OF MANHOOD. 467 



tiial labour. They cultivate the ground, and per- 

 form every office of drudgery, vs'hile the men 

 indolently recline in their hammocks, from 

 which they never think of ftirring, unlefs when 

 they go a hunting or iifliing ; and, fo averfe are 

 they to motion, that they have often been known 

 to ftand in the fame pofition for feveral hours. 

 A favage has no idea of walking for amufement 5 

 and nothing aftonifhes him more than to fee 

 Europeans walking backwards and forwards in 

 queft of-nothing. All men are naturally indo- 

 lent ; but the favages of warm countries are not 

 only the moft lazy of human beings, but the 

 molt tyrannical to their women, whom they 

 treat with a cruel barbarity. In nations more 

 civilized, men didate laws to the women. Thefe 

 laws are always more fevere in proportion to 

 the grolfnefs of the national manners ; and it is 

 only among people highly polilTied that women 

 have obtained that equality of condition which 

 is due to them, and which contributes fo power- 

 fully to the happinefs of fociety. This polite- 

 nefs of manners is the genuine offspring of the 

 fofter fex ; they have oppofed it to the arms of 

 the vidor, while their modefty has taught us to 

 acknowledge the empire of beauty, a natural ad- 

 vantage greatly fuperior to mere ftrength. But, 

 to give it full force and value, requires the af- 

 iiftancc of art ; for the ideas of beauty are fo 

 different, fo capricious, and even contradidory, 

 that the women, it is probable, have gained more 



G g 2 by 



