660 Natural History of Nova Scotia. 



separate from it as they do in mines, where they are so de- 

 structive. 



The savage, whose indolent habits are quite opposed to the 

 practice of cleanliness, is never permitted to reside long in an 

 unwholesome habitation. Insects, which our fastidious deli- 

 cacy will scarcely venture to name, attack him ; and, all un- 

 tractable as he is to discipline, he is soon compelled by these 

 " officers of health " to remove to another thicket, where he 

 again breathes the fresh air of the woods, untainted by any 

 noxious vapour. Together with the spices and stimulants of 

 the East, the Europeans have imported the bug, which com- 

 pels them to pay an increased attention to cleanliness, neces- 

 sary, perhaps, to constitutions enfeebled by an increase of 

 luxury. Whenever man neglects the dictates of nature, he is 

 sure to be the sufferer. The awful dispensation by which we 

 have been visited lately must have convinced every one who 

 witnessed it, that they who reside in situations where those 

 substances which make powerful manures are suffered to accu- 

 mulate, are in a remarkable degree exposed to the attacks of 

 pestilential diseases. It cannot yet be forgotten that the de- 

 structive fever introduced some years ago by an overcrowded 

 cargo of emigrants was confined to the same parts of the 

 town, and nearly to the same houses, that were most affected 

 by the cholera. Believing such scourges to be the chastise- 

 ments of a father, not less kind than just, and that they are 

 not only never sent when not deserved, but also that they are 

 always useful to the nations they visit, I shall (leaving those 

 who are better qualified to notice the important moral instruc- 

 tion they convey) take some notice of the economical lesson 

 which we ought to learn from what we have seen. A most 

 destructive war had ravaged Europe for a long time. At its 

 conclusion an immense body of men were dismissed to seek 

 their support by their labour, after having learned no other 

 trade than war, and being, of course, less qualified to succeed 

 than if they had cultivated the arts of peace : the camp being 

 always a poor school to teach industry, prudence, and econ- 

 omy. The enormous debts contracted during the war bear 

 heavily upon all ; and a greater, because constantly increasing, 

 evil is to be found in habits of unbounded luxury and ex- 

 travagance, which have turned the labour of multitudes from 

 producing the necessaries of life, to furnishing articles of 

 luxury for a few very rich individuals. The pacific disposi- 

 tions, or the empty treasuries, of the governments of Europe, 

 have prevented any very extensive war for a considerable 

 time ; and there is a general complaint of the great and in- 

 creasing distress of a superabundant population, who cannot 



