There can be little doubt that these poor people, in listening to their own countrymen, had sometimes contentedly taken sound for sense; the ignorant do so in every land,— itinerant orators, in our country, have been followed and applauded for jargon, not one whit more intelligible than that of Lafitau's servant.

It is usual to enumerate, among the virtues of barbarians, that they are not only satisfied with their condition, but proud of it. But pride is not a proof of real satisfaction, it is often an attribute of degradation; the Byzantines were never more haughty than when they were purchasing the contemptuous forbearance of the Turks, nor the Romans than at the moment when they paid tribute to Alaric. The Spaniards of our own day, are infinitely greater sticklers for their national superiority to all other Europeans, than they were in the days of Charles V.; and the Mussulmans of Hindoostan regard themselves as more entitled to rule over the Peninsula, than they were in the days of Baber, Acbar, and Aurungzebe. It is the pride which not only accompanies, but seems to increase with degradation, that renders the reformation of a falling people a work of such extraordinary difficulty. The Pacha of Egypt is said to be far more successful in his labours for the regeneration of Egypt, than the Sultan in his exertions to restore the Turks to their rank among European nations; for to raise the fallen is an easier task than to save the falling. Turkish pride of ascendency will continue long after the ascendency itself is overthrown, and will probably accelerate the ruin of their remaining privileges; for it is especially in the case of a sinking ascendency, that “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

Many more points of comparison between civilized and savage life could easily be found; but those already. examined are sufficient to show, that barbarism is not a

simple but a highly artificial state,-that it is obliged to have recourse to clumsy and complicated expedients for the maintenance of relations, which in civilized society involves no difficulty whatever. It appears also, that barbarism cannot be natural to man; for in the various aspects under which it has been examined, we have found that it opposes the growth and development of the faculties implanted in man by nature, or rather by the Author of Nature; finally, we have shown, that it is not a state of happiness, innocence, or peace,—that it is subject to all the storms arising from human passions which agitate civilized society, and must of necessity be the more disturbed; as among barbarians passions rage without the check or control which is always imposed by civilization.

To a great extent the question between civilization and barbarism is identical with the question between knowledge and ignorance, and hence it was necessary to examine whether the progress of science has in any way increased the amount of human suffering. Few, if any great changes, * though ever so great improvements, can be effected without causing loss or inconvenience to somebody, and the complaints of those who suffer are always far louder than the gratulations of those who are benefited. The coachman in "Slick's Letter-bag of the Great Western," only echoes the complaints of the copyists on the invention of printing. "Them was happy days for Old England, afore reforms and rails turned every thing upside down, and men rode as nature intended they should, on pikes with coaches and smart active cattle, and not by machinery like bags of cotton and hardware." It is therefore necessary to investigate some points belonging rather to comparative civilization, than to the extreme of barbarism; and to show that every advance of civilization, every increase in the

amount of knowledge, adds to the moral improvement of individuals, and the general benefit of society. Except in the lowest states of barbarism, we find nothing immutable in human nature; changes must come, whether we desire them or not,-time must generate new ideas, leaving us to arrange their relations to the common stock. If these ideas be developed by knowledge, they will become beneficial truths, if they be appropriated by ignorance, they will generate pernicious falsehoods.

CHAPTER IX.

VARIETIES OF SAVAGE LIFE.

In the preceding chapters we have examined the most common attributes of barbarism, and shown that they are such as necessarily result from ignorance everywhere. We have hitherto found a sad uniformity in all the communities destitute of knowledge and civilization; and our next inquiry—their capacity and opportunities for improvement— necessarily involves an examination of the varieties of barbarism, and the extent of their influence on humanity.

We e may class the barbarous races in three divisions : they are hunters, shepherds, or agriculturists. Not, indeed, that any tribe exists deriving its support exclusively from the chase, from flocks, or from tillage; but that the different divisions make one or other of these pursuits their main source of subsistence. Hunting always appears to have been a favourite mode of subsistence; it gratifies the love of excitement which is equally the characteristic of human nature in savage and civilized life; and this excitement is necessarily greater when the hunter is dependent on the chase for the means of subsistence. The pleasure derived from the excitement of the chase is increased when the sport is perilous. "The danger's self is lure alone;" and hence a spirit of daring adventure is formed, which at once gratifies and develops pride and self-esteem. We find that this mode of life, with all its adventures, perils and hardships, has such attractions that men nurtured in the lap of luxury, will quit the comforts and enjoyments of civilized

life to share in the stimulating sports of the savage hunter, and will cheerfully endure its privations at least for a season, in order to obtain its pleasures. So delightful does their hunting appear to some of the Siberian tribes, that their most bitter curse is, " May you be obliged to keep flocks and herds!"

Hunting, notwithstanding its pleasures, is so very precarious a mode of subsistence that there can be very few tribes dependent upon it alone. Among the Indians of North America there was always some agriculture practised, and the chase is exclusively followed only by those who can exchange their peltry with merchants for necessaries and conveniences. Those who have adopted this wandering mode of life rarely abandon it; there are countless examples of white men adopting all the usages of the Indian hunter, but there is scarcely one example of an Indian hunter or trapper adopting the steady and regular habits of civilized life.

The Indian tribes, since the discovery of North America, have shown a greater tendency to exchange the stationary for the nomade life, than to abandon roving habits for settled habitations. The history of the tribe of the Cheyennes in Mr. Washington Irving's Astoria, shows us that the wandering tribes of the prairies did not become hunters from choice, though after having adopted this roving life they displayed aversion to settled habitations.

"The history of the Cheyennes," says Mr. Irving, "is that of many of those wandering tribes of the prairies. They were the remnant of a once powerful tribe called the Shaways, inhabiting a branch of the Red River, which flows into Lake Winnipeg. Every Indian tribe has some rival tribe with which it wages implacable hostility. The deadly enemies of the Shaways were the Sioux, who after