104 
TRAVELS 
their profound flumber. They not only fleep with their doors 
wide open, but fo foundly, that it is not eafy to roufe them. The 
faCt is, that they are not expofed to any kind of danger or difturb- 
ance—they are far removed from the anxieties and fears that at¬ 
tend envied poffeffions ; and the only wild beafts that could poffibly 
give them any alarm or uneafmefs are, the wolves and bears. But 
thefe animals never attack houfes, as they procure fufRcient 
nourifhment by following the wandering Laplanders with their 
rein-deer. There are no venomous animals in thofe rude countries ; 
and as to men, they all live in the moll perfeCt innocence. 
Here the neceffity of government, for the diftribution of juftice, 
and the equal protection of the people, exifts not. A fmall num¬ 
ber of inhabitants, difperfed over immenfe traCts of lands, have 
little inducement to make aggreffions on each other ; and the ge¬ 
neral equality of condition that prevails, and above all, the con- 
ftitutional feeblenefs of paftion, and equanimity of temper, pre¬ 
vent not only infliction of injuries, but refentment. Though the 
Laplanders are defencelefs, yet the rigours of their climate, and 
their poverty, fecure them from invafion ; and thus they exift with¬ 
out combination or protection, and without bending with fubmif- 
fion to fuperiors. Here the melancholy examples, which exift in 
all hiftories, of the great tyrannizing over the meaner fort, are not 
to be found, nor the falfehood and peijury which generally prevail 
among rude and barbarous nations. 
In one of the families we vifited, we witneffed a very tender and 
afteCting fcene, which convinced us that fenfibility is not banifhed 
from 
