420 Life and Immortality. 



prolonged scene of selfishness and fear. Even in his religion, 

 if he has any, he creates for himself a new source of terror, 

 and peoples the world with invisible enemies. More wretched 

 is the position of the female savage than that of her master, 

 for she not only shares his sufferings, but has also to bear 

 his ill-humor and ill-usage, being little better than his dog, 

 little dearer than his horse. Few of them, it is believed, are 

 so fortunate as to die a natural death, being despatched ere 

 they become old and emaciated, that so much good food 

 shall not be lost. Indeed, so little importance is attached 

 to women, either before or after death, that it may be doubted 

 whether the man does not esteem his dog, when alive, quite 

 as much as he does his woman, and think of both quite as 

 often and as lovingly after he has made a meal of them. 

 Not content, moreover, with the pleasures incident to their 

 mode of life, savages appear to take a melancholy delight in 

 self-inflicted sufferings. They not only tattoo their bodies, 

 but practise the most extraordinary methods of disfigurement 

 and self-torture, some amputating the little finger, while others 

 drill immense holes in the under-lip, or pierce the cartilage 

 of the nose. These and many other curious practices, none 

 the less painful because they are voluntary, are in vogue 

 among savage people. Turning now to the bright side of 

 the question, we cannot but conclude that the pleasures of 

 civilized man are greater than those of the savage. While 

 man will never be able to improve the organization of the 

 eye or the ear, yet, on the other hand, the invention of the 

 telescope and the microscope is equivalent in its results to 

 an immense improvement of the eyes, thus opening up to us 

 new worlds, fresh sources of interest and happiness, while 

 the training of the ear will enable us to invent new musical 

 instruments and compose new melodies. The savage, like a 

 child, sees and hears only that which is brought directly 

 before him, but the civilized man questions nature, and by 

 the various processes of chemistry, electricity and magnet- 

 ism, and a thousand ingenious contrivances, forces nature to 



