134 



" the mind at leisure for their reception, and soon engage it 

 " in new pursuits that are carried on by incessant labour, and, 

 " whether vain or successful, produce anxiety and contention. 

 " Among savage nations imaginary wants find indeed no 

 " place ; but their strength is exhausted by unnecessary toils, 

 " and their passions agitated, not by contests about superi- 

 " ority, affluence or precedence ; but by perpetual care for the 

 " present day, and by fear of perishing for want of food.*" 



But these sceptics have not considered that the miseries of 

 the savage state are the inevitable consequences of that situa- 

 tion, whereas those of civilized life, as we shall presently see, 

 arise not from that state, but from voluntary indulgence to 

 overgrown passions ; to say nothing of the numerous coun- 

 tervailing pleasures that occur in this state. 



In speculating on the origin of mankind, Diodorus, lib. 1: 

 cap. 3. p. 10. informs us, that some philosophers supposed 

 that our species originally existed in a state still more deso- 

 late and miserable than any savages now existing, or of whom 

 we have any account; without language, and consequently 

 Avithout any social intercourse; subsisting, like other animals, 

 on roots and fruits; quenching their thirst at the next stream 

 or fountain ; but that at length, through fear of wild beasts, 

 they associated with each other, and formed a language, or 



rather 



* Johnson's Life of Drake, 1 Fugitive Pieces, p. 2n. 



