174 HOW TO LEGISLATE [PART I. 



peans in both Indies/ when speaking of the abo- 

 rigines of Brazil, that V amour de la patrie is an 

 artificial sentiment peculiar to our state of society, 

 and unknown to the man who lives in a state 

 of nature. The French humanist would have 

 found it difficult to define where, amongst the many 

 nations inhabiting the earth, civilization ends and 

 barbarism begins, or to prove that this feeling 

 really decreases as we descend from the most highly 

 civilized nations, as they are termed, to those which 

 are less civilized. It seems to me that this asser- 

 tion of the Abbe is contrary to all historical expe- 

 rience. I would say, on the contrary, that a man's 

 love of his native land is much stronger in a state 

 of nature than in an artificial society ! Does not 

 the savage desire to die on the spot where he has 

 hunted, and to be buried in the same grave as his 

 kindred? And does not the philosopher, on the 

 other hand, smile at all this, and pride himself on 

 his cosmopolitism? Did not the ancient Britons 

 and Germans fight obstinately against all-subduing 

 Rome out of love for their country ? And does not 

 the extirminating warfare which is carried on at 

 this moment by a slave-holding republic against the 

 Seminole Indians result from a violation of the ter- 

 ritorial rights of the latter by intruding and reck- 

 less adventurers? But if in a native the love of 

 his country is much stronger than in a colonist, if 

 all his recollections, all that gives him strength 

 to defend the soil of his fathers, are identified with 



