchass adds, that in his Conferences with Battel he had been informed by himself that a Pongo one Day carried off from him a little Negroe, who spent a whole Month among these Animals; for they do no Harm to the Men they surprize, provided their Captives do not look at them, as the little Negroe observed. Battel has not described the second Species of Monster.
Dapper confirms that the Kingdom of Congo is full of these Animals, which in the East Indies are known by the Name of Orang-Outang, that is to say, Inhabitants of the Woods, and which the Africans call Quojas-Morros. This Beast, he says, is so like a Man, that some Travellers have been silly enough to think it might be the Offspring of a Woman and a Monkey: a Chimera which the Negroes themselves laugh at. One of these Animals was brought from Congo to Holland, and ​presented to Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. It was as tall as a Child of three Years, moderately corpulent, and though square-built was well-proportioned, and withal very active and lively; its Legs were strong and fleshy, the Back-part of the Body covered all over with black Hair, the Fore-part without any Hair at all. At first Sight its Face looked like that of a Man, but the Nose was flat and turned up; its Ears too resembled those of the Human Species; its Bosom, for it was a Female, was dimpled, its Navel sunk in, its Shoulders well hung, its Hands divided into Fingers and Thumbs, the Calfs of its Legs and its Heels fat and fleshy. She often walked upright on her Legs, and could raise and carry pretty heavy Burthens. When she wanted to drink, she took hold of the Lid of the Vessel with one Hand, and of the Bottom with the other, and after drinking wiped her Lips very prettily. When she laid herself down to rest, she placed her Head upon a Pillow, and covered herself with so much Dexterity, that one would have taken her for a Woman in Bed. The Negroes tell strange Stories of this Animal. They assure us that the Male not only ravishes grown up Women and young Girls, but even ​is not afraid to attack armed Men; in a word, there is great Reason to think that this is the Satyr of the Ancients. They are, perhaps, the Animals meant by Merolla, where he says that the Negroes, when hunting, sometimes catch wild Men and Women."
Mention is likewise made in the third Tome of the same History of Voyages of these kind of antropoform Animals, by the Name of Beggos and Mandrills; but to abide by the preceding Relations, there are in the Description of these pretended Monsters very striking Conformities with the Human Species, and smaller Differences than may be pointed out between one Man and another. We cannot discover by these Passages, what Reasons the Writers had for refusing to the Animals in question the Name of wild Men; but we may easily guess, that it was on account of their Stupidity and Want of Speech; weak Arguments for those who know, that, though the Organs of Speech are natural to Man, it is otherwise with Speech itself, and are aware to what a Pitch the Perfectibility of the Human Species may have exalted civil Man above his original Condition. The small Number of Lines bestowed upon these ​Descriptions is sufficient to shew with what Prejudice these Animals have been seen, and how slightly they have been examined. For Example, they are represented as Monsters, and at the same Time allowed to engender. In one Place Battel says, "the Pongos kill the Negroes they meet with in the Woods;" in another Purchass adds, "they do them no Harm, even when they surprize them, provided the Negroes take Care not to look too attentively at them. The Pongos gather about the Fires lighted by the Negroes, when these have left it, and withdraw themselves in their Turn, as soon as the Fire goes out." Such is the Fact, now for the Comment upon it; "for with all their Address they have not Sense enough to keep the Fire in by supplying it with Wood." I should be glad to know by what Means Battel, or his Compiler Purchass, found out, that the Retreat of the Pongos was the Effect of Stupidity in them rather than Inclination. In a Climate like Loango, Animals cannot stand much in need of Fire, and if the Negroes make Fires, it is not so much to warm themselves as to scare and kept at a Distance the wild Beasts with which the Country swarms; it is therefore but ​natural that the Pongos, after having amused themselves for some Time with the Blaze, or sufficiently warmed themselves, should grow tired of standing stock still in the same Place, and return to their wild Fruits which require more Time than the Flesh of Animals. Besides it is well known that most Animals, and Man himself, are naturally indolent, and never care to trouble themselves about any thing they can any way do without. In fine, it appears very strange that the Pongos, whose Dexterity and Strength is so much cried up, who know how to bury their Dead, and make themselves Awnings with Leaves and Branches, should not know how to keep up a Wood Fire by pushing the half-burnt Sticks into it. I remember to have seen a Monkey do the very thing which Battel and Purchass will not allow the Pongos Sense to do; it is true that, my Thoughts not having as yet taken a Turn this Way, I committed myself the very Fault with which I now reproach our Travellers, and neglected examining if the Monkey's Intention was to keep in the Fire, or barely to imitate those whom he had seen doing it. Be that as it will, it is evident ​that the Monkey does not belong to the Human Species, not only because he wants the Faculty of Speech, but above all because his Species has not the Faculty of improving, which is the specifick Characteristic of the Human Species. But it does not appear that the same Experiments have been made with the Pongos and the Orang-Outang carefully enough to afford the same Conclusion. There is however a Method by which, if the Orang-Outang or such other Animals were of the Human Species, the most illiterate Observers might make themselves sure of it; but besides that a single Generation would not be sufficient for such an Experiment; it must be considered as impracticable, because it is necessary that what is now no more than a Supposition should be proved a Fact, before the Experiment requisite to ascertain the Reality of it could be innocently made.
Hasty Conclusions, and such as are not the Fruits of a well-enlightened Reason, are apt to run to great Lengths. Our Voyagers make Beasts under the Name of Pongos, Mandrills, and Orang-Outang, of the very Beings, ​which the Antients exalted into Divinities under the Name of Satyrs, Fauns, and Sylvans. Perhaps more exact Enquiries will shew them to be Men. In the mean time, it appears to me as reasonable to abide by the Account of Merolla, a learned Religious, an ocular Witness, and who with all his Candour was a Man of Genius, as by that of Battel a mere Merchant, or those of Dapper, Purchass, and other mere Compilers.
What are we to think such Observers would have said of the Child found in 1699, which I have already mentioned; he did not shew the least Signs of Reason, walked upon all Fours, had no Speech, and formed Sounds which resembled in nothing those of a Man: He was for a long Time, continues the Philosopher from whom I have this Fact, without being able to utter even a few Words, and what he did utter, was in a barbarous Manner. As soon as he could speak, he was questioned concerning his first Condition, but he no more remembered any thing of it, than we do of what happened to us in the Cradle. Had the Child had the Misfortune of falling into the Hands of our Travellers, they would ​certainly on account of his Silence and his Stupidity have turned him loose into the Woods again, or shut him up in a Monastery; and then have published very learned Relations of him, as of a very curious Beast, and not very unlike a Man.
Though the Inhabitants of Europe for three or four Hundred Years past have overrun the other Parts of the World, and are constantly publishing new Collections of Voyages, I am persuaded that those of Europe are the only Men we are as yet acquainted with; nay, to judge by the ridiculous Prejudices which to this Day prevail even among Men of Letters, very few, by the pompous Title of the Study of Mankind, mean any thing more than the Study of their own Countrymen. Individuals may go and come as much as they please, Philosophy, one would imagine, remained stock still; and accordingly that of one Nation little suits another. The Reason of this is evident, at least in respect to distant Countries. There are but four Sorts of Persons, who make long Voyages; Sailors, Merchants, Soldiers, and Missionaries: Now it is scarce ​to be expected that the three first Sorts should make good Observers; and as to those of the last, though they were not like the rest, liable to Prejudices of Profession, we may conclude that they are too much taken up with the Duties of their sublime Vocation, to descend to Researches which seem to be merely curious, and which would interfere with the more important Labours to which they devote themselves. Besides, to preach the Gospel with Success, Zeal alone is sufficient, God gives the rest; but to study Men, Talents are requisite which God has not engaged to give any Man, and which do not always fall to the Share of Saints. We cannot open a Book of Voyages without falling upon Descriptions of Characters and Manners; but it must appear very surprizing that these Travellers, who have described so many things, say nothing that every Reader was not already very well acquainted with; and had not Sense enough to observe at the other End of the Globe more than what they might have easily seen without stirring out of their own Street; and that those real Features which distinguish Nations, and strike every judicious Eye, have almost always ​escaped theirs. Hence that fine Adage, so thread-worn by the Philosophers, that Men are in all Countries the same; that, as they have every where the same Passions and the same Vices, it is almost useless to endeavour to characterise the different Nations which inhabit the Earth; a way of arguing little better, in a manner, than that which should make us conclude, that it is impossible to distinguish between Peter and James, because they have both a Mouth, a Nose, and a Pair of Eyes.
Shall we never again behold those happy Days, in which the common People did not intermeddle with Philosophy, but the Platos, the Thaleses, and the Pythogorases, thirsting after Knowledge, undertook the longest Voyages merely to gain Instruction, and visited the remotest Corners of the Earth to shake off the Yoke of national Prejudice, to learn to distinguish Men by the real Conformity and Difference between them, and acquire that universal Insight into Nature, which does not belong to one Age or one Country exclusive of others, but being coexistent with every Time and Place composes, as it were, the common Science of all wise Men?
​We admire the Magnificence of some curious Persons, who at a great Expence have travelled themselves, or sent others to the East with learned Men and Painters, to take Drawings of Ruins, or decypher Inscriptions: But I am amazed that in an Age, in which Men so much affect useful and polite Learning, there does not start up two Men perfectly united, and rich, one in Money, the other in Genius, both Lovers of Glory, and studious of Immortality, one of whom should be willing to sacrifice twenty thousand Crowns of his Fortune, and the other ten Years of his Life to make such a serious Voyage round the World, as would recommend their Names to the present and future Generations; not to confine themselves to Plants and Stones, but for once study Men and Manners; and who, after so many Ages spent in measuring and surveying the House, should at last take it into their Heads to make themselves acquainted with the Inhabitants.
Pag. 40.
(11.) This appears to me as clear as Day-Light, and I cannot conceive whence our Philosophers can derive all the Passions they attribute to natural Man. Except the bare physical Necessaries, which Nature herself requires, all our other Wants are merely the Effects of Habit, before which they were no Wants, or of our inordinate Cravings, but we don't crave for that which we are not in a Condition to know. Hence it follows that as savage Man longs for nothing but what he knows, and knows nothing but what he actually possesses or can easily acquire, nothing can be so calm as his Soul, or so confined as his Understanding.
Pag. 50.
(12.) I find in Locke's Civil Government an Objection, which appears to me too specious to be here dissembled. "The End, says this Philosopher, of Conjunction between Male ​and Female, being not barely Procreation, but the Continuation of the Species: this Conjunction between Male and Female ought to last, even after Procreation, so long as is necessary to the Nourishment and Support of the young Ones, who are to be sustained by those who got them, till they are able to shift and provide for themselves. This Rule, which the infinite wise Maker hath set to the Works of his Hands, we find the inferior Creatures steadily obey. In those viviparous Animals which feed on Grass, the Conjunction between Male and Female lasts no longer than the very Act of Copulation; because the Teat of the Dam being sufficient to nourish the Young, till it be able to feed on Grass, the Male only begets, but concerns not himself for the Female or Young, to whose Sustenance he can contribute nothing. But in Beasts of Prey the Conjunction lasts longer; because the Dam not being able well to subsist herself, and nourish her numerous Off-spring by her own Prey alone, a more laborious, as well as more dangerous way of living than by feeding on Grass; the Assistance of the Male is necessary to the ​Maintenance of their common Family, which cannot subsist till they are able to prey for themselves, but by the joint Care of Male and Female. The same is to be observed in all Birds (except some domestick ones, where plenty of Food excuses the Cock from feeding and taking care of the Young Brood) whose Young needing Food in the Nest, the Cock and Hen continue Mates till the Young are able to use their Wing, and provide for themselves.
And herein I think lies the chief, if not the only reason, why the Male and Female in Mankind are tyed to a longer Conjunction than other Creatures, viz. Because the Female is capable of conceiving, and de facto is commonly with Child again, and brings forth to a new Birth long before the former is out of a Dependency for Support on his Parents help, and able to shift for himself, and has all the Assistance is due to him from his Parents, whereby the Father, who is bound to take care for those he hath begot, is under an Obligation to continue in Conjugal Society with the same Woman longer than other Creatures, whose Young ​being able to subsist of themselves, before the Time of Procreation returns again, the conjugal Bond dissolves of itself, and they are at Liberty; 'till Hymen, at his usual Anniversary Season, summons them again to chuse new Mates. Wherein one cannot but admire the Wisdom of the great Creator, who having given to Man an Ability to lay up for the future, as well as supply the present Necessity, hath made it necessary, that Society of Man and Wife should be more lasting than of Male and Female amongst other Creatures; that so their Industry might be encouraged, and their Interest better united, to make Provision, and lay up up Goods for their common Issue, which uncertain Mixture, or easy and frequent Solutions of conjugal Society would mightily disturb."
The same Love of Truth, which has made me faithfully exhibit this Objection, induces me to accompany it with some Remarks, if not to refute, at least to throw some Light upon it.
1. I must in the first place observe, that Moral Proofs are of no great Force in ​physical Matters, and that they rather serve to account for Facts which exist than to ascertain the real Existence of these Facts. Now this is the kind of Proof made use of by Mr. Locke in the Passage I have cited; for though it may be the Interest of the Human Species, that the Union between Man and Woman should be permanent, it does not follow that such an Union was established by Nature; otherwise Nature must be allowed to have likewise instituted Civil Society, Arts, Commerce, and every thing else pretended to be useful to Mankind.
2. I don't know where Mr. Locke has learned, that among Animals of Prey the Society between Male and Female lasts longer than among those who live upon Grass, and that one assists the other in rearing their young ones: For we don't find that the Dog, the Cat, the Bear, or the Wolf show greater Regard to their Females than the Horse, the Ram, the Bull, the Stag, and all other Quadrupeds do to theirs. On the contrary, it seems that, if the Assistance of the Male was necessary to the Female for the ​Preservation of their young ones, it would be particularly so among those Animals who live upon nothing but Grass, because the Mother requires more Time to feed that Way, and is all the while obliged to neglect her Offspring, whereas the Prey of a Female Bear or Wolf is devoured in an Instant, and she has therefore, without suffering from Hunger, more Time to suckle her Litter. This Observation is confirmed by the relative Number of Teats and young ones, which distinguishes the carnivorous from the frugivorous Kinds, and of which I have already spoken in Note (8.) If this Observation is just and general, a Woman's having but two Breasts, and seldom bearing more than one Child at a Time, furnishes one Reason more, and a strong one, for doubting if the Human Species is naturally carnivorous; so that to draw Mr. Locke's Conclusion, it would seem requisite entirely to invert his Argument. There is as little Solidity in the same Distinction when applied to Birds, for who can believe the Union of Male and Female is more durable among Vultures and Ravens than among Doves. We have two Species of domestic Birds, the Duck and the Pigeon, which afford us Examples ​diametrically opposite to this Author's System. The Pigeon lives entirely upon Corn, and remains constantly united to his Mate, and both in common feed their young ones. The Duck, whose Voracity is notorious, takes no Notice either of his young ones or their Mother, and contributes nothing towards their Subsistence; and among Cocks and Hens, a Species scarce less ravenous, the former is never known to give himself any Trouble about Eggs or Chickens. If among other Species the Male shares with the Female the Care of feeding their young ones, it is because those Birds, not being able to fly as soon as hatched, and which the Mother cannot suckle, can much less do without the Father's Assistance than Quadrupeds, who, for some time at least, require nothing but the Mother's Nipple.
3. There is a great Deal of Uncertainty in the principal Fact upon which Mr. Locke builds his whole Argument. For to know if, in a pure State of Nature, Woman, as he pretends, generally becomes pregnant, and brings forth a new Child a long Time before that immediately preceeding can himself supply his Wants, ​Experiments would be requisite, which assuredly Mr. Locke had not made, and which no one is in a Condition to make. The continual Cohabitation of Husband and Wife is so near an Occasion for the former to expose herself to a new Pregnancy, that it is hardly probable a fortuitous Concourse, or a mere Blaze of Passion should produce as frequent Effects in a pure State of Nature, as in that of conjugal Society; a Tardiness, which would contribute perhaps to render the Children more robust, and which besides might be made up by the Power of conceiving being extended to a more advanced Age with Women, who had not so much abused it in their younger Days. In regard to Children, there are many Reasons for believing that their Power and Organs develop themselves among us later than they did in the primitive State of which I speak. The original Weakness which they derive from the Constitution of their Parents, the Care taken to fold up, strain and cramp all their Members, the Softness in which they are reared, perhaps too the Use of another Woman's Milk, every thing opposes and checks in them the first Operations of Nature. The ​Application we oblige them to bestow in a thousand Things upon which we constantly fix their Attention, while their corporeal Faculties are left without Exercise, may likewise contribute a great deal to retard their Growth. So that if, instead of overloading and fatiguing their Minds a thousand different Ways, we permitted them to exercise their Bodies in those continual Motions, which Nature seems to require, it is probable they would be much earlier in a Condition to walk and stir about, and provide for themselves.
Pag. 52.
(13.) I by no Means intend to launch out into the philosophical Reflections that may be made on the Advantages and Disadvantages of this Institution of Languages; 'tis not for Persons like me to expect Leave to attack vulgar Errors, and the lettered Mob respect their Prejudices too much to bear with Patience my pretended Paradoxes. Let us therefore let those speak in whom it has not been deemed criminal to dare sometimes take part with Reason against the Opinion of the Multitude. "Nor should we be less happy, if all these Languages, whose Multiplicity occasions so much Trouble and Confusion, were utterly abolished, and Men knew no other Method of speaking to each other but by Signs, Motions, and Gestures. Whereas Things are now come to such a Pass, that Animals, whom we generally consider as Brute and void of Reason, may be deemed much happier in this Respect, since they can more readily, and perhaps too more aptly, express their Thoughts and Feelings, without an Interpreter, than any Man living can his, especially when obliged to make Use of a foreign Language."—Is. Vossius, de Poemat. Cant. et Viribus Rythmi, p. 66.
Pag. 62.
(14.) Plato shewing how necessary the Ideas of discrete Quantity and its Relations are in the most trifling Arts, laughs with great Reason at the Authors of his Age who pretended that Palamedes had invented Numbers at the Siege of Troy, as if, says he, it was possible that Agamemnon should not know 'till then how many Legs he had. In fact, every one must see how impossible it was that Society and the Arts should have attained the Degree of Perfection in which they were at the Time of that famous Siege, unless Men had been acquainted with the Use of Numbers and Calculation: But the Necessity of understanding Numbers previous to the Acquisition of other Sciences does by no Means help us to account for the Invention of them; the Names of Numbers once known, it is an easy Matter to explain the Meaning of them, and excite the Ideas which these Names present; but to invent them, it was necessary, before these Ideas could be conceived, that Man should have exercised himself in considering Beings merely according to their Essence, and independently of every other Perception; an Abstraction very painful and very ​metaphysical, and withal not very natural, yet such, however, that without it these Ideas could never have been shifted from one Species or Genius to another, or Numbers become universal. A Savage might separately consider his Right Leg and his Left Leg, or consider them together under the indivisible Idea of a Pair, without ever thinking that he had two; for the representative Idea, which paints an Object to us, is one thing, and the numerical Idea, which determines it, another: He could still less reckon as far as five; and though on applying his Hands one to another he might observe that the Fingers exactly answered to each other, he was very far from thinking on their numerical Quality. He knew as little of the Number of his Fingers as of his Hairs; and if, after making him understand what Numbers are, some one had told him that he had as many Toes as Fingers, he would perhaps have been greatly surprized to find it true on comparing them together.
Pag. 71.
(15.) We must not confound Selfishness with Self-love; they are two very distinct Passions both in their Nature and in their Effects. Self-love is a natural Sentiment, which inclines ​every Animal to look to his own Preservation, and which, guided in Man by Reason and qualified by Pity, is productive of Humanity and Virtue. Selfishness is but a relative and factitious Sentiment, engendered in the Bosom of Society, which inclines every Individual to set a greater Value upon himself than upon any other Man, which inspires Men with all the Mischief they do to each other, and is the true Source of what we call Honour.
This Position well understood, I say that Selfishness does not exist in our primitive State, in the true State of Nature; for every Man in particular considering himself as the only Spectator who observes him, as the only Being in the Universe which takes any Interest in him, as the only Judge of his own Merit, it is impossible that a Sentiment arising from Comparisons, which he is not in a Condition to make, should spring up in his Mind. For the same Reason, a Man of this kind must be a Stranger to Hatred and Spite, Passions, which the Opinion of our having received some Affront can alone excite; and as it is Contempt or an Intention to injure, and not the Injury itself that constitutes an Affront, Men who ​don't know how to set a Value upon themselves, or compare themselves one with another, may do each other a great deal of Mischief, as often as they can expect any Advantage by doing it, without ever affronting each other. In a word, Man seldom considering his Fellows in any other Light than he would Animals of another Species, may plunder another Man weaker than himself, or be plundered by another that is stronger, without considering these Acts of Violence otherwise than as natural Events, without the least Emotion of Insolence or Spite, and without any other Passion than Grief at his Ill, or Joy at his good Success.
Pag. 117.
(16.) It is very remarkable, that for so many Years past that the Europeans have been toiling to make the Savages of different Parts of the World conform to their Manner of living, they have not as yet been able to prevail upon one of them, not even with the Assistance of the Christian Religion; for though our Missionaries sometimes make Christians, they never make civilized Men of them. There is no getting the better of their invincible Reluctance to adopt our Manners and Customs. If these poor ​Savages are as unhappy as some People would have them, by what inconceivable Depravation of Judgment is it that they so constantly refuse to be governed as we are, or to live happy among us; whereas we read in a thousand Places that Frenchmen and other Europeans have voluntarily taken Refuge, nay, spent their whole Lives among them, without ever being able to quit so strange a kind of Life; and that even very sensible Missionaries have been known to regret with Tears the calm and innocent Days they had spent among those Men we so much despise. Should be observed that they are not knowing enough to judge soundly of their Condition and ours, I must answer, that the Valuation of Happiness is not so much the Business of the Understanding as of the Will. Besides, this Objection may still more forcibly be retorted upon ourselves; for our Ideas are more remote from that Disposition of Mind requisite for us to conceive the Relish, which the Savages find in their Way of Living, than the Ideas of the Savages from those by which they may conceive the Relish we find in ours. In fact, very few Observations to shew them that all our Labours are confined to two ​Objects, namely the Conveniencies of Life and the Esteem of others. But how shall we be able to form to ourselves any Notion of that kind of Pleasure, which a Savage takes in spending his Days alone in the Heart of a Forest, or in Fishing, or in blowing into a wretched Flute without ever being able to fetch a single Note from it, or ever giving himself any Trouble to learn how to make a better Use of it.
Savages have been often brought to Paris, to London, and to other Places; and no Pains omitted to fill them with high Ideas of our Luxury, our Riches, and all our most useful and curious Arts; yet they were never seen to express more than a stupid Admiration at such Things, without the least Appearance of coveting them. Among other Stories I remember one concerning the Chief of some North-America Indians brought about thirty Years ago to the Court of London. A thousand Things were laid before him, in order to find out what Present would be acceptable to him, without hitting upon any one thing that he seemed to like. Our Arms appeared heavy and inconvenient to him; our Shoes pinched ​his Feet; our Cloaths incumbered his Body; he would accept of nothing; at length, he was observed to take up a Blanket, and seemed to take great Pleasure in wrapping himself up in it. You must allow, said the Europeans about him, that this, at least, is an useful Piece of Furniture? Yes, answered the Indian, I think it almost as good as the Skin of a Beast. And even this he would not have allowed, had he wore both under a Shower.
Perhaps I may be told that it is Habit, which, making every Man like best his own Way of Life, hinders the Savages from perceiving what is good in ours. But upon this Footing it must appear at least very extraordinary, that Habit should have more Power to maintain in Savages a Relish for their Misery, than in Europeans for their Happiness. But to make to this last Objection an Answer which will not admit the least Reply, without speaking of all the young Savages whom no Pains have been able to civilize; particularly the Greenlanders and Icelanders, whom Attempts have been made to rear and educate in Denmark, and who either pined away with Grief ashore, ​or perished at Sea in attempting to swim back to their own Country; I shall just cite one well attested Example, and leave it to the Discussion of those who so much admire the Police of European States.
Pag. 132.
(17.) It might be here objected that in such an Uproar and Tumult Men, instead of obstinately butchering each other, would have dispersed, had there not been Bounds set to their Dispersion. But in the first place these Bounds would have been those of the Earth; and if we reflect on the exceeding Population that results from a State of Nature, we shall see that in that State the Earth would in a very short Time have been covered with Men thus forced to keep close to each other. ​Besides, they would have dispersed, had the Progress of the Evil been any way rapid, or had it been an Alteration wrought from one Day to another. But they brought their Yokes with them into the World; they were in their Infancy too inured by Custom to the Weight of them to feel it ever after. In short, they were already accustomed to a thousand Conveniencies which obliged them to stick close to each other, it was not so easy for them to disperse as in early Times, when, as no Man stood in need of any one but himself, every one did what he liked best without waiting for the Consent of any other.
Pag. 137.
(18.) Marshal de V*** used to relate, that in one of his Campaigns the excessive Frauds of an Undertaker for Provisions having made the Army suffer and murmur a great deal, he took him roundly to task and threatened him with the Gallows. These Menaces do not concern me, immediately replied the Knave, and I am glad to have this Opportunity of telling you, that 'tis no such easy Matter to hang a Man who can throw away a hundred thousand Crowns. I don't know how it came to pass, ingenuously added the Marshal, but so it ​happened, that he escaped hanging, though he had deserved it over and over a hundred times.
Pag. 168.
(19.) Nay, this rigorous Equality of the State of Nature, though practicable in civil Society, would clash with distributive Justice; and as on the one hand all the Members of the State owe it Services in Proportion to their Talents and Abilities, they should be distinguished on the other in Proportion to the Services which they actually rendered to it. It is in this Sense we must understand a Passage of Isocrates, in which he extols the primitive Athenians for having distinguished which of the two following kinds of Equality was the most useful, that which consists in sharing the same Advantages indifferently among all the Citizens, or that which consists in distributing them to each according to his Merit. These able Politicians, adds the Orator, banishing that unjust Inequality which makes no Difference between the Good and the Bad, inviolably adhered to that which rewards and punishes every Man according to his Merit. But in the first place there never existed a Society so corrupt as to make no Difference between the Good and the Bad; and in those ​Points concerning Manners, where the Law can prescribe no Measure exact enough to serve as a Rule to Magistrates, it is with the greatest Wisdom that in order not to leave the Fate or the Rank of Citizens at their Discretion, she forbids them to judge of Persons, and leaves Actions alone to their Discretion. There are no Manners, but such as vie in Purity with those of the old Romans, that can bear Censors, and such a Tribunal amongst us would soon throw every thing into Confusion. It belongs to publick Esteem to make a Difference between good and bad Men; the Magistrate is judge only as to strict Right; whereas the Multitude is the true judge of Manners; an upright and even an intelligent Judge in that Respect; a Judge which may indeed sometimes be imposed upon, but can never be corrupted. The Rank therefore of Citizens ought to be regulated, not according to their personal Merit, for this would be putting it in the Power of Magistrates to make almost an arbitrary Application of the Law, but according to the real Services they render to the State, since these will admit of a more exact Estimation.