Ch. v. the Islands of the South Sea. 91 



Other virtues are to be called into action besides 

 fortitude. He is taught to feel for his neighbour, 

 or even his enemy, in distress ; to encourage and 

 expand his social affections ; and, in general, to 

 enlarge the sphere of pleasurable emotions. The 

 obvious inference from these two different modes 

 of education is, that the civilized man hopes to 

 enjoy, the savage expects only to suffer. 



The preposterous system of Spartan discipline, 

 and that unnatural absorption of every private 

 feeling in concern for the public, which has 

 sometimes been so absurdly admired, could 

 never have existed but among a people exposed 

 to perpetual hardships and privations from in- 

 cessant war, and in a state under the constant 

 fear of dreadful reverses of fortune. Instead of 

 considering these phenomena as indicating any 

 peculiar tendency to fortitude and patriotism in 

 the disposition of the Spartans, I should merely 

 consider them as a strong indication of the 

 miserable and almost savage state of Sparta, and 

 of Greece in general at that time. Like the 

 commodities in a market, those virtues will be 

 produced in the greatest quantity, for which 

 there is the greatest demand ; and where pati- 

 ence under pain and privations, and extravagant 

 patriotic sacrifices, are the most called for, it is 

 a melancholy indication of the misery of the 

 people, and the insecurity of the state. 



