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 
