he would ftill have had a very important leffon for civil fociety to teach, that by which a few learn to command, and the many are taught to obey: he would have all his precautions to take against the future intrufion of mercenary arts, the admiration of luxury, and the paffion for interest: he would ftill perhaps have a more difficult task than any of the former, in teaching his citizens the command of appetite, and an indifference to pleasure, as well as a contempt of pain; in teaching them to maintain, in the field, the formality of uniform precautions, and as much to avoid being themselves furprised, as they endeavour to furprise their enemy.

FOR want of thefe advantages, rude nations in general, though they are patient of hardship and fatigue, though they are addicted to war, and are qualified by their ftratagem and valour to throw terror into the armies of a more regular enemy; yet, in the course of a continued ftruggle, always yield to the fuperior arts, and the difcipline of more civilized nations. Hence the Romans were able to over-run the provinces of Gaul, Germany, and Britain; and hence the Europeans have a growing ascendency over the nations of Africa and America.

ON the credit of a fuperiority which certain nations poffefs, they think that they have a claim to dominion; and even Cæfar appears to have forgotten what were the paffions, as well as the rights of mankind, when he

complained,

complained, that the Britons, after having fent him a fubmiffive meffage to Gaul, perhaps to prevent his invafion, ftill pretended to fight for their liberties, and to oppose his descent on their island *.

THERE is not, perhaps, in the whole description of mankind, a circumftance more remarkable than that mutual contempt and averfion which nations, under a different state of commercial arts, bestow on each other. Addicted to their own pursuits, and confidering their own condition as the standard of human felicity, all nations pretend to the preference, and in their practice give fufficient proof of fincerity. Even the favage ftill less than the citizen, can be made to quit that manner of life in which he is trained: he loves that freedom of mind which will not be bound to any task, and which owns no fuperior: however tempted to mix with polished nations, and to better his fortune, the first moment of liberty brings him back to the woods again; he droops and he pines in the ftreets of the populous city; he wanders diffatisfied over the open and the cultivated field; he feeks the frontier and the foreft, where, with a constitution prepared to undergo the hardships and the difficulties of the situation, he enjoys a delicious freedom from care,

* Cæfar queftus, quod quum ultro in continentem legatis miffis pacem a fe petiffent, bellum fine caufa intuliffent. Lib. 4.

and a feducing fociety, where no rules of behaviour are prescribed, but the fimple dictates of the heart.

SECT. III.

Of Rude Nations under the Impreffions of Property and Intereft.

IT

T was a proverbial imprecation in ufe among the hunting nations on the confines of Siberia, That their enemy might be obliged to live like a Tartar, and be feized with the folly of breeding and attending his cattle *. Nature, it seems, in their apprehenfion, by storing the woods and the defert with game, rendered the task of the herdfman unneceffary, and left to man only the trouble of felecting and of feizing his prey.

THE indolence of mankind, or rather their aversion to any application in which they are not engaged by immediate instinct and paffion, retards their progress in extending the notion of property. It has been found, however, even while the means of fubfiftence are left in common, and the flock of the public is yet undivided, that this notion is already applied to different fubjects; as the fur and the bow pertain to the in

* Abulgaze's Genealogical History of the Tartars.

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dividual;

dividual; the cottage, with its furniture, are appropriated to the family.

WHEN the parent begins to defire a better provifion for his children than is found under the promifcuous management of many copartners, when he has applied his fabour and his fkill apart, he aims at an exclufive poffeffion, and feeks the property of the foil, as well as the use of its fruits.

WHEN the individual no longer finds among his affociates the fame inclination to commit every subject to public use, he is feized with concern for his personal fortune; and is alarmed by the cares which every person entertains for himself. He is urged as much by emulation and jealoufy, as by the sense of neceffity. He fuffers confiderations of intereft to reft on his mind, and when every prefent appetite is fufficiently gratified, he can act with a view to futurity, or rather finds an object of vanity in having amassed what is become a subject of competition and a matter of universal esteem. Upon this motive, where violence is reftrained, he can apply his hand to lucrative arts, confine himself to a tedious task, and wait with patience for the diftant returns of his labour.

THUS mankind acquire induftry by many and by flow degrees. They are taught to regard their intereft; they are taught to abstain from unlawful profits; they are fecured in the poffeffion of what they fairly obtain; and by these methods the habits of the labourer, the mechanic, and the trader, are gradually formed. A hoard, collected

T 2

collected from the fimple productions of nature, or a herd of cattle, are, in every rude nation, the first species of wealth. The circumstances of the foil, and the climate, determine whether the inhabitant fhall apply himself chiefly to agriculture or pafture; whether he fhall fix his residence, or be moving continually about with all his posfeflions.

In the west of Europe; in America, from fouth to north, with a few exceptions; in the torrid zone, and every where within the warmer climates; mankind have generally applied themselves to fome fpecies of agriculture, and have been difpofed to fettlement. In the north and middle region of Afia, they depended entirely on their herds, and were perpetually shifting their ground in search of new pafture. The arts which pertain to settlement have been practised, and variously cultivated, by the inhabitants of Europe. Those which are consistent with perpetual migration, have, from the earliest accounts of hif tory, remained nearly the fame with the Scythian or Tartar. The tent pitched on a moveable carriage, the horse applied to every purpose of labour, and of war, of the dairy, and the butcher's ftall, from the earlieft to the latest accounts, have made up the riches and equipage of this wandering people.

BUT in whatever way rude nations fubfift, there are certain points in which, under the firft impreffions of property, they nearly agree. Homer either lived with a people in this ftage of their progrefs, or found himself engaged to exhibit their character. Tacitus has made them

the