$46 On National Character. 
race of animals ; the dog that by nature is 
fierce, like the wolf, becomes the companion 
and guardian of man; the propensities of the 
animal have acquired a new bias. 
Now what takes place in an animal on its 
being domesticated, is I apprehend a full 
illustration of the constitutional, or in other 
terms, the physical change which passes upon 
a nation in its progress from the barbarous to 
the civilized state of society. Perhaps no 
subject which comes before the political eco- 
nomist is so important as this; and there is 
no one which he has so entirely overlooked and 
neglected. It would be very satisfactory to 
me to enter fully into the subject, and by an 
appeal to history, to establish the sentiment 
advanced; but the rules of the society prevent 
my taking more than a glance of the subject 
at present. 
* A nation in a state of barbarism, remains 
age after age, without any variation in their 
manners, or any improvement whatever, un- 
less some circumstance arises to compel a 
change. The circumstance which in every 
instance has been instrumental to this purpose 
is, an increase of population. The rivers and 
the forest have not afforded a sufticiency of 
food, in consequence ot which agriculture, in 
a rude manner, is commenced ; and tribes 
