SHELTER. 
85 
and many other things* But how happens it that ho 
who is said to enjoy these things is so commonly a poor 
civilized man, while the savage, who has them not, is 
rich as a savage ? If it is asserted that civilization is a 
real advance in the condition of man, — and I think 
that it is, though only the wise improve their advan¬ 
tages, — it must be shown that it has produced better 
dwellings without making them more costly; and the 
cost of a thing is the amount • of what I will call life 
which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately 
or in the long run. An average house in this neighbor¬ 
hood costs perhaps eight hundred dollars, and to lay up 
this sum will take from ten to fifteen years of the labor¬ 
er’s life, even if he is not encumbered with a family; — 
estimating the pecuniary value of every man’s labor at 
one dollar a day, for if some receive more, others re¬ 
ceive less; : — so that he must have spent more than half 
his life commonly before Ms wigwam will be earned. 
If we suppose him to pay a rent instead, this is but a 
doubtful choice of evils. Would the savage have been 
wise to exchange his wigwam for a palace on these 
terms ? 
It may be guessed that I reduce almost the whole ad¬ 
vantage of holding this superfluous property as a fund 
in store against the future, so far as the individual is 
concerned, mainly to the defraying of funeral expenses. 
But perhaps a man is not required to bury himself. Nev¬ 
ertheless this points to an important distinction between 
the civilized man and the savage; and, no doubt, they 
have designs on us for our benefit, in making the life of 
a civilized people an institution , in which the life of the 
individual is to a great extent absorbed, in order to pre¬ 
serve and perfect that of the race. But I wish to show 
