We Know (Or Think We Know) That The
Education And Industry, And The Common Usages Of Civilized Man,
Are Superior To Those Of Savage Life; And, As He Becomes
Acquainted With Them, The Savage Himself Admits This.
He admires
the superior acquirements of the civilized man, and it is with
pride that he will adopt such usages as do not interfere too
much with his sloth, his passions, or his prejudices.
But as the
willful child or the idle schoolboy, who was never taught
obedience, and never made to do anything which of his own free
will he was not inclined to do, would in most cases obtain
neither education nor manners; so it is much more unlikely that
the savage, with all the confirmed habits of manhood and the
traditional prejudices of race, should ever do more than copy a
few of the least beneficial customs of civilization, without some
stronger stimulus than precept, very imperfectly backed by
example.
If we are satisfied that we are right in assuming the government
over a savage race, and occupying their country, and if we
further consider it our duty to do what we can to improve our
rude subjects and raise them up towards our own level, we must
not be too much afraid of the cry of "despotism" and "slavery,"
but must use the authority we possess to induce them to do work
which they may not altogether like, but which we know to be an
indispensable step in their moral and physical advancement.
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