Mr. Davis's Memoir concerning the Chinese. 17 



acquainted with the country,) have been bold enough to assert, that she 

 can challenge competition with the most refined states of Europe. But in 

 what instances ? Has natural science, or have even the arts, made the same 

 progress there as here ? Have the principles of moral or of political phi- 

 losophy been as thoroughly investigated, or as clearly estabhshed ? Is the 

 state of one-half of the people, namely the female sex, so elevated or so 

 happy as in Europe ? Is the person or the property of the Chinese so 

 secure, as the persons and properties of the subjects of most European 

 states ? Or, lastly, are the daily and domestic habits of the people so 

 generally free from sensual and degrading vices? Until these questions 

 can be answered in the affirmative, it is impossible to give to that coun- 

 try the lofty station which her advocates require. At the same time, it 

 must be allowed, that she appears to have attained, at a very early period, 

 to a considerable point of refinement in many respects, and that, with 

 die exception of occasional and tremendous revolutions, she has been, 

 for at least two thousand years, a wealthy, flourishing, and tolerably 

 civilized portion of the globe. I am disposed to attribute this in a 

 great measure to her particular geographical situation ; * to the peculiarly 

 favourable climate, or rather climates ; the moderate average fertility of soil, 

 and the great facility of internal intercourse, with which she has been gifted 

 by nature. An attentive survey of most of the tropical regions of the 

 globe, where the great heat of the climate, and the almost morbid fertility 

 of the earth, tend to produce food in the greatest abundance,t will seem 

 to justify the conclusion, that extreme fertiUty, or power of production, 

 lias been rather unfavourable to the progress of the human race ; or at 

 least, that tlie industry and advancement of nations has appeared in some 

 measure to depend on a certain proportion between their 7iecessities and 

 their natural resources. Man is by nature an indolent animal, and without 

 the stimulant of necessity, will in the first instance be inclined to get on, 

 as well as he can, with the provision that nature has made for him. In the 



* Between the 40tli and 23il degrees of North latitude, that is, in the finest part of the tem- 

 perate Zone. 



t I was led to make the above observations during a voyage among the islands of the Eastern 

 Archipelago, and I have since been gratified in finding them confirmed by the great authority of 

 Mr. Malthas, in his late work upon Political Economy, in which he draws some important con- 

 clusions from the remarks of M. de Hnmboldt upon New Spain, cli.vii., sect, iv., p. 381. 



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