An Essay on the History of Civil Society, 8th edition | Page 5

nearly the same in every situation. They possess the
shores of the Caspian, or the Atlantic, by a different tenure, but with
equal ease. On the one they are fixed to the soil, and seem to be formed
for, settlement, and the accommodation of cities: the names they
bestow on a nation, and on its territory, are the same. On the other they
are mere animals of passage, prepared to roam on the face of the earth,
and with their herds, in search of new pasture and favourable seasons,
to fallow the sun in his annual course.
Man finds his lodgment alike in the cave, the cottage, and the palace;
and his subsistence equally in the woods, in the dairy, or the farm. He

assumes the distinction of titles, equipage, and dress; he devises regular
systems of government, and a complicated body of laws; or naked in
the woods has no badge of superiority but the strength of his limbs and
the sagacity of his mind; no rule of conduct but choice; no tie with his
fellow creatures but affection, the love of company, and the desire of
safety. Capable of a great variety of arts, yet dependent on none in
particular for the preservation of his being; to whatever length he has
carried his artifice, there he seems to enjoy the conveniences that suit
his nature, and to have found the condition to which he is destined. The
tree which an American, on the banks of the Oroonoko [Footnote:
Lafitau, moeurs des sauvages.], has chosen to climb for the retreat, and
the lodgment of his family, is to him a convenient dwelling. The sopha,
the vaulted dome, and the colonade, do not more effectually content
their native inhabitant.
If we are asked therefore, where the state of nature is to be found? we
may answer, it is here; and it matters not whether we are understood to
speak in the island of Great Britain, at the Cape of Good Hope, or the
Straits of Magellan. While this active being is in the train of employing
his talents, and of operating on the subjects around him, all situations
are equally natural. If we are told, that vice, at least, is contrary to
nature; we may answer, it is worse; it is folly and wretchedness. But if
nature is only opposed to art, in what situation of the human race are
the footsteps of art unknown? In the condition of the savage, as well as
in that of the citizen, are many proofs of human invention; and in either
is not any permanent station, but a mere stage through which this'
travelling being is destined to pass. If the palace be unnatural, the
cottage is so no less; and the highest refinements of political and moral
apprehension, are not more artificial in their kind, than the first
operations of sentiment and reason.
If we admit that man is susceptible of improvement, and has in himself
a principle of progression, and a desire of perfection, it appears
improper to say, that he has quitted the state of his nature, when he has
begun to proceed; or that he finds a station for which he was not
intended, while, like other animals, he only follows the disposition, and
employs the powers that nature has given.
The latest efforts of human invention are but a continuation of certain
devices which were practised in the earliest ages of the world, and in

the rudest state of mankind. What the savage projects, or observes, in
the forest, are the steps which led nations, more advanced, from the
architecture of the cottage to that of the palace, and conducted the
human mind from the perceptions of sense, to the general conclusions
of science.
Acknowledged defects are to man in every condition matter of dislike.
Ignorance and imbecility are objects of contempt: penetration and
conduct give eminence and procure esteem. Whither should his feelings
and apprehensions on these subjects lead him? To a progress, no doubt,
in which the savage, as well as the philosopher, is engaged; in which
they have made different advances, but in which their ends are the same.
The admiration which Cicero entertained for literature, eloquence, and
civil accomplishments, was not more real than that of a Scythian for
such a measure of similar endowments as his own apprehension could
reach. "Were I to boast," says a Tartar prince, [Footnote: Abulgaze
Bahadur Chan; History of the Tartars.] "it would be of that wisdom I
have received from God. For as, on the one hand, I yield to none in the
conduct of war, in the disposition of armies, whether of horse or of foot,
and in directing the movements of great or small bodies; so, on the
other, I have my talent in writing, inferior perhaps