194 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



him, were not to rear him for feveral years, he 

 would perifli of hunger, of heat, or of cold. He 

 knows nothing but from the experience of his pa- 

 rents. They are under the neceffity of finding 

 him a place where to lodge, of weaving garments 

 for him, of providing his food for eight or ten 

 years. Whatever encomiums may have been paffed 

 on certain countries for their fertility, and the 

 mildnefs of their climate, I know of no one in 

 which fubfiftence of the fimpleft kind does not 

 coft Man both folicitude and labour. In India, 

 he muft have a roof over his head to fhelter him 

 from the heat, from the rains, and from the infers. 

 There, too, he muft cultivate rice, weed it, threQi 

 it, (hell it, drefs it. The banana, the moft ufeful 

 of all the vegetables of thofe countries, ftands in 

 need of being watered, and of being hedged 

 round, to fecure it from the attacks of the wild 

 beafts by night. Magazines muft likewife be pro- 

 vided, for the prefervation of provifions during 

 thofe feafons when the Earth produces nothing. 

 When Man has thus colleded around him every 

 thing neceflary to a quiet and comfortable life, 

 ambition, jealoufy, avarice, gluttony, inconti- 

 nency, or languor, take poffeffion of his heart. 

 He periflies almoft always the vidim of his own 

 paffions. Undoubtedly, to have funk thus below 

 the level of the beafts, Man muft have afpired at 

 an equality with the Deity. 



Wretched 



