460 THE RACES OF MAN [chap, xl. 



moral law in all its details, and would require no other 

 motive but the free impulses of his own nature to obey 

 that law. 



Now it is very remarkable, tliat among people in a very 

 low stage of civilization, we find some approach to such 

 a perfect social state. I have lived with communities of 

 savages in South America and in the East, wlio have no 

 laws or law courts but the public opinion of the village 

 freely expressed. Each man scrupulously respects the 

 rights of his fellow, and any infraction of those rights 

 rarely or never takes place. In such a community, all are 

 nearly equal. There are none of those wide distinctions, 

 of education and ignorance, wealth and poverty, master 

 and servant, which are the product of our civilization ; 

 there is none of that wide-spread division of labour, which, 

 while it increases wealth, produces also conflicting in- 

 terests ; there is not that severe competition and struggle 

 for existence, or for wealtli, which the dense population of 

 civilized countries inevitably creates. All incitements to 

 great crimes are thus wanting, and petty ones are repressed, 

 partly by the influence of public opinion, but chiefly by 

 that natural sense of justice and of his neighbour's right, 

 which seems to be, in some degree, inherent in every race 

 of man. 



Now, although we have progressed vastly beyond the 

 savage state in intellectual achievements, we have not 



