342 On National Character. 
‘below that which European children readily 
gain, beyond which they could not go. But 
it is unnecessary to multiply instances; for, 
there is not a barbarous nation with which 
Europeans are acquainted, one or more of 
whose youths have not been trained up and 
educated with much care in European senti- 
ments and manners: but in every instance 
without producing a change of disposition. 
The wilderness and the desert, the tomahawk 
and the scalping knife, have presented allure- 
ments which they could not resist. All they 
possessed they gladly abandoned ; all they 
had been taught to anticipate, they without 
hesitation relinquished, and pressed from the 
crowded city, where all they received was 
forced upon them, to mix with those who 
knew no law but their inclination, and whose 
inclinations were regulated by no principle, 
but was the mere expression of the passions. 
Was there only a solitary instance upon re- 
cord of a child of savage parents, fostered 
with the utmost care and kindness ina’ civi- 
lized family, being impatient of restraint and 
hearing of the manners of its parents, endea- 
voured to imitate them; the subject would not 
be entitled to consideration. But when every 
one so circumstanced has resisted civilization, 
the disposition cannot depend on capricious- 
