upon this subject; and it is commonly agreed, that education and habit contribute more than climate to form the man; and that the barbarism of savages is to be ascribed to the defects of their civil, and not of their natural constitution. The cause, in fact, is no other than that very equality, upon which so many undeserved encomiums have been lavished; but which removes at once from the mind of man all the industrious emulation, which is excited among civilized people by the desire of bettering their individual condition. Happy savage! say the advocates of equality:* if his cabin but ill defends him from the storms, or his tattered blanket from the cold, he sees no proud superiors who behold his shivering with insulting pity; no lofty palaces, which seem to mock his poor and indigent habitation. They forget, that to the absence of this palace and these superiors, he owes the misery of his hut of reeds, and the insufficiency of his scanty clothing. * Rousseau sur l'Inégalité. The truth of this becomes obvious on a very slight consideration. Men, in every state, are less induced to a change of their present habits by reason, than by example. If you affirm to an American that the prospective labour of a month or two will enable him to rest through the year secure in his supply of food, and to defy a scarcity of game, you excite no emotion in his mind; the ideas to be conveyed are so numerous, and those to be eradicated so deeply rooted, and it is impossible by arguments of this nature to effect a change of habits. But let an European settle in his neighbourhood, let him see the comfort of his habitation, the plenty of his granary, the warmth of his clothing, the regular process of his industry; and by degrees he will exchange his furs for useful implements, rather than for spirits; will construct his cabin with logs instead of reeds; and acknowledge the excellence of the example by his imitation. * "The desire of property proceeds from experience; and the industry by which it is gained, or improved, requires such a habit of acting with a view to distant objects, as may This melioration, however, will never take place, while all around him are clothed in the same simple garb, feed on the same plain fare, and have houses and furniture exactly similar."* Though his forests abound with timber, that he cannot imagine to himself the superiority of a dwelling built by geometrical rules, or understand it when proposed to him, is no matter of surprise, while he is surrounded overcome the present disposition either to sloth or to enjoyment. This habit is slowly acquired; and is, in reality, a principal distinction of nations in the advanced state of mechanic and commercial arts." Ferguson on Civil Society, part ii. sect. 2. If there could be any doubt on this subject, it is sufficiently removed by the improvements made in the condition of the Indian nations of North America by the Quakers, entirely on the principle of example. An interesting account of their success is given in the Ed. Review, vol. viii. p. 442. Euripides perhaps alludes to the want of objects of emulation at Sparta, in the following lines of a play which abounds in political discussion : Σοφὸν δὲ, πενιάν τ' ἐισορᾷν τὸν ὄλβιον, * Robertson's America, vol. ii. 133. Supplices, 1. 187. by huts like that in which he was born. But if he saw before him the comfort and security of a regularly constructed habitation, the latent spark of industry would be excited, and his ignorant patience converted into active emulation. This example, however, will never arise among the nations of any uncivilized country, and if introduced, will be witnessed without effect, till the first blow has been given to the system of equality, by recognising that division of property which secures to every man the fruit of his own labour. It is this mainspring which keeps the arts and civilized industry in motion. "The first, who having enclosed a spot of ground, has taken upon himself to assert, This is mine, and has remained undisturbed in the possession of it, gives a new aspect to the society," and lays the foundation, not of crimes, and wars, and murder, as Rousseau proceeds to say, as if these * Rousseau sur l'Inégalité. were unknown to the savage; but of improvement and civilization. Man is easily brought and quickly reconciled to labour; but he does not undertake it gratuitously. If he is in possession of immediate ease, he can only be induced to relinquish that present advantage by the allurement of expected gain. Gratification, which in some degree or other forms the chief excitement of civilized life, is almost unknown to the savage. The only stimulus felt by him, is that of necessity. He is impelled by hunger to hunt for subsistence, and by cold to provide against the rigour of the seasons. When his stock of provision is laid in, his rude clothing prepared, and his cabin constructed, he relapses into indolence; for the wants of necessity are supplied, and the stimulus which urged him is removed. However experienced he may be in the preparation of skins for clothing or of reeds for building, beyond the wants of his own family he has no demand for inge |