In the Malay Archipelago. 597 



Now it is very remarkable, that among people in a very 

 low stage of civilization, we find some approach to such a 

 perfect social state. I have lived with communities of sav- 

 ages in South America and in the East, who have no laws or 

 law courts but the public opinion of the village freely ex- 

 pressed. Each man scrupulously respects the rights of his 

 fellow, and any infraction of those rights rarely or never 

 takes place. In such a community, all are nearly equal. 

 There are none of those wide distinctions, of education and 

 ignorance, wealth and poverty, master and servant, which are 

 the product of our civilization; there is none of that wide- 

 spread division of labor, which, while it increases wealth, 

 produces also conflicting interests; there is not that severe 

 competition and struggle for existence, or for wealth, which 

 the dense population of civilized countries inevitably creates. 

 All uicitements to great crimes are thus wanting, and jietty 

 ones are repressed, partly by the influence of public opinion, 

 but chiefly by that natural sense of justice and of his neigh- 

 bor's right, which seems to be, in some degree, inherent in 

 every race of man. 



Now, although we have progressed vastly beyond the sav- 

 age state in intellectual achievements, we have not advanced 

 equally in morals. It is true that among those classes who 

 have no wants that can not be easily supplied, and among 

 whom public opinion has great influence, the rights of others 

 are fully respected. It is true, also, that we have vastly ex- 

 tended the sphere of those rights, and include within them 

 all the brotherhood of man. But it is not too much to say, 

 that the mass of our populations have not at all advanced 

 beyond the savage code of morals, and have in many cases 

 sunk below it. A deficient morality is the great blot of 

 modern civilization, and the greatest hindrance to true prog- 

 ress. 



During the last century, and especially in the last thirty 

 years, our intellectual and material advancement has been 

 too quickly achieved for us to reap the full benefit of it. 

 Our mastery over the forces of nature has led to a rapid 

 growth of population, and a vast accumulation of wealth ; 

 but these have brought with them such an amount of pov- 

 erty and crime, and have fostered the growth of so much 



