M'Kecvor's Voyage to Hudson's Bay. 43 



beyond their present enjoyment. The fewness and simplicity 

 of their wants, with the abundance of means for their supply, 

 and the ease with which they are acquired, renders all division 

 of property useless. Each amicably participates the ample 

 blessing's of an extensive country, without rivalling his neigh- 

 bour or interrupting his happiness. This renders all govern- 

 ment and all laws unnecessary, as in such a state there can be 

 no temptations to dishonesty, fraud, injustice, or violence; 

 nor, indeed, any desires which may not be gratified with in- 

 nocence. 



To acquire the art of dispensing with all imaginary wants, 

 and contenting ourselves with the real tonveniences of life, is 

 one of the noblest exertions of reason, and a most useful ac- 

 quisition, as it elevates the mind above the vicissitudes of 

 fortune. Socrates justly observes, that those who want le;ist, 

 approach nearest to the gods, who want nothing. The sim- 

 plicity, however, which is so apparent in the manners of the In- 

 dians is not the effect of a philosophical self-denial, but of the 

 ignorance of more refined enjoyments, which, however, pro- 

 duces effects equally happy with those which result from the 

 most austere philosophy ; and their manners present an em- 

 blem of the fabled Elysian fields, where individuals need not 

 the assistance of each other, but yet preserve a constant inter- 

 course of love and friendship. 



Several modern philosophers, as Rousseau, Lord MOTI- 

 boddo, and others, from observing the innocence and happi- 

 ness which savage nations enjoy, though ignorant of the liberal 

 arts, have from thence inferred, that arts and sciences were 

 prejudicial to civilized society. In this, however, they are 

 egregiously mistaken. The ills of civilized society have their 

 source in the unnatural and unequal distribution of property, 

 which is necessarily produced by the different degrees of saga- 

 city, industry, and frugality in individuals, transmitted to, and 

 augmented by an accumulating posterity, till the disproportion 

 in the possessions of different individuals becomes enormous, 

 and creates a thousand unnatural distinctions among mankind, 

 enabling some to squander the bread of thousands in a profu- 

 sion of satiating pleasures, while multitudes are suffering from 

 want, insulted by every species of subordinate tyranny. Thus 

 the excessive disproportion of wealth renders the poor miser- 

 able, without augmenting the happiness of the rich. When 

 this disparity becomes considerable, then, and not till then, 

 luxury advances with all its attendant pleasures and refine- 

 ments ; which, without communicating an increase of happi- 

 ness to those who enjoy them, tempt those who have them 

 not to endeavour to acquire them by unjust and violent means. 



G2 



