THERE is not, perhaps, in the whole defcription of mankind, a circumstance 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 streets of the populous city; he wanders diffatisfied over the open and the cultivated field; he feeks the frontier and the foreft, where, with a conftitution prepared to undergo the hardships and the difficulties of the fituation, he enjoys a delicious freedom from care, and a feducing fociety, where no rules of behaviour are prefcribed, but the fimple dictates of the heart.

SECT. III.

Of Rude Nations under the Impreffions of Property and Intereft.

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 have the folly of troubling himfelf with the charge of cattle *. Nature, it seems, in their apprehenfion, by ftoring the woods and the defert with game, rendered the talk 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 averfion to any application in which they are not engaged by immediate instinct and paffion, retards the progrefs of industry and of impropriation. It has been found, however, even while the means of fubfiftence are left in common, and the stock of the public is yet undivided, that property is apprehended in different fubjects; that the fur and the bow belong to the individual; and 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 labour and his fkill apart, he aims at an exclufive poffeffion, and feeks the property of the foil, as well as the ufe of its fruits.

WHEN the individual no longer finds among his affociates the fame inclination to commit every fubject to public ufe, he is feized with concern for his perfonal fortune; and is alarmed by the cares which every perfon entertains for himself.

Abulgaze's Genealogical Hiftory of the Tartars.

He is urged as much by emulation and jealousy, as by the fenfe 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 amaffed what is become a fubject of competition, and a matter of univerfal efteem. Upon this motive, where violence is restrained, 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 restrained from rapine; and they are fecured in the poffeffion of what they fairly obtain; by these methods the habits of the labourer, the mechanic, and the trader, are gradually formed. A hoard, collected from the fimple productions of nature, or a herd of cattle, are, in every rude nation, the first species of wealth. The circumftances of the foil, and the climate, determine whether the inhabitant fhall ap ply himfelf chiefly to agriculture or pasture; whether he fhall fix his refidence, or be moving continually about with all his poffeffions.

In the weft 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 fhifting their ground in fearch of new pafture. The arts which pertain to fettlement have been practifed, and variously cultivated, by the inhabitants of Europe. Those which are confiftent with perpetual migration, have, from the earlieft accounts of hiftory, 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 of the butcher's stall, from the earliest 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 first impreffions of property, they nearly agree. Homer either lived with a people in this ftage of their progress, or found himself engaged to 'exhi bit their character. Tacitus had made them the fubject of a particular treatife; and if this be an afpect under which mankind deferve to be viewed, it must be confeffed, that we have fingular advantages in collecting their features. The portrait has already been drawn by the ableft hands, and gives, at one view, in the writings of these celebrated authors, whatever has been fcattered in the relations of hiftorians or whatever we have opportunities to obferve in the actual manners of men, who ftill remain in a fimilar ftate.

IN paffing from the condition we have defcribed to this we have at prefent in view, mankind ftill retain many parts of their earliest character. They

are ftill averfe to labour, addicted to war, admirers of fortitude, and, in the language of Tacitus, more lavifh of their blood than of their fweat *. They are fond of fantastic ornaments in their drefs, and endeavour to fill up the liftlefs intervals of a life addicted to violence, with hazardous fports, and with games of chance. Every fervile occupation they commit to women or flaves. But we may apprehend, that the individual having now found a feparate intereft, the bands of fociety must become lefs firm, and domestic diforders more frequent. The members of every community, being distinguished among themselves by unequal poffeffions the ground of a permanent and palpable fubordination is laid.

THESE particulars accordingly take place among mankind, in paffing from the favage to what may be called the barbarous ftate. Members of the fame community enter into quarrels of competition or revenge. They unite in following leaders, who are diftinguished by their fortunes, and by the luftre of their birth. They join the defire of spoil with the love of glory; and from an opinion, that what is acquired by force, juftly pertains to the victor, they become hunters of men, and bring every conteft to the decifion of the fword.

EVERY nation is a band of robbers, who prey without reftraint, or remorfe, on their neighbours. Cattle, fays Achilles, may be feized in every field; and the coafts of the Egean fea were accordingly

* Pigrum quin immo et iners videtur, fudore acquirere quod poffis fanguine parare.