THE HUMAN ANIMAL ECONOMY, 195 



reason and speech, are only germs which are not developed 

 by themselves, but are brought to maturity by extraneous 

 assistance, cultivation, and education, we shall infer that he 

 is designed, by nature, for social union. Such a condition 

 appears more consonant to the structure, properties, and 

 functions of our frame, even if it were not supported by the 

 concurring voice of actual experience in ail ages and nations, 

 than the imaginary and most absurdly named "state of 

 nature" of some philosophers. Rousseau, the great apostle 

 of this doctrine, informs us, in direct words, that the state 

 of nature never has existed : and he sets aside all facts as 

 foreign to the question. With these admissions before 

 us, we are required to believe that we have degenerated 

 from our natural state ; that speech, society, arts, inven- 

 tions, sciences, agriculture, commerce, property, civil go- 

 vernment, and inequality of condition, have introduced all 

 possible misery, and have debilitated our physical being ; 

 that we should live in the woods scattered and solitary to 

 get food enough, protect life by flight and force, satisfy 

 our desires, and sleep. Buffon has reasoned so well on 

 this subject, that I employ his words: " In this condition 

 of nature, the first education requires an equal time as in 

 the civilized state ; for in both, the infant is equally feeble 

 and equally slow in its growth, and consequently demands 

 the care of its parents during an equal period. In a word, 

 if abandoned before the age of three years, it would infal- 

 libly perish. Now, this necessary and long-continued in- 

 tercourse between mother and child is sufficient to commu- 

 nicate to it all that she possesses ; and though we should 

 falsely suppose that a mother, in a state of nature, possesses 

 nothing, not even the faculty of speech, would not this long 

 intercourse with her infant produce a language ? Hence, a 

 state of pure nature, in which man is supposed neither to 

 think nor speak, is imaginary, and never had an existence. 

 This necessity of a long intercourse between parents and 

 children produces society in the midst of a desert. The fa- 

 mily understand each other by signs and sounds 5 and this 

 first ray of intelligence, when cherished, cultivated, and 



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