This Is Undoubtedly An Object Of
Contemplation Which Calls Forth Our Warmest Gratitude; For So
Singularly Benevolent Have Those Parental
Intentions been, that
where barrenness of soil or severity of climate prevail, there she
has implanted in the heart of
Man, sentiments which overbalance
every misery, and supply the place of every want. She has given to
the inhabitants of these regions, an attachment to their savage
rocks and wild shores, unknown to those who inhabit the fertile
fields of the temperate zone. Yet if we attentively view this globe,
will it not appear rather a place of punishment, than of delight?
And what misfortune! that those punishments should fall on the
innocent, and its few delights be enjoyed by the most unworthy.
Famine, diseases, elementary convulsions, human feuds, dissensions,
etc., are the produce of every climate; each climate produces
besides, vices, and miseries peculiar to its latitude. View the
frigid sterility of the north, whose famished inhabitants hardly
acquainted with the sun, live and fare worse than the bears they
hunt: and to which they are superior only in the faculty of
speaking. View the arctic and antarctic regions, those huge voids,
where nothing lives; regions of eternal snow: where winter in all
his horrors has established his throne, and arrested every creative
power of nature. Will you call the miserable stragglers in these
countries by the name of men? Now contrast this frigid power of the
north and south with that of the sun; examine the parched lands of
the torrid zone, replete with sulphureous exhalations; view those
countries of Asia subject to pestilential infections which lay
nature waste; view this globe often convulsed both from within and
without; pouring forth from several mouths, rivers of boiling
matter, which are imperceptibly leaving immense subterranean graves,
wherein millions will one day perish! Look at the poisonous soil of
the equator, at those putrid slimy tracks, teeming with horrid
monsters, the enemies of the human race; look next at the sandy
continent, scorched perhaps by the fatal approach of some ancient
comet, now the abode of desolation. Examine the rains, the
convulsive storms of those climates, where masses of sulphur,
bitumen, and electrical fire, combining their dreadful powers, are
incessantly hovering and bursting over a globe threatened with
dissolution. On this little shell, how very few are the spots where
man can live and flourish? even under those mild climates which seem
to breathe peace and happiness, the poison of slavery, the fury of
despotism, and the rage of superstition, are all combined against
man! There only the few live and rule, whilst the many starve and
utter ineffectual complaints: there, human nature appears more
debased, perhaps than in the less favoured climates. The fertile
plains of Asia, the rich low lands of Egypt and of Diarbeck, the
fruitful fields bordering on the Tigris and the Euphrates, the
extensive country of the East Indies in all its separate districts;
all these must to the geographical eye, seem as if intended for
terrestrial paradises: but though surrounded with the spontaneous
riches of nature, though her kindest favours seem to be shed on
those beautiful regions with the most profuse hand; yet there in
general we find the most wretched people in the world. Almost
everywhere, liberty so natural to mankind is refused, or rather
enjoyed but by their tyrants; the word slave, is the appellation of
every rank, who adore as a divinity, a being worse than themselves;
subject to every caprice, and to every lawless rage which
unrestrained power can give. Tears are shed, perpetual groans are
heard, where only the accents of peace, alacrity, and gratitude
should resound. There the very delirium of tyranny tramples on the
best gifts of nature, and sports with the fate, the happiness, the
lives of millions: there the extreme fertility of the ground always
indicates the extreme misery of the inhabitants!
Everywhere one part of the human species are taught the art of
shedding the blood of the other; of setting fire to their dwellings;
of levelling the works of their industry: half of the existence of
nations regularly employed in destroying other nations. - "What
little political felicity is to be met with here and there, has cost
oceans of blood to purchase; as if good was never to be the portion
of unhappy man. Republics, kingdoms, monarchies, founded either on
fraud or successful violence, increase by pursuing the steps of the
same policy, until they are destroyed in their turn, either by the
influence of their own crimes, or by more successful but equally
criminal enemies."
If from this general review of human nature, we descend to the
examination of what is called civilised society; there the
combination of every natural and artificial want, makes us pay very
dear for what little share of political felicity we enjoy. It is a
strange heterogeneous assemblage of vices and virtues, and of a
variety of other principles, for ever at war, for ever jarring, for
ever producing some dangerous, some distressing extreme. Where do
you conceive then that nature intended we should be happy? Would you
prefer the state of men in the woods, to that of men in a more
improved situation? Evil preponderates in both; in the first they
often eat each other for want of food, and in the other they often
starve each other for want of room. For my part, I think the vices
and miseries to be found in the latter, exceed those of the former;
in which real evil is more scarce, more supportable, and less
enormous. Yet we wish to see the earth peopled; to accomplish the
happiness of kingdoms, which is said to consist in numbers. Gracious
God! to what end is the introduction of so many beings into a mode
of existence in which they must grope amidst as many errors, commit
as many crimes, and meet with as many diseases, wants, and
sufferings!
The following scene will I hope account for these melancholy
reflections, and apologise for the gloomy thoughts with which I have
filled this letter:
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