VOYAGE TO MADAGASCAR* 5I 



kind. In all countries where men are free, 

 and where inequility of condition is known 

 only by a few faint fhades, the riches of in- 

 dividuals are that of the foil, and the foil is 

 the property of all in common. Whatever tra- 

 vellers may fay, bad morals are not found 

 but in a ftate of civilization. The difficulty 

 of gratifying his appetites leads man afide 

 from the path which nature has traced out 

 for him ; bad education^ pernicious exam- 

 ples, a variety of interefts, frivolous taftes, 

 and fi£titlous wants degrade, in our eyes^ 

 human nature fo far as to make fome meta- 

 pbyficians believe^ that we are all born with 

 a fecret propenfity to vice. Man, naturally, 

 fays HobbeSj is a wicked being. Let us ba- 

 ni/h fuch a difagreeable idea ; and let us, in 

 our fellow-creatupes, fee good and benevo- 

 lent beings. I have ftudied with fome care 

 the chara^ler and cuftoms of the iflanders 

 of Madagafcat j I have feveral times affifted 

 E 2 at 



