Wi 



This however is far from being true ; for a vindictive cha- 

 racter is the distinctive feature of ahiiost all savages. More- 

 over, two savage girls who could speak no language, and 

 circumstanced as Rousseau's primeval savages, were taken in 

 a wood near Chalons Stir Mariie, A. D. 1731, met, disputed 

 with each other the possession of a chaplet, when one of 

 them killed the other by a violent blow on the head, as the 

 survivor related when taught to speak*. 



13th, He also pretends that men and women met each 

 other only by chance, and soon separated. — That love was 

 confined to mere animal instinct, and that his savage though 

 destitute of language and of any fixed habitation, and per- 

 haps not knowing individually any other of his species, not 

 even his own children, was yet fully capable, of satisfying his 

 real M'ants. 



This supposition is unsupported by any proof, and is in- 

 consistent with the real nature of man and the continuance of 

 his species. It is well known that even in savage life the pre- 

 servation of children requires the joint assistance of both pa- 

 rents or their relatives. 



14th, He affirms that a savage at liberty never desires to 

 terminate his existence, as many do in civilized life. Here, 

 to his fictitious savages he substitutes modern savages, who 

 possess many more advantages than his primeval savages, 



and 



• An account of the savage boy found in the woods neat ^ffyron, p. 7. & S. 



