The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1848-07-11
NUMBER II.

SAFE, inheritance or devise, or upon the
cultivation of his soil for such purposes.
or by such course of husbandry, as he may
deem expedient. Another of these new
features is the abolition OF the Eaw of pri-
mogeniture, and the equal distribution of
all the estate of irtestales, whether real
or personal, between the representatives
in equal degree, without distinction Of age
or sex. The effect of this system, togeth-
or with the low price OF lands, has been to
make almost every person. who lives to
years OF maturity, an absolute proprietor
OF the soil, or in other words one of the
landed nobility Of the republic, for the
notion Of hereditary nobility in Europe
was founded on the right of inheritinp
real estate, they who owned the soil ola
particular country being considered as its
lghlful lords and governors, because, by
concert among themselves, they could
| lawfully exclude all Others from tn right
OF possession, or even of cOmmorancy, up
ON any portion ofi,s territory. Our laws
do not indeed restrict political franchises
to those alone, who are seized ofrealcs-
tate, but as a majority oftlose who ave of
the legal age for the exercise of those
franchises are landholderS, the prcprietors
oithe soil are in fact here as in most civil
llZed governments, the real rulers Of the
land The mechanic arts, too have been
relieved from the burden of long apprenS
ticeships, aud other legal obstacles to their
Tree exercise, and every species of pros
,luctlve industry is among US as free and
unrestricted as the winds of heaven. The
result of all this has heen, that the ayts of
production as well as of conversion, in
our time, and especially in our land, have
proved a source Of thrift to those who pur-
sue them of physical and financial strengths
to the commonwt alih, and Of general ben~
eft to society, in degree Of which his,o-
ry gives nO previous example, and they
need only wise, liberal and stable poll
cy on the part OF our government, t. be
most important agent, IN elevating us to
as high pitch of power and prosperity,
as has as yet been attained by any nation
under heaven.
will now proceed to compare aad il
lustrate in brief detail the relative value
and importance of the three great divis>,
ions Of productive labour, as means and
and instruments of civilization and social
progress, first, however, gIancing at the
characteristic economic distraction be-
tween savage and civilized life.
In purely savage life, the wants Of man
are supplied by the destruction of the lruir,
the human beast of prey, and while strip
ping the textile fiaments from their veg
etablc stalk, naying and devoHrIng the
game which has fallen into his snare, he
takes no thong hi for the reproduction Of
that which he improyidently consumes,
but trusts implicitly TO the bounty ofspon-
taneous nature to supply the demands
which the appetites and needs Of her oxn
chill dren have created. Civilization be-
gins with arrangements for securing the
cont inued and regular supply of mans two
great physical wants, food and clothing,
by natural reproduction aided and pro-
NOTED By artificial contrivances; and the
degree of perfection to which these ar
rangeInents are carried, lift does not COLI
stItute the essence, at least furnishes
safe and convenient measure of the pitch
of civilization, which given people has
attained. The arts of the savage are the
arts of destruction he desolates the re-
gion he inEabits, his life is a warfare Of
determination, series Of hostIries a
rainst nature or his fellow man, and his
laburs are confined to the fabrication of
weapons for staying or rcpelling other
tribes that intrude upon his hunting
grounds, or Of engines for ensBaring or
destroying the wild animals on which be
feeds. Civilization, on tine contrary, is al
once the mother and the fruit of peace.
Social man repays 10 the earth al that
he reaps from her bosom, and her fruitful
ness increases with the numbers Of civil>
lied beings who draw their nutriment 4
clothing from the stores of her abundant
harrests. The fowls Of the air, too, and
the beasts of the field, find in ihe hus
bandman a chcrishing friend The for
est depths remote from the haunls of men
Weld sustenance to but few of the tribes
of animated nature. They are iraverscd
only by swift-footed beasts, or strong
winged birds of prey, and the humber
quadrupeds and gentler birds follow the
migratlons Of the colonists, AID gather up
on the borders Of civilization, where the
abundance and variety of vegetable life
affords them food, aud the fear of man
secures them protection against the rava-
ges of the more rapacious bru;es. Saw
age man is the universal foe, both of his
own kind and of all inferior organized
existences, an incarnation ofthe evil prin-
ciple of productive nature; civilization
transforms him into benefcent, iruc-
tifying, and a protective influence, and
makes him the monarch, not the tyrant,
of the Organic creation
The objects on which industrial art is
exercised in its first dawnings vary accor-
ding to climate and natural produc-
tons. In most countries fthe old world,
the germ of civilization, with its attends
ant arts, is TO be found in the pastoral