SECT. III.] EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURE. 353 



tive state can, without direct interference of God, make any 

 progress in civilization, as how it was possible for them to 

 take the earliest steps which served as a basis for their further 

 development. 



The impediments which obstruct the progress of primitive 

 peoples and keep them in a state of barbarism, are multifa- 

 rious. A nomadic life and constant warfare, have become a 

 second nature to them ; they have but few wants, and these 

 are more easily satisfied than those of the civilized man ; they 

 are content with their position, feel themselves comparatively 

 happy, and desire no change j their reluctance to labour, and 

 their carelessness for the future, induce them to neglect what 

 appears to them useful and necessary. The apathy with which 

 they look at everything not immediately bearing on their 

 necessities, scarcely exciting a passing curiosity, prevents 

 their learning from experience. These impediments to pro- 

 gress are pretty much the same among all uncivilized peoples, 

 and it requires no great acuteness to perceive that the assump- 

 tion of a specifically different endowment of races is at least 

 unnecessary to explain the differences in their civilization. 



Among the elements of civilization, agriculture unquestion- 

 ably occupies the first place : it is the chief basis of it, nor can 

 true civilization grow out of any other soil. This applies 

 to agriculture, only so far as it constitutes the essential means 

 of subsistence, especially in connection with cattle-breeding, 

 which renders hunting superfluous. 



It is the unproductiveness of the chase, of the fisheries, of 

 fruit and root gathering, which leads to and gradually developes 

 the cultivation of the soil. Without being impelled to it by 

 want, no primitive people will spontaneously turn to agricul- 

 ture. To pursue agriculture successfully, requires perseverance 

 and patience, which primitive nations do not possess. Simpson 1 

 observes very justly, that one of the main difficulties of the 

 transition to agriculture consists in the circumstance that they 

 are accustomed immediately to expect and to enjoy the fruit of 

 their labour. Hence it appears, that where there does not 



1 " Narrative of a journey round the world," i, p. 251, 1847. 



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