Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-07-30


 On the Sociai Nature of fMan.-By the ori- ginal order and constitution of nature, men are so formed, that they stand in need of each others help in order to make them con- fortable and happy in the world. A mutual intercourse gradually opens their latent pow CTS; and the extension of this intercourse is generally productive of new sources of plea sure and delight. Withdraw this intercourse, and what is man! "Let all the powers and elements of nature," says an illustrious phi losopher, ."conspre to serve and obey one man;--let the sun rise and set at his com mand;-the sea and the rivers roll as he pleases and the earth furnish spontaneously whatever may be useful or agreeable to him;-- he will still be miserable, till you give him some one person, at least, with whom he may share his happiness, and whose esteem and friendship he may enjoy"
 Society then is the theatre on which our ge- nius expands with freedom. It is essential to the origin of all our ideas ofnatural and of mo- ral beauty. It is the prime mover of all our inventive powers. Every effort, beyond what is merely animal, has reference to a com munity; and the solitary savage, who tra- verses the desert, is scarce raised so far by nature above other animals, as he is sunk by fortune beneath the standard of his own race
 The destitute condition of man as an ami nal, has been an usual topic of declamation among the learned; and this alone, According to some theories is the foundation of social union and civil combinations.
 After the population of the World, and the growth of arts, mutual alliances and mutual support became indeed essential in our divid- ed system; and it is no wonder, if certain appearances in the civil era have been trans
 
 At first, however, it may be questioned, whether there reigned not such an indepen- dence in our economy,as is observable in oth- CT parts of the creation.
 The arts of life, by enervating our copore- al powers, and multiplying the objects of de- sire, have annihiated personal Independence, and formed an immense chain of connexions among collective bodies Nor is it perhaps so much the call of necessity, or mutual wants, as a certain delight in their kind, congenial to all natures, which constitutes the funda- mental principle of association and harmony throughout the whole circle of being. But man, it is pretended by nature timid, runs to society for relief, and finds an asylum there Nor is he singular in this. All ani- mals, in the hour of danger, crowd together, and derive confidence and security from mu- tual aid.
 Danger, however, it may be answered, far from suggesting a confederacy, tends in most cases to dissolve rather than to confirm the union. Secure from danger, animals herd to- gcther, and seem to discover a complacency towards their kind. Let but a single animal of a more rapacious form present himslf to view, they instantly disperse. They derive no security from mutual aid, and rarely at tempt to supply their weakness in detail, by their collective strength. This single animal is a match for thousands of a milder race.- The law of dominion, in the scale of life, is the strength of the individual merely, not the number of the tribe; and of all animals, man almost alone becomes considerable by the combination of his species.
 In society, animals are rather more prone to timidity from the prevalence of the softer instincts. Those of the ravenous class, gene rally the most solitary, are accordingly the most courageous; and man, himself declines in courage, in proportion to the extent of his alliances;-not indeed ill that species ot it, which is the genuine offspring of magnanimi- ty and heroic sentiment; but in that consttu- tional boldness and temerity, whicn resides in our animal nature. Hence intrepidty is a predominant feature in the savage character. Hence the savage himself, separately bold and undaunted, when he acts in concert with 
 public sympathy. And it is hence perhaps, according to the observations of a distinguish ed writer's that the most signal victories, re- corded in the annals of nations, have been uni formly obtained by the army of inferior num- Der.
 In some parts of our constitution, we re- senble the other animals. There is, howe yer, some inward consciousness, some deci- sive mark of superiority, in every condition of men. But the line which measures that superiority, is of very variable extent. Let us allow but equal advantages from culture to the mind and body, and it is reasonable to infer, that savages, in some of the wilder forms, must be as inferior to civilized man in intel lectual abilities, and in the peculiar graces of the mind, as they surpass him in the activi- ty of their limbs, in the command of their bo- dies, and in the exertion of all the meaner functions Some striking instances of savage tribes, with so limited an understanding, as is scarcely capable of forming any arrangement for futurity, are produced by an Historian, who traces the progress of human reason through various stages of improvement, and unites truth with eloquence in his descriptions of mankind.
 The progress of nations and of men, though