200 HISTORY OF 



howling savage, the winding serpent, with all the 

 un tameable and rebellious offspring of nature, 

 are destroyed in the contest, or driven at a dis- 

 tance from his habitations. The extensive and 

 tempestuous ocean, instead of limiting or dividing 

 his power, only serves to assist his industry, and 

 enlarge the sphere of his enjoyments. Its bil- 

 lows, and its monsters, instead of presenting a 

 scene of terror, only call up the courage of this 

 little intrepid being ; and the greatest danger that 

 man now fears on the deep, is from his fellow- 

 creatures. Indeed, when I consider the human 

 race as nature has formed them, there is but very 

 little of the habitable globe that seems made for 

 them. But when I consider them as accumulat- 

 ing the experiences of ages, in commanding the 

 earth, there is nothing so great, or so terrible. 

 What a poor contemptible being is the naked 

 savage, standing on the beach of the ocean, and 

 trembling at its tumults ! How little capable is 

 he of converting its terrors into benefits ; or of 

 saying, Behold an element made wholly for my 

 enjoyments ! He considers it as an angry deity, 

 and pays it the homage of submission. But it is 

 very different when he has exercised his mental 

 powers ; when he has learnt to find his own su- 

 periority, and to make it subservient to his com- 

 mands. It is then that his dignity begins to ap- 

 pear, and that the true Deity is justly praised for 

 having been mindful of man ; for having given 

 him the earth for his habitation, and the sea for 

 an inheritance. 



