142. SrtjlJIES OF NATURE» 



fable. A man properly brought up would mucîï 

 rather be touched in his purfe, than fuffer in his 

 felf-love. 



By what fatal contradidion have we fubjeded 

 the greateft part of the lands of France to foccage- 

 tenures, while we have ennobled thofe of the New 

 World ? The fame hufbandman who, in France, 

 muft pay tallage, and go, with the pick-axe in his 

 hand, to labour on the high-road, may introduce 

 his children into the King's Houlhold, provided 

 he is an inhabitant of one of the Weft-India 

 ]llands. This injudicious difpenfation of nobility 

 has proved no lefs fatal to thofe foreign poffeffions, 

 into which it has introduced flavery, than to the 

 lands of the Mother-Country, the labourers of 

 which it has drained of many of their refources. 

 Nature invited, into the wildernefTes of America, 

 the overflowings of the European Nations : (he 

 had there difpofed every thing, with an attention 

 truly maternal, to indemnify the Europeans for the 

 lofs of their country. There is no neceffity, in 

 thofe regions, for a man to fcorch himfelf in the 

 Sun, while he reaps his grain, nor to be benumbed 

 with cold in tending his flocks as they feed, nor 

 to cleave the ftubborn earth with the clumfy plough, 

 to make it produce aliment for him, nor to rake 

 into it's bowels to extract from thence iron, ftone, 

 clay, and the firft materials of his houfe and furni- 

 ture. 



