210 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



his inquir}-, discourse, reasoning, or contempla"* 

 tion. The Indians had made no improvements, 

 no cultivation of the gifts of nature and provi- 

 dence ; and they had very little influence on any 

 part of his conduct. " They had not produced 

 any domestic, or public devotion ; any form, 

 rite, or mode of worship ; or any system of 

 manners and customs, favourable to national 

 virtue and religion. Without a priest, without 

 a temple, sacrifice, or altar, the Indian w^as sunk 

 under the thickest gloom of ignorance, supersti- 

 tion, and stupidity. 



His reason, never employed on any intellec- 

 tual attainment or exertion, he remained in a 

 state of nature ; wholly vmacquainted with eve- 

 ry thing derived from the exercise, improve- 

 ment, and cultivation of the powers of the mind. 

 Neither his reason, or his desires, ever moved 

 or tended towards any such improvements : 

 And so long as hunting should have continued 

 to be the mode of his subsistence, so long it is 

 probable, he would have remained at a distance 

 from everv intellectual attainment. 



Admits of but few Virtues. It was 

 another disadvantage of the savage state, that it 

 did not admit of but few virtues. The moral 

 sense, or conscience, makes part of our natural 

 constitution ; and is as essential to man, as his 

 appetites and passions, as his countenance and 

 form. When this is not corrupted or perverted, 

 its dictates are clear and right, and do not tend 

 to mislead us : And its dictates are never more 

 clear and certain, than when they arc the genu- 

 ine and simple voice of nature. There were 

 fewer temptations and there were fewer vices in 



