■ 2.86 " R E M A R K S ' BN ' t h e .
p r o g r e s s f e t t l e d i n t h e f e u n h a p p y r e g i o n s , i t h a s b e e n o w i n g e i t h e r t o c h a n c e
OF S A V
A G E S or cruel neceffity..
T h e inhabitants o f the iflands in the. South Sea, though unconnected
with highly civilized nations, are more improved in every
refpeCt,- as they live more and more diftant from the poles!' Their
food is more varied, and abundant; ■ their habitations more roomy,
neat, and adapted to the exigencies o f the climate ; their garments
more elegant, improved, and ingenious; their population is
greater.; their Societies • better regulated; their public fecurity
againft foreign invaders more firmly eftablilhed; their manners
more courteous, elegant, and even refined; their principles o f
morality better underftood, —and generally praCtifed; their
minds capable of, and 'open to inftruCKon; they have ideas'of
a fupreme being, o f a future Hate, o f the origin o f the world;
and the whole contributes greatly to increafe their happinefs,
in its natural, moral and focial branches, both1 as individuals, and
as a nation, On the contrary, the wretched mortals towards the
frozen zone, are the moft debafed o f all human beings, in every
refpeCt. Their food is fcanty, loathfome, and precarious-; their
habitations the moft miferable huts that can be imagined; then-
garments rough, and by no means fufiicient to fcreen them againft
the rigours o f the inhofpitable climate; their focieties thin, and
without any mutual ties or affeCtion ; expofed to the infults of all
invaders,
H IT M A N S . P E C I E S.
invaders, they retreat to the-moft inhofpitable rocks, and appear-p
infenfible to all that is great and ingenious ; a brutilh ftupidity is
their general charaCteriftic ; and whenever they are the ftrongeft,
they are treacherous, and aft in' oppofition to all the principles of
humanity and hofpitality. May we not their infer from the above
premiles; that man unconnected’ with highly civilized nations,,
approaches in more happy climates,, nearer to- that ftate o f civilization,
and happinefs, which we enjoy; that-human nature is*
really debaféd in the lavages,! who inhabit the frozen- extremities
o f our globe, and that their prefent fituation is as it were, a preternatural
ftate. I-wifli not to be mifunderftood ; the happinefs which
European nations enjoy, ,and are capable of, Becomes, on account
o f the degeneracy o f a few profligate individuals, very much debafed,
and mixed with the miieries, which are entailed upon our
civilized focieties, by luxury and vice ; i f therefore the felicity of
lèverai European-or Afiatic nations, feem to be- inferior, to that of
fômè o f the nations in the South Sea, it is owing to the above-
mentioned caules, fince it does not feem to follow, that a high
degree of civilization muft necefiarily lelfen, or- deftroy natural;
moral, or focial-happinefs.
I believe the nations inhabiting the frozen extremities o f our
globe to be degenerated and debafed from that original happinels,
•which the tropical nations more or lefs enjoy. I was firft perfuaded
intoi
2 ? 7
ROGR E S S
OF s a v
a g e s !