agriculture and sustained by Christianity, can ever be so far depreciated by internal corruption, or annihilated by external enemies, as to lose all weight in the scale, however it may sink in relative importance by the preponderance of other nations. For, since a country does not diminish its own lustre by diffusing light to others, but, on the contrary, obtains a reciprocal advantage from such communication, it is more natural, and more consonant to experience, to indulge the hope that some future, however distant æra, will find the whole world in a comparatively equal state of civilization *.

In the mean time, whilst it is distinctly acknowledged that the classes into whose condition an inquiry has been made, have the lowest opportunities of exercising their reason and virtue; and that it is the evil of a system, from which evil confessedly is not excluded, to produce some classes with these low opportunities; we should still err on the other side by conceiving that their situation is inconsistent with

Stewart's Phil. chap. iv. s. 8.

the purposes of man's creation. Wherever there is a perception of right and wrong, there is a capacity of probation, more or less imperfect. But as, in every country, the general principles of justice and humanity are to be traced, however obscured by error; there is a sort of moral probation going on in every condition to which the human race can be exposed *.

* "There is no situation in which a rational being is placed, from that of the best instructed Christian down to the condition of the rudest barbarian, which affords not room for moral agency; for the acquisition, exercise, and display of voluntary qualities good and bad. Health and sickness, enjoyment and suffering, riches and poverty, knowledge and ignorance, power and subjection, liberty and bondage, civilization and barbarity, have all their offices and duties, all serve for the formation of character; for, when we speak of a state of trial, it must be remembered, that characters are not only tried, or proved, or detected, but that they are generated also, and formed by circumstances. The best dispositions may subsist under the most depressed, the most afflictive fortunes. A West Indian slave, who, with his wrongs, retains his benevolence, I for my part look upon as amongst the foremost of human characters for the rewards of virtue. The kind master of such a slave, that is, he who in the exercise of an inordinate authority, postpones, in any degree, his own interest to his slave's comfort, is likewise a meritorious character: but still he is inferior to his slave. All, however, which I contend

The prospect indeed of hardships and difficulties endured by uncivilized communities, is often enlivened by the unexpected appearance of some moral beauty, for which we could scarcely look in so inclement a situation. One of the early visitants of the South Sea islands could not refrain, he says, from repeatedly wishing that our civilized Europeans might add to their many advantages, "the same innocence of heart and genuine simplicity of manners, the same spirit of benevolence," that he found among their rude inhabitants *. He mentions also having seen mothers punishing obstinacy and disobedience, and, though extremely fond of their children, doing violence to their feelings, that the children might not acquire habits of ingratitude, obstinacy, or immorality. A later resident, whose intercourse with the natives gave him every opportunity of judging, observes that their patriarchal

for is, that these destinies, opposite as they may be in every other view, are both trials, and equally such. The observation may be applied to every other condition; to the whole range of the scale, not excepting even its lowest extremity." Paley's Nat. Theol. 528.

* Forster, p. 349, 351.

mode of life, in which the younger and inferior part always surround the chief, as the father of one large family, is calculated much to refine and improve their mental faculties, and polish their language and behaviour *. In these islands, the want of regular government is the grand existing evil. Among other barbarous tribes, a different disposition supplies the place of law. When the Spanish fathers in Mexico explained to some of the natives, who adhered to their own habits, the security which prevailed in the Christian missions, where an Indian alcalde administered justice, the chief replied, "This order of things may be necessary for you, We

do not steal, and seldom disagree: what use have we, then, for an alcalde amongst us †?" We are told also by Golberry, that

Narrative of four Years' Residence at Tongataboo, + Humboldt, vol. ii. 303. "In their intercourse with strangers the Shoshonees are frank and communica tive, in their dealings perfectly fair; nor have we had, during our stay with them, any reason to suspect that the display of our new and valuable wealth has tempted them to a single act of dishonesty. While they have generally shared with us the little they possess, they have always abstained from begging any from us." Lewis and Clarke's Travels,

in Africa there is commonly "very little disorder, so that the small number of offences produces a sort of habitual tranquillity *.'

Traits of character not less interesting are to be found among the shepherds of Asia. Poverty, we are assured, is in no disgrace among them. When a family is unfortunate, the richer members of the tribe unite to set them up again with cattle, as far as three separate times; if their ill fate still pursues them, they become labourers, but no one ever upbraids them with their humiliation, and they are clothed and fed as well as those whom they servet. Their attention to the rites of hospitality is proverbial, and indisputably proves their acquaintance with the first

Vol. ii. p. 305. "Charlevoix has observed, that

the nations among whom he travelled in North America, never mentioned acts of generosity or kindness, under the notion of duty; they acted from affection as they acted from appetite, without regard to its consequences. When they had done a kindness, they had gratified a desire." Ferguson, p. 11, s. 2.

+ Découv. Russes, of the Barattes, vi. 124.

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