3° ° R E M A R K S o n t h e
race o f men. Th e y mult therefore o f courfe, by degrees, degenerate
into a debafed forlorn Condition, and all the notions o f improvements,
the work o f ages, and the refult o f the reafon and the
wits o f thoufands be forgotten ; their reafon, for want o f being ex-
ercifed, is at laft brought fo low, that nothing but the mere ideas
o f animal life, the inftindts o f brute creation remain ; ’Arrangers to
locial feelings, and Rill more fo to focial virtues, they herd together
by cuftom; fenfuality, and the enjoyment o f the few wants o f nature,
make the whole field o f their brutifh defires; and o f that
bright image o f divinity, o f expanded and fublime knowledge, o f
the confcioufnefs o f good and virtuous a£tion's,i o f the noble and
generous ftruggle in the caufe o f virtue and focial happinels, hardly
a few Iparks remain. - T '
I f we were to fum up the arguments, and evidence which we
ought to colledt from the above fafts, it is certain, that on one fide
the mildnels o f the climate contributes greatly to foften the manners
o f mankind ; and the rigours o f the extremities o f our
globe, renders the fibres and whole frame o f out bodies more
harlh, rigid, and infenfible, which undoubtedly operates upon
the mind, and the heart, and almoft totally deftroys all focial
feelings; on the other fide we find, that the influence o f the climate
far from being the only caufe o f the degeneracy o f mankind
on the extremities o f ®ur globe, evidently points us out the fecond
great
H U : M A N S P E C I E S . 3 ° i
great caufe of degeneracy of the human race, the want of education,
by which means the moft ufeful notions, tending to improve our
phyfical, mental, moral, and focial faculties, are propagated,
perpetuated, and laftly increafed by new additional ideas.
Before I conclude this chapter, I beg leave to add a few
refleftions.
W e have reprefented the favages living on the frozen extremities,
P R O G R E S S
OF S A V
of our globe, as moft debafed, degenerated, and wretched : and it
is neverthelefs certain, that though their condition appear to us.
forlorn, and they themfeves be in our eyes, the outcaft o f the
human friecies j they do not think fo meanly of their own -fituation
nay, fo far from fuppoffng themfelves unhappy; they rather
glory in the advantages of their way of living, and none of them
would exchange his cold climate for one that is more temperate,
his wretched hut for a comfortable European houfe, nay, not even
for the moft magnificent palace j he thinks his piece o f feals-fkin
a more becoming drefs than the belt filks and brocades ; nor would
he prefer a well-feafoned ragout to a piece of ftinking feals flefti.
T o be controuled by wife laws and regulations, is what the fpirit
o f fome of thefe rambling barbarians could never brook; and independence,
licentioufnefs, and revenge their favourite paffions, render
them abfolutely unfit for any well-regulated fociety, and caufe in
them a general contempt fo r , our way of living, where order and
^ fubordination
A G E S .