IN HIGHER PEOPLES 161 



The native Australians are said to be "incapa- 

 ble of anything like persevering labor, the reward 

 for which is in the future/' The savage lives in 

 the present. And he is unwilling to put forth ex- 

 ertions whose fruits are removed even a few weeks 

 in time. A traveler calls the Hottentots of South 

 Africa "the laziest people under the sun." Of 

 some of the native tribes of India it is said that 

 they have not only a distaste for labor, but a con- 

 tempt for it, and will starve rather than work. 

 Many tribes of American Indians, when cut off 

 from their hunting life, quickly disappeared, be- 

 cause they were incapable of maintaining them- 

 selves by labor, as the higher races do. Burton 

 says of the Dakota Indians : ' ' The warrior con- 

 siders the chase his share of the curse of labor. 

 He is so lazy that he will not rise to saddle or un- 

 saddle his pony. He would rather die than em- 

 ploy himself in useful industry." 



Higher peoples are a great improvement over 

 savages in the amount of energy they are able tt> 

 produce. But they have not yet developed suffi- 

 ciently in energy-producing power to enjoy the 

 amount of work they are ordinarily called upon 

 fe do. , 



In the better times to come labor will not be 

 looked upon as something to be avoided if at all 

 possible to do so. It will be natural and pleasur- 

 able. Laziness will pass away just as cruelty 

 and killing will pass away. The human body will 

 grow more and more dynamic (energy-produc- 



