256 TRAVELS IN 
alfo In a ftate of nature enjoy this fenfe In at 
degree fcarcely lefs exquifite ; and if thofe in 
civilifed foclety are deficient in this quality, it 
is becaufe their profpeds being almoft always 
more confined, they have much lefs occafion 
to develop it ; becaufe every thing that fur- 
rounds them, fuch as filks, gilding, reverberated 
and multiplied lights, obje£ts of luxury, va- 
riegated and dazzling colours, fatigue, without 
improving their fight ; and laftly, becaufe their 
profeffions, practices, and habits, their writing, 
reading, and the ftrange abufe of pleafures, 
muft tend early to impair a fenfe continually 
ftrained and perverted, while nothing is at the 
fame time prefented that can bring it to per- 
feflion. Why have hunters, who refide in 
the country, and above all mountaineers, better 
fight than the inhabitants of cities ? The reafon 
is plain; and I may adduce myfelf as an example. 
Before my arrival in Africa, my fight was fo 
weak that, to read or write, I was obliged to 
hold the book or paper clofe to my eye. But 
having fpent feveral years in the open air, tra- 
verfing mountains and valleys, and croffing vaft 
deferts, it has been confiderably ftrengthened ; 
and I can now fee as far as another. 
When 
f 
