470 



ON THE LEADING PASSIONS 



which no system of internal discipUne seems at all times capable of mo 

 derating ; which, m too many instances, we behold defying, with equal 

 contum;icy, all the laws of religion and morality ; and, consequently, 

 introducing into the world pains and penalties, mischiefs and miseries, 

 which the tribes of barbarous and uncultivated nature, amidst all their 

 evils, know nothing of. 



To a certain extent, it is, however, probable, that the common opinion 

 is correct, and that the greatest portion of violence and wretchedness is to 

 be met with in savage life. 



Now what are the passions that are chiefly brought into action, in this 

 low and lamentable state of existence ? Let us take a brief survey of 

 them, — it may prove an interesting inquiry, — and examine the changes 

 they undergo, and the new affections they give rise to, as man emerges 

 from chaos to order, from the gloom of ignorance to the light of civihza- 

 tion, morality, and science. 



One common character runs through savages of every kind. The em- 

 pire of the heart is divided between two rival deities or rather demons — 

 Selfishness and Terror. The chief ministers of the first are lust, hatred, 

 and revenge ; the chief ministers of the second are cruelty, credulity, and 

 superstition. Look through the world, and you will find this description 

 apply to barbarians of every age and country. 



It is equally the history of Euro})eans and Africans ; of the Pelasgi, who 

 were the progenitors of the Greeks, and of the Celts and Scythians, the 

 successive progenitors of the English. All the discoveries of modern cir- 

 cumnavigators confirm the assertion ; and though the captivating names of 

 Friendly and Society Islands have been given to two distinct groups in the 

 vast bosom of the Pacific Ocean, and the inhabitants in several of them 

 have made some progrei^s in the first rudiments of civilization and govern- 

 ment, there is not a pj^ople or a tribe to be met with, who are yet in a 

 savage state,, that are not still slaves to these debasing and tyrannical pas- 

 sions. The gentleness of courtship, or rather the first proof of aflfection, 

 among the savages of JNew South Wales, consists in watching the beloved 

 fair one of another tribe to her retirement, and then knocking her down 

 with repeated blows of a club or wooden sword. After which impressive 

 and elegant embrace, the matrimonial victim is dragged, streaming in her 

 blood, to the lover's party, and obliged to acknowledge herself his wife. 

 Cannibalism, in times of war, is still common to several of the islands ; 

 human immolation to most of them. It was at the bloody shrine of re- 

 venge, that Captain Cook fell a sacrifice in Owhyhee, one of the best- 

 informed and most disciplined of all the islands ; nor has any one, perhaps, 

 who ever read the interesting history of Prince Lee Boo, forgotten the 

 delight he manifested at St. Helen's on discovering a bed of groundsel, 

 which he immediately converted to an article of food. All of them believe 

 in magic — are the dupes of priestcraft and witchcraft— and in carving 

 images of their deities, seem to think they can never, represent them under 

 figures suflGiciently terrific and disgusting. 



The simple but violent passions, then, common to mankind in savage 

 life, are selfishness, lust, hatred, revenge, terror, cruelty, credulity, and 

 superstition. These are differently modified, as well as combined with 

 other passions, according to the force of collateral circumstances, as the 

 dulness or vivacity of the intellectual faculties, the warmth or frigidity of 

 the chmate, thetameness or picturesque grandeur of thescenervr and the 



